Sleepyhead

My director (Lucy) just came back from a week in Guatemala - visiting all the babies/kids that are in the process for adoption through KAS. She was able to go shopping and buy some gifts for the kids at Casa Bernabe (for C-mas I assume) but didn't get to Katie's (Wendy) house till 7:30pm. Katie/Wendy was sound asleep when she arrived. They did wake her up a little, but she was still pretty sleepy. Lucy said she will send some pics when she gets the chance, but I doubt there are any smiling ones.

As for where we are in the adoption . . . . we are still waiting. Evidentally, the Guatemalan court has yet to issue the COA (certificate of abandonment), so we are still waiting for that to be able to send down our POA (power of attorney) and officially start the adoption process.
PLEASE pray that the court gets that paper in the orphanage's hands soon! Jeremy and I still have peace that she is our daughter, but I will have much more peace knowing that we are "officially" going through the adoption process to bring her home. Know what I mean? :) Thanks for your prayers!

Despite the delays in Guatemala, God is still working here in regards to our finances/fundraising for the adoption expenses. Thank you, Thank you, Thank you to those that just recently gave towards our adoption!! I know I've said it before, but I will say it again and again . . . I am truly humled (to tears many times) at the generosity (and obedience to the Lord) that so many of you have shown to us! Some of you have been practically strangers to us - but have generously given - and that blows me away even more! May God bless you all 100 fold (and more) for what you have done! Your giving has always been an answer to my prayers! We are within a couple hundred dollars of having the money needed to be able to accept this referral. So - that may be the reason God has allowed the delay in the COA, etc. He still needs time to provide for the money we have to pay. :)
On that note - in case you didn't know - if you use our Google links & search engine, it does add a little money to our account. So, anytime you need to "google" something - come to our site. That's an easy and cheap way for you to contribute to our fund. :) Thanks so much.

Blessings on you all this week! I will try to post some pictures when I get them in. Thanks for checking in on us!

Lori :)

Life International

Many of you have asked about donating before the end of the year to receive a tax-deduction. We have recently signed up to work with Life International to allow tax-deductible donations to be given in support of our adoption. Life International is a trusted organization administering the funds on Katie’s behalf, and will pay adoption expenses out of funds received. They will be accepting donations for our adoption until January 31st, 2007 only. In addition, any funds raised over the amount we need (or after the goal date), will be prayerfully applied to other adoptions as grants or loans, and not to pay administrative costs. That is one of the main reasons we chose to work with Life International.

To receive a tax deduction for your donation:

1. Please make checks payable to : Life International. To go towards Katie’s expenses, you need to preference how the donation might be used by writing “Kathryn West Adoption” in the memo section of your check.
(*Note: In following IRS guidelines, your donation is to Life International which retains full discretion and control over its use.)
Please send before January 31st, 2007 (or by 12-31-06 for your 2006 tax purposes)

2. Mail Checks to:
Life International
Attn: Kathryn West Adoption
PO Box 40
Gridley, IL 61744

3. You may also donate online utilizing Paypal (a small percentage will be taken out by Paypal for fees - somewhere around 3-5%) http://www.lifeintl.org/

Currently, and after January 31st, we can still receive donations at our house (payable to Jeremy or Lori West) or online via Paypal (minus a small fee). These are not tax-deductible, but are still needed. Contact us if you have any questions.

*We will also be closing out our Entertainment book sales on December 9th! If you have not yet bought one of these wonderful books, or you need more as gifts for friends or family members - contact us soon. We still have around 35 books here, or they can be ordered online (small s&h charge may be applied).
They are $25 (retail $30) and you get a FREE $25 gift certificate to a local restaraunt (of your choice) once you register your book online. So - in essense - you get the book for free . . . and then you get to save even more when you use your coupons! I don't know why anyone would NOT want one! :) Unless, of course, you don't like saving money! :)

Blessings to you all! I will hopefully receive some more info on Katie this week. Our agency director went to Guatemala this past week, so we are waiting anxiously to hear back from her and see some new pictures. :) As of last week, we still had not received all her info, nor did the orphanage have her COA (certificate of abandonment) in hand yet. I am hoping that they got that before or while Lucy was down there. That should be able to tell us more about how long this case might take. We'll see. Keep praying! It's in God' mighty hands now!!

Thanks again to all who have helped, supported, encouraged, prayed and donated financially to us! We could not have done any of this without all of you! And we are encouraged to know that we have warriors and supporters to get us through the rest of the journey! I pray it is an easy one - but am preparing for it to be difficult.

God bless!

Lori & Jeremy :)

Some new info!

Happy Thanksgiving (tomorrow)!!!
Hope you all don't gorge yourselves on that yummy turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing (mine's the best!), pumpkin pie (the best - again!), and other fixins! Enjoy your families and friends and be thankful for all God has blessed you with this year!

I am thankful that I heard from Donie (the orphanage director) today! :) That just made my day! Evidentally they are still waiting on the certificate for the abandonment - but hopefully that will come soon. Katie (Wendy) has been at the orphanage since last summer (end of July - around the time got started stirring my heart towards adoption again!) after a previous adoption process was canceled (a relinquishment) because the mother disappeared and the court couldn't do DNA testing. I don't know if this will hinder things in the process or speed it up. I guess time will tell. There's alot of uncertainty going into this and it continues to be "steps of faith" all along the way. The enemy would want to use fear (and other things) to keep us from pursuing this adoption - but we feel so strongly that this is our daughter - that we are willing to depend on God to bring her home!

