Submitted to Court!!!

Praise God! This morning we found out that we have FINALLY been submitted to the court in ET!! YES!! I may have jumped around and did a happy dance when I got that email! So- we now wait some more to hear that a preliminary hearing has been set up(this will not be the date that we travel), and after everything has cleared that hearing- we should hear sometime that week about OUR court date- which is when we will get to travel and go meet our baby girl! Ahhh! It's finally happening! We could be just weeks away from holding our girl!! So excited! Please continue to pray that things go smoothly and quickly from here on out.  We are in the countdown to courts closing now and we need to get there before they do!  Our case is completely in the hands of the court now- there is nothing the agency or us can do at this point.  But God is good and has gotten us this far and we are continuing to trust Him!

So- as I have mentioned before- because we switched agencies, we are in need of more funds.  And this is where the Give1Save1 fundraiser comes into play that I mentioned last week! We are going to be the featured family on their blog the week of July 1!  Aaron and I have a video that we made specifically for this and we can't wait to share it with you- so mark your calendar for July 1 and come back and check it out! We will need your help in sharing it with as many people as possible so we can cover more ground and raise some money to bring our girl home!! We have until our court date to raise the rest of the money we need- which should only be a month or so away, so that week is going to be crucial! Facebook it, blog it, tweet it, email it- whatever! We can't do this without your help and we can't wait to see what God is going to do through this.  He has continually provided everything we need and we are going to be covering that week in prayer. Don't worry, I'll remind you again before it gets here and many times that week :)  Thanks so much for the prayers!

Keep Praying!

Well friends, no news yet on court submission, but as of this morning I think we are very very close!! We were asked for a document that they don't need unless they are close to submission! And hopefully we will have an update on that missing piece soon as well! I am so ready to hear that we have been submitted.  I am so ready to hold my daughter.  Right after we found out what was holding us up last week, we were told about another change in the process of ET adoptions.  All of the details of this are not ironed out yet, and I'm pretty sure they will not apply to our case, so I'm not going to put them out there yet.  But let's just say last week wasn't pretty.  I had a moment.  A minor meltdown.  We are about to hit 11 weeks since we saw our baby girl's face.  11 weeks.  And it's been hard.  We have gotten so many pictures and video, for which we are so thankful! But it also means we are seeing our girl in an environment where she is not thriving. And the thoughts of waiting 5 more months to hold her and tell her how much we love her were just a little too much for me to take last week, so there were tears.  Don't get me wrong, she is being taken care of and the nannies are so awesome, but they are not a family, and our girl needs a family. I can't wait to see her little personality come out once she gets home! So many of you have been praying expectantly with us and God has answered those prayers in little ways that have encouraged my heart over the last few days.  It's like he's giving me a little each day to keep me going, and for me to keep believing that he's got this.  And I do believe it.  I am praying expectantly each day and I believe he is hearing our prayers for our girl to come home.  For us to be submitted and be able to travel before courts close.  It may take a miracle- but my God is a God of miracles, and I am trusting in Him.  He gives us exactly what we need for today- more of himself, and He is enough!

*I will update on the Give1Save1 fundraiser soon- our date has been pushed back a little bit so I will post more about it closer to that date!

Prayer Request!

Hi everyone,

We got a little update on our case this morning.  It seems that we are missing one tiny bit of information, and the person who can fix it is out of work for training and his return date is unknown.  Major bummer :(  This is all that is standing between us and getting submitted to court.  So, would you all please pray that this issue would be resolved soon?!! We are still praying that we can make it to court before they close in the next few months.  Our hearts are longing to meet our girl! She got our care package last week and finally got to see our faces! It is so surreal that she is now holding things that we sent her!  We also got some video from the friend that I mentioned was traveling, such a precious gift! But our girl needs to be home! Thank you for praying with us, it means so much to have friends all over praying our girl home! I'll leave you with a picture- she's holding the pictures we sent her, my heart!! Can't wait to show you her sweet face!

Give1Save1/Pure Charity

Alright friends, I have a little something I want to share with you, and I hope you think it's as awesome as I do!  I want to tell you about a little project called Give1Save1-Africa.  This project is so great!  It's a blog started by several women who have a heart for helping families bring their children home through adoption- and I love it!  As most of you who have been reading this blog for a while and know our story know- adoption is expensive, it's hard, and it's long!! And just when you think you've got everything figured out- God shows you His plans, that are so much better than anything you could have dreamed up.  And that is exactly what happend on our journey to our sweet Ryah! So here is what their blog says about what Give1Save1 is:

                                                                          

GIVE 1

Every Monday I’m going to ask you for a dollar. I’m going to tell you who it’s going to and what it’s being used for. We’re mostly funding adoption for the people, by the people. We’re just going to rain down a crazy blessing on a family, organization, orphanage, or project and we’re going to do it every week. We’re going to get huge. And the world will be changed for lots of people because of your generosity. That sounds exciting, doesn’t it?! Let’s do it.

I’ll tell you who we’re sponsoring and where to send your dollar. Then once you’ve donated your dollar spread the word to get some more dollars in here. If you have a voice, an email account, a blog, a facebook page, a twitter account or a pinboard USE IT! The only way we can make a big difference is to make it viral!

SAVE 1

And your dollar will be saving and restoring lives in all kinds of ways. Removing a child from an orphanage gives that child a family and a future, something everyone needs. It also frees up a bed in an orphanage for another orphan. Your dollar will change lives and save lives in ways you may never know.

So, every week they feature a new family's video in an effort to help them raise money for their adoption, and the goal is to get the video to go viral and have tons of people donate.  All they ask is that if you watch the video-you donate a dollar and share it with someone else so they can donate, and most people will give more than a dollar, but one dollar is all they ask.  We can all spare a dollar to help those in need!  One dollar can change a life- it's that simple! What an awesome and easy way we can all be involved in God's command to care for orphans.  I have seen several families have their fundraising efforts funded through this blog and I just think it's an awesome blessing!

Now, in the last month, Give1Save1 has also teamed up with Pure Charity to do their fundraising.  Pure Charity is an awesome organization that allows families a tax deductible way to give to projects that they would like to support.  You can shop pretty much anywhere you normally would online and get a percentage of that money back in your giving fund to go towards whatever project you choose, and there are so many amazing projects to choose from!  It's pretty awesome and we will definitely be taking advantage of this great opportunity! Check out this video:

Rewards Network Promo from Pure Charity on Vimeo.

Also check out this post to see an adoption friend of mine explain how this works with adoption fundraisers!

Now, if you've made it to the end of this post, you may have guessed that this was the opportunity I hinted about in my last update post.  And you can see that I think all this is awesome-from the obnoxious amount of times I've used that word in this post :)  Keep checking the blog this week for further updates, and you may just see some familiar faces on these sites soon! And please head over to Give1Save1 today to check out this week's family!