SDA appointment - check!!! We pick up our referral papers tomorrow between 4 and 5 :) Then off to the orphanage Thursday morning! Cannot wait!!!

We were feeling so good after our appointment that we decided to stop in for some groceries. First time with no help. We did pretty good, even got the cashier to smile at us :) Of course, the tortellini we got that had a picture of broccoli on it actually has some kind of meat in it so Joel is currently looking it up on his phone to translate LOL  We'll let you know the outcome of that later!

For now we are just praising God!!!!

We are here!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We have arrived in the boys country!!!!! Praise the Lord!! I survived all 3 flights!! LOL  And just let me say that someone's very first flight ever should not be on a tiny little plane that never feels stable and that if you sit in the middle you could still touch both sides at once!!!! But the other two were much better :) I've just found that the descending and landing are what do me in. I was so happy that I never threw up, but if we'd had one more flight, I'm sure I would've on the landing :)
God was so gracious to us in all our traveling. After our first flight, during our layover, we met up with another family traveling to this same country. The DeVowe's are also adopting through RR. What a blessing it was to meet up with them!! Not only did it give us both traveling companions, but they have done this before so we didn't have to struggle through the "where do we go", "what do we do now" kind of things!!
And just let me say that Lufthansa airlines are fantastic!!! On two flights (one of which only being 2 hours long) we got fed 3 meals, snacks, and endless beverages!!!! And let's not forget the hot towelettes, pillows and blankets!!

So we are now here, sharing an apartment with the Rays, who are adopting Micah from the same orphanage as our boys. The place is big and spacious and next to two grocery stores :)  They have been here for a couple weeks already so they will be showing us around some tonight (if we aren't too tired!). Then we will be meeting up with the DeVowe's for supper tonight.

Our appointment is tomorrow, then we will get the official papers on Wednesday and meet the boys on Thursday!! Can't wait!!!

Since I am no good at the technical stuff, I'll let Joel add pictures to the blog later :) I know these aren't the ones everyone is waiting for, but since we won't meet the boys for a couple more days this is the best we have for now! lol

Thank you, everyone, for the continued prayer for us and our boys! And thank you to all who helped get us here! It is still a little unreal that we are in a foreign country and are really here now to get our boys.

Almost ready!!!!

Let me start by apologizing for not posting more on here. The last couple of weeks getting ready for our boys has been crazy. As Josiah is much younger than Caleb, we had to adjust some of the things we were planning on having for the boys. That, of course, meant a shopping trip with my wonderful friend Heather!!! Now we have a crib and a toddler bed all set up and waiting. We have toys and car seats and strollers and high chairs and......and I know we'll still need more when they get here!!

I've also been busy learning how to pack light. Whew! That is hard!!! LOL  But I do believe I got it!! If all goes as planned, and it should since I am 75% done packing, we will not have any checked bags!! Woohoo!! now te keep the stuff we have to carry everywhere light enough so we don't fall down running to our flights!

I need to send out a BIG thank you to those who've helped around the house the last couple weeks and to those who are taking care of our house and dogs while we are away! They will probably get more attention from you than they have from me these last few weeks :)

Thank you all for your prayers and support. We are so excited to get over there and get this legal process started to bring the boys home. And of course to meet them!!!! Cannot wait to hold my little men!!! What an exciting adventure we are about to begin. I know there will be bumps and it will be different than anything I've ever known, but we will be praising God throughout it all! It is for Him that we do all we do.

Now, I must finish packing and clean out the fridge. Tomorrow is a haircut and printing up the final pictures for the boys album!! Almost ready!!!!

And the name is......

Josiah Daniel  :)

Thank you all for the wonderful name suggestions! We are still undecided and may just remain that way until we meet the little guy :)  We are still open to more suggestions too!

