How you can help.

Hi everyone!  We have been very blessed by this sheet fundraiser.

 

We have put it on EBay and so far, God has really blessed our efforts.  Things are slowing down a bit and we need your help.  We need to have twelve orders to place an order.  Right now I have people waiting because we have not gotten twelve orders for our most recent order.

 

Here is how you can help!  Obviously, you could buy sheets, but you can do even more than that.  You can collect orders from your friends and family.  The more orders you collect, the better!

 

 

You can download and print out this picture of the sheets below to show family and friends.  If you are not local(in Prescott, AZ) you will get free shipping if you get twelve or more orders.  If you can not get that many orders, let me know your address and I will calculate shipping.

 

The sheets are great quality and people seem very happy with them.

$35.00 each no matter what size.

Twin - Cal. King

 

 



Home Study Almost Translated

Our home study is scheduled to be translated on April 4th.

Praise God that the process of changing out dossier has gone so smoothly!

 

 

This means that our attorney in D.R.C. can officially request our children's commune documents after the 4th.  I am not 100% sure what a commune document is but basically it is paperwork about why the children were abandoned and we need this paperwork to be submitted to court. 

 

Our case worker said that after the request has been made, it can take anywhere from a few weeks to a few months to be submitted to court.

 

We are praying this stage moves quickly!

1 Month and Trusting!

It has been one month since we officially accepted the referrals of Boaz and Isryelle. 

I stole "1 month and trusting" from a fellow blogger who felt this would be a more appropriate title than 1 month and waiting.  I love it!

 

Anyways, this month has gone by pretty fast.  It has been a whirlwind adventure of filling out agency paperwork, getting together some new dossier documents, updating our home study and immigration approval, fundraising like crazy, and filling out tons of grant application.

 

I am thankful that the time has gone quickly.  I am enjoying the time with my family dreaming about who our little ones are growing up to be. I am looking forward to getting our update next month.

 

If everything goes smoothly...we should have our kids home in about 9-11 months...about the same time as a pregnancy....sigh.....

Disneyland!

I know I am posting about our trip pretty late but life has been rather hectic since getting back.

 

First I want to thank my grandparents for taking us on this wonderful trip!

It was such a blessing to celebrate their 50 years of marriage in the happiest place on earth.  I have always loved observing their marriage and hope to be as happy as they are when I have been married that long.

 

I have been to Disney Land a few times growing up...this time was extra special!

First off, it was Gavin and Irelyn's first time being there.

Gavin had a blast!

For those of you who don't know my husband...that is him in the front....just having a blast!

 

Irelyn was not so sure about the rides.  She liked outside rides like the carousel and dumbo.  She was scarred of every ride that involved being in the dark which was almost every single one!

 

Her favorite!  She woud say, "haws weeee!"

Scary little mermaid!

 

Irelyn did, however, LOVE the food.  She ate like a queen.  I was very impressed with the healthy children's menu that Disneyland had.  I kept her eating healthy...well accept for the two meals featured here!

Her first mickey waffle.  She just smiled at it for about five minutes before finally eating it.

 

The last ride of the night...that is my brother in law doing the photo bombing...thanks Jared!

Ice cream on our way out.  I ate ice cream every day I was there!

 

And of course there is nothing like signing your referral paperwork in Disneyland!

This was the next best thing to having them there with us.

We got their referrals the third day we were there and then headed over to the Disney business center where they even had a notary handy.  We were able to scan and e-mail the paperwork that day and then enjoy the rest of our week knowing that those precious kids are ours.

 

 

 

 



First Grant Reply

We got our first grant reply today...

 

They said that they are not telling us no but we need to re-apply when we get closer to travel. 

We are happy with this answer.  Having some of the travel paid for may be exactly what we need.  Although this does not mean that we will get a grant, they could have told us no now but chose not to!

 

In the meantime, we still have a few grant applications out there and are waiting on resposes so keep us in your prayers!  

Movie Monday

A little Congolese culture!

 

 

Next orders come with T-Shirts!

We have put in our second order for sheets.  Thanks to everyone who has helped us so far!

