Dossier Complete!

Whoohoo our Dossier is completed and our agency will ship it to Thailand TODAY!! Here's a glimpse into the process... We followed a huge to do list and finally we were able to take it to our state house for a seal.

Next we hired a courier service to obtain our seals from the Dept of State and Thail Embassy in DC.  We used a trackable service to send the dossier, as many many hours (months) of work was in that package.  I was slightly obsessive tracking our package :)

 The boys helped me ship it off after swim lessons.  I had just had my passport photo taken.  The woman gave me instructions not to smile with teeth.  Before snapping this shot, Aaron asks:  Can we smile with teeth?! (Don't you just love it!) And yes, I was every bit as obsessive tracking this package too!

So what's next?  More paperwork!!  And no, I'm not kidding.  On this round we'll be working with United States Citizenship and Immigration.

But now we are officially on the wait list for our little girl. Our number is:

We still have a long way to go--about 3 years till we bring our sweet heart home. But today we are celebrating that we didn't make any mistakes in our paper work, that nothing was lost in the 2x it was in the mail, and that we are one step closer to our baby girl.  And that friends, feels pretty amazing!

The Results of Our Garage Sale

We decided to have a garage sale to raise funds for our adoption.  Our church family blessed us with some fabulous donations.  As we were gathering items for the sale, Jamie announced to Aaron that he hoped we would raise $800 dollars.  Honestly, I thought that sounded a bit ambitious...  Prior to the sale Aaron prayed the sweetest prayer.  "Dear Lord, please help us to make hundreds, thousands, even millions of dollars!"  (I loved it because a few weeks ago we had worked on place value.  I said a quick "Thank You Lord" prayer that he had learned something from his not so great teacher!)

Here's what things looked like on TH morning:

We began pulling things out of the garage to sort and people began pulling in our drive way asking if we we're having a garage sale or just cleaning out our garage. (They must have thought we were hoarders!)  Our sale was not advertised to start until Friday.  Finally we had so many early shoppers that I told Jamie to put a sign out so I could stop repeating this:  "Yes, we are having a garage sale that starts tomorrow, but you can shop now."  

We posted this sign at our sale:

We sold the majority of items on Friday.  This is what things looked like at the start of Saturday:

I'm telling you this sale was of epic proportions! Several friends from church came to help organize, keep both of us sane, and organize some more.  We couldn't have managed with out these great helpers.  We are so, so very blessed.  Are you ready for the grand total?  It's more than I thought.  And it's more than Jamie thought.  It actually is double what Jamie had hoped for.

That's right we raised $1, 600 !!!!
Have you ever heard of a garage sale doing this well?  (I guess Aaron had!)

Thank you for the many who prayed for a successful sale :)  Thank you Lord for answering our prayers.  I stand completely amazed.

You are my God, and I will give you thanks;  you are my God, and I will exalt you. Psalm 118:28 

What we put in our Home Study!

Over the last 6 months adoption has permeated our household discussions.  One day Aaron announced that we should name his sister Madison.  Rivaling his brother, Luke declared that her name should be Addison.  The boys have made a fun game of jokingly teasing each other.   Often at bed time, we tell the boys stories of the future when their sister will be home with us.  (We all love her so much already, and we don't even know if she's been born yet!)  On one of the stories the boys declared that we should just adopt twins. Yes, we certainly have enough love for two... And after all, we have a mini van!  I spoke to our agency and was told that twins in our program is very rare.  Nonetheless, we have stated in our home study that we would like to adopt twins!  Of course it may never happen; however, you never know.

In the meantime, we are hoping to finish our dossier in the next couple of weeks which will officially place us on the waiting list for a little girl (or girls).  Additionally, we have applied for two grants and have two more to complete.  We remain excited about this chapter in our lives, all the while knowing that our journey has just begun while we trust in His faithfulness.  

Psalm 36:5

Your love, Lord, reaches to the heavens,

your faithfulness to the skies.

Making some progress

It's been busy at the Woodyard house!  December is flying by! On top of Christmas festivities, Jamie received his Master of Divinity degree (a 93 credit hour program) from Southern Seminary in Louisville.  We traveled to Louisville to celebrate his graduation with family and friends.  Additionally, we also celebrated our 12th anniversary, and had our home inspection and interviews as part of our Home Study.  If your not familiar with the Home Study,  it is basically documentation that declares you are not crazy parents and you can provide the most essential and basic needs of life.  (Funny how no one came into our home with our biological children to do this...)


I'm very blessed to have a tidy husband and when it came to cleaning for the home study; it was a bit humorous to watch him.  I've never seen him dust so much in all my life!  I shared with him that no one would say,  our home is too dusty and therefore find us unfit as adoptive parents.  I did some extra cleaning as well, I admit.  But then I slightly panicked.  We had a problem with our well and we didn't have water.  Water is pretty much a basic need.  The same weekend as our water trouble, Jamie's sermon was on contentment, not worrying from Matthew 6.  I think God has a sense of humor!  We were able to get the situation remedied before our interviews.  (And our social worker never even checked the bookshelves for dust.  Too bad they were spotless.)

