Home Study

I have a short update this week.

First of all, we had some fun family pictures taken a couple weeks ago! Thanks to our friend for working with us!! The picture above is one of my favorites. :) Maybe I'll add more later or put them on Facebook.

Second is about our Home Study. We met with our social worker on Saturday for our last bit of work to be done and it went really well. She has to finish writing up our report, then the Home Study will get approved by several people and sent out to USCIS, (United States Citizen and Immigration Services). It will also be sent to our Adoption Agency. After USCIS gets our paperwork, we will have to get fingerprints done. Soon after that, we will send our Dossier to the Adoption Agency. The Dossier will have a lot of documents for the Adoption Agency to translate and send to Ecuador. That's when Ecuador will approve our family and officially assign us to "Kayla".

In the meantime, we will be busy this summer with various fundraisers and sending grant applications. We will be having a Yard Sale on June 9th, donations are welcome, and a Car Wash on June 23rd. There is also a really neat company called Delicate Fortress, www.delicatefortress.com, that we will be teaming up with in the end of May for an online fundraiser.

Thanks to all who are keeping up with us and asking how things are going. We are growing in our faith and trust in God each day. All Glory to Him!

Romans 4:20-21
Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised.
(referring to Abraham)

Bittersweet

A lot of the parts of this adoption process are exciting and time consuming. We get one form done and another comes in. We finish one process and move on to the next. We are very excited about getting closer and closer to bringing "Kayla" home. We want it to be as soon as possible, of course. But with "Kayla" coming home, that means we will travel away from our 3 kids. Tim will be gone 2-3 weeks and I will be gone 6-7 weeks. Anytime I think about being gone for that long it just makes me cry.

I have thought about having them come with us. It would be quite expensive and I'm not sure how that will work with school. My guess is that school won't like them being gone that long. Tim thinks it may be good for us to bond with "Kayla" before she meets the rest of the family. I sometimes think that. And sometimes I think it would be good for the kids to see her country and to bond with her for the long stay in Ecuador before we get back home to "reality".

Only God knows what will happen. I have to remind myself that whatever happens, He will take care of us whether we are together or apart.

Surreal

We just received word that our T-shirt fundraiser page is up and running! I put a link on the side. :) Or you can go to www.adoptionbug.com/gale

We heard from our Adoption Agency this week. She said the Social Services in Ecuador wanted to know how things were coming along for us. I don't remember what I posted before, but we are trying to adopt a waiting child. She is 6 years old and her name is Valentina. (We may do a name change). She was in an orphanage for her first 3 years of life and with a foster mom for the past 3 years. They told us that the foster mom just got re-married. Also, that her schooling is paid for until we get there so she can stay in school. Talk about pressure!! We aren't guaranteed a match with Valentina until further down the line, but it's headed that way now. The Social Services in Ecuador would like us to get her asap! I told them we are working as fast as we can! :)

I am praying that the man that the foster mom married is kind to Valentina and that she is being cared for. I am praying for swift paperwork and eventually swift fundraising. I know God's got it all in His hands. When I talked with the agency that is doing our Home Study to see how things are going she said that we have all the papers from previous states that we've lived in back already! She said that is a miracle!! Just need a couple more things.

The Home Study should be done this month sometime. After that we will apply for grants and send paperwork through a bunch of other steps. (that is a technical term haha) It could be that we travel to get Valentina this Fall!

I still can't believe we are doing this. Some days it feels like a dream. Others not so pleasant, but still surreal. We have talked about it SO long. It seems strange to be living out the events.
Thanks for coming with us!!