giant slacker

"Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us." -Romans 5:1-5

I was reading my bible & journaling last night and read through this passage. It reminded me just how thankful that I am that God is taking Brandon & me through the journey He is in our lives. There is truly no better place to be than in God's will. Whether I like it or not, or think I have better plans or timing, I want to be only in His will. 

Anyway, it really has been forever since I have written on here. Life has been a little crazy and truthfully not much has changed over the past months with the adoption process. But I will fill you all in on life and what not over the past few months. 

In June, we decided that Brandon would take as job as the new sophomore bible teacher at Northwest Christian School starting in August. This decision was actually pretty hard to make. There were great things with either staying at the church or going to the school. Trying to decide between two good things is not always easy and we'd be happy at either place. Ultimately we chose for Brandon to go to Northwest. 

We "graduated" from ministry at Palmcroft with our senior class at the end of July. We were so blessed by our church family as we stepped down from leadership and we are glad to still be apart of the church body there, just in a new way. 

New teachers reported to school, August 2nd, and Brandon has been on the go ever since. He is teaching four classes of sophomore bible (the gospels & Acts), two classes of MMI (computers), and assistant coaching cross country. 

I feel as though this has been quite the adjustment for me, stepping out of ministry with Brandon. I really feel called into ministry and I "adjusted" my life and job to fit into being available for youth ministry for all these years. I don't ever regret that but now, no longer being in full-time (pastor's wife) ministry, reminds me that I have a college degree and am just a barista at Starbucks. But again, God has humbled me and reminded me (which He does often) that my identity is not in an occupation or being "defined" by something or having kids or being married to Brandon, etc. My identity is in Christ alone and my Christian ministry is everywhere. Every part of life, I need to be living Jesus and loving others! And through this leaving leading youth ministry with Brandon, I am excited for the what new ministry opportunities that God has in store. 

What all this transition has to do with adoption... Well, we are still finishing up on the last like two things we need for the final paper work. There are about 5 or so documents that have to do with Brandon's job in our paperwork. We were waiting to get an approval from the U.S. government (the i-171h form) and were hoping to get all our paperwork in before Brandon switched jobs so we could get on the wait list, than go back and change what we needed. We waited and waited for this i-171h and it never seemed to come. Brandon got into his first week or so of starting school and we didn't have the i-171h, it was looking like we weren't going to be able to sneak in the paperwork. I was so discouraged. This paperwork process has taken a whole lot longer than I ever thought it was going to take and now we were going to be taking like 5 steps back and having to redo multiple documents to finally get on the wait list. It felt so far away! 

I finally emailed my adoption agency family coordinator to fill her in on what was going on. I was so discouraged writing the email. It was such a defeated sounding email. As I was writing it, I again was reminded that the whole process of having kids is not in our hands and not in our timing. I got an email back from my coordinator and immediately couldn't help but cry. God had answered my prayers and healed my discouragement. First of all, she said that we had been approved by the government in June and should have gotten our i-171h document that we needed. I was pretty sure we hadn't gotten it but that was such a relief to know that. Secondly, she said that we wouldn't have to change any of our documents except for our updated health and life insurance policies! Praise God! We do NOT have to go back and change our financial statement, Brandon's letter of employment, home study and i-171h form! Since our home study and i-171h were already finalized, we don't have to update any of that stuff for about 18 months when those need to be renewed! Such an answer to prayer and weight off our shoulders!

That afternoon, I got out all of our adoption paperwork and got everything in order. Brandon is getting a new life insurance policy and that is the only thing that is the last thing we need to complete our dossier. While I was cleaning up all the paperwork, I found the i-171h form! We received it! Apparently through all the craziness of the summer, we got the form and didn't really realize it. Again, another answer to prayer!! 

So, long story short, everything is set to go except for the life insurance policy (which we are hoping to get finished up this next week). Than we can officially submit our dossier and get on the wait list! Wow! 

It's been encouraging to know and think about all of you that are praying and thinking of us. We are excited for what God has in store for our lives. Brandon and I are truly trying to make the most of every moment of our lives. If we have kids or no kids, we are happy to be living and walking where God wants us.

