Our Will

As much as we are grieving Susanna we can't imagine what it is like for our Will. He must be so sad and confused. Deep in sadness over our girl we are also fueled by a desire to get him home as quickly as possible. 

 We are thoroughly looking forward to  meeting our son and getting to know his personality! My heart is heavy at the thought of having to walk into that orphanage knowing that Susanna won't be there, but I am finding an excitement growing in my heart as I think about meeting this handsome boy! God will undoubtedly give us His grace to face what now seems overwhelming.

I sent off our I800a to our home study agency yesterday. That means that it should arrive in Texas in about a week and then we hope to have approval in the next 4-6 weeks. This approval means that we have our government's go ahead to pursue our adoption of Will. Once we have that in our hands our dossier goes to Will's government for their approval. Once we receive THAT we will be scheduled for our first visit. I am hoping that this will happen by September or October. Emphasis on "hoping". 

I have had several people ask us how they can give to our adoption fund. It is an unavoidable truth that international adoption is very expensive. Since we weren't making plans to adopt when Susanna found us we are starting from scratch. We have complete confidence that God will provide all we need and we are working hard on our end to raise the necessary funds. We are using Go Fund Me and there is a button on our blog. It is an easy site to use but it is not tax deductible. We are in the process of signing on with Project Hopeful and will add that button to our blog soon. Donations made to them on our behalf are tax deductible. 

Keith and I have been working for several days....trying to create a video that would express our heart around Susanna's story. I would love to share it with you. During the first couple of days, when in our sadness I wasn't sure how we could move forward, I had several people remind me that Susanna had loved Will and that they were sure it would be her desire for him to come home to us. We agree. We consider our adoption of Will as Susanna's last act of love. What an amazing girl. What an amazing story!

Our Lilly

 Susanna's blond hair and beautiful blue eyes are very atypical of her birth country. 

When I first spoke to the wonderful Nina at our adoption agency she thought that I would be surprised because most of the children born in this country have dark hair and dark brown eyes. But I wasn't surprised.......and the reason it didn't surprise me is  because we've already brought home a blond haired blue eyed beauty from the same country that Susanna was born in! 

Our sweet Lilly Caroline!

Now....hair and eye color don't mean a thing to us! I have given birth to dark haired dark eyed beauties and we have our sweet Noah! 

I just love that God has made our family full of individual and unique personalities and beauty! 

I love how similar Lilly and Susanna look. True sisters. I know that Lilly would have loved Susanna! I know that because Lilly has a heart as big as Texas! She is smiling almost every minute of the day and when we brought Noah home she embraced him with open arms. 

Our Lilly also has spina bifida and she is a marvel! She takes life head on...there is nothing she can't do! She swam like a fish from the moment she took her first swim in a pool. She rides her bike. She loves to help and is always asking what she can do. 

Yesterday we went for our first wheelchair appointment and it was as though she had used one all of her life. She was in and out of doors and turning circles in no time!  I was so proud of her! She has every "reason" in the world to be angry, sad, and miserable. 

But she chooses joy. She is brave, resilient, and one of my heroes. She is teaching me every day that I can choose how I want to face life. She is teaching me to choose joy.

 This is why we will keep going. Why we won't stop sharing Susanna's story. Why we will keep risking our hearts to love the Lilly's and Susanna's. It is SO worth it! 

They are SO worth it!

Death Has Lost.....and Love Has Won!

As we grieve our sweet Susanna I am held up by the truth

 that when my Jesus rose from the dead He defeated the power of death

 FOREVER!! 

While in our sadness we still feel its sting, 

death no longer has the final word!

Susanna is safe with Jesus.

This song has ministered to me in a mighty way over the past few days.

I pray that it does the same for you!