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.