The Kids Birthdays

We are still waiting on the kids birth certificates but after slaving over their judgement paperwork for about 15 minutes,  which is in French, we have discovered their birthdays!

 

Isryelle was born August 1, 2009.

She just turned four.

 

Boaz was born July 2, 2010

He just turned three.

 

So as of last week, we have a 2, 3, and 4 year old!

Has God blessed us or what?!?

No airplane for Irelyn.

As you all know, we have been struggling with an important decision.

Should we take Irelyn with us?  Should we not?

Our agency told us a few days ago that there is a good chance we will be traveling 3-4 weeks.

They also told us that unless our child is 13 or older, she will not be traveling with us.

 

For the most part it is for safety reasons.

Congo is a third world country and it will be difficult to keep us healthy let alone three children.

Our Congolese kiddos will be used the the stomach bugs and the ringworm.

Irelyn's little body had never experience such things and would most likely be miserable for most of the trip.  Staying in Congo is HARD.  It is hot, uncomfortable, there is not hot water, and strange food.  The bottom line is, Irelyn will be much less traumatized staying at home in the comfort of her mima and papa's house.

 

On the other hand.  Isryelle and Boaz will need some serious bonding time.  We will be dealing with illnesses, potty training, tantrums, and grieving toddlers.  It will be an easier transition for them if we are able to give them our full attention without having to juggle Irelyns VERY jealous tendencies.

 

So there you have it!

We will be heart broken to leave her and most likely I will cry daily because I miss her so much.

Gavin and I have been praying about this issue and God gave us a clear answer....we are so thankful for that!  We KNOW that this is HIS best for us and are not worried a bit.

Irelyn Turns 2!

Today my baby turned two!

What a couple of years it has been.

She has brought us more joy than we could have ever imagined.

Being her mother is my favorite in this world.  I honestly can not believe God chose to entrust me with this sweet little child.

 

 

Here is what I have seen in Irelyn this year.

She is so strong!

Irelyn is our little fighter.  She will push just about anyone around regardless of their size(we do not encourage this).  She is completely fearless and will climb up anything and jumps off everything.  I cant believe she does not have a broken bone yet.  She is extremely athletic and amazes me at her physical abilities as 2 years old.

She loves to help.

She truly has a servants heart.  Whenever I am doing something around the house, she comes up to me and asks, "mama help?"  She then proceeds to make a huge mess while thinking she is helping...its the thought that counts.

 

She is very busy.

I can hardly get that girl to sit still to eat.  She is always on to the next exciting thing and eating just seems to bore her.

                                                                  She loves to learn.

She asks, "mama what dat?" all the time!  She tries to mimic everything I do, talking on the phone, singing, writing numbers, doing my makeup.

Its hard to see but she is wearing heels!

 

She is a little girl!

She loves to brush her hair and try on clothes.  When she is not trying on clothes she is wearing my heels around the house with a baby doll on her hip.

 

Basically she is amazing and I can not wait to spend another year with her!

Never more than I can handle.

Have you ever heard the saying, "God will not give you more than you can handle."

I have been finding comfort is this saying for years...ever since I understood what it meant.

It made me realize that whenever I hit a rough patch, I must be able to handle it.

I have figured something out...God totally gives me more than I can handle.

 

I can not handle this!

I can not stand not having my kids in my arms.

I can not stand waiting, waiting, and waiting some more.

I can not stand the fact that our kids are growing up without us...they truly are losing their baby faces.

Some days I feel like I have fallen down and can't get up...its just too overwhelming to stand up.

Then God picks me up.

 

I can not handle this....which causes me to cry out to my Jesus who CAN handle this!

I think that God gives us more than we can handle so we learn to rely on Him.

I think He wants to grow and stretch us.

How could he do that if he only gave us things we could "handle".

2 Cor. 12:10 "....the weaker I get, the stronger I become."

I get so weak, that I have to cry out to God to hold me up.

I let His strength be what keeps me moving forward.

Its a beautiful thing.

We need $6,000 in the next 3-5 weeks.  Please keep this special need in your prayers.