We are getting so excited to go meet these guys!!! 2 weeks!!!! Tomorrow my wonderful friend Lyndi is coming over to help me pack. What she doesn't know is that she has her work cut out for her! We are told to pack light and I don't think those words are even in my vocabulary :) LOL Whenever we go anywhere I always take 2-3 outfits extra, 3-5 pair of shoes (you never know what you might end up doing or what the weather will be like!), lots of stuff to do, jackets, sweatshirts (I'm always cold so even when going somewhere warm I like to be prepared), etc, etc. So tomorrow is going to be an adventure for me!!!! Lyndi, if you read this, I hope you are ready for a challenge ;)

Other than packing and excitedly waiting for our departure we are just doing a few things around the house (some new carpet here, put in a ceiling here, replace a window or two ;) ). Although, you'd think I'd learn to wait for clean-up till the end instead of after every phase! That's ok, keeps me busy!!

Jackson's brother

Now for the picture you've all been waiting for :) 

Yep, this little guy is Jackson's little brother! So much exciting news this week!!!!! So now that you've seen his picture, tell us what your top choice of a name would be :) 

We have a date!!

Woohoo!!! Praise God! Our appointment date is May 31st!! So excited!!! And so much to do in so little time :) We still have not heard for sure on our second little guy, but as soon as we do a picture will be posted!!!!

Thank you for all your prayers, donations, fundraising, and encouragement!!!!! We are so excited to be fully funded and have a travel date!! For a while it seemed like this part would never come, like it was so far away and we would never attain it. But thank the Lord we have arrived at this point of our journey!!

I am off to make a to-do list!!!!

Still no news.....and names

So still no news on the new little guy. We're praying to hear tomorrow!! But in the meantime, we thought it would be fun to have ya'll help us pick out a name!!  I know it's harder to do without a picture, but let's give it a try :)

The cute little boy pictured above will, Lord willing, be named Jackson Levi Golden in the near future. So what do you think his brother's name should be? Put your name suggestion(s) in a comment below. And if possible put the meaning with the name!! This should give us all something to do while we wait!! lol

No news

We are still waiting to hear if our little guy is cleared for adoption yet or not. While you wait with us for that official announcement, please take a moment to look at some newly listed sweeties on RR. If I could bring home a half dozen.....

As you look at their profiles, instead of saying "oh, how cute, I hope he/she finds a home soon", please consider becoming that family! Or praying daily for that family! Or advocating for that child to help find that family!! Or donate/fundraise for him/her to give a better chance of finding that family!

I'm not sure how to get all the links listed here, but if you go to reecesrainbow.org and click on waiting children, I know there are new children listed under boys with Ds 0-5 and girls with Ds 0-5. There are quite a few listed that are in Jackson's orphanage. Like I said, if we could bring home a half dozen...

And stay tuned, we hope to hear our news tomorrow. And as soon as we hear we will share with you!!!

Still amazed by God's timing

Last Wednesday night I posted about meeting a young man with DS that was an encouragement and inspiration to me.  I also posted about an anonymous $5000 gift that put us within $4000 of being fully funded.  Then the heartbreak of loosing Caleb into their Foster Care system.  I have to admit, I was a bit perplexed because of the timing...we knew it could happen and we have been praying for people in their country to see their worth and that families would step up.  We just didn't think it would happen to us!

Every other time has been the same on this roller coaster, disappointment followed by God providing something or someone that is amazingly encouraging.  We did praise God from the time we received the "bad" news and will continue to trust that He loves these little ones more than we could ever imagine...thus He will do what is best for them and us.  But, it was backwards from all the other discouragements!  Until he let us see a bit of His plan today.  See, in the midst of all the chaos, God was at work.  Pictures and files were already being created for new little ones  that had just been cleared for international adoption!  Ones that we couldn't have committed to when we started this process, and one little fella stuck out in a "big" way (you'll see when we find the answers to one little question....tuesday, hopefully).

In this I have seen God's perfect timing, I have become more humble, I have seen amazing people step up for little ones they don't even know, and I have seen God working through my wife.  She is amazing, because of Christ in her...what a Mom she is going to make!


