Thursday, March 8, 2012

Following Christ with EVERYTHING

It has been a while since my last blog post!!! Goodness, so much has happened since then! I will try to fill you in without rambling too much! The last several weeks have been a whirlwind of just Life! Kevin turned 30, our dossier reached the Congo, we got our fingerprints made for our immigration paperwork, had a HUGE fundraiser week with Give1Save1.com, Kevin accepted another position in a church in the city of Louisville, KY, we told our friends, family and church that we are moving, and we are packing up our belongings to move another state in the next 4 weeks!!! Are you getting a glimpse of the last few weeks in the Weldon household? Needless to say, this month has been a mixture of emotions!

On February 17 we received word from our agency that our dossier reached the Congo and they are actively trying to find us a referral! That news was so incredible and so exciting and my heart was bursting! Then….we were notified that our next payment was due to our agency for $3500! EWW! We did not have the money BUT God’s perfect timing came into play AGAIN! Our fundraising week with Give1Save1.com went from Feb 26-March 3rd. We prayed that the Lord would provide the money we needed to send to our agency! Once our story was posted on the website we had a flurry of donations and after it was all said and done our total was…….$1726! With the money we already had in our adoption account and our Give1 money we were just a few hundred dollars short of the $3500. And then...God did it again! We opened a letter from the Southern Baptist Minister Grant we applied for! There it was! A check for $500! YES!!! We also got our immigration approval for our government last week! So, we are able to send in our $3500 payment and our immigration stuff this week!! Also, we have received another $500 in donations from some very special students and families!! Seriously God is so GOOD. This is the God we serve. A God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness (Exodus 34:6). He “is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think!” Ephesians 3: 20. Can I get an AMEN??!!

Another major thing in our lives right now is the fact that we are moving to Kentucky! Kevin was presented with an opportunity to serve at a church in Kentucky with our good friend Brad Walker. I have blogged about Brad and his wife Elicia before! They adopted their youngest son domestically. After much prayer we decided that God would be glorified for us to step out on faith and follow Him. It has been very hard to decide to leave our current church because, honestly, we are very happy and we LOVE the people. Through prayer and scripture we really felt like God was telling us to Go and Follow Him like Abraham and Sarah. Don’t Worry! This move will not affect our adoption timeline for a referral. We will have to get an updated home study and our immigration stuff will need to get updated. Since we are on a 6-12 month referral wait then we will have plenty of time to get everything settled and updated! So…praise the Lord! We have already learned that His timing is perfect so we are excited to see how He works everything out for His glory! Just pray that we will continue to trust and follow the Lord with all our hearts! This quote from Katie Davis from the Book, Kisses from Katie, hit me like a ton of bricks! She says, " I have learned along my journey that if I really want to follow Jesus, I will go to the hard places." Following Jesus won't always be easy but obedience is Always Best!



WHERE WE ARE IN THE ADOPTION PROCESS:
WAITING FOR A REFERRAL! 6-12 MONTHS IS THE AVERAGE WAIT TIME BUT WE ARE PRAYING FOR A SPEEDY REFERRAL! 

4 comments:

  1. You'll probably have to redo your home study once you move. If your agency does not make you update your home study once you move, that's really bad on their part.

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    1. We have already spoke with our agency about what we need to complete regarding our adoption. We will have to Update our home study. We won't have to have a completely new home study so that's a blessing! An amendment to a home study can range from $400-600 depending on what home study agency we choose in KY. The only sections they will have to update would be our income and our actual house (safety, living quarters for the baby, etc.) Our agency has already provided a number of great social workers that they have worked with in the past in the Louisville area! Once our home study is updated then we will send it to the USCIS to update our immigration paperwork. We will not have to pay any extra filing fees with the USCIS so that's AWESOME! Just like our family coordinator said "Life happens in the middle of the adoption process." And God is on our side! :)

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  2. Love this post! So encouraged by your writing! Praying for a speedy referral for you!

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    1. Thank you!! Your prayers are much appreciated!! :)

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