March 8th, 2005 Update
We are happy to announce that we are officially finished with our
paperwork process for our adoption and have received all of our fingerprint
clearances and background checks! On February 28th, we airmailed our
final document to our adoption agency. The agency turned around and
mailed it to the translator, meaning that all of our paperwork is
in the process of making its journey to Kazakhstan.
In talking with the coordinators at our adoption agency, we have learned
that our expected wait time is about three months. This means that
as early as June, we could be making the long Journey to Kazakhstan
to get our first child! We are incredibly excited and can’t
wait to receive the call saying that it’s time to get on the
plane.
We have really appreciated your prayers and support this past month!
We’ve seen some awesome miracles. Most recently, we have been
blessed by the rapid return of our INS clearance. Despite the estimated
return time of up to three months, we received our clearance in only
two weeks! This was the main hold-up we were worried about, but God
worked it all out in His timing.
In addition, we have enjoyed befriending other couples who are also
in the adoption process. We found out that two wonderful couples from
our church have been filling out paperwork for their own adoptions.
Mike and Jennifer are in the process of adopting domestically and
Don and Sarah are adopting from China! (It will be great to have a
bunch of adopted kids in our church nursery someday soon!) We have
also enjoyed talking with Mike and Stephanie who are also adopting
internationally (Kevin and Mike work together at the school).
We are constantly meeting other people who are interested in adoption.
Sarah has been able to provide a large amount of information, recommendations
and support to these individuals. In fact, we both feel that God will
use us to promote adoption in our church and community. Sarah is also
feeling called to minister to other woman by encouraging them in opening
their hearts to adopting a child.
Please continue to pray not only for the child God has waiting for
us, but also for our ability to share with others about what God is
doing in our lives through this process. In addition, we ask that
you continue to pray for God’s provision of the remaining funds
necessary to complete the adoption. In an effort to raise some of
this money, we will soon be having a few garage sales in Santa Cruz
and in Sacramento.
Thank you so much for your continued thoughts and prayers! We are
so grateful for all the generosity that has been shown to us |