If Home Is Where Your Heart Is. . . .

The Minister said yesterday that there will be NO MORE adoptions from New Hope Homes. I'm not sure what to do with that information right now. Just pray for wisdom. Thanks!

Please pray! I got an email this weekend saying that I could no longer adopt Lionel due to some complications with the orphanage and its paperwork. I believe that this can be worked around if we get creative and work really hard--and if I make an extra trip over there in the very near future. Please pray that if this is a speed bump, that we can solve the problem quickly and clearly. Please pray that if this is a stop sign, that I will be open to God's will for our family and that I won't push through the situation as is my tendency to do. Pray for wisdom for me and for the people in Rwanda making all of the decisions! Blessings!

After only two weeks, we got our I-171H back from USCIS! Unbelievable! This document will allow us to bring Lionel back into the U.S. with us! Yipee! (It actually approved us to bring three children back with us!!!) So, we are getting a step closer every day! God is SO good!

This is where my dossier is right now. This is the Rwandan Embassy in Washington D.C. Prayerfully, Kaliza is looking through it right now and she will give me the green light to send it to the Minister in Rwanda. Kaliza is an amazing Rwandan woman who works in the embassy in D.C. I got the chance to meet her last fall and she is wonderful! Ryan Hanlon took all of my documents to the U.S. Secretary of State and then he dropped them off at the Embassy. Once Kaliza is finished with them, Ryan will mail them back to me and then I can send them to Rwanda with Becca Nimrod when she goes there next weekend! Please continue to pray that we can go get Lionel BEFORE CHRISTMAS!!! We really want to spend Cabo and Christmas WITH him!!!

Well, things are trackin' along. I am officially finished with my paperwork! Tomorrow we are headed to Kansas City to get our USCIS fingerprints--our immigration paperwork to bring Lionel back to the states. After that, I'll send all of my papers to the Rwandan Embassy in DC to get certified and then off to Kigali with them!!! Today I got copies of my marriage license and passports and everything "little" needed for my dossier. I'm finished. I feel like our Christmas dream is slowly slipping away, but God is still good and He is still in control. The prayers of children. . .we are still praying fervently to be able to spend Christmas in Cabo with Lionel! Please continue to pray that with us! Thanks for following our journey. . .even though it seems slow and boring right now!

Well, it is just over eight thousand miles from the Braners to Lionel. We're going to start a new fund raiser to help us get our boy. The Braner family is going to run/bike/walk/hop/skip "to" Lionel. We're going to log our miles over the next few months and anyone can sponsor us on our trip!!! Please help! This will be a fun thing that we can do as a family and as a "community." You can help by logging miles for us or by "sponsoring" our miles. Maybe you want to sponsor Andy's biking miles or Dax's jumping miles or whatever. . .or maybe you want to walk some of our 8,000 plus miles for us! Any way you help is wonderful! Let's "go" get our boy!!!

Well, our Home Study is finished (again) and I am mailing it to Kansas City today (if I can find a check book)!!! It is finished! I'm so glad! Once we get it back, I'll ship everything to the Rwandan Embassy in DC and then get it to Kigali!!! Meanwhile we'll have to get our USCIS Immigration fingerprints and papers, but I'm going to do that while everything is in Rwanda! Our big step is done! We're on our way. . .we're coming to get you, Lionel!!!