March 15th

Can you believe we are 1/2 way through the month of March? How time files, and then again some days it seems to drag on and on - like if you are waiting for a specific phone call! Nope folks we have not had any word since our last update a week ago. So, actually I was just posting to tell you we had no news, cause if you are anything like me you might be wondering. Our case worker was going to call Friday, and we didn't hear from her. So, I have decided that this stewing I've been doing isn't going to do me any good nor is it going to get any news here any faster. Therefore, I am trying to be calm about waiting and stop being in such a fret about things. Besides, I need to turn my stewing into some productive labor around here. I need to get things done so when we do get that call to leave I will not have a million things to do because I was just sitting around twiddling my thumbs while I had time to work.
Please continue to pray for our INS paperwork though. There is talk that it might have to be redone. The small bit of possible good news though, it does not sound like it will be as big of a problem as we had thought. A problem, yes, but not quite the catastrophie we were afraid it could become. I sent in my jury paperwork asking to be excused. I am to hear something back in a week or so. Hopefully they have excused me from that although I could not give them anything specific about plans as I don't have any.

Guess that's all - now I must head to bed. Until next time...................

March 8th

I figured for those of you who read my blog where wondering if there was a current update on anything. Sorry to say -nope. We did get the paperwork mailed off to the "new" adoption agency and they have received it. (It was simply an agency agreement for to agree to work with the new agency & new powers of attorney - check my last post for details if you are in the dark.) Past that we know nothing as to progress on our case. We have a few items of prayer we would like to mention. I guess in the grand scheme of things, it's just 1 prayer request from 2 different angles. 8-) Please pray we receive our invitation to travel very soon & we can get things squared away to travel soon after that. It seems like our adoption journeys are sprinkled with near miss castrophies....The latest, which we knew as coming is the expiration of our INS (immigration) approval. We need to have our adoption finalized & apply at the US embassy overseas on or before June 2 - otherwise our INS approval expires and must be renewed. We are praying that things will be finalized before that date as we do not know what all would have to be redone if our INS expires. Please pray for the Lord's mercy on this!
The other item of intrest - I have been summoned for jury duty beginning April 1st. It is a 3month "tour of duty". If we are able to travel before the expiration of of the INS I will not be able to serve. I must request a deferment, but in order to do that I need to have some idea of when we might be traveling. I am needing to get the paperwork for that sent in. So we have several things resting on us getting a travel date soon. Your prayer is greatly appreciated!

Other then that, things are going well. I'm feeling great - Faith is as busy as every. Bob is taking advantage of some overtime at work.
Hope you have a great day! Until next time................

February 18th - Update

Okay, this update has come alittle sooner than my last one. If you read the last post you are aware that we were waiting to see if we could be umbrella-ed by a 2nd agency for the continuation of our adoption. Two days ago we were given the go-ahead and our case was transfered. We are still in the "paperwork" phase of the transfer, but that should be wrapping up very soon. We hope to have everything in the mail by tomorrow. Our origial adoption documents are still overseas and everyone is hopeful that we will not need to update anything other than a new power of attorney (which will be mailed in our pkg tomorrow). Once they receive the new POA, our docs will be submitted to the appropriate officials and we will once again be waiting for that invitation to travel. Our new case manager said she would have a better idea of a travel time-line once the paperwork has been submitted. So, things are looking better and we are very thankful for all the prayers. We will continue to keep you posted as things progress. Please continue to pray that things will fall into place & we will get that long awaited invitation to travel! Until next time.............

February 10th

Well, if you read my last blog one of the last things I said was to check back in a week. Yesterday I was informed that I had not updated the blog and was causing suspense. So, today I will give you an update -sort of. My update has no conclusion so that was the reason for my hesitation to post. But here it goes.....

In the previous posting you will read that we were given the exiciting news (on Jan. 22) that coordinators had traveled to KZ with the purpose of expiditing our paperwork. We were to hear back around the first of Feb. as the the success of their trip. We were hopeful that if an invitation to travel had not been obtained with their trip it would be coming shortly. Six days later, Jan, 28 our case manager called. She did not beat around the bush and told us directly that the trip was NOT successful, but that was not the worst of the news. Due to mounting difficulties and government policies they could not work with CWA (our agency) had made the difficult decission to stop the KZ adoption program - effective immediatly! So, instead of hearing we'd gotten an invitation, we were told the program had been stopped! That weekend was a very difficult weekend to say the least. It was very discouraging and we had alot to process. CWA gave us 3 different options, 1 we could continue, understanding we would probably be dealing with some unethical bureaucracy, and might not even be given an invitation to travel before our paperwork expired 2 - we could pull out immediatly or 3 - we could switch to a different country. That weekend we sought council from a few close friends & parents, but mostly kept the news to ourselves for the time being.

By Monday we had decided that we would switch to a different country. We requested a phone conferance with our case manager. That evening she gave us a call. Before we could tell her our decission she asked us to wait for the time being, giving her and the agency a few days to work. There had been new developments over the weekend. Apperantly CWA has been in contact with a 2nd adoption agency who also works in KZ. This 2nd agency has been able to escape the bureaucracy that CWA was thrown into. No one can figure out how they've managed to stay away from it, but they have. But because of that, this 2nd agency has agreed to take over our case and see if they can get us to KZ to finalize the adoption on their good standings. As I said at the beginning of this post, there is no conclusion - and that is the truth. The last time we heard anything things were being worked out in KZ with the attorney's for this 2nd agency. They were suppose to have a meeting this past Monday, but as of this post we have not heard anything. We know they are trying to get us umbrella-ed with this 2nd agency, but at present we do not know of the progress or if it is even possible. We are very much in a "wait and see" mood. The unknow and suspense can be very wearing!

