APPROVED!!!!!!

We just received a glorious email from our caseworker notifying us that our POA just contacted the ministers office and the minister told her that we were approved and that we would be getting a letter via email this week! AHHHHHHH!!!!! Yeah!!!!! God is Good!!!!

There is some confusion with another process the government is implementing involving the ministry's new role in processing referrals... so our POA is working that out and will be in contact with us soon about the next steps in our journey to be matched with a child or children!

So... now we wait for the "official" letter, news about the matching process, and then... a referral.

A blessing beyond imagination

Wow... I am still a bit speechless (which is rare) as I write this post. I have posted some glimpses, in previous posts, regarding some financial constraints that our family is facing right now. What I haven't shared is that we have had to use almost all of our adoption savings for other things in recent months. We, of course, were a little stressed about this but have always known that we serve an awesome God of miracles. Well... last night we experienced the miracle of people who love like Jesus first hand. Buster and I are part of an amazing small group, who Buster and I are technically the leaders of... even though we never feel like leaders and always more like members of a company of incredible followers of Christ... And, last night these incredible nine families came together and surprised us with a financial blessing to the tune of over $4000!!!!! Almost exactly the balance we need!!!! I am still shocked... and wanted to share this experience as a testament to what happens when people love each other like Christ loves the church. These great people came together and decided to invest in our adoption. Their generosity will provide the means for at least one, if not two, beautiful orphans to be adopted into not just the Vincent family but our incredible small group family as well. I cannot praise God enough for these people, for this gift we've been given, and hope that soon their contribution will be applied directly to the adoption of a little girl or girls that God has destined for us!
THANK YOU!!!!! We LOVE you! :)

No adoption news... but

Here's a bit of what we've been up to this summer: soccer, basketball camp, and an annual trip to bear country, if only I could chill out like the big burly bear! :)

the ministry says...

So... I heard from the minister this morning. (In case you are new to my blog, she is the woman who approves families to adopt from Rwanda). She just sent me a basic email saying that she is back at work and will "send us a response from the ministry soon." Of course soon is relative. It could be this week or a month from now so I am not expecting anything. But at least we are on the radar. Please be praying for our file. The ministry could approve us, could have questions, or could deny us altogether. So, please please pray that God's perfect will be done with no negative interruptions. :)

not today

Well... every day I wake up thinking... maybe I'll get notice of an approval from the ministry today... and every day I am just a tiny bit dissappointed... or maybe a not-so-tiny bit. I was thinking maybe my post this week would read APPROVED. But Wednesday has nearly come and gone in Rwanda and I haven't seen anything. I know that the ministry's office has been really busy with events and I'm sure dossier approvals have not been on their priority list, (even though it's on mine :) ) So we continue to wait. God's timing... God's timing... (you would think that the more I remind myself of this the easier it would get :)

It's not that my family doesn't have a million distractions between house, jobs, kids, summer activities and more... but we still feel like part of us is missing and are anxious for news from Rwanda.

In the meantime Kelton is busy with machine pitch (he caught two pop flies and is doing great at bat); Oliver is busy recreating scences from Indian Jones all day; both are in our city's summer recreation program; I am teaching a class, taking a class, presenting workshops and seminars, and planning our small group summer activities;and Buster is figuring out how to provide for our growing family (not an easy task... but he does it well!)

I still need to plan a fundraiser too... we need to come up with about $4000. Any suggesstions would be GREATLY appreciated. :)

I appreciate you

This note to all my fellow adoptive families...

I just wanted to tell you how much I appreciate you! You are all an inspiration in so many ways.

I, like all of you in this process, struggle every day with keeping my patients in check, not getting frustrated about delays and continual paperwork, and the anxiety of knowing that I probably have at least one child waiting for my arms to hold her in an African orphanage. But through this time I know that I am not alone with these feelings and that I have support from people in similar situations. Thank you families for your updates... they help answer unanswered questions. Thank you families for you encouragement when the waiting seems unending. Thank you families for your hope and love and persistance in walking through this door of adoption. You ARE appreciated!!! Thank you sweet Jesus for technology and innovation so that we may connect across states through this process of being able to adopt Your children from across the ocean!!!

I look forward to this continued journey with my fellow adoptive families! Best wishes and God favor to us all :) Heres to hoping that we all get approvals and referrals SOON!!!

The latest...

So.. our power of attorney took our updated documents to the minsters office today to add to our file. The minister told her that updating those docs is not what was holding up the approval (in other words... we could have been approved... pending the updates). So the good news is we were not technically being delayed because of the updates... the bad news is that we don't know why they are taking this long for approval... just is I guess. Our POA seems to think that we will be approved soon... whatever soon means :) I have NOOOO idea. Next week would be nice but it could fesibly be next month too. And so we wait.

Once again... after we get the approval... then the orphanage will match us with kids... then they will do the medicals on the kids before they give us a referral... then we accept... then we pass court... then we travel. Lots to go!

Breathing again

I was thinking about it the other day and decided that each time we have to go back and redo or update paperwork and then resend it it kindof feels like we are holding our breath. It feels like we can't breath right until our paperwork is safely back in place where it should be. That's been the feeling for the last two weeks during this update to our medicals process... our paperwork sat at the US embassy for about a week and as of today is back in Rwanda. However, it is not at the ministers desk yet... it has just arrived at the FDX distribution center in Kigali and am am waiting for word from our POA there that she has picked it up and delivered it.

On another note, I was looking through our calendar today and remembered that it has been one year since we began this adoption journey. Although our first round of paperwork wasn't submitted to our agency until August we started exploring and making calls in June. The year went really fast in some regards and seemed like it drug on forever in others (i.e. waiting for papers to process!). I never imagined that we would only be to this point after this long but know that my timelines are never perfect anyway so I might as well be comforted by the knowledge that God is in control and has the times and dates worked out before we even started. :)

So... here we are... slowling exhaling as our paperwork gets back to the ministers office and we wait again for them to give the approval for adoption... so that then our children can finally be chosen for us and we can get a referral. I would love to hear good news this week... any good news... so am hopeful for that!