Johanna's First Prayer

I pray with Johanna every night before putting her to bed. Usually I thank God for the day and whatever good happened that day, ask for a good night's sleep and then ask Him to bless "Grandma, Mommy, Johanna and all the little children everywhere."

Last night Johanna was sleeping with me. Several minutes after we prayed she asked if I wanted to pray again. I told her no and asked if she wanted to pray. She folded her hands and closed her eyes. I guessed that meant she wanted to pray. She just lay there so I finally told her to say "Thank you God." Her prayer went something like this.

"Thank you God. Thank you God. Thank you God. Thank you God. Xavie, Pandy, today, safe, Grandma, popcorn, sleep, Pandy, safe, Grandma, Xavie, today, friends, popcorn, etc . . .
When she stopped I told her to say "Amen". It was was the cutes thing. She just said a bunch of words that I have used in our prayers (except popcorn). It didn't make much sense to me but I'm sure it did to her and I KNOW God understood.

Am I Capable? - A Word From God

Last Tuesday night I went to a night of praise, prayer and prophecy at my church. The praise and worship was awesome of course. During that time the Pastor and Elders of my church were in the back of the sanctuary in prayer. They were praying for God to speak to them, giving them words for the people gathered at church. God had a word for me!! Pastor Neil gave me the word from God.

Pastor Neil said that lately I have been questioning myself, asking "Am I capable?" Yes, I had been asking that sort of question just the last couple of days. God had three questions for me to answer. 1. Do I love God? 2. Am I willing to serve Him? 3. Am I going to raise my daughter to love and serve Him? Pastor Neil said that if I can answer "yes" to all of these questions (and he knew I could, he said) then God is telling me that I am capable. It was soooooooooo AWESOME!!!

Waiting and Waiting

This is the absolute worst part of adoption. All the waiting. I am very thankful that my wait for PGN approval was short, only seven weeks. Now I am waiting for Johanna's new birth certificate from Mixco. Mixco has set up their own little approval system. I guess they don't trust PGN or something. The civil registry in Mixco can take up to 30 days to approve a case for a new birth certificate. After they approval it takes a few more days to get the bc. It is really ridiculous because other towns give out bc's in days.

Let the praying begin!!! I am really praying hard that I get the birth certificate soon. I also have the prayer team at my church praying the same thing.

PGN - Praise God Now . . . and forever!!

I finally broke down and called PGN this morning. It only took 4 tries to get through. You can probably guess what Laura told me by the title of the post. LOL
I got out of PGN on January 28!!! Today is my sil's birthday so we are really going to celebrate.
Thank you for all the prayers. Please pray now that I get Johanna's Mixco birth certificate without too much delay.

Dealing with USCIS

Today Mom brought in the mail and said it was all junk. A few minutes later she hollered to me in the office and asked why I was getting mail from "Homeland Security." DUH? Okay, I didn't say that to her but told her it was about our fingerprint appointment. (Boy was that fast!) That wasn't what it was. DARN! I guess I hadn't sent in the $70 for Mom's fingerprinting or a copy of her birth certificate. They were both in the mail within 30 minutes. By next weekend I should hear about our appointment. Right?

I found my digital camera this morning that has been missing for over a week. I was laying in bed and tried to think of all the bags, suitcases, etc. we took with us to Memphis. The camera has to be in one of those. I couldn't think of any. FINALLY, I decided to pray about it. I don't know what took me so long. I had just spoken God's name when the thought came to me, "the dvd bag!" Then God said, "I was waiting for you to ask Me." GOD IS SO GOOD!!! I didn't even have to ask Him. He just wanted me to acknowledge that I needed His help.

Start Writing!!!

I had my final appointment with my social worker on Saturday morning. I am now ready for him to start writing my home study. Actually, I am ready for him to be finish but that would be pushing it a little. He has to get the KBI checks first since the first agency I had doing my home study didn't get the correct ones. Hopefully, with his connections, he will get those really quick. I like something my SW said after the appointment was over and we were just sitting around visiting with my mom. He looked at me and said, "You are way qualified." That was great!! I loved hearing that.
After that appointment I went saw some family who seems to think the opposite of my SW. For some reason they don't think I deserve a family of my own or to have the thing I desire the most. A comment was made to me by a cousin that really hurt. I didn't let it out until later when I was alone in the car with just my mother. My sweet niece who was sitting in the back seat assured me that I have her support.
I know I have loads of family and friends who do support me and will do whatever they can to help. I need to be thankful for these people in my life and not worry about the rest. Maybe they are so unhappy that it bothers them to see how happy I am. I'll pray for their happiness.

So, now I wait for the home study to be finished and start preparing my dossier. I am walking on a cloud for now and that is wonderful!!!!

Coming To America!!

I don't have anything new to post about the adoption so I thought I would show some of the things I have already purchased for my baby Johanna. This is her "Coming To America" outfit. It is a size 6 months. That means when I go to Kazakhstan I will have to choose a baby that will fit the outfit. HMMM. Is that the first the most important thing I will use in choosing my daughter? Of course not!! Actually, I am praying that the first baby I am shown will be my Johanna. I want God to make that choice for me like He does for parents who are giving birth to babies. I don't want to have to look at several babies and decide. I don't know that it will happen this way but that is my prayer.

The Search Is On

I found out my SW will not be in the office all this week. She is out for training. I don't know what she is training for. So far I haven't seen her do any work. So, "The Search Is On" for a new SW to do my home study. I think I may have already found one. I am waiting for a call from a guy from another agency that I guess can do home studies for others. I got his name from the administrative assistant and gave her my details. Hopefully he will call tomorrow. If he does, I will immediately go to CSS and ask for my file. For $100 they owe me that much. I will overnight it to the new guy if he can take me. PLEASE PRAY!!!