Update of no updates...

We have gotten over the past week lots of updates of nothing. Our Liberian side director is working so hard to get this signature! He has literally met with this man every day! Our American side director is leaving tomorrow to go to Liberia and will hopefully get the signature while she is there. One way or another we will get some more concrete news after next week I think. So that is where we are at! I'll keep the blog updated when we hear more next week...

Not so fast Walsman family...

Obviously we were speeding too quickly ahead! The last signature we needed so Steve could go get the kids we didn't get. The guy ended up refusing to sign. He keeps saying each day, "Maybe I'll sign tomorrow". So we have NO IDEA what to expect. He could sign tomorrow or he could never sign. We literally don't know what to think. Other than we are back in the waiting game. I'm beginning to think it would be better that the kids not come home before all the hub-bub of Christmas and come home in January anyway. That way things came be calm and as they normally are. God knows best though and he will do just that! We are trusting in him!

Exit interview scheduled!

We are very close to Steve being on his way to Liberia! Woo Hoo! Case history is written and needs to be typed and signed. The country side director has assured us that it will be done by Tuesday the 18th at which time the biological parents have their appt. to be interviewed by the US Consular. If all this goes well on the 18th than Steve can travel anytime after that. We just have to call the travel agency and see what flights are going to Liberia in the next few weeks.

Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow God. That is all I can say.

They have PASSPORTS!

Our agency director emailed us a copy of our kids passports! WooHoo! We are one step closer to having them home. Oh, I can't wait! She told us that when Amos, the country director, went to the Minsitry of Health the other day they were working on our case history. So hopefully we will get their case histories this week or next week. If we do HollyAnn says we have a good chance of having them home by Christmas! Pray with us to that end! We are ready to get these kids out of the orphanage and into our family!

About our new kids!

"Serena, Gidstina, and Gideon are all loving. Gidstina plays with other girls but never really the same girl. Gideon they say his name like Geo. At first he was shy and now everyday he is by Jana's side. He is a little guy and about 2 years old. He is always smiling. Serena is always smiling, love to have fun and very girly. She and Francis always play alot together."

This is from a mom who is in Liberia now picking up her daughter. She has had time to spend at the orphanage with our children.

CAN'T WAIT TO MEET THESE PRECIOUS CHILDREN!

CASE HISTORY HAS BEGUN!

We got the long awaited email this morning that our case history was officially started this past weekend. AGGHHH!!!!! This is what we have been waiting on for the past 12 months!!! God's timing is perfect. I pretty much knew it was coming and I pretty much know these children will be home by Christmas. It has been neat to look back and see how God has orchestrated this whole thing.

Me letting go and telling God I'm throwing the ball in your court about adoption. I'm not going to pray about it or think about it anymore. If you want us to adopt then you have to totally initiate it! I'm done!

Several months later Steve turning to me after church and out of the blue saying, "It's time to pursue adoption".

God leading me to a woman that has adopted 6 Liberian girls and 4 foster children and has dealt with the same special needs that we deal with in one of our biological children. And how he used her to encourage me to go ahead.

The agency WACSN hearing our whole story and saying they would gladly help us with an adoption even with our unique family circumstances and how that gave me the encouragement to go on.

How God led us to the right organization to do our home study.

All my questionings and God confirming to me that this adoption is his will.

How he has provided all the finances needed.

How he has prepared our hearts and our home for many years now.


It feels kinda scary that it is all happening now. And life is going to change so much. And it isn't going to be easy. It's going to be a LOT of work. I'm a little frightened of that. I'm so used to things being the way they are now. I think pretty much I can sign off on the easy life from the time they come home until Heaven. Because with that many kids even as they grow up and leave home we will continue to be involved in their lives and then grandchildren and all of that. We are on the edge of a MAJOR life change. MAJOR. I never asked God for an easy life though. I've always asked him for the chance to glorify him. And I've always told him I'm willing to do whatever he wants me to do. So this is it. This is it. He gave everything for me. So the least I can do is give my life as an offering back to him. It's not much... But I'm His!

Update!

Things are moving yet nothing concrete to share yet! Our children's orphanage is supposed to be accredited this week which will help everything to go more quickly. The ministry of health has agreed to do our case histories so the social worker should be going out to do them sometime soon. Once we have the case history all we need is the exit interview scheduled for the children's birth parents (shouldn't be hard to get) and then we make Steve's visa appt. to go and pick up the children, their visas, and head home. So we are so close!

We are still praying for our kids home by Christmas!

