HOPE YOU ALL HAVE A WONDERFUL CHRISTMAS!

We're having such a fun and busy Christmas and I hope you all are too! I don't at all want to put a damper on all of the Christmas fun, shopping and celebration, because that is such a special part of the holiday! This video I am posting is not to make us feel bad, but I just thought is was so poignant and really has made me think about the true meaning of the holiday and to also rethink my spending!

My sister in law, Susanna, works as a writer for Living Water International, (click on post title above to go to their website) , which is a ministry that builds wells for fresh water for people in need world wide! Watch this video, it will change they way you think about Christmas shopping. Every year, I am striving to spend a little less on indulging ourselves in many gifts. I'm still working on it and getting better, but still find myself overspending, ugh! I hope I can continue to improve in my choices and keep giving to those in need! Please take 2 minutes to watch this video-(sorry- you'll have to first scroll down to the bottom of this page and pause my blog music, then begin the video to hear the audio!)

GETTING READY FOR CHRISTMAS!

I love Christmas and preparing for the season! Here are some fun pics. This is our house all festive, okay it doesn't snow in Florida- but oh well!

Joshua is having fun decorating the tree! It was quite warm that evening!

He's a cutie in his Santa Hat!

Jacob and I on the night of our yearly Christmas party- One of my favorite traditions!

Our tree. Jacob spends a lot of time putting on a gazillion lights!

Here is some of the food I prepared for the party.

Christina's Dance studio performs in Celebration where it "snows" every night during the Holiday Season. She is doing a Ballet number.

She is a beautiful dancer.

Christina and her best friend, Alexis. They are growing up so fast! (and no they don't wear this much make-up in real life - only for performances!)

This is Joshua and Matthew playing in the "snow" at Celebration, Fl. It is so warm this night that the "snow" suds are even melting as soon as they hit the ground!

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND MANY BLESSINGS!

I AM A GUARDIAN AD LITEM. WHAT IS A GUARDIAN AD LITEM?

Exactly what is a Guardian Ad Litem (GAL)? Throughout my life, I have wanted to do something to help children in need. I knew, if I just looked around, there was something I could do close to home. Having attempted to adopt from foster care years ago, and finding that the sweet tiny girl we wanted (only 6 years old mind you) was so badly abused that she could not be placed in a home with siblings, I was shockingly introduced to the world of abused children. It was a world more common than I had realized. WHO would touch a child with intention of harm like that? Don't people know how innocent they are? When you see your own child get a genuine fear come over them, perhaps about a stranger, or a situation where they feel lost, you can see their helplessness and sensitivity. What parent would intentionally harm them or ALLOW or worse yet ENCOURAGE someone in their home harm them in ways that would make ours hearts sick? When the child completely and utterly depends on that parent to protect them? It's almost too much to bear and I know many people who say to me, "Don't tell me about it, I don't want to know." Well, we HAVE TO know, because it is happening all around us. The children cannot protect themselves.

Last year I became a volunteer Guardian Ad Litem. A GAL is a person who advocates for the rights of abused and neglected children in the foster care system. I did 30 hours of training, and pretty much had my first case given to me immediately. I learn most as I go along! I am now on my 3rd case of a sibling group. I visit them a couple times a month. Talk with them, visit their school, observe situations, homes, care-takers and watch for signs of problems. Make sure they are getting the care and protection they need. I attend court with them when needed. It sounds like a lot, but I really only spend a few hours a week working on my case. I promise you, anyone can do this. The reward is establishing a relationship with these broken children. They love for me to visit! They talk and enjoy the attention. I still keep in touch with my first case regularly, even though he is in another county now.

I never thought I would be driving around through the back roads of my county visiting old shambled trailers and finding little sad children inside. Or perhaps a child readjusting in a big beautiful foster home. Or a child trying to find his place in a group home. All of the families welcome me, no matter what has happened. They know I am there for the child's best interest. If you are interested in being a volunteer in your immediate community, consider being a GAL. The program supervisors will work with you and only give you what you can handle. Even if it is just one child who you have to visit occasionally. Or as many as you want, because there are THOUSANDS in your county. It is so rewarding and they need us!

