waiting

Still waiting for our court order to arrive at the orphanage. I woke this morning, checked through 18 (Black Friday) emails, none from India or our agency. So we wait some more - maybe we will hear something next month (two more days until December, ha!). We do need to square away the last bit of travel information and I am hopeful we will receive it from our agency soon. I've been waiting since March for it! This weekend I plan to work on MORE paperwork. I just thought we were done. ;) I've got two documents to complete - one is a TB waiver and the other is for immunizations. These documents just prove we will have our son immunized for the shots he may not have received and if he should have TB, we will have him treated. It sounds simple enough but one document is nine pages long! We did find out that our adoption is full and final so we will not have to readopt him here in the U.S. Thankful for that!

While it isn't our turn to travel to India yet, I do know four beautiful Indian children that are finally with their forever families! I've been blog-stalking them all week.

Two older children -  For Such A Time As This

Sweet toddler twin girls -  The Hutson's

blessings received through adoption

I was pondering all the ways we have been blessed through this adoption by countless friends and family members. There are many people who may not feel called to adopt personally so they choose to bless others that are doing so. I think that is so very cool!

Here are some of the ways we've been blessed:

Prayers - I would estimate thousands of prayers have been offered up for our family, our son and our entire adoption journey. The easiest way to help someone adopting is to pray for them - and tell them you're praying for them. We are so very thankful for friends and family who have walked this road with us, supported us, loved on us, cared for us and prayed for us.

Financially - we have been blessed with the generosity of so many wonderful friends and family members. I am blown away whenever I think about how far we've come and how God has provided these amazing people to come along side us and help. Our amazing friends and family have purchased dozens of photo sessions to help pay for adoption fees, they've made donations to our adoption fund, they have helped us raise money for our matching funds grant and one talented friend recorded a music cd and donated half the proceeds to our adoption fund and the other half to another family. Yes, this really happened!! Check out his work here - Jeremy Crook

Garage Sale Donations - Several awesome friends donated items for our garage sale which was a huge fundraiser for us. These sweet friends could have kept their junk and sold it themselves but they didn't. That says so much about how they love Ryan (even though we didn't even know him then) and how much they love us.

Donation of frequent flyer miles - one precious friend is donating sky miles to help pay for a portion of our travel expenses. This is an enormous blessing because international airfare for just two people is crazy expensive and since we may be traveling around Christmas or New Year's Day this will drive the prices up even more PLUS we will make travel plans just days before we need to leave. It won't be cheap!

Hand made gifts - I've had talented friends craft, stitch, and sew the most incredible little items for Ryan's room. I hired someone to make bedding for his crib and she did it free of charge. Such a sweet blessing! She has some neat stuff here Aimee Doodles

Pressure washed house and carpet cleaning - our fabulous neighbors own a cleaning business and they have cleaned all the carpet in our home for free AND they pressure washed the entire outside of our house and drive way as a gift to us. We were blown away! If you're local, check out their business Veterans Carpet Cleaning  They do fantastic work!

Dog grooming - A sweet friend from church is giving our schnauzer, Nugget, free hair cuts until Ryan is home. Such an incredible gift!

Sick leave donations - A few co-workers have donated sick leave days so I can still be paid part of the time I am home with Ryan. This will help with the financial burden of unpaid maternity leave.

T-shirt purchases - our t-shirts are being worn all over the country from Hawaii to Florida. One sweet friend wore hers to Africa on a mission trip and shared about adoption with several people along the way. That's what it's all about! Spreading the love of adoption so MORE children find forever families.

I am working on a fabulous thank you card that I intend to send out once our boy is home so watch for that soon. In the meantime...

Saying Thank You seems so inadequate. We appreciate each and everyone of you for being a part of Ryan's story. 

“We want you to know that adoption is beautiful, and a thousand times we’ve looked at each other and said, “What if we would’ve said no?” God invited us into something monumental and lovely, and we would’ve missed endless moments of glory had we walked away. We need you during these difficult months of waiting and transitioning, but we also hope you see that we serve a faithful God who heals and actually sets the lonely in families, just like He said He would. And even through the tears and tantrums (ours), we look at our children and marvel that God counted us worthy to raise them. We are humbled. We’ve been gifted with a very holy task, and when you help us rise to the occasion, you have an inheritance in their story; your name will be counted in their legacy...

Thank you for being the village. You are so important"

- Jen Hatmaker

Verbal approval

We received word bright and early this morning via email that the judge approved our petition for guardianship. This is a huge step! We were told it will take six weeks for the written order and then the orphanage will be ready to apply for his passport. These are the worst case scenarios so we *should* be in India by the New Year but we would be thrilled to be surprised with traveling sooner. I am so elated my heart could burst! 

In my kindergarten class this week we have been learning about India, comparing and contrasting how different their homes and schools look compared to ours and how they are the same. We will eat some Indian treats and do a project with different spices. I have told them a little about Ryan on very simple terms since they're only 5. These kids are so excited to meet him. It's the sweetest thing I've seen! To go along with our unit we made these little Tshirts and just happened to wear them today! 

Thank you all so much for the fervent prayers, messages, emails, hugs and love during this step. God has used so  many of his people to sustain us during this time and we are praising Him for that!