I apologize for the tardiness of my update, but maybe now you can understand why I held off. I had bad news, then a crazy twist but no conclusion. Please pray for us when the Lord brings you to mind! I will try to do better about posting any news we hear - even if it is bad......

Until Next time......God is still in control!!!

Snow, Ice, Rain

What a week this has been! We have had several snow storms so far this winter (being snowed in 3 different times. We could not get out of our driveway, much less down the gravel road). This week brought an ice storm! Our trees have suffered something terrible. Our yard is completely littered with tree branches. Faith & I have seen several large branches come crashing to the ground. I must admit, going out under those trees to do the chicken chores was a nerve racking event. I got out from underneath them as soon as possible. Spring is going to bring some major yard work! Wednesday night our electricity went out. It came back on Thursday afternoon for about 2 hours, and it went back off. Friday afternoon it was on again for about an hour. We had made plans to go visit Mom & Dad on Saturday as Faith & I were wanting a break from a chilly, dark house. The Lord was gracious and our power came back on Friday night and has stayed on. We are so thankful for all those out in the elements getting power back on to those of us who've been without for a few days.

Despite the snow, ice, rain (yes that came too) and no electricity this week, we are really excited at our house. Last night we received an email with an update on our adoption. We don't have alot of details yet, and no invitation to travel (thus no travel date). That being said there has been progress. Apperantly a group of coordinators working with our agency is traveling to KZ to see if they can have several families' paperwork expidited. Our paperwork is in that group. From what we understand they are going over to see if the invitations can be issued. We are expecting to hear how their trip went around the 1st of February. Please pray for their safety as well as a very successful trip. They would have left for KZ sooner, but we understand that the weather was not condusive to travels so they had to wait. We have also learned where we will be traveling. There was alittle bit of a hope that we would return to the same city as last time. However that is not going to be the case. We are going further north. I'm thinking long underwear, boots, you get the picture! Brrrr....We looked at the temp earlier today and at the time the current temp was around -9* F. That's cold! We are hopeful that it will not be that cold when we travel.

I guess that is really all our news for now. Check back in about a week as I will post if we get any more news. Please pray for us when you think of it. Thank-you in advance!

Until next time...........

Snow, snow, snow....We have had alot of that white stuff. It's about knee deep all across our yard which makes doing chores a chore! It's so cold that Faith can't even go out and enjoy sledding right now. She has been sledding though.... We live on top of a hill. It's about 1/4 of a mile to the neighbors at the bottom of our hill. Bob got out the runner sled the other day and the 2 of them "flew"down the hill to the neighbors. I guess it was alot of fun going down, but coming back up wasn't enjoyable - atleast for Bob. 8-) I was going to try it out for myself, but it's been to cold. The road's drifted shut so we wouldn't get any traffic...maybe when it gets alittle warmer.

No adoption news. We are just waiting for the call.... Might not be for a month or two, but it could also be tomorrow.

Bob couldn't make it home tonight as our gravel roads where drifted shut. He tried several different roads, but it was no use. So, Faith & I curled up on the couch and had a "girl's movie night". We watched Cinderella. It was enjoyable to get to curl up on the couch with her and enjoy a movie. (Bob doesn't necessarily like "princess" movies)

I just heard on the news our area got about 7inches of snow yesterday. That was on top of the foot of snow we already had. Today it has been blowing around and drifting roads closed.

I guess I don't really have any news. I should be getting to bed. Faith decided since Daddy wasn't going to be home she could sleep with me. She got a flashlight for Christmas and it has become her "must have" to go to sleep with. No, you don't really get much sleep when you are laying in your bed shining the flashlight on the wall. 8-) Thankfully she usually goes to sleep pretty quickly even if she does play around for a few minutes. It's pretty cute to walk by her bedroom and see her sound alseep with the flashlight laying beside her still on.

Hope you have a great day, and stay warm; if it's as cold at your house as it is at ours. (Wind chills around -35 tonight!)

Until next time............

Merry Christmas!

Wow! An entire month and I have not written on here. Where has the time gone? Things have been going well in our neck of the woods. We had a nice Christmas, although we were snowed in for almost 2 days. That is the 2nd time we have been snowed in this month.....what is the rest of the winter going to be like? With any luck we will be able to miss out on some of this Iowa weather. However, if we miss out on Iowa weather we might get to experiance "Asian" weather (which could be about like this). An update on our adoption would be that our documents did pass through the embassy, and on Dec. 7th were sent overseas. So, now we are waiting for "the call". Then we will be traveling to meet the newest little member of our family and finalize our adoption. We don't know when we'll get that call, but it could be any day between now & the next 2 months. We are getting excited and continue to pray that the Lord will provide for the travel expenses that will be coming.....
We are all doing well. Faith has certainly enjoyed the Christmas season. She got a new little flashlight and the battery was dead by the 2nd day! 8-)
Bob is off work for the rest of the year. We are enjoying a nice "Christmas Vacation". He had enough time off to take the last week of the year off from work. (after our crazy year I am not sure how he pulled it off, but it sure is nice!)

I guess that's about all for now. Hopefully it will not be so long before I write on here again. I will be sure to write though should we have any more adoption updates - so be sure to check back!

Hope you had a Merry Christmas! Happy New Year!

Until Next Time........