Joel

Update

Thank you all for your prayers!! We have some news but cannot make an official announcement until next week. But for now, we can tell you that we have decided to pursue another child in Jackson's orphanage along with Jackson. Along with making scheduling and traveling easier, by adopting two from the same orphanage it also makes our fees less. So.....WE ARE FULLY FUNDED!!!! Praise the Lord!

A few weeks ago I stated that it would be awesome if the Lord provided half of what was left to be raised before we were submitted...He did. Then it was said that it would be amazing if He fully funded us before we got our travel date...He did!!!

So while we are saddened at the loss of Caleb as our son, we rejoice that God is sovereign and His mercy and grace are abundant. We continue to pray for Caleb, that he is loved and taken care of and that he will learn of the Lord's love for him. But we are also excited to move forward with the adoption of Jackson and xxxxx. So please continue to pray for us and our boys. And stay tuned for that announcement next week :)

Prayers please

We just received an email letting us know that Caleb has been put in foster care and is no longer available for adoption. Please pray for us as we grieve the loss of a son we will never get to meet and hold. We know that God is in control and we are leaning on Him right now. Everything is still moving forward with Jackson so please continue to pray for that as well.

Thank you,
Rachel

What a night! 3 huge blessings!

1: Encouraged by meeting a new member of our jr/sr high awana, who has down syndrome and has shown me what amazing young men our boys can be.

2: We are watching a friends 4 yr old girl while her mom takes care of her sick baby, which means a night of Rachel and her giggling, drinking hot chocolate and eating Joel's special popcorn made in the cast iron pan (note, hot chocolate after 9pm= crazy hyper kid)

3: an email directing us to our family sponsor page telling us of a donation. Rachel called me over to look at this email (I could see she was crying, didn't want to see something sad, but looked anyway), we clicked on the link and it took me a second to realize why my wife was teared up....then we started bawlin and praising God!!!!!!!!!

Someone Donated $5000 to our family sponsor page!


That means we need just over $4000 to be fully funded!  We can't stop praising Him!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


notice how you have to move the page over to see the train!  How cool is that?  So thankful!!!!!!!!  Whoever did it....THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!

Travel dates and grants

So we did not receive a date today as we had hoped, but that is ok. God's timing is perfect and we will wait upon Him!!! So we just continue on being ready for whatever is heading our way :) I'm not sure if dates are only given once a week or just whenever so I'm not even sure of when to be expecting one!! lol I just keep praying for God to prepare our hearts to be parents to these little ones and that He would prepare those little guys hearts for us! What a change is in store for them!

While we are waiting for a date, we continue to save, roll change, and do whatever else we can do to raise the remaining funds needed. At this point we still need just over $9000 to be fully funded. We are ever so thankful for Orphan's Ransom for the grant they awarded us!! What an awesome blessing that is! I pray that this new ministry would just blossom and be able to help many more families that are following God's call to adopt.

So that is our update for now :) Thank you all so much for your prayers and donations!! A special thank you goes to Christina and her family!! You know who you are! What a blessing she has been to us throughout this process. Christina, I LOVE the cards you made the boys and cannot wait to share those with them!! Praying for you and your family!!

Please continue to watch the choo choo to see how close we are to being fully funded. And please keep praying!! We will let you all know as soon as we find out when we are traveling!!! We cannot wait to meet and hold our little men!

And the winner is....

Mike and Angie Ristow!!!!! Congrats you have just won the Roku with the 2 months of Netflix!!! Thank you so much for you donation to the boys fund. I hope you enjoy you prize!!

Please just send us an email with your address. I will pass that info along to our sister-in-law who is donating the Roku so she can get that to you! And to save Joel's hands, we used random.org instead of paper and scissors! lol


Thank you to everyone who donated and shared about our give away! And thank you very much for all the prayers! We are hoping to receive our appointment date later this week and will hopefully be traveling this month. We are still short about $9300 so even though there is no give away, please share about our boys and pray for these funds to come in so we can go get them both!!!

Thank you!