WE'RE DONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I only have like 3.8 seconds to write this post, but I just had to document this historic day (at least for our family!!) I just got back from overnighting our adoption paperwork to our Adoption Agency. I can't tell you how relieved, excited, and anxious (for it to make it to them!) I am. What a huge milestone for us! As the ticker on my website lets me know, we've been working on this paperwork now for 10 months, 3 weeks and 3 days. Praise the Lord we're finally finished. Now it will be translated, sent to the OPA (Officina para adopciones) in El Salvador. Next we will wait on approval from them. This is taking about 8 months on average. At that point we will wait for our referral (our chosen daughter--her picture, medical background, etc) and then we'll travel to El Salvador to pick her up. From today we're looking at a 12-18 month wait. Please pray, pray, pray that that package makes it up to Virginia by tomorrow morning. Here are some pictures of my excitement. At the beginning of this journey I had this grand vision of finishing our paperwork (in more like 4-5 months, but whatever :) and then going as a family to fedex. We would have the postal worker take our picture with the package & then go get ice cream or something to celebrate. Here's how it really went down. Matt & I tried to work out our schedules for 3 days to be able to go at the same time & realized it just wasn't going to happen. So then I was going to take our picture together as a family before leaving this morning. But then Matt got sick. Super sick. Like--you better get that camera out of my face right now sick. So then I tried to get a picture with Ava & I smiling & holding our dossier. Well, my camera battery was dead. So then it's off to the camera phone. I put Ava on my lap & she throws a complete tantrum. So in the end.....it's just me & my MOUND of paperwork. But I'm smiling & oh so happy anyways b/c it's done & we're finally moving closer to Bella! Love you all :)

In Case You Haven't Heard.....
I figure that it's about time to tell all of you what's been going on with our family. There is some major change in the air!! This past summer we began feeling like God was preparing us for a change--a shift in what we are doing. We had no idea what that meant or what it looked like, but we began praying that God would reveal His plans to us. As most of you know, in July, Matt took a group of students to China with a ministry called Innovative Mission Opportunities that is based here in Houston. Matt had such a wonderful time & came back saying that this was how he wanted to spend his life--doing missions with students. Well, I've always felt that way, so I was super excited that God has been shifting Matt's passion towards missions. Over the course of the trip & since being home, Matt has developed a great friendship with Jerry (the guy who started the ministry--he's about 65 years old). Anyways, Jerry offered Matt a job with Innovative back in early September. Jerry was so impressed with the way that Matt led & executed the trip to China & wants Matt to develop a student "arm" of the ministry. In the past, they have only worked with adults, but they're really wanting to broaden things. What Innovative does is send small groups of people into the 10-40 window (northern africa, middle east, asia) to work with local believers. They go in as "humanitarians" to meet the physical needs of the people--water, food, building homes, etc--and in the process share the gospel with them. So Matt would be in charge of developing a student side of things. His main focus would be Northern Africa (mainly Ethiopia), Israel and China. He will be working with student & college ministries here in the states, to find students to go on trips. He will be taking about 6-8, 2 week trips a year into those countries. When he's not overseas, he will take back up his traveling speaking ministry that he had prior to joining with Sagemont in order to use his gift as a teacher & to network with college/student ministries. We have been praying about this for several months now & feel so strongly that this is what we're supposed to do. Innovative is wanting to branch out their ministry, so we will be moving to Tampa (to live near my family) after the first of 2008. When we began praying through this, our original plan was to stay here in Houston, b/c Innovative is based here. But as we began to realize Matt's traveling schedule was going to be so busy, I told Matt that if we're going to do this, I really want to be close to my family. That way I will have lots of support while he is away & I will be able to travel some with Matt while Ava stays with family. I have prayed for 10 years that God would allow us to move back to Florida but I just really never thought it was going to happen for us. Moving to FL is like the icing on the cake for me. We are so excited about this new opportunity & feel such a complete peace about everything. We really need your prayer in the next several months. Here are some things for you to pray about:

1. Our transition out of Sagemont--pray that people are excited & supportive about our decision. Pray for the students as we leave them behind. We announced our plans to the students last Sunday. It was a very difficult & emotional day, but overall, everyone is really excited for us.

