If you will, please join us...

...in fasting and prayer. If you read this and believe in the power of fasting and prayer, we will be praying for a visa appointment for July 15 or 17th. We hope to get an answer from the Embassy on Monday. This will give us a chance at reasonable airfare and allow us to focus on preparing to bring home Marie and Roberto.

I will also need to get Marisa and Katiana ready for girls camp and Michael ready for Scout camp......so, having an answer on Monday would really help me focus.

Today we moved all of Zac's stuff into Michael's room......so they will now share rooms. We bought two twin mattresses on Thursday for Marie and Roberto so we are now ready for them to come home. I have a few clothes for the kids but find it difficult to buy from my imagination. I get confused trying to figure out what will fit them........When we first met them, the clothes I brought were way too big. Little Roberto would put TWO pairs of shorts on and then we would fold down the waist band to keep them from falling off........I'm not sure why he wanted to wear two pair but it worked. He was 5 years old and the clothes were 3T's. Marie had the same problem, she was 6 and we brought size 4T for her. I have to laugh, as I remember turning around to see her run right out of her skort! We promptly found a safety pin to fix that problem! They are so adorable! They are now 7 and 8 years old. I am so ready for them to be home. I'm ready to love them and help them overcome whatever challenges they may have. I'm just READY! For one who procrastinates..........I would say I'm way OVERDUE on being ready and I hope and pray we get a visa appointment that allows us to travel very soon.

Last Monday I finally reached the point of accepting they would be home on time. I lost all desire to argue and complain about the exhausting process this has been. I actually bought a plane ticket to attend our company tradeshow in Chicago (July 17 - 19 --and more than anything I hope my plan gets messed up). I just reached this place of TRUST - trusting God had ALL the power to bring them home and HE would bring them home on time. This realization came with a sense of peace......although, there is a portion of peace that can not come until they are with us, a part of my heart remains heavy as it has been.......its just a feeling of trust that came which allowed me some added peace. The next day I received an e-mail from the Embassy. I had to open it three times before I knew for sure it was from the Embassy and not USCIS (even though it was signed "Yours truly, Adoptions Unit, US Embassy). The e-mail said they had received our approved adoption petition and then listed the final documents needed to complete our adoptions. The last request in the e-mail was "when would we be available for an appointment". My prayers were being answered right before my eyes.

The next day, our facilitator called me to tell me she thought we had a visa appointment on Thursday morning. Of course, we couldn't get to Haiti that quickly so we hoped and prayed that the orphanage director could set a new appointment for July 8th. Things didn't work out on Thursday for the orphanage director to meet with the Adoptions Unit, although she tried, so we are now hoping Monday we will be able to confirm our appointment and arrange our travel.

Wish I had some current photos of the kids......maybe I'll just find some favorites and add them for fun. THANKS to all who joins us in prayer and fasting (or just prayer :) or just positive thinking :) We appreciate all of you!