Provision

We had a good yard sale and bake sale yesterday. Thank you to all who helped and donated things! We felt so blessed! God has provided in so many ways the last few weeks. He has always provided and always been faithful.
Finally got my birthcertificate last week and got our last document notarized. YAY! So now we just wait for immigration, get fingerprinted again, have to get all documents state sealed, THEN the dossier can go to China (DTC). Can't wait for that!
We also hope to actually meet Caleb soon, as in get matched with a little boy.

OK...its China

So we got home form a 2 week vacation late last Sunday night and our social worker calls us Monday afternoon. She had not finished up our home study for Korea yet because she was waiting until we got back so we could approve it and had just talked with the coordinator for Korea and China. It turns out that for the China program for our agency right now there are hundreds of boys waiting and no one else wants a boy right now, with lots age 0-2. We couldn't believe it. So if anyone wants to adopt a boy, go with China! So it seemed like a no-brainer to us, that this is what God has for us.
We have tried to figure God out and really want to follow His lead. He has continually reminded us that He is in control and only His timing is right. So even though I have been frustrated that it has taken so long to get our home study approved, I know there will be some reason.
Our home study will go to our agency headquarters next week and off to immigration. Since there are so many waiting boys, our agency will actually match us, and that could happen real soon. So that is very exciting! Pray that we will get to go before the new year, just because we are anxious to bring Caleb home, but also because China basically shuts down the month of January for their new year.
Thanks for praying for and supporting us.

Decisions

Our home study being approved kept being held up. But one day I "just happened" to be looking at the waiting children through our organization and found a couple of new babies so I e-mailed our social worker about them. They got matched quickly but she said there are a couple more, would you like to see them, we said sure. They are from South Korea. Hmmm, we got really attached to one of them and put our names in for the matching, he had been in the last group and wasn't matched so we thought we had a good chance. It seemed to take forever for the day of the matching to get here, it came and went. The next morning I got the call that we did not get him. We were very, very sad and disappointed, almost feeling as though we had lost someone. But I certainly don't want to compare myself to someone who has had a miscarriage, infertility, or lost a child through death. But it was very hard for us.
So now we have spent the last week trying to figure out what God wants us to do. Is He leading us to Korea now? Is He leading us to a baby? What about China? What about our "original plans"? God continues to show me that He is in control and in charge of everything, including this "operation" and these plans. He has amazed us the last couple of days with some unexpected funds and we will get a nice tax return. So we do know for sure He still wants us to adopt!
We are getting ready to go out of town for 2 weeks, leaving in the morning. We have not made a final decision, but kind of leaning towards Korea, because we want a baby. So we may take a couple of days with the long hours we have in the car to pray and think some more, then call or e-mail our social worker. We have to decide now because our stuff is ready to go to immigration and we have to pick a country. We appreciate your prayers!

Still going...

For awhile there wasn't really much to "report". We had to wait for several weeks to get our clearances from KS so our home study could be finished. The last several weeks have been busy with working on our dossier, everything is done except waiting on my birth certificate, and then waiting on USCIS to let us know when we can go get fingerprinted.( This will be the 2nd time) We are hoping it will be before our vacation at the end of April.
The other big thing that has been keeping me busy is trying to find and figure out some services and things for one of our children with special needs. Please keep us in your prayers with that. Even in dealing with all of this it has not detoured us from adopting, God still says "Go!"
Hopefully everything will get to China in the next couple of months, then we wait for our referral.

One more step

We had our home visit today. So glad I didn't totally stress out about it and clean every inch of things that nobody can see. It really was pretty relaxed. I was a little nervous I guess. Probably about what my kids would say or do. But they were really pretty good.
So now we need to finish up our physicals and get that paperwork in and start on the immigration paperwork. We will also have to get fingerprinted again, which I didn't realize or remember from earlier conversations. Then we start on the dossier, which is all the paperwork for China. Now is the time we will be very financially committed also. Once our homestudy is done, in the next couple weeks, we can start applying for grants. We have also been doing some little fundraisers and God is providing!
Thank you for praying with us and for us in this journey.

Sunday

Rod and I made it through our individual interviews on Thursday. Our home visit is scheduled for the 10th, hopefully it won't have to get changed again! This is such another great journey for God to show me that HE is in CHARGE and on His throne, I just need to obey and wait upon Him. Had such a great message at church today about obedience. Its not about us giving , its about us surrendering, to Him. I can never do enough for God. This journey is so much more about obedience, which brings freedom. We are not on this adoption journey to "do something great for God". We feel He has called us to this and we are walking in obedience. Is obedience easy? A lot of times, no. But it is the only way to have complete joy and freedom.
We put our names on a list for 3 boys and one girl that we would be interested in looking more closely at. Yes, there is one girl in there. We can still only get one at a time. The agency will make their decisions by Tuesday. We are at the bottom of the list since our home visit is not even done. But if God wants us to have one of these kids then we will. So we are not getting our hopes up on any of them, just waiting and praying. If not any in this group, then we wait for God to show us the child He has for us.

Set back

Our interviews for today had to be postponed. I was very disappointed because it pushes everything back and we worked so hard to get our paperwork done so quickly.
But we have so much to be thankful for, God still sits on His throne and is in control. I know on this journey there will be so much that is out of my control and another avenue for me to totally depend on God.
There are also some new listings of children so pray for us as we pray about if we want to put our names in for any of them. And we would be at the bottom because we don't even have our homestudy done yet. God's timing is always perfect!