AMAZING SURPRISES!!!

It has been a while since my last post.  I did this purposefully because I was waiting on some news to share with everyone!!! We have just been blown away by God's faithfulness!!

The paperwork process takes quite a while to complete before there is even any news about our new little boy God is bringing to our family.  We pray for him daily and cannot WAIT until God shows us who he is.  Undoubtedly he is a very precious boy!! :) Until then....our goal in our postings is three fold.

1.  To keep our family and friends updated on the process so you can all be praying for specific needs.

2.  To give God glory for each and every thing HE does through this process...no matter how little or big. There is power in the word of our testimony and we ALWAYS want to be faithful to share all He does for us!!

3.  To document this process so those that may be considering adoption will see all that it entails. We want to encourage others to step out and know...it's not too overwhelming to step out and do.

With that said....here are our latest most exciting updates!!! There are two extra special things we are SO EXCITED to share!!

HOME STUDY #1 - Complete
We completed our first home study last week.  We enjoyed visiting with our social worker and sharing the answers to the questions that is on our hearts!! She also checked out our home to make sure it was a good environment to bring in another child!! She also interviewed Sophie and Mark's parents. Not a bad visit at all!! We have 3 more visits to go!

MEDICALS COMPLETE:
We got our medical check ups complete! Went well.  Our tests came out good, Praise God!! (Aside from Mark REALLY needs to get his eyes checked out! LOL!) Jack and Peggy got their medicals done as well!! We'll have those back soon!!  Thank you all for praying!!

GOD'S PROVISION:
He STILL never ceases to amaze us in this process of provision.  Thank you again to you ALL who have purchased bracelets from us and who have donated to our adoption fund. Since my last post....we have had $1100 more been given towards our adoption expenses.  We are BLOWN AWAY!! Thank you all dearly for your hearts to help change the life of this precious little boy!!

OUR SURPRISE PROVISION: 
ANOTHER amazing thing...that I was waiting to tell you is news that we got from our social worker that just really overwhelmed us and once again helped us see this 2nd adoption has been in God's plan the whole time!! When we had our home study with our social worker...She told us that we still had money left in our account at Lifeline from when we adopted Sadie FIVE YEARS AGO!!! We still have $1800 - EIGHTEEN HUNDRED DOLLARS!!!! left in our account from when our adoption was complete last time.  WOW!!! That money was left over from the grant we received from Shaohannah's Hope (Stephen Curtis Chapmans adoption grant foundation).  Y'all...do you just know how unbelievable this is!?!? That money has been sitting there for five years...just waiting on us. We praise God with all that is in us for this.  Just a testimony of HIS faithfulness.  When HE gives the vision to do something...He has the plan for the provision!! We thank you ALL from the bottom of our hearts for being used by HIM for His master plan in our lives and in the life of our new little boy!! Isn't this so exciting!!!

A SNEAK PEEK:
Thank you all SO MUCH for praying for our friend Stephanie Presley as she works on the artwork for our children's book we will be selling this fall to help us raise funds! She sent us her first piece for the book and we are SO EXCITED!!! She has done an amazing job with it. What a special artist she is!!  Its not 100% complete yet as she will be tweaking this a bit....but we were SO EXCITED to show you all.  Let us know what you think!!

Stephanie is a HUGE blessing!! She is donating all her time and energy into this artwork for this book!! We think she is doing an AMAZING JOB!!! We are praying and believing this process will be a blessing for her too!! If you get a chance...drop by her Facebook page - https://www.facebook.com/stephanie.presley1 and leave her a note of encouragement! (You don't have to be friends with her to leave her a message!! Just send her a private message!!)  I know she would be SO BLESSED to hear from you!! It would mean SO MUCH to their family to know so many people are praying for them!! As I stated before...They live in the United Kingdom ~ Wales as missionaries.  We are so blessed to call them friends!!

We are continuing to pray for her as she continues to pray through the artwork and complete it for the book!! We know God will use every stroke she makes to make this artwork amazing!! It will be truly inspired by HIM!! We are very excited about this and couldn't wait to share it with you!!

ONE MORE THANKS!
We will keep you all posted as we get more info and as more things happen.  We are just thrilled to be on this journey and that we are able to share it with each one of you.  If you have ANY QUESTIONS...please let us know.  We LOVE to share about our process and would love to talk to any of you!! Love you all dearly!! Thank you again for your prayers and support.  You will NEVER KNOW how much it means to us!! We love you all dearly!! Have a wonderful week!
Blessings,
Mark & Buffi