Matthew 25:40

"The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.'

OFFICIALLY ON THE WAITING LIST FOR TAIWAN! THAT DEFINITELY MAKES A HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

BEAUTIFUL TAIWAN ABOVE AND HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

We received an email today from our agency telling us that Taiwan has received our dossier and we are officially on the waiting list for referrals! How exciting! You know what else is interesting? Exactly 1 year ago today on Nov. 25th, I had an extremely prominent dream one night of a little Asian girl waiting for me. That is what began our journey of an international adoption of a little girl from Asia. (you can read about that dream on my very first post). Prior to this dream, I had often thought we might adopt some day (in fact I had attempted to adopt a little girl from foster care years ago, but it turned out she was not able to be placed into a home with younger siblings.) I hadn't thought of an international adoption until I had this dream. Ever since then, I have pursued it diligently. And today, one year later exactly we received our notice of officially on the list. We also received our I -171H - USCIS immigration approval to go ahead and pursue an orphan adoption. Jacob and I were very excited! That certainly is something to give thanks about! HAPPY THANKSGIVING TO YOU ALL!

Hebrews 10:36

You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised.

1 Chronicles 16:34

Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his love endures forever.

FED-EX TO TAIWAN!

After a couple of last minute details and our agency's paperwork approvals, our dossier has been officially sent to Taiwan today! It is a relief to get this first half completely finished. It was nine months ago that we had put in our application for a Thailand adoption which after a couple of months fell through due to that agency closing that program. Since then, we had found a wonderful Taiwan program and in 4 months completed our home study and our stage one dossier. I guess once Taiwan receives the dossier and approves it, we will officially be put on the waiting list. And then the loooong wait begins. We've got plenty of work to do during this waiting period to save up funds for the next payment due at the time of referral. We also hope to learn some Mandarin Chinese during this time, especially if we receive a 2-3 year old who we'll need to communicate with somehow! I can speak Spanish enough to carry a simple conversation and have studied Portuguese a bit too, so I am good with languages that have a Latin root. But this is going to be a whole different ball game and I have no idea if I will accomplish anything that will really work when the time comes!!! Well we've got plenty of time to work on it, that's for sure.

ANOTHER STEP CLOSER!

Last week, Jacob and I had our fingerprinting appointments that were set up by the Department of Homeland Security at the immigration offices in Tampa. So we will await the approval of our USCIS paperwork in the next month or two. We received our completed and approved home study! We have everything ready in our dossier to mail to the agency tomorrow! Thanks to a kind and very helpful gift from Jacob's mom, we can send that paperwork off and our next fees payment a couple of weeks earlier than I was imagining. That will get our dossier off to Taiwan soon and then we will be on the waiting list for our little sweetie! Wow, to get that dossier sent to Taiwan and to be officially waiting will be a huge step in our process!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

We had a great Halloween! Christina went as a baby doll, Matthew was The Joker, and Joshua was Spiderman. We have a wonderful, grandma-like babysitter, Jean, who lives in a small retirement community near us. She invited us over at 5 pm for Halloween dinner at their clubhouse. We had all kinds of wonderful home cooked hot dishes to choose from and baked goods. Of course all of the retirees oohed and aahed over the kids! After that, we came home and went trick-or-treating in the evening. Although not a lot of homes were participating this year (I guess a lot of people like to go to gatherings now), the kids still got PLENTY of candy! Did I mention it is so hot here in Florida still? 90's, Yuck! We were sweating all the way around the neighborhood! We need some REAL fall weather! Oh well, it was fun.

JUMPIN' FOR JOY!

