What A Day

Today is not only the first day of school for Willow's fifth grade year, but Mike and I are also celebrating 13 years of marriage! God has truly blessed our lives and we are so thankfull for all of the ways that he has blessed us.
We sent off our dossier package Friday afternoon. At this point we wait to get the referral and date of travel. The exchange has a wonderful sale and so Willow and I went shopping and bought a few things for Christmas for the new baby. No, we do not know who she is or how old she will be, but there are things that can be bought for any age range. We had so much fun. Get this. God answers prayers in misterious ways. We received a check from Navy housing in Virginia Friday also. This was a check that we should have received a year ago for our deposit. It was dated March 2007 and we just received it. God knows when to send what you need-huh!?

Blessings,
Meg

A draft I didn't realize I hadn't posted!!

Another day and a large dent made in the process.

After talking to a courrier service today I found out a lot of great info. They were willling to tell me things to look for to make sure everything had been done properly. Thanks to this wonderful couple at the Assistant Stork we were able to keep our process moving along at a smooth pace. Come to find out, the Vietnamese Embassy in DC didn't mark some of our paperwork correctly and thanks to The Assistant Stork we were able to check the paperwork as it came in and send it back to be corrected without loosing any time. They even let us send in some other paperwork to them that I wasn't sure about and they looked it over for us, had the corrections made and then sent it on the Los Ninos. Isn't it amazing how God puts people in our lives to help us out when we just lean on and trust in him?!
Thank you Assistant Stork for all of your help.
Blessings,
Meg and Mike

Dossier Documents

Well our I-171H has come in and that was the last form we were waiting on. All of the documents that we had sent off for authentication from the US gov. and Vietnamese Consulate have come in also. One form for each of us has to be sent again because a step was missed so I'll send that off today along with the 171 for authentication and we are done!! Then on to the waiting pool. Thank God for smooth sailing. His hand has been on our adoption process the entire process through. Thank you all for your continued prayers.

Love and blessing,
Meg, Mike and Willow

Eternity According to Willow

We were sitting with my sister, Kerrie in Tuscaloosa, Al and Kerrie said that she used to think that life here on earth was so long, but that really it isn't. We all agreed. She then went on to say that times just seems to be flying by and she couldn't believe how quickly this year seems to have g0ne by. You see, we were having a conversation about how things are going to be in heaven and that here on earth is only a preparation place.
Willow then spoke up and said:
Being on earth is like dropping a drop of kool-aid in a full glass of water. Compared to the glass of water the kool-aid is so small. We all just looked at her in amazement (then agreed). Sometimes the wisdom that God has given Willow still amazes me.

coming back to Italy

Hi everyone,
As we sit here at Mike's mom's house in Chesapeake, Va, finishing up the last of the laundry so that we can go to the airport and catch the MAC flight back to Naples, I thank God for family and friends. We have had the most wonderful vacation. We were able to spend lots of time with family even those whom we haven't been able to see on trips prior to this one. And, were able to visit with friends that we were unable to find before also. We were so blessed. We also spent lots of time riding motor cycles, yes, even me!!!
I received a call from Mike's mom Patty a few days ago letting me know that we had received a package from the Vietnamese Consulate, of course I knew right away what it was. Our dossier docs!! Yes we have now received our first set of- certified, verified, and authenticated documents and they are ready to be sent to Vietnam. The rest should be waiting for us when we get back to Naples. Then we'll send them off to Los Ninos to send to Vietnam to be registered. Please keep us in your prayers for the funding to come for the adoption. We know that we are financially able to raise another child, but are still in need of the funding to adopt. We are putting this in God's hands and know that his will will be done.
God has worked miracles in our lives. Mike was given the opportunity to give his first sermon at the First Baptist Church in Grand Bay, Al. Hopefully it is the first of many to come. Keep us in your prayers as we pray for God's will to be done in our lives. We have been able to go to our home church in Decatur, AL and rejuvinate, learn some new music and have fun in the Lord.

Blessings,
Meg, Mike and Willow

Visiting Home

Today Mike will go on leave and turn in the paperwork for us to be able to fly MAC into Norfolk. Monnie, Mikes step dad, has been gracious enough to offer to pick us up at the airport and give us a ride to Alabama. Talk about answered prayers.
We are so excited to get to see all of our family and friends and visit our home church again. We would love for all of you to keep us in your prayers for smooth travel as we are trying to make it to Decatur, Al in time for church on July 1st.
If anyone needs to get in touch with us while we are in the States we can be reached at Meg's Mom's house in north Alabama- Debby 256-302-5455 or Mike's Dad and Mom's house Ed or Jackie 334-981-8770 in south Alabama.
Please be praying for Willow and our dog, Bama as we are leaving her in the care of our competent neighbor, but it is a long time for them to be apart.

Many of you know that we have friends who are adopting from Ethiopia. Well, they will be leaving to visit with him on Sat. They are very excited and have a great peace about the upcoming trip. They would love to have everyone's payers as we all know how powerful prayer is, that they would have a safe trip and that their son will be comfortable with them.

A little hang up, but not to worry

Well, in our last post we told all of you that the I-600A had come in. We were then waiting on the home study. The home study made it to Rome on the 19th, but we then received word that the recommendation and other paperwork needed didn't make it so they were unable to send off for adjudication. Of course I was upset and calling everyone to find out what had happened.
Ok, hold on....
The paperwork the embassy in Rome needed was there, they just didn't realize it. And, for that matter so was the recommendation. Adopt Abroad, though sent new paperwork just to make things easier and all is ok.

one more step out of the way

We received word today that our I-600A has come back to Rome from the States. For those of you who don't know, that is the immigration paperwork and federal background checks. The home study has still not reached Rome for them to ok it with the I600A, but as soon as it does they review the entire thing and seal it and that part will be over.
Also the dossier is now complete!!! We are just waiting on verification and authentication of the Gov.
We'll update everyone when we get more news.

God Bless,
Meg

Here are new pics

Some of these pictures are very good and with some of them, my batteries were dying so they aren't that great, but I wanted everyone to see Willow and the baby's room.









This is our home.. I will get a better picture when the sun is not in front of the house, but for now you can at least get a look at it.

We are now with the Placement Dept.

WOW, We received an email yesterday that let us know that we are now with the placement department at LNI (Los Ninos International)!!

We are trying to finish up the dossier so that we can send it to LNI and they can send it to Vietnam. We are waiting on just a few documents to come in and some are already at the Department of State in DC for Verification and then on to the Vietnamese Consulate.
In order to send in the dossier we are now trying to raise another $6000.00 so keep us in your prayers.
At this point we are painting Willow's room and the new room, and taking lots of pictures for an album to be sent to our little girl and tying up loose ends of things that may have changed. Like, yesterday we were a new packet of docs. to look through to see if any of ours had changed and they had so we need to redo some of our docs.

May God bless your day as he has ours.