While I'm Waiting

Powerful song that God keeps bringing to me!

Emma...It's been a good 2 months!!!

Well...Let me brag a little on my Emma. I don't do it very often but she deserves it :)

On May 4, our had our Awana Awards Ceremony at church. Oh My Goodness. We had so many kids accomplish so much, it was our best awards yet! Emma finished her final Sparks book and made the 1500 points club. Since this was her last year is Sparks (sniff, sniff), she also received the Sparky Award which means she finished all three Sparks books. Awesome. The Word of God is indeed in her brain. She is so much better off than me!!

On May 7, we had Emma's dance recital. What an event. This year she took ballet, tap and jazz. So, we had three outfits and three different numbers. She was awesome. She also got perfect attendance for the first time. She was so excited about her trophy. Also, we found out that she made dance team. She is super excited about competing in dance this next year. I'm sure she'll do great.

On Thursday, June 2, she had her 2nd grade awards. We knew she made A/B honor roll so Phillip and I attended. She was super excited that we came. She is so proud of her medal for A/B honor roll.

On June 4, Emma ran in the Blueberry Festival 1 Mile Run in Alma, GA. She was amazing! She came finished in a little over 8 minutes winning1st Female and 4th overall. We are so proud of her. She said she LOVED it! Her dad came in 11th overall in the 5K and 3rd in his age group. I'm proud of him too. He's getting old you know :)

Emma's trophy is the biggest one.

This is just a few rambling of how proud I am of Emma. She is growing up so fast and I know God has something big in mind for this little girl. I think she's up to the challenge! 

Time is standing still...so it seems

You Carry Me Shannon J. Wexelberg

Insufficient for the task I will always be I can’t lift a single finger Without Your grace

To strengthen me Who am I to think I could hold my own When Heaven knows I’m not alone?

You carry me You point the way You steady my feet You hold my hand You are the Strength of who I am The world down here may think I’m strong But they’re wrong You carry me

There are times I’ve felt alone Seems I’ve called but no one came I couldn’t sense the hand of heaven But I know it was there just the same In the darkest moments of my life I believe You hold me tight

I need You, oh, I need You Like the flower needs the rain I need You, oh, I need You With every breath I take

As I seek to gracefully and faithfully walk this adoption road, I must admit there are times that I'm tired and frustrated. This is one of those times. God has shown Himself to us repeatedly during this LONG process but the wait continues. This morning, I woke up to Shannon Wexelberg's song, "You Carry Me". God always knows what we need when we need it. Thank you, Lord.

I am consistently trying to be positive throughout this process. I surely do not want to be a stumbling block to someone considering adoption. However, please understand that I, too, am human and do sometimes get frustrated and tired. It has become increasingly more difficult as the time get longer and longer. We try not to focus on the things we have missed with Jack and look forward to the things we having coming our way!

Pray with us still. We are still at IBESR, the step we should have exited in January. UGH! We've been told that we should exit any day now. In Haiti, that could be anytime. We are not anticipating anything. We are just trying to WAIT WELL. 

Thank you for praying and caring. Keep it up! One day, we will be able to rejoice as Jack is home!!!

Adoption Update

Well...it's been while. Life stays pretty crazy around here so just a quick adoption update today and more life updates this week (hopefully) :)

While in Haiti in December we were told that we would be exiting IBESR by the end of January. WooHoo, right. However, we received a call last week stating there are some question marks on Jack's family's psych evaluations that had to be completed. So...it's April and we are STILL IN IBESR. UGH! We have been told not to worry that this is not a problem, just questions that needed to be answered. So, our Haitian faciliator is working diligently on this. However, logistically, it's difficult. Pray that this can be completed ASAP.
During our conversation, our agency informed us that one of us needs to return to Haiti soon and sign papers at the embassy. After much questioning as to the reason for this (the cost to fly to Haiti is substantial-around $800), we discovered the only way for Jack to be an immediate citizen is for one or both the parent to sign papers at the US Embassy in Port Au Prince. So...Phillip will be making a very busy 1 day trip to Haiti soon. We are waiting on travel dates from our Haitian facilitator since she will meet Phillip at airport and take him to appointment at embassy. Ah...more waiting.
We are still 100% confident that God is in control. We are continuing to lean on him and learning a lot about Him and ourselves. Keep praying that our paperwork moves quickly.
Many of you have asked about finances. Yes, adopting is very expensive but God has shown us his provision over and over again. If you would like to contribute to our adoption expenses, you may use the link on the left to donate. More than financially though, we ask you to pray.

Pray for:

• paperwork to move quickly and Jack will be home before the summer is over!!!!
• God will continue to watch over Jack and our family during our time of waiting
• Phillip and I will continue to be positive and look for God in our time of waiting
• Emma will continue to be excited about her brother
• God to help Emma during this waiting--She finds this very difficult and gets very upset that Jack's not home
• the people that we come in contact with everyday--People don't understand what we are doing and can be very negative. Give us the words that encourage them. 
• for Jack and us as we prepare to adjust to our new family

Here's a few pictures from our trip in December...Enjoy

Life is GOOD!!

