Oh Happy Day!

Our I-171H form from USCIS arrived in the mail today!!!!!!!!!!  Yipppppeeeeeee.  I've already scanned and e-mailed it to Michelle so hopefully we'll hear from her next week as to when we will make our first trip to Haiti.  Whoop Whoop!

Still waiting...

Who likes waiting? or as my three year old would say "Whobody" likes waiting?............

No body likes waiting, or at least nobody I know.  But that's what we are learning to do, to wait......to be patient (something I'm not too good at), and to trust that God's timing is far better than mine, even though that's really hard to believe right now!  We received a referral for two beautiful children and all I want to do is to bring them home!  Imagine having all the information about your child in your possession, pictures, background, physical info. etc. and then knowing that you can't bring them home yet.  They, and you have to wait.  And wait we will even though I think I know what's best for those babies, I want them home NOW!  But I will wait, I will wait until I think I can't wait any longer, and then I'm sure I'll wait some more!

Coen keeps asking "When are dose new tids donna det here?"  Caide and Jordis are asking "Why can't we just go and get them now?"  I wish it were that easy and I'm praying that God will intervene so that the waiting for us all will be over soon, sooner than expected, and sooner than the timelines say.  I pray that God would cut through the red tape, work out all the details, and unite us with the rest of our family.  Please join me in praying for all the kids (not just ours) waiting to be united with their forever families.  This is not how it's meant to be, God never intended for there to be orphans in the world, let's join forces and pray those babies home, there are so many and God does hear our prayers.  As my tee-shirt says "How do you reach 147,000,000 orphans?  ONE at a time!"  Let's pray each and every 'one at a time' home, right now, please pray with me.

Here is a run down of how things may go in the next month or two:  My Mum had her finger printing done in Milwaukee on December 17.  Joe and I have already had ours done so we should get a form in the mail from USCIS soon (LORD willing).  Once we receive that form I will e-mail it to Michelle (our family coordinator), and she will make our first of two appointments in Haiti!  We will get to meet our children, go to our appointment, sign more forms, and then turn around and fly home without our babies..........I'm not looking forward to that, don't think I'll do too well, who wants to meet their kids, then walk away from them?  That's right.....nobody!  Anyway I'll try to stay focused on the positive, it's one step closer to bringing them home and oh yeah.....WE'LL GET TO MEET OUR KIDS!!!!!!!!  We'll get to hold them and tell them we love them and that LORD willing we WILL come back and get them.  That will be a blessed day, so I'll not ponder on the day we have to leave Haiti but please be in prayer for me and for Joe too.
Once we get back we'll have more......you guessed it, waiting to do!  Once our paper work is out of the IBESR (and they are working hard to get the dossiers processed) we will have a few more steps to complete and one more trip back to Haiti to finalize the adoption.  Then we get to bring them home.  Praise God!  What a day that will be.  It just can't get here soon enough and then when it does our family of seven will be complete.

Well that's about it, this was meant to be a really short and sweet post but I guess I had a lot more to say than I thought.  Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and that you have a safe and happy new year!

We wait...

My house is quiet as I sit here looking through pictures of children from the orphanage where the rest of our family is.  I scan the photos looking for a familiar face but don't find one.  What I do see is precious children waiting for someone to love them, waiting for someone to wrap their arms around them and tell them that they are precious, that they are loved, that they are not forgotten, and again I'm am filled with compassion for these children.  I am in awe of God's great love for us and I am again reminded that we can make a difference in one child's life. 

It's hard to explain the emotions that consume you when you decide to take a leap of faith and adopt a child.  It's hard to explain how the trials in life and the ups and downs of adoption can bring you face to face with your sin and then drive to the foot of the cross again and again and again.......I am constantly amazed at the depth of sin in my life and am reminded of the fact that without Christ I have nothing to offer.  So I pray for God's healing, I pray for His patience as we wait, and I thank the LORD for the blood spilled at Calvary for my sin and the sins of the whole world.  I thank Him that I am declared righteous through the shed blood of His son and I Praise His Holy Name that He chose to take the punishment that I so deserved.  LORD keep me in the fire for as long as it takes but LORD PLEASE don't let it take too long..........

