Thoughts About Our Adoption

I don't have any adoption news except that our next homestudy appointment is tomorrow and our last one the following Saturday.  I am excited that Lord-willing we will get to celebrate the next new year with at least one more blessing in our lives!  What an exciting time it will be to celebrate so many firsts with Vika. 
We are also continuing to pray about the possibility of adopting two.  My heart is so burdened already for the many orphans that we will have to leave behind.  I so much want our time in Eastern Europe to be so much more than "just" to bring Vika home.  We want the opportunity to show God's love to those working in the orphanages and those precious lives still waiting on families.  Going to an older kids institution will be even harder because we know that most of those kids will never get the chance to be adopted.  It will be heartbreaking to fall in love with those lives and to have to say good bye.  But I also believe that God NEVER for one seconds loses those precious lives out of His sight.  He loves them so much more than we ever will or can, and He does have a plan for their lives.  But I do want the chance to be able to share with them just how much God does love them.
We teach a four- and five-year-old Sunday School class at our church and also did it at our old church before we moved.  Often times, I wonder just how much they understand the stories and their meaning.  Many times, a child will come to visit and then never comes back for various reasons.  But I love teaching this class not because I get a lot of response, a lot of children getting saved (although there are some), or the kids are always attentive (they are four - how can they :)), or because I get something out of it (although God has spoken to me many times as I prepared for those lessons), but because God is giving me the chance to tell these kids that He loves them.  That child that entered into my life for one brief 45 minute class, may one day be in the depths of despair and remember "Jesus Loves Me."  That's what we want to leave with those orphans and their caretakers, who we will have to leave behind.  We are praying for the Lord to open doors and also to give us clear direction for our time that we will get to spend there. 

New Year's Eve Fun

I will share some of what has been on my heart in another post, but I wanted to share with you some of the fun times we had this week.  Since I was not feeling well before Christmas, we did not get to bake any cookies or deliver them to some dear friends of ours, so I decided that I should just do it anyways even though Christmas is already over.  Of course, I can't be in the kitchen and not let the girls have a part in the baking fun.  So, we baked a LOT of different kinds of cookies yesterday, and today the girls got to decorate some gingerbread and sugar cookies. 



They had a great time, and I had a great time watching them.  Of course our youngest couldn't wait long enough for the decorating to be done before she was eating her decorations.  :) 

The girls were on a sugar high to say the least! 

 Now, I'm off to try to clean up the mess!!!  And then I will prepare cheese fondue to welcome in a new year (yes, we will do that AFTER the kids are in bed :)).  We hope you have a very happy New Year's Eve! 

I'm Back

After having been sick with the flu for almost two weeks, I finally feel like Corrie is slowly coming back!  :-)  So much has happened the past two weeks, and yet it just all seems like a blur right now.  Christmas time is my favorite time of the year, and this year I did not get to do any of the traditions I so love to do.  Maybe I can catch up a little this week!  We did have a wonderful quiet Christmas just as a family and celebrated with a Happy Birthday Jesus dinner and cake!  We even got snow on Christmas Day!  Our family has never celebrated Christmas as a time to get presents but as a time to give to someone else something that is very valuable to you, just like God did for us.  This year has given the girls a new meaning of what it means to give to someone else what they could never have otherwise.
We did have our first home study appointment on December 18th.  It went well, and neither Abe or I really had any time to think about it beforehand.  We have an awesome social worker, and she is very knowledgeable about adopting from Eastern Europe!  She is trying to get our homestudy done and our I-600 in the mail as soon as possible.  Our next appointment is January 1, and then our last appointment should not be too long after that at our home.  Once we make it into the new year, we will start compiling our dossier and doing some fund-raising.  I could start now, but I think it will be best to wait until the new year and after our I-600 is in the mail.  Thankfully, we have a friend who has agreed to do all the notarizing for us so that we can be sure it is done correctly the first time!  I have met some wonderful families who have been through what we are about to go through already, and they are a huge help answering all my silly questions.  THANK YOU!!! 
I have finally completed our "About Us" page, but be aware it is a rather long summary of our family!  :-) I am reading a book called "Adopted for Life" right now, and am looking forward to sharing some thoughts from this book with you soon!
I hope you all had a very merry Christmas with your family!  We look forward to a very special first Christmas Celebration with Vika next year.  I will leave you with some little clips of our girls singing Christmas carols in front of our German Advent Tree in their pj's.  Ammadea got a little distracted by her Papa.  :-)  

Still Alive

I thought I should let you know that we are still alive!  :)  We have had a very busy week, and although I had great dreams of getting caught up today, I have accomplished pretty much nothing!  I'm working on fixing my dryer that died right now, and I'm not getting too far with that either!  It always seems that when we do what God wants us to do, we are under attack, doesn't it?  I promise to finish setting up our blog as well as filling you in on our adoption progress very soon!  We have our first home study appointment on Saturday!  I have a couple of things to complete to finish up the paperwork required to complete our home study!  Until soon!

Corrie

The Beginning of a New Journey

I'm not really sure how to begin this blog, and writing has never been my best asset!  I have to start somewhere, and I'm sure along the way, the Lord will give me exactly the words that I need to say.  Feel free to learn about us by clicking any of the tabs on the top of our blog.  This blog is still under construction, so please be patient with me.  I'm going to try and document our journey through the current chapter in our lives, so that you can all follow along and pray with us to bring Vika home. 
Right now, we are preparing paperwork, writing self evaluations, going through three different background checks, completing medical evaluations, awaiting copies of vital records, and starting to raise money to finance her adoption.  Our first homestudy is scheduled for December 18th!  We are excited to see God's hand move in ways we can't even imagine!  I will do my best to share how much He is blessing us! 
Today, our two oldest daughters will have a part in our church's Christmas play, and I will share some pictures with you later this week!  They are such a blessing, and we are definitely undeserving to be able to call them ours!  God has been so good to us, and He continues to amaze us!