Saturday, April 12, 2014

Do Something!

So, it's been a while since we updated you all. Sorry about that. Life gets in the way of us making the time so sit down to update this, but things are very much still happening. Frankly, there isn't much movement at this point to report on, but here's what's happening

There's a song by Matthew West called Do Something. The message is simple, and poignant...

"If not us, then who?
If not me and you
Right now!
It’s time for us to do something
If not now, then when?
Will we see an end
To all this pain?
It’s not enough to do nothing
It’s time for us to do something"

That's how we feel. This is our opportunity to Do Something! To show people that adoption is doable. It's a real, tangible thing that can bless the life of a child, their lives, the lives of their church family, the community, and yes, bless the world!

So, you should do something! Give, adopt, act, serve, help, SOMETHING! Pray for guidance in your own life as to what that Something that God wants you to do is, and for the courage to get off of the couch and GO DO IT!

The progress update...

The home study is complete and we've been officially approved to adopt. All of our paperwork (our dossier) is either at our agency in Georgia or with the Federal Government in Dallas (our I-800A application). Our agency is getting our paperwork translated into Lithuanian while the US government is processing our application to allow John-Patrik to immigrate to the US as our son!

What does this mean? It means that in 30-90 days, the waiting will be over and we will hear from the Lithuanian Central Authority 15-30 days after the processing, and they will give us a travel date and court date with 30 days notice. That means, that we could have a travel date in 45-120 days!

It's really happening! It's not just an abstract idea about something we'll be doing at some time in the future, we're really going to spend 20 hours on a plane and go to an eastern European country that we've only seen on the internet to pick up the boy that God has chosen for us to take into our family!

So, thanks for checking out our update, and again, our apologies for the lengthy delay. A public thank you is in order for Sharon Freeman who organized and pulled off an adoption shower for Meg! Thank you also to the many, many people who gave us gifts and helped with the shower. Also, we just cannot thank enough the dozens of people, friends and strangers alike, who have donated to our fundraising effort. We are so close to our goal, it's very humbling!

In God's love to each you!
Rich & Meg
Here's the official video for "Do Something" so you can listen right now...