God is Good!

When the BBQ was in the planning stages, Shannon and I had discussed how much we both hoped to raise from this event. And, while we knew God would provide, and amaze us, we were adding up the costs of the food, dunk tank, and bouncy house thinking, "if we clear $500 for each of us we'd be happy." Then, Shannon followed that up with "and if we each could get $1,000 I'd be THRILLED!" And, that was the end of that conversation....we were on to the next. You see, these BBQ planning meetings occurred during our morning runs together, and our topics jump back and forth a gazillion times over our course. Anyway, as He always does, God amazed us. We each brought in about $1600!!! We couldn't be more thrilled, and thankful, and humbled.

I say humbled because I generally don't like receiving help from others...I like to be able to accomplish things on my own...and boy is God teaching me a lesson in humility. While I don't consider myself a prideful person, I would say that in this area, I am very prideful. Who do I think I am that we can come up with $50,000-60,000 in less than a year's time! That's more than my salary! And, just looking over the fact that we are about halfway through financially makes me breathe a sigh of relief and concern. It's amazing to think that we saved so much the past 8 months, and that with the generous help of our friends and family we are about $22,000 in, and well...depending on travel costs (they vary so much depending on time of year) probably another $35,000 left to go. Sigh....

Anyway, before I move on to some more good news- THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH! To those of you who gave sacrificially of your money and time, and to those of you who have been and continue to pray over our adoption. Please know that we are so grateful, and we can't wait to share the completion of this journey with you!

Okay- onto some good news. I called the FBI yesterday (okay...one more item to add to the "You kow you're amidst an international adoption when...." list). After 7 weeks of mailing them our fingerprints they finally added us into their system. We were told 8-10 weeks from submission, which we thought meant from the day you mailed it in. Apparantly it means from the date you enter their system because the guy said 12 weeks from now we should be receiving our clearance forms. Well, we are praying to need them earlier than that, so I asked him what would happen if we need to bring them over to Russia prior to those 12 weeks. He followed that up with: "If you dont' get them by next week, call again." To which I responded verbally, "Wow, okay, great! Thanks!" And, in my head, I responded..."Wait, What? We just went from 12 weeks to 1 week?" But, I figured I'd take that as good news...keep my eyes out for the FedEx guy, and pray!

I then called our agency to let them know about our FBI update. In that conversation I finally remembered to ask the very specific question I had kept forgetting about in previous phone calls...."So, when they say 'We will have more information on the Jackson's case by mid-late September' what exactly does that mean?" And, the answer was.....A REFERRAL! We are so excited to think that we are just about 3-5 weeks from finding out about our little one...and possibly then 4-6 weeks from heading over to meet him or her! Lots of smiles and excitement!

Thank you all again for all of your help with the BBQ! We will continue to keep everyone posted on things! I can't wait for the day that I can post about a referral! Woohoo! :-) Here are some BBQ Pictures I think you'll enjoy!

The DeVols and Jacksons

Our lovely donated cake...thank you Rene!!!

Our information board...thank you Hannah and Leah!!!

The DeVol's information board

The jellow salad Flag look-a-likes...thank you Homans!

Fun Bouncy house!

When I couldn't throw Greg in, I had to make it happen! :)

Us with our parents...the excited Grandparents to be!