Big Step!

We have ARC!!!
 

Yes, I can hardly believe it myself. Our official paperwork was sent to India in early April and we just heard today that we received state approval. From everything we had been told this step would take the longest just because there was no information as to how often the state committees met. Once we were told this news our agency said that this is one of the quickest turnarounds they have seen for state approvals. Woohoo!! Praise the Lord. I'm still in shock.

 

Back in the beginning of June we learned that we were given article 5 so now we are officially waiting on NOC, which is basically federal approval for our family to adopt the specific child we have been matched with. The wait time for NOC could be as short as a couple of weeks or it could be months. There really is no telling. After NOC we wait for court, then the orphanage will apply for our child's passport and once that happens we will finally travel. Right now I am just rejoicing at this great provision and answer to prayer. We are one HUGE step closer to bringing our daughter home. Thank you for the prayers. Keep them coming!!

 

(I may or may not have looked like this after I got off the phone with our agency. I have been on cloud nine all day!)

What Happens Next?

Most people I talk to are very surprised when they hear that we still have a year or more of waiting before our daughter comes home. For those of you new to the international adoption world let me fill you in on what happens next.

Jonathan and I have submitted paperwork to USCIS (United States Citizenship and Immigration Services) for approval to adopt little girl "A." Once we get that approval we will fill out more paperwork which will allow us to obtain Article 5 from India. That is a crucial piece of paperwork that will come into play further along in the adoption process.That is what is left of the paperwork we need to complete...at least I think that's all.

Everything else is a matter of waiting on India and their timeline. Here are the key pieces of the process over in India and they will hopefully give you a glimpse into the rest of our journey.

ARC: State Approval. Currently we are waiting to receive ARC. There is an unknown wait for the state approval. It all depends on how often the committee in our daughter's state meets and what requirements they have for families adopting out of their particular state. We have been told it will most likely take months, possibly even up to 9 months or longer. We will obviously be praying for a quick review of our case.

NOC (Non-Objection Certification): Federal Approval. Once a family receives ARC their case is passed on to the federal committee. This committee meets regularly so this approval should happen somewhat quickly once we have passed state approval. Sadly, we have heard of families being turned down at this point. We have also heard of families receiving ARC and NOC within days of each other. Once again...there are no guarantees. Families must have Article 5 to receive NOC approval. At this point in time we will be allowed to send a photo book to our daughter, up until this point she probably will have no idea that she has a family pursuing her.

Court: Once families receive ARC and NOC approval their case goes before a judge. This is another step in the process which has an unknown time-frame. The court process can happen in one sitting or the judge may take numerous appointments before approving a family. Often times families are given verbal approval and then wait weeks to receive the actual paperwork.

Passport: Once the orphanage has the court approval in hand they will apply for the child's passport.This process could take weeks or months. Are you seeing a pattern here?!? There is just a lot of uncertainty with timeframes. I believe during this time we will work with our agency to arrange travel plans and obtain entry visas for India. This is the last step before travel!!!

Anyone confused yet?!? To sum up, currently we are waiting on ARC (state approval) and the timeline we have been given from acceptance of referral to travel is 12-14 months. So obviously we don't expect to hear any news soon but you will certainly hear from me when we have something new to report. Please continue to pray for our daughter as she waits for us and please lift us up as we prepare to become a family of 4.

Our God Hears

We have been MIA for the past 2 + months not out of neglect but as we have been overwhelmed by the goodness and graciousness of our God. Let me start out by telling you about His first, sweet provision. Our adoption is now completely and totally funded. Every single penny has been supplied on our daughter's behalf and that is an absolute miracle. Our mighty God provided everything we needed in a little over a year. Talk about awe inspiring!!

Now for the even bigger news...Jon and I have wanted to shout this story from the mountain tops for months now and it has been killing us to have to keep this news secret! Get ready for a God story.

Remember how we felt lead to pray big prayers? 

Remember how God lead us to ask for a quick referral and for the first referral to be our sweet daughter?

Well...

only TWO days after my last post,only TWO days after we felt led to pray in big ways, my husband and I received a very unexpected phone call from our agency. We were told of a sweet little girl, only 18 months old who needed a family. Our coordinator asked us if we would like more information. Our answer...

YES!!

