3 months...

Do you ever open up your email and get butterflies every time you see a certain name?  Right now that is what happens whenever I see the name K***** M*****, our social worker.  Now, she doesn't always bring good news but it still brings a smile to my face, my heart skips a beat, and those butterflies kick in when I see her name in my inbox.  You see, when you have been waiting this long to bring home a child/ren you have never touched, hugged, kissed, or talked to...every bit of news is exciting.  Today, I received 2 emails.  The first one was letting me know KM had received the rest of the paperwork we needed to complete our dossier.  And, just to show you how awesome our SW is....the next email, a couple hours later said this:  "And it's off to Ghana!"

The pic of our dossier KM sent with her last email. :-)

It is an amazing thing when 5 simple words can completely make my day, can make me smile every time I think of them, give me butterflies every time I think of what they mean.
So, you may be thinking, what do they mean?  Simply put, I get to see my babies soon!  The more complex answer...this packet of papers, a biography of sorts, is on it's way to our POA in Ghana.  Our POA will take this packet to the regional director (have no idea who this guy, or girl, is!) in Volta, which is the region of Ghana our children are in.  This director person will process everything (whatever that means) and issue us a court date.  At that time our agency will call or email us to see if the court date will work for us.  If it will (I can't imagine it won't), then we start making our travel arrangements!  Unfortunately there is no clear timeline for this process(HA!  Like that is a shock!).  It can be anywhere from 2 to 3 months with 3 months being more the average.   So, prayerfully, we will be traveling to Ghana to see our precious little ones sometime in January, maybe sooner!  That may seem far away to many of you but after 18 months of excitement, tears, road blocks, detours, tears, joy, fear...3 months is a balm to my heart.  In 3 months I will see this amazing country my children were born in.  In 3 months I will smell, taste, and live their culture.  In 3 months I will look into two sets of dark brown eyes.  I will breathe in the sent of two precious beings the Lord has brought to our family.  I will touch, hug, squeeze two little people who have lived far too long without a mother or father.  In 3 months our family of 6 will grow to a family of 8.  *SIGH*  3 months....

"Praise the Lord, Praise the Lord, let the earth hear HIS voice, Praise the Lord, Praise the Lord, let the people rejoice. O come to the Father through Jesus the Son and give HIM the GLORY, great things HE hath done!"

Out with the old...

...In with the new!

With the anticipation of our 2 newest members arriving in the next 6 months or so I have been cleaning, organizing, simplifying, re-organizing and just trying to get our house in order before our world gets turned upside down.  We had a yard sale and got rid of most our stuff. Today I am cleaning out the school room and we are getting some new curriculum so I am listing LOTS of great curriculum.  Here it is:

CLE Reading 1
I Wonder book, Light Units 101-105 ***No marks, new***

CLE Language Arts 3
Teachers Guide and Light Units 306-310. No markings in these at all.

CLE Language Arts 4
Answer keys, Light Units 402-410 ***I have doubles of units 406-410*** Unit 402 has been slightly used. I have either erased or used white out on most of it but may have missed some. This is only on the first few lessons. It is also missing the first list of spelling words that can be cut out from the back. I am still searching for the quizzes and test...I know they are around here somewhere!

CLE Reading 4
Bridges Beyond book, answer key, and Light Units 404 and 405. I also have the quizzes and test for unit 3 that I will throw in.

CLE Social Studies 4
Into All the World text book, student map pack (for 2 students) in a 3 ring binder, 2 copies of the Teacher's Guide, Light Units 401-410 (2 copies of each unit), one copy of the answer keys. ***Both copies of units 401-2 have been lightly used. Lessons 1-15 for 401 have been written in with pencil, but 402 is clear. The books also have my children's names on the front.***

CLE Bible Elective I-Acts Through Revelation
Teachers Guide and Light Unit 5

CLE Reading 5
Open Windows book, answer key, Light Units 504 and 505 ***no writing or other marks***

