The Big News

And the moment you all have been waiting for. Drum roll, please!

ALL OF OUR PAPERWORK IS DONE!!!!

Yep! You read that correctly! We have been doing paperwork since January, and now this four months of paper shuffling has come to an end. For now... I know there will be more paperwork along the way (custody papers, court hearing documents, visas, etc.), but all of the paperwork that we have been assigned by our adoption agency is completed. Which means,

WE SENT OUR DOSSIER TO UGANDA!!!!!

This evening, after dinner, we headed to the FedEx store to mail our huge pile of papers to our lawyer in Uganda. It was so nerve wracking! I wanted to make sure everything was perfect as I checked, double checked, triple checked every document. This is not a cheap FedEx mailing. No, siree! This is not something you want to re-do because the cost is pretty pricey. I was shaking a little as I sealed the envelope. The FedEx lady double and triple checked the address I wrote down and even looked up to see if the address was written down correctly in the computer as well as a guide book for sending things around the world. Wow! She was thorough and I appreciated it! We do NOT want all of this personal information falling into the wrong hands. Our entire life is contained in that little packet and we wanted to make sure it made it to the intended destination.

The kids waiting while I checked everything a million times.

Trying hard to wait while I finished everything up

Pretending to sleep while I finished up the paperwork

For some of you, this might not have been the news you were hoping for. I'm sure some of you were hoping that we finally knew who our kids were or had pictures of the little boy and little girl who would join our family later this year. I so wish I could have shared that news with you today, but that day will be coming soon!

So what does sending our dossier to Uganda mean? It means that now we wait. The next time I write we have big news, it means we WILL have a referral and we WILL have pictures of our beautiful children! All of this paperwork makes the next (way more exciting big news) possible. Sending off our dossier means that we can do nothing more to "make" our adoption happen. Now we have to wait and wait and wait some more. We are at the mercy of everyone else now to see who our kids are, when we have a court date in Uganda and when we will fly to go and meet our new kids. I'm told this next part is the hardest part of the process.

What can you do to help?

I'm so glad you asked! Adoption has been a strange process, with a lot of ups and downs. And a lot of loneliness. I appreciate the friends who do ask about our adoption, but it is a very lonely road. Sometimes I want to tattoo my forehead to say,

"I'm adopting and I am dying 

to talk about it. Please ask me!"

So here is how you can help our family during this next phase of waiting: 

-Ask us about the adoption! We want to share all the gooey details. Just like a preggo mom wants to talk about the fact that she can't stop peeing or she is short of breath or her morning sickness has not left for seven months, we are dying to talk about what happens next and what our traveling will be like and how long we will be gone. Just ask us. We'll talk your ear off and love you for it!

-Pray for us! There are still a lot of unknowns and variables on the journey. Please pray that we are constantly drawing our strength from Christ and drawing closer to one another in this process. Pray that Asher and Aleathea's hearts will be opened for two more siblings. And pray for the two across the world, that they are safe.

-Buy a t-shirt!  Here is what we have left, and this is it. Please make my dream come true and buy us out of t-shirts! (V-Necks $20- 2 small, 4 medium, 2 large/ Crew Neck $18- 1 medium, 4 large/ Youth $12- 1 medium)

-Make us a freezer meal! We have a deep freezer and we know that this first couple of months back from Uganda are going to be stressful. Think having twins with two kids already in the house. It would be a huge blessing to have meals already made for that stressful time back. We eat everything!

-Donate your frequent flyer miles! We will be flying to Uganda later this year, and you can make it more affordable by donating your frequent flyer miles to us. That would be a huge blessing to cut down the cost of our travel expenses!

-Share our adoption story with your circle! You might not have the resources to help us financially, but maybe some of your friends and family do. By sharing my blog and story with those in your world, you are expanding the potential of people who will give as well as support us through prayer. And we can NEVER have enough prayer!

-Donate to us! We still need $24,000. If we don't have the money, we can't fly to get the kids. It's as simple as that. We will roll out some more fundraisers, and we look forward to see how God will use those close to us to help us raise the rest of the money. If you would like to know what specific about what we are paying for, we are happy to share with you.

After submitting our paperwork, we headed to Chick-fil-a for a celebration ice cream! If felt like such a weight was lifted off of my shoulders and we could just relax and wait.