MATCHED!

The Child's government has Matched him with our family.

It's like a pre-approval.

We sent in the short from, "Hi, We're the Hughes Folk. Here's a general outline of who we are."

They looked it over and said, "Send us the full report. Until then, He'll be on hold for you."

Can I describe the jig I danced this morning?

It was quite happy and surely embarrassing but fully of thanks.

Charlie was so excited when he saw the email, he came to wake me up at 1am to show me.

I was thrilled, of course, and also so relieved that I was able to roll over and go back to sleep. LOL

So, like I said, Six month time crunch is ON.

We're only about $600 short of our goal of 2k by the end of this month.  It's been wonderful the amount of support that has poured in to help our family.

We had a couple stop at the yard sale today who had seen the ad in the shoppers guide, visited the blog, and decided to come. That makes me so happy. We chatted while they shopped. They were sweet and I enjoyed their company.

There were some good questions I thought I might could answer on here, too.

"Why," She asked, "are you needing to go all the way to *The Child's Country* to adopt? Why can't you adopt from here?"

That question is very common. Yes. There are a LOT of children here, in the US foster system who need families. I know this. It is painful knowing this. Charlie and I spent a few years as foster parents so we were able to see just how our foster system works. It does provide for the need that children have when they are unable to live with their biological families but some children are left lacking the stability of a committed, forever family.

We are acutely aware of this.

However, When I first saw The Child and his information, We were not even thinking of adoption in our near future. Truthfully, We weren't thinking of adoption in our father-into-the-future future either.  We had about decided that our 4 children (the older boys at 18 and 19, then Magda at nearly 4 and Mordecai at nearly 2) were plenty for our family. We were done family building.

Then, I saw The Child. I read the paragraph of information about him. While it stated that he lived "Internationally", it didn't state his country. They aren't allowed to. Just like I'm not allowed to.

It was a prayerful, discussed in depth, tossing many concerns out on the table month while We wrestled with What, exactly, we were supposed to do with The Child and this heavy feeling he put on our hearts.

Because we were done growing our family, remember? 

We weren't planning an adoption.

Yeah, I've learned that God doesn't really care about what we are planning when HE is planning things.

And His plans? They are big.

Much bigger than anything Charlie and I could have thought up ourselves.

So we committed to pursue adopting The Child.

It just so happens that he lives "Internationally".

He can't help that. It's not his fault where he was born.

Just like it's not his fault to whom he was born.

It's not his fault the race he was born.

It's not his fault that he has a special need.

It's not his fault that we didn't plan ahead for this.

We didn't feel called to adoption, in general, for this situation.

We feel called to The Child.

So that's why we have to go all the way to his country to adopt.

 Because that's where he lives. 

Because that's where God placed him. 

And As long as it is HIS will,

That's where we will be going to visit The Child.

Then bring him home!

Because We've been MATCHED!