 



Both Hands Kick Off = Success.

We ended up having two Both Hands kick-offs.

We only had about 1/2 our team be able to show up for the first one so we had a second one so everyone could be prepared on the project day.

We were very blessed by the time with friends and were so thankful for their willingness to help.

We appreciate every single person who came these two weekends and we are excited to get to serve alongside them.

Here are some highlights of the party.

 

 

Stuffing envelopes.

I just had to put this picture up...things got a little silly!

Working towards bringing our kids home!

 

Luke and Grace sent out the most addresses and won the prize!

There were so many sweet families there to help us.

 

In the end, we sent our about 350 letters!

In Mark, we learn about how Jesus multiplied the fish and bread to feed thousands of people.  We have complete confidence in our God and we look forward to seeing what he does through this project.  If you want to share this project with you family and friends, you can share the link below.

There is a very easy way to sponsor our project online.

http://bothhandsfoundation.org/gavin-and-rachel-pehl

 



Boaz and Isryelle Pehl!!!!

Great news!

We FINALLY passed court.

This means that these sweet kids are officially part of our family in the governments eyes.

Pretty soon we will get birth certificates and passports for the kids.

We have a 3-5 week wait for paperwork before we can file for their visas.

We are coming babies!

Gods timing is so awesome!



Care Packages arrived....sort of.

The good news is, we got some adorable pictures of our kids.

The bad news is our care packages were lost on the way over to Congo.

It is funny actually.

We origonally sent our packages to an adopting mom.  She was not sure when she would be traveling due to delays so she sent it to our coordinator.  Well our coordinators trip got delayed so the adopting mom ended up traveling first.  It was not big deal but we were excited for our kids to get our packages.  Well our coordinator lost two bags on the plane! 

 

Guess what was in the bags?

 

Yep...our packages.  Sweet as she is, she bought our kids some toys "from us" to bring them when she brought the rest of the kids their packages.  We are praying the bags show up.  We were really excited to see the kids faces when they saw their mommy, daddy, and sister in pictures.

 

The sweet babies deserve to get something straight from their families.

Boaz has a little neck roll!  I really love it.  He is gaining weight and now weighs 24lbs.

Isryelle weighs 21lbs and is also looking healthy.  She loves her hats!



The kid's rooms Part 2

I am in a nesting frenzy!

I finally feel like it just might be okay to start getting ready for the kids.

We are slowly clearing out Boaz's room.  We spent some time  building his closet this week which was completely empty.  I will not be putting clothes in it until I know for sure if they will need summer or winter clothes.

Daddy's helper

He's so handy!

My grandma made Boaz this blanket.  I am going to go with this color scheme for his room.  I may add a little bit of blue here and their as well.

Almost done!  Ill post another pic when its filled with clothes.  It needs one more shelf and a little bit of paint.

 

We are focusing on Boaz's room since Isryelle and Irelyn are going to share and its more difficult to start changing around Irelyn's room. We did, however, put some pretty words on the wall.

 

 

 

 

 



She's Off!

Our coordinator is headed to D.R.C. today!

We are really really really excited for her to finally be there.

She will be giving our kids their care packages and telling them they have parents!

What a special day that will be for everyone.

We know she will take some really great pictures but are also hoping for some video of the kids.

 

She will be getting more information about where our case is at.

She could get good information or could get bad information.

Please be praying during this next week that we get some really GREAT information.

Both Hands Kick-Off

We have put together a wonderful team for our Both Hands project.

Well I should say God put together a wonderful team of people who want to help a widow and an Orphan.  Our kickoff is this Saturday.  It will be a time filled with good food, important information, and a lot of stuffing of envelopes.  How fun!

 

Please be praying the kickoff goes smoothly and that people become passionate for this project and the cause it supports.  We are also praying that people bring a lot of addresses...more addresses means more money raised!  The person who brings the most addresses wins a SHOTGUN!  Here in AZ that is a big deal.

