A Week Later...

Last Wednesday I posted about needing a miracle. Well, we still need one, but I'm feeling much more at peace about what's happening with our agency. Today I spoke with our agency contacts again, and I am sending out the application fee in tomorrow's mail. At the very least, we will be saving a couple of hundred dollars by being able to pay their application fee instead of the new agency's application fee. Then, it seems as though we have until our home study is completed and turned in to pay the much larger agency fee. It will be the new agency's fee, which is a bit higher, but at least we have some time to get the funds together. I'm still praying for a miracle, and asking God to bring in all the funds that we need, when we need them. Thanks for all of your encouragement and prayers. They really mean a lot!

Until Sophia is home...

Do You Believe in Miracles?

I just got off the phone with our adoption agency. Well, still not officially our adoption agency since we are lacking the fees to pay their fee and begin the process, but the agency we are planning on using. To make a long story short, they are in transition to become an affiliate of a larger agency, and if we don't have the $5500 to pay their agency fee in the next four weeks, we must begin the process all over again with the new agency and the fees will be more expensive...not a ton more, but every little bit adds on to the final cost of this adoption. Additionally, we are hearing that Taiwan may soon become a Hague country which means we will have the same paperwork issues we were having with China which caused us to choose Taiwan in the first place. If that happens before we are in a program, we will probably not be able to continue the adoption. I'm a bit discouraged, and again I'm wondering if we REALLY should be doing this when we have no money whatsoever at this point towards our agency fee (or the additional $15,000 we'll need after that!) and are struggling along with everyone else to make ends meet financially in this economy anyway. I'd appreciate your thoughts and prayers...what keeps me going is that I DO believe in miracles, and if God wanted to, He could plop all of the money we need in our laps today. Will He choose to do that? Probably not, but you never know!

Please pray for wisdom and patience...thanks!

Finally Moving Along

After many months of not moving, we are finally picking up speed on our adoption process! Today I forwarded our preliminary application and a draft of our home study to our adoption agency. There are many changes coming to our agency, and since we are in transition, they are trying to figure out how to best nudge us in to the process amidst the changes. Only a few minor corrections need to be made to our home study to get it up to par for Taiwan, so that's wonderful news. We are also looking into getting a date to go to Philly to get fingerprinted for our immigration paperwork, which is another big step. Please continue to pray for the funds to come in, as now that we are picking up speed, money will be needed more urgently! I'm excited to see how the Lord continues to provide, IN HIS TIME!

Moving forward toward Sophia...

Two Great Meetings!

Our little "committee" meeting on 2/3 went really well...I'm so grateful for my friends who are pitching in to help us with our garage/bake sale in April! Thanks, guys! Then, yesterday, 2/7, we had a wonderful visit with Stephanie Carpenter, our adoption agency's Taiwan Program Director, and her family here at our house. Although Stephanie works for our agency which is located in Kansas, she "telecommutes" right here from Lebanon County, PA...how cool is that! We really enjoyed getting to know Stephanie and her husband and her two daughters...the youngest of whom was adopted from Taiwan in 2007 from the same orphanage we will be going through. Stephanie and her husband had a lot of great fundraising ideas for us based on their experiences, and they are even putting together a spaghetti supper fundraiser to help us and a couple of other families raise funds for our adoptions. There are some changes afoot in our adoption agency, but I think they will be to our benefit in the long run. When I hear more, I'll post more about that. But for now, I'm just very thankful for two great meetings and the encouragement to "keep on keeping on".

...Until Sophia is home!

First Committee Meeting

This morning I am so excited to be attending my first "committee" meeting with my dear friends who are helping me out with our garage and bake sale in April. I am so thankful for Nicole, Louise, and Lori, who are selflessly jumping in to help us raise money to bring Sophia home. And so many people at church are donating items to help us out, too. Sophia is loved by so many already...I can't wait to bring her home! Who knows how many more people might also be touched to meet the needs of the orphans of this world in some way through this as well...

...until Sophia is home!