PLEASE BE IN PRAYER TODAY!!

We need some miracles today! 

1.  We are working with a lady who is checking all of our documents that need to be sent to Ukraine and she has found quite a few problems with them.  Thank the Lord, we have her to catch them before the Dossier goes to Ukraine and then would have had to be sent back.  However, this means we will spend all day today going back to places we have already been and having to get documents redone.  Please pray for favor and contact with just the right people and grace and patience for us.

2.  We have an assistant from one of the SC Senator's office contacting immigration on our behalf to try and expedite our fingerprint and immigration process.  Need prayer for this as well...

3.  Our expenses are mounting very quickly and we are at the bottom of our barrel.   However, we know that God's barrel is full, so we are praying for some big financial miracles in the next few days!

Thanks so Much!!!

More Favor from our awesome God!!

Today, we took our chances and went down to Charleston to try and get our fingerprints done early.  Our appointment was for June 8, but we didn't sense we should wait that long.  We prayed about it and the Lord told us that He would give us favor whenever we went.  To make a long story short, we were in and our of the office in 15 minutes and got our fingerprints.  Isn't God amazing!!

We also have been connected by some of our friends with a woman who will be checking our Dossier our documents to go to the Ukraine) and she has already been such a blessing!  She is going way out of her way to help us get this right the first time so that we don't have it sent back.

God has just so much had His hand in this adoption every step of the way and we are just blown away!  What He wants to be accomplished will be done!!!!



 

Discouragement and Favor: Seeing and Trusting the Hand of God

The last week has been up and down for us.  Last week, we were feeling discouraged about some things, especially about our lack of finances for the adoption. But  our loving God just kept being patient with us and reminding us that HE is in control and that HE will take care of all our needs.  We just keep asking Him to help us with be strong in our faith!

The last few days, we have seen some real examples of God's favor in the adoption process. Yesterday, I called immigration to check to see if our fingerprinting appointments had been mailed out and as it turned out, the lady I talked to had our paper right on her desk and did the appointment for me right there and faxed it to me, so we didn't have to wait for days.  She even got us an earlier appointment and she said that it was amazing that I called when I did because the paper had just been put on her desk that morning.  I also found out that our home study is in with an immigration officer right now, so it made it through DSS and had an amazing turnaround time getting to immigration.

It seems as if God is really rushing up this adoption and causing things to happen so quickly.  When I talked to the fingerprint lady yesterday, she said that we could go down to Charleston early before our appointment date and see if they will just let us walk in  Often, they will do this, but we run the risk of not getting seen and having gone to Charleston and wasting a tank of gas.  Some other friends of ours who are also adopting are going in the morning, so we are praying about whether we should go tomorrow, too, or wait until Tuesday.  Either way, we will need favor!

We have a copy of our home study in already to our Ukranian facilitator and he is translating it now.  We have sent in our Dossier documents (the documents needed for the Ukranian embassy) to a professional  Dossier checker and when she is done,, we will also send those in for translation.  This could be done by the weekend.  So, there is a possibility we could have the entire Dossier in to Ukraine by next week, if we get our approval from immigration by Wednesday.  We said a month ago that getting everything done this quick would be a miracle and so far, God has done it.

Our biggest need right now is still the finances.  We will need $2000 to send in the Dossier, but my daughter,  Hannah, keeps reminding me that God often likes to come through at the last minute, so we are holding on to faith and speaking out that He HAS provided!

Thank you for your prayers!

The Home Study is Done and the Approval Process is Underway

We are so excited!!  The home study is done and now in the hands of DSS.  Once they approve it, they will send it to immigration.  Once they approve it, they will send it to us along with our adoption approval letter.
We are praying this process will be done in very quick time.  Please pray for miracles on this: that the home study and application would go to just the right,  quick processing,  and quick approval.

While this is being processed, we are working on the official documents that need to go to the Ukrainian government.  This is called our Dossier.  Once we get the immigration approval letter, we will send all this to our facilitator in Ukraine and he will translate it and send it to State Adoption Agency.

We are sensing more and more that God wants to get Vitya here quickly.  We are sensing that we may receive an invitation to go over about mid-June.  For this to happen this quickly, it would take a miracle.  But our God just loves doing miracles!!!We just feel that we are to be ready and when He says go, we go.

We are in the process of fixing up Vitya's bedroom and it has been so fun.  We asked one of the ladies who works with him to ask him his favorite colors and his favorite color is yellow, which is already the color of the bedroom.  Isn't that amazing?.  God is preparing it just for him!!

