Slow and Steady? - UPDATED

They say slow and steady wins the race... in the adoption process I say it just builds character!

We are so close to submitting our home-study packet to get that process finally started but keep bumping up against an obstacle in trying to get our psych evaluations done. 

In the grand scheme of things we know HIS timing is perfect but it is still hard sometimes!

What's next you ask?

• Once we submit the paperwork, they have 90 days to finish the home-study....
• While we work on that I can begin submitting our notarized documents to the government to be certified.
• Once we have the home study done and all the documents certified we are one step closer to submitting our Dossier.

Prayer Requests:

1) That we would get our psychological evaluations done ASAP - Had our evaluations done yesterday after a few more ups and downs! PRAISE THE LORD. Hope to have the results (which she said was good) next week to mail off the paacket!!!
2) That we would get the home study started ASAP
3) That we would continue to trust in HIS timing
4) For our precious child to be (who may or may not be born yet)

We are thankful to have you on this journey with us....

WOW.....

That's really the best way to describe it... WOW….

So we thought that the princess pillow case was an amazing confirmation of God’s plan for us to adopt and then, WHAM, He one upped it big time! :)

Let me set the stage, a couple of years ago Daniel tells me in passing one day that he has planned our 10 Year Anniversary, but it was a surprise. He let me know it was nothing tropical but something he thought I would really enjoy.

So, we work out the details to get a sweet friend to watch our girls so we can go away for a night. We head out Friday morning and end up in Statesville, NC – at this point I only know we are staying in a Bed and Breakfast and have something planned for the evening.  We have lunch at a yummy restaurant (Groucho’s) and walk out to head over to our B&B (The Clichy Inn). It is so beautiful out that we turn around and decide to stroll up the main street in Statesville before heading over and checking in.

As we are walking we see Doodlebugs Consignment Shop and decide to pop in and look for a little treat for the girls.... We laugh about how once again we are doing something for the kiddos on “our” day! We found them each a Halloween shirt and a video and are about to head out when Daniel spots a chore chart that reminds him of one I reposted on Facebook from my dear Courtney Mills Jones Willis! As we begin discussing whether we want to get this, there is a Mom and precious little girl playing in the store who catches our eye. She is beautiful and appears she might be adopted…

While Daniel is interacting with her, he smiles at me and says,” You know what she makes me think of right?” and I respond, “Yep, the little one we will adopt”. At this point the mom responds “We did adopt her, we just brought her home from Haiti” – 

Yes, you can bet I get super excited at this point and let her know we are in the process of adopting from Haiti too! The then lets us know they have only had her for 12 days and we are so excited! I then remember seeing something on Facebook from our agency so I ask the mom… “Is your last name *said the name*?” She looks surprised and says yes and then I proceed to let her know we are adopting through the SAME agency and I had seen the post about a family coming home recently and we all get SUPER excited and begin a connection that I know will be one for a lifetime. The post on Facebook simply had their last name and the amount of time it took, we had no idea they were from NC!!! Her newest daughter Charlotte is SO beautiful, vibrant and full of life; we just see our future before us! She is about to turn 3 and they had requested 0-3 like we will!

What a blessing that is by no means a coincidence….

 A trip planned 2 years ago to a town a couple hours away.

 An adoption starting 2 months ago…

A little girl brought home less than 2 weeks ago.

And we all visit the same store at the same time just to shop…

AMAZING.BLESSED.ENCOURAGED.HUMBLED.THANKFUL

 In case you were wondering, the surprise Daniel had planned was a hot air balloon ride at the Carolina Balloon Festival, an annual event in Statesville! It was FANTABULOUS, The Clichy Inn was amazing, but the meeting of our new friends and reminder of the AMAZING God we serve was by far the clincher! 

Princesses

Sweet story of confirmation and encouragement on our journey...

We were out to dinner with some friends last night as a family. We were talking about the girls new found fascination with Cinderella. Daniel was saying how precious it is that he has a...

"Belle" - Mia Grace and a  "Cinderella" - Anna Beth!

I then chimed in and hopefully soon to come...

"Tiana"  - our hopeful little girl from Haiti!

Well, after dinner we decided to run into a linen store to look for curtains and low and behold we found these precious pillow cases...

We bought three and left super encouraged :)

Where are we now...

So our journey has begun....

Where are we in the process now you may ask as I get that a lot so I need to give an update :)

Paperwork, paperwork, paperwork!

That's right, we are currently doing our best to complete all of the requirements for our Home Study to begin. Thankfully a lot of the documents we need to submit to Haiti in our Dossier are part of the Home Study process but it is A LOT of work.

This includes things like physicals, bank statements, SBI clearances, psychological evaluations,  (all notarized) an auto-biography, school history, work history, online trainings, book readings and homework, just to name a few :)

Thankfully every step of the way we know we are in a process that will ultimately bring our little one home and that is amazing!