As far as waiting goes, we wait.  We wait for appointment times, we wait for forms to arrive, we wait, and we wait, and we wait.  It's seems like forever but it hasn't even been a year.  When you have pictures and names and medical information the wait seems so much longer.  I just want to wrap my arms around a child in need and tell them that they are a part of our family a family who will love them and care for them and point them in the direction of their loving Saviour.  I can hardly wait to bring you home!

My Mum has her fingerprinting appointment on December 17, that seems like eons away.  The other two families that made the paperwork deadline along with us are traveling to Haiti on December 11 and I can't help but feel left behind.  I know that's not the case and God has much greater plans than I do but I so want to travel to Haiti to meet our family.  As soon as that fingerprinting is done and we receive the form from USCIS Michelle will make our appointment in Haiti and we too will get to travel.  In the meantime we will wait and trust that God's timing is best.  I will try not to control things to get my way because I know my way is NOT the best way.  Thank you for praying for us, we need it and please continue to do so.

Square Utility Tote Drawing!!!

And today's winner is.............

The Peplinski Family!!!

Congratulations.  We appreciate you donating to our adoption fund and hope you enjoy your prize.

Drawing by Caide.

All-In-One Organizer Drawing!!!

And the winner is...............................................

Rita Martin!!!!!  

Congratulations Rita and thanks for being a part of our drawing fundraiser.
Enjoy your prize.

Drawing by Jordis.

Organizing Utility Tote Drawing!!!

The winner of the Organizing Utility Tote is Angie Morrick!!!!!  Congratulations Angie and thanks for being a part of our fundraising efforts.  Enjoy your prize!

Drawing by Coen.

Piggly Wiggly Winner!!!

We sold drawing entries at the Piggly Wiggly on November 10, 2012.
Thanks for all the donations.  

We drew a winner for the Piggly drawing who won the bag below aaaannnnnndddd...... the winner is Lori from Evansville.
Congratulations Lori and thanks for being a part of our fundraiser!

Drawing Tickets

We have an opportunity to sell our drawing tickets outside the Piggly Wiggly here in town this coming Saturday!  So we are going to push the dates of the drawing out a little bit to accommodate for this.  The original drawing dates were Nov. 8, 10, and 12, the new drawing dates will be Nov. 14, 16, and 18.  Thanks for understanding. 

Moving forward.

Not too much to update you with tonight.  We are moving forward with the next steps in the process, which of course requires more paper work and fees!  Nothing major just a few signatures here and there. 

This sure is an amazing journey.  One I can't fully relay to you in words.  It's like preparing for pregnancy or your first child.  You can read all you like and ask as many questions as you can think of but until you actually experience it and see God's hand at work you have no idea what you're in for!  Thanks for joining us in prayer along the way, please continue to pray. 

You may be anxiously awaiting our referral details but I can't say anything at all via social media until the process is finalized, except that we have accepted a referral.

Please pray specifically that hearts here in the US and in Haiti would be prepared for the transition we are all anxiously awaiting.  Again something I know we can't really prepare for.

Whoop Whoop!!!  God shines HIS light on Halloween.  Our paperwork is officially in!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Whoop Whoop!!!

Referral and Prayers for Haiti!!!

The last two weeks have been crazy to say the least!  I don't have time to fill you in right now or even the emotional stability to do so, so it will have to wait a while.  But I do have something...

Joe and I received our referral last night and our dossier (paperwork) is scheduled to be submitted to the IBESR today which means we will meet the Oct. 31 deadline!!!  (Please pray that this will indeed happen.)  This is very good news.  Things seem to be moving quickly.  We were informed that we will need to travel to Haiti for the first of two mandatory trips, within 6-8 weeks of receiving our dossier submission receipt, which should be today.  This we were not expecting.  God sure has a way with surprises.  So....we are asking for your help.  If you have frequent flyer miles that you would be willing to donate to us we would most appreciate it.  Please let me know if you can help out.
Thanks,
Kopers

I know you are all waiting to hear about our referral but I can't share anything via the internet right now so you'll just have to stay tuned...

