Update, and Farmer's Market Adventures

The days are flying by. We are in almost constant preparation for A and her adoption. Currently I'm going through the entire house, top to bottom, cleaning and organizing. My progress is slow but steady, one room is done! I've needed to do this for a while now, but extra motivation for me is that we'll be photographing our family and home for the dossier.

We've started selling items at the Mahtomedi Farmer's Market...things like Gluten-free bread, handcrafted lotion and lip balm, hand knit items, and handmade jewelry.

So far we've sold a few things, but are hoping as the season matures we'll see more traffic.

We are so grateful to see the donations continuing, the need is still very much there. We are working on what the next fundraiser will be, probably near the end of September.

It's been 4 months since we found out about A. We found out we would be her parents in March. We began the process immediately, and still are up to a year away from placement. What we have experienced so far in this process is that everything takes a bit longer than projected. We would love to travel to Uganda in February, but that's beginning to look like an impossibility. We're still waiting for our approved home study. It's been written for a few weeks now, but the approval process is proving to be longer than we had anticipated. We just found out today that it's in the mail, and that sort of feels like Christmas for me!

Once we have our home study, there are two more steps, paperwork-wise till we're finished. Our next step is the CIS application, which is asking for advanced immigration approval. This could take up to three months to get approved. Hopefully more like a month or less. Then the dossier gets submitted. Once CIS approval comes through the dossier will be ready to send right away (because we do all that mostly ourselves.) Once the dossier is in, then they start A's paperwork, which can take up to 9 months. It may seem like impatience, but we are praying and hoping for a best-case scenario, quickest-case scenario. I cannot explain the urgency we feel. It's like running a marathon. Each step takes energy, and the farther you go, the harder it is. You are glad you're doing it, but you can't wait for it to be over, because each day we love her a little more and want to meet her, hear her voice and start being her mama and daddy.

Please pray
~For A, to be surrounded with love, to be safe from everything that could harm her so far away from us, to stay healthy (there is limited medical treatment available, to have all her physical needs met till we can go to her.
~That the total amount we will need when we submit the dossier (around $15,000) will be there when we need it!
~That our travel expenses could be kept low, and that fundraising would continue to be blessed.
~For our kids already at home, that they learn through this process to have faith in a God who provides and how much He loves us ( as parents we can learn this lesson too)! And that we as parents would be able to keep their stress level low, despite how busy and worn out we are:)
~For Dan and I, for the spiritual and physical endurance and strength to handle everything coming our way right now. It's the hardest/best thing we've done, I think.