Soon To Be No-Longer Orphans

It still feels unreal when God chooses to use me. When He speaks to me and asks me to act. Really, the God of the Universe wants my help? Sometimes I say yes and sometimes I act like I didn't hear Him.
But what has floored me in this adoption experience is watching God ask others to act on my behalf. And then watching them respond. And they don't even get to enjoy the visible, right-now benefits. Wow.

Today I received a package in the mail. It was from a long time friend who has had something up her sleeve. I had no idea what I was going to find as I cut through the 14 layers of tape on this box. My first glimpse was a black leather suuu-weet coat. Hmm. And under the jacket were neatly rolled Ann Taylor Loft, Old Navy, and Gap clothes. Jackpot. Then on the very bottom was a little note explaining things. And there was a check.

See this package came from a family that is living the American Dream. They own their own business and they have exactly 2.6 children. They own their home in a small country town and have a dog that lives in the backyard. They work hard for what they earn and the economy woes have hit them hard. But God asked them to scoured their home for things they could live without and sell them for their friends who are adopting kids internationally. She could have acted like she didn't hear the call. Or, she could have just played the hand to benefit her family. No one would have thought anything was out of the ordinary if she said she was going to have a garage sale to make more room for the next baby. And earn a little spending money for her kid's Easter outfits. And whose to say that would be wrong? But she didn't do that. Her and her husband have prepared for weeks, canceled once due to weather, and spent a long day selling their stuff...for us. And then, she picked some of her favorite clothes that didn't sell, and sent them to me as a blessing. And wrote us a check for the amount they made at the garage sale. Gosh, that is humbling.

A month ago I went to check the mail and saw a tiny little card from another college friend. I was assuming it was going to be an adorable picture of her sweet little girl (my pretend niece!). It wasn't. It was their contribution to our adoption. They are a one income family too. They spend and save their money wisely. And God asked them to give generously with a cheerful heart. And they did.

On several occasions I have gone to the Just Love Coffee website to make sure everything is working. While there I see another family's name who has ordered coffee that is fabulous, but pricey, to support our family.

Family members have overwhelmed us with their generosity. Not just money, but prayers and encouragement, and offers to keep our NM four when we are in Honduras. Duh, they say. Of coarse we will. I have a brother in law who is going to ship stuff from overseas so we can auction off amazing beautiful things to earn money to bring our children home. A handful of people have offered to go with us. It is surreal to know that God is at work in and around you. Why me? Why us? Why now? One thing I know for sure...it's not because of what I have done, but because of what He is doing.

I have been floored by so many people who want to help and have helped. And I know today's blessing from friends (and from God) won't be the last. Next Monday a group of my New Mexico friends are hosting a planning slash prayer meeting for some upcoming fund raisers. They are crazy women who love God first. It could appear they're doing it to get on my good side, but I know that isn't the case. They are doing it because God has nudged them. And even though it looks like the Grassmicks are the primary beneficiaries of all of these things, it just isn't true. Jesus says in Matthew that "whenever you did one of these things to someone overlooked or ignored, that was me--you did it to me." How then, is God not going to richly bless each of these families for taking care of our soon to be no-longer orphans? Or bless them in ways we can't count or even put our finger on?

Saint Paul prays it best so I'll leave it to him:

For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name. I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.  

Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.

Knowing

I wish there was a button I could push and all my feelings and thoughts would be written down for me and then I could just edited them. I have a lot of things running through my mind and my heart, but I just don't know how to get them written down. Bless you for bearing with me.
Our dossier was shipped to Honduras today. Over the next two weeks it will be translated and then given to the IHNFA (the government agency that handles all things adoption in Honduras). Then, Johnna told me, our dossier will go through 3 stages of review. Each step of the way there is a chance that we will need to fix something...or I guess it could be rejected too, but that really hasn't crossed my mind. I guess my prayer is that it won't need fixing, but I don't feel strongly about that. God has been so faithful in each bump and step of this process that it is hard to imagine that any of those "set backs" aren't of Him...or outside of His plan. So, maybe one or more of our children aren't born yet. Maybe they aren't in the orphanage yet. Maybe it just isn't time for us to have them yet. I'm trying to look at the waiting not as the suffering kind of waiting but as the it-just-isn't-time-yet waiting.
Don't get me wrong though. It keeps me from falling asleep sometimes. I don't pray that life is a bowl of cherries for my kids, but I do pray that God would protect them from the sick and twisted evil that exists. And I pray and hope for basic human rights kind of stuff. Or I guess the things I think of as basic human rights. I guess the whole world probably doesn't see it the same as I do. Fresh air and water. Sunshine and hugs. Smiles reciprocated. That is what I think every human deserves. I can't wait to start knowing all of my children are beneficiaries of what I see as God's simple gifts. How neat it will be when I can over and over and over again look into their beautiful sad eyes and smile at them. I don't count on having much more to offer but I know my eyes and my smile will bless them...and me.

