A Blessed Evening...

Wow.

What a night we had on Sunday!

We had our Adoption Benefit Dinner Sunday evening!

Man, so much prep,

So much food,

So much service,

And SO many blessings :)

Chris, my sister, and I stayed at the church

the entire day getting ready

after the service ended.

We had others come help us too and things 

came together very nicely leading up to the dinner.

Then people started showing up!

And more people...

And MORE people!!

We had to set out an extra table!

That was actually pretty exciting :)

We had one family attend that we've gotten to 
know recently who actually brought their son home over a year ago!

We also had Bob Wheatley, the VP of Compassion for Congo
show up!

Other guests were also there that don't attend our church.
We had so much support!

We had some amazing friends serve the tables

with Chris and help me in the kitchen.

People got their food,

we could hear them chattering

and laughing from the kitchen!

I was so afraid no one would want to 

participate in the dessert auction,

but I was very wrong and people really enjoyed it!

 Everything sold (over 15 desserts)!

When the time came for me and our team to take a break 

to watch the slideshow Chris put together,

I could hardly compose myself.

For the first time, I just looked around the room at the 

75+ people that were there to support us.

They were there to say they want

Tobias home.

They love us.

They love our family.

And they are standing by our side

in this crazy journey!

So all this is flooding my head

and pictures of our son's current home

start flashing on the screen!

There were pictures of little ones that will soon

be home in America with their forever families.

And then, when the picture came up to

introduce Tobias to our family and friends,

everyone cheered and clapped!!

Man, I was overwhelmed!

Chris did the slideshow to a song called

"How Wonderful the Father's Love"

Look it up, it's by Sovereign Grace.

GREAT song.

 Wonderful reminder of His unending love.

So then the night slowly came to an end.

People were talking and kids were running around all over

like they should be.

We TRIED to get our servers to leave,

but they ended up staying long after us to clean up.

I know, it's blurry, but it's cute :)

We can't express how thankful we are to all who helped.

But I must point out that our 7 friends

(my sister and brother included)

got people's orders,

their food,

their drinks,

took their plates,

asked me for all the things I kept forgetting,

and then wouldn't let us clean up.

I just came back from cleaning up what was left.

It took me a half hour.

I gotta say...we may not have LOTS 

of friends, but the ones

we have are true friends.

At the end of the night

we received close to $2,000 to bring our son home.

Can the blessings ever cease???

We have a long ways to go financially.

Probably at least $10,000 more.

And as always, we aren't anxious.

We know He'll provide.

Oh yea!

We had an ultrasound today :)

Tobi has a brother!

In summary:
We are blessed by our Father.
We are blessed with our friends.
We are so thankful for our family.
We are overwhelmed with support from our
family in Christ.
We are excited to have TWO little boys :)
And we have alot of work to do! 
Haha...
Thanks for reading!!

The First of Many :)

So, I'm assuming this will be the first

of many posts in the near future ;)

From here on out, we will be receiving

more information, getting more accomplished,

and getting closer and closer to bringing our son home!

I have learned a whole lot this week! 

There is an INVALUABLE Facebook Group

that has been created exclusively for parents

adopting from Compassion for Congo.

 (It's private...sorry:0)

A mom that has had her girls home for a year

is still providing very important 

information for the rest of us and

assisting us with what documents are required!

It is SUCH a help!!!

One thing I have learned.

We will NOT be sharing our son's picture on here :(

I was looking forward to sharing it after our fundraiser,

however, the reason makes sense.

We want to protect any and every child.

This IS the WORLD WIDE web,

and therefore people anywhere (including Congo)

can see this and know what our son looks like.

We also have to protect Pastor Didier and 

the orphanage down there.

So that is why we will not be sharing his photo

until he is safe in the U.S.

(more incentive to come to our dinner!)

Buuuuuttt, 

I'll tell you his name!

He was given the name Chrinovic (K sound)

But we have named him Tobias.

We'll call him Tobi for short :)

 It means God is good, or the goodness of the Lord!!!

We love it and we think it fits our beautiful little

African boy! 

I'm also working away at planning our 

benefit dinner!

I love making these beauties here in all 

different shapes - painted and unpainted:
(btw, I am SO not one of those bloggers who takes great pictures!)

Selling the jars, not the chalkboards!

There will be a variety of different sized jars

and dishes decorated as centerpieces 

at each table!

They will also be for sale :)

Then I'll be making other varieties that I 

will sell as-is with no

goodies in them.

They are so cute for candy, candles,

and other fun decor!

