Long Over due . . . I know, I know!!!

My how life has raced ahead!  I haven't blogged on progress lately, because honestly, I didn't think there was any progress being made.  However, God was making progress and (once again) has corrected my attitude in waiting for His timing! 

Progress is being made and we didn't even know it!  Our Dossier (the package that goes to Haiti) was submitted in late April.  We had a few more documents to get certified and authenticated so we waited, and waited, and waited.  I am learning this adoption journey is all about patience!

So we got an email this week stating that our Dossier was out of translation!!!!  Say what??!!!  We didn't even know it had been sent so we were very excited about this.  In that same email we got directions to call our main contact (who is by far the BEST EVER!!!) from our agency concerning the next step.  So don't you know, we were on that phone faster than anything!!! 

That brings us to today - a very exciting day in the Batchelor house - yes, we are leaving another teaser out there.  But until details have been made firmer, our lips remained sealed!!  Just know that your prayers are being heard by our Almighty Planner!  We will share more details when we can!  Pray hard for us the next several days as decisions will be made and our lives will be changed forever! 

On a side note - we are going to Haiti (completely separate of the adoption) for a mission trip.  We leave this week and couldn't be more excited!  It's funny to know that I will actually be in the same country as my kiddos here soon - no, I don't know them by name yet, but somehow I will be closer to them and hopefully they can feel their mama's love even stronger!  God, please protect my kiddos and let them feel your love even though I can't hold them in my arms for awhile! 

God has a sense of humor!!

So we have been busy filling out, completing necessary forms, receiving reference letters, and pretty much living and breathing Grant Applications the last several months.  All in all, we have exhausted our list and have applied for 10 different grants all ranging in different denominations of money.  Hours and hours we have poured over these things and then send them off with a hands-on prayer!  We are excited to see how God is going to work through these grants!!! 

However, as I was dropping off grants #7, #8, and #9 at the post office I was blessed by God's humor.  Our post office workers are nice, a little gruff, but nice.  I was determined as I walked into the PO this time, that I was going to get a smile from the worker today!  It was my turn in line and I walked to the counter to lay the grant envelopes down.  He weighed them all individually and I was working my magic to get that man to smile!  No smiles...

My total price came in at $7.77.  At this time the PO worker looks directly at me - am I going to get a smile now, an encouraging word, a.n.y.t.h.i.n.g??!!  Nope, but I did get a little humor!  He says (as he has his hands on all three of my envelopes), "Wow, 777 you must be mailing some lucky things today, better go play the lottery!" 

Oh Mr. Post-Office-Man-Who-Never-Smiles, if you only knew what was in those envelopes!  However, I don't need luck because My God is bigger than luck!  I feel that was God's way of saying, "Relax Jen, I got this money thing all worked out!"  I love the way God works!! 

On a side note - we have about 6 more grants to apply for once we get our USCIS finished and get a referral of our kiddos! 

God is good - all the time!

DOSSIER COMPLETE!!! Waaaaa-Hooooo!!!!!

Our huge announcement for the month - our Dossier is complete!!! 
I will be mailing the huge, official, ever-so-important documents off tomorrow to our agency for their review.  We are anticipating no problems and they will send it to get translated! 

We are still waiting on our USCIS approval and letter telling us where to get fingerprinted (again!).  This is a another very important step that we will be glad to get done and over with! 

I think that is all for the update now!  We are making steps to bring our children home! Thanks to all those who have listened to my woes, exciting announcements, and frustrations!  We are blessed to have many friends and family that support us in prayers!! 

We are still busy sending out grant applications!  Our list of possibilities at this time are starting to get smaller.  Once we get our referral (YAY!) we can send out some more.  Thanks for all the encouraging words!! 

Zephaniah 3:17

The Lord your God is with you,
    the Mighty Warrior who saves.
He will take great delight in you;
    in his love he will no longer rebuke you,
    but will rejoice over you with singing.”

Grant Work ...... sigh!

2 words that make me cringe these days........

GRANT WORK

 

While we are extremely grateful for these grants - they are TONS of work!  Not difficult work, just tedious work, work that must be done in utter silence for my brain to function.  Hours and hours spent at the computer reading qualifications, order of paperwork, and question upon question of our beliefs, proof of income via tax returns (some needing all pages, some needing just the first two pages), etc.  Hours spent.....

