Adoption Rocks, But Right Now It's More Like a Slow 80's Rock Ballad...

This title makes me laugh with a  little sting of disappointment at the end.  It's so true.  I can just hear a slow rock ballad like "Weeeeeeeeeeeee are the Chaaaaaampions..."  playing in the back ground.  The good news is we are champions!  Adoption is an AMAZING journey.  The bad news is our process has slowed to a standstill at the moment.

So we are just trusting Our Father who cares more about orphans and our family than we do.  He is a good God.  He is trustworthy.  He has us and our child in the palm of His Hand.  He has always been faithful.  He has an amazing way of creating beauty from ashes.  He provided for us after we lost our home and cars during Hurricane Katrina.  (I don't like saying we lost everything because we had each other, our friendships deepened, our faith was stretched and God was so good to us.)  He worked out every detail of Nathanael's adoption.  The delays each had a purpose.  He gives good gifts to His children.  ***deep peaceful sigh***   Ok, I feel better now.  I needed those reminders.  How about you?

Puzzle Fundraiser

Most of you know by now that we have begun the process to adopt our second child.  We are so excited to be adopting from Taiwan again.  We are starting our fundraising early in the process because this adoption will be much more costly than our last adoption.  We feel God clearly leading us to adopt again, so we are stepping out in faith to obey him.  

I wanted to share our puzzle fundraiser and our progress with it.

YOU are the missing piece!  

Help us bring our baby home from Taiwan.  We need to raise funds for our adoption and we wanted something meaningful for our new baby’s room so that he or she would be able to see who helped to "love them home"

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We have purchased an Asian-themed puzzle.  For each $10 donation you make to our adoption fund, we will write your name or the name of your choosing (your mom, dad, child or grandchild’s name) on the back of the puzzle piece. 

Then when our baby is a little older, he or she will be able to look at the back of the puzzle and see all of the people who gave so they could become a member of our forever family. 

We will post pictures as the puzzle begins to come together.  

So, how do you buy a puzzle piece?  Email me at adoptionrocks4 at gmail dot com or private message me on facebook (Heather Bishop Shubert).  I will reply with our home address, where you can send a check and the name(s) you want written on the back of the puzzle piece(s).

You can follow our adoption and the progress of this fundraiser here or in our private facebook group.  If you look to the right, you will see thermometers.  Check those to see how our fundraisers are progressing.

We've had our first donation to our puzzle fundraiser.  Can you guess the picture, yet?

Thank you for your support of our adoption through prayer and through giving.  We appreciate you!

How'd That Happen?

I did not update here yesterday, but if you are on facebook, you may know that yesterday was emotional and frustrating. After run-arounds from several government agencies, and the help of my congressman's office, we finally got the tracking number for our documents, only to find out that the US Postal Service had no record of this piece of certified mail. This sent us into a scramble because USCIS doesn't keep some of the documents. I was going to hand deliver the documents to USCIS, but wasn't given approval until it was too late to make the 2 hour drive to Metairie, LA before they closed. So, I Fedexed the documents.

That was yesterday. Today, I checked the tracking number with the US Postal Service. I'm not really sure why I did, but.....It arrived at the National Visa Center at 8:48 this morning EST!!! Now how did an item that did not exist, suddenly get delivered this morning? I have one answer that I was able to share with my congressman's office and USCIS: God answered my prayers.

Oh, and you know that Fed ex package? It contained original birth and marriage certificates that we didn't want to send, but felt we had to. Guess what, somehow, it did not leave the Fedex facility last night, even though I was there before they closed. I called and am going to pick them up today!

I say praise the LORD!!!!

Please continue to pray that the National Visa Center processes our documents in time. I don't know about you, but seeing what happened with the documents, my faith has been strengthened!

"He is my strength, my shield from every danger. I trusted in Him, and He helped me. Joy rises in my heart until I burst out in songs of praise to Him." Psalm 28:7

So What's New?

1. Nathanael is doing well. He remains on medication, but the doctor doesn't feel he needs a follow up appointment.

2. He gained lots of weight in the hospital. In fact he gained so much weight that the ladies helping to care for him nicknamed him "sumo"! :0)

3. The National Visa Center has issued a search for our documents. Also, our congressman's office has sent our information to their contact to try and help get the approval sent to Taiwan.

Please continue to pray and trust God with us!

Our Court Date!

Our court date is tomorrow night at 8:15 p.m. central time. Please be in prayer that all goes well! Please pray for the judge, Nathanael's birthmom, and those who represent us in court.

"We prayed for this child, and the Lord has granted what we asked of Him." 1 Samuel 1:27

Fingerprinting: Check, Waiting: Check, Check

We completed our biometrics (digital fingerprinting) appointment yesterday with more than a little freaking out on my part! We left 30 minutes earlier than we needed to for the appointment. However, a semi was blocking one lane of traffic on the bridge on I-10 over the lake. It took us over 30 minutes just to cross the bridge. Needless to say, we were late and I was worried that we would not be able to continue with the appointment. Those letters from USCIS can be so threatening, stating that you are abandoning your application if you do not make your appointment time. Anyway, as a newbie, I did not know that they schedule several people for 8 a.m. and we were fine. No problems, Praise the Lord!!!

I am continuing to wait to hear that USCIS has received our corrected homestudy. As of yet, I have requested this information with no response. Please pray that they respond to me soon.

Other than that, we work on the nursery and wait for our court date on March 9th. Please continue to be in prayer for the court date and our birthmom.

Do you see a recurring word in this blog: wait. For now, I am trying to do what the following verse states that David did. I'm trying to improve with the "patiently" part.

"I waited patiently for the Lord; He turned to me and heard my cry." Psalm 40:1

God's Timing

I was reading Matthew chapter 2 in my devotions this morning. I love reading the story of the Christ-child, especially approaching Christmas. This time I was amazed at the precise way that everything in that chapter fulfilled a prophecy. God's timing was impeccable. He warned the wise men to return another way, in order to protect Jesus. He warned Joseph to take Jesus and Mary to Egypt to protect the Christ-child. Then, He told them to return, because Herod had died and it was now safe to do so. Each one of these things we would view as delays, had a specific purpose. Sometimes the purpose was to fulfill prophecy, "I called my son out of Egypt", and "He will be called a Nazarene." Sometimes simply for the protection and the good of this little family.
As we are waiting for our child to join our family, we have experienced several delays. Right now, we are waiting for the FBI fingerprinting results to come back so that our homestudy can be completed. We have been waiting on this for several weeks. I have found myself impatient for this to happen this week because our social worker is going on vacation the end of this week, and then there is Thanksgiving. We can't be matched with a child until this is completed. God reminded me today that His plan and His timing are perfect. He knows which child or children He has planned to bless our home with. We will be matched with that child or children in his perfect timing. I am going to do my best to sit back and trust Him and stop trying to get answers on my timetable. His is better than mine!

"As for God, His way is perfect; the word of the Lord is flawless. He is a shield for all who take refuge in Him. For who is God besides the Lord? And who is a Rock except our God? It is God who arms me with strength and makes my way perfect." 2 Samuel 22:31-33