I'm excited to be posting again. 
So much has happened in the last month! 
We sent our dossier to our faraway land - a little earlier than we were expecting.  My parents were blessed with "time on their hands" and volunteered to take our dossier to be apostilled in Topeka.  This was wonderful because then we didn't have to relinquish all of our most important papers to the mail system. 
When they returned with all the documents, our facilitator suggested that we overnight them to another family traveling that weekend to this faraway land.  Can I tell you that I was really anxious about this step.  This is really real. To send all of the paperwork.  That's the final step that is in our "control." Now we are preparing to settle in and wait...and wait...and wait.
So, our documents are there.  Being reviewed by our facilitation team on the country side and then on to that government. 
Reece's Rainbows has such a great system in place.  The team in the US has seen all of our documents and we've been able to make quick changes that will speed the process along on the other country's side.  They have such an efficient method.  Their goal being to quickly and safely get orphans to their families.

We have recently heard that the process may be longer than it has been - this country has become known as a "fast" country to adopt from...however, as the spiritual war continues for the hearts and lives of orphans, a new little "hiccup" may cause dire complications for this countries most needy...for us, it means that possibly we won't travel as soon as we thought.  But we don't really know.  We will wait.

I just got a facebook update on a child that I haven't been able to forget.  This child had been adopted and died within hours of arriving home with his forever family.  Some may think - "why even bother if they're that sick."  Others may wonder if the "trauma" of travel was "good for this one."  I have rolled this very topic over in my head many times - ever since I worked with medically fragile and terminally ill babies several years ago.  Why?  And the answer is that Father God has made it so.  He sees purpose in each little life.  And He sees the deepest heart-needs of the dying child.  He knew that for that little child who died upon arriving home, he needed to be held in the arms of a forever love.  Possibly, through the support raising of this family, others will be adopted - awareness raised.  His life was not lived or lost in vain. 
This is not an isolated case.  It's not pretty either.

Within our family, we just celebrated a really good Father's Day.  We had 28 people over to our house for BBQ.  It was really fun!  Our kids wanted to create their own sprinkler park so we pulled out the beach ball sprinkler, slip and slide and in-ground sprinkler system and had fun!  Eventually, the kids got tired of running and landing on the slip and slide so they got a Little Tykes slide out and slid down that, giving just the right amount of momentum to get a really good ride.  Ingenious, what a little laziness will create.  :)

Since we now have evenings free of paperwork and corrections, we have been working on getting our two oldest kids rooms painted and decorated in the basement.  Up until now they have both shared a room upstairs but Isaiah assures us he's too old for that and doesn't want anything "girlish" in his space.  Annie is more reserved in her excitement - that's typical of her personality - but she's chosen pink and purple for the colors and it's beautiful.  We will have our new little boy in the room across the hall from us as we get to know him better and he learns what it means to have a mom and dad available to meet your needs and calm your fears.  That's a new concept to an orphan and has to be learned like everything else.   It has taken Isaiah and Annie several years to feel that it's ok not to handle things like illness and fear on their own.  New Brother's independence will be that much more established. 

Our adoption support with Reece's has jumped a considerable amount recently - thank you to whomever responded to our need.  Our next big bunch of money to transfer across the ocean is 8500 to cover country fees such as lodging and transportation when we are in this country. 

Our homeschool support group has been baking and planning for a lemonade stand and bake sale to raise money for our adoption.  We will be at Main Street Mania this Friday and Saturday 9am-3pm each day.  Come and check it out!  It will be set up in front of Faith and Life Bookstore - they have been so generous with the use of their facility.  I'm so excited about this! 

There continues to be many unknowns.  More than I'm typically comfortable with.  I recently purchased a verse picture that has the verse from Psalm 16:5-6 ... "Lord, You have assigned me my portion and my cup; You have made my lot secure.  The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; surely I have a delightful inheritance."  I feel that this is God's promise to me right now.  He has assigned me my "task" and has made the boundary lines pleasant.  I don't know what we will encounter but I know this promise and it's what I have to hold onto.

Well, there's our little night owl (Eva) howling at my side now...it's 11:42pm...so I will be done for now but will try my best to update you after this lemonade and bake sale stand this weekend.  Stop by if you can!