Friday, January 26, 2007

It's Snowing!

It's finally here.....snow! I went out to walk Sophie, in her new coat no less, and it was snowing. I buzzed Marshall and he came down for our walk. We all enjoyed it. I got her the coat this evening because it has gotten really cold the last few days....good thing!

Now we are waiting for approval from our agency. We also emailed a social worker that was recommended to us to do our home study. Hopefully we will hear from him soon so we can begin that step.

We've also been talking about ways to raise money for the adoption. If you have any interesting ideas, please let us know. I've been looking around and have seen some fun ones. Creative people, let us hear from you!

I need to go thaw my feet....

Wednesday, January 24, 2007

Praise God From Whom ALL Blessings Flow!

WE ARE DEBT FREE!!! As of this evening, our only debt is a car payment, which I don't really count because it is a necessity for us and it just doesn't seem like the same kind of debt as a credit card.

So, tonight we sent in our application and fee to the agency. Had a little trouble uploading our family picture, but when I called, the receptionist said that most people have trouble, so I don't feel so bad. :) Should hear back in 10 business days, then we can begin the home study process and get all of our paperwork together.

What a great day! Paid off our debt and turned in our application.

Thank you Lord for Your provision!

Monday, January 22, 2007

The Beginning

Here goes.....I decided to join the 21st century and start a blog. I thought this would be a great way to keep our loved ones up to date on our adoption journey. After much prayer, Marshall and I feel led to adopt a baby boy from Ethiopia, a country of 75 million people that includes around 4.3 million orphans. Soon after our final decision, we started talking about what we would name him and then we tested some names out and Noah stuck. I've always like the name because of what the Bible says about him: "Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his time; Noah walked with God." Genesis 6:9 So, Noah Coen, it is!

We have chosen an agency to work with. Our application is almost complete and will be sent to them in a matter of days. We should hear from them about our acceptance around 10 days later. The next step will be to set up our home study and collect documents for our dossier. The time frame we're talking about is between 14 and 20 months, start to finish.

Please pray for our Noah....he may not even be born yet. I want to pray for his birth mother too and I wonder about her circumstances and what she is facing right now. And for us as we go through each step...that the Lord will sustain us and guide us.

"Delight yourself in the Lord; and He will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord, trust also in Him, and He will do it." Psalm 37:4-5