Moving Along!

The last three weeks have been a little hectic with Rob going to Honduras and life in general.  I was SO excited for school to be back in, that I forgot the “cons” of school.  Work has been especially taxing on me lately and I have continually wondered about this.  This issue has been in my prayers constantly.  Not sure how to fix it yet, because like most two income families, it is probably impossible to go back to one.  Still wrestling with what God wants me to do and best to glorify him through this.

We do have some forward motion in our adoption.  While we are still waiting on the “consent to adopt” that comes from the commune (think “mayor’s” office), we have been steadily working on lots of paperwork.  Today, we mailed our Dossier to DRC.  Exciting, yet scary!  That little package has originals of all the papers that Rob and I have – birth certificates, marriage certificate, home study, passport copies….those sorts of things.  So, prayerfully, we have sent it to Congo and it should arrive on Monday.  Isn’t that neat?  I’m sending a package to AFRICA today, Thursday, and it will arrive on Monday! 

This past week we also had our official fingerprints taken at the USCIS office in Norfolk.  This process has really been quite annoying, but now, our finger prints are done!  Crossing another “to-do” off the list!  Feels good.  I spoke to our adoption officer today as well as she said she will have our fingerprint results today or tomorrow and will be able to finish our case then.  LOVE her!  She is super kind and does what she says she is going to do.

I also want to share what is going on in our fundraising world.  We are deathly afraid of being seen as “those people” who constantly asking for “your support”, so we have tried to pick and choose our fundraising choices very wisely.  Rob and I have battled back and forth about when to do a yard sale.  He wanted to do it in the spring and I wanted to do it now (fall).  While he was in Honduras I received a community letter that reminded me about the community yard sale on October 13^th.  In my neighborhood, we are not allowed to have a private yard sale at our house.  I don’t know why exactly….so, I’ll just keep moving.  So, anyway, I decided that we would have a yard sale and since that moment, I have truly overwhelmed by the kindness of others.  I was so worried that this was not going to do well, but I can truly say that this yard sale, whether successful financially or not, is being used by God to remind me of the kindness of others and my church family.  People I do not even know are giving me donations.  I have donations that have taken up ¾ of my garage!  It is truly amazing!  I just look at everything and I’m like, “How am I going to even begin to sort through this stuff, much less tag and sell it all!”.  My neighbor Jenn has been a God-send.  I think she knows that I was completely overwhelmed when she came over last night because she just started tagging and organizing!  Whew!  So helpful!  My pastor’s wife is making a poster for us that says all of the proceeds will go to our adoption fund to bring home our little girl.  I am hoping that when they see that, they won’t try to haggle as much – but, to be fair, I am pricing things to sell.  I’m not trying to be unrealistic here – I want to give others a reasonable price for this stuff because it was ALL DONATED! 

I can’t help but to feel blessed by God in the middle of this.  Don’t get me wrong, I am seriously stressed here, but when I think about all these people who have donated items and money and time to us, I realize that this is the love of God shown to me through others. 

I can’t wait to share the results of the Yard Sale with you!  I also can’t wait to share an update on the Puzzle!  I was going to do that earlier this week, but the pictures I took did not come out, so I will wait and post a Puzzle update and Yard Sale update all at one time – probably Sunday after I have had time to recuperate!

Much love,

Christy