Oh YES, Lovin' The New Camera!

Ok...the Lord has GIVEN us a new camera, well, actually two new cameras. A friend of ours had a raffle to raise money for her adoption, and we WON THE GRAND PRIZE. We were so excited! The Lord allowed this to happen during the most difficult week of our adoption journey. The awesome camera that we won replaced an older model of the same camera that we owned. It's a fantastic Canon DSLR, with some really great upgrades over our old model. Thus, this new one works with all of our lenses and our external flash! WOOHOO!! 

Jarrod and I both have a love for photography, but I have never truly found the DSLR love, soooooooooo as a result of winning our great new DSLR we have been able to sell our old camera. Thus I have been able to purchase my dream camera as well. 

God is so good, and this sweet gift from Him has come at a time when we really needed some encouragement. My new Canon Powershot SX1 IS came in the mail today, and below you will see some of the results that I got straight out of the box on automatic setting! The SX1 IS is amazing, much like a DSLR, but I don't have to change the lenses because it has a great wide angle as well as a fantastic zoom built right into the camera body! And did I mention that it does High Def. Videos as well? I won't bore you with all of the other things it does, but let's just say I am beyond thrilled! 

Wanted to share with you some of our very first shots. Can't wait to photograph and video our baby boy in Taiwan! WOOHOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

Continuing to wait for a date......

Please keep praying as we continue to wait for a VISA appt. date from AIT in Taipei.....

God Is SO Good!!!

Ok, this one's for YOU Mary! LOL! I wasn't going to post yet, as we have had an exhausting week. Still trying to get everything ready for our new addition. How can we NOT be ready yet? Will we ever be "ready"?! Does it feel this way EVERY time that you have a child? I know that it did for us the last 2 times as well.....LOL! 

So, on Tuesday our power of attorney received our FINAL DECREE for the courts!!! This means that according to the courts in Taiwan, Andrew is now officially our son! This is incredible news and we are thrilled! God is truly moving mountains, as our first and final decrees were both translated and in the mail to the American Institute in Taiwan by the next day. Thanks Luke and Deana!! AIT received our paperwork at the end of this past week, and they are currently in the process of reviewing it. 

We are praying that we find out an appointment date for Andrew's visa from AIT by Sunday evening or Monday. We are specifically praying to get the date of May 18th. If we get this appointment date, we will not have to update our US paperwork, and will be "leaving on a jet plane" about 2 weeks from now! The Lord has done great things, and we are amazed to see how perfectly He has planned it all. This should NEVER surprise us, but somehow He always does, and in such a sweet and wonderful way. 

The other great news is that it appears that he has also done a miracle in allowing our precious friends to be in Taiwan at the exact same time as us, when they will also be meeting their son for the very first time! Our sons have been in the same foster home together, and for us to be traveling together will be a real miracle, since up until this point we have been on different time frames in the adoption process. We are soooooooo excited about this!

So to sum it all up, God has done it again! We are overjoyed and waiting with great expectations for an AIT appointment, at which time we can make flight arrangements! Please continue to pray for our travel time, and also for Becky and Rodney as they prepare to travel as well. They are waiting for final decree, which they should receive soon. Also, there are many others who are waiting to bring their babies home. Please remember them in your prayers too.

We can not thank you all enough for your prayers and support! We love you!! Will let you know as soon as we hear from AIT! WOOHOOOOOOOOOO!

Mountains are MOVING!

God is miraculously moving mountains!!!! Please keep praying. More news to come soon! :)

He IS Worth It All

The Lord often speaks to me though song, and today was no different. I heard this song for the first time in church today, and with all that we are walking through right now, needless to say it touched my heart, because it's where I am..... 

Our Precious Son

Please please please help us pray him home.......

We need a miracle

Posting a brief update. We are growing quite discouraged here at times. Our travel has been delayed, and at this point apart from a miracle I don't know that we will even be able to travel by May 11th. We had requested our AIT appt for May 18th, but it seems that things just aren't moving much, and I don't see how we could even get an appt. with AIT by May 18th at this point. AIT has a current 2.5 week delay between when they decide to give you an appt. and when one is available. That means that all of our paperwork must be received, mailed to translators, translated, sent to AIT and reviewed by them all within the next 2 weeks in order for us to even get an appt. with them on May 18th. And, if the do receive our things about 2 weeks from now and give us the date of the 18th, that means our child care provider will only be able to give less than 2 weeks notice at work, which I am not sure will work either. Please pray for a miracle with the timing of all of this. Even without thinking of the planning aspect of the travel for everyone, the thought of actually getting the paperwork ready and sent to AIT and having them review it within the next 2 weeks is not seeming likely at this point to us. And then there is the issue of our home study. We are thinking that we will have to go ahead and update it if we don't hear something about an AIT appt. soon, which will cost around $400-500. Then there is another trip to Atlanta for re-fingerprinting. Oh, did I mention that our US government paperwork approval is about to expire the first of June, which could even push our travel into July or August? Lord, we need miracles here.......

Passover/Easter Celebration 2009

We had a great day today. I'm so thankful for all that Jesus has done for us. The sacrifice that He chose to make for each one of us is amazing, and I'm filled with thanksgiving for our precious Passover lamb. We are truly blessed to be children of the one true God and King! Praying that you all have a holiday filled with His presence and the understanding of all that Jesus has done for you. :)

And so this is how most of the photo taking went today, at least when we were trying to get family shots. LOL! This is real life! Wonder how it will be trying to photograph a family of FIVE!?

Not sure what kind of egg was found here, but it MUST have been a doozie! LOL!!

Beautiful.....

Seemingly Bad News

Got some seemingly bad news today. Appears that our travel to get Andrew will be delayed again....... Please pray about all of our paperwork getting to AIT very soon, and that it is approved very quickly, so that they will give us an appointment to get Andrew's visa. Also, for those at the American Institute in Taiwan who will be reviewing it. And for us as we continue to wait for God's perfect timing. We know that He has it all under His perfect control, and so again, we wait and pray..... Thanks :)

Asking For Prayer...Again :)

We are so thankful to see how the Lord is working everything out in His perfect timing. There are wonderful stories to tell, but only have time right now for a very quick update. We are praying to get an appointment with AIT arranged soon (this appt. is to get Andrew's visa while in Taiwan). We need to find out about this appointment very soon in order to make all of our travel arrangements. We are most likely around 2 weeks from traveling, and airline ticket prices could start going up this close to travel time. We are trusting in God for His perfect provision yet again, and asking that you keep praying with us. Jarrod and I are so excited to be in the "planning travel" stage! At times it felt like this day would never arrive, and yet HERE WE ARE! :) Please keep praying for everyone's safety while we are traveling, and that all of our children will do well during this time of change and transition. Also, we still have to wait for the judge give her final ruling prior to travel, and this is the first time that she has ever had to make a final ruling on an adoption case. We know that your prayers have been so important thoughout our adoption journey, and can never thank you all enough. We'll "keep you posted"......