GREAT NEWS!

Here I go again, typing this as it all is still sinking in and becoming real .... you won't believe what we got in our email today:  our baby girl's adbandonment decree!!

We are so sad that she, like her soon-to-be-brother, was abandoned in a public place, but we are SO thankful to her birthmother for giving her life and having mercy on her by leaving her in a place where she had hope to be found. We're eternally grateful to the stranger who took pity on her and brought her to the orphanage. And for the orphanage caregiver(s) who have been caring for her for months!

With the email about this decree came MORE GOOD NEWS: we DO NOT have to wait a month for her birth certificate! {Because she is so young. This is an answer to prayer as we weren't entirely clear on this before!}

What does this mean?? What's next??

Baby R's waiting period after his birth certificate was issued will be up NEXT WEEK, Feb. 3rd!
After that our attorney can work on getting our cases presented in court and we will legally become their PARENTS when we pass court!! Can you believe it?!?!?! I am weeping tears of JOY just thinking about it and how soon it may be that I will officially become a MOTHER OF 3!

At one point we were told that it typically takes about 2 weeks to get a court date and 4-8 weeks after that to travel to bring them home, but who knows... we are trying to not trust in the words of man, but that it will all happen in our Sovereign God's perfect timing!!!

"The LORD has done great things for us, and we are filled with JOY!" Psalm 126:3

Joyfully,

Mother- Son Roadtrip!

Jonah and mommy took a roadtrip to our state Capitol on Wednesday to get our child-specific documents authenticated! It's only about an hour from our home so we thought it was well worth the drive in order to speed up the paperwork process. {Otherwise we could've mailed it in and waited for it to come back. But who knows how long that would take? We have been in the process to adopt for a year now, so I'm happy to do anything I can to keep the process moving along smoothly.} So we hopped in our car and made a fun little day of it!

OUR DOCUMENTS ARE AUTHENTICATED!! YAYY!!!
{Sorry, this picture is refusing to upload correctly.}

We even got to stop by and visit with some of our dear friends who live nearby!

Jonah and his buddy, Emma, sharing a snack.

Friends. Snack buddies. Future husband and wife? We shall see...
They would make some cute blonde-haired, blue-eyed kids. =)
And we would absolutely LOVE to have her parents as part of our family!

Next Step: We are mailing our documents off to a courier in the D.C. area today! (Which costs about $580.)

And we (Jon and I) are scheduled to get about 9 shots each next week. (YIKES!!!) Not only do I hate needles, I hate that the yellow fever shot alone is around $150-200! I am happy to get the recommended shots, I just hate how expensive they are and that our good insurance still doesn't cover them. Ahhhh well, I need to remind myself that the Lord has continued to provide for us and somehow we will pay for all these crazy shots. (I'll give you the rundown next week, incase any other DRC adoptive families behind us in the process are reading this & want to know all the shots that are recommended before you travel.)

Happily Authenticated and waiting for baby girl's abandonment decree & birth certificate,

More Answered Prayer: We got a REFERRAL!!!!!

Friends, I am about to weep tears of JOY as I type this, and it finally sinks in that this is really happening, our last 5 months of prayer have been answered:
WE GOT A REFERRAL FOR A LITTLE GIRL!!!!

We found out yesterday that she passed her medical and sent official notice to our agency today that we accept this referral for the beautiful baby girl, who we'll call "baby girl" for now! =)

She was just 45 days old at the time of her medical exam a couple weeks ago, so almost 2 months old now! And she is a healthy, precious little one! She weighs around 13.5 lbs!

Please Rejoice and PRAISE GOD with us for all that He has done & all that he is about to do! We do still need to get her abandonment decree and birth certificate, but we want to take a minute and pause and just give GLORY to God for all the ANSWERED PRAYER that we've had in the last week!

Thank you Lord for entrusting this baby girl to us! Thank you for giving us the priveledge of being her and baby R's parents, raising them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord, loving them, caring for them everyday! We can hardly wait!!!  Please help us get her paperwork in the next week or two so we can officially ADOPT our son and daughter and bring them home this spring!!!! Please give us patience and help us to trust in Your timing.

We are working frantically hard to get all our child-specific paperwork printed, signed, notarized, certified and everything else in the next 24 hours!! These documents have to be in the DRC before our court date in order for us to pass court and be officially declared as baby R and baby girl's PARENTS! =)

"Oh give thanks to the LORD, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever!" Psalm 107:1

Rejoicing in God's lovingkindness to His people,

a blog design Giveaway!

We are hosting a blog design GIVEAWAY right now

 at jonandbethany.blogspot.com!

 Go check it out- you could WIN a FREE CUSTOM BLOG HEADER and SIGNATURE just for helping us spread the word about our newest adoption Fundraiser!!

Thank you for your faithful prayers, support, and encouragement along this journey!

Trusting in the Lord to provide for us {we are about $6,500 short},

one big answered prayer!

Well friends,
We got an exciting email from our agency last evening..... {drum roll, please.....}

WE GOT APPROVAL TO GET BABY R'S BIRTH CERTIFICATE!!!

So that is one HUGE answer to prayer! We are one step closer to bringing him home!

But it also means that we really need to get a referral for our little girl VERY soon. We don't want to delay his adoption. And obviously want to have him (and our daughter) home with us as soon as possible.

We got an email from our agency on December 27th telling us about a little girl that should be paperwork ready soon. It was not exactly what we've been praying and hoping for (an official referral), but it is SO close!