Some Bumps

Our dossier got to Virginia two Fridays ago. That afternoon Johnna emailed and told us that we were lacking the medical lab reports. Our doctor filled out forms entering the results from our blood work results but I missed it in the instructions that we needed to include the reports themselves. So, I had all weekend to be bummed that we had something else to do, but I wasn't toooo bummed because Johnna still needed to take our dossier to D.C. for Honduran Consulate approval and she said that she could do that without the lab results so we would have a couple of days. So, on Monday I called the doc and made an appointment to go get the paperwork. (Everyone in our doctor's office is getting sick of us walking in the door.) When we got there, the doctor and I discovered that the kids and Jonathan did NOT have the correct lab work done in January. So all five of them went to the lab to have their blood drawn again. The nurse called today saying it is ready to be picked up. So, tomorrow, my eldest child's birthday, we will load up again, drive to Santa Fe, pick up the paperwork, copy it, have it notarized, take it to the Secretary of State, copy the apostilles, and then send it off. Johnna emailed today and said our Dossier should be ready to mail to Honduras on Friday. I will make sure the package gets to her by Thursday.
This past weekend was a busy, but great weekend. I laid down for a nap this afternoon with Anderson to recover a bit and it took me a while to fall asleep. During a recent conversation with Jonathan, he said that his gut feeling on the kids we have in Honduras is 2 boys and a girl. :) So, I was trying to imagine that. And I was wondering if they got to play outside today. I prayed that they would get to. I prayed that God, in His amazing mercy, would keep evil from them. I prayed for those charged with taking care of them for the time being. That they would love them the best they could. I prayed that God would give the Honduran Grassmicks peace. A peace that He is working and that we will soon be there to get them. And that they needn't worry about being separated.
I'm really not ready to start thinking about this emotionally yet. It could be so long. Pray for the New Mexico Grassmicks too.

What Did You Say?

I am SO TIRED. I think today was my most physically taxing day of my life, minus my first two children's births and my marathon. Oh. My. Goodness. Two of our goats should be kidding (having goat babies) any day now. Super Trooper's due date is April 2 and Show Girl's due date is April 9. They have been acting a bit different lately so I know it will be soon. So, I cleaned out two stalls today and then used the manure spreader to fertilize our pasture with it. And since I had all that stuff together, I thought I might as well clean out the chicken coop too. So our pasture is now well fertilized with goat and chicken you-know-what. This took me about 3 hours.
Before that, the kids and I finished a planting job for Jonathan that we started yesterday afternoon. We planted 150 bare root native plants in tall pots. The kids fill them with dirt and I plant them. We worked HARD. And the sun was in my face the entire time so I am crispy. I can feel the heat coming off my face. I should have worn my cowboy hat, but forgot...won't do that again. We were out there for about 4 hours and now I have one of those headaches that if you make any sudden movements or bend over your head starts THROBBING.

And on top of physical exertion, I am also emotionally spent.......because the first thing I did today was mail our Dossier!!!!!!!!!!!!

What?? How did that happen???

This is our Dossier and two extra copies...and my adoption file folder that I take everywhere

Everything just came together. I don't have the mental capacity to document all that has happened since last week, but I will try to do that soon. But the big things are that we received our I-171H (future kids' immigration document) on Monday. Once again, Good Job Feds. It only took them a week from our fingerprinting appointment to our mailbox. Wow. We also got our TX documents back from the Secretary of State the same day. So yesterday we had the last of our stuff notarized and apostilled and finished up the last of what needed to be done. 

I wish there could be even just a day of relief though. I was pretty excited when it was all coming together on Monday and Tuesday, but last night I was realizing that Honduras might ask for us to "fix" things that they don't like. So that is the big prayer request now. Our dossier should get to our agency in Virginia on Friday. They will look it over and hopefully not find too many things wrong! Then they will get Honduran Consulate Approval in DC which should take about a week. Then, they will send it to Honduras. I think it will take a month or so to have it translated. I'm not sure the timeline. After it is in Spanish, the IHNFA (government agency in Honduras that handles all things adoption) will get it. They might find something they don't like and ask us to re-do parts of it. I am praying they will accept all of it.

Wish I could write more but I am fading. Keep praying peeps. It is working.

