Update!!

Hey everyone!

I am so sorry we haven't updated this in a while, but things have been moving along!

This period of the process has definitely been a trial and we have been praying for patience, wisdom, and guidance all along the way. Somehow, the paperwork has taken much longer than we expected. But...we *think* we have all of it ready to submit to our agency. We've used about 5 notaries and visited doctor's offices about 5 times, but we're finally there. Of course, the agency could send it back to us and need more updates, so we'll see. We should definitely know within a week or so.

The main focus for us right now is the money. In the big picture, I'm not worried. God has confirmed His support of this adoption multiple times and we know that He will provide if something is in His will. However, the reality is that we are still about $20,000 short. We have been looking at various methods for raising this last portion (the adoption will cost about $43,000 overall). Unfortunately, we aren't having success with grants or funds. Still, we are looking around. My job is a blessing and I'll be getting two unexpected bonuses over the next year; this will help us to pay off any balances or loans by next year.

In the meantime, we've been undertaking another fundraising effort - we've done about 5 different things now :) . We are selling used books, CDs, and DVDs on half.com. It's going great! We have raised about $750 so far! It's a lot of work, actually, but we love doing this. We have asked our friends and family to help by donating any books or music they aren't attached to. We post the stuff online and just wait for a buyer to come along. Please let us know if you have any books or CDs to donate to help us pay for this adoption!

So, overall, things are moving along again. We should have an update for you about the submission of the paperwork in about one week.

God bless!
Phil

One Truly Amazing Day

Hi everyone,

About a month ago, Amy's friend Keely suggested that we have a yard sale to raise funds for our adoption. She encouraged us to ask family and friends to donate items that would help raise the funds.

Well, we followed her advice and truly saw God work through the whole experience. Right from the beginning, Keely was doing everything she could do help us. She sent out an email to her entire neighborhood to share our adoption story with them and ask them to help us bring home our baby. The response was amazing. People donated items left and right.

In addition to the donation of goods, others were supporting us in thought and prayer. After my softball game last week, I stopped by to say hi to our church's other softball team and ask their coach to pray that our upcoming fundraiser would bring our daughter closer to having a home. The coach, always modest, said he already knew about it and would pray for it after his game.

Only later did I find out that he had sent out a "post message" (a voice mail sent to multiple cell phones) to a bunch of people he knew about our yard sale before that! He didn't even mention it to me... That type of modest caring truly moves me. This quiet generosity is one form of obedience to the Lord:

"So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you." (Matthew 6:2-4)

I realize this wasn't directly "giving to the needy," but keep in mind that my friend was doing this for a young, orphaned girl on the other side of the world whom he has never met. God clearly directs us to pray and give without boasting or announcing and it's inspiring to see others living for Him that way.

One person we know from our church got that message and went right over to Keely's to drop off some items and a check... :)

By the time the day finally came, Keely's basement and garage were completely full of donated goods. Amy couldn't sleep, so she got up and read some verses given to us by Keely's husband a few weeks ago. I woke up and ended up reading with Amy for about an hour before we got ready and headed over to Keely's.

God's love shone through again that morning. Our friend Jason showed up at 7am that morning to help. He never even said anything beforehand...just came over with a smile and a helping hand while it was still dark outside. Jason and his wife have 4 children, of whom 2 are adopted from China. I can't really describe how awesome it is to know their family. They adopted children with severe medical conditions and have truly changed the world as a result. Both of them require costly, significant surgeries that would almost definitely have not been paid for by their country's government. You won't ever see them boasting about saving lives, though...you'll just see them loving their children.

Once the yard sale started, there were absolutely no lulls until we wrapped up in the afternoon. We had hundreds of people streaming through the thousands of items all day long. Keely's friend Jean showed up and helped us out the entire day...just another example of someone giving so much so quietly. We had never even met her before.

Amy and I were able to share bits and pieces of our adoption story with the shoppers. We had set up a table for donations that had one sheet about Kazakhstan adoptions and one sheet about the related costs. Not surprisingly, very few people realize that the estimated total surpasses $40,000...

By the time 3pm came around, we were exhausted. Keely again was extremely helpful and said that we could keep all the leftover items in her garage until an organization comes to pick up all the goods in a week or two.

