Some News!!

I just spoke with immigration on the phone a few minutes ago.  The lady there is pulling our file to see if we are ready to approve and send our I-171H.  If we are ready for approval she said she might be able to get that done today.  However, we only did our FBI finger prints yesterday.  Please pray with us that the FBI will process our finger prints very quickly so the lady at immigration can grant us our approval.  God is a big God and he can make this happen.

Our translator tells us that there is currently no waiting line for older child adoptions.  If we can get this done quickly I may actually be able to travel to Ukraine soon to begin the process there.  I know that a lot of "If" has to fall into place, but I know God can do this. 

Also, please pray for provision.  As we get closer to being able to go we see more urgency in collecting the money to go. 

Pray for our daughter too.  She will have many decisions to make, many fears to overcome, and many adjustments to make.  Please pray that she will be able to recognize our hearts and that in the struggles she will face she will be making her way to becoming the woman God has designed her to be.

Thank you for praying for us.

Still Waiting

Life has been busy.  Vernon and I went on a marriage retreat with our church group.  It was a wonderful vacation that allowed us to focus on us and our relationship while having a fantastic time.  The retreat was on a Caribbean cruise.  We came back relaxed and refreshed.  It was just what we needed.  Vernon and I have not taken a long vacation by ourselves in several years.  We have gone to the coast on long weekends, but we have not taken a whole week and gone out of town like that.  It was wonderful.  I love my family and I love being with my kids.  But I did not realize how much I had missed having my time away with my husband without the responsibility of taking care of everything.

A week after we got back from the cruise was the church’s Revive weekend for the youth groups.  If you aren’t familiar with these I will explain…..Several families in the church offer to host a group of kids at their home for the weekend.  During the weekend the youth are split up by grade and by sex.  Depending on how many kids of each sex and each grade, there may be one house per group or multiple houses per group.  There are planned activities at church that are appropriate for the youth.  The Christian music is upbeat and more to their taste, the lessons are taught to issues the youth face, and the leaders of each group are typically young enough that the kids feel they can relate (mostly college age to 20s with a few others mixed in who are older but work with the youth).  A mission activity is scheduled for Saturday, along with some free time for the kids in the group to decide what to do that is fun for them and encourages building friendships.  Saturday night is usually a concert or show of some type.  The kids are brought to the church with all of their stuff on Sunday morning and the parents get to take home very tired students after the church service is finished.  The purpose of these weekends is to allow the youth to experience a spiritual revival within themselves; hearing what the word says relative to the normal teenager’s struggles with salvation and living according to biblical principles; and helping them build relationships with others their age within the church who are most likely struggling with the same things.  I am sure our youth pastor could explain that a lot better, but you probably get the idea.  Vernon and I hosted the 10^th grade boys.  There were enough boys to have two homes for this group, so Josh got to go to the other home for 10^th grade boys.  We had a wonderful time with the boys.  They were very respectful and sweet.  I hope they enjoyed being here even half as much as I enjoyed having them here.  Mostly, I hope they experienced a personal revival after participating in the events of the weekend.

Not much has happened on the adoption front since I posted last time.  Vernon and I had appointments this morning to have our finger prints done for immigration.  We are now waiting to see how long it will be before we get the I-171H form we need.  Our translator sent us one more form which is now required.  I have to modify it with our personal information and print it out to get notarized tomorrow.  We have received our amendment to the home study that informs immigration that Vernon will not be traveling with me this time.  The process of bringing our daughter into this country is different if both parents are not there for the adoption.  Vernon will have to adopt her after we get home instead of her being a citizen as soon as she arrives in America.  When we adopted Josh we were both there for the adoption so he became an American citizen as soon as he landed in America for the first time.

We have not heard back from Open Arms Adoption after submitting our application.  I will post on here when we hear back with our approval.  We are still trying to come up with more ideas for fundraising.  If you have some good ideas please let me know.  I am really not gifted in fundraising. 

