All our clearances are finally in!  The home study is complete!!

  Next step:  home study will be sent for state approval.  Jim and I will also be doing 12 hours of adoption training at our agency over the next two Saturdays.  I'm excited to learn more and to meet some other waiting parents!

On another note, a rep from our agency is going to China next week, and we are allowed to send along a gift for our sweet girl!  So today I'm printing out a few pictures of our family for a little photo album.  Since we are still far from travel and meeting Caylie, the agency rep assured me that the orphanage director will keep it for her until it's closer to the time.  (If she saw it now and got familiar with our faces, I'm afraid she would think we were never coming, as it will still be several months yet.)  We're also going to send a little lovey animal for her, and maybe some treats for her group.  Yay!  I'm excited.  :)

Just a reminder:  our fundraisers are still going!  See links at top right.  Thank you!

Beautiful Colorado

Our family moved to Colorado in 1996 when Jim started working for Promise Keepers.  The first time I was ever in this beautiful state, I was in total awe of the mountains and blue sky.  I remember thinking, "Why do the people who live here not even seem to notice the scenery?  How can they not stop and look every single time they go outside?"  I asked God to not ever let me take the majesty of His creation for granted.  I never wanted to stop "seeing" it!  We've lived here 16 years, and so far I'm still entranced by those mountains every single day!

Yesterday our family took a "Fall Break" from school and went to Mt. Evans, west of Denver. This time of year the road is closed to the top (Mt. Evans Road is the highest auto road in the US), but we got as far as Echo Lake.  Here are some pics of our day!

Operation Christmas Child!

On Sunday I had the privilege of speaking to our church about Operation Christmas Child.  This is a ministry that has been close to my heart, although it looks a bit different to me this year.  This year, when I see the OCC promotional video, I'm thinking of my little girl in China - an orphan who has lived her whole life in an institution without the hope of Jesus or the happiness of opening a present.  There are millions like her in the world right now, who have never known the joy of Christmas or the love of a family or even one single gift.  And yet there are so many of US who have SO MUCH.  We can be the hands and feet of Jesus, bringing light and hope to an otherwise dark existence.

This year is also different for me in that I'm not talking to a classroom of elementary children about Christmas boxes.  I have loved seeing my students' faces the last several years, as they learn about children much less fortunate than they are, and go to great lengths to figure out ways to help.  We would talk about all the things that they have that other children don't . . . warm homes, plenty of food, clean clothes, lots of toys, parents who care for them.  And then I would ask them how many presents they thought they would receive for Christmas.  They usually had an idea, since they'd started their Christmas lists long before! I would ask them to think about a child who had NONE of that.  Not just no presents, but NONE of the above things, either.  Then we would talk about the MOST important thing that they had, that others did not . . . the hope of Jesus!  We talked about how important it was to tell others about Jesus, when they otherwise may not ever hear.  

 We thought about ways that they could afford to put together a Christmas box.  Some would tell mom and dad that they would give up one present so that the money could be spent on a Christmas box.  Some would ask mom and dad (or grandma and grandpa, or neighbor) to suggest chores that they could do to earn money.  We talked about other things we could give up, even temporarily, to save money for this project.  One little boy told me that he was willing to give up soda for the next couple of months and just drink water so that there would be money to bless another child.  I encouraged them in all kinds of ways to give of themselves to help another less fortunate.  A couple of the parents weren't happy about this.  They didn't get it.  But the children did get it, and I'm so glad for that.  It was always my heart to see my students learn to follow Jesus, and to live their lives as an offering to Him.

Jesus doesn't call us to give out of our abundance.  He calls us to give sacrificially.  (Luke 21:1-4)  He says that if we have two coats, we should give one to the person who has none.  (Luke 3:11).  He says that because He has freely given to us, we also must freely give.  (Matthew 10:8).  He says that whatever we do (or don't do) to the least of these, we do (or don't do) to Him. (Matthew 25:31-46)  I've decided that I don't ever want to meet one of the "least of these" little children in Heaven one day, and have to say "I'm sorry you never got a Christmas present, but I just couldn't give up my Starbucks for a couple of days."  What a heartbreaking thought.

Please pray about what God would have you do for children this Christmas season.  If He asks you to do something that seems hard, He WILL make a way for you to do it!  And what joy you will feel in that obedience and blessing of others.

 If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him?  ~ I John 3:17

A Snowy Day and Other Stuff

Yes.  There is snow on the ground in the Mile High City.

I was just reminded of a day in September, 1996, when Jim was living and working here in Colorado, and the kids and I were still in Indiana.  Jim called me to say that it had taken him over an hour to get to work that day.  I asked why, and he said, "Because of all the snow."  That was the day I knew my life was about to change, haha!  But, as Colorado weather goes, the sun is already brightly shining, so the snow should be gone soon, and the forecast calls for 70* by Monday!

