Redo!

I still have not heard back from the Sec. of the Commonwealth - after 3 messages left and several more phone calls over the last 2 days. I keep getting a recording to leave a voice message. I'll try again tomorrow. Though, now it may be a moot point. . . . .here's why . . .

I had Jeremy fax all the copies of our documents to our new agency to be reviewed for accuracy before sending to the Guatemala consulate for their authentication/certification (whatever it's called). I had done this with AHH and they had said everything looked fine, though I had questioned them about a few things that didn't seem right to me. I was trusting the "experts" though. Anyways - my new agency prides itself on being picky during the dossier prep part (isn't that what we are paying them for anyways??) so that we would not get kicked out of PGN in Guatemala (Procuraduria General de la Nacion . . . .it's like the Attorney General's office) to have to redo our forms then. KAS has only had 4 clients ever get kicked out of PGN - one was something they wouldn't have expected and the other 3 were things they should have caught. Some people get kicked out of PGN several times and alot of people just expect to get kicked out at least once. Anyways - I am glad that KAS has 3 different people looking over all our forms to check for mistakes. I'd rather fix it now than later! So - as you can guess . . . we have to redo a few forms, get them notarized and authenticated again. That's ok. It was disheartening at first, as some of the issues were the same ones I had raised before, but some of the things were not. So . . . back on a small paperchase again! Hopefully this will be it for dossier paperwork! :)
-Lori :)

Elizabeth-Fox.com

For those of you that may be new to our blog, my wonderful and very talented mom - Beth Fox (or Elizabeth) has recently started doing beautiful colored pencil drawings as a hobby but also as an artist. You can click on the title (or the picture in the sidebar) to take you to her new website (still in progress) and see some samples of what she has already done (of my beautiful kids and nephew of course). She also has a revised price list that includes pictures done of just the head and shoulders.

I know that many of you have expressed an interest in having her do a portrait for you (taken -from some of your own photos - or any professional ones you have even), but I wouldn't wait till it's almost Christmas to decide to get it done! She will definitely have more time to devote to art before the school season begins (she is a part time teacher and Math tutor as well) - so contact her to get your portrait started before eveyone else does! Don't worry if the picture you have doesn't have the best background, etc. - she will want a few pics anyways to get a feel for the person's personality, looks, etc.

She has graciously agreed to donate a small portion of her profits that come as a referral from me to our adoption expenses - so make sure you tell her you saw her work on my blog, or was referred by me! Thanks so much!

Lori :)

ps - I got our dossier back . . . . but guess what . . . . . the Sec of the Commonwealth messed up! I sent off 17 documents to be authenticated, and they only sent back 16 authentications (don't worry - they did send back all 17 documents), and one of the authentications had the wrong date on it (of when the notary sign it). I tried contacting them 5 times today and left 2 messages. Didn't hear back from them. I pray I can get this resolved quickly. . . . . . Just another adventure!!!! :)

On it's way!!!

I just checked the USPS tracking site - our dossier documents are on their way here!!! Should be here today! Yeah! PTL! One step closer!
Lori :)

Not yet

Well folks . . . Nancy was not our daughter. God has interesting plans - doesn't He? There's always a surprise around the corner!

The director of KAS did not feel a peace about Nancy being our daughter, and, honestly, I would have been surprised if she had (I feel a peace about her decision). Jeremy and the kids really liked Nancy and felt like she could be "the one", but I never really "bonded" to her as much as they did. I didn't know if it was because she wasn't "the one" or because I was guarding my heart until I knew she was ours, or what. I had a sense that maybe God would use Nancy to lead us to our daughter. If Jeremy had not felt a peace about her, then we would not have switched over to KAS, and it wasn't until we switched that God gave peace to the director that Nancy was not ours. See what I mean? God can be pretty sneaky - can't He?! :) I'm glad that He knows what He's doing! I'm trusting Him 100% - in all areas! I'm still in the dark about how we are going to come up with the rest of the money needed to adopt - but again - the surprises God has will only give Him glory!!!! He's in control!

As for our dossier - I thought it would arrive yesterday as the Sec. of the Commonwealth's office had told me they would process it and send it out on monday. As of last night - my Express tracking number said it had not been sent. Hmmmm . . . . may have to give them a call today. Hope nothing is wrong again. :)

Thank you for your prayers. Keep praying. Our daughter is out there somewhere. Pray that we find her soon, for her safety, and for a speedy process with the rest of the paperwork, etc. Oh yeah - and for the finances to come in (for us to have wisdom on where and how to get the money). Thanks guys! You all are awesome!
Lori :)

171H and our Dossier

Well - as most of you already know - we received our 171H in the mail on July 12th! Yeah! I did a little dance! Now we were just waiting on our dossier documents to return from the Secretary of the Commonwealth. It had been 8 days (only 6 working days) so I expected them any time. I waited till the 14th (friday) to call the Sec. of the C. to check on them (as my Express mail ticket said it hadn't been sent yet). When I did . . . . they could find no record of them anywhere. ????? How could they lose all 17 documents that I painstakingly took 2 months to gather?! I prayed and prayed over those documents during this whole process. The funny thing is - I had a strange (Godly) peace about the situation. They had the whole office looking for our documents on friday from 3pm till close and possibly on Saturday. I had all my friends and family praying. Worst case senario - we would have to redo them all. It's doable, but just a pain.

