Prayer Requests for April

Here are our April prayer requests. We'd be honored to know you're praying us through this tiresome process!! We're so thankful for those of you who are holding us up in prayer and we have been so thankful for how the Lord is keeping us more excited than depressed!

1. Pray that the process of Family Court would wrap up in a timely manner and that we'd receive our PA (pre-approval) before the 55 days that we're possibly looking at.
2. Pray that Carrie would be safe as she goes about her day and begins to learn how to maneuver her body in new ways and how to eat more bulky or solid foods.
3. We have several new "friends" through our agency's yahoo group. Several of these families have had excruciatingly long waits. We ask that you pray for all children and families that are going through this process. That they'd have peace and comfort in the wait, and that the people handling paperwork would be moved to do their jobs a little more quickly :)

The GOOD news!! 99.99%

Actually, the news is 100% great!!! We received the DNA test results today! Yep, 99.99% chance that the woman posing as Carrie's birth mom actually IS her birth mom! Hurray!!!
We can keep moving forward now! We have to finish family court and then get our pre-approval. Then we go into the Guatemalan courts. Soooo... much more waiting ahead! But this is a big step!

On the other hand... receiving the results today was hard as I expected. Seeing Carrie sitting on her birth mother's lap--neither of them smiling--was a sad moment. The woman is young and I have no idea what her life is about or why she needed to make this choice. It's interesting how much she and Carrie look alike, although their skin tones are completely different. I don't have much else to say on the matter... it's just a bizarre feeling that is fairly unexplainable. I will put the picture away until the day Carrie asks... if she ever does. I am forever grateful to this woman for her beyond-words-amazing gift!!!! (we all are!)

Blue Without You!

Happy Easter Carrie! We love you and you were with us in our hearts this weekend! We're praying that you're with us very soon and that we don't have too many more holidays without you! Jesus loves you, little one! Your big brother prays for you all day long! What a fortunate girl you are!!
(Hey guys, like my artsy-fartsy photo? As usual, if I want a picture of me &Drew, I have to take it myself! My niece's fiance inspired me to play around a little. HAD to post it! *Ooops! I posted the wrong one earlier and it's taken me forever to fix it!!!)

A great phone call!

Yesterday I had a wonderful phone call.... with LabCorp! I called to find out if by any fat chance DNA testing between Carrie and her birth mother had taken place. I truly expected to hear the same answer as a week ago, so I wasn't prepared to hear, "Yes, it was done and we're mailing your results out today!" WHAT??? I was in shock! While they would not tell me the results over the phone, I'm very confident that it's a match and I cannot wait to get that report. Included in the report will be one or two photos of Carrie WITH her birth mother. I remember how shocking it was to get Drew's report and see the face of the woman who was giving me the most precious gift. I'm excited and nervous for this new information!! THANK YOU for all of your prayers... please keep them coming as we still have a ways to go. Family Court is next... and truthfully, we may already be done or almost done with it. Who knows!!?!
THANK YOU, JESUS!!!!!!!!!!!!! Keep my focus on YOU this week, Lord... it's so easy to get distracted right now. Thank you for your life, your death and your resurrection! You alone are the Way, the Truth and the Life!!! My All in All.

I Wannabe Guatemalan!

I tell you-- and I've said it before (mostly during Drew's adoption process), I WANNABE GUATEMALAN in my "next life"! They get all the good vacation time, I swear it! Starting today, WEDNESDAY, all of the attorneys cease working for the upcoming Easter holiday. It's HOLY WEEK there! In this country we're lucky if we even get Good Friday off!! I suppose it wouldn't bother me so much if it didn't come at a time when I'm still waiting for information about our daughter from the attorney... and it seems to have taken almost a week to get this far. Our agency this time around is MUCH better and we have oodles of pictures and 3 videos of our daughter so far! But we remain CLUELESS as to where we are with family court and DNA testing. We don't have any updated medical information since December 1 and we want to know that she is being seen by a doctor and things like that.

From our last video (taken on 3/5) we learned this: she supposedly weighed 16 lbs, 12 oz. (little over 5 mos. old) and she hadn't started solids yet. She was reportedly sleeping all night long, but in bed with her foster mother (we weren't thrilled about that!). Her foster mother said she is a sweet and happy baby; she is very alert and active. All good :)

Carrie turned 6 mos. old on 3/30. Happy Half-Birthday, Little One! We want you home!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!