Officially Waiting!!!!!!!!

Oh it feels SO good to write those words!!  I cannot believe we are finally here.  We got the call from our case worker this afternoon, all of our revisions were perfect and we are now on the WAIT LIST!!! Praise God!  Here are our official numbers for the month of May:

For A Girl:



For a Boy:

These numbers basically give us an idea of when we will get the referral of our sweet baby!  They tell us how many families are in front of us on the list, but each family has different age parameters and some are on more than one list like we are.  There is only 1 list, but it's broken down into boy, girl, and siblings.  Because of that, the numbers seem high, but it works out in the end.  You don't have to be #1 on the list to get a referral, you just have to match the qualifications of the child being referred.  Kind of confusing, I know.  From here on out, we will get new numbers every month, and the plus side to getting numbers on the last day of May is that we'll get new numbers pretty quickly for June!  So the wait is on!! Our agency is preparing families for up to 18 months of a wait, it may not take that long, but it could.  However long it takes, we know that God has ordained it to happen and is making sure we get the right child.  Thanks for journeying and praying with us thus far. 

**Little One,

Mommy and Daddy already love you so much and we can't wait to see your sweet face and have you in our arms! We pray for you all the time.  It might seem like a long time until we get to you, but we're coming and we'll be right on time.  All our love!

Oh Happy Day!!

Today is a happy, happy day in the Coalson house!! No, our FDL did not arrive, BUT....our Dossier is on its way to AGCI RIGHT NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Oh my goodness, we are so excited!! We had our regularly scheduled paperwork call with our case worker last night, and I almost did not answer the phone because we didn't have any big updates to share or any real questions since we were just waiting on that FDL.  But I am SO glad I answered.  T said she had good news if I was curious and shared with us that since the USCIS process has been taking longer than expected, families who have been fingerprinted at this point could go ahead and send in their dossiers, which means US!!!!! Woo hooo!!! Wow, I still can't believe that the day is finally here!  I ran up to the preschool first thing this morning to make the copies we needed and then headed to the shipping store!!  All that hard work is on its way, here's the results of just about 7 months of paperwork:

Yay, yay, yay!!!

If all goes well, and we don't have to re-do any of the paperwork we should be on the list early next week if not by Friday!! God is so good!!

All Quiet

Well, it's been kinda quiet on the blog lately.  Mainly because I have had no exciting updates to post and partly because we've had a whirlwind last couple of weeks; Aaron finishing his classes for the semester, me finishing out my class, and this week is our last week of preschool, with lots of things in between..  We are still here, just waiting on that good ol' FDL!  Our other dossier paperwork has been done for a good 2 months now, sitting on my coffee table waiting for that one little piece of paper.  I have been stalking our mail man for a good 2 weeks now, looking for that letter.  Realistically, I know we could still be waiting a few more weeks for that letter, which is good, because we still need about $400 to send in with our paperwork.  I am not worried about it, I know that God will provide in his timing, as he has so many times already.  Just last week, we made over $100 more on our puzzle when we were featured over at Filled with Praise! (Thanks for featuring us Amy!) So it's coming in, and I know it will be here just in time for that letter.  But that doesn't mean that my heart hasn't wanted that letter to be here, oh at least a month ago.  I so want to get those long awaited numbers and know that we are finally, officially, on our way to our sweet baby!  There is lots of waiting in store, but at least then we'll be progressing each month, not letting month after month slip by of not being on that list.  All in God's timing though, I keep reminding myself.  This does not surprise God, and he planned it this way from the beginning, so awesome to rest in that.  I've got some other posts in the works this week, so I'll try to get back in blogging mode.  Hopefully I'll have exciting news of the letter arriving soon! Happy Monday!

We're Featured!!

  We are so excited to be featured over at Filled with Praise!  Love how they use this as an opportunity to help other families with their fundraising efforts.  So this week while we are being featured we are cranking up our puzzle fundraiser again.  We are about $500 away from having all the money needed for our dossier, which is almost finished!! Just waiting on that FDL!!And we've sold 247 pieces of the puzzle, about half way to our goal!! God continues to provide and we are so thankful.  Check out the post about our puzzle fundraiser here.  Thanks for visiting!!

I didn't realize...

