God's Amazing Displays

With the adoption paperwork all turned in and now we're back into the waiting phase, I'm hoping to use some of this time to catch you up on a few happenings in the past few weeks. Here's a beautiful picture that Rick took while he was on his way home from work one day a few weeks back. Not too sure if you can tell from the picture (because all he had charged up and available to use was his PALM), but it is a photo of a double rainbow. They're magnificent to view if you've ever seen one! We live in Alaska and are very grateful for God's amazing displays of beauty all around us. We've been witness to several double rainbows this year and I'm hoping there's great footage on our movie recorder from the one I filmed while we were leaving the Alaska State Fair last month. It'd be neat to send that in the footage with our movie introduction of our family.

Gotta run an errand real quick but there's lots to share so please stay tuned.... There's much more to come.



Real quick, we could definitely use your prayers and have a specific prayer request for Rick's father, whom we learned earlier today suffered a heart attack. We're still awaiting more detailed information but we know that he is in the hospital and doctors are monitoring him and working to stablize his condition. This news came to us only 3 hours ago. Rick's parents are over in Colorado now and for the past month have been trekking with their RV across country. Luckily they were in Colorado visiting family when it happened. Apparently Rick talked to his dad this morning and he was complaining of hurting, and was explaining just a few of the symptoms, but nobody thought "heart attack" symptoms just then. An hour later when he complained his pain had increasingly become worse, Rick's cousin became worried it might be a heart attack (his cousin had suffered a heart attack only 3 years ago or so and remembered how his symptoms came on.) We ask that you please keep Rick's father, Dave, in your prayers. From our hearts we sincerely thank you and will post more information as it becomes available.

WAITING again...

With our documents back in Colombia now, again we wait! To wait is such a hard thing to do. I find myself drifting off wondering when we'll get our referral, wondering which area of Colombia we'll travel to, what the children will be like, and whether or not this will even happen this year! For some time now my favorite pastime has been to check blogs of other adopting families to track their progress. It's really therapeutic and very addicting! I'm also on a few Colombian adoption lists and regularly check their discussion forums. I also participate in a chat room praying specifically for Colombian adoptions and through that group have grown such awesome relationships with those others who regularly participate in the prayer group.

I know I need to do so many things in order to prepare for the joy that is to come, and I hope that next week will bring much more productive energy my way. I pray that God will again put me on the right track and keep me focused and able to do other things that are needing done! In the meantime I just wanted to update you that we are WAITING again...

Thanks for your prayers! We feel them and we're mighty grateful for them!

Many Blessings!
---genece---

Prayers Answered and Doors Opened!! YEAH!!!!

