NOC... What?!?

    

I prayed.

She called.

HE answered.

This whole adoption process has been very complicated- half the time I don’t even understand all the acronyms and steps. But, this last completed step has me stunned.

Last Monday (eight days ago- that’s important!!), we received our Article 5 from the US Embassy in India. This allowed us to wait for our NOC (No Objection Certificate). That document allows us to begin the court process, which allows us to TRAVEL, which allows us to bring HER home!

Normally, it takes months between receiving the Article 5 and NOC. According to our official approval guidelines, “Please note that this approval could take anywhere from 3-9 months or longer.” Ours took eight days, EIGHT DAYS!

For some reason, perhaps the Holy Spirit, I prayed that we would receive the NOC this week. And I just received a call. A call that would have no other purpose that to say our NOC was sent.

Why am I surprised? Why am I in shock? Maybe I didn’t believe God could answer that gigantic request. Again, I’m humbled by small faith. And I’m overwhelmed by His grace to overflow His blessing upon our family in spite of this momma’s mustard-seed-sized faith.

“For truly, I say to you, if you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you.”
 Matthew 17:20

So where are we at now? We are officially in the court process! After receiving verbal approval from the judge, we get to travel to India, meet our sweet girl and bring her home. When? Great question. Here’s what our approval timeframe says:

“Each judge and court system in India will have varying timeframes for when they schedule appointments and how long approvals take. In most cases the court process lasts 5-6 months. In roughly 25% of cases the court process will exceed this timeline.

In some rare cases, an adoption petition can be reviewed and approved in one court hearing.”

So, guess what I’m praying? Yes, I’m praying we will be that “rare case”. One court hearing and one great-big approval! I can’t wait to tell you’ve when we’ve received THAT CALL.

Until then, we will be transitioning Brooks to a bed, setting "B3" up in Blaire’s room, and quickly restocking our baby girl toys. This to do list is so much better than paperwork!

Keep praying for God to accomplish big things with us

So grateful,

Melissa

Happy #WAD!

Happy World Adoption Day!

I have so enjoyed seeing everyone/s sharpied on smiley faces! I thought today is a great day for a Lycan adoption update.

Instead of asking for more donations, I want to brag about how good God is and how generous people are!! Last week, we literally had $98 in our adoption savings account. After one donation from one of my old third grader’s parents, a huge grant check, some large Noonday trunk shows and a successful pancake breakfast at our church, we have almost enough for two plane tickets to India!!! Praise the Lord!  We are overwhelmed and so humbled.  We are hoping that money won’t stay in our account too long and that we will be booking tickets soon.

Our  beautiful pancake breakfast setup. Here are our amazing servers! 

David, one of the many amazing men flipping pancakes for our breakfast!! 

We frequently get asked where we are in the process. Right now, we are awaiting our NOC (No Objection Certificate). To put it simply, this is just one more level of approval that we need. It can take anywhere from 3-9 months or longer.

After we receive our NOC, we will await court approval. The purpose of court is to legally finalize and confirm us as the legal guardians of our daughter. It can take 5-6 months or longer for us to receive our court appointment. The court date determines when we travel.

So, if you do the math, we could travel in 8-15 months. Pretty vague and broad, right?  We are obviously praying for the short end of that timeframe, but we have to be prepared for the worst. Our daughter will be turning one in February of 2016, so we’re hoping we can bring her home close to her birthday.  

Thank you for all the questions. And thank you for all the donations!

And thank you for praying. Continue to pray that we will receive our NOC soon and that our court process will not take the full 6 months. Additionally pray for our patience. Pray for our daughter’s orphanage. We are thankful for them, and we trust they’re taking the best care of our daughter!

Blessings,

Melissa

Bring Her Home

Most of you probably know that we are awaiting to bring out little girl home. We received the official papers from her orphanage last week, which is super exciting. On every page, we had to write, "We accept ______ as our daughter." That was a super fun visit to the notary. One giant step closer to bringing her home!

With these official referral documents, we also get to send in a HEFTY check. Yikes! For the first time, we don't have enough saved in our adoption account. That's exciting in a sense because it means this process is moving fast! But we definitely don't want finances to be the factor that keeps our daughter in an orphanage.

Once again, we're asking for financial support. There are many ways to help us.

1. You can easily donate through our gofundme page. For every donation, we would like to send you a scenic matted photo as a thank you gift.

2. Host a Noonday Trunk Show: I recently became a Noonday Ambassador, so that I could earn some income to use for our adoption. My commission will be transferred to our adoption account. So, if you're in the Colorado/Wyoming/Nebraska area, talk to me about hosting a show! You can also find my website link on this page.

3. Send a check directly to our agency. Please just include our name, so they know where the funds should be directed!
America World Adoption
ATTN: Elise Lowe
6723 Whittier Avenue
McLean, VA  22101

Unfortunately, we still cannot post her picture or her name. But, she's incredible, and we cannot wait to meet her! We don't have a timeframe for bringing her home. She's almost 7 months old, and we're praying for a quick travel time, so she can be home for her Birthday in February!

