USCIS UPDATE

Well.......we heard from USCIS.......which is good, I guess. At least we know that attention has been given to our case. However, after our case sat on her desk for HOW many weeks?!? (SIX!) she phoned me yesterday stating all looked good......EXCEPT.........

Nothing major at all. Just need one form to be presented in a different format, from Colorado. I immediately got on the phone with the Colorado people and they are getting right on it! THANK YOU! THANK YOU!

NOW.......hoping and praying that we get this updated form in the mail BEFORE we leave for our 9 day vacation, early July 2nd! If not, we have some great friends who have offered to come over ~ open the mail from CO ~ and put it in the overnight envelope we will have ready ~ waiting to have this updated form placed in it and mailed off to USCIS.

Wouldn't it be GREAT to come home from vacation with that I171H waiting for our return!?!? We will see how fast things move along, once USCIS receives this updated form.

Gosh, hold-ups are hard.

Well, after allowing myself an hour of a "pooh-pooh" attitude, I kept looking up and remembering that even this does not surprise our God. HE knows who our son is ~ and exactly WHEN our paperwork needs to get to Ethiopia so that he becomes matched with US!!!!! He may still be in his precious birth mommy's tummy, and God is slowing us down so the timing is just right!!!

Still trying to let go of my timeline and welcome God's timeline. Getting better at it, though.... I think.......

Feel good moment of the day!

OMGosh! If THIS doesn't get you laughing out loud, I don't know what will!

I've always said the absolute BEST sound is a child belly laughing! This captures it well!

(Thanks for sharing, Saytee!)

Can't wait for our fur-babies to play with our baby boy!!!!!

(scroll all the way to the bottom of this blog; click pause button "double lines" to mute the music; scroll back up to this video and click play)

ENJOY the Feel Good Moment!

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY!

Honey, already, you show what a wonderful father you are in your loving ways toward our doodles, Fischer and Kastle. They are THE MOST amazing dogs I have ever known and been blessed to love! The time and patience you gave them as pups, and continue to give them today, have helped create them to be such precious souls. The way you love them blesses them.....and me.

Babe, as good as you are with our fur-babies, you are going to be an even more amazing Daddy to our children! Your desire to have God lead you ~ as a husband, father, businessman and even friend ~ shines through you daily. I am so blessed to have you for my life mate; and one of God's greatest gifts to our children is going to be YOU for their earthly Father! So much of what is going to make you a great Daddy comes naturally to you, but the biggest key to it all, is your love for our Heavenly Father. Your desire to be the spiritual leader of our home.

Honey, I do not feel alone (as the words in the song below say) and I firmly believe our children will not feel alone either. I believe you already love me and lead our home wonderfully. I know that you will lead our children very well too. You will stand up for us whenever we can't. We are, and always will be, the love of your life. In that, I have no doubt.

How can I be so sure of this (afterall, you are only human)? It is because of your great heart for our Lord. I know that you don't try to do things alone. You ask for God's help. It is in who you are as a person, and in this constant turning to God for guidance as to how to lead us, that I place my trust. God will never steer you wrong. I'm thankful that you know you cannot do it alone. I'm even more thankful that you choose God to be your guide. What an awesome example for our children! {BIG smile}

So, I post today the song, "Lead Me" by Sanctus Real. I post it as a thank you to you. The song is a great reminder to ALL fathers of their all-important role as a husband and father. Biblically, a man is to put his wife and children before himself and before his work. I post this song, because I see you already live it out each and every day. Your love and leading of our son/children will be a blessing to them........and already blesses me. I love you!

The righteous man walks in his integrity; his children are blessed after him. Proverbs 20:7 NKJV

(Before starting this video: go to very bottom of blog, hit the pause button on the purple playlist "two double lines." Then scroll back up to this video and press play. Then, listen, as Sanctus Real reminds us all what a Father's role really is!) Enjoy.

The Power of Prayer

WOW! Talk about the power of prayer! Jeff and fellow friends, both local and in the blog world, offered up prayer for my "mood" yesterday, and already this morning my heart feels lighter! Praise God! I can't believe I let the enemy beat me up like that yesterday! {grumble} Thankfully, there are people willing to pray God's power into my life that can BEAT the enemy and his tactics! It was inspiring to witness this victory in my own life, rather than watching it occur in others' lives. A great reminder to me that God is in the midst of all that Jeff and I are doing too! Does anyone else ever need that reminder that God is present, even when we may not feel His presence?

