It’s Been A Little While
It’s been two weeks since my last post. Amazing the things that happen in 14 days!
We heard back from the Netherlands regarding the ‘good conduct letter’ that we’ve been waiting on in order to finish our home study. Some dear friends from Holland translated the letter for us and wired the euros that the government requested. We mailed a copy of Josh’s passport and driver’s license on Friday and settled in for another 3-4 week wait.
All the while, we had another yard sale on Saturday that brought us $700 closer to Zoe! The yard sale was such a tremendous blessing, but I am so incredibly thankful to have my house back. I suppose it’s kind of like when you have long-term house guests. You don’t mind them being there and you’re glad to help (or in our case, thankful for the donations), but there’s just something special about having your house to yourselves again when the guests leave. That’s how I felt as I dusted, vacuumed, and threw away bits and pieces of trash that were left behind by the yard sale frenzy. I had such a wonderful time with our friends that helped us prepare for the sale. Thursday night my friend Sharon came over at 9:30pm to help me sort and bag the baked donations from Panera Bread. We finished up around 10:45pm and were going to sort through some bags of donated clothes when I remembered that I had about six loads of clean laundry on my bed. Sharon graciously offered to help me fold them and put them away so they wouldn’t have to be pushed back onto the floor in order for Josh and me to go to bed. We sat and folded and laughed for an hour and a half. My poor hubby fell asleep on the couch! Ha! I probably don’t have to explain to you how good it felt going to bed with a clean room, knowing all of my laundry was done!! I think I smiled when I opened my eyes the next morning. To top it all off, we decided that we need to make our laundry night a regular thing. Every month we’ll rotate and pick one night to help each other with our household…um…challenges. Whether it be a closet that desperately needs organizing, cabinets that need to be cleaned out, or two weeks worth of laundry that need to be folded and put away; it’s way more fun to get it done with a friend! I can’t wait to head to Sharon’s next month!
Today, I received a phone call with some fabulous news! Due to the fact that Josh was in Holland over ten years ago, our agency has decided that they don’t even need the good conduct letter after all! Our home study can be finalized and we can move forward with our USCIS application. Once our home study is approved we’ll wait for an appointment with Homeland Security in Atlanta, get our final fingerprints done, and head to the nearest FedEx with our dossier! We have another $5,800 in fees due before our dossier will be sent to Ethiopia.
How about one last piece of fantastic news? My dad and I were texting back and forth a few nights ago. …Before I go any further, I should tell you that I was just talking with a friend recently about what a blessing it would be if someone donated their frequent flyer miles in order to help us pay for the four airline tickets that will be required to go to Ethiopia twice before we bring Zoe home…. Okay, so my dad and I were texting and he asked me how much each plane ticket costs. I told him it was somewhere in the ball park of $1700-$2200 each. He wrote back the following:
“Mom and I received a gift several years ago: two airline tickets to anywhere in the world that never expire. We have to check on the details, but we want to give you the tickets to go get Zoe.”
This would be a $4,000 gift!
At a time when money and deadlines are starting to weigh heavy, this was such an incredible reminder that God has all of the details worked out in advance. He won’t let a deadline pass without providing every dime that is needed. Already, He has used three incredible friends/families that Josh and I haven’t seen in years to bless our socks off. We’re talking big, we love you, we support you, we share your heart for adoption, sacrificial blessings.
$800
$495
$1,000
Blessings that we will one day pay forward to someone just like us. Waiting. Trusting. Praying. Believing. You know who you are and we pray for you daily, that God would open up the heavens and pour out upon you….” good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.” Luke 6:38. I love the promises of God.
I hope you’re encouraged and blessed. No matter your situation, God is able. He holds the world in His hands.
~audrey