I didn't realize how this adoption journey would affect me.  I didn't realize how hard it would be.  I didn't realize that it would stretch me/us this much.  I never thought we would be almost 7 months in to this process and still be in the paperwork stage.  I didn't realize how attached I would become to a country and to a child that I've never even seen.  But it is so, so good!!  Oh how I wish more people knew this.  This process has accelerated my faith, in a way that might never have happened, had we not set out on this journey.  I have seen God work over and over again, and just blow our expectations out of the water.  I have seen the care he takes in weaving our story to becoming a family perfectly together, along with getting to share with other families on the same journey how their stories are coming together.  It is unlike anything I've ever experienced before.  I have been a ball of tears at church lately during worship.  I've been thinking about why that is, and my husband, offers that it's because I'm understanding the Gospel in a deeper way.  I think he may be right.  This process, through all its ups and downs, has forced me to recognize who is in control, and how deeply he loves me, our family, and this precious child.  That the only way this is happening is through HIM.  That he planned this before the earth was even formed and knew this was what our journey would be.  That he has carefully orchestrated when all this would happen and every detail would fall into place.  That we are doing this now, when it doesn't make sense to anyone else, but we know this is what we are called to.  It is just so beautiful and it brings me to tears.  That we have a God who loves and cares that much. 

The most recent example I have of this is yesterday.  We went in to get our fingerprints done for immigration, and this is the last step of our paperwork process.  We went in three weeks before our scheduled appoitnment, praying they would take us early.  And they did!! We were in and out of that office in less than 20 minutes and everyone was super nice!  We got back in the car and I started thinking about how perfect that was.  If that letter had come on any other day but Monday of this week, we would not have been able to go.  But God planned for it to come Monday, so that we would be able to go yesterday and get them done early.  It is just amazing to think about how all the little details fall into place, and are right now, weaving our story with our child's.  That's the reason for this blog.  So that we can look back and see where we were when things were going on in our child's life. Just so awesome!!! And God gets all the glory.

I've also been reading this AMAZING book!!

I encourage all of you reading this, if you don't read any other book this month, read this one!! I cannot say enough about this book and I'm only about half way through it.  But it's been teaching me about being thankful, and that thankfulness is essential to my salvation(a simple thought, but not one that is discussed alot).  Teaching me to be thankful in the little things, that these are ways that God shows me he loves me.  I can already tell this is changing my perspective during this time of waiting.  We are almost 7 months in and are just about to begin the "real" waiting of this journey.  As much as I want time to move faster and for us to be at the top of that list, I don't want to miss what is going on now, what God is trying to do in my/our life now, while we wait for our child.  I received an email from another adoptive mom who has had her share of ups and downs in the journey, and she posed the question, "do I desire a deeper relationship with my Savior as much as or more than I desire that phone call from a case worker telling us of our child?"  I took that question to heart, and that is what I want for me/us in this journey right now.  I want to savor each little moment along the way, as a way to grow deeper in my relationship with my creator, "to learn how to be grateful and happy, whether hands full or hands empty", and rest in the fact that all of this is in God's hands, while we wait to see that precious face.

 

Exciting Day!!

Today has been an exciting day!! We have finally received our USCIS appointment letter!! I say finally like we've been waiting forever(although it seems like we have and should have been here a while ago) it's been exactly 3 weeks since they recieved our application. **Funny side story, about 10 min after the letters came, our cute, mischevious pup that I introduced a few weeks ago, decided to STEAL the letters off the table and run outside with them!! I just happened to see him in action and was able to chase him down in the backyard or we may have had a disaster on our hands! Almost had a minor heart attack after all my joy,but the letters are safe and sound now and the pup knows he was not on my good side after that escapade. That was not just ANY piece of paper to shred!!**  Our appointment is set for May 25, but we are going to go by the office tomorrow to see if we can go ahead and get our prints done.  We would greatly appreciate your prayers for this!! We have heard that about 90% of the time they are letting families who come early go ahead and get them done, praying we are in that 90%!!  This is our last step, after this, we will just wait on our FDL(letter that says we are approved to adopt an international child) and then send in all of our dossier paperwork, praise the Lord!! So ready for this paperwork to be off my coffee table and we can officially be waiting for our little one!!

Also, I'm excited about our fundraiser this month.  Many of you have probably heard of the 31 Products.  Well, we have had someone graciously offer to have a party for us and give us part of HER commission from all the sales.  How awesome is that??  So if you want to snag a really cute bag, baby item, purse, etc, check out this website.  This is her online catalog, and if you would like to order, please email me and let me know so I can give you the email address you need.  If you are local, and want to order, just let me know and I can get you set up. I also have catalogs you can look at.  For you Bremen and Dallas readers, both my mom and Aaron's mom have catalogs and order forms for you to order, so we can get you in touch with them as well.  We are praying this is going to be an awesome fundraiser!