PROGRESS!!!!

We just got an email from the adoption agency. Rick our contact in El Salvador has scheduled a meeting with the Director of ISNA. They will come together to develop a plan to speed up the adoption process for the families waiting. Also, Rick found out the OPA will be meeting very soon, and we are the next on the list to be reviewed. We are petitioning for a Certificate of Approval to be Ideal Parents. We feel like all parties involved are being very proactive, and we are encouraged by the news. If we receive the Certificate of Approval, Rick can begin the process to make a referral. Please pray that this meeting with Rick is productive and takes place soon. We are very excited about this news, and thank you all for hanging in there with us on this journey. We would love to hear from those of you whom God has spoken to. "To Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, to Him be the Glory." Ephesians 3:20a, 21.

YEILDED TO HIS PLAN!!!

Well the good news is we were not declined in the OPS meeting last week; however, there was not an approval granted either. They have not completed reviewing our file so we must wait until the next meeting. When will that be? Who knows, Igor at Homecoming Adoptions said these are bureaucratic delays. God is so in the midst of all this, and we are completely yielded to His plan and timing. We found out today that Homecoming Adoptions is representing 17 other families adopting from El Salvador. We ask you all as you are praying for our family and Maggie that you also lift these other families up to the Lord. As much as we wanted to hear everything was approved and the search for her was beginning, we will not be discouraged by this news. We must press on toward the goal set before us in prayer and praise for what He has already done. God is a work, and we will bring Maggie home to the place God destined her to be when she was being formed in her mother's womb. Please continue to pray for us, acknowledging everything He has done and anticipating everything He will do. Blessings to you all!!!!

IMMIGRATION APPROVED!!!!

We received our Immigration Approval form yesterday!!!! We are having it notarized and mailing it out today. Igor at our agency will forward it to El Salavador. He said today on the phone that the OPS office in El Salvador was supposed to meet real soon and OUR PAPERWORK WAS IN THIS GROUP!!!!! So now we pray that everything was done correctly. Out of this meeting we will either get an approval for the agency to make a referral or we will get notified of something was not done correctly and must be done again. So of course we want the approval; however, the Lord is reminding me even as I write this that HIS PLAN will prevail. Please join us in prayer that HIS WILL be done, and the decision from this meeting will come quickly so we can move on to the next step. WE ARE SO EXCITED!!! We also feel God's favor on us in that we are not having to wait a long time in between the steps of the process. Thank you, thank you , thank you, for joining us in prayer and rejoicing with us. Maggie Mae is truly a very blessed little girl.
"Who is like the Lord our God, the One who sits enthroned on high, who stoops down to look on the heavens and the earth? He raises the poor from the dust and lifts the needy from the ash heap (trash); he seats them with princes with the princes of their people." Psalm 113:5-8. There is no one like Him; therefore, there is no way I could possibly explain all that He is doing in our hearts right now. WE BLESS YOU LORD AND WE ARE DESPERATELY SEEKING YOU!!!!!!

Fingerprinting is Done!!!

We went to Atlanta Thursday to the US Citizenship and Immigration Service, USCIS, for fingerprinting. This is supposed to be the final step in our immigration paperwork to be able to bring Maggie across the border when we travel. We had a great time and made it a date. It's amazing how much you have to catch up on with the person you are married to. Life sometimes gets too busy, and we need to rally in the troops and hunker down with our family. Now we wait again for the fingerprints to get processed and for the USCIS to send us an I-171 form to send to El Salvador. This whole waiting thing is so in tune with what the Lord is revealing to us right now. When you are in a position of waiting, you basically are not in control, you can't do anything to speed up the process, and you have to learn to keep living. It's a picture of what the Lord wants from us, to "Be Still and KNOW that I AM God". We are to JUST BE. He is in control. His timing is PERFECT. I (Patricia) am a doer and am learning what it means to just be. It really is a matter of trusting Him and letting Him live through me. Maggie is more than likely born already, living in the orphanage, or on the side of the road, or in a home where her birthmother is desperately trying to take care of her. God has His hand upon her life right now, and anything He allows into her life He will use for His glory and His purposes. We believe with all our heart that the little girl God wants to entrust to us is the PERFECT chosen one for our family. So what now, join us in praying for her and for those in close contact with her now. We are praying that "the glory of the Lord will be revealed, and all mankind together will see it." Isaiah 40:5

