That's What I Heard

You've got this Karena…..

You can do this….

It is time

Those words… That’s exactly what I heard. On Friday morning July 13^th 2012 I was in my car and I was headed to Indianapolis to visit the secretary of state’s office. You see I had ordered the wrong birth certificates for our dossier. I didn’t realize they were wrong until I was putting everything together… A few weeks before vacation we learned that our dossier needed to be in Haiti by July 15^th that was the deadline being set by our agency. I thought to myself I can do that no problem… Most of our stuff had been translated already and I just had a few things to finish up… Well not exactly I needed to make some more changes to our home study I needed to rewrite out IBESR letter and I needed to get a letter from my OBGYN stating the pregnancy complications I had with both the boys. So I got started on things right away. The person we were going to use for translations ended up not able to help us so I was searching for someone. I luckily found a wonderful lady on o desk and she did all my translations. I sent her everything and found out the translations that had been done by the agency in Texas weren’t that great and needed a little help! So she translated everything for us!! She was super-fast and did our entire dossier the week I was in Florida. While in Florida I learned that our birth certificates were wrong! At this point I thought there was no way we would make the deadline we needed to make. I went ahead and ordered our new state birth certificates from Vital Check.com and paid the extra for faster delivery. At this point there really wasn’t anything left I could do.. So we tried to have a good time but in the back of my mind was the thought of not making the deadline! We can home and I had to verify identification with vital check and wait wait wait for our birth certificates… We got everything else finished up and were just waiting on these birth certificates. The birth certificates arrived on Thursday afternoon! Thankfully the UPS guy knows us and he took them to my mom’s next door because they required a signature! So I immediately called down to Indy and found out the Secretary of State opened at 9am and if I was there first thing they could have them done in about 5 minutes so ok… We then called the consulate in Chicago and made an appointment with them at 1:30pm eastern time. So this means I needed to leave my house by 7am to get to Indy which is 90 miles south of my house get my authentications then head back home pick up Zach and head 90 north of my house to Chicago… from the point when I got to Indy I had about 4 hours left to get my authentications and then drive the 3+ hours to Chicago… Not leaving much time for error!

As I set off on my early morning trip to Indy I really wasn’t sure if this was all going to happen.. There was so much that could go wrong I honestly just didn’t know but we were going to give it a chance! I had just gone through Lebanon through all the road construction and then I heard these 11 words… It was like nothing I had ever experienced.

You’ve got this Karena

You can do this

It is time

It took me a few minutes to figure out what was going on… I truly feel it was god speaking to me. A huge since of relief came over me and I said to myself yes I can do this! I remember smiling thinking YES It Is Time!

Well I made it to Indy, couldn’t find a place to park got lost in the huge State building but remained calm. Found the secretary of state’s office got my authentications and then I was on my way! I made it home by 11 and we had 2.5 hours to make it to Chicago… not just Chicago but down town Chicago… Well we made that to with about 20 minutes to spare!! Traffic was crazy and we made it to Chicago right in the middle of the taste of Chicago! I honestly didn’t think our Expedition EL was going to fit in the parking garage but quickly learned that our vehicle is not an oversized vehicle!! Miss BeauBouff at the Haitian Consulate was wonderful! I love Haitian people!! She was truly a breath of fresh air! She told us she would do it quick for us so we just waited.. Took about 30 minutes and she was done!! Done our dossier was finally ready to go to Haiti. We drove home made copies and I was then ready to hand deliver it on Saturday morning the 14^th of July!