Please be in prayer for Haiti as Hurricane Sandy has caused some major issues down there and the Haitian people sure could use our prayers.

Where have you found love lately?

We found it in a bag of potatoes!

Share your love stories with us in the comments section below.

 

 

Paperwork, Computer, and a Prayer Request

Well two Tuesday's ago on October 9 we sent our entire dossier (paperwork) minus two bank letters to our family coordinator (Michelle) at our adoption agency.  That was a VERY monumental day for us!  We've been doing that paper work since February of this year.  It was a huge deal and I have no words to explain how that felt.  I'm pretty sure I walked in circles a couples of times that day not knowing what to do with myself and I may very well have done a jig!

So let me tell you about our computer.  About three months ago the darn thing wouldn't turn on, I about had a heart attack because it wasn't backed up, I mean who backs up their computer right?!?!  (I'm pretty sure it's smart people that don't want to lose everything on their hard drive!)  Anyway I panicked because all our adoption paperwork was on there.  I prayed and prayed and prayed and what do you know I pushed the on button and the silly thing turned on!  Enter the happy jig and staring kiddos and you can be sure I backed it up that very minute.  Praise God!  Well it gets better.....I asked the PSC (Pastoral Search Committee) to pray that our computer would STAY ON (I wasn't about to turn it off again), and it sounds like silly prayer request "Could you please pray that our computer would stay on until our paper work is done?" but we really needed (hmmmmm needed......???) it to stay working so they did and it did.  Joe accidentally turned it off a couple of times (I may have too but we'll just say that it was Joe), and many lifted hands to the LORD and happy jigs followed.  So Tuesday, October 9 arrived and me the kiddos went to meet Joe for a celebration lunch and to get the paperwork from him as he had picked it up from the Secretary of State where it was all certified.  We mailed it, HURRAH!  Actually we FedExed it, overnight, because we are now in a time crunch to meet the new deadline of October 31 so that we will fall under the old procedures.  An error message popped up on our computer that very day, October 9, 2012, forcing me to do a forced shut down and it's never turned on again...........  Thank you LORD for keeping our computer alive for just the right amount of time.  This is such an amazing journey, I hate that our computer is dead, I mean how inconvenient, but I love seeing God at work in our lives and answering seemingly silly prayers.  Whoop Whoop!

So that leads me into our prayer request.  Our family coordinator has a lot of things she needs to do with our dossier.  It needs to be translated, certified (again) and who knows what else but she isn't sure if it's going to make it to Haiti before October 31.  Once Michelle has everything on her end done she will mail it to Haiti but that can take about four days.  We know that God can get it there before the deadline and we are praying that that is what will happen.  Please join us in prayer as we wait on the LORD in this situation.  Waiting is awful by the way so pray for me too!

Oh and one more thing.  Michelle has our referral but is holding it hostage until she is certain that our dossier is going to make that deadline.  I understand why she is doing it but I don't like it.  If our dossier doesn't make the deadline she may have to turn around and tell us that the referral she gave us is no longer for us and will have to give us a new one.  That may not be the case but she doesn't want to risk us falling in love with a child only to have that child taken away.  Please pray.

Fundraising

In an effort to raise money for our adoption we have come up with several fundraisers.  We are asking you to partner with us to help bring our daughter home from Haiti.  Below is a list of ways you can help:

• Purchase a tee shirt (see link to the right)
• Purchase Jewelery
• Participate in "Thirty One" bag drawing
• Purchase bottle cap fridge magnets

 For further details about each fundraising project click on 

the appropriate tab at the top of the page.
Thanks for looking.

Photography Workshop

Click on above photo to view details.

