... the Lord upholds his hand

Its time for an update, but I think you might be bored to hear of all the paperwork we have done and continue to do.  The exciting part of this journey is what is coming.  There will be children who need forever families and they will be matched with us and they will come live in our home and call us mom and dad and we will call them son or daughter. This is the moment we live for, the reason we do this.  Along the way we also have exciting moments, we have benchmarks in our mind that are moments for celebration.  One of those happened last night, it was a simple phone call, but it was a phone call that said it was time to move to the next step.... more paperwork and.... we can also now get a referral for children.  We had said we would take a sibling group and it is looking more and more likely that we will receive one. When I asked Paul what we should share with you, he said, what we've done so far.  Its super exciting, watch out.... 2 applications, 4 sets of fingerprints for Paul, 6 for Cristine (I have funky prints, I was told that, again, today), awkward doctors appointments, more forms than I ever could have imagined, passport for Cristine, ordered certified birth certificates, marriage certificates, many forms notarized, lots of time on the phone, multiple emails, hopes up, hopes down, questioning (what are we thinking) and clinging to God and reminding each other of this....

The Lord directs the steps of the godly, 

He delights in every detail of their lives. 

Though they stumble, 

they will never fall,

for the Lord holds them by the hand.

Psalm 37:23-24

Paul also wanted me to tell you what are next steps are (check out the top right of the freezer door)

Okay so you have to enlarge it to actually know what it says, but it all boils down to more paperwork and planning a fundraiser.  If you are going to enlarge that you should check out the quote and the proverb... good stuff :)

Here is the updated financial graphic.  Notice a few more filled in (each section representing $500) and the dots represent the pledges we've received.  Also, you can now give online through PayPal (which does charge a fee) or tax exempt through Maranatha Ministries using the big purple DONATE link in the margin.  

Thank you so much for your interest in our journey.  It is a joy to share it with you!!!!