Happy birthday, Jovie!

It's been quite a while since we've posted and so much has been happening, we just had to update! For starters, in April, our family felt the Lord was opening doors for us to be back in Kentucky, closer to family. We are beyond excited to be back "home" and closer to our family, who means so much to us. We have already had the opportunity to see all of our family and friends for birthday celebrations and family gatherings and we know this has all been possible because of the hand of God. In addition to being closer to family, He has called us to ministry at a new church home at New Work Fellowship. We couldn't be more excited to be serving alongside this group of people and have already seen God work in our short time. We are already enjoying this ministry as we serve here and look forward to making this our home! 

This change came as a result of many months of prayers. We knew God had called us to serve in Missouri, but we also knew there were big changes coming for our family, as we are getting closer to bringing Jovie home, and how much we needed to be nearer to our family as we welcome her home and for our boys, as well. The Lord very clearly opened these doors and we followed. And though He didn't have to, He chose to show us confirmation after confirmation that this is where He planned for us to be. We are grateful. 

So, with this news also comes adoption updates! We spoke with our adoption agency a while back when we began learning that this move might become a reality, to make sure it would be allowed during our process and looked favorably upon. They assured us it would be, especially since our move was moving us closer to family, and would also allow Heather to stay home on a more permanent basis, as we raise our young family and welcome our new girl! They said these were very acceptable reasons to move, and because we had already been matched with Jovie, we were able to make the move. We have already been working on our updates with our new agency here in KY and are looking forward to getting everything finalized and updated in the very near future. 

On June 9, we celebrated Jovie's 1st birthday! (Which also happens to be Heather's mom's birthday!). We had to take some friends to the airport in Nashville that day, so we made an enjoyable afternoon of it and had lunch at the Aquarium Restaurant, and then came home to make Jovie a "birthday video" and our favorite Korean dish (thus far), Bulgogi. (pictured below). Bulgogi is a Korean style barbecue and it is absolutely delicious. This was the boys' first time trying it and they both loved it! 

 Needless to say, we had a great time celebrating her birthday, but it wasn't without its difficult moments. It was harder than we thought to celebrate this special day while on the other side of the world, but we know the Lord has a special time and season for bringing this to fruition.

Please continue to pray with us as each day becomes harder and harder. Heather has been very "realistic" from day one, understanding the timelines and prepping herself for the months and months it would take to finalize this adoption. (She tends to do a little too much research on timelines!!) But, it has definitely become harder to face reality as we progress. We continue to get updates on Jovie; her checkups, health and also pictures. (I desperately wish I could share these pictures with you, but we still are not allowed to do so...but I can assure you: she is nothing short of beautiful!) Each update brings great joy and great pain - joy as we see her sweet face and anxiously await her coming home, and great pain as it gets harder to wait. The Lord has given us so much love for her already and we truly know that while this season of waiting becomes more difficult, our faith is being tested and strengthened in trusting the Lord and His timing.

Even though our move will require a few updates with our home study and paperwork, we anticipate it to continue to move ahead as planned. We have already received a couple documents and approvals that are very encouraging to the process and we continue to pray for progress in the midst of the move!

As of now, we still aren't for sure on any travel timeframe, but we are getting much closer to that day!

So in conclusion, we ask that you continue to pray with us in the following ways:
1) That Jovie would continue to be healthy and happy
2) The our paperwork, approvals and updates will continue to move quickly
3) Finances - we are currently still in need of additional funds to pay for the remaining program fees; this money must be raised and paid before our next round in the process can take place. Many of you have asked us how you can help in this way, and we will try to keep everyone updated on ways we will be fundraising in the future. We are so appreciative of your thoughts toward this area - the finances are the most daunting part of this whole process, but the Lord has helped us get this far, we have faith in how He will provide the remaining.
4) That our family, both immediate and extended, would continue to have our hearts grow fuller with love to share with this precious baby girl

Blessings to all of you!! Thanks for sharing in this journey with us!

It's a.....

....GIRL!!!!

Can you believe it? Already we have been blessed with the match of a PRECIOUS baby girl!!

It was Christmas Eve the day we received the call. We weren't really expecting any kind of news from our agency during the holidays, but we were surprised with the greatest Christmas present!

She is adorable and cute - and I don't just say that because she's my daughter! :) At this time, we can't really share too much publicly about her until our adoption is finalized, but I can tell you that she is already loved and adored by her parents, brothers and extended family here.

She is currently 7 months old and we have started the mountains and mountains of paperwork to get her home as quickly as possible. The first question that many of you have for us is "when will she get to come home?" and our answer to that is (unfortunately): "We really don't know." I wish we did...I wish we had a very strategic time frame to work with (because, for those of you who know me well, know that the organizational madwoman in me needs a logistical, mapped out spreadsheet with timelines and events...) but due to the loads of paperwork that get processed both on the US side and the Korea side, it's a very unpredictable time frame.

So - in the meantime, we will keep you updated as we can and know more!

We continue to ask you for your prayers as we wait for her. Please pray that she stays healthy and happy and continues to progress in her development as she begins reaching lots of "baby milestones" in this upcoming year! She is in the care of a loving foster family now and know she is getting lots of love and attention!

We are so thankful and blessed for the outpouring of support and love we have received during this journey thus far. We ask that you begin praying for Jovie (as we have named her), that her little heart would already begin the preparation of accepting us as her mommy and daddy and learning to love our family through th pictures, cards, videos. Etc. that we will be sending her over the next several weeks via care packages.

We also ask that you pray for us as we prepare our hearts, home and family for her arrival, even though it will be quite some time before she is home with us. We are already just smitten in love with her. We hope that our home can be a place she finds comfort, strength, support and love all the days of her life.