I thought this picture of Christina "jumpin' for joy" was a fitting feeling. So happy to say that we've completed our home study paperwork and sent it off to our social worker a couple of days ago! Now we wait for the home study approval, finish our step 1 dossier compilation and we will be ready to submit our dossier to Taiwan! I think we'll be ready to do that in the next 3 weeks or so. On an earlier post, I did say that maybe I was dreaming when hoping to have our dossier ready to submit in 2 months, but I wasn't too far off. It will be just a couple weeks longer... I think. I work only part time, (guaranteed 2 days per week), but God has been blessing me with an extra day (or sometimes two) of work every week that I can put directly into our adoption account. So it will be such a relief to get this first major chunk accomplished! Just keep at it steadily. Then we will enter the waiting period.....

Proverbs 21:5 Good plans and hard work lead to prosperity, but hasty shortcuts lead to poverty.

MAKING BLOGGING FRIENDS! (visiting with the Dijkstra family)

Something that has been such a delight for me is having the opportunity to follow along with other bloggers who have something in common with us. It is such an encouragement to take the journey with other adoptive families. When I am feeling discouraged, all I have to do is look at some of the wonderful postings and pictures from their stories, and it makes me say, "Hey! We can accomplish this!" All of your blogs are in various stages of the adoption process - some just beginning, some several years past just enjoying their families. It is a joy to see the kids and families grow together. One of my favorite blogs, (and obviously a favorite of many people as she has quite a few followers!) is "Funky Doodle Donkey". I started following Mireille's blog early this year. Her unbelievably awesome photos keep me coming back every week! When you see them, you are going to say what I said..."I want to come and live at your house and go where you go!!!". Although Mireille and her family live in South Africa, we had the wonderful opportunity to get together when she and her family were visiting Florida. My family had the pleasure of meeting Mireille, her husband Dirk, and her two darling daughters, Jasmine and Juliet for a visit back in July. We had a great time and made a new friendship. What fun! (click on my title to visit her blog!)

BUSY YET FUN FALL FOR US!

I have been using this blog mainly as an opportunity to follow along with our adoption and to advocate for children.  But I may as well start adding more about our family and what is going on around here in our busy lives!   Pretty soon we will be waiting for a referral and that could last a long time!  Then what am I going to write about every week?   I'm sure I will have some interesting cause or discussion, but I think it will be fun to personalize our blog a little.  So today, I am posting a few pics from our past couple of months.  Christina is marching in her High School marching band her first year!  Matthew is playing peewee football and is making some awesome tackles!  And Joshua turns 4 tomorrow!  They make me so happy and I love to watch them grow and learn.  

CHIPPING AWAY!

  Jacob and I are moving along quickly completing our paperwork!  We drove to our county sheriff's office last week and got our local backgrounds checks and notarized.  So our federal, state and local- done!  We sent off our USCIS application I600 A, US immigration application.  We completed all 5 required online parenting classes, sent off for our notarized employment verification, completed our orphanage application, and will be getting our doctor's letters tomorrow.  There are many more forms we've accomplished, but I can't think of them all right now!  A fun thing we are working on is a family photo album that the birth mother and/or orphanage can view to help match us with a child.  It will be so awesome to get our paperwork completed and our dossier submitted.  I think we may be able to do this in the next 3-4 weeks!

Home Study visits!

We completed our 2 home study visits yesterday!  After getting the house organized and being a little nervous for our home study visits, we came to find it was a very enjoyable and pressure free experience!  We'd all like to say that our house is always in perfect order, right?  In fact, sometimes I feel like all I do everyday is continuously clean and pick up after my busy kids - keeping it organized is the key to peace with a busy family.  And we've read that the social worker is not looking at your house keeping abilities or how well you decorate, they just want to make sure you have what is necessary and safe to care for a child and also to get to know the family.  But, let's face it, who isn't going to go the extra mile to get everything extra clean and organized and make it look like the happiest home-making home ever for your home study?!  It's like the difference between when your just having your neighbor stop by for coffee, or when your own mom my is coming to stay.   This is like the latter, you do that extra deep dusting and scrubbing and add cookies, coffee and a smile!  So, needless to say we've had a busy week!  Of course she never even really looked inside the closets, cupboards, showers or under the beds, ha ha!  But at least we were prepared for anything.  Our social worker laughed and added that she baked cookies and had coffee for HER social worker as well, as she was going through a home study herself!  She was very nice and throughout the interviews we chatted about adoption, kids, travel and all sorts of things.  It was a great experience and now all we have to do is keep chipping away at the paper work remaining.  