 

You don't have to get a letter to sponsor us for this project.  Visit the website below to check out Both Hands or sponsor our project.

http://bothhandsfoundation.org/gavin-and-rachel-pehl

 

Heres some cuteness for the day!



Loving from across the World

How can you love a child from across the world?

Surely it will not be the same love I have for Irelyn until they get home.

If I have not met them, I do not really know what it is to love them.

 

These are all thoughts that went through my head BEFORE we saw our kids faces.

I know that a lot of people do not understand what it is to love a child across seas....I had no idea it was possible...until I met Isryelle and Boaz in pictures.

 

I now know that is is VERY possible to fully love a child you have never met.

Some people ask me...what does it feel like having a kid who does not live with you.

It feel miraculous.

Here is the best way I have come up with to describe it.

Imagine your child was in Africa...hungry...poor...sick...cold.

That's how it feels.

 

It feels just like it would if Irelyn was in Africa and we were not able to take care of her.

We would be heartbroken and sad.

We would have a sick feeling in the pit of our stomachs at the thought of her being scared, hungry, thirsty, or in pain and not having us there to protect her, feed her, and comfort her.

 

We feel all of these things for Isryelle and Boaz.  Daily we have to give these children back to the Lord who is the perfect protector, provider, and comforter.

When you think about adoption and wonder what it feels like...do me a favor and say a prayer for all of those families out there who are living every day without a piece of their heart.

A Change in Travel Plans

The D.R.C. is full of suprises!

I don't think anyone really knows what is going on with adoption in this mysterious country.  Every time we turn around, they are changing the way they do things. 

I am pretty sure I told you all a while ago that the DGM(the agency that gives out the exit letters adopting families need to leave the country) closed down.  It was a temorary closure but was still problemetic for people who were traveling.  Well they have opened back up but it looks like they are now requireing a longer process that parents have to go through to get their exit letter.  It used to take about a week to get an exit letter, so parents were away from home for 1-2 weeks.  It is now taking 3 weeks to get exit letters which means parents are away from home closer to 4 weeks.

 

We were not happy to hear this news and we are still praying that the time is somehow shortened. 

If nothing changes, we will need to take Irelyn with us....we can not leave her for four weeks at such a young age.  It also means that the amount of money we need to have for our hotel has doubled.  We thought that we were about $17,000 away from being fully funded.  Well we are now figuring we are about $24,000 away from being fully funded.  While this news is a bummer, we are completely trusting God to provide for whatever we need. 

 

We are in the meantime praying that the time will be shortened and we can leave Irelyn with my parents like we planned.  The thought of leaving her at all seems unbearable but the thought of bringing her to Africa does not sound easy either.  We know that God has something awesome planned for us!

Were not crazy.

God is already blessing our Both Hands project beyond what we imagined.

We have 22 families on our team and we know it will an amazing time of service.

I want to start a small series of post about being an adoptive mom who is waiting for her kids.

I get so many comments, some are loving and kind and some are not so much.

I want you guys to know what we go through as moms waiting for our kids.

I got this idea from another mom who just blogged about this subject. 

She had so many great things to say but I did not agree with all of them completely...so here is my take on it.

 

Day 1

 

Were not crazy....were adopting.

I know at times we seem over-emotion, over-bearing, and a little pushy about the subject of adoption.  We are not nuts and do not think that everyone should adopt...we are passionate and need somewhere to put our extra time while we wait for our kids.  Being advocates for adoption is just one place where we can put our time and efforts.  We may seem chaotic at times but adoption requires so much paperwork, we could fund a Small printing company.  Imagine a trip to the DMV...then multiply it by ten, add a few different U.S. government agencies multiplied by two different countries and what do you get....a confusing mess!  WELCOME TO ADOPTION!  Telling us were crazy for adopting does not help.  Asking us,"why don't you just have your own?" is not kind.  Telling us that we should adopt from a different country because its "easier" will not make us change our mind and certainly will not make us any less crazy.  We adopt because God called us to adoption.  This journey is very joyful but painful at the same time.  If we seem crazy...well we might be a little crazy...it should go away after our kids are home.