It says to e-mail me but you can leave a 

comment here if you are interested.

Follow by e-mail & a prayer request

If you would like to get updates via e-mail please sign up to the right.  You will see a "Follow by e-mail" box where you can put your e-mail address to receive updates in your inbox. 

Please keep us in your prayers.  Pray specifically for the adjustment period will go through when we bring our child/ren home.  Imagine being taken from everything your know and are familiar with and then finding yourself in a foreign speaking country with people you don't know, food you've never eaten before, sounds, smells, sights you have never even dreamed of and you will a have a slight glimpse of what it will be like for this precious child/ren.  Please pray for her/them.

Referral!

So much has been happening in our lives and I have so much to share.  God is so good.  Our Home Study is finally complete and has been sent to the Orphanage in Haiti for a referral!!!  This is only one step in the paperwork stage.  The home study is only a part of our "dossier", the dossier being all the paperwork.  The home study is only the part completed by the social worker.  We are almost completely done with our dossier, we are just waiting on the immigration side of things, which is estimated to take anywhere between six and twelve weeks to get a fingerprinting appointment.  Most countries don't give referrals until the last minute and once you get it you go pick up your child.  Haiti is unique in the fact that they give the referrals upon completion of the home study, you finish the paperwork send it off and then you do all the waiting while the Haitian government finalizes the dossier (aka paperwork).  So we are anxiously awaiting our referral.  I can't believe we are doing to meet our child/ren on paper and not be able to hold her/them........emotions will be plenty on that day!

The usual wait time once the dossier is submitted is anywhere from 18-24 months.  Agonizing if you ask me, especially knowing who your child is and where they belong!  We have now just been informed that Haiti is doing their best to make that wait time 12 months!!!!!!  Yes that's right we may have our child/ren home here in Evansville, about this time next year, crazy I know, I can't really believe it yet, I still feel like I'm going through the motions.  But I assure you God has been putting His stamp of approval on all the motions in ways that bring me to tears.

Let me share some of the amazing blessings with you.

As you know Haiti is going through the process to become Hague ratified (see older posts for info. on that).  They had a cut off date for all those who were currently in the adoption process to be grandfathered in under the old procedures.  It was September 15, we missed it, they have now extended that date to November 3, we may make that one!  Our immigration paperwork is expected to take six to twelve weeks but we serve an amazing and sovereign God so I don't doubt that we may make that new deadline!  That would be good news because we wouldn't then have all the extra steps to have to go through.

You may remember my post about the awesome psychological bill blessing.  Well it wasn't quite over.  We received the bill and it was only for $150.  Joe called to make sure that was right and sure enough it was.   So in case you missed it here are the numbers again:

First quote from Madison:  $2,000
Second quote from same place:  $1,200
Third quote from Janesville:  $900
Fourth quote from Milwaukee, yes we shopped around!  $500
Fifth quote from same place in Milwaukee:  $300
Final bill from same place in Milwaukee:  $150!!!!!

Yes God is good!  His is most definitely funding this adoption and I feel so privileged to be a part of it.

We have an amazing church family most of whom are already a part of this journey with us, through prayer support and funding.  I'll share a couple of really neat stories.  We recently went to a birthday party where a donation was asked for in lieu of gifts.  We weren't told what the outreach project was that they were asking donations for.  I'm sure you can now guess but let me finish.  The party was great, the kids had a blast and we were told at the end that the outreach project was us!  We were presented the money the next day by the children whose birthday it was.  The parents had given the children a bunch of outreach ideas and they chose the Koper's adoption.  It was so precious.

There is another family in our church that is helping us with the costs.  The Mummy has been finding trash (treasure) on the side of the road and then selling it.  All proceeds are then been donated to the Koper's adoption fund!  What a wonderful way to turn trash into treasure and what a perfect example of the excess we live amongst, that someone would put something perfectly useable out to curb for rubbish removal.