Well, amidst my blog hopping, I went over to Jen's blog, a fellow adoptive mom and gifted writer, and two of her posts inspired me - again. Don't you love it when God guides you to just the right place at just the right time? Go to http://beboldjen.com/ to be blessed by her! Thanks again, Jen, for helping to bring me out of the muck with the enemy and into the joy of God!

She posted a couple verses from James in her "In the Thick of It" post, and I am re-posting them here. Such a great reminder that:

a) we need to choose who we are going to follow, even in our own thoughts.....God? or the devil? (my fear and defeat yesterday were NOT of God!)

(b) we need to bring our burdens to God if we want His assistance with them, as he yearns to draw near to us and give us His grace; and

(c) we need to call on Him in FAITH ~ we must trust that He will provide! Our prayers are empty words without full belief that He can ~ and will ~ answer them!

HHHMMMMM....does anyone see a common theme here? My "Electric Door" post was about much the same.....remembering to lean in and trust God wholeheartedly! I think I may just be getting it, God! {smile} Thank you, Lord, that you so love me that you are willing to use many circumstances in my life to teach me to lean further into you.....trusting you wholeheartedly......with everything!

Here are a few verses that Jen used that spoke to me (and many others, I am sure!) from the book of James. May God use them to inspire you in a personal way as well.....

James 4:4-8 (Amplified Bible)

⁴You [are like] unfaithful wives [having illicit love affairs with the world and breaking your marriage vow to God]! Do you not know that being the world’s friend is being God’s enemy? So whoever chooses to be a friend of the world takes his stand as an enemy of God.

⁵Or do you suppose that the Scripture is speaking to no purpose that says, The Spirit Whom He has caused to dwell in us yearns over us and He yearns for the Spirit [to be welcome] with a jealous love?

⁶But He gives us more and more grace (power of the Holy Spirit, to meet this evil tendency and all others fully). That is why He says, God sets Himself against the proud and haughty, but gives grace [continually] to the lowly (those who are humble enough to receive it).

⁷So be subject to God. Resist the devil [stand firm against him], and he will flee from you.

⁸Come close to God and He will come close to you. [Recognize that you are] sinners, get your soiled hands clean; [realize that you have been disloyal] wavering individuals with divided interests, and purify your hearts [of your spiritual adultery].

James 1: 2-8 (Amplified Bible)

²Consider it wholly joyful, my brethren, whenever you are enveloped in or encounter trials of any sort or fall into various temptations. ³Be assured and understand that the trial and proving of your faith bring out endurance and steadfastness and patience. ⁴But let endurance and steadfastness and patience have full play and do a thorough work, so that you may be [people] perfectly and fully developed [with no defects], lacking in nothing. ⁵If any of you is deficient in wisdom, let him ask of the giving God [Who gives] to everyone liberally and ungrudgingly, without reproaching or faultfinding, and it will be given him. ⁶Only it must be in faith that he asks with no wavering (no hesitating, no doubting). For the one who wavers (hesitates, doubts) is like the billowing surge out at sea that is blown hither and thither and tossed by the wind. ⁷For truly, let not such a person imagine that he will receive anything [he asks for] from the Lord,

⁸[For being as he is] a man of two minds (hesitating, dubious, irresolute), [he is] unstable and unreliable and uncertain about everything [he thinks, feels, decides].

5 Weeks....and STILL Waiting!

BUMMER! I just spoke with someone in the National Benefits Center, and she could not give me much more information about our I171-H form beyond, "It looks like your case has been assigned an officer, and your paperwork is sitting on her desk waiting to be reviewed by her." This woman was kind and all, but her next comment was a bit frustrating for me, especially when she found it necessary to repeat it a few more times in our conversation. She kept saying, "In the big picture, it really hasn't been sitting at her desk very long (3-4 weeks)." Yeah, "in the big picture"......this woman has obviously not lived in the adoption world, where every day.....every WEEK counts!!!!

She may be right, in the grand scheme of things (aka, OUTSIDE of the adoption world), waiting FIVE weeks and still having no sign of that one piece of paper that gives us our government's approval to adopt internationally, may not seem that long. But when one week could possibly mean one more month of waiting for a referral, FIVE weeks (PLUS) seems like an excruciatingly LONG time! Aaaargh!!!!

As excited as we were to get our biometrics done a few weeks before our appointment time, it appears as though that did not help expedite the process in any way. Sooooooooo......we sit.....and continue to wait.........and continue to hound our postman............

I just SO desire to have all of our paperwork sent over to Ethiopia (DTE...Dossier to Ethiopia) so that our "real" waiting can begin! At least THAT waiting will feel like each day of waiting is taking us one day closer to our son! Ugh!

