The Current Picture

I'm much worse at this blogging thing than I thought I would be... It's been WAAAYYY too long since I've posted. To be honest, I have a couple posts that I've written but just never felt 100% about posting them.

So let me update you all on what's been going on!!

First, let me tell you about our dessert auction/spaghetti supper we had at Bethel in January. No other word but “AMAZING” comes to mind. We teamed up with the Lytle’s who are adopting from the Congo and had a great night! You see, these crazy and hilarious people that attend Bethel ( J ) helped us raise $1942.00 with the Lytes!!! In ONE night! This is nuts! Once again, “thank you” just doesn’t seem enough. I just can’t wait for Reese to get home to meet her church family!!

Then, my sister threw me an awesome baby shower the weekend after! I think I have been through all the stuff at least a dozen times. We got the cutest stuff and now I’m itching to get her room done and clothes hung up. J The best part of this shower was seeing so many family and friends that I haven’t seen in a long time! I even had 2 friends drive 4 hours for it! That’s what it’s all about…. It humbles me so much thinking that these people love my little girl so much already that they are willing to sacrifice time and energy praying and encouraging us!

Things get even better!! We got a phone call on Friday, Jan 31st that our paperwork had arrived and was being mailed to us! It came last Monday (Feb 3rd) and at 9:10 pm I was dropping it back off with a couple other forms to FedEx this time sending it to USCIS (United States Citizenship and Immigration Services). So now we wait. We must receive clearance from the US which is taking at least 1 month to process. Once we get that, we scan it and email it to our agency who forwards it on to our in country represenative and wait on travel dates! Still a lot of waiting but this is a HUGE step.

I honestly don't think it is possible to explain how much I miss my little girl. I mean, I even think I'm crazy when I think about how much I love this little girl that I've only spent 3 days with... Please pray that this last stretch moves smoothly and quickly for us. And please pray for God to start preparing Reese for the huge transition ahead of her.
 

 

One of my favorite pics from the 1st trip (edited of course because of rules)!

I can't wait to get kisses all the time from her!!

"I will not leave you as orphans..."

I can vividly see her face as we rounded the door, standing there in her crib. She was so excited. Someone was coming to get her out of that lonely bed that she spends so much time in. She even had that look like, “Hey, I think I’ve seen y’all before.” Today couldn’t have been a more perfect day with her. She was so happy… smiled and giggled twice as much… and wanted to be held a lot today.  I couldn’t squeeze her more or kiss her cheeks enough before they took her out of our arms.  

No one should ever have to leave their child behind. Just like no child should ever have to be a number, an 8^th crib in one crowded room and the 4^th room in an orphanage, or a baby who cries but barely makes a noise because sometimes there are just too many others to care for at that moment and so your cries might not be heard.

Looking at this picture, I see her holding tight to her Daddy’s shirt and I feel God whispering for me to cling to Him. I am reminded of His promises… “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.” (John 14:18).  I pray now that she knows this promise is for her as well.

Fearfully and Wonderfully Made…

Lord, I praise you because my daughter is fearfully and wonderfully made;She is beautiful, full of energy, with big eyes that send any fear or uncertainty far from here. Your works are wonderful,    I know that full well.

How in the world am I going to be able to describe this day… it’s impossible. I mean, how crazy do I sound when I tell you that we were already in love with a child we had never met…  and now, “in love” doesn’t even seem to fit the way we feel about her. Seeing her come through those doors is something I will never forget…

She is amazing. She has so much energy and is into everything! I love it… she will give her cousin, Hollynn, a run for her money. J I guess I don’t know what to compare our 1^st meeting to but I can’t imagine it could have gone any better. She was a little copy-cat and mimicked everything we did! She loves to have her neck tickled and kisses herself in the mirror. I so wish I could post pictures! That can’t come until 2^nd trip.

I’m usually good at this writing stuff, but I honestly feel at a loss for words… All I can do is praise God and thank Him… "She didn't have to be perfect, because she was perfectly loved"... but I can't think of anything that could make her more perfect!

We Made It!

We made it to Poland! We are tired but happy we got here safely. We had to sprint to make connecting flights but it was fun and better than a long layover in DC or Germany. We arrived a little after 10 am (so 3 am your time) and when we finally got to our hotel decided to shower and take a short nap. We got to meet with a person associated with our agency for just a short time to discuss tomorrow’s plans. Originally, we were to meet with the Polish Authority today however this was postponed until tomorrow. Our day starts at 8 (1 am your time). We get to meet our daughter tomorrow and as tired as I am, I’m not sure how much sleep I will get…

Everyone has been nice so far! Will is trying to spruce up on his Polish and surprisingly (or not) he tends to quickly add in Spanish words! Ha! I hope to take tons of pictures tomorrow and give a better update. Thanks for all the prayers. 