ADOPTION/HOME STUDY AGREEMENT

   We completed our Taiwan adoption agreement and home study agreement forms, had them notarized and sent them off to the agency (along with our first big payment)!  We heard back from the agency immediately and are excited to get our home study started next Sunday and begin compiling our dossier.  We hope to move through this portion of our journey quickly in order to submit our dossier to Taiwan and begin the long wait.  I'm hoping for 2 months to complete our dossier compilation, am I dreaming?    We've received several pages of paperwork and have started filling them out and sending them off - such as our child abuse registry clearance and our criminal history checks.  If I look at all of the paperwork for the home study and also for the dossier that needs to be completed, it is a little overwhelming!  But we just take time everyday to get some of it done and I know it will get finished!

Galatians 6:9 
Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. 

YES TAIWAN!!

Well, we sent in our application for Taiwan last Thursday.  On Tuesday we received a call from the agency and we were told they would be happy to move forward on a Taiwan adoption with us, if we were prepared for the fact that the wait times have increased quite a bit.  Closer to 3 years now to wait for a referral.  Well that is a looong time to wait when you have a little sweetie in mind.  However In light of all my research, and finding that the wait times for most of the countries we were considering increasing, (3 years for Colombia, closer to 4 years for China) we decided to go ahead and move forward with Taiwan.  So, here we are taking our first steps again in the process and looking forward to moving ahead!   We have friends from work, a couple who are in the process of a Nepal adoption with the same agency, who have great things to say about working with this agency, so that was a positive for us!  These friends have completed their home study and dossier and have sent it off to Nepal.  Please pray for their quick referral!  (by the way, we would have loved to adopt from Nepal as well, but you cannot adopt from there if you already have children of both genders.  Yes, crazy but true.  So many children waiting for homes and then there are strange qualifications like that)  Please pray for our process to move along and I will keep you posted on our progress!  

TAIWAN!? (click here to read an article)

 I haven't posted anything lately, because well frankly, we were trying to decide where to look next for our adoption.  I just put it into God's hands when I didn't know which way to turn and waited!  We've been inspired to get on the ball again.  We are considering a particular Colombia program (inspired by my in laws mission trip to Colombia and all of those precious kids!), however, this is a 3 year wait for referral and a 4-5 week stay in Colombia.  Now, at this moment, 4-5 weeks sounds like nothing when you are waiting for your precious child.  I mean, we would do that for our own biological child right?  However, when the time comes, a month or more away from our 3 kids could be very difficult to work out here at home.  So, it is not my first choice -at this time.  We are also excited about an agency with a Taiwan program for which we qualify.  This is a little less lengthy process.  Taiwan is not really a country in poverty.  However, I have done a lot of research over the past few weeks and found that the need is great to adopt children from Taiwan.  Unwed mothers are frequently shunned in their homes and in society, they cannot go to school or get jobs.  Most young, unwed mothers have 3 choices... abortion, abandonment, or to go to one of the group homes and orphanages run by ministries willing to help the girls with their pregnancy and adoption of their child.  In Taiwan, domestic adoption is still not very popular, although slowly becoming more acceptable.  Still highly unlikely for a child over 2 years due to the fact that a family would not want their child to know that they are not biological, it would be considered dishonorable.  Also, although Taiwan is more modern thinking than their mainland China, they still feel that the perfect family is one boy, one girl and no more.  So there is a lot of pressure to keep families small.  The abandonment of children is rising at an alarming rate according to a recent article in Taiwan that I read.  Every child needs a home and a family to love them!

Psalm 139:14-16 

14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; 

      your works are wonderful, 
       I know that full well.

15 My frame was not hidden from you 
       when I was made in the secret place. 
       When I was woven together in the depths of the earth,

 16 your eyes saw my unformed body. 

       All the days ordained for me 
       were written in your book 
       before one of them came to be.