Fundraising! Check out our new link above to support our adoption!!!

We are beginning the process of trying to raise money through fundraising. We've created a storefront through a wonderful organization called Just Love. All you need to do is buy some of their delicious Fair Trade Coffee and a portion of every purchase goes toward our adoption. It pairs two of our great loves: Adoption and Coffee!
Our goal is to raise enough money for our first big payment with the submission of our dossier (all of our international paperwork), which is $2,000 and then to pay for USCIS (Immigration and visa/fingerprint costs) which can be around $1,000.

We would love prayer as we work toward this goal and we'd be honored if you would partner with us on this journey!

Guerlens surgery

Tomorrow Guerlens has surgery.
He and I traveled to NY on Jan. 25th and Kev followed a few days later. Those first few days we spent at my brother and sister in laws in Long Island. My parents were able to drive up from Maryland and we had a great time visiting. It was such a gift that they were able to meet Guerlens! The 3 of us drove into NYC on the 28th where we stayed in a little studio apartment provided for the remainder of Guerlens stay. On Sunday we were able to do some sightseeing and we all got to ride the subway for the first time, which we loved! We saw the World Trade Center site, Battery Park and the Statue of Liberty and we took in Times Square. On Monday we were able to take Guerlens to his first appt. to get blood drawn and get some initial paperwork done. Everyone was amazing and just loved Guerlens! What is so wonderful about the apartment is that it is literally across the street from the hospital! Mallery came a few days later and we were all nice and snug in our studio:)
Last Thursday we came home, without Guerlens. We feel the absence of him and are missing him lots but know that he could not be in better hands.
God has made a way for this child, He has gone before Guerlens in every step of this journey!
Guerlens goes in for surgery around 1pm tomorrow. It should take a few hours. They will be reshaping his skull in surgery so there will be no need for a helmet, thank God! And he could be released in as little as 3 days! He should be ready to come back to MI around Feb. 20th. It's amazing how big of a surgery it seems but how quickly kids are able to recover from something like this and with no more pain than a headache.
Please join us in prayer over Guerlens, over the surgeons Dr. Staffenburg and Dr. Weiner and their team and for Mallery who is there with Guerlens.

Update

We had a wonderful Christmas! We were able to spend some time with Guerlens and it was awesome! This little boy has stolen our hearts fully and our hearts ache to be with Caleb at the same time. We cannot wait until there are 4 kids stockings hanging up at Christmas! We are so thankful that we can send the gifts we got for Caleb down to Haiti with Mallery and Frentz!

We received our Haitian Dossier packet a couple weeks ago and...WOW! There is a lot of documentation we need! Even though adopting from Ethiopia was difficult and chock full of paperwork, there seems to be even more things needed for Haiti! We have begun the loooong process of gathering this paperwork and it feels a bit overwhelming. But even when I can check one item off the to do list, it feels good and we are that much closer to getting that dossier to Haiti.
We are STILL waiting on a surgery date for Guerlens. We have been told that his surgery will be in NY and that it will be scheduled for late Jan./ early Feb. but an exact date has yet to be determined. We are anxious for this final date!

Guerlens is a very bright little guy. He is so alert, has strong eye contact and is very attached to Mallery, which is encouraging to us. He likes to be held ALL the time and does not like to be put down:) He eats like a bottomless pit and is not picky AT ALL! He likes animals..he'll chase our cats around the house and Mallery told us that he is now saying the word "dog" and will chase her dog around their house and play with the dog toys:) He is smiley and sweet and very charming.
He and Caleb are such gifts and we are thankful!

Merry Christmas!

We received this beautiful gift in the mail this week and we are so thankful! We have been so blessed to spend time with Guerlens and to be able to Skype with Caleb. It's been more than we could of asked for and we're amazed that we are a part of this story!

We are still waiting on a surgery date for Guerlens and are hoping to find out more next week. We are just praying for God's perfect timing in this. We are almost done our Home Study and then will begin compiling our dossier. We are anxious to bring these boys home and are just waiting on God's direction and provision, trusting that He knows all we need to move forward with the process.
We are just trusting that God will provide all of the funds we need for this adoption. Because we are adopting two children, the international costs are quite a bit more.
A friend of mine sent us a magnet when we were adopting Melat that said "Where God guides He provides"...I am hanging onto this every day.
God continues to stretch and surprise us!

Joy

Thanksgiving!

For a few hours on Thanksgiving day we were able to visit with Guerlens! He is an incredibly sweet and happy little guy:) He let us all hold him for a little bit but is very attached to Mallery of course;) He loved the girls and the play phone they brought for him, loving to put it in his mouth, like everything else:)
He is just a joy and we loved being with him. Today he will be coming over to our house to visit with Mallery and Frentz! We'll put up more pics soon of our visit. Kev got a lot of good ones of all of us that are on his camera and he still needs to get those to me...can't wait to share them!

Tomorrow

Guerlens will be flying to MI tomorrow with Mallery and Frentz and Thursday morning we will see them all! Can't wait to get to know this sweet boy!