I also have a friend who God saw fit to use me to disciple.  I have already been blessed by our Bible study time together and I am amazed at the passion and fire she has to learn, grow, and draw closer to God.  I feel privileged to be a part of her journey and have her as a part of mine.  We have gotten together on a couple of different occasions to make jewelery (she has an impressive bead collection) which she has then donated to our adoption funding.  Be sure to look out for your opportunity to purchase one of these bracelets or necklaces and in doing so help out with our adoption costs.

Something else for you to look out for is an opportunity to come to a photography workshop.  I will post more details soon.

These are just a few of the many ways God is blessing us as we fully surrender to His calling on our lives.  

As a side note Joe's mission trip to Guatemala was wonderful on so many levels, another way God has blessed our family.  And the funding of a second well is almost complete.  To find out more about living water wells go to 414aguaviva.blogspot.com

I am constantly reminded that all this is for God's glory.  It is not about our family, not even about a child/ren waiting to be united with her/their family, it is so much more than that and I praise God often for the privilege of being used by Him.  I thank Him for allowing me to be a part of His plan.  I am so inadequate for the task, a broken vessel but willing and desiring to please my God.  May you be blessed as you continue in this journey with us.

I don't have too much to say tonight, just wanted to let you all know things are moving along, slowly but surely.  I say slowly because to us it seems like this endless sea of paperwork is never ending, it just won't stop, but to God this is all in His prefect timing.  I rest in the knowledge of that.

I have a couple of cute things my six year old has said that I thought I'd share with you all.
In the very early stages of the adoption process I was explaining to the children that the child we adopt will probably have darker skin than us.  Caide replied "Oh that's okay, 'cause Jordis is a little bit black."

When we were planning to go to family camp this year Caide asked me how much it cost, I told him and tried to explain how much that amount was.  He replied "Oh, we can't go to family camp then, we need to put all that money towards the adoption."  I love his heart.  He was so excited to be going to family camp but the thought of putting money into something other than bringing our child home didn't sit well with him.  I explained to him that God was blessing us to be able to go to family camp this year and that he needn't be concerned about it.

Thanks for following along with us, I look forward to the day I can place a picture of our newest addition on the blog so you can all see who you've been praying for.

May all the glory go to Him who deserves it!

We had our psychological evaluation on Monday.  I'm so glad it's over.  It's not very nice being psycho analyzed, we had to take an intelligence test too.  Anyway it's over and we're one step closer to bringing our child/ren home!  But that's just the facts let me share with you what God has done in all this.

We first started looking for a psychologist in the Madison area.  Our insurance company would not cover the cost of the evaluation because it was a third party request and we don't actually require the care.  The first quote I got over the phone was for $2,000 yes that's right two thousand dollars!!!  I'm pretty sure my jaw hit the floor.  I even exclaimed over the phone two thousand dollars!!!!!  Which prompted the man I was talking to to explain why it was that much.  He'd already lost me at 2,000 so I didn't really care what it entailed.  I politely ended the conversion and moved on.  I called many more psychologists and got many different responses, sorry we don't do that, I'm not really comfortable doing that, and a few more outrageous quotes.  A few days after I spoke to the first guy he called back to let me know that he could get the cost down to $1,200 for us.  That's a pretty significant change and it raised a bit of a red flag for Joe and I.  So we continued looking.  I found a lady in Janesville who was going to be able to it for us for $900.  That was better but still a lot for a letter and report.  I finally gave up and prayed, yeah I know, I should have done that in the first place right? but I have a tendency to charge ahead and do things on my own in the name of "Let's get it done!!!"  Oh when will I learn!  Way too many cooks in the kitchen.

Anyway at our next home study appointment it made sense to ask our social worker if she knew of any psychologists in the area and low and behold she did. It was a while before we heard back from her and I thought she'd forgotten so I said to Joe let's just go with $900 and be done (there goes me again!).  That same day I received an e-mail from Jill (social worker) saying that she's sorry she didn't get back to me sooner and that she spoke to her guy and that he was willing to do it for $500.  Well there goes my jaw again.......I picked it up off the floor called the number in the e-mail and got things rolling. 

