Friends and Family, Please check out the link in my sidebar titled
kevstac-ouradoptionjourney. They are raffling an ipod Touch to raise money for two plane tickets! They have raised $1,454 so far. Check it out. I'm so excited for them! I'm trying to get one set up. Every little bit helps!






Good Morning,

It is technically morning here in Illinois. It is 12:01 Monday! I couldn't sleep. I think the time change along with consuming Dr.Pepper at 7:30 p.m. isn't helping. I don't know why I do that. Dr.Pepper sounded so good. We went to bed and of course Steve was snoring in minutes. I didn't even try.

We continue to look at pictures of our referral. I'm not kidding, I think we have opened that email about a hundred times between the three of us! I found myself walking by the computer and I would see her picture up on the screen and Alexa would confess that she opened it up. Steve woke early Sunday morning and was watching TV, I was prepared to turn on the computer to see her face again and the computer was already on. I thought I forgot to turn it off and Steve said that he had turned it on already. It is slowly sinking in. Sunday afternoon Alexa was at the computer desk writing. When I came up on her she covered up her letter. I asked her, "What are you doing?" She said she was writing a letter to her sister. She is going to be a great big sister. Already welcoming her and giving her much needed advice, I'm sure.

I wanted to make some clarifications. We will not need to make travel plans in the next three weeks. It looks like the I604 that is now required is a blessing in disguise. The I604 is a thorough investigation on the family of the child. We were told that it could take up to eight weeks. They want to be sure that there are no family members who want the child. They have to be sure that the child was rightfully relinquished. Again, this is due to all the "stealing" of children. So the I604 will give us some much needed time to prepare for that second trip.

In my very first entry I told you that I wanted to share the ups and downs. It seemed that I only had "ups" to share in the beginning. However, we didn't have to wait too long for a "down". Even with the downer we were soon rejoicing with the news of our referral! I told you that I felt strongly about God wanting us to trust him. When we got the call about the referral, we didn't know what to think or how to feel. We were in some ways panicked. As I mentioned before, we really thought that we would have to wait like everyone else. We actually wanted to wait because we felt we needed the extra time. I think the recent news about this second trip sucked us dry. I felt a bit jipped because my emotions were already spent. When our caseworker said, "Your dossier looks great and oh by the way, we have a little girl for you to consider," we panicked. There really is no other word for it. My pulse picked up and Steve's voice got a little shaky on the phone. I swear we must have been a sight that night!! lol!! In the midst of it all, I kept hearing the words, "trust me." So this is what God was preparing us for, the second trip, the referral, and the extra expenses all rolled up in a matter of days. I remember praying asking God to show me the words "trust me" all week if that was in fact his message to me. For six days, I saw "trust me" everywhere. It kinda reminded me of Selma Hayek in Fools Rush In. Of course not the Selma Hayek part, but the "signs" part. I didn't see the words "trust me" on Saturday, but every time a doubt popped in, I remembered those words. Every time I let the hundred "what ifs" in, I remembered "trust me." So that is our motto: Trust Him

What a crazy week for the Rain family. Unfortunately I never did get to take those pictures of Alexa. It went from school, to "hello, we have your daughter for you," to tap class, to get ready for the dance, to look at pictures, to pick up Al from dance, to look at pictures some more. Crazy! Thanks for riding with us. Again, as soon as things are official I will post pictures. Thank you so much for your prayers. We are half way there!
Love and God Bless