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.