Paper ready? & Entertainment books

The Guatemalan Consulate in DC got our paperwork last thursday afternoon, authenticated it all, and sent it out on Friday evening! Faster than I expected! :) It arrived in KY at our agency on Monday morning. Yeah!(though my agency didn't tell me it had arrived when I spoke with them monday afternoon - maybe they hadn't opened their mail yet)! The director and assistant for the Guatemala program are reviewing all our documents again today to make sure they are all correct. I am soooooo glad they are sooooo picky! Like I said before, out of thousands of documents they have sent to Guatemala over the years, only 4 documents have been kicked out of PGN to be fixed!!! Only 4!!! That's a fantastic record!
We did get a big dossier packet in the mail from KAS on Monday and when reviewing it, I noticed that we didn't do a form (that AHH never required), and I also noticed that a few forms that we had authenticated at the state and consulate level - they didn't require them to be authenticated (for KAS). Oh well. Each agency does things differently. I wish they had told me that though before I sent them off to the consulate. That would have saved some money. Oh well. I typed up the Child's Rights Affidavit that we hadn't done and sent it off to KAS along with new G28 and I600 forms, etc. KAS will take care of the authentication of the Child Rights form for us. Thank goodness. :)
I also found out that our agency had quite a few baby girls become available this last month - which explained why the director told me to "let her know" if we changed our mind from a 2-5 year old and wanted a baby. :) It's unusual to have to "find" parents for these baby girls! Usually they go quickly (and hav e probably already been placed). It did make me stop and think for awhile. I'm so anxious to know who my daughter is - that I wonder sometimes . . . should we just take a baby? Are we really supposed to get a toddler? . . . you know - all sorts of things run through my mind. I just keep praying and following the "Peace". Right now - J and I still have peace about a toddler. Some of those babies are darn cute . . . . but I have been really enjoying being out of the "baby stage". No diapers, nap schedules, strollers, bottles, etc. I can actually sit and relax at the pool, while my kids play, for the first time in over 10 years! :)
Anyways - our daughter is out there somewhere, and I know the Lord will show us clearly who she is.

Pray for Lucy, the director of KAS as she goes down to Guatemala the middle of this month.
Pray for the lawyer that is looking for our daughter.
Pray for our daughter to be safe and to be found soon.
Pray for us - for paitence, peace, health, and for our finances (adoption and otherwise). (oh yeah - Jake's surgery is at 9:15 am tomorrow, Thursday. Pray it goes well)

Thanks for all your prayers! We appreciate it wholeheartedly!
-Lori :)

ps - Most of you have received an email from us (thru Entertainment), but for those that we don't have your email address . . .

We are selling the Entertainment discount books (for all areas of the country) to help raise funds for our adoption. The Norfolk area book is $25 and we recieve a percentage (based upon the number of books we sell - so obviously, the more we sell, the better). You can save a TON of money by using the coupons in the book (which includes many places you probably already spend money at)! We saved over $2000 on a hotel near Disney through our book 3 years ago. It was a 5 star place at 1 star price! The coupons are good till November 2007!
If you live near us and want to purchase them - let us know. We will be getting books in around the 21-15th of August. You can also order online (I think there is a $5 S&H charge??). Let your friends know too! Thanks so much! You'll love this book! We've been using them for over 10 years!

*If ordering online -
You can click on the title of this post or the link on the sidebar. Make sure it says you are supporting "The Best of the Wests" in the green section near the top of the Entertainment site.
Or
Go to http://www.entertainment.com/support/ and type in our group number (or seller number) to give us credit for your order. Thanks.
Group # 883993
Seller # 321301

To the Consulate

Hello all! Here's this week in review:

1. We were able to notarize our slightly revised forms on Wednesday (Thank you Cheryl, Todd, Marsha, Jeremy and Dr. Riles)! God bless you all!

2. Our authenticated (or is it certified?) forms have arrived at the Guatemalan Consulate in Washington DC to be authenticated there this coming week! Then they will go on to our new agency - Kentucky Adoption Services. Hopefully the Consulate won't lose our forms or mess them up like the Secretary of the Commonwealth did. Please pray! :)

3. On Thursday - one of the hottest days this week- I came home in the afternoon to a hot house . . . our AC broke! :( . . . . . PTL though - we were able to get a wonderful man (W.P. Hogge, Jr) to come out right away (that evening) and fix it (for a heafty price though)! He had been working since 4 am that day and was still at our house around 6:30pm. I'm so thankful for AC!!

4. No news on the referral front this week. That's ok. We are still finalizing our dossier stuff. Though, it would be nice to already have the referral for when our dossier is finished. God knows. :) I just wish He'd clue me in on the time frame of it all. :) Hey - I did go to the Prophetic Presbytery meeting on Wed to be activated in the prophetic . . . . so . . . let me tell you when we will get a referral! . . . . . . . In God's timing! :) Hee, hee.

5. We have applied for a grant and are starting to work on our fundraising efforts (now that our paperwork is done). Please pray for wisdom in raising/getting the money we need. I know that God will provide - I just don't want to overstep my boundaries so that His will can prevail.

6. I've been having some balance problems this week. Please pray. It seems to have gotten worse the last couple days. I have been on a healthier diet - a hypoglycemic diet - as I was having problems after eating carbs/sugar, etc. I had been feeling soo much better (untill I got a grande Caramel Frappucino at Starbucks! I'm not doing that again for awhile!). I don't know if I just have some fluid in my ears; my neck is out of alignment; my hormones out of alignment???; or something else. I have had bad vertigo in the past - and it ended up being related to my vertebrae, and going to a chiropractor helped. I don't really want to spend the money (or time - his office is 25 minutes away) on a chiropractor. I'd rather be healed! :) Anyways - please pray for me! I don't like feeling incapacitated. For those that really know me . . . . I like to go, go, go and be in control. When your head is spinning and you can hardly walk - there's nothing you can do but lay down. I think God uses it sometimes to slow me down! :) great. . . . . .Thanks for your prayers!!!


