And the process continues!

YAY! Today at 5:05 p.m. we got a phone call from Sarah at awaa. What did she say? We can continue!!!! They are not requiring us to have the full $5,000.00 for stage one! Yay! This means we can get our paper work started as we work on getting the financing. Which means we won't have to wait and prolong the process! This is great news! What is really funny, was that I sat down around 4:45 and typed out an email trying to further explain our finances etc... and when I was about to hit send I lost Internet connection. I thought hmm...I need to stop and wait and just trust that God has it all under control. Sure enough, 30 minutes later I got the call. God is good!

Holding HIS Hand

My friend Stacy emailed me this verse today. ~For I the Lord your God will hold your right hand, saying to you, "Fear not, I will help you." Isaiah 41:13 It got me thinking....
I have had this picture of God walking with us holding our hands in the same way we hold the hand of our children. We have their best in mind and ask them to trust us to make decisions that are best for them. They trust us to hold their hands. To help them up stairs when they aren't yet strong enough to do it on their own and keep them from falling. In the same way I feel God is asking us to trust Him and hold his hand in this process.
Galatians 4: 4-5, Ephesians 1: 5, Romans 9: 4, Romans 8: 23, John 1: 12 and Romans 8: 15-17 all tell us Christ has adopted us as his sons and daughters. This gives me the picture of holding the hand of our adopted son or daughter, asking them to trust that we will help them....Which we can only do by holding the hand of our heavenly Father. Trusting....

Where do we start?

Not knowing where to start, I guess we will just...well...start. :) Upon suggestion of my cousins and friends we decided to create an adoption blog. This will allow everyone to follow our process without us having to tell the same stories over and over and over again. It also helps us get the word out there about adoption and what we feel God has called us to. We are so excited and scared all at the same time. We have so many thoughts and questions swirling around in our minds as I am sure most adoptive parents do. This will be a place for us to share our feelings and struggles as well as our excitement and joys.
We are currently in a waiting period. It appears we need to have $5,000 in order for the adoption agency to allow us to continue on. So...we wait. We have decided to put our favorite family vehicle...our 05 Ford Freestyle...up for sale in order to make some of that money. We will have to use part of that money to purchase a...cough, cough...minivan....(I swore I'd never own one.) And then the rest should put a good dent in that first $5,000. We are trusting, praying and staying positive in this time. Please pray with us that the money comes so we can continue. God is bigger than a dollar sign!!!
Thanks so much for joining in this journey with us.We hope this blog helps you all keep up with the latest news on our Ethiopian adoption process.