Dossier nearly complete!

I stink at blogging anyway, but now that i'm in battle mode it is tough to find the time to post.

So, just a quick update for all of you that follow and pray us through the process. Thanks to our Church family, good friends and extended Church (Thanks to Homewood Church) family, we are nearly funded. I haven't had time to sit down and put a pencil to everything again, but we are close enough that we are sending our Dossier.

The other great news I want to share with you is...The Dossier is nearly complete. I'm waiting for one paper coming from out of state. All the others papers are ready to be notarized and apostilled. I hope to ship the monster out next week.

Until next post, take care friends!

Shane

Can anything good come?

"Nazareth! Can anything good come from there?"- John 1:46
When i was thinking of that verse, the though came to mind, "How much good"? As we were going through the motions of the planning of this fundraising dinner, it became more and more apparent to me that this dinner was no just about us and bringing our kids home from Eastern Europe. God was working out many other plans in and through this event. I take comfort in knowing some and knowing there are so many more that I do not know. A few people i met had been curious about our Church and will possibly now be coming to a service. There were several people that had considered adoption who are now connected with people that will love them through the process. As Sheryl Sprague keeps reminding me, people were given the opportunity to serve. And many new friends were made! Go GOD!!!

We had so many volunteers people though we started the dinner early!

It was a time for families!

We were reminded of the generosity of the world!

Good friends served the Lord side by side!

New friends were made! And Traci performed magic with her hands! ;)

It would never be possible to Thank everyone adequately. You all are amazing and an immeasurable blessing!

We are now seasoned enough at the adoption process to know that when we are in the battle, feeling weary and in need of affirmation, God bring us what we need! Yes, we need funds ($5200 was raised...Praise God!), but we also needed to see the love of friends gathered around us. It was an added blessing to see a small part of all the other plans God was working through this event.

"By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”- John 13:35

Shane

His Will...His Bill!

It is a saying that i first heard from a missionary friend named Michele Perry (http://fromtheunpavedroad.com/). Accepting God's direction, she traveled to Sudan to start and Orphanage. She arrived in Yei, Sudan, a place she had never been before, alone and with about $200 in her pocket. The next day she signed a lease on a building of which she had no idea where the rent money was coming from. But because of her faith in our ever loving Father, she simply said, "His will...His Bill"!

Michele has a faith that i admire. She is an inspiration to me and the marker of where i hope my faith will be some day. But today, I can only explain my faith as being hot, warm and cold. I know that God will not send me on a journey and neglect to light the path or provide the tools. But there are those days when it seems like nothing is happening and i start to question and worry.

A week ago i was in just such a place. We have our USCIS approval, the dossier is a piece of cake, it looked like things were coming together except we have less than $2000 of the $50,000 we need to go get our kids and were without idea of where it would come from...Ugh!

For our 2010 Adoption in addition to a grant and some donations, we emptied our savings, cashed in our 401k's and took out loans. With our tax return we paid back some of the loans, and gave back through mission work with orphans in Ukraine. So, when we decided we would adopt again we were absolutely starting from zero and further back than we were on the first adoption.

Doing nothing was not an option so we reached out to our Church. Before we knew it, we had a date locked in to hold a Spaghetti dinner. Now, we have never done a spaghetti dinner and had no idea even where to start. We were confident that left to ourselves to pull this off it would likely not turn out well. God knew that to, so he sent us Sheryl Sprague to take charge. Sheryl has leadership experience and a huge heart for serving the Lord. Before we knew it the event was taking form. Many of our friends and Church family had come forward to volunteer and it is absolutely amazing to see that we are not in this alone!

Thank You to everyone that has come along side of us! Your love has brought us peace!

Shane & Diana

I-171H APPROVED!

We received word today that our I-171H is on it's way to us. This was the first major hurdle!

We now have to come up with the funds. We think if we can get the funds we can have them home by March!

Please pray!

Shane & Diana

What's the hurry?

Masha is the oldest of the siblings that we are adopting. Generally, an adopted child who reaches the age of 16 is not allowed a visa to enter the US. Because Masha is part of a sibling group she is still eligible to receive a visa until she turns 18. Masha turns 18 this July. We are in a race to get there and get the adoption completed ASAP. We don't want to arrive there in June and hit a road block and have time run out. Our goal is to submit our Dossier in Early February.

Here are the obstacles that we face:

1) I-171H! Our home study is finished and we are approved for the five children. Our I-600 is submitted to the US government and we are waiting approval of our application. We are asking for our friends to add this request to their prayers!

2) Money! It is tough for me to admit when I need help. I always think I can do it on my own. Asking people to help others has never been an issue for me. Asking others to help us has always been a tough thing for me. Having just come off our last adoption a year ago and still fighting the IRS on last years return, i have to admit and accept that we will likely not be able to get there before Masha turns 18 if we try to do this alone.

3) The Judge! To clarify, we are adopting a sibling set of three and two boys that are unrelated. They all grew up together in the same orphanage. We will likely stand in front of the same judge as before. The same Judge that told us, "I will never allow four to be adopted at the same time again". The way we see it, 5 is not 4! Please pray that God softens this Judge and that we come home with all of our children!

Thank you friends and God Bless!

Shane & Diana

YES! We are CRAZY!

We are CRAZY in LOVE with these children! So, This is your official notice that we are PAPER PREGNANT again!

While in Ukraine working on the adoption of our girls we got to spend some time at a Christian Orphanage. That is when we met and fell in love with these children. Although at the time we weren't even considering another adoption, they were capturing a place in our hearts.

There is so much more to this story that we'll try to share with you as time goes on.

Shane & Diana