Traveling soon!!!

We received the word today that our dossier was accepted and we have an appointment in Ukraine on August 27th to meet with the adoption officials! We are so excited! We actually got a little more notice than we expected because the week of August 18th to 25th government offices are closed due to an Independence day holiday -- this gives us time to get our tickets, make our travel plans and get the kids in school -- they start back the 24th and we will travel the 25th! Perfect timing in my mind! Wow, it is amazing to me that we will be meeting our son in exactly 3 weeks! I am jumping for joy! I am so thankful for all the wonderful family and friends that we have that have supported us wholeheartedly in this calling! Here we come, Max!!

Our dossier has been submitted!

Things seem to be taking on speed now! We mailed our dossier one week ago and it has already been received by our facilatator, translated into Russian and submitted to the governing body in charge of adoptions! We should hear sometime this week if there are any problems with our paperwork and if not, when we will be able to travel! It seems we will be traveling by the end of the month (or much sooner) if all goes well! Please continue to keep us and Max in your prayers!

The dossier is in the mail!

My kids and I drove to Austin to get our final paperwork apostilled today. We only had one glitch (apparently the bank notary was not official so had to hunt around Austin for another notary whose stamp doesn't expire for at least a year) but the woman at the Secretary of State's office was extremely nice and we got it done! Then we walked 2 blocks to the UPS store and mailed all of the documents overseas! They should be there by Thursday! Happy day!

We got our I-171H!

Our I-171H came today! This is a big step in the process! Now, I can send our dossier off after I drive to Austin on Monday to get it apostilled!!! It shouldn't be long now -- hopefully, our dossier will be in Eastern Europe in our facilitator's hands by Friday! Thank you Lord!

All in His timing...

It is so difficult to wait!!! I eagerly check the mailbox every day for that coveted 171H that will allow us to finally send our paperwork to Max's country. We have everything else done -- even apostilled -- it's all sitting on a shelf waiting for that last piece of paper. It very much feels like being pregnant and waiting, waiting, waiting although at least with pregnancy, you know that there is a definite time limit! I have to keep reminding myself that it is all in God's timing... He has the perfect plan... I have seen it over and over in my life so why is it so difficult to trust Him again??? I am going to trust again that He is taking care of all the details and although I would get this adoption done as fast as possible, He knows my all of my days and all of Max's days before one of them was yet to be ...

"I will give thanks to You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Wonderful are Your works, And my soul knows it very well. My framewas not hidden from You, When I was made in secret, And skillfully wrought in the depths of the earth; Your eyes have seen my unformed substance; And in Your book were all written The days that were ordained for me, When as yet there was not one of them." Psalm 139:14-16

On the other side of the world

I love watching my kids play in the pool together! They love to swim and tonight as I watched them I just couldn't stop thinking about how Max was all the way on the other side of the world... He doesn't know that we are coming for him. He doesn't know how much we love him. He doesn't know that we are planning his room and that he is part of almost every conversation we have. The kids say ... "I bet Max would like this" or "I can't wait till we can take Max to do that." He is part of our life already... He has been since he was born even though we didn't know where he was. He doesn't know that he is CHOSEN! That was part of my devotional yesterday and I keep going back to it. It says:
"Chosenness is one of the very best gifts that love bestows on the beloved. It means someone has seen me as a unique person, that someone desires to come closer to me, to be on my side. It means someone believes I have a significant contribution to make."
We have chosen Max to be our son just as God has chosen each one of us. He says to us, "Fear not for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name; you are mine... You are precious and honored in my sight...I love you." Isaiah 43:1,4
Max we love you! We can't wait until we bring you home!

Max is Four!

Last week was Max's birthday! He turned four years old -- we had a small celebration at home but it was bittersweet knowing that he was half-way across the world! We had a small cake and sang for him and we let 5 balloons go - one for each of us - as we sent birthday wishes across the world to him! We pray it won't be long before we get him home -- and next year we will have a real celebration for him!