As a reminder (to me more than you I suppose), God knows all of the details and timing necessary to bring us to our son. Even though we do not see these details nor understand our hold-ups, He does. I guess that is all that really matters. Now, if you could just pray that I can continue to lean into God and trust that He is overseeing ALL, and that He will help remove this burdensome feeling that we are going to "miss out" on our son, that would be GREAT! {huge sigh} Jeff is stellar at trusting God with all this timing stuff. I need to be better at it.

WAITING, HOPING, PRAYING.......

Well, we are four weeks into the WAITING on USCIS.......here's hoping that week five is our week to receive that I171-H form, so we can get this Dossier off to Ethiopia! HOPING that one of my favorite numbers, five, pulls through for us this week too (otherwise, we could be in for a few more weeks, as my other favorite number is seven....aaargh!). Good thing we don't need luck when we have God, huh?!? {smile} PRAYING that we continue to feel God's peace in the waiting and that I don't plow over the mailman every time he delivers our mail! {giggle}

BLOG BUTTON!

I am HAPPY to show off our family blog button! Isn't is cute!?

It was created by Becky, who is quite a creative fellow-adoptive-mom-to-be! She will make anything you want to bring some "bling" to your blog! Check out her blog site at http://www.bringinghomeezra.blogspot.com. She can do pretty much anything and it will match your blog ~ create a post divider, blog header, blog button, etc. Definitely worth checking her blog out to see a variety of different things she has already made for others' blogs! You can help support their adoption while dressing up your own blog! A win-win for all! {big smile!}

Feel free to post our blog button on your blog sidebar if you would like to follow our journey to our son!

THANKS, BECKY, for the great button! And THANKS to all of you who share in the excitement of our journey to our little boy!

Happpy Anniversary, Honey!

(scroll all the way down to bottom of blog to pause music playlist. Then click this video!)

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY, HONEY!

WOW! THREE YEARS! We have been married for three years! In some ways, it feels as though I have loved you all my life. I dreamed of you as a little girl, and I continued to believe that "you" existed as I continued to wait for "more" in a potential marriage relationship. "You" have existed for as long as I can remember. "You" didn't have a face in my mind's eye, but your presence was so very real. Then, after a long journey to you, God brought placed you by my side. "You" now had a face....and a handsome one, at that! {smile}. You were no longer an image. A dream. You had finally become real! The man I had always loved, was YOU!

Honey, I do so love looking into your eyes and seeing your love for me. Oh, how I LOVE how you love me! :o) It is true that when I look at you, I see God's love for me. Your love for me is God's Divine love in human form. Please know that I not only recognize this, but I thank you for your selfless, patient, passionate love you so willingly give to me. Every day.

I see how you strive to put me first. I take note how you sacrifice for me when life asks you to. I watch how hard you work to provide such a wonderful life for me, us, and our family-to-be. I witness your desire and effort to protect me from sadness, sorrow or struggle. I feel the comfort you so often extend throughout life's happenings. Your heart is open to me. Your love is true. Your arms enfold me and give me that safe place to let down my guard. To trust. To love. I love you for this, and for so much more than words can say.

As the song says, I have never been more sure of anything like I am in this moment here with you. I thought my heart couldn't be any more full on our wedding day. That I couldn't possibly love you more than I did right then. I was wrong. I have enjoyed falling more and more in love with you every day since we married! I really mean it when I say that you were SO worth the long wait! {sigh} We are living proof that "Dreams really do come true!" {HUGE grin}

My heart's desire is to live out each and every day showing you how very much I love, cherish and appreciate you. I vowed to stand by you no matter what life brings, and I am overjoyed to hold your hand and walk beside you in this glorious journey of life. Together. I will hold you up when you need me to. I will rest in your arms when you want me to. I will freely skip alongside you, laughing all the way down each trail in our life. You are real. I am blessed to grow old with you.

Every day, may my life show you how deeply I meant those words, "I Do!" three years ago.

And how intensely I still mean them today......

FUN STUFF!

SO EXCITED!

I just got my fingerprints/biometrics completed today! Yippee! Another step closer! Jeff and I hoped to go together, but he has to go tomorrow, as it didn't work out with work for him to go today! But tomorrow, we will be even on more step closer! Wonder how long it will take for that I-171H form to come in the mail after this! :o)

ALSO......Jeff and I have been working on our logo(s) for our t-shirt fundraiser, and I am happy to report that we have finalized them! Once we finalize where we are going to get our t-shirts, we can begin the fundraising! Can't wait for you to see the logos! I so hope you like them as much as we do!

FUN STUFF!