It's "Puzzling"

Well folks, I told you I am not great at this "post-frequently-so-people-will-keep-reading" thing!  I so want to be better at it, but I confess that I am just not!  Also, when I don't have great news, it's hard to type more of the same thing...

Anyway, some of you faithful friends and family have been asking me where we are with our adoption and where we are with fundraising.  I'll tackle the fundraising question first because, surprisingly, that is the easier question to address!  The PUZZLE fundraiser that we are doing has stalled for awhile (my fault for not keeping up on posting), but we did make it to 304 pieces sponsored at $10/piece!  That is fantastic, and we are so very thankful for that.  The $10,000 we hope to raise from our one thousand piece puzzle along with another $14,000 we have saved will be used for our "referral" fund.  We need to be ready to pay half of Haiti's fees when referred/matched with our children and the other half is paid when we travel to Haiti to file some paperwork before picking them up to come HOME!  This total of $24,000 covers fees for two children--if we are matched with 3, we will be doing some frantic fund raising and even more praying!

As said in some previous posts, these are strictly Haitian fees, not our agency fees (which are already paid in full!).  We will also need several thousand to cover travel and some document fees, but we are trusting the Lord to work all that out.  So, we have 696 pieces left in our puzzle ready to be sponsored....

This is a picture of what our puzzle looks like.  A beautiful compilation of the Haitian map, flag, and a sweet boy.  We love it and can't wait to frame it on our wall!

Now, the difficult topic to address is the one about what is happening in our adoption.  We knew going into this that there would be delays and disappointments as well as a load of unpredictability.  Sadly, many of the documents in our file (which has been sitting on the stateside desk of our orphanage for months!) are beginning to expire and we are having to re-do things now.  I can't tell you how incredibly frustrating this is when every document needs a notary, a certification from the Sec. of State and then a authentication from the Haitian consulate.  It takes so much time and hoopla just to get each one done correctly.  In the meantime, Haiti has recently decided to become a Hague country, so they are in the process of figuring out what that will mean for the families that are currently in the system (us).  Essentially, we are being told that this is a GOOD thing for Haiti and it's children, but we should expect more delays and must purpose to hang in there while we wait.

When we asked about when we would possibly be matched with children (which we thought was going to happen between March and June), we were told to not expect anything before the fall.  So, we wait.  We trust that God knows best and only has our best interests in mind, but I would be lying if I said that it wasn't hard to continue down a road of uncertainty.  Our hearts and minds are invested in Haiti, and we know that God has called us to this country, so switching to a more stable country is just not an option for us (as some have asked).  We wait and trust that His plan is best and that He has just the right children for us.  For some reason the timing is very different than we originally planned and hoped, but 
regardless of our feelings, we trust.

I feel a bit like a broken record with no real "new news" to share, but I am so thankful that Mark and I have the Lord to carry us through the uncertainty and to uphold us with His righteous right hand~ We thank you for your continued prayers and support through this time of waiting on His will.

~Holly