A Year in Review

May you have love that never ends, lots of money and lots of friends.
Health be your's, whatever you do, and may God send many
blessings to you! - Irish Blessing

It's been an amazing year, we look forward to celebrating the great things God is doing in 08'!

Merry Christmas Little Princess!

Merry Christmas Princess Bella! A year ago, we thought that we would have a new baby home, and although she is not physically in our arms, we know our God has already done it and that she is on her way home.

We received our December update today. What a wonderful Christmas Gift. Bella will be 4 months old on Dec. 28th. She now weighs 13 pounds and is 24" long, and although she has grown so much, I am reminded by these pictures just how tiny she still is. The outfit Bella is wearing in these photos is the same outfit we brought her when traveling to Guatemala and took photos of her in when she was 3 weeks old...and it still fits. I have struggled with the fact that I am missing days with our daughter, sad that she is growing to quickly, yet I was quickly reminded how tiny she still is. She is still our baby girl.

Our report told us that she is happy, alert, playful, sweet, slightly extroverted and loves to imitate others. That's my Girl! She is giggling now and cooing....we cant wait to get our update DVD and expect to be blessed with that little laugh. We take great comfort in the love and care she is receiving at HH.

It has now been 5 full weeks in the Guatemalan Government PGN. We believe everyday for her PGN Approval with No previews. Again, after that point, she is legally ours and we will enter in to the Guatemalan Civil Registry to have her name changed to ours....oh I so love that! There are some issues with the Civil Registry right now, but we are confident that God has already resolved that issue and praise Him for it.

Please continue your prayers and support. It means so very much to us and we truly can feel it.

Specific Prayers Needed:

God Bless and Merry Christmas,

3.5 Months!

We are blessed to have new photos of our Elisabella so early! Our friends the Buwalda's traveled to Guatemala and to meet their daughter, for the first time last Wednesday. They took the time to not only visit with our daughter and hold her, but too also take photos of her. They said "Bella was so responsive and happy and smiley! She smiled very quickly when I was interacting with her. Her special mother was very loving with her. I went & saw her both of the days we were there and each time she was very content and happy. She is nice & chubby, too! So cute!!" We cant even express our gratitude for the time they took to love on our girl. And having pictures of her HH "sister" is pricesless. Not only do we take comfort in knowing that our Lord is with our daughter, but also that our baby girl has forever friends with her at HH.

There are so many blessings we have experienced in the international adoption process, the greatest being that "we are new creatures in Christ", but one of the other is the gift of the incredible families God has brought into our lives throughout this process...the Harkemas, Vanzantens, Culps and Buwaldas. Adoption is a journey, and although the unconditional love of the child is no different than the love of our biological children, we can never express the sincere love and connection we have with these 4 families. We will forever be connected with these people and we are excited at to get all these girls together very soon, home with the families God intended for them.

We continue to ask for you prayer in our adoption journey. On Thursday, we will have been in PGN 4 weeks! This is good news...as we know that God has already approved our Bella in PGN with NO previews TODAY!!

The Ortega Law was passed today, and as of yet, we have no idea what that means for us....but we are not worried. For we stand on the Word of God and we know that God "will complete that which He has started" not to mention that "All things are possible with God"! We live on the scripture:
" Now to Him Who, by (in consequence of) the (action of His) power that is work within us, is able to (carry out His purpose and ) do SUPER ABUNDANTLY, far over and above all that we (dare) ask or think (infinitely beyond our highest prayers, desires, thoughts, hopes and dreams)! Eph 3:20 Amplified Bible

PLEASE continue to pray with us that Senior Barios will sign Bella's PGN Approval today, that our new Birth Certificate with be signed immediately by the Mixco Civil Registry and that the US Embassy will schedule our 2nd DNA and FINAL US Embassy Apt's immediately! We must be present at our US Embassy Apt's and will return a day later will Bella in our Arms in Michigan a day after this appointment. The VanZantens need your prayer as well for Civil Registry approval and the Culps just received their Family Court Approval and need PGN Approval with NO preview as well.

Thank you all for your love, prayer and support. You will never know how much it means to our family.

Blessings to all,