God Moves & So Does our Paperwork :)

As I write this today, my heart is just smiling at how God really is involved in even the smallest details of our lives. Here are a few ways that he has been answering some of our specific prayers over the past few weeks:

1. Michael and I are having a HUGE garage sale during our neighborhood community garage sale in Cherry Tree Meadows (off of 171st & Cherry Tree Road) on May 15-16 (8:00am-? both days). We have been asking people for item donations, as all of the proceeds will go towards our adoption. We've been blown away by the generosity of our friends, family, and co-workers. Last week, my friend prompted me to post our garage sale and donation request on our work advertising page. The day I posted the donation request I received the following e-mail:

"My family and I have been collecting garage sale items in our house throughout this year.  Our neighborhood garage sale is this weekend, however, due to sports schedules we will be unable to participate.

I've been praying for an opportunity to use these items toward a good use, as I did not believe I should take them to goodwill.  Only 2 days of praying, your opportunity has been offered :)"

Isn't that so cool?! I love how the Lord works! We have been so humbled that people we don't even know are willing to donate their items towards our garage sale. Thank you so much! As of now, our garage is COMPLETELY packed full with furniture and garage sale items. We have started to fill up our friend's garage, too. Thankfully she lives in the same neighborhood! Please come out and shop!!! We will have the updated pictures of our little guy at the sale, so you can also see what he looks like now! (Sorry, we can't post these on the internet)

2. A few weeks ago our fundraising was going a bit slow. We had some bigger costs coming up with the USCIS application and started praying that God would provide us with a donation every day for at least the next week. Our fundraising started to take off the day we began praying for more donations. We did in fact receive donations every day for that week. Thank you for donating! We are almost 1/4 of the way towards our goal!

3. We were praying and asking others to pray for my passport to come in, as we needed it for our USCIS application and dossier paperwork. My passport came in three days before we were given the notarized copies of our home study. PERFECT timing! We were able to send in our USCIS application on Tuesday of last week and our Dossier paperwork the following day. I love how God is moving and reminding us that HE is in control. HE gets all of the glory for this adoption. HE will provide, even with the smallest need. He just wants us to ask and to come to him with every little detail of our lives. Sometimes he may not answer how we want him to, however, he promises that if we draw near to Him, then he will draw near to us. We are totally in awe of how he has been moving in our lives with this adoption :)

Thank you again for all of your support, encouragement, prayers, and donations. We could not do all of this without YOU! I will be posting pictures of some of the items for our garage sale soon if possible! Please come out and shop!!

SILENT AUCTION & BARN DANCE JUNE 13th

HUGE FUNDRAISING EVENT!!!

MARK YOUR CALENDARS FOR JUNE 13th 6pm-10pm. 

$10 Per person

Barn Dance with FOOD, a SILENT AUCTION, and RAFFLES!!!  

More information to come SOON! 

Maggie's Passport is Finally HERE!

Thank you to everyone who was praying for my passport to come!! It finally arrived in the mail today :) Can you tell that I am a little excited?!

For those of you wondering why we needed my passport to get here, I have to send in a copy of my passport with all of our Dossier paperwork. 

Here are the next steps we will be taking in the adoption process:

1. We will send in Dossier documents to be apostilled (higher form of notarized) hopefully on Monday or Tuesday of next week. We are waiting to get the notarized copies of our home study. 

2. Once everything is apostilled, it will be sent away to get translated!

3. When we get our notarized home study next week, we will also submit our USCIS application to get immigration approval for our little guy (can take up to 90 days). The USCIS approval is the last document needed for the Dossier. 

4. After all Dossier documents are in country and translated, they will be submitted for approval. This can take a chunk of time.

5. Once we are approved, we will be given travel dates for trip one. 

Overall, we are definitely looking at a few months before we will get to travel on trip one. Again, we are praying that everything can go quickly, as we would love to be able to travel at the end of July/beginning of August to be able to celebrate our son's birthday with him. Will you pray that this could be a reality? Though it seems like that could be somewhat of a stretch to travel so soon, we are praying and asking for others to join us in prayer for that specific travel date window. We understand that nothing can be predicted or expected with adoption, so we are not getting our hopes up for any specific travel dates. However, we will still continue to pray :) 

Thank you to all of you for your support and generosity with helping us bring "Royce" home. We are hoping to hit the $5,000 mark soon with fundraising! That will help us to be 1/4 of the way towards reaching our goal! In terms of some fundraising events that are coming up:

1. HUGE garage sale on May 15&16 at our home in Noblesville. We are taking item donations for things to be sold in the sale. All proceeds will go directly towards the adoption. Please e-mail me at mmperry611@gmail.com if you have any items you would like to donate. 

2. Barn Dance/Silent Auction June 13. Stay tuned for this fun event. There are going to be some AMAZING items in the silent auction!

3. Our T-shirt sale is still going on until we sell all of the shirts. We need to sell about 50 more t-shirts in order to hit our goal of 75 shirts sold. If we sell 75 shirts, ALL of the money will go towards our adoption, and we do not have to pay for the cost of the shirts. WOW! That's $1,500 directly towards the adoption! Will you consider buying a t-shirt? They are super soft :) If you are interested, check this blog post about how you can get one! 

Thank you again! We love all of you and can't wait to bring our son home to such an amazing community of people. We couldn't do this without you! 

Updated Prayer Requests

Hello!!!

Michael and I wanted to share some specific prayer request updates for those of you who are prayer warriors! Thank you for praying!!!

1. My (Maggie) Passport. We would love it if my passport would come ASAP. There was an issue because they needed another piece of documentation, which set us back a few weeks. A copy of our passports needs to be included on our dossier, so we are praying it comes soon! We would hate to have to delay sending in our first chunk of dossier paperwork just because of my late passport!

2. Fundraising. First of all, thank you to everyone who has donated! We couldn't be more humbled and blown away by the generosity of our friends and family. As of now, we still need to raise a little under $19,000. We fully trust that God will provide! If you are interested in donating towards our adoption, the specifics are on our previous post :) Also, our neighborhood is having a community garage sale on May 15-16. We are taking donations for our garage sale, and all proceeds with go directly towards the adoption. Please pray for a successful garage sale, too! (If you are interested in donating items for the garage sale, please e-mail me mmperry611@gmail.com)

3. Travel. Our first travel date is dependent upon several factors such as timing with paperwork, country holidays, etc. We are praying that things would move FAST and that our first trip can be during the end of July/beginning of August. We would LOVE nothing more than to celebrate our son's second birthday with him :) We trust in God's perfect timing with all of this!

Thank you for praying! Michael and I have been able to make a lot of progress with our paperwork, which is very exciting. While we are in this waiting period, we have been watching the videos that we received of him. Since it is all we have of Royce right now, we literally just study and soak in as much as we can of our son. We are so in love with him :) Some day we will get to share updated pictures/videos!

Thanks again for walking through this journey with us!

He Goes Before Us

Every day, I am reminded that the Lord truly goes before us and directs our steps. I am just in awe. More specifically, I am in awe of how the Lord has gone before us with this adoption. 

A few weeks ago, I remembered that the Lord spoke so clearly to me a few years back about our future adoption. I was looking through my old journals, and I found an entry that was dated October 25, 2012 (roughly a little over two and a half years ago). During this time in our lives, we were living on one income, and I was still finishing up school. Though adoption was heavy on our hearts, we knew it wasn't our time. So, I prayed and prayed that God would at least give me some sort of timeline. On October 25, 2012, God spoke so clearly to me during my morning quite time with him. The Lord first directed me to these verses:

"Religion that God our Father accepts as pure & faultless is this: to look after orphans & widows in their distress & to keep oneself from being polluted by the world." - James 1:27

"For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me." - Matthew 25:35-36

"The Lord watches over the alien and sustains the fatherless and the widow." - Psalm 146:9

"Learn to do right! Seek justice, encourage the oppressed. Defend the cause of the fatherless, plead the case of the widow."- Isaiah 1:17

"Defend the cause of the weak and fatherless; maintain the rights of the poor and oppressed. Rescue the weak and needy; deliver them from the hand of the wicked." - Psalm 82:3-4

"Do not deprive the alien or the fatherless of justice, or take the cloak of the widow as a pledge. Remember that you were slaves in Egypt and the Lord your God redeemed you from there. This is why I command you to do the same." - Deuteronomy 24:17-18

God's word is so full of the Lord's love and care for orphans and the fatherless. He delights in these sweet babes being redeemed and adopted into a new life, just as he has redeemed and adopted all of us. 

Below the verses, I wrote the following prayer in my journal:

Abba,
Wow, I thank you for directing my time this morning towards how you feel about orphans. Lord, the pull to adopt gets heavier and heavier by the day. I am thankful that Michael is feeling the same way. Lord, I asked you for a time frame (as I was thinking three years from now would be perfect) and I was brought to Deuteronomy 14:28-29 "At the end of every three years, bring all the tithes of that year's produce and store it in your towns, so that the Levites (who have no allotment or inheritance of their own) and the aliens, the fatherless and the widows who live in your towns may come and eat and be satisfied, and so that the Lord your God may bless you in all the work of your hands." This mentions giving your tithes to the fatherless in three years. Is this what you want Lord? If so, please continue to make it so obvious...Lord we give our lives to you. My heart has been changing so much as I desire to adopt more than having my own children as of now. Lord, we serve you and you alone. I ask God that this time frame would be known to us and also that you would show us what we need to do now to prepare...I ask God that you would just lead us by your hand and provide at each step. I don't know how we will afford living, where we will live, etc. But, I trust you and all that you have in store. Please prepare us now. 

I didn't realize that two and a half years had gone by since this very memorable quiet time with the Lord. It was always in the back of my mind, but I didn't even put the pieces together until we had already committed to adopting Royce. Then, it all came back to me a few weeks ago when I found this journal entry. In almost exactly three years from when I had that quite time and God spoke so clearly to me, we will either have already met or be meeting our son.  That is not a coincidence.  The Lord had this all planned out and knew every step we would need to take to be able to adopt. 

God has answered this prayer and prepared us more than I could imagine. A lot has happened in two and a half years. Michael went back to school to be a teacher. He is now thriving as a third grade teacher. I graduated and became a high school resource teacher. We thought we were going to build a house and instead God provided the perfect home for us this year. We were able to pay off some debt and continue to work towards being debt free. We have become very involved with our church and the special needs community. We have grown closer as a couple. The list goes on. God knew exactly where we needed to be in order to be able to adopt. He let me know that three years ago, even though I could have NEVER imagined where we would be in three years. May this story be a testament that the Lord cares SO deeply for each of us. He longs to have relationship with us and to walk through this life with us. Life with him is not necessarily "safe" in terms of a worldly, stay in my comfort zone, safe. But, life with him is SO full and I honestly wouldn't want it any other way. 

My heart is so full when I really am seeing that everything we have been though has led us to this moment. Royce babe, we can't wait to bring you home. You have been the sweet boy we've been praying for, for many years. 

A BIG THANKS
Let me transition to thanking everyone for their encouragement and support in this process. We can't thank you enough for your prayers. Please keep them coming! In addition, we are so thankful for those that have donated towards the adoption. We can't do this without you! 

If you feel led to donate, there are a few ways to give:

Give online (2 options): 
1. You can click the donate button at the top right of our blog, which will lead you to our fundraising page. Razoo does take out processing fees and credit card fees. To avoid this, you can also give online this way:

2. Go to www.lifesongfororphans.org/give/donate. Select “Adoption Funding” and “Family Specific.” Complete the online form and fill in “Family Account Number: 5251” and “Family Name: Perry” Fields. (If you donate here this is no processing fee and only a small credit card fee. The amount will still show up on the Razoo fundraising page, as I can enter it manually.)

Write a check: 
Lifesong for Orphans, PO Box 40, Gridley, IL 61744 (Please put Perry #5251 in the memo line.)

Buy a T-shirt:

My amazing friend had these t-shirts designed for our adoption! They are available in adult and youth sizes. 

COST: T-shirts are $20 if you live in the area and we can get them to you without shipping or $25 if you need to have it shipped. 

IF WE SELL 75 T-SHIRTS, 100% OF THE $ GOES DIRECTLY TOWARDS OUR ADOPTION!!!

If you want to buy a t-shirt, please e-mail my friend Brittaney at hazel743@gmail.com In the e-mail please include:
1. Your name
2. # and size(s) of t-shirts you want to order
3. Your address
*** You can send Brittaney or myself a check (just email us for our address) or you can pay through the paypal link. 

Thank you for everything! Please feel free to email me with any questions!!! mmperry611@gmail.com

UPDATE:
For now, we are continuing on the paper chase :) We will hopefully be sending in the first chunk of our dossier within a few weeks. Our home study is being written, so that will be done soon. I had an issue with my passport application, so any prayers for that to speed up would be great! We will continue to keep you all updated. I'll leave you with a picture of our funny cat, Boone, who likes to "help" with the paperwork/fundraising process :) 

One Less

Happy World Down Syndrome Day!!! 
I know the date published says 3/19- but we are just leaking this info today :)

We thought World Down Syndrome Day was the perfect day to make such a special announcement...

(Wear your crazy socks today to support World Down Syndrome Day!)

We are in the process of adopting a sweet baby boy with Down syndrome from Eastern Europe! There is going to be one less orphan in the world! Lots of you know that this has been a dream of ours since before we were even married. Why don't you just grab a cup of coffee, and I'll fill you in on our journey :)

PRESIDENT'S DAY WEEKEND 2015:
Michael and I boarded one of 7 charter busses, filled with amazing high schoolers, for the Grace Merge Winter Retreat in Pennsylvania. We were looking forward to time with our small groups, fellowship, lots of laughs, and amazing worship. Little did we know, the Lord would speak so clearly to both of us over this weekend. 

During session one, Barry R. spoke about our calling in life. He shared vulnerably about his past and how God transformed a lazy, comfort craving, couch potato into a journalist who travels the world and spreads God's word. Near the end of his sermon, he told the story of Peter. Peter was a little boy in Ukraine who was placed into an orphanage due to his special needs. Barry wrote an article about Peter, and long story short, people in America were donating funds to help Peter be adopted in the Ukraine. At the same time, a volunteer began to fall in love with Peter, but he knew he would never be able to adopt him due to finances. Barry was able to connect the dots, and Peter was adopted. He spent the last four years of his life in a home filled with love and laughter. During this part of the sermon, with tears streaming down my face, I clearly heard the Lord speak to me saying, "Maggie, this is your time. You and Michael need to adopt NOW." I quickly found Michael in the back of the room and told him about what God had laid upon my heart. Right away, Michael told me that he, too, felt God telling him that this is our time. 

Throughout the day, I chewed on what the Lord was telling us, and I prayed fervently that he would continue to direct us if this is what he wants for us now. That evening, during session two, Barry told the story of Gideon. Gideon was pretty much a nobody, yet God told him that he was a mighty warrior. Though Gideon did not see himself this way, God did and He had a specific mission that he needed Gideon to fulfill. At the end of the session, the students were able to spend some time in prayer, worship, and reflection. There were words posted all around the room, and the students were directed to find the word that they felt God was impressing upon their hearts. The words ranged from inspiration, advocate, relentless, etc. Right away, the word advocate was staring me in the face and heart. Adopting IS what God wants us to do right now. In the quietness of my soul, I could sense the Holy Spirit telling me, "Maggie, you will be an advocate for these unwanted children."  I was led to tears and humility as this is has always been my passion. Many people don't realize the need for adoption, let alone special needs adoption. These sweet children need families to love on them and provide them with the services and care needed to help them thrive. I told Michael and again he, too, felt the Lord leading him this way. 

Later in the evening, as I was praying, I felt the strongest nudge to open my Bible and soak in the Lord's word. Here are the two verses I opened right up to:

"Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of all who are destitute. Speak up and judge fairly; defend the rights of the poor and needy." - Proverbs 31:8-9

"She opens her arms to the poor and extends her hands to the needy."- Proverbs 31:20

Ummmm... "Advocate"..."Adoption"... my mind was blown. I knew from the core of my being that God wanted us to start this process that we have always longed to start NOW. 

The next day, Michael and I confronted the big question staring us in the face all weekend, "How will we raise the money?" Michael and I knew for sure that this is what God wanted, but we were not prepared financially to begin now. Yes, we will be able to raise the child and provide financially in that way. But, we do not have all of the upfront costs for the actual adoption process. 

Of course, session three was all about obstacles. Barry spoke about the fact that if God calls us to something, most of us will feel that we have obstacles in the way. Many obstacles fall into the categories of weakness, money, and fear. Barry reminded us that when God asks us to do something, HE will foot the bill. Again, in the stillness of my soul, I felt the Holy Spirit saying, "See, I've got this. Just move forward and let me provide." During the session, Michael continued to get the name and face of "Royce" in his mind. We spotted him on Reece's Rainbow (a site we frequent often) a day earlier. "Royce" is his name from Reece's Rainbow. We are not allowed to give out his real name. However, we will be changing it and announcing his new name later on in the process! Michael told me that evening that he was confident that "Royce" was the boy God wanted us to adopt. Here is what is CRAZY... Many of you know that I have had a passion for adopting, especially kids with special needs, since I was very young. Michael shares the same passion (I'm so glad the Lord led us to one another!). We've always talked about adopting, and I've prayed that when it's our time God would tell Michael WHO we need to adopt. So you can imagine my shock when Michael told me that he knew who our child was. I never told him that I had been praying for him to be the one to get the clear direction about who we should adopt. I was led to my knees for the remainder of worship that evening, in awe of God's leading. Michael and I were so excited to just START and see what happened. So, during our trip home and the next week, that is exactly what we did. 

Let's just say that God wasn't kidding when he told us he would provide.  We knew that to get this process started right away, we were going to need a certain amount of money within the first month to pay for our home study and the adoption agency commitment fees. We sent out an e-mail to a few family and friends, asking for prayer and financial support if they felt led. Michael and I were praying to get the start up funds within a month.  You can imagine our surprise when we were given the start up funds within FOUR days. What?! We have been so humbled by people's generosity, encouragement, and support. 

WHY ADOPTION?
Michael and I both have talked about adopting since before we were even married. We have shared passions for kiddos with special needs and adoption. We are not adopting due to an inability to have children (at least that we know of). We are adopting because we want to provide a home for a child who is considered "unwanted." We believe that adoption mirrors God's love for us, as we have been adopted into his kingdom as his sons and daughters. We both feel specifically led to international adoption. Typically, children with special needs are completely looked down upon in other countries. They are not provided with many of the services and supports that we have for kids with special needs in the United States. 

WHERE ARE WE NOW?
It has been a little over a month since we have jumped into this adoption journey. We sent in commitment paperwork for "Royce" three weeks ago and received a commitment approval on Friday (check out our timeline for more details). This basically means that he is "on hold" for us. In addition, we have already had all three of our home study meetings. We are trying to quickly finish the final paperwork so that our home study can be written and finalized! As we work on finishing the paperwork for our home study, we are also putting together paperwork for our Dossier. (Did you know that this process is referred to as the paper pregnancy?! Sure feels like it!) Basically any free minute of the day has been spent filling out papers, running to the post office, getting finger prints, etc. We are trying to have a sense of urgency with everything so that we can bring home our baby boy as soon as possible! 

HOW CAN YOU HELP?
Prayer- Michael and I so appreciate any prayers for this process. We are asking people to pray specifically for the process to go smoothly. In addition, we ask for continual prayers for "Royce." To our knowledge, he is in a very good orphanage. However, no orphanage can replace a loving home. We pray daily that "Royce" is getting attention by being held and loved on. 

Funding- In addition to prayer, we are asking people to partner with us in fundraising for the adoption. We anticipate the entire adoption to cost around $28,000 - $30,000 (including the upfront costs that we were able to raise). Michael and I are working hard to finance as much as we can. We are possibly going to be selling some things through Etsy, having garage sales, etc. (More on that to come later). We will also be applying for grants. However, we need your help to bring "Royce" home. Our goal is to raise $20,000 by July 20, 2015.

If you feel led to support us financially, you can either:
 1. Click the Donate button on the top right side of our blog
2. Send a check to: (In the memo note Perry #5251 to assure it goes to the correct account)

Lifesong for Orphans, 

PO Box 40, 

Gridley, IL 61744

Lifesong has been blessed with a partner that underwrites all U.S. administrative and fund-

raising costs (TMG Foundation and other partners). That means 100% of your donation will go directly to the adoption. If paying via Paypal, there is an administrative fee. 

In honor of World Down Syndrome Day, will you make a donation that includes the number 21?

We will do updates on how much we have raised. We can't thank you enough for partnering with us to bring our baby home!