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

Our Dossier is Complete!!

I have so much to tell about! First and foremost though, OUR IMMIGRATION APPROVAL FINALLY CAME! This was our last big document we were waiting on to be able to turn our dossier (our big stack of papers) in to get them to Poland. We have been waiting 2 months on this piece a paper and if you heard a squeal on Wednesday afternoon then you know when I found it in our PO Box. J

So I had lots to get done on Friday… I took all of those documents that we had been collecting and for the past 7-8 months (41 to be exact) to have a notary seal placed on them. Well, let me back up for one second! First, all of these documents had to be notarized… Do y’all know Brandy Knox?? Well let me tell you that without her, this adoption would not be taking place. She so generously notarized ALL of our documents! And not just 41 of them… because I made several mistakes throughout this process, I bet she notarized 100 papers with several having to be re-done. (so sorry, Brandy). And the best part about it, she did all of it with a HUGE smile on her face and covered our documents with prayer. I owe her BIG TIME and I don’t know how saying thank you will ever be enough!

So, I took all of these documents that Brandy notarized to the county… the county put a seal on it to say that Brandy is legit. (which of course she is!) THEN, I went to Secretary of State to have yet another seal placed on these papers to make them “state official.” After that, I headed to FedEx to send them off with a hefty check to Saint Mary’s International Agency (our international agency) who received them yesterday! They are double checking everything 1 more time and then they will send it on to Poland. Once it gets to Poland, it must be translated. Once this is complete, Will and I will then be placed on a list to find our match!

 

[Yes, I made the poor guy at FedEx take a picture... after threatening him to protect that box with his life! He was really nice! I was just glad to get out of FedEx without crying! haha!]

I’m just soooo excited! I finally feel like we will be able to make progress. It has been so difficult for me the past 2 months to just wait… to just be still. The Lord knows that patience is NOT my virtue yet it is tested… EVERY. SINGLE. DAY! Many tears have fallen on my pillow as I try to let God’s peace wrap around me during this waiting process.

So as things start to move along, we still have lots of money to raise! I will be posting another reading on the price of adoption to explain more on the financial burden of adoption because I feel this will be beneficial to people who may not understand the costs. We are looking at over $50,000 for this adoption when it’s all said and done. YIKES! That’s a big number… But how awesome is it that God is WAAAYYY bigger than $50,000? In just the past 8 months we have been able to raise, save, and fundraise over $25,000. This on top of our monthly bills, grocery, gas, car repairs, etc. This is crazy! If you told me in February that we would have ½ our adoption paid this soon, I would have secretly thought you were nuts. In fact, I’m pretty sure that some people have told me that the money would come and I actually told them they were nuts. I’m a budget FREAK (just ask Will) and let me tell you, the numbers DON’T ADD UP! We can’t afford this no matter what way you look at it and yet, the money has shown up! Please don’t read over this with a little shake of your head because YOU played a huge role. I mean we just had a yard sale this past Saturday with another adopting couple that brought in over $1000.00!! That’s over $500 a piece to help bring home TWO orphans!  I hope you realize how God has used you! But we still need help! So below are fundraisers that are still going on… please tell everyone you know about them!

 

Fundraiser #1: Kimberly Brickles has been so generous to put together an online Initials Inc party. Check out her site and click shop now under our event (Casey Davis):

http://www.myinitials-inc.com/shop/eventhome.aspx?eventId=E93313&from=DIRECTLINK

She is giving back 25% of the sales to our adoption. And better yet if you buy a “Your Best Life” case for $20, $5 will be donated to Bethany’s NOW campaign plus $5 will be donated to our adoption. Bethany is an adoption agency that is using this campaign to raise money to help other families cover the cost of adoption too! So you are helping not only our adoption but another family’s adoption! How awesome!

Fundraiser #2: We still have LOTS of puzzle pieces. We are asking for $5 donation per a piece. Your name will then be placed on the back and when the puzzle is complete we will be able to show our child all the pieces (people) of the puzzle that helped bring him/her home.

Fundraiser #3: There will be a dessert auction held on September 28^th at our church (Bethel Free Will Baptist) and this will be for our family and the Lytle’s who are adopting from the Congo. Come out and get you a GREAT dessert. Or if you are interested in making something scrumptious for the auction then just shoot me an email! (caseydavis20 @ hotmail .com)

Thanks for all the prayers, encouragement, and support you’ve given us! It really means a lot. Keep the prayers coming… we still have a long haul in front of us!!