Oh and the wonderful Karen McMahon is putting on a Premier Designs Jewelry show to help us raise money for our adoption! All of the proceeds will go to our adoption. The show will be on September 13th @ 6:30pm. Karen will be having the show at her house. If you can't attend but would still like to buy something, let me know and we can put in an order for you :) Thank you all again!! (Check out the flyer below or check out the facebook event)

Car Wash!

This post is long over due! But I don't know if I have mentioned how awesome our high school students are! We are insanely loved and blessed by them!

Shelby, Caleb & Tristen and a bunch of their friends coordinated a fundraising car wash for our adoption. They did it May 19th. (Brandon and my 5 year wedding anniversary was that weekend so we were out of town and not able to be there for the car wash.) They had lemonade and baked goods there. But best of all, a ton of our high school friends turned up to help out! They raised over $500 for us! It blows me away with how blessed and loved we are! And we cannot thank each one of them enough for doing that for us!

Garage Sale & Wait Time

Seriously, I am a huge slacker for not writing on here lately... sorry!

So, let's see. About a month ago, Friday, March 23rd & Saturday, March 24th we had a giant adoption fundraising garage sale! The Nowatzki family opened their house to having it the garage sale there. Which meant weeks prior to the garage sale, their house was already getting filled with items to sell. They were so positive and worked so hard the whole time! You could just tell how they were purely doing it all out of love! We cannot thank them enough for being so willing and generous with their home and time! We also cannot thank everyone else enough for all that they donated to the garage sale! I don't even know everyone that gave us stuff to sell but I love that they we're so willing to give. We got a ton of items and probably could have done garage sales for the next few weekends to get rid of it all. With the left over things we were able to donate it all to another family that was also doing a fundraising garage sale. Anyway, after two days of having the garage sale, we raised just over $3000!! Ya that's right $3000! Every time I hear that number it just sounds so unreal to me! That's just so much!

Our super cute nephew, Ethan and niece Ella, also helped us out by selling lemonade! They are just so cute that you can't resist buying a cup! They raised over $200 themselves by selling the lemonade :)

It's just so neat to hear all the stories of people who are praying for us. A lady at church was talking to Brandon and told him that she was praying that we'd raise 10% of the cost of the adoption process at our garage sale and we did! 10% of $30,000 (total cost) = $3000! I love how God hears our prayers. It's encouraging to hear that God puts us on people's hearts to pray for us and they do pray for us! Thank you all for that! Here are a few more pictures from the garage sale:

Thank you again to all who donated their time, things, and money to our 

super successful garage sale!

On a different note, about a month back we got an email from our adoption agency sharing with us that the wait time for a child to be placed is now longer. Once we get on the waiting list (which we're not on yet, but we should hopefully be in the next month) the wait will be between 18-24 months... The main contributor for the slowdown in the Ethiopia program is do to paperwork and specifically clearances. This part of the process is out of the hands of the adoption agency and is contingent on the governmental bodies in Ethiopia.

It can be a little discouraging because it seems as though we aren't getting any closer but just further away from having kids. But we just remember that this is not our timing but God's. We remember that He will place a child/children in our home when He wants to. He is in control, we are not. I like knowing and resting in His control in my life. God has been faithful and will continue to be.

Thank you all again for partnering with us on this journey. Thank you for all of your prayers, they mean so much to us!

Finally....UPDATE!!

Yay! Finally an update! Brandon and I found out Monday that we got our certification on our home study!! Thank you to everyone who has prayed for us that the home study would get approved. So this means that we can move on! So pretty much we just have to do/collect like 2 more things to officially be finished with all of the documents for the dossier. The dossier will include all of our notarized original documents (i.e. medical exams, work verifications, police clearances, reference letters, proof of insurances...) and our certified home study. All of that will get sent to our adoption agency's home office and get translated and submitted to Ethiopia. Once this happens we will than wait again and for awhile. We are selfishly praying that we won't have to wait too long to receive a referral for a child or children. It could be anywhere between 10-18 months from once our dossier is submitted to receive a referral. We're definitely hoping that it won't be even 10 month... :) But no matter what, it's all in God's timing and we're good with whatever He wants for us!

