God is faithful!

It was just days ago that I blogged about still needing $479 to pay our next two fees due that would allow us to get our dossier to China.  Guess what??  Not only did we meet that goal, we EXCEEDED it!!  We will be paying our two fees on Monday and then we will have $550 to put towards the next fees when they come.  PRAISE THE LORD!  He is faithful!  When God calls, He provides.  It might not be how or when we think it should be, but it's always in His perfect timing.  I can't wait for my next blog post, hopefully coming next week, where I will be able to announce for sure that our dossier is enroute to China!

~Carly

Nothing too big (or small!) for my Father!

I am still daily amazed at how God is leading and providing throughout this journey.  We've been praying for weeks now about our next two fees that are due and which will allow us to get our dossier to China.  We just found out a couple days ago that our wonderful church, Gospel Community Fort Wayne, is providing a $2000 grant toward our adoption!  What an amazing blessing!  We are now only $479 away from the amount needed to pay these two fees that are due.  I am not even going to stress over this small amount!  Don't get me wrong, nearly $500 is a large amount in normal circumstances, however, my God has provided MUCH larger sums than this, exactly when they were needed.  He has called us to this journey, He sustains us through all the bumps and roadblocks along the way, and He provides in every way.  This is a journey we are on, but's it's not ours, it's His, for His glory!

We are SO blessed by the prayers and support we continue to receive and our excitement continues to grow as we get closer and closer to our little boy!

~Carly

Quick dossier update!

Our dossier safely arrived at our agency today!!  I can't tell you how happy this makes me!  It was so hard to put all of those important papers into one package and hand it over, but it's so awesome that it's now in the hands of our agency.  It will now go into the critical review process and assuming we did everything correctly, it should be done in roughly two weeks.  That means that we have 2 WEEKS to come up with $2600!  Ahh!  We need your help.  If you are feeling led to donate, that is AWESOME!  Please pray for us and share our need if you are willing.  Thank you all!

~Carly

Dossier complete!

I am so excited to say that our dossier is finally complete!  It has been a long road of getting the paperwork we needed, having it notarized, having it certified by the Secretary of State, and then having it authenticated by the Chinese consulate.  I will be making all the copies needed today, and then preparing to mail it off to our agency next week!  I will say, it's going to be hard to put all those important papers into the hands of USPS, and I will be SO happy when our agency lets us know they have received it.  It's hard to get across how crazy putting this dossier together has made me :)

We also got more good news today.  Asher's heart is completely fixed after his surgery in August of last year and he doesn't even need regular medication.  That is wonderful news and it's so great to hear!

So, what are the next steps?  Getting those all important papers sent to China.  How do we accomplish that?  By paying our second agency fee of $2,350 and paying the CCCWA (China Center for Children's Welfare and Adoption) their fee of $775.  That is a total of $3,125.  Right now, we have a little over $400 to apply to this total.  We need help!  I don't know where it's going to come from or when, but I have faith that God will provide because He has called us to this journey.  I know it won't be coming from any of the grants we've applied for.  If we are blessed to receive any grants, we won't know for another 90 days and they won't release the money to our agency until it's time for us to travel.  Around $2,600 is what is standing in the way of us having our dossier logged in to the welfare center in China so we can begin the months long wait for approval.  Every day we wait to get the money we need is a longer wait for Asher.  I want my son to come home!  I want to make sure he is healthy!  I want to show the world this precious child of God and how blessed we are to be his family!  Will you consider helping us with this?  Will you consider sharing this need with others?  We are extremely humbled and completely relying on God's provision.  Pray with us friends.  This is such a long, difficult journey, but SO worth it!

~Carly