Adopting Samuel Gibbs

May 24

Well first of all, we are sending our homestudy and other documents tomorrow to CIS (citizenship and immigration)!  We are so excited to finally do this...it means that within the next 3-4 weeks, we will send our DOSSIER (all of documents) over to Ukraine!!!!  And then of course, the waiting begins...we are praying that we will travel around October.  It usually takes 3-4 months to hear back from Ukraine after we send the dossier. 

2nd, we are changing Samuel's middle name from Paton to Gibbs. I know we are crazy, but we really wanted to use a family name.  Gibbs was my mother's maiden name.  We still love Paton and will maybe use it again if we have or adopt another child.    So hopefully y'all won't be too confused...his full name is now Samuel Gibbs Norris (and we promise we won't change it again)

Please be praying...

1.  For Samuel's health and safety

2.  For Samuel's adoption fund...God has already provided some money which we are so thankful for...we still need a considerable amount to make it possible!

3.  For our hearts...that we would fall more in love with Christ and not be stressed by this adoption.

 

May 6

Things are moving along!  Today our child abuse and neglect clearance came so our homestudy is done! We will try to send off to CIS (citizenship and immigration) early next week and then we will wait for our approval.  Pray that this will happen quickly so that we can send our documents over to Ukraine before June 18.  This is when we have to leave for Colorado for our summer assignment with Crusade.   

Some of you may be wondering about his name.  Samuel is of course from the Bible...it means 'asked of God' which is appropriate because we have prayed for a long time for a child.  His middle name Paton comes from a great missionary named John Paton (sounds like Patton) who ministered to the New Herbrides islands for 84 years.  One of his famous quotes is..

"Among many who sought to deter me, was one dear old Christian gentleman, whose crowning argument always was, "The cannibals! you will be eaten by cannibals!" At last I replied, "Mr. Dickson, you are advanced in years now, and your own prospect is soon to be laid in the grave, there to be eaten by worms; I confess to you, that if I can but live and die serving and honouring the Lord Jesus, it will make no difference to me whether I am eaten by cannibals or by worms."