We Have Arrived!

We arrived safely, on time, and with ALL of our luggage! 

Our hotel. 

The beds are amazingly comfortable (very important when you are exhausted and jet lagged!!) 

and everyone here has been so helpful and kind!

The view from one of our hotel windows

A beautiful old building

A nearby neighborhood 

Our amazing first night dinner!!

It's All Because of Her........

As we sat on the plane Friday, finally on our way to meet Will and Josie, my thoughts kept going to Susanna. Words can't describe how deeply I wish we were coming to meet her. How utterly sad we still are that we won't be bringing her home.

Yet, because of her amazing story of love we are on our way to meet these two sweet children:

We can never underestimate the power of loving. The courage to love, regardless of our circumstances, can really change lives. Even when things don't turn out in our favor, or that way we want them to.

Susanna taught me that. I am forever in her debt. 

We love you sweet girl!

We are happy to announce.......

......that we WILL be bringing home two!

Josie

How I love those big eyes!! 

After losing Susanna we just weren't sure if God would add another little one to our family. But, God has weaved another story and we are so blessed to be a part of it! We spotted her picture a couple of months ago on the website of an agency that advocates for children waiting for a family. It was simply a picture and her diagnosis, which is something called Rubinstein-Taybi. She really captured Keith's heart and that got MY attention because he has never responded to just a picture like that before. So, I asked our agency about finding her and we learned that it really is like looking for a needle in a haystack. Where was her file? Was she still available? Could our foundation in her country find her file, then request it AND actually receive it?? It could be months, if at all. BUT God!! I have an amazing friend who is an adoptive Mama and a warrior for the most fragile and vulnerable. There was a minuscule chance (and while I am not trying to be overly dramatic here it REALLY was minuscule)  that she could help me to find more info on Kristina.......and find it she did!! There had been an inquiry about Kristina two years ago and she was still able to find the information and provide me with the vital pieces that I needed to give our agency a fighting chance to find her.

We found out that she was still available, but getting her file was another matter. So, we waited while our agencies here and in her country worked to get her file. Time passed and we just weren't sure it was going to happen. We considered other children. Prayed. It didn't make sense, but we just didn't feel peace about several children who we previously would have said "yes" to immediately! Maybe it was just supposed to be Will.....we weren't sure. Keith kept asking, "What about HER"? Again, not like him. We waited. I would occasionally look at the one picture we had of her and do a bit of research about her syndrome. We were camping in August and I googled it again. I went to the official Rubinstein -Taybi website and was surprised to see a link at the bottom of the page to Cincinnati Children's......the hospital that was a big part of our decision to move to this area.....and they actually have a center to treat her specific condition! Another confirmation?? 

 Then about three weeks ago the word came, "We have her file!" My heart was racing as I opened the email to see lots of brand new pictures! Videos! Medical info! Beautiful big eyes. Amazingly curly hair. We have had her file reviewed by our local international adoption clinic. Her needs are great but so is God! While she has made small amounts of progress over the past couple of years, it looks like she has damage to her brain that may keep her from ever developing to age level. She is not walking or talking. She has some vision limitations but we don't know what those are yet. She may not even have the syndrome that she was diagnosed as having.....all of that we will figure out when we get her home. What we know is that she is of great value to God......He is redeeming her life and placing her in a family. She has GREAT value! He will see that she becomes all He created her to be! 

It is hard to believe that it has been more than a month since I have written here!  The past month has seemed to speed by and crawl along all at the same time! We continue to grieve over the loss of Susanna, yet we are finding more and more peace and daily are choosing to put our focus on getting Will home!

Today we had our biometric fingerprinting done and that means that all we are waiting on now is approval from US immigration and then our dossier goes to Will's government to await our official referral. Right now his country's government is experiencing some major unrest and upheaval and it has seriously stalled many families in their adoption process. We pray that peace and stability will come and that these sweet children will start getting home!

We have received requests to provide a tax deductible donation option for our fundraising. Tax deductible donations can be made by clicking on the yellow button on the right side of our blog. We are currently unable to get updates from Project Hopeful when donations are made. We are so sorry that we are unable to directly thank people as they donate.....but please know that we are so utterly grateful for every dollar that comes in. We have been humbled by those desiring to help get Will home, both through donations and prayer support! You are the very hands and feet of Jesus and are a very real part of providing for him a real future and giving him hope!

Adoption is such an opportunity for God to refine our hearts. Some days it can be very painful and overwhelming. How the enemy would love for us to believe that it is just too much to enter in to the stories of these hurting children that have been hidden away from the rest of the world. Right now I know that the tactic is to get me to feel hopeless because of the wait that lies ahead. Thinking of our Will as he lays there, missing Susanna, confused, alone. Not knowing how long the governmental delays will be. I fight the desire to question how God can allow it to take SO long. Each day I must choose to rest in truth and to recognize the battle vs. getting swept away in the facade that it doesn't exist. That is such a dangerous place to be.....forgetting that there is an enemy who is actively opposing the redemption of these children. If we forget then the temptation is to give up......to let someone else take care of it.....to deceive ourselves that the doors that we have to fight to open are God's way of telling us to move on. I read this quote a couple of weeks ago on one of my discouraged days. It shook me right out of my focus on self and got it back where it belonged.....how we need to encourage each other to remember this!!!

“When you say YES to adoption, you are saying YES to enter the suffering of the orphan, and that suffering includes WAITING FOR YOU TO GET TO THEM. I promise you, their suffering is worse than yours. We say YES to the tears, YES to the longing, YES to the maddening process, YES to the money, YES to hope, YES to the screaming frustration of it all, YES to going the distance through every unforeseen discouragement and delay. Do not imagine that something outside of “your perfect plan” means you heard God wrong. There is NO perfect adoption. EVERY adoption has snags. We Americans invented the “show me a sign” or “this is a sign” or “this must mean God is closing a door” or “God must not be in this because it is hard,” but all that is garbage. You know what’s hard? Being an orphan. They need us to be champions and heroes for them, fighting like hell to get them home. So we will. We may cry and rage and scream and wail in the process, but get them home we will.”
–Jen Hatmaker

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!