We have two orders for our third order and need 10 more to put in the order.

 

The next ten people who order get a free heart for adoption T-shirt!

E-mail me with your order and T-shirt size!
rachelwilson2@hotmail.com

 



Yard Sale #4

Yes you saw that right...we are doing another yard sale!

I know I said that I really did not want to do it again.  They are exhausting and I do not like storing all that stuff.

 

God has recently put it on Gavin's heart that we should do another one.  So we are having faith and doing another one.  God is actually changing my heart towards these yard sales.  I am actually sort of looking forward to it!

 

If you have any stuff you need to get rid of, let me know!

 



Movie Day

Okay so I am late at posting a video again.  My like is hectic right now!

I love gotcha days!

Here is a favorite from D.R.C.

 

The process update.

This D.R.C. process is completely foreign to us.  I know everything about adopting from Ethipia but learning about this new process has been an experience.  In The Congo, it does not take as long as Ethiopia to get a referral(no time at all if you accept waiting children) but it takes much longer to actually bring our children home.

 

I am taking this process one step at a time...I figure I can learn as I go.  I am a little tired of researching all of the time.  As of right now, we are waiting for our commune documents.  I am not completely sure what these are but I know that they are documents from the area where our kids were found that need to be aquired to submitt our case to court.  Getting these documents is said to take 1-3 months.  After this initial collecting of paperwork, our case will be submitted to court.  Before too long we will legally and officially be the parents of Boaz and Isryelle Pehl. 

 

 We have been told that the whole process will probably take 10-12 months.  We are praying that God supernaturally makes it go faster.  We have been waiting fifteen months already and we are so ready to have them home!

 

The biggest smile we have seen from Boaz.



Anticipation

There is so much anticipation when waiting for a referral.  There are so many questions that run through your mind.

 

Will I cry?

What will they look like?

Will I feel a connection?

How do I know they are mine?

Will they want me for a parent?

 

The first picture of our kids together...family...here come the water works!

 

 

Our referral day was nothing like I imagined it.  First of all, I imagined getting the picture of two babies from Ethiopia.  Instead I got pictures of two precious toddlers in the Congo.  The Lord is full of surprises and we could not feel more blessed.

 

So the answer to those questions.  I did not cry...which really shocked me!  I have made up for it by crying every day since whenever I see their faces.  They look perfect!  I know they are mine just like I know Irelyn is mine.  I know that God chose us to parent them.  All of my fears and doubts immediately left my mind after seeing their faces.  God's sovereignty was the only thing I could think of.

 

Now two weeks later...we are completely in love.  We want them home so bad!  The time frame we have been given to get them home is simply too long.  We are going to fall on our knees during this time and cry out to the Lord to move mountains to bring our babies home fast.

 

One of the things I used to think about before we got a referral is what our children's stories would be.  What there lives were like before I got their pictures?  Well their stories are heartbreaking and a product of sin.  Their stories are theirs and if they want to share someday, they can.  God used their stories and he snuffed out sin by bringing this happy ending.  He used everything that happened to them to bring them to us...to a loving family and will teach them about their father in heaven.  When the day comes that I have to tell them their stories, that is what I will focus on.  They have a Father who loves them so much, he made beauty from pain.

 



Need some prayer.

I am feeling a little discouraged today.  I find myself wishing that this process was not so difficult. 

 

Wishing that we did not have to come up with all of the money we need to come up with. 

 

Wishing we could adopt as many kids as we wanted without even considering money. 

 

Wishing the system worked better that it did not take a year+ to get our babies home.

 

All of this wishing does me no good.  Bottom line is we live in a fallen world and nobody said adoption would be easy.  No matter how difficult or hard it gets, God IS bigger and has it under control.

 

We need prayer for God's financial provision.  We are praying specifically that work will pick up for Gavin and we will get approved for both of the grants we applied for.

 

We need prayer for peace and comfort even when we do not understand why it has to be so hard.

Joshua 1:9
This is my command - be strong and courageous!  Do not be afraid or discouraged.  For the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.