I keep thinking about the picture God had given me awhile ago about floating down the river. We could do nothing but float and let the current take us downstream. We came upon a narrowing between 2 large flat rockbeds. It didn't look like we would fit (no one thought we would) - but we DID (just barely). Then, at the edge of the rocks was a waterfall that we went down - scary yet exciting - and then a calm pool at the bottom where we floated over to the edge and got out. In a prayer time at our Mei Ming meeting a couple months ago, a man in our group said "I see a waterfall. You are going to get to the waterfall with a calm body of water at the bottom" . . . .hmmm . . . .where have I heard that before? :) Not 100% sure what the "waterfall" is - but I know we are going in the right direction! Downstream! Along with this, many other confirmations, and of course - my friend's picture she drew - I have alot to "fall back on" if I ever start to doubt that we are doing the right thing! God is so cool how He orchestrates things! :) Of course - I don't always see it very clearly when I'm going through it.

We ask for your prayers as we continue to move forward.
Please pray for Lucy, our agency director, this next week (Nov 26th - 31st) as she travels down to Guatemala to get some more info on our case and others.
Pray for a speedy and miraculous process for Katie (Wendy)!
Pray for strength and patience on our part during the waiting game ahead of us. It's all out of our hands - and that's hard for me. :) I like to be in control. :)
Pray for the remaining finances to come in (I know they will). We should hopefully hear from Life International soon about being able to accept tax-deductible donations (and possibly a matching grant). Hopefully before the end of the year for those of you that were wanting to donate and get a deduction.

God bless you all today! Be Thankful! God is Good! He bestows blessings on His children! If you don't think you've received any latetly - open your eyes . . . there are probably little blessings you have overlooked! Be thankful in all situations and circumstances! God is always there.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Lori :)

ps - For those that haven't seen it - here's a picture of Wendy from the Casa Bernabe website.

She's actually smiling! :)

Prophetic picture of Wendy?

Check this out! My friend Bree gave us a card a month or two ago - sometime late Sept or early Oct (sorry - can't remember). She drew a picture of a little girl. She recently told me - "I just drew it, I kind of felt like it was more than just drawing it, but I didn't know if that was me just me being hopeful and excited. Anyway, my point being was that I drew that wisp of hair from her bangs, which I don't think I usually would've done, then the pig tails but that could've been any little girl....just thought it was interesting, I prayed that God would have me draw the right picture. I didn't know if that would mean just a sweet little girl or your future daughter. . ."

Check out Wendy's pic that was on the orphanage website -

We wondered if this is what our little girl would look like. Well, after seeing the picture of Wendy - check this out . . .

For those that haven't seen the other pics of Wendy - I'll try to post them here too. For some reason it is letting me upload pictures today. :)

September 2005

September 2005

September 2005March 2006

October 2006

Hopefully in the future I can get more "happy" pics from this shy girl. :)

Have a great day!

Lori :)

ps - Thanks Bree for the beautiful card!

Kathryn (Katie) Wendy Elizabeth

Well folks . . . I spoke with Lucy (my adoption agency director) and our referral of Wendy IS a "real" referral!! Why is that so exciting to me??? Read all our previous posts and you will find out! :) Lucy was shocked that she was able to get ahold of the orphanage last week (on the first phone call) and was doubly shocked that they were in fact offering little Wendy to us to adopt so soon(as she just became available recently). It's all God!! That's all I can say! I am praying that the rest of the process is also a "shock" to Lucy and everyone - as far as the speed of it, how smoothly things go, etc. Now - I'm not being stupid or blind, as I'm sure there will be bumps along the way - but I can still pray for the impossible!! :)
We are still waiting on all the "details" about Wendy (who I think we have finally decided to call Katie - short for Kathryn). The orphanage director, Donie, has bee quite busy (I can only imagine!! I thought caring for 4 kids was busy - imagine 150+!!). I am praying that I hear from her (or Lucy) very soooooon! Otherwise this week will drag on . . . .slowly! :) Once we get all the info, then I think we will be able to "officially" accept the referral (sending our Power of Attorney down there and paying half of our lawyer and agency fees). Yeah! That will be a great day!! :)
On the positive note . . . we did find out that the lawyer fees will only be $10,000 instead of the ridiculous $20,000 that some of the other lawyers charge. Hallelujah! Praise God! We get the girl of our dreams AND we end up paying less for the fees! Of course - I may end up spending that other 10k on travel if the case takes a long time. :) We'll see.
We have some friends who are going down to Guatemala around Christmas, and they have offered to go visit Katie (Wendy) for us. Man do I want to just go with them!! We'll see. I don't think it's a realistic financial opportunity for us right now. Instead we will be heading to Missouri for Christmas to spend time with Jeremy's family. Two loooooooong days (there AND back) in the car with 4 kids! Yuck! To fly it would cost us over $2000. :( Oh well. One day.

Here are some pics of Katie that a friend of mine was able to send me. She does some missions work at Casa Bernabe twice a year. I am sooooo thankful for these pics. She said she even has a little video she will send me! Yeah!

Lori :)
ps - For some reason I can't get the pics to post - so I will have to try again later. I'll try to post them on our other website too - www.freewebs.com/bestofthewests.