They can be changed up with each season :)

Anyway, I've been diving into 

some paperwork lately.  Trying to keep 

it all organized.  Chris and I have a different 

opinion of how well I do ;) 

I've already run into some mistakes from a while 

back that will require us to get an 

updated home study AND an updated I-600A.

Ugh.

But I hear it isn't that difficult...hopefully it 

won't take too long!

Something else to pray about.

It looks as though our cost may be 

significantly higher than we thought.

Talking with other moms who are just about to 

bring their little ones home,

it looks like we were quoted at least 

$5,000 less than what it will actually cost!

We'll see how it goes.

Our opportunity to apply for grants doesn't

look promising.

This technically being an "independent" adoption,

we do not qualify for the grants that we have found!

We DO know that The Lord WILL provide...

we are trusting He will!

I don't find myself really stressing out about it.

It is just such a large number, 

and we don't have anything 

CLOSE to that!

This is why we are working so hard 

to make this Benefit Dinner a success.

We'll continue to fundraise in other small ways as well,

but probably not on a large level like this.

So please consider coming.

We'd be SO grateful!

It's November 11, 5:30 p.m.

Church at the Cross

Pine Grove.

More info here.

(please let me know if that link doesn't work!)

Let me know in some way if you are planning to come!

(email, Facebook comment or message, or rsvp to the event on FB)

I look forward to sharing much more as we get 

closer to our dinner,

and closer to bringing Tobias home! 

We have a son....

Wow, I've been waiting a few months

to write this post.

We have a son.

We have seen his face.

We have given him a name.

Let me start by telling a little bit of this story.

I have shared previously that we were 

looking for a little boy under the age of 2.

We felt that would be best for our family.

We also assumed that there would be

a little boy under the age of 2 

in the orphanage by the time we were ready.

That is not how it happened.

We were informed that there was one child

in the orphanage that wasn't adopted, all other

7 kids had adoptive parents already(praise the Lord!!!)

We were told that it'd be at least a month before any other 

children would be brought in.

This one child that had no parents

is about 3 years old.

So Chris and I started talking and praying.

We were challenged to greatly question the motive 

of our hearts in regards to adoption.

It's so easy to say, 

"I'd like an 8 month old boy, please"

When there are plenty of 8 month old boys available

for adoption!

It felt so unnatural for us, however, to say,
"I'm sorry little guy, you're just too old for us.

We'd rather wait for a younger little boy.

We are concerned about how well you will adjust

to being put into our family...it might be better

for you to remain an orphan longer."

It felt just wrong.

We prayed much for him and about our situation.

 Within a couple days, we couldn't get this "3 year old" out of our minds (all we knew of him was his age).

We talked with our families about it and they

all seemed to be extremely supportive

and agreed with us.

We didn't pick our biological children, did we?

And praise God, He didn't give us much of a choice

with this one either.

He said,

"Here. Here is your son."

So this was almost a month ago and just 

two days ago, we received a picture.

We put a face to the boy we had been praying for.

It became official in our hearts.

No more wondering, "Who is it??? Who is our child???"

Everything changed in an instant!

Tears flowed as we saw that little guy's eyes

in the midst of the other beautiful 

chocolate faces in the orphanage....now

ALL of them had parents.

He wasn't the only one left anymore.

Now, we aren't going to share his picture 

or the name we have chosen for him just yet.

I can tell you this.

He doesn't look like his parents ;)

He's gorgeous.

He has beautiful dark skin.

The whites of his big round eyes stand out bright 

against the deep color of his skin.

He doesn't know of us yet, but he will this week.

He'll receive pictures and the names of his sisters.

We have some waiting to do,

But MUCH to be done in the waiting.

Lots of paperwork to gather.

And it looks like he may not be home until April or May.

But he is being cared for so very well

where he is.

So I just couldn't WAIT to share with all of you.

We are overjoyed to have his face

in our minds as we pray for our children.

And we are excited to have things to DO!

 It feels good to have goals and to get things 

done in this process.

Thank you to whoever has prayed for our child

and our family.

And thank you for reading.

Continue to pray with us for our son.

For his health, his well-being,

his desire to be HOME.

We will be sharing pictures and his name

at our Benefit Dinner on 

November 11 at 5:30

Church at the Cross,

Pine Grove.

I have an event on Facebook with more info.

PLEASE COME!

$20/ticket

or

$45/family

If you aren't able to make it to the dinner,

I'll be sure to have a post up very shortly after :)

Thank you for rejoicing with us!

 

 

 

 

We're APPROVED!!!