We counted the money when we got home. We were thinking that we had possibly raised around $500 (which would be a huge success!)...Well, we had to count twice. On that day, at 1122 Gate Post Ct, we raised....$1122!!! Our jaws probably dropped a few inches right then... We can't help but think of Jesus feeding the thousands with just five loaves of bread and two fish:

When I broke the five loaves for the five thousand, how many basketfuls of pieces did you pick up?" "Twelve," they replied. "And when I broke the seven loaves for the four thousand, how many basketfuls of pieces did you pick up?" They answered, "Seven." He said to them, "Do you still not understand?" (Mark 8:19-21)

There's one more story I have to tell that really wraps up the whole event. On the day before the sale, Amy and I went to pick up a Christmas tree that someone had donated to us. We threw it in the back and headed to Keely's. We were just a minute from her place when someone pulled up behind us and waved frantically. I had no idea who the person was, but I figured it was because I wasn't wearing glasses...Amy and I looked at each other, I shrugged my shoulders, and waved back. They continued to wave and honk. After another quarter mile, I finally realized that they weren't saying hi. I pulled over. A woman got out of a van and told me that a tree had flown from my truck and possibly scratched up the side of her vehicle. The Christmas tree had jumped loose! Keep in mind that it was still sitting where it had fallen, in the middle of a major road right at 5pm on Friday.

Fortunately, the car hadn't been scratched. However...as our eyes turned toward the back of the van, we noticed some bad news. Her tire was completely flat. She was very friendly and we ended up having a nice chat while her husband arrived to put on the spare. We were kinda hoping that, after hearing about why we were carrying the tree, she might forgive us the tire debt and let it go. No such luck. We gave her our info and then waited for the bill.

We got the call about the bill the next day. It just so happened that she had a lifetime warranty on the tire...she said that we didn't owe her a thing!

God Bless,
Phil & Amy

Home Study........APPROVED!

Hi everyone,

We are counting our blessings...the home study has been approved! We are one step closer to bringing home our baby from Kazakhstan. Thanks so much to all of you for your support this far.

Overall, the process went very smoothly. It took 4 1/2 months from start to finish. For the other families adopting -- don't let the length of the home study throw you off. We definitely could have finished this sooner, but we took it at a more natural pace to make sure we stay energized throughout this process. Both Amy and I had a few months of crazy schedules at work and very little free time. The timing is actually perfect, as we are now in a much better financial situation to adopt. All the credit goes to God there...we had been praying about this regularly. We knew we could get the funds, but, obviously, the less debt the better when you're starting a family.

The past few days have been a real whirlwind of blessings. I don't know why everything is happening at once, but it is.

Now it's dossier time! We're off to an awesome start. Amy applied for her passport about a month ago with non-expedited service, since we figured that it was only needed to travel. Right after she applied, we realized that all of our dossier documents need a passport number! We spent a few weeks searching around on the Web and making calls without any luck. We had been given an expected date of November, so it was looking like we were headed for a bit of delay. Out of nowhere, they completed it and mailed it to us! I got an email on Friday that they were processing it, then got another email a few minutes later that it was done and on its way :)

Please continue to pray for us and our baby.

Thanks everyone and God bless...

Love,
Phil & Amy

3 Interviews Later...

Quite a bit of activity since our last post! We met with our social worker on July 26th and had our individual interviews that night. We weren't too nervous and it turned out we definitely had nothing to fret about. Our social worker is a very thoughtful person who clearly understands our motivation behind adopting and that has made the process very smooth. Not getting into legal trouble while we were younger has also helped :). The interviews essentially served as follow-ups to the autobiographies we wrote - they cleared up any remaining gaps and addressed any issues we discussed in our writings. When we were done, our social worker asked if we could meet on Saturday for our in-house, final meeting...

Of course we decided to jump on the opportunity and have her over two days later. That meant one thing though...a LOT of cleaning :). We were a little concerned about the house (Amy much more than me) and we ended up cleaning until 4am the night before she came over. Like the other interviews, it ended up being no big deal and we "passed" our test :). The in-house interview was really to check that we used common sense in our house and it was fit for a new child.

So, here we are, almost done with the Home Study. The meetings/interviews are now done; what's left is some reading and documentation. We will keep you posted...we are getting close to the final stretch!!

Love,
Phil & Amy

"If you love me, you will obey what I command. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever— the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live." John 14:15-19

Busy, busy, busy...

Hey everyone! We know it's been a LONG time since our last blog, and we apologize... June just flew by!

Well, since our last update, we have officially begun the homestudy process! We were assigned our social worker shortly after the last blog was posted. She is WONDERFUL!! Back when we were selecting our homestudy agency, Phil and I were praying we'd be assigned someone who would understand God's call to adopt, and we were!

