Here's an overdue update!

  I know that I am not good at keeping up with a blog, but even I was surprised to see how far behind I was. It's definitely time for an update! 

  We first found the boys' profile in November 2015. At the time, the boys were 4, 5, & 6 years old. As of a few days ago, they have all had birthdays and are 5, 6, & 7 now. We started the adoption process in January and I was hoping that we would at least get to meet the boys before the youngest turned 5. This appealed to me so much because I have never had a 4 year old before. But I have actually never had a 5 or 6 year old either, because the girls were 7 when we got them. This, of course, was my timeline, not God's. I have definitely learned that God's timing is always perfect, and rarely falls in line with my timing. The hardest part of our youngest boy's birthday was that it was the 4th birthday he has in an orphanage, without a family! His mommy is right here!! It just breaks my heart that I can't hold them and kiss them and love on them right now.  

  We have completed all of the paperwork, including our dossier, and we have received the official referral for the boys. It is just a matter of time and money at this point. We are waiting for our judge to set a court date right now. Once he does, we will need to go to Poland to be at that court date. We will be there anywhere from 6-8 weeks while everything is finalized and then we come home as a whole family! Finally! 

  The original amount of money that we needed to save and raise was staggering: $65,000! It was enough for me to think it was impossible. However, God clearly showed us that we are supposed to adopt these boys. And where God wills, He makes a way. We had applied to every grant possible and thought that was going to be how God pulled this off. We have received several grants, but we were denied even more grants. Even if we received the maximum from every grant left, it would not be enough to cover the rest of the costs. So, now that I can't see a clear possibility of how to pay these expenses, I start to doubt again. I personally don't see how it is possible, so it must not be, right? That is just logical. But how can I claim to have faith in a God who does the impossible and then not actually believe that He can do the impossible? I'm cutting my Savior short, even when He has done nothing but prove to me how AMAZING He really is! Justin has been my supporter through this, he has always reminded me that God is going to bring us through this. I constantly pray for God to strengthen my faith and trust in Him! To be fully funded for this adoption, we only need about $24,000 more. (This is mostly travel costs: Airline tickets for 7 people, hotel and food for the time we will be in Poland, and a few agency and foreign fees) I know this is still a lot, but compared to the original amount, we have come so far!! Throughout this whole process, we have prayed that God would get all of the glory. The more impossible that it seems, the more we will see God's hands working!    

  It has been really neat to see the girls growing through this experience too. Evalina started out completely against adopting again. Then she was okay with it, as long as it was a girl. Now, she is praying for her brothers and writing sweet notes to them about being adopted: "It is going to be really hard. But if we can do it, so can you!" That one made me cry! Availya has always been more accepting of it. She loves to take care of and help people, so getting 3 little brothers is right up her alley. Not to mention, that she likes to be bossy too! But they both now have a huge heart for orphans, which is just awesome to witness! 

  We have done about 10 fundraisers so far. Some have gone well, and some have gone horribly! We will continue to fundraise as God leads us, and cut costs to save up as much money as we can. We have been told that we should expect to travel to Poland sometime in October/November. So we have until then to get the rest of the $24,000 that we need. We ask that everyone prays for our family. Please pray for these boys, as tough as the waiting is for us, it is so much harder for them. They desperately want a family, and everyday that goes by is one more day without one. Please pray for Justin and me, that we will continue to follow God's leading and have a renewed faith in Him. And pray that all of us will be prepared for this huge transition in our family. 

  If you feel God tugging on you to help financially, you can donate to our matching grant by clicking here. Your donation is tax-deductible! 

  We have had an overwhelming support in the last few days. It has been very encouraging! There have been times that I have felt discouraged in this adoption, and I can't tell you how much it lifts my spirit to hear an encouraging word from someone! If you are thinking about us or praying for us, please don't hesitate to just tell us that. It truly means the world to us!! 

Adoption Update

First of all, I am terrible at blogging. If I thought I was bad before, I am much worse now that I have kids! If you read my last blog, then you already know how we came to the decision to adopt again, and how we chose these 3 brothers in Poland (We didn't actually choose them, God did!).