Dreamy Gelato

I have a friend at work whose wife's dad is from Gambia and she spent some time there. His wife started a new business this year and when she found out what we were doing she wanted to be a part of bringing our children home. Dreamy Gelato http://www.dreamygelato.com/ has been instrumental in bringing in almost $1000 towards our adoption. Some of it from sales and a lot of it from just putting a "change can" by the cash register and our picture. We didn't even know that she was going to do this and it was such a heart-warming surprise to have her hand us the funds from the sale she donated, BUT also to hand us even more money from the "change can." The people who come to her store have been so generous!

Please visit Dreamy Gelato in Cumming, GA to show your support for their business. Click for Directions

Garage Sale 9/19-9/20/08

God has blessed us with some amazing donations from many different families! One specific family - the Olsson's - have been responsible for about 75% of our donations. It's amazing to us how much money has been brought in by their donations. THANK YOU!!!

Update...

We were told today that our children's Case Histories are on the social worker from the ministry of health's "to do list"!!!!!!!!!!!!! WOOOO HOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We were told that they will be completed soon, but not exactly sure when. When they are started it will only take this group of case histories two days to complete. They were already started back in October of last year so they should be easy to complete! We are praying for a homecoming date in November or December!!!!

The children's passports are applied for so we should get those in the next two weeks. So pray for the passports to come and our case histories to be completed as well. We are getting close!

:) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :):) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :)

Please pray!

The MOH (ministry of health) is coming under significant pressure to move ahead with adoptions. He has been the main one holding things up for the past 8 months. He has to do the children's case histories which are necessary for the attaining the children's visas and passports. We are praying he will have a heart change and let the children go OR we are praying that God would send the "plagues"! :) We just want God to be glorified so we are praying that his will be done in this situation.

Our hope and prayer at this point is that we would have our babies by Christmas! With that in mind, I am busy busy busy preparing! I haven't done a lot of prep work for the kids up until this point because things have been so stalled. But with the latest promising news I feel the pressure to GET READY! It will be fun to think through all the little things the kids will need. I can't wait to go and buy stuff for the girls hair! I bought them some pajamas today at Kid to Kid, which is a consignment store for children's clothes. I bought them "footy" pajamas because I know the winters here will be tuff for them because they are used to the warm tropical weather in Liberia!

I also purchased their mattresses today and the guy gave us a great deal! I found their bedding a week or so ago and I'm eager to get it on their beds and see how it looks! I think they are going to have the sweetest girly room. I just can't wait to put them to bed in their own beds! It will be unreal. UNREAL. We've been dreaming about them for so long it will be so strange for those dreams to become reality, for these children who are just pictures in mind, into real flesh and blood children! I can't wait!

New pictures!

Gideon, Serena, and Gidstina
Serena!
Gideon is in the front with a yellow shirt, Gidstina is near him in a pink dress
Gidstina is holding on the the pole in the pink dress and Serena is the only girl with the obvious spunk! She has on green sunglasses and has her hand posed on her hip!
Gidstina is praying/singing before her meal! What passion! :) Let's all take a lesson in worship from her!

Update...

Well.... more waiting.... waiting.... waiting.... waiting.... I think that is the story of this adoption! -WAIT!- And that is okay because,

"He will make your righteousness shine like the dawn, the justice of your cause like the noonday sun. Be still before the LORD and wait patiently for him; do not fret when men succeed in their ways, when they carry out their wicked schemes. Refrain from anger and turn from wrath; do not fret—it leads only to evil." Psalm 37: 6-8

"I wait for you, O LORD; you will answer, O Lord my God." Psalm 38:15

"I waited patiently for the LORD; he turned to me and heard my cry." Psalm 40:1

I wait for the LORD, my soul waits, and in his word I put my hope." Psalm 130:5

And Proverbs 21:30 & 31 says: "There is no wisdom, no insight, no plan that can succeed against the LORD. The horse is made ready for the day of battle but victory rests with the Lord."

Isaiah 26:3 says, "You will keep in perfect peace him whose mind is steadfast, because he trusts in you."

I can gladly say that my heart is at rest! I cry out to God for these children but behind that cry I KNOW that God loves them far more than I do and he will act in their best interest and the timing of their coming home will be PERFECT. I know that because all my God's ways are perfect and in him is NO error.

So all that to say, we are still waiting! The new adoption laws are to be in place by the end of August. If the Liberian government officials begin to then work within the bounds of the law we will be glad! If they do not then we may begin making various phone calls to ask them why they aren't!

We will be doing our home study over again since it has been a year this October since our first one was approved! I never dreamed it would take this long! It feels like we are starting all over again!

When will these children get out of my dreams and into my home?? :) :)

The latest....