WE ARE APPROVED!!!!

Just received our approval of our 

I-600A!

This means that U.S. immigration has determined that 

we are able and fit to adopt internationally.

MORE IMPORTANTLY, 

it means we can get our referral!!

aka: see the face of our SON!

This is very exciting news for us...it means progress!!

So we've waited for this exact day for a while

because it is the prerequisite for our referral.

 Compassion for Congo also goes by 

who gets their approval in-hand first,

so the quicker the better for us!

So here's how we envisioned this happening:

We receive our approval.

We call Paul frantically trying to meet with him

so we can see who our son is.

We meet with him within MINUTES and 

receive instant gratification :)

Here's how it is happening in reality.

We received approval.

I emailed Paul.

I was impatient, so two minutes later I 

called Paul ;)

We were then informed that Paul was literally 

leaving for Congo in a few days!!

Therefore, no meeting with Paul until he gets back.

I think The Lord is teaching us patience. 

We are excited, nonetheless!

What's neat is that with Paul being down there in our 

son's hometown, there is a chance

he will see him face to face

before we do!

We, however, do not know who is 

available in the orphanage.

We do not know if they will be bringing more

children into the orphanage while Paul is there.

Either way, God has orchestrated things

this particular way for His purpose, the good of our son,

and our sanctification.

Just wanted to share our excitement as we 

finally have the approval we were waiting for!

Step by step!

Also, we are planning a fundraiser dinner at the end of October

at our church.

ANYONE is invited!!!

We'll create a Facebook event so we can have people 

RSVP soon.

We think it will be really fun, and it'll be a nice dinner!

More details about that will be coming soon!

Oh!!  

Last thing. 

We saw our little baby today!

(wow, just realized we got to see our baby AND got our approval the same day!!)

I am 9 weeks along and the baby is measuring perfect.

It was moving around like crazy!!  

Head is on the left at the top of the pic you can see fingers!

Things are fuzzy in the picture, but we were able to see

fingers and toes!!!  It was squirming 

all over the place.

So precious :)

So rejoice with us as we continue

to be shown His grace in these

everyday excitements!

 

 

Big Announcement!!!

"Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord, 

the fruit of the womb a reward.

Like arrows in the hand of a warrior

are the children of one's youth.

Blessed is the man who fills his quiver with them."

Psalm 127:3-5

Before you continue reading this post...please re-read the above verse carefully.

God's view of children doesn't exactly match up with our popular culture's.

Children are seen as a blessing most of the time, 

but only to a certain extent.

I mean, HOW MANY children makes a full quiver??

I think it's different for every family, 

but the truth is this:

Children are a REWARD.

Children are an INHERITANCE from the Lord.

Children are like arrows in a warrior's hand.

And we are blessed to be having MORE!

The reason I start with this is because

this is what God has been teaching me 

through His word the past several weeks.

It has been made evident that He is in control

of our family's size, and NOT us!

And we are to be so excited for the children
He brings our way.

That brings me to our big announcement....

I am 2 months pregnant!!

 

Yup.  Crazy. Scary. Unreal.

But real.

 

Definitely a surprise to us, as we are 

currently trying to bring our son home from Congo.

And it may actually turn out that both children come home within a couple months of each other!!!

 

How I sprung the news on Chris :)

So there it is.  We've been holding it in for over a month,

but with a healthy ultrasound

and hearing the baby's heartbeat every day 

on our doplar at home, 

we decided to share the good news :)

 

7 week ultrasound.  Great growth and heartbeat!

  So as Chris has reminded me,

as long as there is breath,

we praise Him.

I'll fully admit that I was very scared 

when I found out.

I mean, I'm almost 26...how can I all of the sudden

have FOUR children???  

THAT FAST?

I feel inadequate to raise TWO little souls 

at once!

But ya know what....

this is HIS plan, not ours.

The Lord never lets us forget that we 

are NOT in control, and we 

NEED to rest in Him and not on our own understanding.

(cuz let me tell you...I still don't understand it!)

So there it is.  Our big surprise :)

Please continue to pray for us.

We should be able to see our son's face in a matter of weeks now.

It seems like such a long waiting period,

but as you can see, God has kept us busy with other news.

You will now be kept up to date not only with our

adoption progress, but with my pregnancy progress as well!

I pray you all enjoy your weekend!!

I will do my best...with my Seabands on my wrist 

for morning sickness, and saltines beside my bed, 

and my husband who has been an absolute ANGEL in 

helping me through this rough period of pregnancy :)