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Waiting is hard. I have never been very good at it. I grow restless and weary and my faith can easily waver.<\/p>\n
Our hope and desire was to have our dossier completed and on it’s way to Bulgaria before Thanksgiving. We were ready to take a deep breathe and rest in knowing that on our end of things, we had completed everything needed to bring us to the referral phase.
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\nWe are now into December and we are still waiting for paperwork from Bulgaria that is needed to move forward in submitting our dossier. There is nothing we can be “doing”, only waiting. Yet this period of waiting is only a taste of the next phase of our adoption process. Once our dossier is submitted and approved, the real waiting begins. We will then wait for our referral, which is when Bulgaria matches us with a child. The timeline for this is 12-24 months on average.<\/p>\n
My desire during this time of waiting is that I may wait well. That I can stay present and focused in the here and now. To be aware of the many opportunities for growth in myself, my husband and our children. To remain awake and alive to the wonder and beauty in the moments and milestones. Yes, I long to hold my baby girl. To wrap her safe and snug in my arms, welcome her home at last and never let go. Until this day, I must remind myself continually to give her back to Jesus. She is His, today and always.<\/p>\n
During this season of Advent I am reminded that in waiting we can have hope that God is able to work in miraculous ways beyond our greatest expectations. We can have complete faith in a God who takes the weak, the small, the discarded, the forgotten and He brings forth hope, strength and eternal life. He gives us Jesus, our Savior. We need not wait. He is with us and He is for us.<\/p>\n
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. Ephesians\u202c \u202d3\u202c:\u202d20\u202c NIV<\/p>\n
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We invite you to partner with us in helping us meet our financial goal and bring us closer to welcoming our daughter home. We have an Adopt Together<\/a> profile and their mission is to help provide a way to give a financial gift to an adopting family and receive a tax write off.<\/p>\n In the month of December, any Adopt Together donation<\/a> will qualify for a chance to receive a beautiful handcrafted, “Cradle to the Cross” candle holder<\/a> that journeys through both Advent and Lent. We will also included Ann Voskamp’s newest book, an advent devotional entitled, Unwrapping the Greatest Gift: A Family Celebration of Christmas<\/a> . Waiting is hard. I have never been very good at it. I grow restless and weary and my faith can easily waver. Our hope and desire was to have our dossier completed and on it’s way to Bulgaria before Thanksgiving. We were ready to take a deep breathe and rest in knowing that on our […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"footnotes":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2YMk4-bD","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.magnoliaheart.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/721"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.magnoliaheart.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.magnoliaheart.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.magnoliaheart.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.magnoliaheart.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=721"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.magnoliaheart.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/721\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":743,"href":"https:\/\/www.magnoliaheart.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/721\/revisions\/743"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.magnoliaheart.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=721"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.magnoliaheart.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=721"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.magnoliaheart.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=721"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"http:\/\/ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com\/e\/ir?t=ablfi-20&l=as2&o=1&a=1414397542\")
We hope you will Give Today<\/a> to bring us financially closer.<\/h4>\n
We will draw one donor’s name on the night of December 31st<\/h4>\n
\nWe are ever grateful for your continued support, encouraging words and many prayers. Thank you for joining us on this amazing journey.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"