Happy 1st Birthday!!

Today is "N's" first birthday. In a way it is bittersweet. We are thankful the Lord has sustained her life for this first year yet sad that we can't celebrate this special day with her. She probably doesn't even know that it is her special day. When I think about Abbey and Hannah's first birthdays and the HUGE celebrations we had with many friends and family, I am saddened that we can't have that party for her too. Hopefully we will be able to adopt her and this will be the last birthday she celebrates without a family.

In other news, we found out yesterday that we will still get our Show Hope grant after all!!! We are so thankful for the Lord's provision for our adoption! Lets bring this little girl home!! Thanks for praying!

One HUGE step forward, one GIANT step back...

So, we heard back from one of our grant applications today that we cannot be approved for a grant because they only work with non-profits and ALBB is a for-profit!!! What???!!! We had no idea that there was such a thing as a for-profit adoption agency.

What does this mean for us? The $5,000 Show Hope grant we were rewarded will most likely not be able to be used because they only award grants to 501c3 agencies. I called them and the lady I needed to speak to will be out of the office until tomorrow.

We are not switching agencies again. This agency has proven to be very ethical and trustworthy. This just means that instead of the $4,000 we thought we needed to accept the referral, we now need about $8,000 ($9,000 minus a generous donation and some money I got today from selling jewelry)...this is needed ASAP. I'm so tired of talking about/trying to raise money...

Will you please pray that I will not get discouraged?? And that I will trust in God's perfect provision for our adoption?? Also, will you please pray that He will provide this money ASAP so we can move forward in this process to bring our daughter home??

Thanks

Referral Time

We have some exciting news!!!! At about 10 Saturday night, I opened my email and saw the words, "Referral Time" in the subject line!!! We were shocked! Two weeks before we had been told it would be 1-2 months until referral and it was only 2 weeks!! I still feel like it's kinda surreal...we've been in this process for so long and now it feels like we might actually get to finish it :)
So, our referral is for a beautiful little girl who will be a year old on October 11!!! I wish I could post her picture but I can't yet.

Would you pray that The Lord will keep her safe and healthy until we can brig her home? Also that the rest of this process might go quickly? Hopefully 4 months? Average is 4-6 months from now.

Yay!!!!