Within minutes my inbox contained an email with the name, face and medical information of our daughter. As we stared at not one but FIVE pictures of our child we were just overwhelmed with so many emotions. After all of those years knowing that we had a daughter in India, the tears, the waiting, the wondering...it was all worth it just to finally see her face. Currently we are not at liberty to share her picture online but oh how I wish we could show you how completely beautiful she is. She is just gorgeous and has utterly stolen our hearts. Just staring at her picture makes this momma's heart so full! She is a beautiful petite little thing with gorgeous dark eyes and a crazy head full of black hair. From what we we have been told, she is in a place where she is being well taken care of and that small bit of information makes this wait a tad more bearable. Oh, how we long to have her in our arms!

You are probably wondering why it has taken us so long to finally post this news. The weeks and months of waiting have been due to talking with some doctors, waiting on specific paperwork and spending countless hours in prayer. There are numerous God stories to share that took place over the past couple of months, but I'll save those for later. God deserves all of the glory and praise and there simply isn't time and space to adequately share all that He has done but our hearts are overflowing with praise!

Anyways, we have received her official paperwork from the orphanage. It has been signed by us and is now on the way back to India. In a later post I will detail what comes next. We still have a long wait ahead of us, but I wanted to pause and take this moment to rejoice at all the Father has done. He graciously granted our request. God is all powerful. He answers the prayers of his children. Yes, His Father heart beats for the fatherless and he longs to see them in families. Even in the midst of this less than perfect situation He is making all things new and bringing about redemption and wholeness. Praise God that there is one less orphan and that this family has finally gained our daughter! Now we just have to get her home!!

I will close this out with some verses the Lord gave me when I was fearful and doubting. These verses happened to be the next passage in my reading plan and after a difficult day of wrestling with the wait God granted me this beautiful passage to cling to. Dear friends, our God fulfills His promises. 

"Do not be afraid, for I am with you;

I will bring your children from the east

and gather you from the west...

Bring my sons from afar 

and my daughters from the end of the earth!"

- Isaiah 43:5-6

Praise be to our glorious God!!

God of Miracles

Our dossier is finally in the hands of our adoption agency!

This huge stack of papers has been prayed over and cried over. It brought me to the end of myself time and time again. I can truly say that I am a broken woman but in the best possible way. This huge stack of papers tells a story of God's great faithfulness and is just a small glimpse into this enormous journey that has completely changed me from the inside out. I hope to share more of this story as time goes by but right now I'm savoring the changes being made in my heart and I can tell you that there is even more breaking and stripping that need to happen before our sweet daughter comes home. Lord, give me strength!! Here are two truths God has been impressing on my heart recently brought on through a book written by Beth Moore:

God is who He says He is.

God can do what He says He can do.

This adoption journey has been a journey into the heart of God for me. It has revealed areas of my heart that I didn't even realize were there, areas where I have refused to believe certain truths about God. It has shaken me to the core revealing to me that yes, our God is exactly who He says that He is and He will accomplish all things He sets out to accomplish. My eyes have been opened to how completely insignificant I am but I am amazed that the Lord has chosen to take me along for the ride. His glory and might are on display even now in the life of our sweet daughter and His desire is for all of those watching her story to see who He truly is and that He is worthy of all of us...all of our praise and all of our worship.

God is moving mightily and He desires to do this in the lives of all his creation. When I began this journey I was scared to pray for miracles. What if my prayers weren't answered the way I had hoped?!? What if I just didn't have enough faith?!? Even if no outward miracles had taken place I can say now that God has been working miracles in my heart. More on that at another time because He isn't even close to finished there! Our God still works miracles and if anyone needs a picture of that truth just take a look at how God has worked in our adoption. Look to the right of my blog page...do you see that percentage on our GoFundMe page? In less than a year God has provided more than $30,000 for our adoption! We don't even have a picture of our daughter yet but people have felt led to give.

Complete strangers have donated money.

Acquaintances we haven't seen in years have given.

Friends and family who are struggling financially gave out of their own need.

Let me say that God has blessed your generosity and we are in awe! Thank you. Your prayers and support have been constant reminders of God's goodness.The creator of the Universe is orchestrating every little detail to bring our daughter into our family and it is just amazing. For those who are continuing to pray for this process here are some requests that we are currently lifting up.

Prayer Requests:
- We are praying big prayers asking God to bring us the referral of our daughter quickly.
- The referral process can be gut-wrenching and painful as families often have to turn down a referral due to the need of the child being beyond their ability and resources. We are praying explicitly for this process to be filled with peace and confidence in the Lord's work. Although we are not certain of God's plan I do not want to have to turn down multiple referrals so I am praying specifically toward that end.
- Pray against spiritual attacks. Last week was incredibly heavy and hard for me. I can say now that the only reason I am doing better is that I had sweet friends lifting me up in prayer. Pray that my husband and I may remain focused on God and that He would surround our family in this journey.