Thank you all for praying with us through this adoption process.  Please continue to pray for our daughter.  It is bitter cold in Eastern Europe.  I pray for her to be warm and healthy during this very difficult winter.  Also be praying that our immigration paper work will come in sooner rather than later.  The sooner we get there the better.  Please pray for provision.  As I have mentioned before, adoption is expensive.  Jehovah Jireh is my provider.  Also pray that we will all have hearts that are open to hearing from the Lord and melding together as a family with a new member amongst us.  Adoption is hard, but God is good and He knows how to make it all fit into his glorious plan. 

Have a great night!!  I will post again when I have some news to share.  I love you all!!

We are still here

I am so sorry it has been so long since I have posted on the blog.  Life has been really busy through the holiday season but it is starting to settle down to some sense of normalcy.  We went to see my family for Christmas and then to see Vernon’s parents New Year’s weekend.  Vernon’s parents celebrated their 50^th wedding anniversary on New Year’s Eve.  We gave them a party and celebrated such an incredible milestone with them.  I had such a great time celebrating Christmas and New Year with our family.

Our sweet friend from Ukraine has been here in Mississippi for a while.  I really enjoyed going to a local church with her and speaking about the adoption process.  We had a dinner for her so she could see some of her friends from Ukraine who live in this area.  It was a wonderful evening.  We also met new friends from other churches locally.  It is nice to have such a great support group for families who have adopted and are interested in adopting so we can all gain wisdom from each other.  I feel truly blessed to have such wonderful friends.

We have made a lot of progress on the adoption front recently.  We have received a signed copy of the home study.  We picked it up middle of last week.  The agency doing our home study sent the home study to US Immigration Services.  We are waiting to hear when they will schedule us for our fingerprints with the FBI.  Once those fingerprints are done we will receive the last form we need from Immigration Services until we return from Ukraine.  Also, once we get our case number from immigration we can complete the amendment to the home study that will allow me to travel alone to Ukraine.  Vernon will complete his adoption here in the US once I arrive home with our daughter.  That will complete our paperwork.  We will get apostilles and send our full application to Ukraine for translation and submission.  That summarizes to only two more documents to complete and get apostilles from the Mississippi state government.  If you don’t know what an apostille is, it is a verification from the government that the notary who verified our documents is actually a licensed notary.  Basically, we have to certify the people who certified our documents.

I am so excited that we are nearing the end of the document collection process.  Then we get to wait to hear when I can travel to Ukraine to go get our daughter!!!  I am starting to get almost impatient as I get more excited about nearing the end of the process.

Also, now that we have the completed home study we can finish our application to Open Arms Adoption for tax deductible donations.  Open Arms Adoption is a ministry from a church in Columbia, South Carolina who will accept donations on our behalf and give tax deductions to everybody who makes donations to our adoption fund.  They send 100% of the donation to us for our adoption expenses.  If you are interested in making a donation to help us bring our daughter home you can send a check made payable to Christian Life and write Open-Arms Tygart Family in the in the memo line.  The address to send it to is 1722 Denny Rd., Columbia, SC 29203.   We have estimated that it will cost about $21,500 to adopt one child.  Our expenses that have been paid already sum up to about $6,500.  We need to raise about another $15,000.  We have faith that God will provide for us to complete all that He has called us to.

I hope you have all been as blessed as we have.  

Forever Changed!!

More things have begun to fall into place.  All medical exams have been completed.  Everything has been given to the social worker so she can finish our home study.  Our state police clearances came in but the format they are in will not work.  We will have to have them redone.  We have notarized copies of our passports, petition to adopt, power of attorney forms, letter of obligation, and notarized and apostilled copies of our marriage license have been ordered.  

Please be in prayer with us about the adoption process.  Vernon and I must decide very soon whether we are going to adopt one child or two children and we have to decide how to process the paperwork for the adoption.  I can’t divulge too much information on this point but God knows the answers we are seeking and we would appreciate prayers for clarity on a few points of interest.

I have had more questions come up recently in regards to why we are adopting that I would like to try to answer, but in a very round-about way.  This is a very long post, so get comfortable if you want to read the whole thing.  If you are only interested in the updates you should stop reading now because the update is listed above.

