video

this is a video that our friend ryan put together as part of a series at church called "everybody's got a story." steve and i wrote the script, ryan took the photos.

one step closer

we finished our homestudy this week. we passed all the inspections, with flying colors, and have been approved to bring home 2 children. I never had any doubts.

I must also say that i've always heard the horror stories about the homestudy process. your house must be clean, and it must be perfect, and you must be perfect. not at all how it happened. our social worker was great - thanks angela. she didn't white glove the house, just checked to make sure we don't have any obvious hazard. to be perfectly honest, this was easier than i thought it would be.

next step, file our paperwork with the federal government, and finish collecting the rest of the required paperwork.

Fundraiser

we had our first fundraiser a couple weeks ago. thanks to laura and her amazing team who organized the event. below are some photos from the day.

the some of the art that was auctioned.

kids working on art projects.

tim is so proud of his dolphin/whale on steve's face.

many thanks to all who came, donated, participated, and just plain had fun!

Homestudy

we had our first homestudy visit last night. everything went rather well, and it wasn't as scary as it was made out to be. our fire and safety inspections are done (and no, our house wasn't raked with a fine tooth comb), now it's on to the questions about why we want to adopt and what kind of parent we think we will be. i hope everything else goes this smoothly.

Generostiy

I am amazed and quickly becoming humbled by the generosity of others. We have had friends give us money for our adoption…that I understand. However, it still amazes me. They are giving us money, sacrificing Starbucks, and other things all to give to us so we can get children from Russia. What amazes me more is the generosity of virtual strangers. People we have met for a only a little bit are literally telling us that they will give money when we ask for it. Who are these people that have such big hearts? They are friends, they are strangers and I am grateful for them all. To all of you who have given, or have thought of giving thank you! For those of you who are praying or even thinking about us thank you!

So I thought I should post

So being the future Dad of the two children I thought I should post something. I'm not very good at writing but I'll try my best. The thought of suddenly having a family of four (six if you count our dogs) can at times be extremely overwhelming. Two children running around our house named Samuel Anton and Rowan Alexi. Brothers from another country unwanted by their birth parents, but wanted by Liz and me more than words can express. It reminded me of a verse that my life group is currently reading Romans 8:25-27

But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently
In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God's will.

It's nice to know that all the nights I spent lying awake talking to God about why we can't have children he old fashioned Biblical begatting way was not in vain. He heard all my mental indiscernible cries and understood what I meant even when I wasn’t sure. My doubt is slowly being replaced by joy even when the mountain of adoption seems to tall for me to climb I remember that God is the one that showed me this path so no matter how hard it gets He’ll carry me when I can go no farther.

updates

so things are starting to kick into high gear! we have all the paperwork for our homestudy, and the first visit set up for two weeks. my amazing friend laura has our first benefit planned for June 28th...more details to come.

one of our biggest challanges right now is picking a name for samuel's brother. steve and i can't agree thus far. you'll have a name for the rest of your life, and your parents will have you forever if it's not a good one:)