Coming up this week - please pray for:

1. My balance/health issues

2. Jacob's surgery on his lower eyelids (on Thursday) - he has had several styes this year that wouldn't heal and the doc says they are Chalazions. "A Chalazion is a non-bacterial lump on the eyelid caused by a blocked mucous gland under the eye." The puss core hardens and won't come out - so they have to surgically remove it. Quick procedure - but has to go to the hospital and be put under general anesthesia for it. :( Pray for the procedure to go well and for quick healing. (Or even better - pray that they Chalazions go away before the surgery!!!)

3. Adoption financial wisdom - how and where to get the money for the remaining $20,000 that we need.

4. My oldest boys are at camp near Lynchburg this week! Pray for their safety and that God will touch their hearts in a profound way.

Thanks so much you guys! What would I do without you all?! I appreciate your encouragement and support so much!
God bless you today! May your rest in His peace that passes ALL our understanding!!!
Lori :)

Dossier forms

Hello gang! I can't believe another week has flown by! Too fast! Summer will be over before I know it and I'm no where near ready for school to start (especially since I will be kind of homeschooling Tyler - my almost 11 year old. He will be attending Oak Tree Academy 2 days a week and home with me 3. We'll see how it goes.). Anyways -
I did finally get ahold of "someone" at the Secretary of the Commonwealth's office last friday - and she was able to fix and send out a new form for the one that had the wrong date. She didn't know what to do about the missing one - so she said Tabitha would have to call me back. I didn't hear anything from her, so on Tuesday I called, and Tabitha sent out an authentication paper Fedex. I've got all my authentications now! Yeah! . . . . However . . . .
Today I was talking with my notary about having to resign some revised forms, and when I was looking over the old forms and authentications, I noticed that 4 of the authentications were missing the words "Notary Public" where it states who the official signiture is from. So . . . . back on the phone to Tabitha. She corrected them and is FedEx'ing them today. :) Man - 3 days in one week I've gotten to see the FedEx truck at my house! How exciting. :) hee, hee. Anyways, Tabitha has been really nice and unfortunately for her - we were not the only ones who have had problems. Tabitha just came on staff in the spring and has done a superb job of catching up on alot of the backlog, but in July they hired a temp/intern to help her (Tabitha said she was only about a week behind instead of 4 months like before). . . but it looks like the temp/intern may have done more damage than help. Poor thing. I'm just glad we were able to get all of it straightened out over the phone!

So - here's our other news . . . . Some of you know that Jeremy has a vehicle that doesn't fit our whole family (only 5 people), and so when my car is getting repaired - we can't go anywhere all together. We have been praying about getting a bigger van/vehicle - but have never felt a peace about the timing or the money. I kept telling him to hang on a little longer. :) His car has over 170k miles on it - but it's not a horrible car. I've been in worse (ie - the first car I ever rode in with Jeremy - his rust-colored, and rusted, diesel Chevy Chevette!!! Ask about it sometime!). anyways - last sunday we were having lunch at my mom's and when J went to get in his car, and the brakes went all the way to the floor! Scary thing is - my dad had just driven the car up to the store! PTL he didn't get hurt! Jeremy was upset about having to put more money into a car we wanted to get rid of anyways, and he started to complain to God "if You want me to have a bigger van, then YOU have to pay for it!". OK - so it wasn't very polite or reverant - but God heard it. We went to a party at a friends, and they had just purchased a new van (nice! Envy!). They asked us if we knew anyone who needed their old van? Hunh? They were going to give it away? Hunh?! Actually . . . . . . we do! :)
So - we are getting a bigger vehicle! :) It actually has more miles on it than J's car and needed a little bit of repair work - but we agreed to pay for the repairs (cheaper than buying a newer van, that's for sure!) and I think this van will (hopefully) get us a little further along till we can get a newer (less milage) vehicle . . . . after we pay for this adoption! PTL! God is good! He hears - even when we are angry and frustrated . . . He still cares and loves to surprise us!

Well, I've just been reminded that I am missing out on Fun Family Friday here at the West house - so I need to get off the computer. Thanks for taking the time to check on us, and keep us in your prayers. Also - a BIG THANKS goes to our friends for giving us your van (you know who you are) and for Tabitha and all she's done to help us with our authentications (don't know if she will ever read this though)!
God bless you all today! He's in control . . . . and that's a good thing! :)
-Lori :)

Snap Shirt

Hey guys! If you have a blog (or other site) you've got to check out this cool site! You can type in your url and it will scan your site for the most commonly used words and make a word clump for you. You can then order it printed on a shirt, mug or other stuff. It's interesting to see the words you use the most often as well. You can change out some words if you don't like the ones on there - even change the font and color. Here's a sample (in chocolate brown/Helvitica)I took of our site today.
-Lori :)

Mei Ming Adoption Ministry

Most of you who read my blog already know about the adoption ministry at our church. For those who don't - it is called Mei Ming (which means "no name" and Mei is a common name given to the orphaned chinese girls). Click on the link to check out their new website or go to www.meiming.org. You will find testimonies of several families that have or are in the process of adopting, as well as our meeting schedule and more.
-Lori :)