Adoption Acceptance Packet

We received our official acceptance paperwork on June 8, and it's taken me over a week to collect everything. Signing and notarizing the paperwork was the easy part. Then we had to collect more employment verifications, make copies of birth certificates and our marriage license, and take pictures of the outside and inside of our house. Well, for a working mom of a toddler, it's practically impossible to get a room "picture perfect" until late in the evening after everyone is in bed. We are supposed to send in 10-12 pictures of the inside of our house. It's taken me all week to get this done because we had a lot of clutter that needed to be picked up. As of yesterday, the pictures are finished!

The other big part of our acceptance packet is sending in the BIG international fee. Until our agency receives that money, our adoption won't proceed. We always assumed that we would receive a grant or two to help pay for this part, and then take out a loan for the rest. We've sent in several grant applications, but many of them won't be reviewed for a few months. I called the bank and talked to them about getting a loan. Unfortunately, we were declined! We were shocked and upset to say the least! God is really teaching us to give everything to Him through this experience. We had some of the BIG payment set aside, and unexpectedly, a generous person has offered us a loan, so we are just a few thousand short of being able to send our acceptance to Korea! We are waiting to see how God will provide next and trusting that His timing is perfect. I hope to be posting soon that our paperwork is on it's way to Korea! And...once that step is complete, I will be able to post pictures of our sweet, precious, Smiley Boy!!!

Listening to the Lord

I'm so thankful that I listened and obeyed when I felt the Lord calling us to adopt again. I really felt in my heart that we would find our next child on a photolisting of children with special needs. I began researching whenever I would see syndromes or medical conditions that I hadn't heard of, and mentally took note of what I felt our family could and could not handle. We saw our Smiley Boy's face on a special needs photolisting, and knew he was supposed to be part of our family. We read about his medical history and felt at peace with his history of meningitis and his ASD. We took his file to our doctor to review, and our doctor was not optimistic. In fact, he said if it were him, he'd look for a healthier child. This obviously did not go over well with me since I believe that every child, no matter how healthy he or she is, deserves a family. The doctor's opinion did not deter us because we knew that God led us to this child. Our most recent report is that Smiley Boy is developmentally on target and very healthy! Praise the Lord! I'm so glad I listened to God's voice and obeyed him in choosing this precious child, rather than following the advice of the doctor.

This whole adoption process has been a journey of faith. We did not start out having all the money we needed for the adoption just sitting around in our savings. We are trusting that the Lord will provide every step of the way, and He has! I pray daily that God will provide the money that we need at the time that we need it. We have had a few yard sales recently to help pay one of the agency fees which is due in the next few weeks. I wondered how we were going to make the payment since we were short. Well, today, we were given the exact amount of the money that we needed to be able to send in the check!!! My prayers were answered because someone listened to the Lord's prompting and obeyed by giving generously. We are so blessed to have so many people supporting us.

Our adoption agency is drafting our official acceptance paperwork this week. Once it is complete, we will sign and return it, and then it will be sent to Korea. This gives the Korean adoption agency the green light to start the paperwork process with their government to allow Smiley Boy to leave Korea and become part of our family. However...we found out yesterday that our acceptance cannot be sent to Korea until we mail them the $14,350 international fee. WOW! We thought we would have a few months to apply for grants and do more fundraising, but we were wrong. So, once again, we're trusting God to provide in a BIG way. We are frantically finishing grant applications and praying that the committees reviewing the applications will look upon us favorably. It's amazing how at peace I am with everything though.

I am reminded of the verse in Phillipians 4:7:
"And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus."