And the Countdown Begins!!

It hardly seems real that 2 weeks from right now we will be with our daughter, on the other side of the world, in the orphanage that she's called home for the past few years of her life! I canNOT wait to hold that angel close and let her know that she is LOVED!!! I have so many ideas and thoughts running through my mind of how our meeting will go, but I know that nothing can really prepare us for the moment they bring her thru those doors and we lay our eyes on our bundle of joy! I honestly could not be any more excited if I were giving birth two weeks from today! 

I'm choosing NOT to think about the fact that we only get 5 days with our sweet girl until we must leave our sweet girl behind and return home to finish the adoption proceedings. I know that's going to be the hardest thing we've ever had to do. I'm not looking forward to that at all, but I will also be glad to get this last part finished so Nova can come HOME!!!! 

Our flight will leave Friday morning and sometime Saturday we will arrive in Bulgaria! Monday morning we will go meet little miss Nova and we will get to visit with her for 5 days!! Help us pray for safe travels, minimal jet-lag, and a smooth visit with our girl! I can't wait to update you all when we get home!! :)  

Thank you all so much for the prayers and support you've shown!! We could never do this without all of you!! 

Xoxo, 

Steffani 

Look What God Has Done!!!

Hi Everyone, I know I haven't posted in quite some time, and I'm sorry to keep you all hanging. We've been really busy getting our dossier prepared to send to Bulgaria, and guess what!! It's ON IT's WAY!! Once there, it will be translated and registered with the Minister of Justice and we will receive our referral and travel dates any time after that! I can't believe we are THIS close to meeting our little girl!!! :) 

Throughout this adoption journey we have seen God do GREAT things, more than we could ask or think. We've witnessed miracle after miracle. We've seen lives touched and hearts opened to the need of the orphan. Spencer and I have seen many things "grow" in our own life-- our love and commitment to each other and our faith and trust in the Lord, to name a couple. We have also been overwhelmed (over and over again)by the kindness of God's people.  

When we started this process and found out about the staggering financial need, we really did not know WHERE the money would come from. We knew we didn't have it lying around, we just knew that God told us to adopt and that He would provide the means by which to do so. With our tiny bit of faith, we took God at his word and trusted Him. It wasn't always easy and the devil REALLY likes to get you down (he HATES adoption, by the way!!) but little by little, the money came in at every step of the way. Exactly what we needed-- never more and never less. We rejoiced in the Lord as every bit came in.  SO many people have contributed in SO many ways. We've had people organizing fundraisers, we've sold t-shirts, we've had people send in donations, it has truly been amazing to watch God provide. 

(Over 200 people purchased a "Nova" shirt!)

On Saturday night (March 1) we had a special Southern Gospel Singing hosted by VictorySong with a very special guest, Bro. Archie Watkins! Our Pastor had sent letters to friends, family members, churches, and missionaries asking 200 people to send in $100 each to "Help Bring Nova Home". They were praying for $10,000 to be raised for Nova. The outpouring of love that flowed through God's people was AMAZING. The money poured in over a course of weeks from 6 continents, numerous countries, and MANY states! The goal of $10,000 was MET and EXCEEDED!!! When it was all said and done we were presented with a check of $25,000 to BRING NOVA HOME!! This amount is more than enough to cover the remaining fees to complete our adoption and take care of most of the travel! We have been SO blessed and we are SO excited to move on with this next part of the process!! Our God never ceases to amaze me with His goodness! 

xoxo, 

Steffani 

PS- Even since the "big" check was written, we've had several hundred dollars come in making the total OVER $25,000! 

T-Shirt FUNdraiser!!!

Hi Everyone! 

We are now taking PRE-ORDERS for our "Bring Nova Home" tee shirts!!!

They are super cute, fit great, and of course are for a great cause! Please bear with us, as this will be our *first* order and it will take a little time to get everything sorted out! If you have mentioned that you would like to pre-order, please follow THIS LINK to get to our store where you can select your color and size. The prices will be $15 for hand delivery (locals) and $17 shipped! If you prefer to pay with a check, you may click the "Contact Us" button to place your order via e-mail (or facebook)!  Also, we will be glad to take orders in person for all you local folks! :) Finally, if you have ANY questions, please don't hesitate to ask!!  We so appreciate you all and your eagerness to help us get Nova home!! We pray the Lord will bless you all very much! :)  

MUCH LOVE, 

Spencer and Steffani 

And...... We have a MATCH!!

It's really amazing how nearly two months of your life can pass so quickly and so slowly at the same time. So much has happened in the time since my last post and I can't wait to share with you what all the Lord has done!! So, here goes! :-D

The Wednesday before Thanksgiving, our *wonderful* adoption consultant sent me the photo of a beautiful young girl and said she thought we would be interested in getting more information about her.  I mentioned it to Spencer, and we both thought she was adorable.  But, she was older than our home study was originally written for and after becoming so easily attached to the last little girl we saw a picture of, we were trying hard to guard our hearts. I messaged our consultant and told her that she didn't quite meet the parameters that we had specified, but thanked her for thinking of us. She replied by saying that she knew the girl was older than we had requested, but she decided to send us her file anyway. (Right here I will say that I thank the Lord for the people He's let us work with during this process!!) That encouraged us to really, really pray about pursuing her and making her a part of our family. After a couple of days, we both KNEW that THIS little girl needed to be ours! 

So, off went an e-mail to our consultant and we got back her complete medical file along with more information about her. We also knew that we needed to work quickly, because there were more people who would want her if we didn't.  

In a whirlwind few weeks, we had completed and notarized the necessary application paperwork and sent pictures to Bulgaria of us and our home. And then we waited. And waited. And waited some more, for what seemed like an eternity we waited. In reality it wasn't quite that long and in the mean time, we were able to take her file to a pediatrician in town that has dealt with other internationally adopted children. We got a good prognosis based on what he could tell by her report and then we waited some more.   If you've never experienced anything like this, you probably won't understand the agony that comes with knowing that one person, a government official on the other side of the world (who doesn't know a thing about you besides the few pages of information they have before them) is making a decision that will impact your life F O R E V E R.  The wait is exhausting. It's draining. And nerve wrecking. Even though we had a peace that it was in the Lord's hands, it still really does a toll on your emotions.  

We went out of town for Christmas thinking that we wouldn't hear any results until after the New Year, and tried to put it out of our minds as much as we could. Finally, on Friday morning, we opened up the e-mail that we had waited to see for so many weeks!! It began with "I have wonderful news for your family!" and that was that! Our application for our little girl had been accepted and she was officially "put on hold" for us to adopt!!! PRAISE THE LORD!!!!

We now have 6 months to complete the necessary paperwork for our dossier and submit that to the MOJ in Bulgaria, but we should make it well before the 6 month deadline. All we are really waiting on is our I-800a which is an application to immigration, and that will, Lord willing, come within 60 days of submitting. (It can take more or less depending on a lot of factors.) If all goes well, we will be travelling to bring our little girl home by Fall of this year! We, naturally, are praying that it all happens as quickly as possible and that she won't have to spend one more day without her parents than is absolutely necessary. 

Please, help us pray that the rest of this process will go smoothly and quickly and that God will use our story to encourage and inspire other people to adopt. 

Thank you all for your love, support, and prayers!! They are not taken for granted! 

xoxo, 

Steff <3