So back to Monday July 9 in a Christian psychologists' office in Milwaukee.  We finished up the exam and the Dr. started to act like a normal person instead of being all business like.  He relaxed a little and so did we, it was over.  We actually had a nice conversation with him.  What a nice guy he was.  Joe asked how he would like payment and he said oh we'll take care of that when everything is done and by the way, I quoted you $500 but it's only going to be about $300.  What?!?!?!?  Really?????  I can just imagine God looking down on us and having a wee chuckle to Himself.  What a mighty God we serve!!!!!!!!

Let's just take a look at the numbers again:

$2,000
$1,200
$900
$500
$300

It's God who will get all the glory.  This journey is not about me, it's not about Joe, it's not even about a child in need.  It's about God, the creator of the universe and I stand in awe at His mighty works and proclaim to all that will hear me that Jesus is LORD of LORDS and KING of KINGS.  Praise the LORD all that has breath, praise His Holy Name!

This is God's work, not mine, I'm just privileged to be a part of it.  Thank you God for choosing to use broken, inadequate, vessels like me to show your Glory.  I love You!

Our family coordinator passed along a really encouraging e-mail today and I thought I'd share it with you all.

Rest with Me a while. You have journeyed up a steep, rugged path in recent days. The way ahead is shrouded in uncertainty. Look neither behind you nor before you. Instead, focus your attention on Me, your constant Companion.
Trust that I will equip you fully for whatever awaits you on your journey.

I designed time to be a protection for you. You couldn’t bear to see all your life at once. Though I am unlimited by time, it is in the present moment that I meet you. Refresh yourself in My company, breathing deep draughts of My Presence.
The highest level of trust is to enjoy Me moment by moment. 

I am with you, watching over you wherever you go.

Let the morning bring me word of your unfailing love, for I have put my trust in you. Show me the way I should go, for to you I lift up my soul.
—Psalm 143:8

 It's been so crazy and all consuming trying to get all this paper work complete.  We've had surprises, bumps, and more surprises.  I've wanted to pull my hair out many times.  I've had to return things to have typos corrected on a number of occasions, it's embarrassing and uncomfortable but God hasn't called us to a life of comfort has He?  So we press on, knowing that His will in our lives will ultimately bring Him the glory and that's why we are here and that's why we chose to serve Him with our lives in the good times and in the bad.  May our God be praised!

P.S.  Please feel free to leave us a comment we welcome your encouragement and support.

Our home study interview went very well and we are very pleased with our social worker, Jill.  She is a very nice lady and we believe she is doing a great job.  We got some surprising news that day, although we know God wasn't at all surprised!  Jill informed us that we have to get egress window installed in the basement before she can approve our Home Study.  We were a little discouraged with the news and were wondering how in the world we would be able to come up with the money to put one of those windows in (they're not cheap!) on top of our already high adoption fees. 

So we started brainstorming and thinking of ways to raise the money to take care of this seemingly large obstacle.  There we were trying to take control of things again........there were tears, prayers, and lengthy conversations with close friends.  I felt God saying to me "Trust me child, and watch what I will do."  I took that to mean I'd come up with the ideas to raise the funds (which isn't a bad thing) and that God would do the rest.  But as we talked and I talked with friends and prayed about the issue it would seem that God is saying, stop trying to do this on your own, I asked you to do this and I'm going to see it through to completion.  This is about Me, not you and I will receive the glory.  He doesn't need our help and I'm learning that I have to let go and stop trying to control everything.  We aren't doing this alone, if God has called us to do this and we know He has then He'll take care of the details.  That doesn't mean that we sit back do nothing but we believe at this time that God wants us to trust Him for the funds we need to complete this adoption. 

