....nearly done.....still waiting

The 31 Gifts fundraiser raised $12.50! And we are excited about that "small" amount! For those who made this happen, thank you so much! Every bit "clips" away at the remaining total needed. Our fundraiser thermometer to the right, is all we have left to raise! That's it, out of a nearly 34K adoption! 

We are currently writing for grants, hoping to gain the last $3,900. Please pray with us on this. Thank you all who have prayed and supported us during this journey, which began with choosing our big brown-eyed Zephan, December 21, 2012. Then, as we longed for a girl also, we chose joyful Elliora, January 20, 2013. We expect to have our two children home June of this year. That's just three months! We are currently waiting for a court date. We could get one any time...or wait longer. We can certainly use prayers on this too. We really want to bring these two children home soon, but we aim to trust the Lord's timing.

We have been able to Skype Zephan and Elliora again this past week. It was really special. And though they long for us, and that is heartbreaking, it felt really good to reconnect. We were happy to see that they haven't given up on us, they haven't forgotten us. But to these 5 year-olds, this wait is very long. They do not understand. We pray for God to sustain their hope, and ours. We pray for the children's protection. And we pray for the foster families, as they raise and love these children for these last months.

We truly desire to remain in contact with the foster families, as they are like grand parents to Zephan and Elliora. We would like to learn their language, over time. And we have future plans to visit their country with our whole family, probably within the next 3-5 years and to continue returning to keep the connection of "grand parents" and also to experience more of their culture. We desire to also travel to our other daughter's birth country. She does not have the same people connections, but she and all of us desire to experience the culture of her first country.

Adoption is exciting. And tiring.
When we chose Zephan and Elliora, it was like getting a positive pregnancy test! I've been seriously elated all three times (four times actually) we had "two pink lines" on a pregnancy test and all three times we said "yes" to adopting a child! Our first journey of adoption took 3 months from start to finish. This adoption looks like it will be 18 months. Our first adoption was always moving forward. This adoption has been so slow, a lot of waiting. We started this adoption before we were really "ready", knowing that the process would be much longer than our other experience. But still, we had expected around 14 months. Waiting, waiting, waiting. 
But reality is, while we have been waiting now for 15 months, 
These two children have been waiting their whole lives. 
Totally worth it.

Thank you to all who bless us continually with 

encouraging words, financial gifts, and prayer to our Savior.