Join us in prayer! We are close to our first travel date!!

 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 says:
¹⁶ Rejoice always, ¹⁷ pray without ceasing, ¹⁸ give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.
Thank you so much for your prayers! We covet them soooo much

Our complete dossier has been submitted to our placing agency in the United States. It will be packaged up and sent to Bulgaria this week.

It will be received in Bulgaria by Tony, our contact in Bulgaria. She will translate the entire dossier.
 

Once translated it will be authenticated. Then it will be submitted to the MOJ (ministry of justice). There, the International Adoption Committee will meet and review the dossier (along with many others of course besides ours!), and they will approve it. (hopefully!). Once approved it will be given to the minister (the woman in charge of the MOJ) for her signature.

 

Once signed, Tony in Bulgaria will be giving us our first trip date! We aren't sure when the next meeting of the International Adoption Committee (IAC) is, but our contact will let us know. We are praying that our dossier will be in the MOJ when they have their first meeting of the season coming up soon!

Thank you for joining us in prayer!

Here are a few shots taken and submitted with our dossier:

The outside of our home

J & Ed's Fire Wood Business---and Entrepreneurial Skills for Kids!

They say that our children should have started at least 5 businesses by the time they reach the age of 18.  To develop entrepreneurial skills, and character, work ethic, and creativity, as well as budgeting, and other money skills to include tithing!

"So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.” (ESV) 1st Corinthians 10:31.

Our children have really enjoyed doing this! The girls have a booming babysitting business, as well as the their "Sister's Cleaning Company" where they will "take the stress out of your mess!", and they've had many clients for that, too! Madelyn's pet and farm sitting business has steadily grown over the last few years as well, and now that she has her license, it's wonderful!

Elisha is going to start a home baking business this Fall, and Madelyn has her newspaper which has been being published for 1.5 years. Grace makes and sells granola, and Madelyn and Grace bake for our local farm stand. Madelyn, Grace, and Elisha had a steady job this summer working at the farm stand, and that was good, too!

Of course the boys love to go to work with Glenn and have learned many work ethic character traits as well as many carpenter skills! 

Jon is studying bikes right now, and hopes to have his own bike repair business started by this time next year, and he's 10!

We've enjoyed encouraging our children to be a shining light for the Lord, and watching them learn and grow as they are doing things under our umbrella for His honor and glory! We've been so encouraged by their testimony as their press ahead to further God's kingdom!

1st Peter 3:15 says:

"But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect,"

Our boys latest business venture is fire wood. They have helped Glenn cut and split a lot of pine lately, and they have come up with the plan to try and sell some for camping, or camp fires at home. 

This is the firewood stand they made with Glenn yesterday afternoon.  Glenn and the boys had such a great time working together on this, and then filling it up and getting it all ready to go!
Thank you to Elisha for painting their sign! It was soooo cute. Edward went out this morning to see if they'd had any customers overnight! They just finished it as it was starting to get dark!

It's been such a blessing to us as parents to see our boys thinking and planning and preparing. Such a great skill to have as they enter manhood, and "prepare their fields" for the future looking to the Lord in ALL things! 

We've put it on Craig's list, too. You can view that listing HERE

A few more praises!

So rejoice with us! We had our physicals today and they went well. We met a new Dr., and we just thought he was wonderful! Have you ever found it hard to find a Dr. that you love?? Well..Dr. Richardson is that Dr. for us! We are switching to him. He was kind, and caring, and very easy to talk with. In fact, he's a family Dr., and we will switch all of the kids over to him, too! Hooray! God answered my prayers regarding this! Thank you Lord! Also, the nurses and tech that took our blood for our blood work were precious, and wanted to know ALL about our adoption. We showed them photos and they were sooooo excited! It was such a blessing! Such amazing attention to details! We are so excited!!!

Also, we all went to the Secretary of State in Concord to have our forms apostilled and the woman who did it, is a born again believer! Oh wow! We had the best time chatting with her. She was wonderful and said she'd pray for us! What???? Church and State together?? Thank you God!!!

So...all but our medical forms are sent out for our dossier to our agency! Yeah! Our medical reports will be done on Monday and sent out that day! Now we wait for our first trip date!

Also...we received this wonderful comment on our blog yesterday:

I have been following many families' adoption blogs ever since I spend a semester volunteering in an orphanage for special needs children in Chile. I would LOVE to help you raise funds for your adoption!
I just launched my etsy store! 50% of the sale prices go to families adopting through RR! All someone has to do is enter your families name/blog/sponsorship page or child information on the message at check out and I will be donating the money to each family each month!
Spread the message to people! Feel free to share on your FB page/blog.
My blog is:
gingeronamission1206.blogspot.com/
My store is at:
www.etsy.com/shop/GINGERONAMISSION
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Gingeronamission1206
Any people who purchase from me that don't specify will just be donated to a family I feel called to give to!
Thanks!
Susan Sass
Thank you Susan! So...we will get the word out regarding what she is doing for us and others! Praising the Lord for you!

