our Christmas surprise

I think I could have kissed our mailman on Thursday...on the cheek of course! He brought something in the mail that caused me to literally squeal "thank you Jesus!" and jump up and down.

I am so giddy with excitement as I share the news that we have moved one step further along in our adoption journey; we got our approval letter from USCIS! It reads "notice of favorable determination concerning application..." and then goes on to say that we have been determined able to furnish proper care to an orphan, with other details of what steps to take next.

A different kind of Christmas

**We found out Thursday that it wasn't going to work out for us to participate this year. We know God has a perfect plan and pray some time in the future we are able to serve Him through the foster care system in this way. 

This year for Christmas, our family is planning to do something different.

After some friends told us about how they participated in a program called "home for the holidays" with DHS over Thanksgiving, we have decided we would love to have this opportunity as well!
In both Oklahoma and Cleveland county, there are many kids in DHS custody, and lots of these kids are in a shelter right now and will be for Christmas, which means they are not living with a family yet.

"New" news

I was on facebook last night and came across an article published in Haiti describing some of the new laws they are hoping to apply there regarding adoption. The laws right now in Haiti state that a couple should be married for 10 years and be over age 35, but under the new laws, a couple will be required to be married for only 5 years and be 30 years of age. This is excellent news for our family, since we have been married about 5 1/2 years and are both 31 years old!