Adopting Samuel Gibbs

June 24

Just wanted to give a quick update...our Dossier (all of our legal documents) arrived in Ukraine on Wednesday!!!  So, now our Lifeline contact is working on translating it and will then submit it to the National Adoption Center hopefully soon.  Please be praying for us as we anxiously await word about our travel date to Ukraine.  You can also always be continually praying for Samuel as he is most likely already alive. Pray for his health and safety as he is in the orphanage. 

Also, we made it out to Colorado safely and are enjoying it so much.  Our classes have been amazing and we are really excited to be  learning more about the Gospel and the Kingdom of God.  Pray with us that we would experience Christ in new and rich ways!!!

JUNE 17

"I will lead the blind in a way that they do not know, in paths that they have not known I will guide them.  I will turn the darkness before them into light, the rough places into level ground.  These are the things I do, and I do not forsake them."  Isaiah 42:16

God is so good!  After a frustrating day on Wednesday, we were still able to send our dossier to Ukraine yesterday at 3:30!!!! It is such a relief and we are so excited to have finally sent it off.  We were able to get all the documents notarized and certified correctly and then we went to FedEx Kinkos and mailed it all off.  YEAH!!!

Now we must begin the season of waiting.  Once our dossier gets to our Lifeline contact, he will translate it and submit it to the National Adoption Center (NAC) where they keep a database of available children.  Once they get it, they will begin to look for a child to refer us to.  Then they will contact us with a travel date.  We are still hoping and praying that we will be able to travel to Ukraine in September or October.  Please pray with us that our dossier will arrive safely and get submitted to NAC quickly. 

We leave for Colorado tomorrow to go take seminary classes through Campus Crusade.  We will be gone for about 5 weeks.  We will continue to update if anything happens...but until then...THANK YOU and please pray for us as we wait to hear about our travel date to Ukriane! 

JUNE 15

Today was frustrating to say the least.  We updated yesterday saying how excited we were because we got our 171h and that meant we could send our documents to Ukraine hopefully today or tomorrow.  So, we went to Atlanta today to get all of documents certified (this is required to send it to Ukraine). 

 Well, they could not certify our documents because a lot of them still needed things or were notarized wrong.  We got most things done, but the sad news is that one form will not be able to get done until Monday.  This is bad because we are supposed to fly out Saturday to Colorado for our Crusade summer assignment.  I (Rachel) will have to stay back and change my flight (expensive) and get eveything done by myself next week. 

All that to say, we are VERY discouraged.  Please pray for us that we would continue to trust the Lord with this.  On another note, we need your prayers too for the financing of this adoption as well as our general support with Crusade.  We have to send some of the adoption expenses in the next few weeks and we have to pay for our summer expenses with Crusade all at the same time.  We're not sure how it's going to happen.  We need to trust the Lord with this as well, but it is not easy. 

We hope to update you with some positive information soon. Thank you for all your prayers!

june 14

Good News...we got our 171H in the mail yesterday!!! This means we get to mail our dossier (all of our documents) to Ukraine tomorrow or Thursday.  We are so relieved that we are able to do this all before we leave for Colorado on Saturday. 

Please be praying that all goes well as we FED EX it to Ukraine and the process begins to find Samuel.   

Also, we have realized that this blog doesn't allow us to post many pictures so we may be changing sites in the future so that we can post more pictures when we get to Ukraine. 

We'll continue to keep y'all updated...thank you so much for all of your encouragement and prayer through this journey!!!