Here we go!!

The past six months or so have been a complete blur!  School has officially completed its first semester.  Christmas is next week.  Isaiah and Mikah are now officially wrestlers with the Brandon MatCats.  Anne and I are just trying to keep our heads above water with wrestling practice, church activities, school, Frassy girl parties and much more! Life just keeps going at a steady clip it seems.
But something just seems missing still.  The last post I wrote about our newest adventure...a possible adoption! 
Here is a quick snippet of where that stands today and what it looks like for us in the future.

We were introduced to a little boy named Job last spring.  Job is about four years old and lives in Haiti.  We have prayed and prayed for that little man more than anyone could ever know.  For his health, for his future and for anything or anyone that comes in contact with him.  We love him, our boys love him and we truly feel like he is part of our family. Despite never even touching him or seeing him in person.  We have pictures and even a video or two of him that friends have sent us.  He is truly an amazing little miracle.

Our hopes and prayers were to get the adoption process started and bring Job home sooner than later.  Unfortunately the likelihood of that is probably later.  The country of Haiti has stopped all adoptions currently as they attempt to go Hauge.(which will be a good thing in the long run I am told) Also, the orphanage he is in is completing a large building project before they start the adoption process.  With all of that being said we are not discouraged.  Our family still plans to support Job in any way that we can and will have an open door for him when God chooses to allow him into our home!  God has done so much for Job and us so far that we have faith there is still a plan there for us all together.

So the process to bring Job home could be 2-3 years or more.  We plan to wait like I said but as we have been talking about waiting there has still been a tug in our hearts.  There have still been signs from God saying we are supposed to continue this process.(we would love to share those with you)  To jump in with what we have and trust that His plan will unfold right before our eyes.  The faith of family and friends, and even strangers, have encouraged us to just let go and let God. 

There have been far too many crazy things happen for us to just put this all on the shelf and drag our feet waiting for Job...We have had enough trying to tell God "No!"  He seems to win that argument every time!
I have always heard and firmly believe that when God closes a door, He opens a window! For a while we felt that the door to Haiti had been shut and we were just supposed to wait for it to open or just deal with it being closed for good.  However, God doesn't work that way when we listen.  He opened a window for us, it just happened to be on the other side of the room, in a country we weren't expecting.

Thus was born the fire for the DRC!  The Demoratic Republic of Congo.  Through several pretty strong signs we have started to piece together that we are supposed to at least investigate the Congo and it's processes.  With a little research and a few emails to some parents involved in the process the Congo has started to grow in our hearts.  The kids from the Congo, also known as the "Rape Capitol of the World", are incredible kids with terrible futures.  The crisis in the Congo right now is out of control warfare, aids and terror.  The need for good Christian families to raise these children is so high right now that the process, if everything is ready to roll, is literally 9 months!  That is an incredible turn around but also a best case scenario if paperwork and funding is all present.  Obviously we aren't anticipating that type of progress with our situation but we are working hard to understand what God is planning for us here! A message I recieved from a contact yesterday states "Looking at our list of waiting kids in the Congo...we have such a need for families open to siblings (2 sets of twins, a sibling set of 4, another of 3 and one of 2...all kids 2-6). Also needing families to say yes to single placements of both girls and boys 2-4 years old. Some of our little ones have been waiting a year so the 2's are 3 and so on. Please share the word, the need is never ending!"

We have been surrounded by an amazing group of people that have been in this situation and completely understand the burning in our hearts for a kid we have never even met, or seen for that matter!

So at the nudge from God, last week we turned in homestudy papers and process has officially begun!! YIKES!!  We hope to have the homestudy complete in the next few weeks and then can start digging into the rest of the process.  Having no idea where God is going to plant our hearts is the fun part and we are expecting a lot of crazy times while trying to trust that He will take care of this all! 
For now we just ask for your prayers that we can follow where he is leading us and that his plan can be as flawless as possible.  We expect many bumps in the road and uncertain times so prayers for peace and patience would be amazing.  And finally please continue to pray for Job, Haiti and for the children from the Congo!  They need our prayers and support and they need our love! 

Please join us on this wild journey!

Love to All!