Today Joe and I went to Smyrna to the office of our social worker who is doing our home study. It was wonderful to get this first visit out of the way and find out all our paperwork was in order. (And there is a lot of paperwork!!!) We have scheduled for her to come out to our house next Tuesday then she will write up her evaluation and we will move on to the next step...More Paperwork!!
The past few weeks have been a roller coaster in regards to our attempts to check in on Ben and Ephtonline to make sure they are doing okay. We found out that Ephtonline was doing well, but she reported Ben had disappeared from the orphanage and she was not sure where he had gone or what had happened. A week later we learned someone in his family had picked him up and taken him with her. This was all we knew for another week. This was an extremely difficult time for us. But praise the Lord he was looking out for Ben and also helping us by opening lines of communication. We learned that Ben's grandmother had picked him up from the orphanage because she was concerned with how he was doing there. She knew that she really could not provide the care she knew he needed but she trusted God would help her help him. Soldiers of God went to her with the message that if Ben could remain at the orphanage for awhile longer there is a couple from America who are trying desperately to adopt him. Approximately two weeks after we learned he was no longer in the orphanage, we received word that he was back!!!! Our hearts were overjoyed! Our prayers answered. We received new pictures of them as well and have posted them under the photos tab above.
We hope within the next month we will be ready to send our dossier to Haiti. With this comes our first huge payment of $8000. This money will go to the agency that will begin to process our paperwork in Haiti and begin the court proceedings on our behalf. The fundraising has been going a little slow and we welcome any suggestions you may have to help us raise this $8000. We do want to delay the process which already seems like it is going to take forever. We have raised around $3500 over the past 2 months but all this money will be used to pay for the home study and various expenses preparing for the home study as well as for the US government fees. Thanks to all of you who have so generously given to our fund to help bring Ben and Ephtonline home. We grow more and more excited everyday. We have gotten their rooms ready as we prepared for our home study and we can't wait for the day when we open those doors and look in on our son and daughter instead of empty beds!!! God Bless!
How exciting! And, scary! and, heartwrenching! And, exciting! What do you think of us trying to pull together a dinner and silent auction?? Had thought we could do a joint thing but my heart is telling me that you guys are so much closer than we are and you already know where your kids are that your need is much greater than ours right now!! I'll be happy to help organize it or do whatever you want!!! Mike and I cater so cooking a lot of food is nothing new for us so we could help there if you want! Or, I could help by getting donations for the auction?? I have asked Bill about having it at church but haven't heard back from him yet. If you want to do it, just let me know and we'll work toward that goal!! I just wanna help you get those kids home!!! Much Love!!
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