The other big miracle that we need right now is provision for the adoption.  We still need about $16.000 in the next two week, but We know that God is faithful and He will take care of our needs!!!!

Thanks you for your prayers......

DELAYS! DELAYS! or Waiting on the Lord's Timing!

The last few days have been hard because it seems like there have been so many hold ups in the process moving forward.  We finally have what we think we may need to use for insurance, but we are still waiting on letters from the offices and one had to be redone.  We have had to have other papers redone that had been done wrong, been mailing lots of items next day air, etc., etc.  A lot of red tape...... and waiting.....  We are trying to press in to the Lord and release this to Him and wait on His timing.  No matter how it seems sometime, the government is not in control, He is!!!! And we have to trust in that and try and wait peacefully.   We need to try and stand on the well-known verse in Isaiah that says, "They they wait of the Lord will renew their strength (as we are tired emotionally and physically); they will run and not be weary; they will walk and not faint..."

Please pray:

1)That we would get the home study proofed, we would get the documents we need and get it all to DSS in the next two days.

2)For favor with DSS and immigration in the next two weeks and a quick transition through the process.

3) Peace for us as we are waiting

4)  Financial provision and faith to trust Him for this.  We have already put forth $2000 out of our own money and we will be needing quite a bit more in the next few weeks.  Sometimes, the needs are overwhelming.

Thanks for all you prayers......

Where we are now - Needing two big Miracles!!

Our social worker is now back in the country and writing up our home study, but we have one big glitch:

**Miracle #1:  We are having trouble getting insurance for Vitya.  We did not have insurance before now, so it has been very difficult to find someone who would insure us because we are adopting.  However, we have to have insurance for him to meet immigration requirements.  Right now, we have several options, so please pray for favor that one of the will be sufficient, so that we can move forward with the process.  This needs to happen in the next couple of days.

**Miracle #2:  We have now heard rumor that the SDA is shutting down on June 15, which means we would have to have everything done here in the US ( DSS approval and Immigration approval) and have all of our paperwork to the Ukraine by the end of May.  In the natural, this is really not possible, but God works in the supernatural!!  He can do miracles.    We are not sure what His will is in this situation.  He could have the SDA stay open longer, help our paperwork go through quicker, or have us wait until the next agency reopens adoptions.  We sense it will be sooner than later though that we will go get Vitya.  Would appreciate your prayers!

**  We are also in need of finances for the adoption NOW.  We have already put forth almost $2000.00 out of our own pockets and we have nothing left.  We must have about $5000 in the next few weeks to finish the process.  We trust though that God is our provider and He can do anything!!

Thank you so much for you prayers!!!

Speeding up the process and seeing God's Miracles

About 2 weeks ago, we were told by our facilitator in Ukraine that the Ukranian State Department of Adoption was officially closing down and all of the adoptions were being transferred to another department.  He encouraged us to get all of our paperwork as soon as possible.  At the time, no one had a date for the closure, but knew it could be anytime.

We had planned to have our home study in May and were thinking about adopting next Fall, but this announcement drastically changed things.  We had to get all of our home study paperwork done in about three days (including autobiographies of ten pages each)  and had out social worker come out the next week.  It was a stressful time, but we did see some miracles in the process.  There were two document that we had to have from Los Angeles  (David' home) for the home study to be processed.  One we were told could take 6 to 8 weeks, the other 6 mths. to a year.  Both we got in three days, PTL!!!  Just more confirmation that He is definitely in this.

The Adoption Process So Far

We are very blessed to be helped by a non-profit adoption  ministry called Open Arms. The  directors, Steve and Carol Ellisor, are friends of ours.  They have already adopted 4 children from Ukraine and have already been a HUGE help to us in walking through the international adoption process.!

The first step we have had to do as part of our adoption process is our Home Study.  Carol and Steve recommended a social worker for us who is doing our Home Study for us.  Her name is Teresa Smith and she is a strong Christian and a wonderful person to work with.  Up to this point, we are almost finished with our portion of the home study.  We filled out loads of paperwork, gathered lots of vital documents  and then last week, we had Teresa come to our home and interview us and look at our home.  We cleaned for a week to prepare and were exhausted!  Praise the Lord, the home study went well. Teresa is currently out of the country, but will return next week and will write up our study and send it to DSS.  Once DSS approves it, they will send it to US immigration for approval.

The next step for us is what is called our dossier.  The dossier is all of the legal documents that we have gather for the Ukraine part of the adoption.  We are already corresponding with a Ukranian facilitator who is helping us with the adoption process on the Ukranian end.