Project Life {week 26}

I still can't get over how amazingly easy this Digital Project Life stuff is!

Last week was a good one. Lots of memories being made and documented. We were able to see some more pictures of our little one last week and they just MELTED our hearts.Unfortunately, we can't share her photos on social media, so you'll have to imagine her sweet little face under the big LOVE sticker! ;)

I think the amazing part about our photo album is that when our little Sweet P comes home, she'll be able to see that she was part of our life even before she got here. That we loved her, thought about her, prayed for her, and already considered her family.

With that being said, I am trying my best to remember that I have two little lives right here before my very eyes (three, if you count my handsome hubby) to be pouring my time, energy, and love into. I don't want to be so consumed in the adoption process that I miss out on these special moments as a family of four. It's a tough balance to maintain though when a piece of your heart is about 9,000 miles away.

Well, I've rambled enough. Here it is, week 26 of our Project Life album:

Project Life {Week 25}

Some of you may know how much I adore project life. I started documenting last year and it felt SO good to finally be printing my own photos and actually putting them in an album.

This year I've noticed that I've been slacking when it comes to printing photos which causes me to be behind in my album. I'm also not that great when it comes to planning out my layouts, so I end up printing waaay too many photos than I actually need which isn't a terrible thing, but not super cost effective. I'm also really terrible at filling out  the journaling cards. I always write stuff down in my planner, but since I'm bad at planning out my layouts, I just always think "I'll journal later." Ya, not really working out for me. 

I needed a solution to continue Project Life without wasting money and getting super behind. Luckily, there is such a thing as DIGITAL Project Life. I think I have found a new love. Last night I actually completed last week's spread...complete with journaling! I love that I can visually see everything laid out and can make changes topictures...without even printing them.

My plan is to print each page on 12x12 paper every couple of months and add them in my existing PL album. At first I was annoyed that my album would be half physical and half digital, but then I realized at least it will get finished. The memories will be documented. That's all that matters! 

The fun part is I can easily share my spreads with everyone! 

So, here it is...week 25:

Oh hey, dossier.

I'm sorry. I couldn't resist a cheesy title. 

For those of you not familiar with adoption, I'd like to introduce to you the dossier (dos-ee-ey).

Dossier is a fancy French word for pain in the booty...not really, I kid! Basically, a dossier is a compilation of a bunch of authenticated and translated legal documents which are used to process an adoption. We had to gather birth certificates, medical exams, bank letters, financial information, tax forms, employment verification, police clearance, family photos, and a bunch of other stuff that I won't totally bore you with. Gathering and creating all the documents needed is definitely a lot of work. These papers literally took some serious blood (lab tests), sweat, tears, and major prayers.

It was SUCH a relief to finally be done collecting everything and begin making all the necessary copies to send it off to our agency (who then sends it to the orphanage)! In order to send the dossier to our agency, we needed to make 5 additional copies of our original. That's A LOT of paper!

Well, the good news is that a copy of our dossier arrived at our little Sweet P's orphanage late last week! (Sidenote: I figured out the cutest little nickname for our girl that incorporates her beautiful Indian name! She will still be Maya, but I also want her current name to be a part of her when she comes home. That's a whole separate blog post!) 

Please pray with us that the people at the orphanage who will essentially be "meeting" us on paper, will see just how perfectly Sweet P will fit into our family. We are also praying that they will send us electronic versions of her medical reports AND the originals so we can really get the process going. My mama heart is also dying to know her height and weight! It's so hard to try and guess how big she is just from pictures! Right now, we are stuck waiting for these documents. So when you think of us, please lift us up in prayer. We would really appreciate it!

We are MATCHED!!!

The day has come! I have been waiting to finally share this amazing news with you!

We have been matched AND we have match approval!

The Lord is so faithful. We now get the joy of looking staring at the sweetest face that we have been praying for daily for almost a year now. We loved this girl before we even saw her face, but now our love for her is even deeper. 

She is real.

She is beautiful.

She is chosen.

She is loved.
She is Maya.

On May 1st, about 24 HOURS after we were approved on the database to be matched with a child, we got THE CALL! I was completely shocked that it happened so soon! We took the weekend to pray about sweet little "P" (her beautiful Indian name remains a secret, but this will be her middle name) because there were a few unknowns about her "special need". We had a teeny tiny bit of information and a few pictures. That's it. But, after a lot of praying and conversation, we felt such peace about moving forward. We really felt so strongly that she was our daughter that we emailed our caseworker on Saturday and told her to we wanted to be matched with her. She matched us first thing Monday, May 4th. There are so many amazing stories and evidences of God's fingerprints that are all over this (again, I'll eventually be able to share, but we aren't able to right now). In the meantime, we have been waiting for match approval before we shared the big news on our blog and social media! I have been DYING to actually publish this post...it's been a draft for quite a while!

So now, I am finally able to hit that "publish" button!! Yesterday we got the approval needed to really begin the process of bringing our daughter home!

Unfortunately, we aren't able to share her sweet face with you or any information abut our precious girl on social media at this point in the process, so you'll have to trust us when we tell you that she is the SWEETEST little 2.5 year old South Ind*an princess. :)

I'm sure there will be a lot of questions after this blog post. And don't worry, I'll go back and share the referral story here in the next few weeks!

But, I'll clear up some common questions right now:

When will you get to bring her home?
Well, we aren't sure. Not anytime soon though. Adoption in Ind*a is a long process. Maya is also in a state that requires two trips. Both Mark and I need to be present for court, then return for pick up. We're thinking that court and pickup will be toward the end of 2016.

What's next?
Right now we are waiting for her orphanage to send us the official referral documents. Once we get those, we'll sign them and send them back. That will get the process rolling on the Ind*a side! The basic overview is:

ARC (state level approval)
NOC (federal approval)
Travel for Court date
Verbal court orders
Written court orders
Orphanage applies for daughter's passport
Return for pickup
Home Sweet Home!

Yes, we have a long way to go.

As always we have a few specific prayer requests:

• Obviously, continue to be in prayer for little Maya "P"
• Pray that we would receive the referral documents quickly.
• Pray that those reviewing our dossier would see how perfectly this little girl will fit into our family and just how much she is loved.
• That we would keep our eyes fixed on Jesus throughout this process.