Sending love and some musings of the journey

I think one of the biggest things with the adoption process is hurry up and wait. Its time between different paperwork frenzies to let God chip away at the impurities and prepare you more for the journey ahead. 

Its similar to being missionaries and raising support. Its going through the waiting process so you can see the Lord provide so that in those hard times you can look back and say, God provided and this is His design for us. He did call us to this.

Lily's birthday is this Friday, and a friend of ours gave us a link to the company they use to send packages, birthday cakes, etc. This company will also give you updates of your child. So last night we ordered a birthday cake for Lily, (they will have a little party for her) and a photo album (photos of us) along with a letter. What a beautiful thing to be able to do. We will post some photos as we get them. We are so grateful for the sheer amount of support people are lavishing. 

Below see the photo album! 

( I believe it says My album of love)

We are awaiting our final draft of our home study along with our Dossier that has to authenticated again. It is said, if you can adopt thru China, you can adopt thru anywhere. Its the most strict place to go through.

Dan and I are so excited for the journey, and know that our lives will change. We can't wait. What a joy to be able to get some outfits while I was visiting family in the states. It made it a bit more real. I think its amazing that our relationship with Lily started with a photo and seeking the Lords guidance if we were called to be her parents. 

Below an outfit! 

My next post will be about the incredible blessing of a community coming along side of Lily Hope to bring her home! Yes, our Camp Humphrey's VBS children and community raised funding to bring Lily Hope home. Also they were able to learn about adoption and why that's God's heart.

Stay tuned! 

Facebook Auction

Gearing up for the next auction, September 1-5. If there is anything, or any service you would like to donate, please let me know. We are hoping to have about 200 items, or services. All you have to do is give me a photo and the winning bidder will be in contact to you about shipping. 

The last auction was enough to do our home study, and the fees with getting all the paperwork and medical stuff done. 

We are so very grateful for all of you joining in with us on this journey to being Lily Hope home! 

Homestudy progress, LOI, and new photos

We met our social worker in St. Louis while here in the USA. Our walk thru of our house in Korea will be August 2nd as well as 2 more interviews.  We have an approved LOI (letter of intent) that China has approved. WE now wait for the home study to finish, and then we move forward. Please pray for that while we wait for the finished home study. 

Meanwhile, enjoy some of our news photos of Lily Cathryn Hope Haas. 

can't wait to be able to do her hair and get a cute hair cut. 

She does look so cute in piggy tales!!

She has grown a little from the Last photo. (see below)

 

(older photo)

Thank you for going on this journey with us. 

Also, something amazing has happened that blows us both away. Camp Humphreys VBS is raising funds to bring Lily home. When we were told this was going to happen, both Dan and I were completely speechless. Really we had and still have no words. We have just tears. 

One thing that the Lord pointed out to my heart that when I was watching the Steven Curtis Chapman conference for his foundation for families adopting I would see videos of families that had there whole church behind them. I thought to myself wow, we will never get that. Lord, that would be amazing, but I am content Lord is however you are willing to work. 

Little did I know HE was weaving a unbelievable story of bring Lily home! 

ALL PRAISE GOES TO THE LORD!!! 

All we are required to do is: 

Psalm 46:10  " Be still and know HE IS GOD" 

So, here we are, in stillness knowing the Lord is at work in a way we can not even fathom. 

Homestudy and tid bits

Begin the Paperwork! Yes, the paperwork is underway!!! what does that mean? The first part of many of paper cuts and countless times of filling out our name, birthdate, our desires, hopes, history,,etc.. has commenced!

We are so excited as things get a little more real each day! But, the process is far from over!
In July Dan and I will be heading to the states, (I to visit Grandma who paid for the ticket, and Dan to go to classes for seminary for a week) and while there we are able to meet with our social worker who only lives a few hours from where we will be!!! Praise God! This means we do not have to pay for their airfare, and other expenses!!!! This is a great blessing and provision from the Lord!

So please pray as July 6th and 7th is when we meet with him in St. Louis! While we are also gone he will be flying to South Korea to walk thru our house, (with the help of friends who are letting him in).
With that, as soon as all the background checks and things come in, hopefully the home study will be approved and we will then be able to apply for grants, and move into the next phase!!!!

Please be in prayer!!!

moving and home study.

Well, we took another step. We moved, (well we had to due to mass amount of mold) and now we are settling and gearing up for another home study visit. We are awaiting the call to schedule.
We were able to pay thanks to the many people who have given so freely to help bring Hope home!

The home study was 2300. We have raised thus far,  about 5100. We still are in need of 20k, but that will come in time. We will be having another auction in August/September timeframe!

