Sending Hugs: legals and art collecting

I feel like my blogging updates have been skimpy at best lately. Oopsie.

The good news is that I do have an update to share. Yay!

Kevin and I got a really cool surprise last week when our agency sent us an updated pic of Gia. My favorite part of the picture was that her sleeves and pants legs were rolled up. A lot. It was precious. In a way, it makes me happy to think she is still so little, regardless that she's now 13 months old. I've learned that her foster mom will send us a new picture whenever we send gifts. So, naturally, I was about to be on mission to send a gift every week. This time we got the picture without having to send anything. Not to worry, there's another gift for her sitting on the kitchen table right now. I just need to pack it up this week and mail it off.

And then today, we got another surprise... Holt emailed to say that her legals will be here this week. Legals....what is that? Hard to answer that one. I'm assuming it's just a set of paperwork to help us fill out the remaining paperwork for Korea, the I600. We sent off the I600a several weeks ago, and now it's time for the last form to be filed.

The last form.

Amen!

Hallelujah!

I think I really can hear the angels singing with me.

From my understanding, there are a couple other smaller things we'll need to do before travel call, but this is the last piece of paperwork. This is a huge milestone!

Unfortunately, it still sounds as if we are still waiting for EPs to begin being processed, so our timeframe is unknown. We are still praying for this summer, and I would be humbled if you all would join us in that prayer.

Prayer. I feel like God's been teaching me a lot about prayer lately. Maybe it's because I just read Heaven is For Real.

Whatever the reason, God is slowly showing me my unbelief. I pray, yes, but do I truly believe that God hears my requests? No, not all the time. I have to admit that most of the time my prayers are out of obedience than actual belief that my Father is listening and anxious to hear from me. My prayer for myself these days is that God will show me His hand in the things I'm lifting up to Him.

Pour out your heart before him; God is a refuge for us. ~Psalm 62:8

Through this mini-revelation, I've realized that I rarely pray for Gia to come home. I know that we are still waiting for a lot of things to fall into place before she can come home, so that's prevented me from fully telling God how badly I want her home. It's prevented me from begging Him to intervene supernaturally. Not anymore! :)

So, as I said before, I'd love for you to join us in praying that we will see God move in a big way to get her home. Not only in time but in finances as well.

Speaking of finances...

I mentioned in a previous blog that our good friend Brooke is donating her talents to help us in fundraising. She has a great Etsy shop that is set up to fund her family's mission trip to India, but she has a couple of pieces completely designated to Gia.