Praise the Lord with Us!!!!

Please join us in praising the Lord! His timing is perfect! His timing is amazing! His timing is NOT my timing! I am rejoicing greatly today!!! We received our 1-800A approval from Homeland Security! All in God's perfect timing, because you see...tomorrow, Glenn and I are going get new physicals as our became outdated in May. They can't be more than 6 months old. 

God knew all of these details you see. Because we need to get our dossier into our agency in Iowa asap, so that it can be sent for translation and then so that we can get our first trip date soon.  The dossier consists of about 16 items, to include our medical review, and many others. These need to be notarized and apostilled at our Secretary of State's office. So...guess what?? Our physicals are in Concord, NH and so we'll be right in the area of the Secretary of State's office tomorrow to get all of our documents apostilled, and now that we got our I-800-A immigration approval, we can package EVERYTHING we need together and send it out! Whoo-hoo! Wow! And you know what?? We also got a $100.00 donation check in the mail today toward our adoption, and so...you know what?? That will more than cover the 10.00 per document apostilling charge for the 7 documents we need to do that with!

Man...I can't tell you how encouraged we are by God's perfect timing! Thank you Lord!!! So...we'll get our documents notarized in the morning at our town office, and then head to our homestudy agency and pick up a couple more documents from them, and then head to our physicals, and get our medical forms notarized and then head to the Secretary of State's office for the apostilling. Everything being within 10 minutes of each other! Wow! Thank you God, and even the money to pay for it!

2 Corinthians 5:7
"For we walk by faith, not by sight."

Thank you all for your prayers!

Thank you Lord for this WONDERFUL encouragement! Wow! Just when I needed it most!

I received the most wonderful email today, and just had to share it with you! It speaks amazing truth about parenting! Thank you for that!

Dear Mary, Making your home a place of peace,

May the blessings of the Lord fill your heart and your home.
May God fill you with His strength, patience and anointing as you mother your seven children, Madelyn, Grace, Edward, Elisha, Jonathan, Nicole, and Rosalinda, the children that God has so graciously given to you. Each one is a special gift from God, aren’t they?

Mary, you are doing a mighty work. There is nothing greater that you could be doing in the whole of the world. Your work is for eternity. Your children are eternal souls who will live forever. Not only are you training them for the purposes God has for them in this world, but you are also preparing them for the eternal world! Wow! What a mission!

How blessed you are to have your children around you. I know that you often feel overwhelmed, but I want to remind you that in the midst of all the frustrations and tiredness, that this is a very precious time of your life. It was the most precious time of my life. I look back and remember the times I felt “so tired” and yet I can’t think of anything in my life that has been more meaningful and more joyful than those wonderful days.

Don't endure each day, but seek to make it special. You will never have these days with your children again. They are for such a short time. Enjoy them. Revel in them. You may feel that you are not accomplishing a lot each day, but there are years ahead to do all the projects you want to do. But at the moment, your lovely children are your priority. I remember thinking as I watched my children, “I will never forget them at this moment,” but the years have gone and I can't recall many of those moments. They are now all married and raising their own children and currently we have 34 grandchildren.

Back in those days I remember reading the thoughts of another mother and they were a comfort to me. She said,

"These are the never years. Never enough money, never enough time, never enough sleep - but always enough love. The sweetest kiss of a baby the tooth-paste-flavored kiss of a child on his way to school (sadly, homeschooling wasn't in process in those days 40 years ago); the sleepy kiss of a husband who is just as tired as you.

These are the busy years, the wonderful, hectic, impossible years. Soon the children will be grown and I'll have plenty of time to organize my house, to sew and to cultivate outside interests. I wonder if it will be as wonderful as I sometimes dream it will? Or am I in the middle of the wonderful years... right now?"

Yes, you are in the wonderful years now. I look back on the years when all my little brood were under my wings (or I should say, under my legs and in my arms and one or other of them needing me at every moment) and they were definitely the most blessed years of my life. At one stage I had three in 17 months! That's because I had twins although they are now 48 years old! Then I had four children in less than four years. So I can certainly relate to how you feel at the moment.

We eventually had six, although we have since adopted some teenagers from Liberia.  But six children never seemed very many. Nearly every day my husband and I say to each other, "Where are the rest of our children? I wish we'd had twelve!" It just seems like one blink of an eye and they have all grown up and married.

I love some of the beautiful names God calls our children. Isn't this a lovely one? The "beloved fruit of the womb." (Hosea 9:16) Not just the "fruit of the womb", but also the "beloved fruit of the womb." The context of this passage is God’s judgment, because of their wicked works, was to destroy the beloved fruit of their womb, but it reveals how God views children and also how the early Hebrews felt about their children.

Here's what some of the other translations way...

NIV, Cherished offspring
RV, Beloved children
NAS, Precious ones
NEB, Dearest offspring
JER, Darlings
NAS, Treasures of the womb
Now there are some good names to call your children!