We still have a few missing pieces of our home study, but it's coming together.  I'm excited for our Home Study to come to completion.  The conclusion of the Home Study will then allow us to apply for grants and loans.  Then our next step will be to submit our Dossier or in-country papers.  After our Dossier is in Thailand, we will officially be placed on a list for a little girl!  We have a long wait ahead, possibly as long has 3 years.

We are excited to celebrate Christmas.... It is always a unique time for our family to reflect on the mission of our Savior.  We take each evening to share the different portions of the Christmas narrative by candle lights while the boys create a nativity scene with some laminated clip art.  (I got this idea from Noel Piper's book Treasuring God in our Traditions.)  The boys love taking turns blowing out the candles when we are finished.  The first night after blowing out the candle, a spark floated to the Bible and Jamie had to prevent the Bible from catching on fire.  The boys loved it!  Sometimes the best memories are those that are unexpected and lack perfection.  May your Christmas be filled with unexpected joy, peace, and rich memories!

-KW

Orphan Sunday

Creation Groans from Christian Alliance for Orphans on Vimeo.

We Applied and Our Program is at Capacity

Our program is closed to new applicants, but we made it in!  So where are we adopting from?  Thailand!  I agonized over this decision for a little over 3 months now.   In fact, we met with a domestic agency, but it didn't seem probable that we would be selected by a birth mother since we already have two children  However,  if you know a woman looking for an adoptive family, would you share our story with her?


Honestly this whole process has felt a bit surreal.  I'm excited and overwhelmed at the same time, knowing that there is a mother-less DAUGHTER out there for me.  We picked Thailand in the interest of wanting to add a daughter to our family and the travel requirements.  (Several countries require 2 trips and the stay can be 45 days long!)  We prayed much over this decision, furthermore it certainly wasn't an easy one.  There is no child more worthy of our love than another.  I'm thankful that the Lord doesn't love me based on my merit, skin color, or geographical location.  


We are currently working on our Home Study, which will approve us as "fit" parents.  As part of this process we will have a social worker come into our home and interview us and inspect our home.  We also have a mountain of paper work to tackle.  As I mentioned earlier, our program is at capacity.  Our program is a relatively small program.  I learned that there are 19 families waiting for their Referral.  Your Referral is aka the day you get your child's picture and background information.  There are 25 families working on Home Study and Dossier submission.  The Dossier is basically the Home study translated in Thai and submitted in country.  


We will not officially be on "the list" for our child until our Home Study is completed and our Dossier is submitted.  I desperately want to get on the list before the other 25 other families!  Essentially the sooner we get on the list, the sooner we will have our referral.  I've been informed that our wait could be 3 years.  But, if we get on the list before the other families, it is likely to be shorter-like 2 years!  


We are currently raising funds for our Dossier and have become good friends with Craigslist!   We are selling everything we can think of!  When our Home Study is completed, we will be applying for a matching grant.  Would you please pray that we can raise $4,000 to double our money to $8,000 and that we will be chosen for this grant?  (Currently there are more applicants than ever before.)  Would you pray for our birth mother and for the pain she will endure choosing to give up her daughter?  We covet your prayers in this journey ahead.

May we have power, together with all the saints, 

to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ.   

Eph 3:18

Check out this fundraiser to order great Thirty One products and help bring our little girl home. 20% of sales will go towards our adoption.  If your going to be Christmas shopping, take a look! (This fundraiser has ended.)

-KW

Never Ending Amazement

Yes, we made some decisions!  We are underway.  Our initial application is filed, application fee paid, and some preliminary paperwork is in the mail.  In many ways it is refreshing and in other ways the work is mounting.  
We already have so much to be thankful for in just a few days since our official start down the path of adoption.  We have been able to sell some personal items and have already had two different families give joyfully and generously.  We are overwhelmed and extremely thankful.  We have known all along, that to bring our baby, we are going to have to trust God for every dime.  (We still have a long way to go, check out the thermometer.)


Additionally, we have already seen a growing desire by our faith family in this gospel endeavor.  Two weeks ago, Krista did a fantastic job sharing our story with our congregation.  Since then, many of our brothers and sisters are praying and considering how they can partner with us in this pursuit. This past Sunday, I was able to hear the heart of another young couple in our church who has and is considering adoption.  Her tears, as she told part of their story, were like a refreshing rain in my heart.  What a joy to listen to the hopes and dreams of compassionate, cross-centered people!  May more join  the mission to care for the orphan.  May more embrace the orphan and widow with love and compassion. May more eliminate things from their life to give more time, resources, and prayers for the widows and orphans of our world.   
(We have the privilege to serve alongside some great people.  What a undeserved blessing and what a great church to call home! )


It is sure to be a roll coaster ride.  Yet, we are confident that God is Sovereign and his plans will not be thwarted.  We are just humbled to be apart of His plan and by His grace part of a another child's life.   

Pray for us that we will be relentless and wise in:

• praying with each other every step of the way
• preparing our boys 
• preparing our house for a third child
• getting all the paper work filled out.  (Pray for my patience when things go wrong or when we have to potentially redo or re-submit papers and details.)
• raising the funds...
• preparing for potential negative responses, and that we would respond with grace and kindness
• understand that adoption is spiritual warfare
• pursue joy through the process
  
  
   -JW