May 15th Update

I totally missed our most recent update!

We got it a couple of weeks ago but I did not see the pictures until today.

The kids look so much older every time I get new pictures.

Boaz is losing his "baby" face.

Isryelle is looking like such a little lady!

 

 



3 months and TRUSTING!

We have hit the three month mark last week since getting our referrals of our two precious kids.

Wow it seems like it has been longer than three months!

This month has been one of encouragment for us.

We have seen some very possitive movements in our process.

All facts point to a very long wait for our children.

I can't help but feel they will be in our arms soon!

Everyday that goes by, we embrace the pain of not having our babies yet.
We joyfully sing praises to our God who is SO GOOD!
We embrace the tears.
We know that God will not give us more than we can handle.
Before we break down, he will bring our kids home

In His perfect timing.

Montana!

So you all might have noticed how quite I have been lately.

We have been so busy!

We just got back from Montana and had a blast!

Gavin's sister got married and I was honored to be one of her bridesmaids.

We spent a week in the tiny little town of Chinook enjoying the weather and all the green grass!

 

The week was full of wedding fun...bridal shower, bachlorette party, wedding preparation....such fun times with the family!

 

Making food for the bridal shower.

Practice makes perfect!  Irelyn flipped out when she saw me on the arm of the brooms brother...she gets so jealous!

Lunch with the grooms family.

I went fishing...then we ate the fish!

Make a wish!

Hiking

They did it!

 

It has been two weeks since we got the update that we should have judgement in under two weeks. 

I am starting to get the idea that the lawyer in Congo does not tell our agency every little detail of the process.

After we get judgement, we have a 30 day waiting period before the adoption can be finalized.

I am sort of hoping that we do not get told when we get judgement and will be well into our 30 wait by the time we get word.

 

I look at those kiddos pictures and can not believe they are almost mine!  

NEWS!

To say I have been going crazy is an understatement.

I feel like a total nut case!

I am sure our coordinator feels that way....with how I am always e-mailing her and questioning everything.

 

Well I bugged her again about our commune documents and finally got some good news.

She has had our commune docs since February!

We have already been submitted to court and should have judgement within two weeks.

 

This mean within two weeks, God willing, Isryelle and Boaz will officially be Pehls!
After the judgement, we will start our 30 day appeal period.
I am not completely sure what this is but I think it leave 30 days that the biological parents can change their minds and decide to keep their child.
This almost never happens so it is not something we are concerned about.
If it did happen, it means that our kids have parents that love them...adoption should ALWAYS be a last resort.

We will then get our adoption documents and be able to file for our kids Visas.
When we file for our kids visas, we are still looking at about a 6-9 month wait to bring our children home.

We still need prayer that God provides!
We need about $8,000 more by the time we file for our kids visas. 
This mean $8,000 in the next month or so!

We are praising God for His perfect timing and grace in our lives!
Hold on babies!  Were coming!

One Day at a Time

We have been praying...and praying about the possibility of a domestic adoption while we are still pursuing D.R.C. adoption and have decided that God is saying no for right now.

We just don't have the money which means we can't do it.

 

God did open up another door for us....

Foster care.

We thought about foster care before but Arizona had a law that kept us from pursuing it.

The state of AZ recently changed that law which means we can be foster parents.

I think sometime in the next year we will get licensed as it will be easier to get through all of those classes now than when we have bunch of kids.

As of right now we are not thinking we want to accept a placement before Isryelle and Boaz come home.

 

When we first changed our direction to adopt from the D.R.C. we though God would move the process along quickly.

I guess we figured we had already been through so much waiting, it just made sense.

As silly as it sounds, I am surprised that we are not further along in the process than we are.

Things seem to be falling apart in the Congo.

Adoptive parents are facing one delay after another.

Gavin and I still have faith that our process could move faster than we ever expected.

We are also trying to prepare ourselves for the possible situation of our process taking longer than we ever expected.

 

None of the political issues going on in Congo effect our adoption process.

God controls our situation!

If He wanted those kids home today, they would be here.

They will not be in our arms a day early or a day late.

 

For now, we will not be adding anymore little Pehl's to the family.

We will keep praying and take this thing day by day...you never know what tomorrow might bring!

I-171h Approval

When we switched from ET to D.R.C. we had to change a lot of things on our paperwork.

One of the documents that needed changes was our immigration approval.

We sent in our amendment request about two months ago.

We already have the new and improved I-171h document!

 

I am pretty sure we need this document for court so although we do not yet have our commune document and can not go to court, whenever our paperwork is ready we have everything we need to move forward.

 

We also got our updates last night!

Here are some Sneak peeks of our newest pictures.

We have some seriously cute kids!



Something New to Pray About.

As you all know, we have been at this process for A WHILE.

Gavin and I both come from big families and were planning on growing our family quickly.

So when we realized that we could be waiting 18 months we were a little sad.

That means Irelyn will be 3 1/2, possibly 4 by the time we add to our family.

Ill tell you what....this was NEVER our plan.

 

God's plan has completely overpowered ours...and its a good thing.

I KNOW its a good things, even if I don't always FEEL like its a good thing.

So we are praying about something.

 

We are praying about the possibility of a domestic adoption while we wait.

We have been thinking about this for a couple weeks and would love to adopt a baby.

We could be matched with a minority baby in weeks or a few months which would mean the baby would be over a year by the time we went to pick up the kids in Congo.

 

The problem is, another adoption would mean more money.

It is a pretty managable amount but we are totally maxed out at the moment.

We can not do this unless god supernaturally provides the money to do it.

I think we are fine either way.  We would love a baby(who wouldn't) but we know that if that is not God's plan for us, we will be happy with that too.  Only God knows when we should add kids to our family.
We ask that you committ this to prayer with us. 
If we have the money in the next couple of months, we will move forward.
If we do not, we will wait joyfully on God's timing.