 

 

I just sent in our 4th application.  I am currently working on a 13-page application and had to take a break.  Sometimes I feel like I get into the rut of filling in the spaces and trying to get the best wording to really portray our family and the request that we are making. Here lately as deadlines get closer to some of them I am forgetting to do what is important..... and pray over these applications.  Pray that even if we do not get selected to receive a grant that the money will go to a family that really needs that final push to get their child/ren home.  Pray for the board members that give up their time and make efforts to pour over these applications and listen to God's leading.  As well as give thanks in my prayers that God has generous people out in this world to give money when they can to a good cause! 

 

I will stop and say right here and now - that we are not worried about the money side of these adoptions!  While we are adopting up to three precious children and our cost almost triples, we have no reason to doubt.  Let me clarify - the number is very scary when we have to fill in that blank on the grant application of Total Cost of Adoptions $________!!!  But there is no possible way that we can doubt how God has provided thus far.  When we started on this journey, I'm not going to lie - that number scared the skin off of me - but now I am looking forward to seeing how God is going to make that money appear.  Because I know He will! 

 

While it has been mainly my job to find and organize all materials for these grants, Ryan has been a gem!!  I left him a post-it note with 4 or 5 copies to make, answers to fill in, or documents to scan in last weekend while I was out of town and my honey came through!  God has blessed our team efforts and while we do things in COMPLETE OPPOSITE ways - we are accomplishing our goals! 

 

I also want to thank those that have agreed to help us out.  Many of you have been willing to be a reference for a grant or fill out a questionnaire on us.  We know this takes time and efforts on your parts to do this for our journey.  We give thanks for you and couldn't do this without our friends!  (Sorry family, you don't count on this one, because we can use you all as references!)  Let me also shout out to our awesome agency and program director!  She has done so much for us and I feel like we are the only family she has since she gets back to us so promptly and efficiently!  Guidance, kind words, and encouragement help this process go smoother!!

 

So I'm heading back to my paperwork refreshed and renewed after a time of prayer!  Lord help me to not loose sight of your plan and your design of how this journey looks!  Let me be faithful in EVERYTHING.  Amen!



BIG NEWS, BIG NEWS!!!

We are excited to announce that we are finally:

 

 

HOME STUDY COMPLETE!!!

 

 

We have been waiting to announce this part of our adoption journey for so long!!!  We sent in our USCIS form today!!!  This is a big form (which means big money attached to it, of course!) but God has already provided those funds!!  We are over the moon excited about this big step! 

 

What's next?  Yep, I'm kinda wondering that one too!  We are currently in the process of doing many things.  We have sent off many, many documents to 5 different states (thank you Navy!) to get documents certified.  We have received all but one of those back.  Then we wait for our USCIS form to be returned and do more fingerprinting.  After this gets done, we do a lot of waiting. 

Waiting for news on our referral of kiddos,

Waiting for our documents to be translated,

Waiting for God's perfect timing in meeting our kiddos! 

 

All we know right now is that we have butterflies about getting closer to our children.  From a mama's heart, I simply can't wait and I tear up every time I think about them and what they might be doing today.  I am so incredibly thankful for a God that knows all those things and is taking care of my children today and will forever be in His hands! 

 

We have started applying for grants.  In fact, we got so excited about being done with the home study (most grants make you wait to be done with that step!) that we applied for one last night.  We are still standing firm in the fact that God will take care of the necessary funds! 

 

I think that's about it for now.  This last month has been a trial for us emotionally - we know there are many more waits coming our way, but we are rejoicing this week in making this big step - REJOICE WITH US!!!  

Just airing some frustrations....

So today's post isn't all jolly and upbeat as the previous ones have been.  This post is mainly to get things off my chest.  My frustrations, my envies, my agenda.  See, all these things I KNOW God has under control, but sometimes I start to go to the other side and start to take them back into my own hands.  Sometimes I struggle with this daily!  Today I am struggling with our Social Worker.  She is an extremely nice woman and we are glad she has done all that she has.... up until this point.  Without going into the depressing details, we have been at this stage for over a month!  We were hoping to be Homestudy Complete by the end of February!  Well, today is that day and no report has been completed. 