Good News Amidst the Wait

Happy New Year! It's just crazy that 2013 has come to a close. That was a life changing year for us as we officially began our adoption journey. Now that 2014 has been ushered in I find this year full of hope. We are finally out of the muck and mire of the majority of the paper chase and are awaiting word on the identity of our little girl. Tomorrow will mark the 4th month in our wait for a referral and there is no telling when we will get that long awaited phone call. I'm slowly learning to take it one day at a time surrendering my emotions, desires and plans to the Lord. He has already brought about a lot of growth in my own life and I can only imagine what this coming year will hold.

Well onto the good news. Last month we received word from USCIS that they needed additional documents before granting approval for our family to adopt from a Hague country. After sending in paperwork to additional states, experiencing lost paperwork and requesting an extension we finally received word today that we have been granted USCIS approval! This is the final piece of our dossier! There is still more to do with the dossier but this approval is HUGE! Our 2014 has started off on a high note so let's pray this keeps up. May 2014 be the year we get to see a picture of our daughter!

 

“Waiting on God requires the willingness to bear uncertainty, to carry within oneself the unanswered question, lifting the heart to God about it whenever it intrudes upon one's thoughts.”
― Elisabeth Elliot

Overwhelmed

Wow.

When we started on this adoption journey we had no idea where the money would come from. Well I take that back...it was clear that God called us and so it was clear that He would make a way but I had no idea how that would actually shake out.

As of today we are 62% funded, which means we have raised almost $22,000. Seriously?!? We are over halfway there! Last week I received an unexpected email congratulating us on being awarded a large grant toward our adoption. We have applied for 5 or so grants and we were not supposed to hear anything until December, at the earliest. We were shocked and SO grateful. God continues to remind me of how much is heart beats for orphans and it was a nice encouragement in these months of waiting. It is just amazing to see God's mighty hand at work and a sweet reminder that he is moving and working even when we don't see or expect it. He is weaving together a beautiful redemptive story and although the wait is currently so difficult His plans continue.

Current Prayer Requests:
- Continued prayer for our daughter. Despite the fact that we have yet to see her face God knows who she is.

- We are waiting on USCIS approval (the last piece of our dossier puzzle). Apparently they are running long and it has taken longer than expected to hear back. Pray that we would hear good news soon.

- Please pray that our hearts would be open to God's calling. I have no idea when we will hear of a referral and I have no idea if it will be what we expect. I desire for our hearts to be open to God's leading even if it is different than we picture.

- Please pray for peace, especially for me. This wait has been SO hard the past couple of days, complete with lots of tears and discontentment. Not the prettiest picture of faith...I need more of God in my life to transform my desires and attitudes.

Yard Sale

We have now raised a little over 40% of the funds needed to bring our daughter home! Wow. I remember when we were praying and just trying to raise money for the first program installment.God has provided abundantly for this little girl to have a home. Although we still have a ways to go God continues to remind us that he has this...nothing is out of his control.

On that note...Jonathan and I continue to wait for a referral. Currently we are nearing the 2 month mark. I don't really have any expectations of a phone call any time soon which has eased my mind quite a bit however the wait is still hard. Thankfully though, the wait has been eclipsed by the fact that our schedule has been jam packed for a couple of weeks now. The first Saturday in October we held a ginormous yard sale. If I were to be completely honest I don't think I will ever organize a yard sale ever again...no seriously...I'm not kidding. The amount of work, time, energy and not to mention living room space that must be utilized for such an undertaking is just utterly exhausting.

This picture is just the tip of the iceberg. I am in no way the cleanest person alive but this amount of clutter almost pushed me over the edge. Shew. We woke up at 5am the day of the sale to organize all of the chaos. I wish I would have remembered that even the sun isn't crazy enough to be up at 5am. So we had to set up tables by the blinding light of Jon's headlights. We had so much stuff to organize that I don't think we even finished setting things up until an hour or more into the actual yard sale. The entire day was a steady flow of people and by the end of the sale it looked like we had hardly made a dent but...

all that work...

all the stress...

 

paid off.

We raised $942. In ONE day...at a yard sale! Woohoo. It's always so humbling to witness more of God's great provision. We have a few more fundraising ideas on the back burner but with the holidays coming we will probably save those for the New Year. As far as posts go I will continue to write as I feel led but until we get the long awaited phone call for a referral we probably won't have a lot of exciting stuff to share. Please continue to keep us in your prayers that we would wait well.