We are thankful for our family and friends who have started supporting us in prayer and financially, it is really an encouragement to get a new supporter of either kind in a process that can sometimes feel a little overwhelming!

I will give some more background in the next post as to the whole process but this is where we are now...

Step by step walking in faith.

How it began...

We have always contemplated adoption because it is such an amazing picture of the Gospel. God loves us so much he sent Jesus to live a perfect life and then die on the cross so we can be adopted into his family forever.

This idea of adoption grew stronger after 2 difficult pregnancies. We seriously talked and prayed about it last summer, we bought a book, reached out to an agency, but felt our plate was full. We both were confident we didn't want to shut the door, but just didn't feel it was time to pursue it. So that was that. We said, unless it falls in our lap, let's just wait.

Fast forward a year... Daniel heads off to Singapore with his sister to visit his brother and his family. They have an amazing time, and he comes back with his schedule out of whack. The result... he is up early every morning, with ample time to spend with the Lord. This was the week of July 15, 2003.

Just about every day that week, Daniel kept saying, "Jennie, I am not sure what the Lord is leading me too, but he is preparing me for something, so be ready." Ok.... :)

7/21/2013 - Our church, The Summit, hosts Tony Merida, who preaches a sermon titled "Adoption - Pondering The Privileges". One of the best sermons on Adoption, both the physical adoptions of orphans and the spiritual aspects of Christ's adoption of us into his eternal family. (Sermon can be seen here - just search for Tony as the speaker).

The heart stirring begins, particularly in Daniel....

7/25/2013 - We reach out to the adoption ministry at The Summit to get some questions answered. We are super encouraged by the response. We learn about a number of adoption agencies. 

7/28/2013 - Our pastor, JD Greear, preaches on the call of Elisha from 1 Kings 19:19-21 and 2 Kings 2:1-14.  The three main points: 1) The path to "something greater" goes through the valley of surrender, sacrifice, and service; 2) The possibilities of "something greater" are realized only through bold acts of faith; 3) The power to pursue "somethings greater" is found in the heavenly vision. He challenges us to "Put your Yes on the table." Daniel is all in. Jennie (me)... still dragging my feet a little because life is crazy, I am in the midst of seeking the first job change I have had in 6 years, and well, we had just said we would wait so my head said we were still waiting. HA... God loves to draw us near when we are stubborn.... I keep praying... Daniel dives into adoption research head on.

7/28-29/2013 - Daniel through all his research comes across the Haiti program through America World Adoption. Things line up - must be 35 (we both turn 35 in the next 6-8 months), you have to married 10 years (we hit that in October), you can't have more than 2 biological children, and the travel time is one of the shortest we have seen. This is it, it just is.

7/30/2013 - Daniel is encouraged even more as he calls America World Adoption and has many questions answered. Later that day, Daniel heads off to officiate basketball and Jennie takes the girls to small group. Jennie asks everyone to pray because well, we may just be about to begin the process to adopt a little one from Haiti (though I acknowledge I am still being a bit stubborn). Ha. Enter God's QUICK answer to the prayers of the faithful.

7/31/2013 - To give you background, we met a little girl in Mia Grace's preschool class named Selah last year and Daniel fell in love with the name. He has always jokingly said he "missed his chance" to name one of our daughters that. So, forward on to this day. I am up doing my quick morning You Version mobile devotional in the "Parenting by Design Daily Devotion". Enter God smacking me upside the head... the premise of the devotion - Eternity Minded Living. The last line "Let your actions be a reflection of your true purpose on earth". The verses Psalm 39:4-5. Last word - SELAH!!!  Now let me mention that I have seen the psalms plenty in the devotions but NEVER with the word Selah. It was settled, I got it, this is what He wants me to say yes to, wants us to say yes to...

8/2/2013 - Daniel meets Eric (our Small Group leader) at 6:00am to pray, as they try to do every Friday.  He tells Eric he is sure God is calling us to adopt from Haiti but unsure of whether to adopt a girl or boy. Later that morning, Daniel runs into Selah at the park...crazy as he has never seen her in public. We decide to request a girl on the application but know things could change.

8/4/2013 - Prayed with our campus pastor, RJ Hoggard, after church about our desire to adopt a child from Haiti. Later that night we submit our adoption application online.

8/8/2013 - Daniel receives a phone call from America World Adoption informing us our adoption application has been accepted. How is that for a fast response!

And so the journey begins... we will soon chronicle the other confirmations that abundantly fell in our laps the days immediately following but here we go!

Our Adoption Journey Begins...

We are thrilled to share with you the story of our journey to bring our precious child home from Haiti! Yes, that's right we are adopting and we are ecstatic! We know it won't always be easy, we know it will be long, but we know it will be worth it when we hold our sweet little one in our arms.

This blog is where we will share our journey with you and we would love you to share it with us. 

And so it begins....