Final Post

I know it has been months since you have had an official update on our adoption, so here goes. Our final decision was to close out the adoption all together. I sent the final bit of paperwork to our caseworker at Gladney to give them permission to pull our files. We feel that we could not handle a third child financially....and to tell the truth I think the weight has been lifted from both of our shoulders. I'm not sure why God lead us in this direction....was He testing our obedience? That is the only answer I can come up with....it is a question I will be sure to ask Him.

So now we are closing this chapter of our lives and starting a whole new one with the child that God has/will bless us with.

Thanks for following,
Misty

P.S. Feel free to follow my present blog..... http://texasgirlwifemother.blogspot.com/

A little twist to the adventure

First of all I want to update you on the hurricane situation. Austin got nothing from it...no rain or even winds. It is a blessing that we were spared but we could have used the rain. Some of our schools are still housing some evacuees but for the most part most have left Austin. We had a total of 6000-7000 evacuees. Our thoughts and prayers to those families whose lives were so greatly impacted by that massive hurricane.

Now on to the twist of our adoption adventure. We have still yet to hear from our case worker from Gladney. Well it is only Tuesday so hopefully we will hear from them by the end of the week because our plans have changed for the time being.

Sunday night we discovered that we are expecting!!! We are estimating to be 4 weeks along. My first doctor appointment is October 10th and we get to do a sonogram. There are no words to describe how we are truly feeling right now...our feet have not touched the ground since we found out. We have been trying for 4 years and had given up and I think our family had given up as well. Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers. We are praying that this little one makes it though these beginning stages of life.

My plan is to put this blog on hold for the time being but I will update my personal blog that I have started. The link to it is on the right hand side of the page and is listed with all the other blogs we are following. God is great! Good things really do come to those who wait.

Blessings,
Shane and Misty

Hurricane Ike...and other stuff

As you may have heard the Texas Gulf coast is hunkering down for the arrival of hurricane Ike, which should make landfall sometime tonight. Austin is preparing for the arrival of thousands of evacuees (I heard close to 30,000 but I could be wrong). Austin isn't exactly out of the woods for some damaging winds...we are expecting 40-60 mph winds depending on which side of the city you are on. We live in the western part of the city and are expecting winds up to 40 mph. Other Texas towns/cities are expecting 74+ mph winds which is considered a category 1 hurricane. Those areas include Houston, Bryan, and all the way up to just south of Corsicana. Please pray for safe travel for those evacuating and also for the brave ones (brave??...questionable) riding out the storm.

Unfortunately we have no adoption news. We are hoping to hear from our case worker next week.

Last night we attended a Scout meet at Jeff's school. We all love the outdoors and thought this would be the thing to get him involved in. At first he didn't really care to join until he heard about the camping trips....and shooting a BB gun. Boys and guns....I think it's in their blood. We learned (or at least I did) that the Scouts are not a bashful organization when it comes to morals, God, physical fitness, parent involvement...you know, all the values that America used to have...ha ha. Our first meeting is this Monday. We are all looking forward to getting started; especially Jeff. He can't wait to get his uniform!

Thanks for reading!

Shane and Misty

Confirmation from Gladney

We received an email from Gladney confirming that they have received our file from Commonwealth! We are looking forward to hearing from our new case worker.
Stay tuned!

Shane and Misty

Thankful

We received confirmation from Gladney that the visit to Taiwan was a success! They visited with all 3 orphanages and each is willing to do business with them. Praise God!
All families that have submitted information release forms to Commonwealth will have their files transferred to Gladney. Gladney is going to look through all the documents in every file (95 of them to be exact) and verify where everyone is in the process. Our social worker from Gladney should contact us in a few weeks.

What all this means for us is that we will pick up right where we left off with Commonwealth. We have not lost any time or money in this agency transition. What started out as a disaster has turned into a blessing. I don't think it could've happened at a better time for us. Our paperwork has already been sent to Cathwel (the orphanage we are adopting from in Taiwan) and we are just waiting for a referral. Many families have paperwork scattered everywhere and uncertain of who has what and what they need to do in order to move forward. Please pray for them!

Blessings,

Shane and Misty

Next conference call

Well I guess we will find out how the trip to Taiwan went...the conference call is tomorrow. I'll let you know how it goes!

Misty

Waiting...

...and waiting....and waiting. You think we would get used to this waiting thing. :)

Waiting for the results from the trip to Taiwan....waiting for a referral....waiting for our file to be transferred from Commonwealth to Gladney....waiting for a loan confirmation to allow me to register for school...

On a side note, Jeffrey's first day of school was yesterday; 2nd grade! Our baby is no longer a baby! He has been talking a lot about his new brother/sister during the past few days. He has been excited about the adoption since we first started talking about it almost 2 years ago. Has it been that long already??

Hopefully we will have an actual update soon!

Shane and Misty