Without words.....well, almost.

Me?  Without words?  Takes a lot to get there for me.  Those of you that know me are not shocked, I know.   But truly, perfect, even adequate words fail me now to express my ..... see, I don't know what to even call it.  Amazement? Joy? Wonder? Gratitude?  Awe.

God has provided for us in a beautiful, all-sufficient way.  Everything we lacked to bring Joel home has now been provided.  We have all the funds we need to travel, get our son, and bring him home.  God knows each one of us so well, and he knows who to bring alongside each of us in our journeys.  Fundraising is one of the most daunting parts to an adoptive family.  It shouldn't be.  God has proven himself as a perfect provider over and over - in our lives, our extended families' lives, in our friends' lives as well.  One man told me at the beginning of our adoption journey that raising the money would be the easy part.

Excuse me?  The Easy Part??

I understand why he said it, and, truth be told, he was right.  Compared to walking through the other difficulties that have come up? Compared to preparing to grow our family and prepare for a beautiful child who has many unknown pieces?  Compared to the crazy paperwork chase?  Compared to WAITING months and months to hold a child we know & so long for?  Compared to raising another child for life?

No, raising the money on the front end of adoption is much easier than that.  Well, it's all relative.  Fundraising is hard; humbling oneself to ask for help is hard; saving and pinching pennies and working extra and selling stuff can be hard.  But it is so worth it.  We HAD to have help; we HAD to invite others into our story.  We are not alone.  God raised up a community around us.  More people than just US are invested in our son.  That's very cool.

And now, we can focus on getting everything ready to travel and ready here to have a toddler living among us again.

So, there, I guess I found some words.  We are praising God for his provision.  We thank YOU for listening to the prompting of God's heart to help us in this way.  We are overwhelmed with joy and peace and amazement at how God loves and cares for His kids and how He allows us to be part of each others' stories.

Together is better.  Thanks for walking the journey with us.

(And, in case you are on the fence about adoption simply because of finances, jump into the arena.  God owns the cattle on a thousand hills; it's no big deal for him to sell off a few to place a child in a forever family.)

Coming in through the FRONT DOOR

Joel has been approved by Immigration!  Wahoo!  Now we don't have to hide him in the suitcase!!  Just kidding.  BUT, this is a wonderful next step in the process.  In the eyes of the US gov't, we have been provisionally approved to classify this beautiful little boy as our IMMEDIATE RELATIVE.  Yep.  Pretty cool to see that on another official document.

What next?  This is the part I referred to in my last post where the 2 governments get cozy, exchange pleansantries and work together sending love notes back and forth until they agree on when we can travel.  Sooooo, about 3 more steps until we get our invitation to the BALL...um, well...airport.  Each step = about 2 weeks, so sometime early June, we should be staring our angel in the face!  Big Daddy G & I can't wait!

[ok, so I should've probably warned you already, that my posts could get progressively more and more mushy and filled with crazy CAPITAL LETTERS and Exclamation Points!!!]

We are truly in awe of all that God has done, is doing and will do in our family through all of this - fostering, advocacy and now adoption.  We're amazed and freaked out that we will have a 3 year old in a couple of months, but we cannot stop grinning from ear to ear.  Life is full, crazy, sometimes very hard, and beautiful.  God is doing exactly what he has promised:

To all who mourn in Israel, he will give a crown of beauty for ashes, a joyous blessing instead of mourning, festive praise instead of despair.  Isaiah 61:3a

No, I will not abandon you as orphans—I will come to you.  John 14:18

Hallelujah.