Nice Job Feds

For the last several weeks I haven't done anything adoption related. At least not physically. But today was mostly devoted, once again, to paperwork and the like. Jonathan and I received our appointment notice last month to be fingerprinted for our future children's visas. Our appointment was for today. My time slot was 9am and his was 10am. The paper informed us that there was limited seating and so no extra people in the waiting room. Hmmm, we have four tag-a-longs. So, our plan was to tag-team it. I would go in and he would stay in the car with the kids and then we would switch. Anyway, I had to wake up really early because I live on a farm and there are goats to be milked and chickens to be fed and dogs to be tended to. It was DARK when I got out of bed. I don't get out of bed when it's dark, people. But, I did today. And we were in the car, driving off by 7:15am. On time. We had 110 miles before we were there. We told the kids they could watch movies today since it was going to be an unusually long car day. So, it was quite quiet. Except for the occasional burst of laughter, which always bring smiles to our faces. Nothing like listening to kids belly-laugh. We stopped on the north side of ABQ and used our Starbucks gift cards for some breakfast sandwiches and two lattes. We pulled up to the strip mall government office with 2 minutes to spare. I got out and Jonathan drove away to find a park, or store and a bathroom. I walked in to the biggest, emptiest "store" with a couple of fingerprinting computers. Plenty of room for the kids. But on every wall, as well as on the appointment notice, in BIG LETTERS, it said that cell phone use was prohibited. A couple signs said that failure to follow the rules would get you kicked out, so I wasn't about to use my phone to get Jonathan back there. We had been waiting for this appointment for a month. I was seen and done in 15 minutes and Jonathan got back before long and he was in and out too. Nice job USCIS. Nice job Feds. We complimented the lady on the way out and she chuckled and said she used to be even quicker but they just changed machines on her!
So on the way back to Santa Fe I started looking through all papers we had and all the lists of papers that we need. I noticed I needed three more forms notarized so we headed to our church and got that done. We got home after 3pm and there were more adoption things waiting in my mailbox: our psychological evaluation and some documents that I sent to the Virginia Secretary of State to be apostilled. So, I started making copies and got all the Texas documents ready to be shipped (we had our psych. eval. done in the Lone Star State). So, the evaluation, husband's and two older kid's birth certificates, and our marriage license are headed to Austin. One less thing to worry about.
Next big thing for me is to go to NM SOS and wait for 25ish documents to be apostilled. Johnna told me today that after fingerprinting, it takes anywhere between 1 and 3 weeks to get the final approval for the future kids' visas. It feels close. When I got the packet that described all that had to be done before we could send off our Dossier, I WAS OVER-WHELMED.  But, we are close. I know there could still be a few bumps. We might have to do a couple things over....but okay.
I want to hope this is going to keep flying by. This has been an amazing experience so far. God has already grown me in ways that I never thought I could grow and I know there is so much more in store. I can't wait to get an email with two or three little brown faces. I wonder if they will be smiling. Or if they will be pictured together. Or if they have their only toy in their little dirty hands. Their dirty little hands will be something that they will have in common with the current Grassmick brood.
I hope they like us. I know they will eventually. And I know it will take time.
I hope they latch on to our kids like they depend on each other now.
I hope one day we are one big happy family.

Villagers

Several people have asked me where we are financially and so I'm taking their advice and posting about it.
First and foremost, God has provided each step of the way. Every time we have needed money, we have had it. And we have spent close to $7,000 so far.
When we send in our dossier, which I am hoping will be the beginning of May, we will need to send in about $9,000. After that, we will start the "real" waiting. But, then once we get the call referring our children, we will need close to $15,000.
If God is leading you to be a part of this, we would love to hear from you. We would love for you to pray for our little "unknowns." And we would love your help in being one step closer to meeting our children.
It is a little weird reflecting on the cost of this thing. It took us almost no money to birth our first four children into the world. Between good insurance and home births, the cost was minimal. But now we are faced with a substantial amount. The saying goes that it takes a village to raise children. Jonathan and I have always subscribed to this way of thinking. We have always wanted love and training to come from as many different directions as possible for our children. This time we just have to call on our village a little earlier. With our biologicals, we didn't spread out the load until the kids were born. This time, we need our village to get them here. If you consider this mission worthy of your prayers and/or financial support, I'd love to promise that you won't be let down. I'd love to promise that our new kids will be invaluable additions to society, have grace with everyone they meet and love all well. But, I can't. What I know though, is that God is asking us to do this and I absolutely believe He has them picked for us already and we will give to them each day the love that has been given to us. And we will let you love on them too. And hopefully...prayerfully they will someday love you back with hearts that are full.
Please don't feel pressured to give. I know that God is faithful. And whether we are given all the funds or have to sell 14, 942 cupcakes, I know we will get there. And He is growing us each step of the way and we (the six current Grassmicks) are trying to soak in the journey.

Resting

I don't have much to say...again. But, each day I feel like I should write a post. I was likening my experience so far to my pregnancies while talking to my mom the other day. When you find out you're pregnant, it is all you can think about. You are super excited and spend all spare time reading up on it, figuring out your due date, and thinking of names. But after a couple of months, you can go an hour or two before you remember anew that you are going to have a baby. That is where I'm at. I'm not doing much paperwork each day now. I have almost finished my part of that and am now just waiting for our government to do their part. I'm still excited and I feel like God is preparing me more and more each day but it isn't keeping me up an night right anymore.
We received our appointment dates for our fingerprints for the new kids visas.  March 19 we will head to Albuquerque for that. I might make a zoo day out of it. After we get those done, I am hoping we can finish up this part by the end of April so that we can send off our Dossier.
God's timing is good. I am resting in that.