You see up until this point Friday the 13th of July 2012 something has always happened with our dossier / beginning process and we haven't be able to complete it! This was a huge victory for us! We have had to change home study agencies, change adoption agencies, rewrite our home study, make changes to things in our dossier, and get everything translated again… You name it there has been hurdle after hurdle to jump honestly I could probably start jumping them with my eyes closed! But the true joy has been the outcome of all those hurdles. Sure it felt like the end of the world when bad things happened but our god has never let us down. The outcome of these hurdles has always been better than we could ever imagine! I remember asking for prayer after we had learned of a really high hurdle we needed to jump... I ask for prayer on facebook didn't give a lot of details still won't give a lot of details.... I was simply asking for doors to be opened.. We had decided we were going to knock and knock and knock until the right door opened! Well friends I didn't even know this verse existed and the very next morning I got this email from a blog I follow and here was this verse! Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.  For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened."  Matthew 7:7-8 ~ Go God what a verse to restore my faith!! The truth is doors had already started to open that very night that I ask for prayers for doors to be opened I heard back from 3 different people all with a different door for us to knock on!! Wow Baby as Pastor Ted would say!! 

He has “truly” made everything beautiful in HIS time ~ Ecclesiastes3:11

Our HOPE is in HIM ~ we fully 100% trust in the lord and what his plans are for us.. Sure sometimes crazy talk gets to us but we just have to remind ourselves that our hope is in him! People are always asking us when the kids are coming home and it stinks when they ask us that question! In fact most times I want to scream when I know something you will know something! But I bite my tongue and smile and say no we don't know anything! Our hope is in him and we TRUST that HIS timing is perfect just like us finishing our dossier it was perfect and god made it beautiful in HIS time!

Currently our dossier is in Haiti it went on Monday July 15^th with our agency. It going through Pre IBESR steps now and then will be ready to meet up with the kids dossiers and start the rest of the process. We still have a long ways to go and we have no idea how long it will take.

Right now we are just celebrating the huge victory of getting our dossier to Haiti!!

 Praise be to god!!

For now the real waiting begins.. We now don’t have any “busy” work to do our dossier is complete and in a since we are now officially in the second stage of this pregnancy the "waiting stage" before our dossier was done we were "paper pregnant" we have now delivered the dossier so now we move to "waiting stage" and begin to wait on the process in Haiti. I will be honest with you it stinks we know who our kids are we have seen their faces, we have held them and kissed them and we LOVE them! We love them just as much as we love our biological boys but they just aren’t currently living with us in our home! They live in our hearts!! We can not wait for the "delivery" Their bedrooms are ready and we are ready for them. But we also know that god doesn't think we are ready just yet! Some days I would love to argue with him but I know my arguing won’t do me any good! We know in gods time he will make all of this beautiful.. He has already made so much beauty come out of this… More than we could have ever imagined! If you knew me a year ago you would of known that we had never flown or left the country.. Well over the course of this year we have been on 16 flights and to Haiti 4 times! Wow I would have never guesses that! We also went to Haiti a year ago to meet our one daughter and we now have two daughters in Haiti and one son in Haiti! The way they each individually came into our life was a total god thing! I would have never imagined it that way or planned it that way.. But it was perfect! A year ago we weren't regular church goers... We were lucky to go once a month I really hate to admitt that now! But now through adoption we have needed god so much we have wanted to seek him and we have found ourselves in a new wonderful church! It honestly feels like we have been there for ever!  We couldn't be happier and when we miss a sunday we really do miss a sunday we feel it in our hearts we see the difference our week has with church or with out church... You see I like plans I like things to go a certain way. Boy oh boy god is teaching me something with all of this! We have made new friends no not just friends we have made new family members all of the other adoptive parents  and children we have come to love! We have seen the beauty of a country that is broken and we have conquered fears! We are excited to see what else god has in store for us on this wild adoption roller coaster ride and we will continue to trust and follow him.



I just want to close with a favorite saying in our house “You get what you get and you don’t throw a fit” that’s in the bible you know.. it is one of my kids favorite verses! 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 tells us  Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.

So we will continue down this adoption road and we will take whatever comes our way and we aren't going to throw a fit! For we know this is god's will for us in Christ Jesus..

Everyday Holds The Possibility Of A Miracle 

Dossier all Stamped and ready to go to Haiti 

3 amazing kiddos waiting on us in Haiti!