CLE Bible 5
Teachers Guide and Light Unit 505 ***no writing or other marks***

CLE Language Arts 5
Answer keys and Light Units 502-510. ***Unit 502 has writing in the first two lessons, pencil only. I may or may not remember to have my oldest erase it. ***

CLE Research Paper I and II ***no writing or marks***

CLE Science 6
Answer keys, Light Units 601-610 ***I have duplicates of all the Light Units. The first few pages in both Light Units 601 have writing in pen and/or pencil. It is very minimal and can be erased or whited (is that a word?) out***

CLE Bible 7
Answer Keys, Light Units 710-710 ***Light Unit 701 does have writing, pen, in the first few lessons and is missing the test.***

God's Design For Life science series
The Human Body, The Animal Kingdom, and The World of Plants ***There are some pencil marks in 2 of the books, very minor.***

Math U See:

Beta-Instruction manual (spiral bound), DVD, and Test booklet (has all tests)
Gamma-Instruction manual (spiral bound), DVD, and Test booklet (missing tests 1-6)
Delta-Instruction manual (newer version, not spiral bound), DVD, and Test booklet (has all tests)
Epsilon-Instruction manual (newer version, not spiral bound), DVD, test booklet, and Student Text (missing 2 or 3 lsns for 1-12, starting in 13 all lessons are there)

Mystery of History
Volume I text, CD Audio set, Through the Ages timeline book (Beautiful!!! Has some figures already glued and minimal writing), Through the Ages timeline packet (over 250 black and white timeline figures with name, date, and descriptive text), CD Printable Reproducibles, 3 ring binder of multiple copies of maps printed out, Folder book (lap book) figures printed on card stock in triplicates. I used to have the Folder book CD but I seem to have just the case right now. If I find the CD I will ship it out no extra charge. This is a great set and much of the work has been done for you!!!

HOD-Beyond Little Hearts For His Glory
I also have the following resources to go with this: God's Wonderful Works (Science), American Pioneers and Patriots, Stories of the Pilgrims, Boys and Girls of Colonial Days. ***No marks, new***

Leave a comment or message me on facebook for prices!  Thanks for looking!

Financial Disclosure

We have had many questions about the cost of adoption lately.  That is understandable.  When you donate to something you want to know where your money is going.  To the right you will see different pages.  Click on the one that says financial disclosure.  I tried to break down the fees to show you exactly where the money is going.  Hope this helps but if you have any questions feel free to ask!

God is in the details!

So much has happened in the last few days regarding adoption finances.  As mentioned in a previous post, our agency was requiring us to pay $9500 before they would send our dossier to Ghana.  We have been desperately trying to raise this money to get our process moving again.  A couple days ago I emailed our agency letting them know we would be sending $6000 this week and asking if that was enough to get our dossier sent.  Later that same day a dear friend (and adoptive mama) called me with an offer.  After talking to her husband they decided to loan us the rest of the money to get our dossier in the mail!  I was shocked and in tears.  Normally we would not consider taking a loan from friends but at this point we were just so desperate to get things moving and get our babies home.  Now, I mentioned there was a small contingency.  They needed to sell their mini van first.  Once that happened they would send the money to our agency.  Praise God, He moved that mountain!  But wait, there is more....
Yesterday I received an email back from our agency.  They were willing to accept the $6000 and send off our dossier.  Another concern we had was that the rest of our fees, equaling $14,000, were going to be due before the first trip.  YIKES!  Once again, God had this the whole time.  We were told that those fees wouldn't be due until the last trip.  WHEW!  A huge burden has been lifted.  (Needless to say, we will not be taking a loan from our friends but we are very grateful to them for the offer!)
Cast thy burden upon the Lord, and he shall sustain thee: he shall never suffer the righteous to be moved.  Psalm 55:22
Now we can focus on getting the money for travel, which will happen approximately 2-3 months after our dossier is sent.  For this first trip I am estimating we will need about $6000. This covers round trip flights from Turkey (planning to get there free via space a flights with the military), hotels in Ghana, food, transportation, visa fees for the kids, and spending money. Our goal is to have $10,000 by the time we travel.  $6000 for us and the rest towards agency fees. So, how can you help?  Well, over the next few months we will have a couple things going on.  We will continue to promote our puzzle fundraiser and would greatly appreciate it if you would share it with others as well. In November I will be hosting another Thirty One party and my consultant has, once again, offered to give all profit to our adoption fund.  Most importantly, as cliche as this may sound, we need and covet your prayers!
And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us.  1 John 5:14 

