God provides a place!

What a great bit of news I got today! This has nothing to do with our adoption, yet it has everything to do with trusting God in our adoption. Next week, Diester has vacation. We were planning to head up to Wisconsin and leave the girls with their grandma, just the two of them, to spend some time with her. Didn't have the money to fly them up there, and so we are driving them up there. And then there is the delimma of what to do with ourselves while they are at their grandma's. Don't get me wrong, Diester and I have wonderful ideas of things we can do that we will enjoy doing together, however, we are very limited on our funds at this time as we have just put out quite a bit towards the adoption. Our original plan was to stay on one of the Apostle Islands in Northern Wi camping until we found out that to get to an island by ferry can cost anywhere from $150 (would we be rowing?) upwards to $500. So that was out of the question with our budget. So, we contacted some friends with time shares~~nothing. Then I (Michelle) got creative. Last Tuesday evening, I decided to contact a homeschooling (hs) family up in that area of Wisconsin where we were hoping to stay (mind you I did not know any hs families up there) and ask them if they could network and see if they could find a place that Diester and I could stay at a minimal price. Well, I contacted a regional hs family and was referred to a contact that would be closer to the Bayfield area we were looking to stay near. I then proceeded to contact this 2nd family and asked her this totally bizarre question of whether she would be willing to network to find a possible place for us to stay. We talked for over an hour, and ended up sharing how God has blessed us through the Beth Moore bible studies, how her son did mission work in Ky last year and was blessed with free tickets to the Creation Museum (which was the highlight of their trip), and how we were starting the process to adopt, the list goes on. She was a joy to talk with~~we were both encouraged by the conversation and sharing. She told me she would work on a possible place for us to stay while there, and said if I didn't hear back from her, to please call her back. So, I called her back this afternoon. Here is the deal. Her and her husband own a cabin up there. (I had no idea.) She had prayed to God the night before I called, and asked him to show her how their cabin could be a blessing to others. (Is that God or what?) She just wanted to talk with her husband after I called to make sure he would be okay with offering it to us. They had plans to go there Friday evening for the Labor Day weekend, but we would be out before that. So, when I called her back, she offered us their cabin. PRAISE GOD! TO GOD BE THE GLORY! He likes to give us the delights of our heart when we are his. The cost? FREE! You can only imagine how blessed we feel we are. And it seems like a sign from God that He is going to take care of us through this adoption process. Words cannot express how thankful we are to God! If you read this post, can you please pray for a blessed vacation for us? I can only believe that it will be good! Thanks so much!

SLOOOOOOOOWLY! Some things are happenin'

Well, I sit here on a Sunday afternoon, and am thinking this would be a good time to update our blog a bit. Nothing earth shattering, but here is where we stand at the moment. We are now in a legal binding with the adoption agency. God supplied the money that we needed to get together for this initial purpose, and we sent it off with all of the initial forms signed on the 8th or so. So, we officially have an adoption agency. YEAH! ! ! Things have been moving slowly, and for those of you that know me, I don't like being idle much unless I am sleeping. :-) So, I asked if we could get started on our home study, and we sent the paperwork for the home study off on the 8th or 9th as well. We got a call from our social worker for our home study. We set up a date to start the process on the 29th of this month. There are also some forms we are needing to retrieve for that; and she will ask us some questions when we meet. We are looking forward to that. Then last Thursday, we got our first call from the case worker with CWA (Christian World Adoption), the adoption agency we are using. That was nice to hear from her. There was a lot discussed in that one hour time frame. She did express some concern about us being able to easily get boys at the age we are looking for (2 1/2- 3 1/2 years of age) in the region she had considered. She said it could take 8 months to a year from the time we get all of our paperwork submitted to Russia. So, back to the drawing board as far as the region goes. We were also told that because the Russian gov't is really working hard, and making it lucrative to get orphaned children in foster homes in Russia, the children available are decreasing. That can be a good thing for the orphans, as the families may fall in love with them, and choose to adopt them. It could be a bad thing if the people are just doing it for the money. If you think about it, please say a prayer for all of those little children. There are many things to consider when adopting. We have really had to seek God's face along the way, and God is showing us that there are going to be times when we will have to wait on Him. He wants us to ask, and then we need to wait. Sometimes the answer will come fast, and sometimes slooooooowly. Waiting is something that I (Michelle) don't easily grasp, or do very well. Also, it seems like we have to be committed to this adoption once we commit. It all makes sense, doesn't it. But, what we are really called to be committed to our relationship with Christ. Lord, please help us to stay committed to you.