We are so blown away by the selflessness of many. It overwhelms us at times. We will be adopting a special needs child and as of now, our hearts are drawn towards the older children. Older meaning 5 or 6.  We have heard it time and again that it will bring more challenges. We know. We are not going into this with rose coloured glasses, but glasses filled with the Grace and love of Christ. We know there will be days that we just don't know what to do, and days we will be exhausted. We know that the child will have a bit more things that are learned. We know all this, but we also know that God is equipping us for what we need, today, and will equip us during those times.

Please join us in this adventure. We don't know where the Lord will take us, but we do know that following Him is the best for us.

Its approved!!!

Its with great excitement that we announce we are paper pregnant! 

Our application for adopting from China has been approved. This means we are underway to schedule our second home-study since beginning this jounrey in 2011. We switched agencies as the Lord directed us to a Christian agency with the same heart as ours. We are so excited about where the Lord is leading. 

Our hearts are filled with hope as we bring hope home! 

China has strict guidelines, and with that, I (Becke) will still need to continue to lose weight. I am ok where we are, but for my health and to be able to do amazing things with Hope, its for the best! 

Please pray as the Lord leads us on this journey. 

We are so grateful for all of you that have followed and prayed us through on this journey. It has not been easy and filled with emotions far greater than we could have ever imagined. Along the way, we have not lost Hope in where the Lord is leading and guiding. We have not lost hope that the Lord will provide. 

With that, we need to raise some funds for this adoption to bring Hope home. We also have created a Facebook group as well if you are interested.  We are looking for ideas for fundraisers, and people to come along and help. If the Lord leads, we have put a button on the top of the page, that you can donate at.(Paypal, donate now) 

We are trusting in the Lord to provide what we need when we need it. 

We are moving to a new house in May so our home study we are hoping to have it begining of June. This gives us time to gather papers, update forms from our previous home-study and raise the needed funds. Also, this gives more time for me (Becke) to drop some weight.

We will keep you updated along this journey to bring Hope home to us. 

One idea we will be doing is having a suitcase that we will bring with us to China when we get Hope that will have all the names of those that have provided for her to get there. If there is a donation, we will put your name on the front of the suitcase that we will take. If there is a personal message you would like us to put on it, please let us know. 

Also if you live around us, you can write it on the suitcase. We are so excited to resume this journey! 

Looking forward in what the Lord does.

Back in the Saddle again!

I don't know where to even begin in this blog post, or how to convey what the Lord has been doing in regards to adoption. So, I will just start and see where the Lord leads.
In October, we were nudged by the Lord to start the adoption process again. So, we contacted our agency about needing to update our home study that was finished. We waited for a response and felt really hopeful,  until we got a response and lost the hopefulness.
Basically we were told we needed to start everything from scratch. This was a complete blow to our spirits as we knew we needed to have it updated, but to do everything all over? Really?
We became a bit numb and disenfranchised with the whole process at that point. Over Christmas and New years we really were just processing, and praying, and waiting. Clinging on to the Hope we knew, the Hope we hoped for, even though it was a small little glimmer that didn't shine really bright.

The Lord began to work on our hearts again and soften them to the process again. We continued to pray for our little one who is out there. This was our Hope!
Talking with friends here in Korea, an agency came up lots of times in every circle we were apart of. We began to take notice, and Dan and I both started wondering what the Lord was doing. We started talking and praying more, and asking God for wisdom. When discussing where the Lord was leading Dan mentioned a country that I previously had not even wanted to consider. I asked the Lord why, and what the was the reason because at the time, I didn't have one. I don't know why I didn't want to adopt someone from there, but I really sought the Lord. While here in Korea we have been bombarded with the culture of babies being abandoned, and left on streets, garbage cans, etc. This has burdened our hearts so very much for the Asian culture.

We have decided to start the adoption home study process once again but going with China. I will link a video below that is an hour, but it really explains so much of why.  In China, there is a one child law in place, and if a girl is born 9 out of 10 are aborted because everyone wants a son. This is so sad, and there are thousands of orphans who are waiting for a forever home. What can we do about this? The treatment of females in China is hard to fathom,  and makes our hearts sad. Its a patriarch society and places a higher value on men than woman. Again, makes my heart sad.
Today, February 2nd, we sent our application, with address from when we were 18, and a photo in to Small World Adoption. This agency is a Christian agency and places such a high value on adoption from the Biblical perspective. We are so excited to begin again this journey.

Please pray for us, and for our Hope Haas that we would be united in the Lord's time. With adoption we have need for funding again. We raised enough to cover the last home study, (which will come in handy for this one) and will once again need to raise funding.  We know the Lord is faithful!


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z0d97v7mjsE




Who will be our Hope?