 



Updated link.

I changed the link to our blog.  It said Ethipian adoption and since that is no longer accurate, I changed it. 

 

Now you guys will be able to find our posts:)

Movie Monday...A Day Late!

I totally forgot to post a movie for movie Monday!  Here is a documentary that Gavin and I came across and we loved it!  It is very informative.  Yes...we like to watch documentaries in our spare time;)

 

Selling Sheets!

Ok guys so I know you all have questions. 

One of our most obvious questions when we decided to do this was how are we going to pay for it.

 

We have no idea! 

 

But God does!

 

Check out our Financial page on this blog to look at our current pay schedule.  We need some serious prayer!  We know how big God is!

 

Yesterday,  our biggest need was $2,000 that we needed in a couple days....yes days.
Well now we are down to only needing $300 in the next couple days!

 

Then we need to raise $21,000 in a couple of months!

Then Travel!

We are selling sheets!
$35 a set plus shipping.  1200 thread count and super soft. Blend of Egyptian cotton and microfiber.
e-mail me with your order and I will calculate shipping for you.
heartforadoption@hotmail.com

Here is a picture of all of the colors...the orange has been replaced by black.
 

 

Pray that....

Work picks up for Gavin...we would love to pay for as much of this ourselves as we can.

We get a couple of grants that we applied for, one of which will be reviewed March 5th.

We will find new and improved ways to fun-draise for this adoption.

Pray that God will provide!

Finding out.

The last blog post was a little overwhelming and  very full of information.  I told you the facts about our kids but not all of the story.  I wanted to take this time to share a little more of our Tuesdays morning.

 

We had been talking to All Blessing(who by the way are amazing!) for a couple of days and knew that they were going to send us a list of the waiting children soon.  We had been praying that God would somehow show us which child/children were ours.  We were told that there were six waiting children and had no idea how we would pick!

 

Side Note

Gavin and I played a little guessing game a few months ago.  We picked which day on the calender we thought we would get a referral.  If I won, I got a massage.  If he won, he got a massage.  Well Tuesday was the day I picked!

Hello relaxation!

 

So Tuesday morning we woke up and looked at our e-mail.  There was an e-mail from the Congo program director.  We quickly set up our video camera and opened the e-mail. 

 

In that e-mail were only the names of two kids!  I assume they are the two that the program directly thought matched us well.  Maybe she only showed us those two because they are living in a foster home together.  Either way...there were two.  Wow God sure answered our prayers!  We did not even have to make a decision.  Of course they would BOTH be our children.

 

First we saw the little boy who we will call Boaz Edward Pehl.  Boaz means in him is strength.  We picked it because of Boaz in the bible...he is such a perfect example of how we are to treat the least of these.  Edward is Gavin's middle name as well as his fathers name.

 

I have had my eye on this little boy for a couple months.  Even though we were waiting on a referral from Ethiopia, I was just not settled.  It really bothered me that we were waiting for kids to be found for us when there were all of these perfect kids waiting in Congo.  I had been talking to other families trying to find someone to adopt him.  Little did I know that someone was us!

 

We saw his face and were in love immediately.  He is just beautiful and looks exactly like I imagined my son looking like.  I squealed at his cute little hands and his shy personality. 

 

 

Next we saw that they had sent us the information on a girl!  We really thought because boys are more difficult to find families for that we would have two boys.  We were completely shocked!

 

Then we opened her pictures and were shocked again!  She is so pretty and so grown up!  I have to admit going from thinking we were getting babies to preparing for toddlers has been a little intense for me.  I think she came as such a surprise to us because she looks more like a kid than a baby. 

 

Either way, God gave her to us and we love her.  I can not wait to get my fingers in that hair!  I can not wait for her to have tea parties with her sister!  I can not wait to hear her sing(which I was told she loves to do).

 

Her name will be Isryelle Justine Pehl.  It means God strives for Justice.  It fits her so well.

 

We will have to start growing it out right away.  They keep it short for easier maintenance

 

 

 

 

We are on cloud nine and completely in awe of what God is doing in our lives.