The pictures are from a reunion of ELWA Liberian missionaries and their "MK" kids. We were so thankful to be invited to it and it was so neat to be in the presence of so many godly people who love Liberia! I felt I was in the presence of royalty! (and I truly was)

Our adoption agency director is going to Liberia soon for a week to work on our case. Please pray that she is able to get a lot done and that God thwarts any obstacles that might come along to prevent her from progressing things. She is going to try and get a letter from the judge to give to the minister of health so that he will do our case history. The case history is necessary for the children's visas. This is very important that she is able to do this as well as schedule the exit interviews for the birth parents. Pray for her safety and the families that will be traveling to pick up their children with her. This is an exciting time as several families will be united with their children in the next 2 weeks!

There will be another group of families due to travel (including my sister and brother-in-law) hopefully by beginning of September. Because we do not have case histories at this time I do not believe that we will be one of those families. But miracles do happen so maybe!

If we aren't one of those families I expect that we will be in the next group of families to travel sometime between late September and Christmas time. We continue to pray for God's timing because only he knows best, we cannot fathom really what he is doing and all the details. So we are leaving the timing up to him! :)

On another note, we had an AWESOME garage sale this weekend and have raised almost 1,000 dollars just in the past 4-5 days! We are continuing to collect garage sale donations because it is such a great way to raise money, people are thankful to get rid of their old stuff, others are able to buy stuff they need/want for cheaper, and we get to bring home Serena, Gidstina and Gideon! It's a win/win/win thing! So we will keep it up for a few more months. So contact me if you have anything you'd like to donate!

This past garage sale, it poured down cats and dogs at the end and several of our neighbors came to help throw everything in the garage!

A big thankyou to Dreamy Gelato and Chocolates for raising over 400.00 dollars for our adoption through selling chocolates as well as collecting spare change! Wow!

This Tuesday, July 29th at 7:00pm I'm hosting a Taste of Home Entertaining Party to raise money for our adoption as well. My friend Kelly Clark is donating all of the proceeds from the party to our adoption! Thanks Kelly!

At this point, we are hard at work fundraising and I'm continually nesting and trying to get my home in order as well as get prepared for this homeschool year. We're definitely keeping busy!

Thanks to everyone for your support and prayers! These are three VERY loved kids! Can't wait to meet them!

Garage Sale MADNESS!

Our garage! This is Steve's place he likes neat, clean and decluttered!

Gianna are faithful helper! She was GREAT! Her parents are from Sierra Leonne. It was such a blessing to meet them! Thank you Gianna!

CLOTHES! CLOTHES! AND MORE CLOTHES!

So far we've made almost $2,000 dollars from the past three garage sales! Thanks to everyone who has donated! That is almost 1 whole plane ticket to Liberia!

I had FuFu and met a Liberian Ambassador!

We went last night to my Liberian friend Rose and James house. She made the traditional FuFu which you should have seen my 5 year old's face when he ate it! His eyes buldged out from his head and his grimace made everyone howl with laughter!

While Liberian music blared in the background and the men congregated by themselves in the garage "bar" and ate peanutes I learned about Liberian culture! They invited other family and friends over and I talked to me about what Liberia is like. We had Liberian Rice Bread, and spicy chicken with sweet potato leaves, and of course, fufu.

One of the men that was there was Amb. Kronyanh Weefur, the Liberian Ambassador to Sierra Leone. He gave me his phone number and told us to call him when we come to Liberia!

Yummy Icecream Fund Raising Event!

1) For those people that watch this blog and our EMC employees, Dreamy Gelato and chocolates is having a fund raiser for our adoption at the EMC Office in Duluth on July 17 from 11:30am to 1:30pm. Feel free to stop by the cafeteria and take a sample of the Gelato and chocolates available. Dreamy Gelato and chocolates will be donating a portion of the proceeds to our adoption. http://www.dreamygelato.com

1) Everyone is invited to Dreamy Gelato and chocolates on Sunday, July 20 to check out the new gelato and chocolates. For directions, please visit http://www.dreamygelato.com/ If you have a chance to go by, please let them know that you are coming in to support the Walsman Family Adoption and a portion of your purchase will go to our adoption.

THANKS SO MUCH Dreamy Gelato and to everyone who is going to treat themselves to some gourmet ice cream on behalf of our adoption!

WE GOT OUR COURT DECREE!!!!!!!

They are ours! Their names are Gidstana Vah Walsman, Serena Vah Walsman and Gideon Vah Walsman.... :) We are so excited!

Now we need their visa's and passports.... We know God's timing is perfect! Please keep us in your prayers...