Already we are seeing God provide for us.  Joe has been getting a lot of overtime lately which isn't typical during the summer, unless there is something going on, which there isn't right now.  We have sold a few things on Craigs List which has gone very well.  Joe had two things for sale on there, he sold one to guy who asked why Joe was selling and Joe told him we're raising funds for our adoption, the guy said oh cool, I'm adopted, good for you and they struck up a conversation.  We thought that was really neat, then the second thing Joe had for sale the guy wondered if he could pay us by paypal.  I said no I don't how to do that and then I remembered that we had a donate button on this blog so Joe sent him over to here pay.  Lo and behold the guy came to our site payed through the donate button and then wrote to Joe about how cool it was that we were adopting and that his wife was adopted!  Then he sent Joe some scripture verses.  How amazing is the GOD we serve?!?!?  God has assured us that we are doing what He wants our family to do.  The next thing Joe posted he thought for sure he wasn't going to sell.  The day after he posted it he had three people wanting to come take a look.  The first guy came by and tried to talk Joe down but Joe told him he had two other people coming to look so the guy said okay, paid him the money and that was that!  We now have the exact amount of money in our adoption fund for our psych. evaluation, yes that's right we have to have a psychological evaluation!  So......thanks for your prayers and support during this time in our lives, we appreciate you.

Time for a wee update.  Things are moving along pretty well as far as paperwork goes.  We have a few more documents to gather for our dossier, some of which are time sensitive and we have to wait to get them done, like the immigration paperwork.

Our home study is well under way and we have our second meeting in Milwaukee tomorrow with our social worker.  This time without the kiddos.  What fun that was last week when we had the kids with us.......They say that the home study is not as scary as you think, but someone is still looking at you and your family and making judgements based on what they see.  So......we went in not really concerned and pretty well prepared (or so I thought) with things for the kids to do quietly while we talked with the social worker.  The first question she asked (and remember we've not met before) was are your kids going to be able to sit for an hour and half while we go over all this?  Ummmm........sure they are, I've got things for them to do as I hold up my bag of tricks to show her.  All the while I'm thinking "we've got pretty good kids, she just doesn't know us yet".

So the interview (well it seemed like an interview) started and things were going well.  I had set out all the colouring activities I had brought along and decided to keep the secret weapon for later.  The room we were in had toys in it so that was an added bonus and the kids made a beeline for the "new" toys as soon as we walked in.  Great, this will be a cinch, I thought to myself.  About fifty minutes in Coen starts to get a bit antsy, I've got this covered I thought to myself, we're almost done, they've been great and I've still got the secret weapon.  So I bust it out thinking I can sit Coen between Joe and I and the other two wouldn't notice.  Who was I kidding as soon as Coen starts playing the Kindle, yes that's right I let them play games on the kindle, Caide and Jordis just seem to smell it or something.  Okay I've still got it I think, and I tell them they can each have a turn.  Jordis's turn comes round and things are still moving along pretty well, then Caide's turn and then all of a sudden just out of nowhere I hear this screaming and crying and my kids have turned into beasts and I'm thinking, what the heck happened here, where are my kids, these aren't mine.  I look at Jill (the social worker) and smile then turn to my kids and pretend to be all sweet and loving but I'm shooting them "the look" you know the look, right?  It's not working, Joe looks at me, looks at the kids then takes the kindle, that's right, he takes the kindle, right there in the midst of utter chaos, and all the while Jill is sitting there taking this all in.  Okay I've gotta do something I think to myself so while I rock Coen in my lap and cuddle Jordis next to me I start looking around the room completely avoiding eye contact with Jill and see I bunch of teddy bears lined up on an old church pew, I've got, come on guys let's have a teddy bears picnic.  Coen takes the bait, Jordis is reluctant but follows along and the sinners are appeased.  Phew....not too much longer now.  Jill decides to wrap things up and keeps us only about 15-20 minutes longer.  She seems okay with the whole ordeal and we leave feeling exhausted.  I'm not sure if I'll even bring it up tomorrow, think I'll just try to sweep it under the rug.  After all kids will be kids, right!?!?

