One Year Ago Today

December 23,2008

It is hard to believe that it has been 1 year since I got the call from Tiffany. Though we had been told that we could not begin the process until the end of January -when we had been home 6 months with Gracie-Tiffany called to say she had been praying for our Gideon and for us. She had read the story of Gideon in the bible and decided to talk with her supervisor again. After praying and talking they had decided that since no one had expressed any interest in pursuing Gideon's adoption that they had decided to allow us to begin the process right after the holidays. I was ecstatic but knew we had a long road ahead of us. Little did I know that 1 year later we still would not have our little warrior home. We came across many obstacles but today we are on day 58 of our wait for our LOA. We are praying to get our LOA before Chinese New Year on January 26th. We still have the hurdle of finances but we know that God will not dessert us now. His timing will be perfect! I found this quote today and it is so fitting for us:

"God calls us to go where we have never been in order to do things we have never done so we can see God's power in a way we have never seen it before."

"Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified. Do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go." Joshua 1:9.

God will be and is with us now and when we bring our boy home. That day is coming!

This picture of Gideon is the first one I ever saw and fell in love with.

God is Good! We Have a LID!

As you know we have been waiting to hear what our LID is so we can start the countdown to our LOA (Letter of Acceptance), the next step to bringing Gideon home. Our dossier was sent Oct 13 and we knew it had arrived because CCAA confirmed this on Oct 22. Well on Thursday Kate called me to finally tell me that we were logged in as of Oct 27th. That means that today, Saturday is day 48 of our wait. Typically it is taking around 90 days. Kate thinks we should hear something before Chinese New Year at the end of January. Hopefully we will get Travel Approval (TA) by mid Feb and travel early March. Not the timeframe I had in mind but again it is all in God's timing not mine. He knows we need more time to get the money together. We had another denial from a grant but are applying for more. We are trying to come up with more fundraising ideas as well. We are of course praying for God's mighty hand to do a big work as we know he can! The verse he keeps giving me is "Put your hope in God for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God." My hope is in him and I am praising him and will continue to praise him always. I will shout from the rooftops how he has made all of this possible for he is a mighty God bringing home our mighty warrior.

Please all of you reading this blog pray for a mighty work to happen with our fundraising. Also pray that out little "didi as the kids call him remains healthy and warm until we can bring him home to his forever family.