Well . . . at 9:55 am today I got a call from Tabitha at the Sec. of the C.'s office saying they had found our documents!!! Yeah! They would process them and get them in the mail today! PTL! Thank you for all your prayers guys! God is good!

God had shown me a picture last week when praying about whether we should switch to KAS and pursue Nancy.

Jeremy and I were coming off the cliffs that we had been rapelling (working with AHH) and were removing our gear. We then turned and started down a narrow dirt path through some tall (up past my knees) grass that was blowing in the wind. It would occasionally obscure the view of the path, but God said to keep walking - that the path was still there and to trust that there were not any rocks or anything to cause us to trip and stumble. The path was smooth. We walked a short way and came to a river where a canoe was waiting. We were to get in without paddles. The river would take us where we needed to go. It started out as a babblin slow brook (we were to enjoy the scenery then), but quickly turned into a fast-moving river. The river narrowed into a shallow gorge between 2 large flat-topped rocks. The canoe just fit in between the rocks! As we went through, we realized that we were heading down a steep waterfall! It was a bit scary, but exciting! We landed in a calm pool of water, floated to the shore and got out.

I felt like the problems with the Sec of the C. were just part of the grass blowing over the path (along with some other things I'll tell ya in a minute). There was nothing to fear - the path was still there. It was also our of our control, so no need to get upset or panic. We can't control the wind or the grass blowing in it. As for the other issues that are "obscuring the path" . . .

Since I last wrote - Jeremy and I decided to tell KAS that we wanted to move forward with Nancy and switch to KAS if that is what AHH would let us do. That took a few days to get an answer, but AHH is willing to let us go! Amazing! That is rare in today's adoption world!!! God is in control!! Again - this goes back to the pictures God's given me. We would have never found KAS (the river) had we not gone with AHH (down the cliff) as I didn't know about KAS when I originally did my agency research. See? God knows what he's doing! Anyways - when we told Lucy (the director of KAS) that we wanted Nancy - she said that the other family that had called about her a couple weeks before us (and had called when I was on the phone with Lucy the first time) has decided to put in an application to KAS just when we decided! I don't know if that meant they were wanting Nancy, or just wanting to work with KAS. We're still waiting to find out. Originally Lucy had said that if 2 families wanted this little girl that she would have to pray about where she should go. That was really encouraging (and rare in today's world - especially in adoption). Most agencies say that whoever is the "most paperwork ready" or who sends us the money first will get to accept the referral. I really liked Lucy and her values and willingness to see God's will be done above business and everything else. That can be challenging in toay's society! Anyways . . .
Last week was a strange week! We finally decided, then there's another couple wanting the same child. We wanted to switch to KAS, but wasn't hearing from AHH for most of the week regarding it. Lucy changed her mind and said that whoever got the money first to her could accept Nancy. This caused a little panic as their fees are broken into 2 main payments (unlike AHH's 4 payments) - so that meant we needed $11,000 right now and we only have $3000 in savings. I was going to use our 0% interest credit card through AHH, but KAS doesn't have the same online payment system and would charge a little more to use paypal (so they don't have to eat the paypal fees. I can understand. It adds up after awhile!). Anyways - Lucy changed her mind again and went back to praying about the situtaion. I had peace again. I want Nancy to be in the home she is meant to be in . . . whether that is ours or not. If she is not meant to be ours, then our daughter is still out there and I trust God to lead us to her. I also trust God to provide for the finances for this adoption. I don't know HOW He will do it, but I trust that He WILL do it! Thank you to those of you that have already helped out! You are a blessing!

So - as we stand right now - our application is in at KAS, AHH is working on sending our paperwork to KAS (and getting a release form for us to sign), we are researching into funding/financing options (I haven't even been able to apply for grants yet because we haven't known what agency we are officially going to be working with), and we are waiting to hear from Lucy in regards to Nancy. Thanks for all your prayers this weekend and throughout this whole process. God is in control!! We continue to covet your prayers and support!
Well - it's off to swim at a friend's today and then run around to doctor's appointments and grocery shopping, so I better go. Plus I'm sure I've worn your eyes out with my long posts! I need to write more frequently so make the posts shorter. . . . . like that would really happen! :) I tend to be wordy!
Have a great day!
Lori :)