Please pray today, friends, that my Colorado Bureau of Investigation (CBI) clearance would come through TODAY.  Jim and I sent our finger prints in in early August, and they were logged in to CBI on August 8.  We found out four weeks later that Taylor also needed to do this, as he is over 18, and we sent his in almost a month later.  (Arrgh.)  Apparently CBI runs very slowly, and as of last week, they had only processed prints from the end of July.  I called to ask if they could pull Taylor's and put it with ours, and process them at the same time.  They assured me they could.  They assured me they would start processing ours that day, in fact.  When I hadn't heard from our agency that they'd received our clearances by last Friday, I called CBI again on Monday.  This time the person I talked to couldn't even see that our prints had ever even been received!  (Arrgh again!)  I told her who I'd talked to previously, and she was able to confirm with them that yes, they were being processed, and that Taylor's was with ours.  On Wednesday our agency rep let me know that Taylor and Jim's clearances had come through, but not MINE!  What???  (Serious AARRRGH!!)    So please . . . pray with us that someone does their job today and gets it to our agency today, and that the FBI clearances would not take nearly as long as CBI is taking!  Our little girl is in an orphanage.  We want her to be in our arms, instead.  She has lost so much already.

I am so grateful for so many adoptive moms who have come along beside me and encouraged me in this journey.  It's amazing to see how God has worked in their families, as they traversed through the difficult waiting periods, the fundraising, and the paperchasing, and after they brought their precious children home.  They understand my sadness and frustration at times, and remind me that God is working even when I can't see it, and that what He's called us to He WILL do!  Thank you, friends.

Please remember that we still have our two wonderful fundraisers going!  See the links on the right hand side bar!  The coffee shop will run until we go to China.  The shirts will be available till November 22.  Please be sure on the shirts that you order from the Fundrasing Link AND that you put in our Family Code:  ALTMAN927.  Thank you so very much, friends, for your support.  We are trusting God to meet every financial obligation necessary to bring our Caylie home.  

~ Joy, whose sons are making her listen to Christmas music!  :D

Preparing for our Caylie

As frustrated as I get sometimes at how long things take in the adoption process (TWO MONTHS for Colorado Bureau of Investigation clearance??), I know that God is using this time to prepare us for our little one's arrival into our family.  We need to be using these weeks and months to strengthen our marriage, educating ourselves on parenting a child who has been institutionalized her whole life, readying our children for a sibling who does not look, act, or sound like them, and above all, praying for our new daughter's heart and spirit as she waits to come "home".

When we arrive in China to bring Caylie home, we will have been preparing for that day for months.  We will have looked at her photos for months, prayed for her for months, prepared our home for her, bought her things she will need, and will be over-the-moon excited.  However, she will not have been doing any of those things.  She may be told that she is being adopted, or she may not.  We plan to send a photo album of our home and family, but we cannot know for sure that she will receive it before "Gotcha Day".  She will not be happy to suddenly torn away from everything she knows.  She will not be happy to go with complete strangers.  She will be sad and grieving and afraid.  She does not realize what she does not have - the love and security of a family.  Soon she will know . . . after we have gained her trust and allowed her to feel loved and secure with us, and have shown that we will meet her needs and will not leave her.  But that will take some time.

Sometimes I read stories of previously institutionalized children who have had a very difficult time bonding and attaching to their new family.  The parents feel hopeless and helpless, and wonder if the whole thing was a mistake.  These stories area absolutely heartbreaking to me, and sometimes make me very afraid.  However, I keep my hope in a great big God, who, not only has called us to this journey, but will make a way, even through the hard things.  He knows my heart to love this little girl.  He knows my fears about the future.  And He knows her heart, as well.  He knows where she has been every day of her life, including the day she was left by her parents in a place where she would be found.  He was watching and loving her, even then.  He knows what she needs.  He knows the healing and redemption that will come to her heart, mind, and spirit.  I must lean on that hope and trust Him to not only see us through what is to come, but to bring it with joy and restoration and grace.

Please pray with us that God would be working in our family as we prepare for our little girl's homecoming.  Please pray that Jim and I would be ready for whatever she needs.  Pray that even while we are waiting, that God would be working in her heart, mind, and spirit, and that He would begin to bring the healing of her hurts and fears even now.  Thank you, friends.

A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows,

    is God in his holy dwelling.

⁶ 

God sets the lonely in families.

~ Psalm 68:5,6

Little Girl Clothes :)

I haven't bought little girl's clothes in many years.  And I don't know exactly what size Caylie will be wearing when we bring her home.  But I couldn't help myself the other day when I was in Walmart.  They are clearancing out all the summer clothes . . . how could I not take advantage of that??  :)