We got an email update from our agency (whom we LOVE by the way!) and they send out timelines on other families.  My first mistake was reading this email, but the excitement got the better of me.  One family (ONLY ONE!) started and ended their process in 11 months.  That's right, 11 months!  Most are taking up to 2 years.  Well, little Miss Competitive here, wanted that same time frame and that is not the time frame God has for our family.  I let my agenda get in the way and my emotions came to an explosion today when I found out not even all our interviews have been conducted!  Sigh! 

I was quickly reminded of Ecclesiastes 3 where God states there is a time for everything.  God knows the exact date that my kids in Haiti will indeed become mine.  Yes, I am anxious.  Yes, we are doing everything we can to speed up this process.  Yes, I am worried about their well-being until I can get them into my own arms.  But all this does nothing to help my kids get home faster.  In Ecc. 3, I am reminded that God already knows all this timing-business.  Even if the Social Worker takes longer than what we think she should.  I am thankful for a God that is Omniscient.  I am thankful for a God that knows my worries and anxieties and puts people into contact with me that reminds me of that.  I am thankful for His Word that I can have at my fingertips to know all these things about Him. 

So instead of being all mopey, depressed, and anxious - I am going to try to salvage my day and look at the fact that I serve a God who is Omniscient! 

Update

So to keep everyone updated on the latest happenings. 
We had our first Homestudy visit on Sunday morning - early!  But our social worker was really nice and we felt comfortable with her from the beginning!  God is good! 
We sat down and talked for a little less than an hour.  Questions like,
   "What do you children think about adopting?"
   "Is your extended family and church family supportive in your decision to adopt?"
   "How will the room arrangements be done?"
   "What are your fears and concerns?"
   "What books are you reading to prepare?" 
Some of the questions we were able to answer together as a couple, and some we answered individually.  The children did fabulously well playing upstairs as we answered the questions.  In fact, one question she asked was if they always get along so well?  Uh, well, do we have to answer that one?! 

Then she walked through the house.  This was my most anticipated and anxious time.  As a co-director and co-manager of our house, I was nervous to see if all our hard work was going to measure up.  I felt like I was going to puke, just to be honest!  But, no puke was spewed, so all was spared from that embarrassing moment!  It was about 5 minutes and I was hoping for her to get on her hands and knees to look under beds (usually a scary place in our house!) and open some cabinets to see how organized we were trying to be!  Nope, none of that - so I guess she felt confident that our house was ready for more kiddos! 

The next step is to wait and schedule our individual interviews and then have Grady possibly answer some questions.  We are hoping to schedule that meeting sometime this week.  It will be at a mutual location instead of our house, so the pressure is all off to keep living in a glass house!  Phew - we couldn't pull that off for too long, that's for sure!! 

After we do those interviews, we will wait for her report.  One step closer to completing this long adoption journey, one step closer to knowing them by name like my Lord does, and one step closer to bringing them home to our family! 

These last few weeks I have been rather impatient, to tell the truth!  Our paperwork has been done for 3 weeks and still no call for the Homestudy.  Waiting, and more waiting.  Feeling like we were wasting time that my children could be coming home.  However, in all of this waiting, God has been teaching me that there is a reason for all of this waiting.  God is growing me in so many ways it's impossible to share all of it.  As I look back at what I considered "time wasted" I saw that I wasn't relying on His timing.  I was wanting to take control of it again.  I am constantly reminded that, "He's got this!" 

In my Sunday School class we are studying James.  As we were reading through some verses, a particular couple of verses caught my eye and made me stop right in my tracks.  Now, I've read these verses before, in fact they are even underlined in my Bible, however, they took a new meaning when I read them yesterday. 

James 4:7-8 - Submit yourselves, then, to God.  Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 

Come near to God and he will come near to you. 

 

I HAVE to give this whole adoption journey over to God.  I was letting the devil start to get a foothold and make me impatient and rather anxious.  I cannot run this show and be in control.  Control is one of my biggest issues that I know God is pruning.  It is not easy, but I know that as He prunes, I will become closer to Him and more like what He wants Jenny Batchelor to be!