We've been blessed by dozens of friends and families pouring prayers and donations into this adoption. We're so grateful, and we can't wait for the next step of this journey!

Grateful,
Melissa

Approved and Matched

In my prayer journal, I keep a running list of prayer requests. As God answers specific requests, I like to highlight them in neon colors. This is my visual way of seeing the transformation from requests to praises. I am so thrilled to share that I have highlighted every single one of my adoption requests this month! So, let me brag about our good God and share each praise.  

Many of you know that we left our lovely home in Hawaii on July 1. While residing in the Hale Koa before our departure, we completed our dossier. The Lord provided all the needed documentation just in time. We quickly made six copies of our 100+ packet of papework and spent one entire naptime in our hotel lobby collating our dossier! What a fun memory. We sent our dossier to our agency two days before flying out of Hawaii. Praise #1!

The following week, after landing on the mainland, we received our USCIS approval letter. It’s hard for me to explain how significant this letter is.  Please just trust me- this was HUGE. When the USCIS agent in Honolulu took my fingerprints, he told me I might have to be finger printed again because there was a little glitch with my fingerprints. I was afraid I would be called back to USCIS in Honolulu after moving! So, I was very thankful for this approval. Praise #2!

Our third week on the mainland, I was driving across the plains of Wyoming to Nebraska when I received a phone call from Elise, our family coordinator at AWA. She gave me great news: India approved our home study! Our home study had been uploaded to India’s system June 1. We weren’t sure they would approve us the first time and were totally prepared for rejection. But this approval left us ecstatic. Praise #3!

At this point, we were just waiting for a match. A child! A face! A daughter! Praying for a match was the most exciting request. Families can wait days or months after their home study is approved. As a high risk family (with young biological children), we knew we could wait a while for a match.

God didn't make us wait long. 

This past Friday, Elise called us again with unbelievable news. She had matched us to a 5-month old. After giving us what little info she knew about the little girl, she left us to discuss the referral and accept or deny the match. We prayed that God would guard our hearts as we looked at her picture (she’s so cute!), knowing that there’s no guarantee CARA will approve this match. Over the weekend, we prayed constantly and spoke with family and friends. David and I have not been sleeping well because we can’t get this little girl out of our minds!

(Sorry, no picture until she is officially ours!)

Let me just say that this match is truly a miracle. If you’ve been following our story, you know that we have to get matched to a baby because Brooks is so young, and India will most likely only approve a match to a child younger than Brooks. And in the past, it’s been very rare to see babies matched to American families. So we are truly astonished. Praise #4!

A match does not guarantee we get to adopt this precious girl. CARA (India's Central Adoption Resource Agency) also has to approve the match. 

David and I both feel that God is guarding our hearts until this referral is for certain. We can compare our emotions to when we first found out we were expecting. My attachment and excitement were more reserved until I heard that first heartbeat and saw that first sonogram. Then the floodgates of attachment and excitement flew open! So until CARA approves this match, we will remain cautiously excited.

The majority of this blog has been full of praises, which is awesome. I love to bless God's name. However, I must close with some new requests and give God opportunity for more glory:

1.     Pray that CARA will approve this match (this can take around 8 weeks)

2.     Pray for our fundraising and grant applications- We need to raise $8,000 in the next couple of weeks to cover our referral fees. Since we just recently submitted our dossier, our adoption savings is wiped!

3.     Pray for a family for this precious girl- whether she becomes a Lycan or joins another blessed family, pray that this little girl will leave the orphanage SOON! Lord willing, this will be her new home:

Thank you for praying. God is working mightily!

So Grateful,

Melissa 

A Sovereign Appointment

Well, we are in total PCS mode as we prepare to pack out our Hawaii home, but I wanted to pop in with some updates.

I am super excited to share that we received our letter from USCIS Saturday with the most perfect appointment! Though I really wanted to receive this letter before we moved, I was a little nervous about two scenarios: the appointment would be during our pack out or worse still- it would be after we departed Hawaii. God definitely knew these concerns, so I’m giving him the credit for divinely scheduling our appointment the week between our pack out and our departure. (Additionally, the appointment is not during naptime, which is an added bonus! ) Thank you, Jesus! And thank you all for praying.

We’re continuing to receive generous donations toward our adoption, and we are overflowing with thankfulness.  

We ran into a hiccup with the Hawaii apostille process (I won’t bore you with the details, but they’re somewhere between confusing, ridiculous and humorous!), so we won’t be able to send our completed dossier before we PCS. But all our documents should be ready shortly after we arrive on the mainland. This just gives us more time to fundraise for our dossier fees, so it’s not a total disappointment!

Thank you for reading our blog, following our story and praying for miracles.

Always thankful,

Melissa