Almost there!

Woohoo....our dossier has been submitted for translation and will soon be seen by the appointed officials!!   I can't believe we have finally gotten it all done. It seemed like it took forever.....so thankful to have this part behind us!  We are excited that the next step will be a visit with our girl.
People often ask us....why??  Why are we doing this?  Why are we going to so much trouble and expense? Why would you want another child at your age?   We are ok with these questions. We know that this mission that God has given us is difficult for many to understand. The only answer to the question "WHY?" is....  Because God ask us to!!  And there you have it.....the answer to all the big, deep, fully loaded questions.....it's simple....because God ask us to!  (Deuteronomy 13:4) We have committed ourselves to follow God in any path he chooses for us. We know what lies at the end of the paths that we have so often chosen....yes the ones that WE wanted to follow. We have travelled those paths too many times only to find they often lead to sadness, and destruction, and brokenness. No, it might not always be easy to travel the paths that God sets before us....He never promised it would be easy, but there is great joy and peace there....and so many blessings!!  (John 8:12)

Approval!!

It's finally here!! Our immigration approval has arrived!!! Now to get a couple last pieces of the paperwork apostilled and our dossier is complete!! We are so excited to finally have the mountain of paperwork complete. Now we just (as my sweet husband would say) "hurry up and wait."  This is truly the part of the process that teaches us patience!! We have learned that this process requires the kind of patience that can only come from God. It is very difficult to know that a precious little child, whom we already consider to be part of our family, is sitting in an orphanage in such a far away place. It makes the mind wonder....is she safe? Is she warm? Is she getting enough to eat? Does anyone hold her when she cries, or when she is sick?  Oh my goodness...if she is sick, will she get medicine??  Will someone help her.....will anyone even care???  Oh how difficult it is to let the mind wonder about such things!  We have been there....we have seen the sadness!  There are images of these children etched in our brains that can never be erased!  We can only pray....we know that we just have to leave these worries and fears at Jesus' feet!!  And so, we begin the wait!  We are so glad that we have such a supportive group of family and friends, and a church family at Fincastle Baptist that constantly lifts us up and encourages us in our times of uncertainty and struggle.  We are so blessed!

Immigration

Immigration Clearance......Check!!
We travelled last week to the immigration office in Charleston, WV to have our FBI fingerprints done for our immigration clearance. It was a painless process but just a lot of driving in a short amount of time. Glad that part is done!!  Now we wait for our approval documents, finish preparing the last of our dossier, and hopefully by Christmas our paperwork will be on its way to Eastern Europe.   Pray for us as we get closer to the time that we can visit our sweet girl. We had so hoped that we could visit her this month, but we know God's timing is perfect and so we wait patiently.

The journey continues.....

We are the Shupes....welcome to our blog!!  This is a wonderful continuation of our story. Jeff and I are no strangers to international adoption. We brought home our little Avery and Caden from Eastern Europe 4 years ago. (To see our journey for their adoption, check out our blog at:  www.shupefamilydreams.blogspot.com) My daughter Cassie came home from Kazakhstan in 2003.
We feel so blessed that God has chosen us again to travel the road of adoption. This time, we will bring home our daughter Avery's biological sister. What a miracle that she has been found. We are so excited to share our journey and to keep you posted on all that is happening. Thank you for stopping in here on our blog. We appreciate your prayers and support during this exciting time!