On October 30, Phillip and I journeyed to the GA/FL game in Jacksonville. For those of you who don't know, Phillip is a HUGE GA fan. Me...don't really care. But I offered to go with him and he jumped at it! Although, the end result wasn't what Phillip had hoped for, we had a GREAT time. Even I got into the game.



Waiting outside the stadium amid the chaos



Inside the stadium!!

November Update!! 

We have been rejoicing around the Herrington home. On November 6, 2010, Emma prayed and asked Jesus to be her boss and savior. What a glorious time. We were able to pray together as a family. She came to us and said, "Today's the day!" We have been encouraging her and making sure she understands. Her words to me, "I get it mom!" I love that girl!



We had a wonderful Thanksgiving. Busy...but good. We spend some time Saturday with my Granny B and Aunt Pat. We don't get to see them much so we enjoyed our visit.

My sister flew in from Chicago and spent a few days of one-on-one time with Emma. Emma had a blast.

They really are two peas in a pod...

We are hitting the Christmas season full force. Our calendars are full and our stress levels are high! However, we are committed to the true meaning of Christmas and will make sure that shines throughout all our activites.

Jack Update:

He's doing well. The orphanage has remained Cholera free and are taking lots of precautions to remain that way. A team from Jacksonville was at the orphanage the week of Jack's birthday so they celebrated with him and a few others that had birthdays that week. Pictures are supposed to be coming :)

We are just waiting, STILL. Due to the elections, paperwork seems to be at a standstill. We are hoping to at least find out what stage we are in before Christmas. However, we continue to be confident of the road God has us on. Even in the times when I'm discouraged, saddened and frustrated, I'm reminded that God is in control.  Keep praying!!! We are anxiously awaiting Jack's arrival.

We are headed to Haiti December 27-January 3. We can't hardly wait. The only thing that would make the trip AWESOME would be if Emma was with us but she's not ready for a trip that this yet. Maybe one day, she and Jack can go to Haiti together to offer the only true hope!! We will be traveling with a team of 10 from our church. Pray for our team as we continue to prepare for our journey.

But wait...if we were able to bring Jack home with us...that indeed would be the best trip ever. We are not counting on that but we are praying specifically for that. We are more and more reminded every day how big our God is. He is way bigger than some paperwork. If he wants Jack to come home with us in January...it will happen!!



Happy Birthday Jack

Happy Birthday Jack!

 Today Jack turned 3. We hoped he would have been home for this birthday but not yet. There will be many more celebrations with him later. There will be a HUGE one when he finally gets to come home.

Life goes on

Well, I must say that blogging is not my strongpoint. Sorry to those of you who wait for an update. Our life is crazy busy and I don't always find the time to blog. So...today Emma and I were having a PJ day while Phillip hunts the GREAT WHITE DEER but Emma decided to join him this afternoon. So, I have a little quiet time and I thought I would try to update a little.

Phillip had a great time in Brazil. He made it back without any sickness (WooHoo) and and partnership with a village there. Hopefully our church and another church in our area will try to make several trips a year to the village. I will try to get him to post on that trip. I know I will not be able to do it justice.

 

Emma had her first dance show of the year. We went to a local retirement community and performed for the nursing home residents. She did great. She is definitely more interested in jazz than anything else. She is loving dance. She like to move it...move it. Waiting to see what God has in store for our girl. She is indeed one of a kind :)

She also is developing a love of exploring. She wants to know how everything works. Yesterday she was analyzing the fire pit...notice she has on her BB gun goggles and her old bath robe. We just had to laugh. She is so FUNNY. Thank you Lord for reminding us everyday just how wonderful life is. We are so thankful for a healthy daughter who find life and love in everything. May we follow her example as we live out our lives everyday.

 I know what you are really looking for is an update on Jack. Well...no news is good news is our philosophy. We haven't heard anything in several weeks but Haitian communication is not timely or consistant.

I just found out today that Jack has a sponsor in GA. I was able to send him a facebook message today and we briefly communicated. So thankful that someone took his picture and sent him little gifts throughout the year. Here is a recent picture of him receiving one of those gifts. Maybe when he gets home, we can take him to that church and let them meet. The world is so small and God continues to remind us just how small the world is.

I'm sure you have heard of the Cholera outbreak in Haiti. Please continue to pray for this country. We heard from the missionaries at the orphanage this morning and they are all ok. They are taking the necessary precautions and inventoring all medications. There have been cases in a village called Arachaie which is about 15 minutes north of  the orphanage. There also has been one confirmed death in Cabaret which is about 5 minutes south of them. Please pray the children will remain healthy. I'm so thankful for the full-time missionaries that are now at the orphanage. I'm confident that God has give them the ability to handle all these situations . Thank you for praying!