Would you please PRAY with us that our agency would receive the medical, abandonment decree, AND birth certificate for this little girl (or whichever little girl the Lord has for us) by next Friday?? That would be the most AMAZING 5th wedding anniversary gift I can imagine!!!! {Yep, that's right- our 5th Anniversary is next Friday.} I know it sounds like a huge request, but nothing is impossible for God. And we don't want to not receive this great gift from Him because we have not asked Him for it.

" Give ear to my words, O LORD;
   consider my groaning.
² Give attention to the sound of my cry,
   my King and my God,
   for to you do I pray.
³ O LORD, in the morning you hear my voice;
   in the morning I prepare a sacrifice for you^[a] and watch.
 ⁴ For you are not a God who delights in wickedness;
   evil may not dwell with you.
¹¹ But let all who take refuge in you rejoice;
   let them ever sing for joy,
and spread your protection over them,
   that those who love your name may exult in you.
¹² For you bless the righteous, O LORD;
   you cover him with favor as with a shield."
Psalm 5:1-4, 11-12

Next stop after we get our official referral for our daughter???
COURT!
To officially adopt both of our children! To legally become their PARENTS!
I mean seriously, I can hardly believe it as I type this out. Thank you Lord! Help- me to cling to and trust in your Sovereign plans for our family! That they are for our good and YOUR glory! And help me to have faith to believe in Your plans, even when Your ways are so much higher than our ways that we can't fathom what you're doing. I PRAISE you Jesus, that Your grace is sufficient for me and that Your power is made perfect in weakness (2 Cor. 12:9).

Rejoicing & Praying Expectantly,

our newest Fundraiser

Our newest Adoption Fundraiser has begun! I will be sharing my love for blog design, cute fonts, and Photoshop to help finance the final costs of our adoption at blog design by Bethany!

(100% of the proceeds from my blog designing will help us pay the rest of the travel, attorney, agency and other fees we have left to rescue our two sweet children from the DRC!)

Once our adoption is complete I plan to continue blog design by bethany so that 100% of the proceeds can be given to financially support other families who are adopting!

The Lord seems to have laid this fundraising idea on my heart in His perfect timing. Last week my van started doing something funky, not going from first to second gear at times, etc... so we took it in to get looked at, and yes, just as we had feared---- we need a new transmission. So our personal savings account is now taking a $3,000 - $4,000+ hit (depending on if they can find a good used one to rebuild- Pray with us that they do!). All this after we just finished fixing the major structural damage we found in our basement at the end of the record-setting rainfall that flooded our basement 10 times last spring/summer (another $3,000 we weren't planning on spending).
All this to say, we are trusting in our Sovereign God to provide for us, but we would love it if you would help pray that He will provide the last $6,500 we need!

If you'd like to help spread the word, I'd love for you to "grab" my blog button and add it to your blog! {You just copy the text in the box beneath my button on blogdesignbybethany.blogspot.com, add an HTML/javascript gadget to your blog (on the Design tab) and paste the text, then save!} You could also help me spread the word by writing a short post about this Fundraiser on your blog or Facebook wall!

For now, I am clinging to Christ and His promises in His word:
 ³ Put not your trust in princes,
   in a son of man, in whom there is no salvation.
⁴ When his breath departs, he returns to the earth;
   on that very day his plans perish.
 ⁵ Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob,
   whose hope is in the LORD his God,
⁶ who made heaven and earth,
   the sea, and all that is in them,
who keeps faith forever;
 ⁷ who executes justice for the oppressed,
   who gives food to the hungry.
   The LORD sets the prisoners free;
 ⁸ the LORD opens the eyes of the blind.
The LORD lifts up those who are bowed down;
   the LORD loves the righteous.
⁹ The LORD watches over the sojourners;
   he upholds the widow and the fatherless,
   but the way of the wicked he brings to ruin.
 ¹⁰ The LORD will reign forever,
   your God, O Zion, to all generations.
Praise the LORD!
Psalm 146: 3-10


Praying Expectantly for His provision,

a new year

We begin this new year full of hope. Praying constantly for orphans, our adoption, and for God to place two beautiful children made in His image in our home this spring. Praying for Baby R, whose unofficial first birthday is just a month away. Praying that God would wrap His protecting hands around baby R, and that He would protect him from any harm, disease, or hunger. We pray the same for our daughter, whoever she is, where ever she is right now (we trust that God knows). We pray that God would give us a referral for our little girl before we get baby R's birth certificate, or even that we would get them the same day!
We pray for patience, peace, and perseverance in our adoption journey and praise God for a renewed sense of HOPE that He has given us lately! We PRAISE God that HE is sovereign and He knows the plans He has for our family, and we trust that they are for our good and His glory!

We pray all the families we know that are adopting and caring for orphans, that God would knit their families together through adoption in a way that displays the gospel to the world around them and brings Him much glory. We pray that the Lord would execute justice for the orphan and give victory to families whose road to rescue orphans has been long and hard.

We pray that thousands of orphans worldwide would be placed in loving, gospel-centered families in 2012! Would you join us in praying? In being like the persistent widow in Luke 18 and faithfully asking God over and over to execute justice for orphans around the world and be merciful in placing them in loving families?
"And he told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart. ² He said, “In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor respected man. ³ And there was a widow in that city who kept coming to him and saying, ‘Give me justice against my adversary.’ ⁴ For a while he refused, but afterward he said to himself, ‘Though I neither fear God nor respect man, ⁵ yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will give her justice, so that she will not beat me down by her continual coming.’” ⁶ And the Lord said, “Hear what the unrighteous judge says. ⁷ And will not God give justice to his elect, who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long over them? ⁸ I tell you, he will give justice to them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?” Luke 18: 1-8

Let us PRAY and not lose heart,