If you want to walk on water, you have to get out of the boat!

First of all, thanks to everyone who has been praying about our adoption decision since the last post. We have decided to go for it and adopt 2 girls instead of just 1! I think in the back of our minds, at least for the past week if not longer, we really wanted 2 but were afraid to take that additional step. Last week, while driving around Kearney while waiting for the boys to get our of karate, I heard a DJ on K-Love talking about the story of Gideon and how God kept testing him by shrinking his army until it looked like victory against the Midianites was impossible and the DJ paraphrased a verse from Judges that basically had God telling Gideon that "You will only see My power when I see your faith." That hit me like a iron girder right between the eyes and I could not let go of that phrase all week.

God is so faithful to provide needs when we show Him our faith. Along with the decision to add a 2nd girl to the adoption, there are additional costs associated with a second adoption. Through a matching grant that we are currently in the process of raising funds for, we had enough collected for the initial Ethiopian adoption program fee for one child but didn't really know where the additional money would come from for this phase of payments. This morning, Sandy called me and said she had a revelation. Her employer provides adoption assistance funds which we had collected for the first child but they provide that amount per child. That amount is exactly the amount we were short! We are just amazed at God's faithfulness!

We stepped out of the boat not knowing where this extra money would come from and the day after we started telling people of our new plans for 2 additional children, He has provided in a way we did not expect.

Please keep us in your prayers as we will be sending off our dossier to our agency this a.m. for their approval and then ultimately on to the US embassy and Ethiopian embassy.

INS Approval Received!!!

Thank you to all for your continued prayers! We finally received the long-awaited INS approval letter on Friday, May 8th. We are now faced with a major decision for our next step. When we were filling out all of our paperwork for the home study, INS application, etc., we indicated that we would consider adopting a second child if there was a twin or other sibling to our little girl. Well....our INS approval letter specifically gives us approval to adopt 2 children. This is potentially another major step of faith for us should we decide to pursue a second child in this adoption. We are currently praying over this decision to make sure that our decision is one truly led by God. Please pray specifically that we will both feel God's guidance in this matter! We will be sure to update this blog as soon as our decision is made.

The Latest Phase of Waiting

Thanks for your continued prayers for our adoption. Last weekend we received a letter from INS requesting information on our ability to support another child. We have been told that this has become increasingly more common in the past few months. We submitted the appropriate documentation early this week and are once again awaiting our approval letter. Everyone told us from the beginning that the waiting was the hardest part and that is definitely true! Please pray that all the remaining steps will go smoothly and quickly.