GOD IS MOVING

Everything is officially translated to Spanish and is awaiting approval from OPS (like our DHR). The only document they need is our immigration approval. Yesterday I was miraculously able to contact someone by email in the immigration office in Atlanta and she responded within the hour. WOW!!!! We have an appointment for fingerprinting in Atlanta Thursday September 18th at 9am. She stated that then everything would be complete and a decision would be made. I'm not sure what they are "deciding", but who cares. I got an answer from the government within a hour. God is so AWESOME!!! Time is going by fast too. Tony is back in Auburn for his senior year. Parker is back at Trinity and in middle school, and Sarah-Gracen and Camden are doing well with homeschooling. We are so encouraged by the progress and from what we understand, we are in line for approval in El Salvador. What that means is WHEN OPS approves us they will begin the search to find our daughter. Please continue to pray for God's timing and for the people that are working on this case. We want them to be touched by THE KING through this process also. I am so enjoying having Elsie Hufham to love on and Lydia Lowry to OOO and AHHH over. Sweet friends who have been so blessed by the Lord in the receiving of daughters from Guatemala and China. The power of these families testimony greatly influenced our decision and our prayer is that our journey will influence the lives of those God has placed this call on. WE ARE BLESSED!!!!!

AN ANSWERED PRAYER

We must become less and He must become more.  We are learning that everyday along the journey.  After my trip downtown to DHR, which was a bit frustrating, we got a call two days later from the homestudy agency.  Our approval letter from DHR was sent the the US Immigration office!!!!  Now we wait for that office to assign us a time to go get fingerprinted, and then we can send our last document to El Salvador.

Ever since we began this process we have truly felt like God was going to provide.  How, we didn't really know, but we know He KNOWS.  We have not really talked about finances or asked anyone for help or applied for any grants etc.  God has been so faithful to provide funds through Dexter's job and creative budgeting at home.  Up to this point we have invested about $16,000.  We have $11,000 due to the agency by the end of October, and then we must begin to save for travel which could be $6-7,000 because we have to stay in country for 3 weeks.  All of this we are fully aware of; however, we are not worried or anxious about it because we see all that God has done for us, and He will not bail out on us.  For the past week I have felt the Holy Spirit nudge me to pray more fervently about finances.  My prayer has been something like this, "God how do you want this to be done, what do you want me to do?"  Also during this week my friend Jenni Bass encouraged me to look into the Shaohannah's Hope ministry for financial grants, having heard about it through an interview with the Steven Curtis Chapman family.  This Sunday at church my friend Tammy Griffin felt the Lord leading her to pray for me and the adoption, and she really didn't know why.  The things she prayed for specifically were to guide us through the process, hear some news to help us through the waiting, and for finances.  There it is again.  At this point I really don't know what God is up to, and He hasn't really told me to do anything, so I am just sitting and waiting on Him.  We have  payment due to the agency at the end of August for $5,500. 

Where God has us as a family and in our church is learning to respond to HIM, just say "Yes, Lord".  Yesterday when I got home from work, I received an email from one of the attorneys that oversee our adoption agency.  I have been waiting to hear from him for over 2 months about traveling to El Salvador to see the orphanages and meet the liaIson in country.  The timing of his response was a true answer to prayer.  He emailed us to extend a $5,000 scholarship and possibly some additional help with the remaining $6,000.  WOW!!!  Tammy's prayer on Sunday was miraculously answered within 24 hours.  Thank You Jesus!!!  I cannot express in words the depth of intimacy I have been feeling with the Lord lately.  When things like this occur, it drives me to seek Him more!  He hears our prayers. He knows our needs. He is faithful to complete the work He began in us. Our family is praising Jesus for this miracle, and our prayer is that as you seek HIM, you will acknowledge Him in everything from the smallest miracle to the greatest because ALL THINGS ARE POSSIBLE WITH GOD!!! 

IMMIGRATION PROCESS

We got a call from our Home Study Agency last week in reference to our immigration process.  The home study gets forwarded to DHR who approves it and forwards it to the US Immigration office in Atlanta.  Our home study has been complete, or we thought, since April.  This is the third time the agency has requested items again due to them being "misplaced".  DHR has lost some certified copies of documents that they logged in as received, but now cannot find.  The home study agency has also "misplaced" these items.  We are going to hand deliver them to DHR tomorrow.  When all this transpired last week, Dexter was at youth camp for the week and I was at home with the kids, one of whom dislocated his shoulder and is awaiting surgery.  The week was going great; however, this call requesting the information again made me a little aggravated (I guess part of walking through this journey with us is to see we are not perfect and do not respond always the way we should :):)  I just couldn't believe our home study was not in the immigration office.  Well I've had a few days to stew :):) and I have to admit, I definitely reacted and not responded and the only one that was affected was me.  So why do we do that so often.  Everything is going along smoothly and then the wheels fall off and we act surprised.  My response should have been to "bear with them in love" and to stop and ask God "What are you up to in this?"  Well I have that opportunity tomorrow.  I am going to deliver the paperwork to DHR myself and my prayer is that the love I have for my heavenly Father will overflow into the life of someone in that office.  Nothing happens to us that has not been filtered through the hand of God.  He is looking for responders to HIM not reactors to circumstances.