the end of May...

...is here, and that was the original estimate given to us for the completion of the home study, so it's a great time to give you an adoption update. After waiting and not having much adoption-related stuff to do for the last 2 months since we finished our interviews, Ashley sent us the preview of the home study document on which we needed to correct only a few minor details. She then sent it to Beth at Lifeline, and once it undergoes a Hague review (for which I think we will owe $250 because Louisiana Baptist Children's Home is not a Hague-accredited agency) it will be finalized. At that point we'll owe Lifeline our second installment of $2062.50, and then move on to getting our documents together for the dossier. We still don't know exactly what that process will look like, but it's exciting to be very close to having a copy of the home study in our hands because then we can start applying for adoption grants and loans. Of course, these involve lots of paperwork, and while we've been very motivated to get all the other paperwork done up to this point, we need to try to muster up the resolve to tackle more mountains of it. We know that grants will help us, especially when it comes time to make the trip to Peru, which will be the part of this process where we spend the most money in the shortest time span. We think that trip will cost over $10,000 after considering airfare, hotel and food for 1 month, but we have time to start saving now for that trip, and we know that God will provide abundantly as always.

During the final edit of the home study the LORD spoke very clearly to me to change the upper limit of our age range from 6 to 8. A few months into the adoption, I started praying that God would shoot me (as the momma) like an arrow straight to the child/ren He has set apart for our family. Mason is a HUGE part of this process and is 100% in this adoption journey next to me, but he also understands that he is the daddy and I am the momma and that with both of our current children I felt closely bonded to them for 9 months before he could. Neither of us thinks it improbable that God would do the same thing with an adoption, growing the children in the mother's heart long before they enter the home. It's hard to explain, but to me it's a beautiful picture of how the family operates in God's perfect design. Mason and I both have roles that are vital to getting our next child/ren home. He's working hard to bring in all the money and wisely managing it while we both pray and make the big decisions together, even as God reveals different things to each of our hearts. So cool. So now our home study lists a request for up to 2 children, up to age 8. Age can be considered a special need in Peru, and so there can be extremely healthy children who are just too old (usually over 5) for many families to be interested in adopting them. Another awesome way that God stepped in and changed our course was in our original request for at least 1 male child. Ashley and Beth discussed it and agreed that this request may hamper our approval by Immigration here in the U.S. When Ashley asked us about it, we chose to drop all gender preferences we once had in favor of the family member/s that God has already set apart for this household. So now we will be asking for up to 2 children, ages 0 to 8, either gender, open to mild correctable medical special needs as well as HIV and Hepatitis A/B/C. God knows and has equipped us to do what He's called us to do - though we do still need to get our minivan! ;)

I think that's it for the big news updates. Prayer points: God's perfect timing with deployment, as Mason is scheduled to go in the fall - sometime around then he and I will need to get our fingerprints done in Dallas for immigration to approve us. Pray that he will not be deployed during any critical time for our adoption to proceed. It doesn't hurt to pray that He won't have to go at all, but we know from his last deployment that God has good purposes behind that hard time of separation. Also pray for Isaiah...who we really don't call Isaiah anymore because we could possibly end up with 2 girls, in which case Ezekiel and Eden would be very confused about why we had called their new sisters "Isaiah" for the last year or two. We need to find a new household name, but it's hard when we don't know whether it's 1 or 2 and what their genders are! Just pray for Ezekiel's and Eden's little hearts to be prepared for their new sibling/s and for peace to reign in this home. God is so faithful to hear us. Here's a special verse (from Isaiah, where I am still learning so much) to leave you with. I've been praying it over Ezekiel and Eden and am starting to pray the same for our Peruvian addition/s:

I will pour out my Spirit on your offspring,
    and my blessing on your descendants.
⁴ They will spring up like grass in a meadow,
    like poplar trees by flowing streams.
⁵ One will say, ‘I belong to the Lord’;
    another will call himself by the name of Jacob;
still another will write on his hand, ‘The Lord’s,’
    and will take the name Israel. Isaiah 44:3-5

Family pics are rare - this one is great because of Mason's shirt. "How do you reach 147 million orphans? ONE at a time." (available at adoptionbug.com/masonandchristen)