Now what?

Yesterday, on facebook, I posted that God had crushed our mountain.  On September 18th I wrote a blog pleading for your help.  Between our own finances and the generous donations of friends and family we were prepared to send in $6000 to our agency by this Friday.  Add the $500 grant we received a couple months ago to that and our total owed to get our dossier to Ghana was $3000.  I emailed our agency in hope that they would be willing to send the dossier once this money was received, even though it wasn't the full payment.  I have not heard back from them yet.  Instead, I receive an email from a dear family saying they may be able to help us with that last bit.  PRAISE GOD!  Now, this is not set in stone and is contingent on one thing, but I am not going to go into details because God is in the details and I have faith that HE will make it happen.  So, mountain #1...CRUSHED!

Now what?  Once our agency receives the last bit of paperwork and funds (prayerfully by the end of the week) our dossier will be on its way to our children's birth country!  This is a HUGE step in getting our little ones home.  Once the dossier is in Ghana.....well, we wait!  Yep, more waiting.  This time we wait for a court date.  This takes approximately 2-3 months.  There are some things that take place in Ghana during this time before we are cleared to go to court.  I predict sometime in January we will receive the call that we have a court date.  I am pretty sure this is when I will get a little crazy!  I will finally be able to see, hug, squeeze, kiss and love on my beautiful babies!  Lord willing we will pass court quickly without any issues and enjoy several days with the newest members of our family in their beautiful country.  We expect to be in Ghana for approximately 2 weeks.  Before we leave, Lord willing, we will file the I600 (google it :).  No, our children will not be coming home with us at this time.  I know, heart breaking.  We will count down the days until our children are back in our arms.

With all that said, we still have another mountain looming in the distance.  I am waiting for confirmation from our agency of exactly when this next fee is due.  Our prayer is that it can be split up.  Some due before our first trip and the rest due before our last trip.  This mountain is BIG and does not include our travel expenses.  Are you ready for it? ******$14,000!******  WHEW!  Guess what?!?  My God is bigger than that mountain.  So, over the next few months we will continue to ask our dear friends and family to buy the puzzle pieces.  We will continue to ask you to pray.  We will continue to ask for your support and encouragement.  Our earnest prayer is that we will make a decent dent in that amount via grants and fundraisers.  Thank you to all who have donated and helped us get this dossier to Ghana!  We are eternally grateful for your help in bringing our children home to their forever family.  Please continue to share our blog and facebook posts so that we can finish putting the pieces of the puzzle together as we continue to piece our family together.

According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love: Having predestinated us unto the ADOPTION of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will.
Ephesians 1:4-5 

What God has done

Remember that mountain?  $9500 in order to get our dossier sent to Ghana.  Well, here is what God has done with that mountain.  We will be mailing paperwork and a check to our agency this week.  Once all funds are applied to our account that mountain will be reduced to $3000!!!  Yep, my God is so good, so strong and so mighty, there's nothing my God cannot do!!!

Since the start of our puzzle fundraiser (which officially started months ago for my kids to get to Ghana) we have sold 154 pieces.  This is a 500 piece puzzle so we still have a ways to go!  Please continue to share our blog with others and help us get our little ones home.

Thank you, a million times, thank you for  your love, encouragement, prayers, donations, and support.  You have all been a blessing to our family and will forever be a "piece of the puzzle" in our adoption journey.

God bless.