Friday, July 24, 2009
Our Dossier is in Paris, France
Just for fun...we are tracking our Dossier on its way to Ethiopia. It went from VA to NJ and on to Paris! Lucky Dossier.
Thursday, July 23, 2009
Dossier To Ethiopia (DTE)
Our agency let us know that our dossier was starting its FED EX journey to Ethiopia today. They also gave us a tracking number so we can see where it is.
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
God's Grace 1.2
Yesterday we were unexpectedly blessed with Cindi's business doing better than planned! Yesterday was also the day we had to pay our mid-payment fees. To God be the glory!
Friday, July 17, 2009
Austin, Texas!
Greetings! Today was a milestone for us as we finally reached the top of Paperwork Mountain. We hit the road around 8:45am and drove our dossier to Austin so that it could be certified.
**this is Cindi hijacking the blog (Matt has been the author so far) but you know me...gotta share the pictures! I am kicking myself for not remembering my camera for our trip to Austin, but thank goodness for the iphone camera...not so bad!! Here are a few fun shots from our trip and thoughts I want to remember!
The first shot of the day! Matt suggested I take a photo of the sign and when I noticed the reflections I knew what a cool shot that would be!! So fun!
These shots took us about 10 minutes. It isn't easy taking a picture of yourself with an iphone. We had fun in spite of (or maybe even because of) the looks of the people around us wondering what in the world we were doing. I so love that Max was totally oblivious to the stares and just having fun being silly with us!
After our trip to the state secretary it was off to the nearest Kinkos to get everything copied and mailed off. That took longer than expected and we had to bribe Max with Reese's Pieces to get through it. It was pretty much lunch/nap time for him and he was letting us know this was not his favorite thing to be doing!
Can you see the state capitol on the mirror!! Love this shot!
One of the best things about this trip was getting to visit with my best friend and her family! We celebrated getting our dossier certified with a bueno lunch at a restaurant in Austin called "Trudy's". I highly recommend them!! Then Jennifer's husband Shannon took us to the highest spot in Austin with the most amazing view of the city and a lake/river (I'm not so good with details) ;) But, it was beautiful!
It was hot and here are the sweaty kids to prove it!
On the way home Shannon and Jennifer told us to visit the Baylor Bears (they are Baylor alumni). Max (and Matt) LOVED it! There were two bears and they were sooo cute. Max deserved to do something fun for him after being so patient the whole day!
**this is Cindi hijacking the blog (Matt has been the author so far) but you know me...gotta share the pictures! I am kicking myself for not remembering my camera for our trip to Austin, but thank goodness for the iphone camera...not so bad!! Here are a few fun shots from our trip and thoughts I want to remember!
The first shot of the day! Matt suggested I take a photo of the sign and when I noticed the reflections I knew what a cool shot that would be!! So fun!
These shots took us about 10 minutes. It isn't easy taking a picture of yourself with an iphone. We had fun in spite of (or maybe even because of) the looks of the people around us wondering what in the world we were doing. I so love that Max was totally oblivious to the stares and just having fun being silly with us!
After our trip to the state secretary it was off to the nearest Kinkos to get everything copied and mailed off. That took longer than expected and we had to bribe Max with Reese's Pieces to get through it. It was pretty much lunch/nap time for him and he was letting us know this was not his favorite thing to be doing!
Can you see the state capitol on the mirror!! Love this shot!
One of the best things about this trip was getting to visit with my best friend and her family! We celebrated getting our dossier certified with a bueno lunch at a restaurant in Austin called "Trudy's". I highly recommend them!! Then Jennifer's husband Shannon took us to the highest spot in Austin with the most amazing view of the city and a lake/river (I'm not so good with details) ;) But, it was beautiful!
It was hot and here are the sweaty kids to prove it!
On the way home Shannon and Jennifer told us to visit the Baylor Bears (they are Baylor alumni). Max (and Matt) LOVED it! There were two bears and they were sooo cute. Max deserved to do something fun for him after being so patient the whole day!
Thursday, July 16, 2009
Last of the Dossier Project
We are going to Austin tomorrow, so today is our last day to complete the Dossier. We frantically made the rounds and got reference letters retyped and notarized. It took trips to two different banks to get the last of our dossier documents notarized. Then we faxed all of the Dossier documents to our Family Coordinator, Terra B., so she could check them and give the final okay.
Monday, July 13, 2009
God's Grace 1.1
"Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding. Seek his will in all you do,and he will show you which path to take.” Proverbs 3:5-6 (NLT)
That's the beautiful thing about our Father. He's not up in the sky, hiding behind a cloud, keeping secrets. He has written us a love letter made up of 66 parts, commonly called the Bible. In one place He reminds us that His ways are not our ways. The huge cost of an adoption makes no "common sense." I heard someone say, "they should be paying you to adopt a baby!" I'm glad it doesn't work that way. There's no trust involved in getting. Now giving, that's another story.
Remember, our $8,000 mountain from last post. Ok,I think we can agree that that's a God-sized trust issue. Since the last post, we received an email from our adoption agency about a free fundraising opportunity. It's cool. Check it out at www.onelovecoffees.com
That's the beautiful thing about our Father. He's not up in the sky, hiding behind a cloud, keeping secrets. He has written us a love letter made up of 66 parts, commonly called the Bible. In one place He reminds us that His ways are not our ways. The huge cost of an adoption makes no "common sense." I heard someone say, "they should be paying you to adopt a baby!" I'm glad it doesn't work that way. There's no trust involved in getting. Now giving, that's another story.
Remember, our $8,000 mountain from last post. Ok,I think we can agree that that's a God-sized trust issue. Since the last post, we received an email from our adoption agency about a free fundraising opportunity. It's cool. Check it out at www.onelovecoffees.com
Saturday, July 11, 2009
God's Grace 1.0
But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." 2 Corinthians 12:9
I want to write a few posts on God's grace. I'm hoping they serve two purposes. For those of you who aren't quite certain that your heavenly Father loves and cares for you, I want you to witness his amazing provision. These "grace" posts can become the "seeing is believing" guideposts, because they are things that only Almighty God can accomplish. Or maybe, you're a believer and are in a 'desert place' and need a faith boost. Either way, God's grace is all we need!
Here's the task: In a few short weeks, we need to come up with $8,000 to pay for our next round of adoption expenses. We don't have that kind of money. There are alot of problems like this in life that only God can solve. We applied for a grant through Stephen Curtis Champan's (SCC) Show Hope foundation. I can't wait to watch how God will pour out his grace over our adoption, for Baby Sam's sake. To quote a SCC song, God does "make all things new."
I want to write a few posts on God's grace. I'm hoping they serve two purposes. For those of you who aren't quite certain that your heavenly Father loves and cares for you, I want you to witness his amazing provision. These "grace" posts can become the "seeing is believing" guideposts, because they are things that only Almighty God can accomplish. Or maybe, you're a believer and are in a 'desert place' and need a faith boost. Either way, God's grace is all we need!
Here's the task: In a few short weeks, we need to come up with $8,000 to pay for our next round of adoption expenses. We don't have that kind of money. There are alot of problems like this in life that only God can solve. We applied for a grant through Stephen Curtis Champan's (SCC) Show Hope foundation. I can't wait to watch how God will pour out his grace over our adoption, for Baby Sam's sake. To quote a SCC song, God does "make all things new."
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
I-171H came today!
Today was a great day. We've been waiting on a form called the I-171H to arrive. It came in today's mail! Praise God. This is a form that you apply for that let's you adopt a child internationally. We are tying up some loose ends and then we will be able to drive to Austin to get our dossier certified.
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