We are having another garage sale in a couple of weeks, we've got a LOT of stuff! Thank you to everyone who has donated!

Sorry I've not posted sooner!

Things have really been on hold and that is why I've not posted recently. The Liberian government did not process international adoptions prior to the 14 year civil war. So adoptions have only been being processed since 2004. The government needs to have some time to get some new laws and/or regulations in place concerning international adoptions. We are hoping to have some news this week as to whether or not they are ready to move forward with our adoption!

We eagerly await the arrival of our beautiful children! We know God's timing will be perfect...not a minute too soon or too late!

As for now, I am busy trying to start a BAKING business to raise money for the travel expenses to pick up Serena, Gidstina and Gideon! God has blessed us with a dear friend who has volunteered to do all of our deliveries to the Alpharetta/Duluth area (about 30 minutes away from my home). I'm blown away by her generosity and know that it is totally a "God thing"! She is also pretty much my sales person, as I STINK at selling things! I'm excited to see what God does...

We will also be preparing to have a garage sale in two weeks. Thank you to my friend Kelli Clark who donated a lot of goodies for our garage sale, one of which I posted on eBay. It is a Southern living plaque that is absolutely gorgeous and it is evidently very desirable because you can't get it anymore. It is already at 22.00 dollars and has one day left for bidding. Thank you Kelli!

Thank you to everyone who continues to check this website for updates and for your prayers. We appreciate each of you!

Update!

Our paperwork is typed and ready to be signed by the judge in Liberia! Hopefully this week Serena, Gidstina and Gideon will become officially ours in Liberia! Yeah!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The first picture is Gidstina and the second picture is Serena!

We got new pictures!!!!

The first picture is Gideon, the second picture Serena is the girl in the solid purple dress smiling real big, and Gidstina is also in that picture in a purple floral dress smiling real big, and the last picture is little Gideon again!

Nesting!!!

Here are two pictures I found for the girls at Marshalls! The butterflies and flower actually are three dimensional...so cute!

I've been trying to very frugally start getting the girls room ready!It's a fun challenge! My friend Lisa gave the girls this wooden kitchen set! Isn't it cute!!! Thanks Lisa!

Now on to the challenge of finding THREE twin mattresses sets for a good price! I keep checking Craigs List, so I may find them through there. It is hard using Craigs List though because you kind of have to commit to buying something before you see it! I know God will provide...

Be praying for our agency directors who are in Liberia now to adopt and bring home their son Toben. You can check out their blog at www.petreeepatch.blogspot.com...

Update....

The lawyer who processed Addy's Hopes adoptions died about a week ago. We are very sad for his family. Addy's Hope will now be looking for a new lawyer. Pray for them to find one quickly! Our agency director will be heading to Liberia very soon! Pray for her while she is there! She will be going with several families to pick up her own adopted child as well as go through our cases and hopefully make some headway.

She will have an assistant there to help her measure the children, etc. I will be very glad to find out what size they are approximately! It is hard to buy for them guessing what size they will wear.

I am experiencing much peace through this process, continually praying that God's will be done. This is such a huge undertaking that I need to know that God's will WILL be done!

We still have a lot of money to raise, approximately 8,000-12,000 more. We will have more garage sales once the weather gets warmer. So if you have any goodwill donations let me know! I will gladly pick them up! Thanks again to everyone who has donated so far!

For fundraising we are also selling shea butter and if anyone wants to get some it is 5.50 for a 1 oz, 10.00 for a 2 oz and 16.50 for a 4 oz. Email me if your interested! acwalsman@yahoo.com

I've got another fundraising idea up my sleeve but still in process! Basically it will be bracelets with different fabric choices and in the middle it would be black with a short bible verse in white text (or vice versa). Our oldest son has one that says "December 30, 2007" and underneath that it says "God's Soldier". That is the date he committed his life to Jesus Christ! The fabric on the sides of the text is camouflage. My younger son has one with the same fabric but it says "Love your neighbor as yourself." The lady who is helping me make them is working on being able to make them in bigger sizes so that I can get one that says something like, "A gentle answer turns away wrath". I need to be reminded of this every day, often! If you have any thoughts about these email me!

Timeline

Our director told us to be ready for bringing home our kids by mid-February, but plan on March-May. It is so nice to have a time frame. I can get ready for our kids and then if we don't bring them home until May at least I can relax and know we are ready when it's time. I ordered a few books to start reading on trans-racial adoption and adopting older children. I'm also planning to take some courses given by the state for foster parents that will equip me to parent children with special needs. I know I will have a lot to manage so I'm excited to start getting equipped!