First of all, thank you so much for the prayers! We feel their great presence and my how they are working!!!! After weeks of pleading with Catholic Social Services offices, and having no luck, I was finally able to get the receptionist to patch me through to someone this Monday afternoon. As I explained the many struggles we’d encountered, she assured me she would look into it and have some sort of solid answer for the delay by tomorrow. I felt a little more confident after she explained that as of today she was in charge of the entire adoption services department. Just as promised, her assistant called me the following morning to let me know my paperwork was waiting for pick-up in their office. YEAH!!!! That’s what we’ve been needing, and now I could drive to Anchorage to get it. At that time I thought to myself, "Wow, sure wish Rick could take some time off from work and drive into Anchorage with me (because by week’s end we need to drive again to Anchorage to have our fingerprints redone with USCIS -- ours were set to expire on Aug. 31st)." We’d planned to drive into Anchorage later in the week because right now his construction project is so involved and at such a critical point right now and he couldn’t possibly break away until later in the week. Even so, I couldn’t help but wish there was some way to bypass making another trip to Anchorage later in the week. That’s when God opened the doors WIDE OPEN!! At that very instant, Rick called to report he’d unexpectedly hit a stopping point at his jobsite! One of Rick’s workers had been complaining of feeling sick all morning, and the other helper just amazingly remembered he had a doctor’s appointment in which he was about to miss if he didn’t leave right then. So Rick gave them the day off, but being the work-a-holic that he is, he tried to busy himself with other little tasks for the remainder of the day. When he called to let me know what was going on, he told of how weird it was that at that same moment both of the guys needed to go, but instead of being frazzled about their job being halted, he had a wave of calmness just blanket him. Then I told him, "Rick, I think God’s telling us it’s time!! We need to travel to Anchorage to pick up the document and then go to the USCIS for fingerprints while we’re there too. God just miraculously created an opportunity for us to move forward with this adoption! We’ve been patiently waiting by the door awaiting our Lord’s instruction and now the doors are flinging WIDE OPEN and we have to act now – it’s God’s perfect timing!"
Experiencing God’s amazing way of taking control is just pure joy! Thank you so much everyone for your prayers! Please know how much your prayers are moving our process along in such a mighty way! The documents are scheduled to arrive in Colombia early next week, where they will be translated which takes another week. By my calculations, we should still have 4 weeks or so from that point in which we might receive a referral, then travel, complete the adoption and be home in the U.S. with our new additions to the family before Christmas If a referral doesn’t get issued within the next 5 weeks, it is likely we will not receive the children before Christmas, and we would not be able to travel to meet them until next year. Taking into consideration that the ICBF closes their offices from approx. Dec. 15th to Jan. 15th, they try to finalize all adoptions by that month-long holiday so that no families have to stay an extra month’s time in Colombia. I sure hope that made sense! We continue to keep the window of optimism open and place all our trust in God to see it through. Please pray alongside with us for the paperwork & referrals to process through at lightning speeds! Continue to pray that those Colombian officials reach a speedy decision in matching our children with us, and also in matching children to the other waiting families awaiting referrals from Colombia.

Standing Firm!!!

After a conversation with my case manager today, I’m left with an overwhelmingly stunned feeling. It’s evident that our adoption process is taking far more time in preparing than the normal process for adopting a sibling group (which on average is running about 6-10 months from start to finish – and often times even less than 6 months). Ours has exceeded 19 months now, yet we continue on with plenty of hope that our day will come soon. The past emails from our case manager offered hints of pessimism throughout and even gave suggestions on how we’d need to have updates and supporting documentation in place during the months of February and March of 2008 to bring our documents up to date. I was completely stunned -- MARCH! Bear with me for a moment, I mean I’m all for being prepared, but this is way out of my focus range. I mean MARCH??? I thought we’d be back from Colombia with our new children by then. After all, we’re seeking to adopt siblings which tend to move rather quickly. To think that our dossier might still be up for review with no approval one whole year after submittal is totally absurd (and unheard of). At last check, for siblings as we've requested, ICBF's processing time was within 1 to 3 months of dossier submittal. Upon hearing this news I’m left to think, “How little faith does that display?” “Do they really think our adoption is going to go into another year?” The short answer comes rather quickly when I think back and realize that I’ve been filled with non-truths (or half-truths) throughout the entire process and why would this time be any different? Now comes the tricky part where I need a little timeout for myself! Breathe in, breathe out…. Breathe in, breathe out …whooooooo …..sorry, just had to take a few deep breaths just to gather my senses again! Okay, now back to reality…news is news and any info is subject to scrutiny, and really this is just mere guesswork on their part and offers up no rationalization or justification. So I'll not waste my time pondering over their whole pessimistic viewpoint, I must STAND FIRM with my beliefs and in my way of thinking! It restores my senses just knowing I must continue on, just as any strong believer in Christ would, placing complete faith that He will see it through. God is the divine matchmaker and will place these children before us when His timing is right. Focus musn't be lost in His divine plan for our family. My faith must remain intact and shall not waiver. I must stand firm, and if challenged, bounce right back to stand firm again.

Our family needs your prayers. I’ve certainly sensed an overwhelming need for prayer lately, and am learning to seek prayer from others. I really feel we are much, much closer to finalizing the adoption than our agency even realizes, and I strongly sense that the enemy knows that too and is using every tool possible trying to dash our hopes. We ask that you please find it in your hearts to lift our family in prayer to overcome the struggles that lie ahead, and that we continue to stand firm as strong believers trusting completely in the faith of God’s promises.

Sending our love,
Genece (and Rick)

PATIENCE – the number one lesson learned!

