Authentication...

I just thought I'd give you an update on where we are at in our paperwork. We are so close I can see the end in site. We received the final documents we were waiting for last week. Our final sets of fingerprints. We have a couple things yet to be notarized. Once I get these last pieces notarized, I can send them all off to be authenticated. Once I receive all of the paperwork back from authentication, I can submit everything to my agency for review and translation. Once translation is complete, they will send it to Colombia for review & approval and then we get put in the stack to wait for our kids. So we are very close to being done with all the busy work part of it. It feels like it has taken forever to complete and I guess it has but at least we are almost done.

We continue to ask for your prayers for the financial end of this process. We are waiting for word from Shoahannah's Hope to see if we are approved for the grant we applied for. This would be a huge help. They are able to give you a small percentage of adoption fees but anything is better than nothing! We have quite a few things coming up that require medium to large payments.

If you haven't had a chance to check out our t-shirts yet, please go to

♫mazeyrecords.bigcartel.com. All proceeds go directly to the Mazey fund. We greatly appreciate your orders and passing it on! Thanks so much!!!

My Man...

Today is a special day. A day I am very thankful for. It is Jeremy's birthday! Let me tell you a little bit about my man... Jeremy is wonderful. He is caring, compassionate, so passionate about the things that he loves, very creative, a joy in my life daily. He is funny, very sweet, has beautiful blue eyes and a sweet smile. He is the guy that can melt my heart with just one look or kind gesture. He in my best friend and my favorite boy in all the world. I am SO thankful for him and all his goodness.

I have known Jeremy for a good majority of my life but 16 years ago was when my life changed for the better. Jeremy and I started dating, were engaged and got married all within 10 months. I think our parents wanted us to wait a while but we were sure. On August 27, 1994 we were married and that has been my best decision so far. It has been a privilege to go through life with him and to have him as my daily confidant, friend, love & my home. I love him more today than yesterday and hope that that will always continue.

If you don't know Jeremy, I hope one day you can meet him. Happy Birthday Honey!

PS: Happy Birthday to Joanna, Tricia & Katie today too! You are all special people in my life!!!

Little Bits

So I thought I was done with the paper work but after reviewing everything and talking with my agency... we have a few little bits left to do. We went and got more fingerprinting done, passport pictures taken to hand in with our paperwork & now have just a couple remaining tasks. Unfortunately, a little more waiting on papers too. But we continue to be in good spirits and are getting more and more excited about getting closer to bringing our children home! Thank you, as always for your prayers and support!

We finally got a good snow yesterday! It is so pretty. We got about 5 + inches and it is still nice and white outside.

Papers

I'm am so excited to say that we are at the very end of our paperwork. We did receive our letter back from Homeland Security and all went well with our fingerprinting. I am in the final stage of gathering everything together, getting the appropriate pages notarized and then apostilled. But we are very close. Once this last step is done, I will submit everything to my agency for final review, make any corrections needed & then off it will go to Colombia! I can't even tell you how excited I am to be almost done with this part of the process. God has been SO good & we are believing that he will provide that is still needed.

I was able to get a grant application in to Shaohannah's Hope & am awaiting word on that. I should know in the next couple months. This would be a HUGE blessing. We know God will provide though even if we don't get this grant.

Check out our shirts & sweatshirts at www.mazeyrecords.bigcartel.com if you haven't already. All the proceeds for the shirts goes right into our Mazey fund. We are grateful to all of you who have helped support us in this area. It is a big blessing.

This weekend I went with my friend, Joanna, to Alexandria VA. She was speaking on a panel to college students at a Campus Crusade for Christ Conference. She did a great job! We had a lot of fun walking around old town Alexandria. We also got to have lunch with Jenny Furey & see Theresa Smith! It was fun! Hope your Valentine's Day was fun!

Waiting for Word

We are still waiting for word about our finger printing. I have also completed the paperwork on a grant. Just need to send a few things off to them and then we wait to see if we will get that or not. Not sure how long exactly all this will take but we have learned that waiting is just part of this process.

In the mean time, we are doing our best to enjoy the time we have together. Today we had the day off together and went to Salem, Jeremy took some pictures, we got some coffee, went walking at the mall & had dinner at Panera. Now we are about to sit down and enjoy a movie. The wait isn't so bad. : ) We are thankful for all the time we have together.

Finger Printing

We are now officially in the Homeland Security Database. We went to West Virginia this morning for our finger printing. We got up at 4:15am & drove there for our 8 & 9am appointments. We were the first ones there so it was pretty quick. They didn't make me wait until 9. It was a pretty dreary ride - rained the whole time but we are glad to mark one more thing off the list!

Appointment & Other News

We have our homeland security appointment on Tuesday in West Virginia. This is for our finger printing. Please pray for good weather & quick appointments! Thank you!

Today we said goodbye to our dear friends, Chris & Suzie Skinner. They have moved to North Carolina. We had a party for them last night & it was so fun to see all the people who love them so much all come together. We pray that their new life there will be blessed. Jeremy traveled down with them to help... he gets to say goodbye tomorrow. BUT it isn't really goodbye... just see you soon. We will miss the day to day relationship with them though. Love you guys! They have an amazing story... log on to www.chrisskinner.org to read about them.