We have a few fundraising things happening ahead:

Garage Sale - Friday, March 23rd & Saturday the 24th, 2012
It will be at the Nowatzkis house. If you have anything that you'd love to donate to the garage sale, let me know! All of the proceeds of the garage sale will go to our adoption process.

Party with a Purpose- Premiere Jewelry Party- Thursday, April 5th, 2012
We will be having a Premiere Jewelry party with Karen McMahon at her house. All of the proceeds of all the jewelry you buy, go to our adoption process. Save the date! If you'd love to buy stuff and not be able to come, let me know and you can order stuff and it will still go to our adoption. So come buy and party with a purpose :)

Shirts!
We are still selling our shirts! They are $20 a piece. Buy one!

Thank you all again for your excitement, prayer and support for us through this process! We're so blessed to have you all around us through each step. Hopefully, we'll all get to meet our kids... soon! Keep praying!

not really an update...

I keep putting off writing on here hoping that any day now I would have something new to update on during the adoption process, but I don't. We submitted our completed home study to the state courts in mid December. We were told that our case is open and should be approved by mid to the end of January. Well, now it's February and nothing. We can't really do anything else until this is approved. So now you're all up to date... :)

We have just really started our fundraising for the adoption. Mainly by our shirt sales. It's great seeing the people wearing our shirts. I love how people are so excited about this process too! Months ago when we hadn't told anybody that we were adopting yet, I truly wasn't sure how people would react to us adopting. I truthfully was expecting a mixed reaction from people. Everybody has been real happy and supportive! We feel very blessed to have so many people praying for us. Anyway, we are going to have a garage sale the weekend of March 9 & 10th, where all the proceeds will go to our adoption process. So, if you'd like to donate anything to the garage sale, we'd love to have it! :) It will be at the Nowatzki's house. If you have any questions or anything you'd like to give, talk to Tammy Nowatzki, Brenda Southall, or us! Another fundraiser we will be doing is a Premier Jewelry party with Karen McMahon. We are still trying to nail down a date for that one, but hopefully in the next few months! :)

God is continuing to grow us and show us many things. For one thing, God reminds us often that His timing is not ours and we need to trust in that. And in my own life, God has been teaching me that I need to be purposeful with my life now. I think so often in life it becomes so easy to look to the next thing to do really live for God. Like "when I graduate high school, I'll have more time do this..." or "when I have kids, I will do that..." But God has put me exactly where he wants me and I need to share the His love to others. I feel like for so long I complained about working at Starbucks thinking that I am more qualified for a job elsewhere. But this life is not about me. My identity is in Christ and not in my own achievements. He has placed me at Starbucks to be a light to others there. Even if I was in my dream job, my purpose there would be to be a light in that place too. Ultimately, no matter where I work or if I have kids or not, I am not defined by those things (being a barista or a mom) but my identity is in Christ and Him alone. 

"I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God who love me and gave himself for me."-Galatians 2:20

Things we're praying for:

God's timing in our lives

We are also praying for our children. God knows who they are and where they are. 

We are hoping and praying that we will get more than one child-- siblings or twins!

Selfishly we are praying that our home study gets approved really soon

Thank you all again for partnering with us in this journey!! 

Love, Meg

Merry Christmas & T-shirts

I know I'm about five days late but I wanted to share with everyone about our Christmas and the progress of our adoption. This was the year to spend Christmas with Meghan's family so the plan was to drive out to Colorado (a long 15+ hour drive if we didn't stop). The week of, Meghan and my mom were both getting pretty scared because there was a huge storm supposed to hit New Mexico and Colorado the day we were leaving and we were planning to drive our little Honda Civic. Fortunately, we got a call at about 7:30pm the night before we were leaving and some family friends decided that they wanted to fly us out so we wouldn't have to waste two or more days driving and would be a lot safer. We were pretty ecstatic and gladly accepted the free plane tickets. Turns out it was even a bigger blessing than we thought as some friends driving to New Mexico got stuck along the same route we were planning to drive and had to wait a day until the roads reopened.