Hebrews 11:7 is a great Scripture, "By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house; by the which he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith."

For 100 years, Noah did the same old thing - hammered, nailed and keep on building his ark. He didn't have time to do all the things that everyone else was doing. He just kept on slogging and being faithful, doing the same thing every day for all those years - but in doing so he condemned the world. Yes, he changed the world because he stuck with the job he was given to do! He changed the world by doing the same thing day after day after day.  And at the same time he saved his family!

You may feel that you are just doing the same old thing every day, but as you are faithful to raise godly children, and build an ark for the saving of your house, you will condemn the world around you.  You are accomplishing far more than those who go out to seek a worldly career to the detriment to their highest calling. Your influence goes on into the generations and even into eternity.

Isn't it amazing that our daily faithfulness in the home will have its impact on earth -- and also for eternity? It can change the world! We have to remember that bearing and raising children is a long-term investment - in fact, an eternal one! In a culture where everyone wants everything to happen instantaneously, we must learn to think long term - for the future.

So rejoice and be glad in your high and noble calling.
YOU ARE CHANGING THE WORLD!

Remember, you have the most important career in the nation!

Love from
NANCY CAMPBELL, Above Rubies

Our Most Frequently Asked Question: "How is Your Adoption Going?"

I'm so sorry not to have posted a Bulgarian Adoption update in so long. Mostly these last months have found us waiting, waiting, and more waiting. Yes, the waiting has been hard...
VERY HARD. And yet the Lord has encouraged us in His word, and for that we are grateful. This week, this verse has been my focus:

Matthew 11:29:


²⁹ Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.

This has been a HUGE comfort for me. Yes Lord, I will be happy to give this waiting and hardship over to you! Yes, Lord! Thank you sooooo much for that reminder! I am so grateful that you love me this much, that you have given me this offer for me to take your yoke, which will give me rest. Thank you!

Another HUGE comfort for me has been the encouragement of those who have gone on before us. Please take a look at an update from a dear, dear, adoptive family in the Lord who have now brought 2 precious blessings home from Bulgaria. View the Blessings of Verity update HERE
Be sure to take note of the before and now pictures of precious Katie! Wow...2 whole years have gone by!

So here is an update on what has been happening. Last week we received a letter from Homeland Security! I excitedly thought it was our I-800A approval, and when I opened it, I found out otherwise. It was a request for proof that I didn't send with our application. So...we sent that proof priority mail on Friday and they would receive it this past Monday. And so we wait for that and pray for approval.

In the meantime, our placing agency emailed us to see how we were coming on our dossier preparation. (Note: the dossier is the humungous pile of paperwork that needs to be compiled and sent to our agency and then on to Bulgaria before we can take our first trip). You see, it has been more than 6 months since our referral of the children, and so they wanted to know where we were at. Well...one of the documents that we need to send in the dossier is our statements about our physicals and those can't be more than 6 months old. So...we had to make another physical appointment for Glenn and I. That is one week from tomorrow. So...it's our goal that we can have all of our other dossier paperwork ready to go by the end of the month.  Then once we get our I-800A approval from Homeland Security, we can have everything translated and sent to Bulgaria and they will give us our first trip date!

Praises:
  
*We heard tonight that the Rescued grant fund has given us $1,200.00 toward our adoption! Thank you Lord! That should be credited  to our Reece's Rainbow account in the coming weeks! This is such a blessing! Thank you Lord!

*All of the other money that has come in toward our adoption. This has been amazing!!

*God's faithfulness through this entire process!

Prayer Requests:

*That our placing agency in Iowa would accept the post placement form that our home study agency in NH uses regularly. If they don't then we'll have to pay for all of our post placement visits (4 of them) up front before they'll notarize the form! Thanking God that He knows all of the details and that He has a plan! A perfect plan!

*That God would provide the funds necessary for all of the steps coming up. Right now we still need to raise around 11,000.00 or a bit more to be fully funded! We know that God knows all of that, too!

*That Zoey would stay strong and God would keep her until we can come. 

*For God's will and His perfect timing for our entire adoption process.

*For all of the preparations here in our home to get ready for the kids to come.


Thank you all for praying! I promise to keep you updated!

 James 1:27----"Care for the orphans and the widows"

A Fun and Much Needed Family Day!

On Saturday we attended this:

Join us on Saturday, August 10 for the 11th Annual WOODS, WATER & WILDLIFE FESTIVAL, at Branch Hill Farm in Milton Mills, NH!

This family-friendly celebration of the natural world features fun and educational outdoor activities. Take a hayride to the river, observe and learn about NH wildlife, explore the corn maze, take a discovery walk, watch demonstrations of traditional skills, try your hand at fishing, do crafts with your kids, and more!

It was such a blessed day! Albeit we were minus to precious members of our family--Madelyn and Jon who were caring for our grand daughters Marlie and Annie in Northwood. 

Take a peek!

 

Joshua 24:15
But if serving the LORD seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your forefathers served beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD."