So little yet so BIG.

I just love God's little reminders to me that He has not forgotten us and our child in Ethiopia. See one little action or word can be a BIG faith builder for us.

This past weekend at church the sweetest little 6 year old girl came up to me while I was talking and I felt her little finger tap me on the leg. I said hello to her and she immediately reached her little hand into her pocket and pulled out a hand full of change. Then she stretched out her hand and said, 

"This is for your baby." 

I was overcome with emotion and reached out to thank her with a big hug. She put the money in my hand and walked away with the biggest smile on her face. It was so precious, I am melting into a puddle right now just thinking about it again.

The next morning while Nate and I were talking about this sweet child and the faith she built in us, Nate said, "I believe that God is going to multiply Ellie's 24 cents into $24,000!"

Beautiful people who do beautiful things.

The Mexican meal fundraiser was a HUGE success! In fact, it went over so well that we ran out of food! Thank you, thank you, thank you Leonard & Tracy Hernandez, Aaron & Rachel Ramirez, Erin Calcara, Jenelle Hernandez, Jackie Castillo, Tina Rothe and Marie Hernandez for all your hard work! This amazing group of people worked tirelessly making homemade salsa, tortillas, meat, beans, rice and over 700 enchiladas!!! What a labor of love!

 We also want to say a big THANK YOU to everyone who came out in the cold and snow to purchase food! It was so great to see everyone and your support blesses us greatly!

 Most importantly...thank you God for continuing to meet our needs each step of the way! We were joyfully in shock when they told us the grand total raised that night was $2448.82!!!

Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen. Ephesians 3:20-21

Let us make you dinner!

Some long time friends of ours, the Hernandez/Ramirez family, are putting on a fund raiser for our adoption costs, this Friday night! They are making authentic Mexican meals with homemade salsa! Oh, it's so delicious!

Here's how it works.
Place your order TODAY from the menu below then come to our church, Crossroads Church on 40th & Superior, this Friday between 3pm-7pm to either pick up your order or stay and eat at the church. You can order by emailing me, rburnett511@gmail.com, or by leaving it in a comment on this post or facebook.

MENU SELECTION

Chicken Enchilada Dinner - $7

2 chicken enchiladas, beans, rice, tortilla, salsa

Beef Enchilada Dinner - $7

2 beef enchiladas, beans, rice, tortilla, salsa

Cheese Enchilada Dinner - $7

2 cheese enchiladas, beans, rice, tortilla, salsa

Burrito Dinner - $7

Beef & Bean burrito w/lettuce, cheese, sour cream, side of beans, rice, tortilla, salsa

10-Pack of frozen Enchiladas - $20

Choose Chicken, beef or cheese. A combination of choices is also available. Just indicate the qty of each so it equals 10.

So, let us make you dinner this Friday night and help us bring baby Burnett home!!!

Paper Pregnant

I am excited to say that I mailed our completed dossier on Monday! I asked the FedEx lady to take this photo of me with the package before she took it from me.....she looked at me like I was crazy...but it was so worth the awkward moment.

For me, this photo of me holding our dossier is like that very first sonogram you get when you first find out your pregnant. You know, the one that looks like a little bean. You don't know if your precious baby is a boy or girl, you can't see their face or really even tell that it is in fact a human being. This is a shot from Moses' baby book. He was only 7 weeks into existence here. Looking at this, I cannot believe he was ever this tiny!

Adoptive moms refer to the process of adopting as being "paper pregnant." I like this! It feels so right. Although I don't have morning sickness or a growing abdomen (I hope it does the opposite actually!) I am excitedly, nervously, happily, anxiously awaiting the day when I finally get to see my baby's face and hold him/her tightly in my arms. Just like I did while pregnant with Moses and Grace, I will purchase a baby book and put this photo in the spot for the first sonogram. We want this baby to know how much we want him/her and how excited we grow each step of the way!

This is so cool!

I didn't even realize it last week when I was writing the blog explaining the I-600 and how long it would take to get it but at that very moment the approval papers were sitting on my kitchen table in a pile of mail! I could not believe it when I called our adoption coordinator later that day and said, "what is this pink paper?" And she said, "That's it! That's the approval!" So, when God told us "by this time tomorrow" he wasn't jokin'! We were told it would take 90 days to get the approval but it only took 43! This is so exciting for us! We will be putting all the final touches on the dossier papers this weekend and mail it on Monday!

By this time tomorrow...

Several people have asked me lately, "so how are things going with the adoption?" I reply by saying that its good and that we are really excited with our progress. I tell them how we submitted our I-600 form at the end of November and will be mailing our Dossier by the end of February! Most people then give me a smile that says "I want to be really excited for you but I have no idea what your talking about." :) It just blesses my heart that they want to be really excited with me but I forget that most people don't know what the heck an I-600 form or a dossier is! I didn't know before this whole process began either.

So, the I-600 form, for which we have applied and are awaiting approval, classifies an orphan who has been or will be adopted by a U.S. citizen as an immediate relative to that citizen therefore, allowing the child to enter the U.S. Oh! My heart just skipped a beat and I am smiling from ear to ear! It says, "immediate relative" and "child to enter the U.S." I CAN'T WAIT FOR THAT DAY!!!

While we wait for the immigration approval (90 days) we are compiling a dossier. This is a collection of very detailed papers about us. Even photos too! They all have to be official and notarized. The dossier is what the agency in Ethiopia will use to match us with our child. It's all very exciting, even with all the detailed papers and long waits. Each form we fill out gets us one step closer to baby Burnett!

We have found that encouragement from the Lord comes when we least expect it. This is a huge blessing while we wait....wait....wait. Our good friend Victor came over for dinner in December right before he moved out of state. He also asked us how the adoption was coming along and got the same answers you all have heard. He began to tell us about a time in his life when he was told that it would take 2 years to receive the papers he needed to work in another country. However, he got them in 6 months!!! He told us that he and his wife had taken hold of an Old Testament story, 2 Kings 6:24-7:20, and prayed that the Lord would move on their behalf...and He did! Victor encouraged us to do the same with our adoption process. 

So, that night we read the passage which tells of a time when Samaria was in a famine and under siege by the Arameans. The famine was so bad that the people were eating their children to stay alive! In distress, the king called for the prophet Elisha to come. Elisha prophesied that "by this time tomorrow, a seah of flour will sell for a shekel and two seahs of barley for a shekel at the gate of Samaria." In other words, the famine will be over! An officer next to the king could not believe the prophets words and Elisha told the officer that indeed it would happen but he would not partake of it. 

Here's how it went down. In the middle of the night the Lord caused the Arameans to hear the sound of chariots and horses so that they thought they were under attack. They fled their camp leaving EVERYTHING behind. Some lepers went out to the camp and found all their goods. The next morning they told the king what they had found. As you can imagine the people of Samaria stormed the city gates, desperate for the food and supplies and in the process trampled the kings unbelieving officer to death.

Every time we speak to Victor now, he always says "by this time tomorrow...by this time tomorrow...keep believing the word of the Lord Nate and Rachel! Your child will be here sooner than you think!" And this is what we pray and believe,

BY THIS TIME TOMORROW...

I can see the light at the end of the tunnel!!!

Well, the end of THIS tunnel anyways. The tunnel of "Adoption Education." It's been a long one that had an unexpected detour. I am not really sure what happened or who's fault it is but somehow the education requirements were not clearly communicated to our home study worker and the last time I blogged in July I thought we were almost done with the home study. Much to our dismay we were informed of our misinformation and we found ourselves still needing to complete 20+ hours of online education and to read a 250 page book (The Connected Child by Dr. Purvis- GOOD STUFF!) and then backtrack a bit in the home study process in order to do things right. This was disappointing and frustrating. So, after beating ourselves up for a while and wondering what we could have done differently we picked ourselves up and moved forward trusting that God's timing for this adoption is best.

Thus, here I am again, 3 months later updating you all with the same information that we are just weeks away from submitting our home study and moving on the the next step in our adoption process. Hallelujah!

Please continue to keep us in your prayers.