I get kind of emotional this time of the year.  See, it was 14 years ago this week that our baby girl Rebecca joined the angels in heaven.  It is hard to believe it has been that long!!  I think about how our life would be different if she had survived after her surgery.  She would probably be a real joy at Christmas.  Everybody who has dealt with people born with Downs Syndrome knows how joyful they can be and full of excitement.  I imagine that Christmas would different with Rebecca here.  Even though I wonder what life would be like with Rebecca still here, I never wonder what life would be like if we had never had her.  In the brief period of time that we had with our beautiful baby girl, she changed our lives forever.  The moment I found I was pregnant with her my life changed.  The day she was born and we were told that she had Downs Syndrome and a severe heart defect, our lives were forever changed.  The day she died our lives were forever changed.  Even though that experience was very difficult to live through, I don’t regret having walked through it.  I never think I should never have had her, I should never have had to go through that, or why me.  Instead, I thank God for giving me that beautiful baby girl to hold, to care for, and to love even if it was for such a short time.

When I am all emotional like this about Rebecca I often reflect upon some of life’s other blessings and challenges I have experienced.   My childhood was difficult, God was not invited into our home when I was growing up and our family had issues.  Major issues!!!  I had issues… still have issues.  But God placed me in a position to meet the man who would become my husband and would be the one who took me to a church where I met Jesus.  My life was forever changed.  Vernon and I dated for a year and then got married at the end of our junior year of college.  Our lives were forever changed.  We got pregnant with our first child only three months after getting married and had her only 36 hours after graduation from college.  Our lives were forever changed.  Then we had Anthony, then Mark, then Rebecca.  Each time we had children our lives were forever changed (I am not leaving Josh out; I will get to the adoption part in a minute).  I cannot imagine life without these changes having occurred.   I can’t imagine what life would be like without any of my biological children.  They are all blessed gifts sent to me directly from God himself.  The giver of life gave me my children.

Has life always been easy? NO!!!  We have faced challenges with our children over the years.  We have had to deal with some really serious issues, each one taking us to our knees in prayer.  See, no matter what came our way with our kids, we always knew God would see us through.    If you read Matthew 8:23-27 you will read about Jesus and his disciples on a boat when a storm arises.  The disciples become very afraid but Jesus is sleeping.  The disciples wake Jesus up and he calms the storm.  Most people seem to focus on the lack of faith of the disciples.  They are on a boat with Jesus, what do they have to be afraid of?  But when I was reading that I thought about Jesus and that storm.  He was on a boat in the midst of a very dangerous storm.  He could have steered them away from the storm, but he didn’t.  He could have had them wait on shore until that storm passed before they sailed to the other side, but he didn’t.  He sailed through the same storm the disciples were sailing through, on the same boat with them.  He knew that he would make it to the other side.  He could rest peacefully while a storm was raging all around him because he knew what his father had told him to do, and he was doing it.

So, how does all of this rambling tie in to adoption in my crazy mind?  Our father has told us to go to the other side.  We will make it to the other side because Jesus is on the boat with us.  We won't make it without storms, but we will rest in the knowledge that Jesus is traveling with us through the storms.  When we adopted Josh we heard clearly from God that was what we were supposed to do.  We had storms come up.  We had issues arise with one of our children that led us to cancel the adoption in 2007.  The storm was huge, we felt like our family’s boat was sinking.  We didn’t know what to do.  We cried out to God for help.  We spent several months trying to piece our life back together.  Then, a year later, I went to Ukraine and met Josh for the first time.  I knew then that God’s initial instructions were still there for us.  We had to go to the other side and do what our father had told us to do.  We knew that storms would come.  We did not know how many, or how severe, but we knew they would come.  Jesus, on the other hand… knew the storms…. knew the severity…. and knew the outcome.  He knew what was waiting on the other side.  We had to trust in Jesus and let him walk us through it all.