On a more serious note, the Haitian government is not accepting any new dossiers until August 1.  The meeting to discuss this in May was postponed until June.  They want to catch up on the back log of dossiers they already have.  I'm good with that as it may speed up the dossier process when it comes time for us to to submit ours.  Also any delays or setbacks as seen from our perspective, are all part of the LORD's plan to lead us to the child He would have join the Koper clan.  Please keep us in your prayers, especially keep our wee Haitian Koper in your prayers.

Good News! & More News!

I received an e-mail on Monday morning from Michelle letting me know that the orphanage we applied to has accepted our application!!!  Praise the LORD.  I really didn't even think about what we would do should we get denied. 
We are slowly getting all our required paper work together.  They ask for so much and they have many crazy rules that we have to follow.  I know it will all be worth in it in the end.

We have received some news with regards to the Institut du Bien Etre Social st di Recherches (IBESR), which is the agency that oversees the adoption process in Haiti.  They have said that they are not going to be accepting any new Dossiers (which is the entire paperwork process and all that goes along with it, including a home study) until June or July.  There is nothing set in stone as of now apart from the fact that they aren't accepting any new Dossiers.  Michelle has encouraged us to continue with the paper chase and not to let this discourage us.  Whatever the case, a longer delay or new adoption procedures and expectations, we will wait upon the LORD knowing that this is all in His timing.  Please continue to pray for us and also for the IBESR as they hold a meeting on May 20, 2012 for the Crèche Directors Association.

I'm all over the place, in my mind at least, I'm mostly stationed right here at the computer and on the phone.  Joe told me when we began that I wasn't to let this consume me, (I can be a wee bit obsessive) I told him I wouldn't.......how was I to know this would be all-consuming.  I can't stop thinking about the part of our family that is currently missing but is living in Haiti right now (a Koper in a another part of the world!), as I type, and as I go crazy trying to get this paperwork done.  So on top of all the paperwork that we are working on now for AWAA and all the paperwork to come from the Home Study Agency I get an application form AWAA for the orphanage we are going to request a child from.

AWAA has three orphanages (creches) in Haiti that they work with.  Only one met our child requests.  God made that easy for us.  We are requesting a girl in the age range of 0 - 5 years and we are open to a sibling set, with the sibling being in the same age range, boy or girl.  One orphanage has only boys, one has children only 6 years and older, and the other has girls and sibling sets!  Needless to say I filled out the application and e-mailed it to Michelle (our family coordinator at AWAA) right away.  She has e-mailed it to Haiti already and we now await an approval from them.  Please pray that they would accept our family and that God would prepare the heart/hearts of the Koper/Kopers that He would have join our family.

Our journey into the adoption process really started a couple of years ago.  We have been discussing adoption, specifically from Haiti, after we learned of the destruction from the earthquake.  We are not sure why this was laid on our hearts so suddenly but we knew something was happening as the talks started.  The discussions soon dissipated as life continued to roll on.  There were still discussions of adoption over the years but it didn't seem serious as our family continued to grow.  

This all changed on February 25, 2012, as we decided to finally listen to God's calling for our family to start the adoption process.  So we started the adoption research and felt extremely overwhelmed but with help from friends and the web we were able to find a fit with our adoption agency-America World Adoption Agency (AWAA).  We knew from our initial contacts with this agency that it was the right choice for our family.  

After we were accepted by AWAA we began our search for a home study agency.  This process was a bit more difficult as we wanted to partner with an agency with strong Christian beliefs and values that was close to our home.  Through AWAA resources we partnered with Evangelical Child and Family Agency.  Praise God for His guidance through this process as it did feel overwhelming initially but now we have a peace about our decisions.

The next step is to complete ALL of our paperwork for the home study and dossier (let the fun begin!!).  Please keep us in your prayers through this process.  Specifically pray that the heart of the child in Haiti will be prepared for this journey.  Pray for our children that their hearts would be welcoming of their new sibling.  And praise God for His goodness in our lives.