Dossier is on its way...

WOWIE! What a DAY!

Erik was home bidding on jobs today and I was doing the accounting thing.  We left the house around 2:00 to go get the girls from school.  We got to the bottom of our hill and the mail lady was there.  I told Erik, just let me check and see if she has the Finalized Home Study.  I TOTALLY wasn't expecting it until FRIDAY! :) ...BUT, SHE HAD IT!!!!! YAHOOOOOO! Soooooo.... I drove the car back up the hill, got all the other paperwork, had Erik google on his phone where the closest UPS store is in Bellevue (Since that is where we were headed).  We found one just blocks away from the girls school!

It was the most exciting time I've ever had at a UPS store!  I think I scared pretty much everyone in there! :) ha ha ha! Erik was taking pictures, I was doing cartwheels and I probably wasn't using my 'library voice'!!  :)  We had to have the UPS Lady (I really should have got her name - she was SO kind to us) notarize our Application letter to the Ministry of Women's Affairs so that our parameters in the letter matched our parameters in our Home Study.  Then we made copies, put it all together, sealed it up... and added some final touches by decorating it a little for Brandi! :)

Praying we have good news today from AGCI... when they receives our Dossier around 10:30 today... Hoping we don't have to make too many corrections. We'll see...

Me and the UPS Store!!! :)

Admiring the STACK! :)
...you can kinda see the SUPER nice UPS lady...
She's the one with the red hair! :)

Looking at it all together one last time 
before they seal it up
and send it out! :)

A little over 5 MONTHS of tracking down all the necessary paperwork, notarizing, re-notarizing, a few tears, a lot of prayers, waiting, waiting...

...I know that this is a huge MILTESTONE  and that there will be a lot more ups and downs, highs and lows and definitely a lot more waiting... But, I LOVE how God is helping me to develop my patience.  I am learning and growing from this whole process.... Closer to our AMAZING Father!  

Romans 5

Developing Patience

 ^1-2By entering through faith into what God has always wanted to do for us—set us right with him, make us fit for him—we have it all together with God because of our Master Jesus. And that's not all: We throw open our doors to God and discover at the same moment that he has already thrown open his door to us. We find ourselves standing where we always hoped we might stand—out in the wide open spaces of God's grace and glory, standing tall and shouting our praise. 

 ^3-5There's more to come: We continue to shout our praise even when we're hemmed in with troubles, because we know how troubles can develop passionate patience in us, and how that patience in turn forges the tempered steel of virtue, keeping us alert for whatever God will do next. In alert expectancy such as this, we're never left feeling shortchanged. Quite the contrary—we can't round up enough containers to hold everything God generously pours into our lives through the Holy Spirit!

 ^6-8Christ arrives right on time to make this happen. He didn't, and doesn't, wait for us to get ready. He presented himself for this sacrificial death when we were far too weak and rebellious to do anything to get ourselves ready. And even if we hadn't been so weak, we wouldn't have known what to do anyway. We can understand someone dying for a person worth dying for, and we can understand how someone good and noble could inspire us to selfless sacrifice. But God put his love on the line for us by offering his Son in sacrificial death while we were of no use whatever to him.

 ^9-11Now that we are set right with God by means of this sacrificial death, the consummate blood sacrifice, there is no longer a question of being at odds with God in any way. If, when we were at our worst, we were put on friendly terms with God by the sacrificial death of his Son, now that we're at our best, just think of how our lives will expand and deepen by means of his resurrection life! Now that we have actually received this amazing friendship with God, we are no longer content to simply say it in plodding prose. We sing and shout our praises to God through Jesus, the Messiah!

...was going to add just a verse on patience, but as I continued to read the rest of the chapter each Word had SO MUCH significance and meaning and was SO profound! What an AWESOME GOD we have! I am SINGING and SHOUTING today and EVERYDAY for the countless blessings He has given me and how COMPLETELY undeserving I am. Thank YOU dear JESUS for breaking my heart for what breaks yours and placing the desire, drive, determination and the compassion and passion to help the orphans!