We understand that all things will come at God’s perfect timing, and we do trust in Him completely, and with great pleasure seek to be great stewards seeing His will through. I must say though that patience is the true virtue which stands out so vividly among the many character-enhancing qualities we’ve acquired while on this adoption journey. Going into this Rick and I had no idea we needed such fine-tuning in this area of our lives, but we certainly did. Anyone who has meandered down the adoption trail, especially an international adoption, knows it takes extreme patience time and time again throughout the process. We’ve certainly had this tossed at us over and over! Constantly being at the mercy of other people and working along with their timetables (and being appreciative nonetheless) has been hard to handle to say the least. It’s been so frustrating to be held in limbo unnecessarily, and more times than necessary never really knowing what (or who) to believe. We’ve encountered confusion far more times than normal, and from every level (the adoption agency, the home study writer, and the home study agency) Like I mentioned earlier, our home study took over 9 months to finish – and now we are again waiting for a home study addendum to be completed.

The ICBF (the Colombian government agency in charge of placement) has reviewed our dossier and has sent a letter mid-June (which we received late June), requesting we send an addendum to the home study indicating how we have prepared Marissa for her siblings. As explained by our agency, just a little paragraph or two was needed to detail our preparations. Knowing what a fiasco of a time we had previously with those individuals involved in the home study preparation, we knew what we were up against. I pestered the agency and the home study writer enough that they finally scheduled the home visit and later wrote the addendum. The task seemed to be on an acceptable pace until hopes were dashed upon reading the draft copy and learning she missed the mark completely. Luckily, through some persuasion and providing sample copy, another addendum was written that more accurately responded to the ICBF’s request. The social worker signed her final copy on August 6th, and it only required one more signature. Simple enough, right? NOT!!!! Here’s where that patience thingy comes into play once again – we are still waiting for this addendum. I called their office on Thursday, Aug. 16th, only to find out it was still awaiting signature from the Executive Director, who had been out of the office but was scheduled to return the next day. I asked them to call me as soon as it was signed as I’d gladly drive 60 miles away to pick it up. Friday, no phone call, and here we are through Monday with no phone call. I will again be calling tomorrow morning to check the progress. And to think, my husband calls me a procrastinator....WOW, not even!

This document still needs to go for apostilling in Juneau, AK then it gets sent to our agency in Tucson, AZ, then forwarded on to Colombia where it will be translated then sent on to the ICBF where they’ll review it and pick up the process from there. I believe after that we’ll receive the approval letter and the referral of the children will come after that. I am sure hoping we are able to get the adoption done before Christmas this year. I know how hard it was last year as the Christmas holidays approached and we were not able to complete the adoption. At that time we held onto the hope that we’d all be together by next Christmas-time but now that is becoming questionable. We could sure use your prayers that the barriers holding up our adoption process be broken down and our process be expedited to bring our family together in time for the holidays.

Again, we’re prayerfully keeping the faith with much patience! May God’s many blessings flow abundantly!

We thank you for looking in on us!

Encouragement along the way

Encouragement -- what a concept!!! As I've matured in age and as my faith continues to grow, so does my strong need for encouragement. At times it's hard to admit the need for encouragement because I've never wanted to view myself as one who is "needy". It always symbolized a huge weakness, or so I thought. As far as I can remember back I've always been so darned independent and absolutely despised asking for help along the way. Rather spoiled at times, I prided myself on doing things "My way". After all, I was raised in the South where that sense of "Southern Pride" was just a part of our everyday lifestyles and was considered a much-coveted attribute to have. How was I to know that later in life these qualities would serve as such a huge hindrance?

As we continue along this adoption journey, there's so many lessons involving the impact of encouragement (and sometimes the opposite - the discouragement). There are those family members and friends whom we felt would wholeheartedly embrace our calling to adopt; many of them were filled with happiness for us, while others left us surprised and baffled with their unappreciative (sometimes unjustifiedly rude) responses to our family's adoption plans. At times I've really struggled, especially being the overly-analytical type (a trait I can say I honestly acquired), because I've tried to rationalize why others might have reservations about our adoption plans. Pondering over others' disapproval wasn't the most pleasant of times to endure, but I now understand it was necessary to the growth process and strengthening of our family's walk with our Lord. Thankfully , the Lord interrupted me before I exerted too much energy with rationalizing, and He redirected me to what was more important bringing my focus back to Him! Hallelujah!!!! That Satan tried to lay a trap out for our family but with eyes focused on Jesus, we were able to make it through. What a wonderful feeling to know how He provides great encouragement day by day!