Our son has had some life changing events just as serious as those I mentioned earlier about our family (before adoption).  The day his mother died, his life changed forever.  The day he was dropped off at the orphanage, his life was forever changed.  All of the harsh treatment, the things he had to endure as a young child growing up with no parents and no support changed him.  He experienced a very difficult youth and in some ways it shows very clearly.  When we finally made it to the other side of the ocean to pick him up he was uncertain.  He had weathered so many storms in his short life that he had to evaluate whether he was up for this kind of challenge.  But then….He said yes.  His life was forever changed.  Our lives were forever changed.  The giver of life had given us another child to hold, to care for, and to love. God had given Josh a family.  He was then, and forever will be, our son.  He came in a full 6 foot 4 package instead of a little baby, but a true blessing all the same.  He has a heart of gold buried under that gruff façade.  There is a lot of compassion and a sincere sweetness pouring out of his heart that only a loving God could place there.  I love watching his new life unfold in front of him and how he grasps hold of certain things while still rejecting others.  He keeps life interesting.

Now that God has once again told us to go, we are anxious to get there.  There is one child, and maybe two, who will have to choose whether or not they want to get on life’s boat with us and weather the storms we will face together.  They have experienced many things that have forever changed their lives.  They will have the opportunity to step out and accept the challenge of many more life changing events with us; or they will choose to face life without us as their family to stand beside them in the storms that life will stir up for them.  But one thing is for certain, we have been told by our heavenly father to go.  There are more children that the giver of life wants to give to us.  We want them!!  We will go for them!!  I am anxiously waiting to be able to say I cannot imagine my  life without them in it and acknowledge that my life has been forever changed.

Enjoy the Christmas Season and reflect upon the blessings that have forever changed your life.  If you haven't experienced the peace that Jesus brings into your heart, find Jesus.  We celebrate his birth at Christmas and his resurrection at Easter.  Jesus is real!!!  Jesus is alive!!! Jesus loves you!!!  Jesus wants to have a personal one on one relationship with you.  Will you accept the forever changed life he offers?  

iPad 2 Winner

I just spoke with Brett, and he definitely wants the iPad 2.  Thank you so much to everybody who donated to us via these raffles.  We sincerely appreciate your prayers and support. 

And the winner is.....

Josh drew Ms. Ruby from church as the winner for the necklace.  She was very excited to win it.  I have not been able to contact the winner of the iPad 2 so I will wait to post the winner until I have reached that person to make sure it is OK to put their name on a public blog.  Thank you to everybody who helped us by purchasing tickets for the raffle. 

Drawing is tomorrow

We will be drawing for the iPad 2 and the necklace tomorrow evening at 6.  I will call the winner and post the name of the winner on Facebook and here on my blog.  Good luck to everybody who purchased raffles and thank you for help us out with these drawings.  We know that it is the support of our friends and family that will help us get through this adoption just as it was their strengths that we relied on during our last adoption.  We will definitely need our prayer warriors to get us through again.

We finally received our FBI fingerprint results.  Now we can continue with the home study.  Document collection continues!!  Employment verifications...check.  Physical exams... two of four done.  Once we have the other two physical exams done this week we can meet with our social worker and finish the home study.  We have verification from USCIS that they have received our application for immigration of a foreign born child for adoption.  We received the letter from the tax assessor for our proof of residence.  We went to the sheriff's office on Friday to do our fingerprints for the state police clearances and put that in the mail yesterday.   We are working on an application with a church that will accept donations for us and they will be tax free.  I will post more information on that when I have it. 

God has blessed us immensely.  It is amazing to see how God takes care of even the smallest of details.  All we have to do is invite Him in and let Him take control.  God is meeting our needs just as we need Him to.

Anthony should be home for Christmas next weekend.  We certainly are looking forward to having him home for a while.  He has a rough week ahead though.  He has finals every day, beginning with physics on Monday and ending with Calculus III and Engineering Solutions on Thursday and Friday.  If you happen to think of him this week please say a prayer for him to do well on his finals.

Alex is home from her mission trip to Africa.  She said it was a life changing week in Mozambique.  I can't wait to hear the full story of what she experienced.  I am hoping we will have some time to visit with her during the holiday season. 

I hope you all have a very Merry Christmas season and will enjoy great times with your family.  Don't forget to remember the reason for the season.  Celebrate Jesus!!  It was God coming to Earth as a baby, living with men as a man that gave us freedom from sin.  Christmas is not about the presents, but about the presence of God. 

I will post the results of the drawing tomorrow!!