We had an amazing time with Meg's siblings, just hanging out for a week. Christmas was a blast and Meg and I both agree that it was the best vacation we have probably had since we've been married. Cameron and Ellie got us this really cool little globe bank that would could use to continue saving up for adoption.
One of the other ways we plan to save up is by selling some shirts that we made. Meghan drew out the design by hand of Africa and I think they came out pretty cool. We are selling them for $20, so let me know if you want one. As you probably know or have guessed adoption is pretty expensive so every little bit helps. We have been so blessed to have so many friends and family that are supporting us through this.  If you feel really generous your welcome the adoption agency we are using has a place on their website where you can give directly to them and designate it to us. I put up a link on the main page of this blog that you can click and it will take you directly to it. Just make sure you select the 'Eternal Family Program' from the designation drop down menu and then write "For Brandon and Meghan Southall" in the notes section at the bottom. I believe that this may be a tax deductible donation as America World Adoption is a non-profit 501c3 (you may want to double check with someone before claiming though).

As of right now we have finished all of our paperwork and we are in the process of getting certified by the state of Arizona. We should be certified sometime in January, which then allows our family coordinator to finalize the paperwork to send to Ethiopia. We know that we are still a long ways out (we really have no idea of how long), but our excitement grows with each completed step. Please continue to pray for us and that God would bring us the perfect child in his timing. We appreciate all of you who have and continue to pray for us and those that decide to help out financially. God has blessed us with this opportunity and continues to reveal himself to us in new ways each day as we embark on this process.

Here are the pictures of us and some of our family in the shirts.

Final Home Study!

Yay! On Tuesday, November 15th, 2011, we met up with our social worker for the 3rd and final time! We drove down to Gilbert and met up with Trina again at the library. Brandon and I weren't sure what to expect for this home study. We knew that at some point she would interview us separately. We were trying to think of all the possible tricky questions she would ask. But no matter what she asked, through this whole process we have been at peace with all of our interviews because we never had anything to hide. Anyway, it was SO easy! The 3 of us met up in a study room and we answered a few more questions than we split up. Brandon left and she interviewed me first. She just asked about my childhood and my work background. I don't really understand why we had to be split up for these questions. I probably went into too much detail about my life hahah. But overall, I had a great childhood and am thankful to my parents and siblings for the childhood I had! After my questions, I left and Brandon came in and she asked him the same questions. He was a lot more brief about his childhood. After we was done with his interview, I joined them and we were done. We were probably there for only 45 min. So easy!

So, everything on our part of the home study is complete! Trina just has to finish writing up and putting together our home study. She might have it all done by the end of this month. After that, our completed home study will get reviewed by us and our family coordinator with our adoption agency. Once it's finalized, it will get notarized and submitted to Maricopa County for approval. It has until the middle of January to be approved. That approved home study will than go into our dossier (paper work that will go to Ethiopia). For the dossier, we have pretty much all of our documents compiled for that. We just have to get a few more letters of recommendation and write up a cover letter for the dossier. So we should have ALL of our paper work done and approved by January 2012! Yay!

It's crazy to think that this stage of the adoption process is almost complete and that we're looking onto the next stage! Brandon and I are still trying to understand what this next step looks like. As far as we know, it looks like our paperwork will be translated and be submitted to Ethiopia. Than after that we wait! We wait for a referral of a child or children that meet our criteria. This waiting time could be a few months to over a year. We are praying and hoping that this time will be short! Or that if it is long, that we will be able to take advantage of this waiting time to prepare in whatever ways we can.

Please continue to pray that things in our paper work go smoothly and quickly. And be praying for our children (and the parents and families they come from). I'm ready to met our kids, bring them home and to start our lives with them! But our lives and this process is and has always been in God's timing. I will rejoice in the peace that that brings! Isaiah 55:8-9- "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts." Brandon and I just love this verse and find rest in it.