We will have to have four meetings with our SW (Social Worker) to fulfill OAA's requirements. Our first meeting was a few weeks ago at her house. We basically discussed the overall process, how we're paying for the adoption, and our family's support. The meeting went great and she made us both feel very comfortable.

Our next assignmant was to write individual autobiographies. They were to be 4-6 pages each, covering family history, motivation to adopt, views on child rearing, our marriage, our finances, our home & community, etc... Wow, there was a lot to say!! Mine ended up being 6 1/2 pages and Phil's was 6 (after he adjusted margins and font sizes...)!

The funniest part about the autobiographies was that we wrote them completely independently from one another (except the finance section), finished within five minutes of one another, then switched computers to read them and found that some of our phrases were identical and that we had covered almost exactly the same points!! For example, we both said we "generally have a lean meat and vegetable for dinner" and that we'd be "completely transparent with our daughter about her adoption." It was almost spooky!

We sent the autobiographies off to our SW last week and are having our second meeting with her in a few weeks. This will be the meeting where we're interviewed seperately at her home. then the next meeting is at our home.

We've also started preparing the nursery! Since we don't have any extra money, I thought it would be a good idea to begin preparing as soon as possible, so I could get good deals but still make everything flow together. I'm having so much fun!

We wanted to thank all of you who have ordered items from us, sent donations, or prayed for us. Your support has been awesome and has really touched us. Just a few weeks ago, we received a Father's Day card from a little boy in our Sunday School class. His mother said they were making cards for all the fathers in their life and 3-year-old Judah said "Wait! We forgot Mr. Phil & Amy!" He told his mom he "wants to give a baby to (us)" and tried to draw us a picture of a baby (which came out a "funny robot", according to Judah) and a picture of me with a lizard :) His mom says he leads his family in praying for us every night without being prompted. And with a cute little guy like Judah interceding for us, I don't know how Satan stands a chance :) How great is our God!

Many Blessings,
Amy & Phil

journeytokazakhstan.com

Hi everyone,

We finally have our website up! Check out www.journeytokazakhstan.com. The site shows a few ways that friends, family, and anyone can help out. We are selling various goods, including hand-beaded jewelry, hand-painted birdhouses, homemade fudge, and more to come. I give Amy all the credit for the crafts (the fudge is Mom's own, just like it says on the site...).

There are also a few other ways to help. First - I work for EarthLink in their Voice Operations department. If you didn't already know, we sell a VOIP similar to (but better than :) ) the product you all know from Vonage. It's called EarthLink trueVoice. If you are interested in unlimited local and long-distance for $25/month, email me and I can set up a referral signup. We both get a Visa Virtual Account if you decide to stay with the product for more than 60 days.

Second - Amy is a real estate agent. Like I mention on the website, she is skilled, friendly, precise, thoughtful, and precise in her profession. I did forget thorough...she is that, too :) Anyway, people who don't live in our area (Atlanta metro) can still help us! If you are reading this and you or someone you know is looking to buy or sell a house and they aren't currently represented by an agent, definitely email Amy (amy@nwatlrealty.com). She will research agents in your area and find someone for you that is friendly and competent to help you with your search. The referral costs you absolutely nothing, but you will be helping to contribute in a big way to our adoption! All of Amy's income this year is going toward the adoption.

Lastly, donations to help us cover the costs of the adoption are always welcome and appreciated. Every little bit counts! You can send any monetary donations to the address posted on our site - journeytokazakhstan.com.

Thanks everyone for your support and God Bless!
Amy & Phil

"Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world." James 1:27

The Home Study Begins

So...we are really starting to feel that things are moving along!

We just had our home study orientation and it was awesome. The director of the program was extremely versed on international adoption, down to minute details specific to each country. We just knew immediately that this was the right place.

I have been wondering for weeks what to expect of a home study. You hear various things from different people...one person told me that it was "horrible" for their friend, while another couple said it was no problem at all...Well, it doesn't sound too bad. A social worker will have to come out to our place, but they're mostly looking for common sense things, like making sure we don't have guns or knives lying around. They also make sure there is "ample" space in the house for our child.

Amy and I will be interviewed separately, too. I'm not sure, but there may be reference letters needed, as well.

The best news is that it might only take a month! It's crazy because our agency told us that it would take 3-5 months...

We will keep you updated. We're just excited!

Last piece of news - we're working on our fundraising website. We'll post the URL soon!

God Bless,
Phil