Cassie Update.

Got an email from Jilma this morning. Our attorney in DRC has gotten the last documents in order to get her out of the orphanage! She should be in Pastor Loma's care soon! yea!!!!!! What a blessing and wonderful way to end this week.

First Day Back To School

Cade made it to school-1st day of 3rd grade. He was pretty excited. You'll notice in the pictures that Cade chopped his hair off. He wanted it spikey again. Broke my heart but I'll like it when it grows a tiny bit more. Jenna also wanted her picture taken, in one she basically ran into the shot while I was trying to take Cade's picture.

I got our I-600a application sent off to USCIS today. I paid to have it overnighted. So we are truly just waiting now. The next thing is for USCIS to send our fingerprint appointments and I'm praying that moves along quickly.

Still waiting on a picture of Cassie. Once the paperwork is gather on her, I believe they will start court proceedings. All of our paperwork is in DRC since the first baby.

We got Cade signed up for flag football this season and he is VERY excited about that. He wasn't upset about not playing tackle football at all, so that was a blessing for me.

I will post pictures of Cassie as soon as I get them, but I don't have any idea when that might be!

The wait begins again....

Yesterday, we found out the sweet baby girl we were referred was in actuality not adoptable. While yesterday was filled with sadness, today is a new day. Thank God for Jilma and the people who work to find these children homes in the DRC. Upon research they did indeed find the birth mother alive. I'd like to leave it at that. There's truly not much else and we don't blame anyone. We are actually thankful that research is done. I was not totally grief-stricken at this point. No pictures, no history, nothing. Just the idea of her growing in my heart so a little piece of my heart was broken yesterday. I feel if we had been farther into this adoption and found out, I would have been devastated beyond belief. I do not feel like I've suffered a miscarriage nor do I feel overly depressed. I knew deep in my heart all was not right because it was taking much too long to find out information on this sweet baby. I've asked God to help me and He really has. Today was a new day and I'm looking forward to our Cassie whom He has already chosen and we will meet in His time. Please keep her in your prayers.

One step closer...

Got home today and in the mail was our clearance on the CPS central registry. Yea!!! That's one of the documents we were waiting on from Austin. Now we just need the fingerprint clearance which is what I overnighted yesterday.

It's really different this time because we have a referral in hand and at the end of the process, we get to head to Africa. No waiting for a referral. So each step completed is VERY exciting! I'm just ready to get our I-600A sent off to the USCIS. Then we just wait in eager anticipation for our government to approve us to adopt another child.

Jenna is still doing great in her "big girl bed" so that rite of passage is complete. She hasn't had a potty accident at daycare in days and Ms. R. even kept her in her panties at nap today.

That's all of my news! But isn't it great????

Blessings from above!

Our second option for financing went through so we have the bulk of the money for our adoption. The rest will come out of our paychecks-ouch. :) That was a huge worry for us and God totally took care of it, as He does everything.

Jilma called last night with some great news. Pastor Loma and his wife (who took care of Haven until Brian could get there) have offered to take care of Cassie! THANK YOU GOD!!! She will NOT have to go to the orphanage. They will also be taking care of a sibling group until their family can get there. You can follow their blog http://ourstoribook.blogspot.com/ . We are hoping to connect with a missionary family who lives over there and send them money to buy formula for Cassie and any other things she might need until I can get there. Jilma was going to get me their information. We're so excited she won't have to go to the orphanage. It's just so poor and there's no guarantee how often she would get formula. The older children take care of the younger children. This way I know Cassie will be getting good care, being held and loved on. What a blessing!

Still pray for a speedy return on the paperwork and Cassie's test results! I'm so anxious to see a picture of her! I can't wait!!! Here's another family to follow also:
http://terryhousehold.blogspot.com/ I just linked up with their website!

At the spray garden yesterday

Weiney dog cake I made for a surprise party yesterday

A little more adoption news

I went to kids church camp on Thursday and just got back yesterday afternoon. Our social worker, Bernadette, was there interviewing Jeff and then on to Cade and me.

Rewind a few days: Wednesday, the day after our referral call, I literally put our dossier together for the DRC. I was leaving early Thursday so this had to be done. This is a different kind of stress than waiting for Jenna those years. We have a referral in hand but no paperwork, completely backwards! I called Bernadette to let her know the good news and she offered to come this Sunday to complete our homestudy in an effort to help speed things up-Jeff and I were astounded and so excited.

We got an email from Jilma Thursday night that our dossier was now in the DRC and just waiting on the homestudy-talk about fast! She asked the attorney in the Congo to proceed with the adoption once favorable test results came back on Cassie-so please be in prayer for that! We have officially named her "Cassie" and sent it to Jilma for the adoption courts. I'm waiting to see if her mother had named her with a Congolese name and that will be her middle name. I'm not sure if and when we'll find that out.

We need serious prayers for some paperwork that is in Austin-this is our State fingerprint clearance and our child abuse clearance-just that we get those back this week-would be awesome, but very soon will work also!

I will blog about Church camp later this week-it was awesome and deserves it's on blog entry!!
Please be in prayer for little Cassie. To lose her mother, left in a hospital with various caregivers, then to be transferred to the orphanage-so many traumas in her short little life.