We are a WAITING family again!

So it has been 5 months since we announced we are adopting again and so much has happened since May! 

 

We are so excited to say that we are OFFICIALLY a waiting family with Adoption Advocates International and we are the 11th family in line working on the "paper chase" aka: dossier, to be available to accept a little girl (or girls) into our family.

Every agency is different in how the timeline works out so for some of you reading this, being 11th in line may seem crazy quick to just be starting out and think that must mean we'll be getting our referral very soon and some of you may think 11th in line equates to a LONG wait and truthfully, both may be right.  We are thankful that the agency we are working with believes in matching the child based on best family match but also considering the "order" of families waiting.  So we may truly be the 11th family to get a referral or there may be a child who matches our criteria and no one else and we may be next in line.  You just never know but we are confident that God knows what our family picture is supposed to look like and in His time we will know as well. 

So since May, we completed applications, had our home study and follow up visit completed and started filling a new large PINK binder with all of the forms and information needed for this adoption.  This summer we also were able to complete Fetinet's adoption by finalizing his adoption and getting his US birth certificate so that large binder has been filled to the max and now we can focus on this next one {deep breath....sigh}. 

Our boys are so excited to become big brothers and Jalen has already given his sister a name "Ellapy", knows what she looks like (brown skin, but with yellow hair and green eyes like me apparently) and has bought her a Barbie and made her a pile of things he wants to give her in "her room" which is our spare room/office right now.  He prays for her and likes to draw pictures for her and my heart already melts just thinking about the day he and the rest of us get to meet her. 

 

So now back on the fundraising train (oh man it felt so good to be off of it for the last 15 months) and our first fundraiser is such an AMAZING opportunity! 

We are running the half marathon in the Chosen Marathon for Adoption in New Braunfels, TX on Oct 26th and have the chance to raise money for our adoption that is tax deductible to those who donate!  Our next financial hurdle is $5,290 and we are praying in the next 3 weeks we will reach this goal.  We know it is a large amount and we are doing everything we can to make some cut-backs and save but we know even still, we can't do it on our own. 


We are asking for help in partnering with us on this journey, making sure there are 1 or 2 less children in this world who will grow up not knowing what the love of a family is.  You can read more about our family and this race here:  O'Neal Family Adoption (part 2).  Also if you would like to come to the race or run on our team please leave me a message or contact me, we'd love to se you!

We are so thankful for the support we have from so many friends, family and even strangers and consider ourselves blessed to be able to be an adopting family!