Adoption Progress and Humbling Myself

I promised an update on our adoption process, plus I know I look forward to them on adoption blogs I read, so here's a run down of where we are.

• About halfway done with HS. It took us too long to agree on who to use and once we decided we found out that they wanted the full fee up front, all paperwork done, and 15 hours of education done before sending out the SW. But, we went with them specifically for a certain SW so we're hanging in there.
• Our passports came today! YAY!! We applied on April 27th, I believe, so they came somewhat quickly I guess.
• We have the I600A filled out and all the paperwork, besides the HS, to submit with it. Been holding off so it's not there too long before we FINALLY finish this Home study update.
• Our physicals have been done and the forms for HS are filled out. We are pretty sure mine for Liza's country is good and getting one thing on Rick's fixed next week and then that is done! Phew!
• My employment verification for Ukraine is done. Hoping Rick's will be done soon. That just leaves the ones for HS, but they will send a letter for that.
• We have contacted someone to do our mortgage verification for Chase and hope to get that done this week as well.
• Got our Marriage Certificates about two weeks ago.

All those things actually take a chunk out of the dossier requirements for Liza's country. We are so ready to get the I600A submitted and the HS done.
One of the things that has been holding us back from submitting payment for the HS and sending the I600A is the fees. We had a chunk of money we planned to use for those that we ended up using for unforeseen car trouble. If anyone wants to donate towards these fees we would so greatly appreciate it. Even $2 would help if enough people donated. I don't want money to buy nice clothes or go out to dinner with my family, I want to pay the fees I have to pay to get my Liza home. We do have other fundraisers in the works, one I will be posting in a day or two, but I just want to get these two hurdles out of our way and move on to the big ones. The in-country fees.
This is the hardest part of this whole thing for me. Waiting on God to provide for each need so we can move to the next step. It's also hard for me to ask for help. I've been praying for days for miraculous provision for these fees and felt that maybe I need to humble myself and let others know of the need. That is SO hard for me to do, and maybe that's why I need to do it.
Thanks in advance to any who donate and to those of you who are faithfully praying as we move along this journey. I just know that Liza is going to be such a blessing to us and to the greater community at large, I just feel this in my heart. I can't wait until we actually get her here. It's gonna be awesome and SO worth it all! Watch the video, the song is what runs through my head when I'm starting to think that I can't take the stress anymore.

Wild Olive Tees

(don't you LOVE that button design?!)

Wild Olive Tees is giving away $75 of free stuff from their store! How cool is that? I have been looking at those tees longingly for a while now but not allowing myself to buy any since all the money is going to the Liza fund right now. So, when I saw this I thought it was perfect. This way I can get the tee-shirts I've been looking at and not feel guilty that the money should have gone to the Liza-fund.

BTW-if you want to donate to the Liza-fund feel free, I promise not to buy tee-shirts with the money :) see sidebar ->->->->->

Liza Looks Like Noah

Well, not really, but I swear I have pictures of Noah at this age making that same face when he knew I was trying to get a picture of him. He was quite the little stinker, I'm thinking she looks like she might be too!

I promise I am going to update where we are in the process in the next day or two. After waiting thirty minutes for this picture to post I am feeling a little done with blogger for one night!

My Girl's Got Bows

***Normally I don't advertise for people's products on my blog (and I didn't get a discount for doing this) but they were so nice, even helped me decide what kind of clip to use when I was clueless. Then when I explained that they were for my soon to be adopted little girl I found out that their family had adopted from the foster care system. So I had to share. ***

This one is my favorite!!!

Um, yes, hairbows. Ever since we committed to adopting Liza I have had this overwhelming urge to buy her hairbows. And I knew EXACTLY where I was going to get them from.

Kell's Bows n Kreations

I don't remember how I found Kell's Bows but it was probably one of the hair blogs that I started reading a while back. Anyway, I knew I had to get her some bows so I went straight to Kell's and ordered the ones I had already had my eye on for a while. (I know, I need help. Just my luck Liza will HATE girly anything.)



Aren't they the cutest things! Let me tell you, these pictures do not do them justice. They really are beautiful. I was showing them off to everybody when they came, you should have seen me running around all excited about a few hairbows. teehee. But, you know, they are a small representation of the reality of my baby girl who I hope will be here shortly. So, I can get excited about hairbows if I want. I have given myself permission.

Slavery-Alive and Well

You've heard the term "Human Trafficking"? Ever stopped to think about what it is or what it means for the humans involved. Pure and simple Human Trafficking is just the modern way of saying SLAVERY. It is a practice that is alive and well, it didn't die out, and it wasn't abolished by the Emancipation Proclamation. Abe Lincoln was a great man and my favorite president since my childhood (what kid couldn't resist the stories of that log cabin?), but Abe Lincoln did not abolish slavery. He did set the ball rolling for all African Americans in the United States being freed from bondage, but slavery is still alive and doing VERY well today.



Where are the Sojourner Truths, the Frederick Douglasses,the Harriet Tubman's, and the Harriet Beecher Stowes? Why don't we hear about this every day on the news? Why aren't the people who are perpetuating these crimes against their fellow man being brought to justice? My husband was sharing some statistics with some ladies a couple weeks ago and they didn't believe that what he was saying could possibly be true. How can this be happening and people not know about it?!



One of the worst forms of Slavery today, in my opinion, is the Sex Trade. They are all horrible, but just think for a minute about little girls and boys, some as young as (or younger than) 6 or 8 years old being used as PROSTITUTES. This is despicable and it burns me up! I want to go out and find these predators and show them my vision of justice for them! This is what I propose: we set abolitionists up with cameras outside the places where they go to find these kids. They take pictures of them which we paste on HUGE billboards in their hometowns to show just what kind of monster they really are! But, then I think "how could I sit out there and not go in and forcefully free every person held against their will in that place". There has to be an answer to this problem, but we can't just sit around waiting for the answer to do something about this. People need us RIGHT NOW!

This video gives statistics and shows actual faces of children that are at risk. There are also some clips of actual "customers" or as I like to call them MONSTERS! I know Jesus loves all of us but I have a hard time loving someone who would do something like this to anyone, especially a child. If you are a child abuser/molester you better pray you don't cross my path because I haven't reached the point yet that I could turn the other cheek for you.






Sex issues are a big problem in our world today. If watching this doesn't make you aware of that then watch it again! The men who sit in the pornographic movie house admit to gang rape and child rape which they learned from watching those movies. Everything is sexualized today and no one seems to think it's a problem. We need to wake up, it is a BIG problem. It is not ok for men to use women for sex, it is not ok for them to use children. And it's not ok for women to use men or children either. This has got to stop.



You think of brothels and you think of the westerns with the young ladies laughing and hanging out of the windows? Um, no! Maybe that's how we want to imagine it, but today's brothel's are filed with young women who were sold there by their own families. Or children who are being used by Westerners who have come there as "sex tourists". What kind of life is that to live? Certainly not the glamourized one you might see in the movies. NO ONE wants to be a prostitute. No matter if they "chose" that lifestyle or it was chosen for them.

Please, friends, please wake up to the reality of slavery today in our world. It's still here. It is still ALIVE and doing VERY WELL. That should not be ok with us!