Encouragement has come at so many levels and from so many sources. We're so blessed to have so many people praying alongside with us, and there are many others whom we prayerfully lift up and seek to bless as well. We appreciate each and every one of you whom have held our family up in prayer! (Just a huge thanks being sent out. Don'[t get the wrong idea, we still need your prayers so don't stop!) Outside of our family and friends, and our church family, and co-workers, whoever thought the internet would provide such a network of friends? I certainly didn't think it was possible, but have learned to count my online buddies as those providing some of the strongest bonds and friendships. There's many contacts from the lists and yahoogroups I participate in that have provided encouragement and support along the way. I'm especially thankful to a group that meets online for prayer once a week through a Christian chat site -- what a blessed group of individuals and great encouragers! Wow, I get goosebumps just trying to envision how powerful our group is as we sit at our computers at different locations around the world, all praying the same prayers. I also have to say that my cousin Cliff and his wife Kelly (who are also adopting) have been inspirational. There's also some other families who've either already adopted, or are in process for adopting sibling groups, who have inspired us. Many of them have blogs which I look forward to looking in on as we share this process together.

It has been a struggle at times placing our faith completely in the Lord for continued guidance throughout this adoption. Many struggles have culminated from the uncertainty of where the finances would come from as the expenses are very costly. We encountered the need to reach out for help and applied for grants from some of those affiliations set up to help families out with adoption funding. We felt led to apply to only two of the grant agencies, both which were Christian-based. One was Shaohannah's Hope and the other was Hadassah's Hope.

We got turned down for the grant from Shaohannah's Hope, which was a bit surprising being that this is a Foundation formed by Steven Curtis Chapman's family. I really felt there was a little promise for receiving this adoption grant based upon a series of events that transpired at the very beginning of our adoption endeavor. Here's a very condensed version of how Steven Curtis Chapman (with the help of God) influenced our adoption process: In October of 2005, just before it became evident that the Lord was preparing our family for adoption, one Saturday afternoon my daughter and I were doing chores around the house while playing the stereo rather loudly. The song on the CD was playing "God is God" by Steven Curtis Chapman. Almost 3/4 of the way through the song both Marissa and I heard a jubilant voice shout, "HI THERE!" The voice seemed to come from the base of the stairs just below and we both wondered who had entered our house without our knowledge or consent. As we looked around, there was nobody there, and since there was fresh snow falling outside, we searched outside for tracks, yet there were none. We had both heard this voice so distinctly, and after getting a little spooked, could only explain it as just hearing the audible voice of God. So as I mentioned, we felt this connection with the Chapman family based on how God had made His presence known and how appropriately fitting that the announcement of "HI THERE" would come during a song entitled "God is God". Despite their inability to help our family through a financial grant, we feel so blessed to have had God interrupt the song long enough to do a sound check and raise our attention level to HIM! The lyrics to that song really do fit appropriately with our situation! What a tremendous blessing!

We are pleased to announce that we were chosen as recipients of a small incentive grant from Hadassaah's Hope. Ironically, I felt more positive vibes all along with this organization, and we are pleased to receive their financial help in reaching our dream with our new additions to the family. Many more posts will detail our involvement with Hadassah's Hope as we are very excited to partner with their affiliation as we become strong advocates for delivering information about adoption and sharing with them our story. I'll post many more entries defining our commitment to work with the Hadassah's Hope organization, but if you are interested in learning more, their website is www.hadassahshope.org

Again, we thank you for your prayers and your encouragement. It strengthens our faith! We have so much to be grateful for -- God's goodness continues to grace us and His encouragement is ever-present at we journey through each day! Not only in the good times, He is worthy of all praise; and we lift our hands to heaven in thanks for all our days!