2. Pray for our finances. Part of Innovative is that all staff members are 100% support based (like missionaries) so that they can send as much money as possible to the people living in extreme poverty in the 10-40 window. We are kind of freaking out about this, but at the same time have such a peace. Innovative will help us financially for the first year so that we're not just cut off cold upon leaving Sagemont. Still, we have a lot of expenses with moving, finding a new house, selling our home here, etc. Just pray for God's mighty provision for our family during the coming months.

3. Pray for house stuff in general. We were going to put our house on the market yesterday & our realtor told us that she knows a family that is desperately trying to buy a house. They can't get a loan yet (they need to raise their credit by a couple of points & are estimating that to happen in the next 3-6 months). We are talking to them about renting & then buying the house sometime between April & June. We have so many details to work out with this. On our initial figures with our house we were slated to lose $11,000, which as you can probably guess we most definitely don't have. So we were freaking out. This way our mortgage will be covered & we will only (only....what am I saying??) be losing about $5,500. We're definitely going to take a hit b/c we haven't lived her long enough to recoop our costs, so we are trying to figure out how to lose the least amount possible. We met the family last night & really liked them. They come VERY highly recommended & they LOVED our house & want to buy it so badly. SO...pray that all of this works out. Did I mention they need to move in by Jan 7???? That means that we need to be packed up & ready to move by the 5th or 6th & have somewhere to move to. So, we talked to our realtor in FL tonight & I think we're going to rent a cute little townhouse in a great neighborhood (Fishhawk to you Tampa people)for 6 months to a year so we can get our finances in order. Ok--this has all happened in the last 2 days & we have SO MUCH to do/think about/finalize/take care of. Please just pray for all these things!!

I'm sure there's more, but for now--I think that's good. Thanks for praying--I can't wait to tell you more in the days & months to come! We've had to keep this quiet, b/c there are a lot of people involved at Sagemont & it's been killing me not to tell you guys this HUGE thing that GOd is doing in our lives. You can check out Innovative's website at www.imoi.org. So now the cat's out of the bag & we can move on. You will be hearing much more in coming days :) Love you all!!

The Most Exciting Post EVER!
Are you ready for some exciting reading? Prepare to be amazed.

• I fed my child taco bell today. And I don't even feel guilty.
• I just chopped off my arm at fedex to send 3 documents for state certification for our adoption. I am now bleeding profusely all over the place. Ok, so not really, but it felt that painful to pay that much money. My visa looks very tired now.
• We have 5 Christmas parties this week. That means we are extra poor from all the $10 gift exchange gifts we have to buy.
• My sister is coming to see me tomorrow!!!!! She has never been to see my house & I am super excited to have her here! My Dad surpised us with a ticket for her. Yeah Hooray! (That's what Ava & I say when we're super excited!)
• I redid my banner on my blog. If you are reading this on bloglines---go to my blog to check it out. I learned how to make this from my friend Virginia. You can learn how to also at Snapfish.com
• My Mom is having a lot of complications from all the medicine she's taking. Please pray for her. She's develeped neurapothy (sp??) in her hands & feet. She is in a lot of pain & is extremely frustrated from not being able to do much right now. Please just pray, pray, pray that the doctors can figure out what is wrong & how to fix it. Thanks for praying.
• I painted Ava's bathroom yesterday and can't for the life of me get the paint off of me.
• I think about Bella all the time.
• Ava is learning to say "I love you" and it is about the sweetest thing of all time. I'm really not kidding. I melt into a mushy little puddle of love every time I hear it.
• Matt is super busy & I miss him. But next week is much slower & we can't wait to hang out! We're hoping to go see the movie Bella in the theater if it's still there.
• We have wonderful friends.
• Thanks for reading this. You are super cool. I'm addicted to the word super today. Have a super day you super cool friend :)