Travel Dates... Whoohooo!

We have travel dates!! We found out yesterday that we will be heading to Poland December 9^th-14^th. I can’t believe this has happened so fast. We will arrive in Poland on December 10^th (because of the flight and time change.) We meet with the Polish authority first then we get to meet our little girl on the 11^th. We get to spend time with her twice a day on the 11^th, 12^th, and 13^th then we fly back home on the 14^th. We are sooooo pumped! 

 

On another note, we have an Origami Owl party active right now until tomorrow evening so if you want to order anything please visit www.aspann.origamiowl.com if you want to order. It would make a great Christmas gift. Just check our party at check out. Amanda is so sweet to donate back to us to help fund our adoption!!

 

I can’t tell you all how encouraging all your sweet words have meant to us. We are beyond blessed!

Are Y'all Ready For This...

This blog post comes with nothing less than a million emotions all trying to escape this 5’5” body I have.  On Friday, November 8^th, 2013 at 12:49, we received the best call ever! 

We have a referral! I can’t even explain the joy, nervousness, and tears that followed! A little over 2 months after turning in our dossier, we actually have a child waiting for us! I wish I could tell you all about this child, however, there are laws to protect children and families and therefore we must keep things a secret until everything becomes more official…

I will tell you HER big blue eyes have already captured her daddy. She is beautiful. With all this joy however comes a lot of fear…. You see, she is not a “typical child” as most people would expect. She is an orphan, living in an orphanage. She has not had a mother and a father to hold her tight to keep her warm, wipe her tears when she is sick or hurt, or kiss her sweet cheeks to hear her laugh. She has some complications that honestly frighten us and has made us question if we can handle what we are in. She has concerned the doctors and specialists with some of her medical issues and has even been labeled “high risk”… I want you to read this and I want you to think on this because she is not a “typical child,” like I said…  but...SHE IS GOD’S CHILD… She has had a father who surpasses all fathers this entire time. She has had Him love her more in her short life span than Will and I could ever imagine loving her in our entire life. And you know what? She was NO SURPRISE to Him… her diagnosis doesn’t scare Him. He didn’t ask the doctors what they thought before He made His plan to “knit her together in her mother’s womb” or ask a specialist where at in the charts she should be (Psalm 139:13). He sure isn’t concerned with how her "referral" reads now. But how will she know this if she never has someone tell her how “fearfully and wonderfully made” she is?

Lord, how grateful I am that you didn’t ask the doctors what they thought of me when I came needing your salvation… what a mess of a referral I was, definitely not a “typical child.” All the development delays in my life as a sinful person… You know I wasn’t walking by faith when I should have been. I still need your hand to hold when taking my 1^st, 2^nd, and even last steps. There is no way my heart is fully developed to reflect Jesus’ character. But you still looked at me and gave me a chance. You saved me from this world, You wrap your arms around me, You wipe my tears, and You kiss my cheeks.                     

 JJ Heller’s song says…

“Who will love me for me
Not for what I have done or what I will become
Who will love me for me
'Cause nobody has shown me what love
What love really means”

Thank you, Lord, for loving me for me and showing me what love really means. Please flood our heart so we can show this type of love to this special little girl.    

I was reminded of Abram (Genesis 12) by a friend who I know is praying earnestly for us. He made a journey into a land he had never seen. NEVER! As the devotion states, “for the time being the call is enough.”  Now I want to be clear about something… I’m not here to stand and say that any of this is simple or easy or that I understand why this is the way it is. All I know is that this child at least deserves a chance and for right now, the call to go and meet her is enough.  And that is what Will and I are going to do… give her a chance and with the Lord willing, so much more.

We were advised to wait to hear back from the Polish Authority to see if they would answer more questions on her medical complications and today we finally got the information! We “accepted her” and will be going to Poland to meet this Princess of the King of Kings.  

So this is what I know so far… we’ve accepted and the Polish authority will be receiving our email (hopefully as we sleep). We will have travel dates for our first trip hopefully by the end of the week and were told to expect to travel soon. This will be our 1^st of 2 trips. This first trip will be short and we will meet her and find out more about her. I’m pretty sure that we then go before a judge and “officially accept her” before the court. We then will come back home for more paperwork and prepare for our 2^nd trip for when we travel and stay for 6 weeks. We really need your prayers on this! Please pray that travel will come quickly. It would be much more beneficial, for Will especially, to travel in the winter when grass isn’t growing. But more importantly, we don’t want to be away from our daughter any longer than necessary.

I honestly can’t say thank you enough for everything y’all have done for us! We love y’all and can’t wait to tell our LITTLE GIRL about all the awesome people that have played such an important role in her coming home.all