Lots of good news!!

We just got another new picture of Henry on Wednesday. We have definitely been blessed to receive so many! Even though I was excited to get this new picture ( he just so cute!!!), I was bummed that we got that instead of news about him coming home. This has been such a long, hard week. It was the last week of school for me, which is always crazy. Have any non-teachers ever stopped and thought about what 22 9 year olds are like on the last day of school? ;) Besides all of that, my mom was in the hospital all week. I won't go into all of the specifics, but she has many health issues that she has to face everyday, so prayers for her would be appreciated. She was very down about having to stay in the hospital, undergoing many procedures and still having the doctors not know what's causing some of her health problems. But when we brought in this new photo of Henry, she brightened up right away and was showing him off to all of the hospital staff who walked in the door. I know that is further proof of God's work in this adoption. Here is the picture of my 10 month old son:



Then on Friday, it was a teacher workday so that we could pack away all of our classroom materials for summer. At my district, this means packing everything up and storing it. Basically it's like packing and moving your house! Elementary teachers have lots of "things." In the midst of all of this hard work, I received a call that I have been WAITING for!! Nope, not his travel call, but it was from our agency telling us that Henry had his visa physical exam. The doctor noted that he has a "right ear deformity" on his paperwork, which means we have to sign a Class B Waiver. All that means is that we are officially aware that he has a problem with his ear. Our agency emailed us the waiver to sign. We had to get 4 copies of it notarized and then overnight FedEx it back to them Friday. Possibly on Mon or Tues the agency will send the waiver to Korea. Once there it takes "about 5 business days" for them to submit for his travel visa. Add to that the time needed for them to find an escort to bring him here, book the flight, etc....so we are likely looking at him coming home mid-to-late June. That is longer that I had been hoping for, but right now I'm feeling extremely happy to know that he's almost here. I'm looking at these next couple of weeks without him as a chance to enjoy my last moments of freedom before mommyhood! Summer is here and I can spend these upcoming days doing whatever I please. I plan to enjoy them!
Last but not least, we had a huge yard sale at my school yesterday as a fundraiser towards our adoption. Lots of staff members pitched in to help by donating items for the sale, and several people came to help set up and clean up (thank you SO much Eva, Susan, Wezie, Rachel, Yodit, Jeannie, and Dennis C.). A select few stayed ALL day with us in the HOT sun. (I love you and thanks again to Jennifer, Sherri, Kathy, and Michelle!!!!) We worked hard, got sunburned and sweaty, but it was so worth it! The yard sale brought us very close to $900! Add that to the jewelry fundraiser that we just had and we are over $1,000 raised this week! Amazing....

Blessings

We have an earlier post about our worries about affording this adoption. I will say that when we first began this process, James was very concerned about the financial aspect (it truly is incredibly expensive), but I wasn't focused on that. I had a sense of peace that it would all come together somehow if this was God's plan for us. That sense of peace was shaken, however, when 5 banks refused to loan us anything towards this adoption despite our good credit scores and good income/debt ratio. We both began to panic, realizing that our agency would not let our precious boy come home until we have paid all of the fees. I am happy to report that major progress has been made lately in regards to this! First of all, our agency awarded us a $2,000 SNAF (special needs assistance fund) grant. Also, a local credit union gave us a $6,000 low-interest rate loan. And then, best of all, a foundation called A Child Waits awarded us a $4,000 grant due to Henry's needs. All of this, combined with what we have already paid, puts us very close to the fees due. We are only about $5,000 away, which is still quite a bit, but completely do-able compared to where we started!
I would also like to say that throughout our marriage, James and I have realized that God's plan unfolds in miraculous ways! He has placed some very special people in our lives--my entire fellow teaching staff has been incredibly supportive of our adoption journey. They bought hundreds of baked goods to help us pay for our homestudy, have rejoiced in our happiness (certain people check on me every day), and now they are going to host 2 more fundraisers for us. One of them was thought of by my dear friends on my 3rd grade team: It will be a big staff yard sale sponsored by PTA that will be held at our school on June 6. I'm very excited about this!
The other fundraiser was thought of by the sweet Speech teacher at my school. She sells Premier Jewelry and is going to have a show this Tuesday for the staff where a portion of profit will go to us. I am just in awe of our many blessings.

"And this is the confidence that we have in Him, that, if we ask any thing according to His will, He hears us: and if we know that He hears us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of Him." 1 John 5:14,15