Little Steps, Big Steps

The adoption journey is not a fast journey, it is not a carefree easy path, rather it is little steps into the unknown, sometimes hard, sometimes slow, but when you reach the top! When you behold your child for the first time, when you pack that suitcase, board that plane, hold your child in your arms for the first time, little steps or big steps no longer matter. Instead the trials, the wait, the steps along the way fade as you embrace your new life, grow to new levels of love, and push through the challenges of blooming into a family!

Over the past weeks there have been very tiny steps toward our adoption, each one kind of just blending into daily life, not really showing progress in the journey. Today, however, brought bigger steps on our journey!

Today we...

...completed our last online course to meet our Hague education requirements
...applied for passports for Mom & Eldest Son for their trip to meet Annalee
...received an unexpected check from coffee sales
...baked our 50th cake in our cake fundraising
...completed our 3rd knitted hat that has been ordered

To complete the day we enjoyed the rewards of our coupons and frugal shopping by using our four free movie tickets and taking the boys to see "How to Train your Dragon". It was a very family friendly movie and we had a great time just having some fun family time!

So, what happens now? W are waiting for our I600A approval to arrive in the mail...hopefully within the next week or week and a half. Our passports should arrive in four to six weeks and we get ready to complete our Infant First Aid and CPR training. After that we just wait for our referral.

April will be a very busy time for us as we are planning a fundraising yard sale the first Saturday in May. If you have any "stuff" you want to Spring Clean out of your house...let us know, if you are local, we would be happy to pick it up! We have been blessed by many donations of Winter Cleaning sessions and will spend time the next few weeks getting it all priced and ready to sell!

Please continue to pray for our sweet Annalee and the process. Also, Nate has an opportunity to work a second job for a while to earn money for our adoption, but we need prayers! He needs to take off from his regular job for a few days this month for training and then the times will not overlap. Pray that his boss will allow him this time for training and that their will be plenty of work during the few months that this job could be available!

Thank you always for your concern and prayers over our adoption and lives!

Have a blessed weekend!

The Ragsdales