I was just thinking about how far we have come in this journey. Today we had our USCIS biometrics fingerprinting appointments, and that approval is the last thing we need to be submitted in country. The first email from our stateside facilitator was sent to me on November 23, after we informed Reece's Rainbow on November 22 that we were ready to commit to adopting "Mila." In just four months (and one week) we have flown through our home study, our entire dossier (minus this one paper we need from immigration), and have raised $8,000 towards our adoption expenses.
In four months. Just let that sink in.
A lot of you reading this will already know our background, but I've made a lot of new friends on this journey, so allow me to share some of our history. Five years ago we owned a home we loved, in Lexington, KY. We were living the American Dream, when my husband became laid off work. We ended up moving to Indiana, lost our home in a deed in lieu agreement, and started over. We were just beginning to get back on our feet when he was laid off again in a company merger (retail is so brutal). We no longer had a penny to fall back on, having spent all we had and then some (credit card debt) to stay afloat after the first job loss, so we ended up moving back to his family's farm. Thankfully they had a place we could stay, but the seven of us, who later became eight of us, were crammed into a single wide trailer, and y'all it was hard. Like HARD hard.
For two years we lived there. There were good things. My husband got out of retail for good, which was an answered prayer. Rosie was born, and she's such a joy! But I can't pretend it was easy. We were cramped, we were swimming in debt acquired through the losses, our credit scores had taken major hits, and we just felt like things were out of control. On top of it, God was calling us to adoption.
What God? Adopt? How?!
God provided. We crawled out of the whole that had been dug. It wasn't easy and it didn't happen overnight. There were tears (from me, lol) and lots and lots of sleepless nights. My husband worked lots of overtime and was almost never home. I did as much with my etsy shop as possible. And we prayed. And slowly, there was a light at the end of our tunnel.
On November 18, 2016, we closed on our home. On November 22, 2016, we made the commitment to adopt a precious little girl who made all the hard times suddenly feel worth it.
And today, on March 30, 2017, we wait, with nothing left to do but fundraise and apply for grants. Ready to submit our dossier and then wait on travel dates, as soon as immigration approval is received.
I still don't know how it happened. God just...did it. He did it in His timing and not ours. He did it through the hearts of those who have donated and He did it by putting whoever got our daughter listed on Reece's Rainbow in the right place at the right time to see her and shout for her, and then we saw her. He just keeps...doing it. Over and over He shows up, letting us know that this child is precious to Him, and by extension is precious to us.
We still need to fundraise. We still need about $12,000 in fact. But I'm not worried about it. It would be silly for me to stress that, considering how far we've already come and knowing how God keeps providing. I'm just going to keep fundraising and shouting for our daughter and for the other children who don't have moms and dads on the way. I'll keep filling out grant applications. But I'm not going to get panicked about it. It's going to work out.
We are so, so glad to have gone through everything we went through to be where we needed to be to find you, "Mila." We'd do it again twenty more times. You're worth it.
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