Here is the update on where we are in the process:
We have completed our home study! The next step is to complete our dossier. The dossier is a mixture of birth certificates, marriage certificates, financial worksheets, background checks, employment verification, medical certificates, etc. It is basically just proving that we are who we say we are, and that we are in a position to be able to bring more children into our home. Our dossier is complete, other than we are just waiting on permission from our government to adopt three children from Poland. We have to get FBI fingerprints for this, and we should have our approval around the middle of May. Once we get this approval, our dossier gets sent to Poland and we can officially accept the referral for the boys. We then have to wait for another approval and a court date. If everything goes smoothly and quickly, we could be in Poland around August or September of this year! We will have to be in Poland between 6-8 weeks, but we will be with the boys the whole time, and then we bring them home with us. Everything seems to be moving very fast.

Here is the update on where we are financially in the process:
We have been able to pay all of the fees that we have encountered so far! Don't get me wrong, there are fees due NOW that our agency wants us to pay. But none of these fees are holding us back at this point. We have been able to continue doing all of our paperwork and moving forward with the process. However, we will get to a point where the fees have to be paid before they will let us go further. For example, once our dossier is complete (around the middle to end of May), they will not send it to Poland unless we have paid some of the fees that are due. At that point, it will be another $18,500 that we will have to pay. Then before we can travel, there will be another $17,000 that will need to be paid. Beyond that, it is just travelling expenses, which will still be a lot since we will have to pay for airfare and staying in a foreign country for 6-8 weeks. These are staggering numbers! It seems so overwhelming and impossible to think of these whole amounts. It's very easy to get discouraged. However, we worship an amazing God, and nothing is impossible for Him. We have applied for every adoption grant that we qualify for, and we are praying to start hearing positive answers soon. We also are planning a big Kentucky Derby party fundraiser for May 7. We did this fundraiser when we were adopting the girls and it was very successful! We are hoping for this one to go just as well, if not better.

Here is the update on where we are mentally and emotionally in the process:
We go back and forth from being excited and hopeful, to down and discouraged on a daily basis. Going through an adoption is very hard and often times very lonely. On top of that, we don't have the money to complete the adoption, so we have to humble ourselves and ask for it. We have tried to do a few fundraisers already, and some have completely bombed, literally raising no money at all! And with some fundraisers, we have raised some money, but it was only a fraction of what we started out to raise. However, each time it was just what we needed to be able to move forward with each small step. We were able to watch God work in amazing ways when we adopted the girls. Like, when we were short by $350 for a fee, and then got a check in the mail for $360. Or when we were counting on a grant for $4,000, that we found out couldn't be used until later. So we counted on a fundraiser to cover that $4,000, but we only made a little over $3,000, just to go home and have a $1,000 check waiting in the mailbox for us! We had seen this kind of thing happen so many times that by the end of that adoption, we had our tickets bought to go get the girls and we were leaving in just 2 weeks, but we were still short by almost $4,000. But we weren't even worried about it! We KNEW that God was going to provide, we had no doubts. And he did, we had had several interviews with a grant agency, and they awarded us a $4,000 grant just under 2 weeks before we were planning to fly out. You can't make this stuff up. God is truly amazing! But we have so easily forgotten all of this. Sure, God was able to do it that time, but surely He won't do it again, right? It is so hard to just trust God! We are struggling with it everyday! I can't even tell you how much it means to hear people say positive things about this adoption! It is so encouraging to get little notes and comments from people. And it can be very discouraging when we get silence from others. I still feel like we are a little crazy for doing this, so it is very easy to assume that other people feel that way too. But however crazy I feel, I know that we have drowned this decision in prayer and we still do. There is no doubt in my mind that we are on the path that God has lead us to and we will continue to go down it until we reach the end or God tells us to stop. This does not mean that we are not scared. I am terrified to become a mother to 5 children! I know that I don't have the strength or the wisdom to do it. I have to depend on God through this! Please pray for us to have confidence in our God and His ability to supply our needs!

Please pray for these precious boys, that they would be taken care of until we can go get them. Pray that we will all be ready for this transition into a family of 7. This is ALL for His glory! Please pray that we will always make this about Christ and not about us. That we will get our hope and encouragement through Him and not through the approval of others.

Thank you to everyone who has supported us in any way. It has not been taken for granted, and it has all been appreciated more than you know!

If you do feel led to help these boys financially, we have a few options:
You can donate through You Caring by clicking the "Donate Now" button at the right or click here:
You Caring

For a tax-deductible donation, you can donate through Pure Charity at:
Hansen Family Adoption

Or you can send a check, just ask for our address.

Again, thank you to everyone! Thank you for taking the time to read about our family and this adoption! We are so grateful for the part that everyone is playing in our children's lives and the impact that we are all making for orphans!