Piles of Paperwork and Prayers

Today my brain is tired.  We are working on getting the paperwork process rolling.  I have several letters to be mailed around the world for our adoption to move forward.  One envelop is ready for its trip to Florida to do criminal background checks on Brandon and I. Another is ready to go to California to confirm our commitment with our agency to work with them to adopt Vitali. A third is set for the Republic of Korea to prayerfully acquire two certified copies of our marriage certificate.   The most precious paper is an electronic one on its way to Vitali.  We have been given a most awesome gift to be able to correspond with Vitali in a pen-pal type relationship.  I have never been so nervous about writing a letter.  What do you say to a child that you pray about everyday and dream of being your son? Of course we aren't allowed to discuss any possibility of adopting him in case something should fall through and make it impossible, but besides that scenario we have faith that he will be our son soon.  I know he is a 9 year old boy so I am not anticipating a long drawn out response but our prayers are that through our weekly letters that this will give him hope that there is someone out there that knows he exists, people that seem to care about him, and a family that has made him part of their lives.  Please pray with us that Vitali doesn't lose hope of being rescued. 
We heard an interview with Vitali and one question the interviewer asked was, "if you had a million dollars what would you buy?"  His first response was simply, "Food".  Food....what 9 year old boy says that if he had a million dollars he would buy food?  That absolutely broke my heart.  Another question was, "what was the best part about your experience coming to America."  His answer was, "I got to feel like I had parents."  We don't want him to just get to experience the feeling of a temporary family but we want to embrace him into our family Forever. 

Thoughts for Today

As the Battle for the Mustache rages on, I have some thoughts. 
             First of all, a wonderful friend has helped me figure out how to add the Pay-Pal donate button at the top left of this blog.  This should help those of you who wish to donate, to do so.  Also you can use this donate button to place your vote for the Mustache battle just let us know how you are voting either for or against the mustache. 
            Second thought, if you want to subscribe to our Vitali's Forever Family Blog the link to subscribe is located at the bottom left side of the blog
           Third thought, our friends Jerry and Shelly Dowling have joined in our Battle and are putting up Jerry's mustache to the same vote.  Thank you guys for joining in our journey to bring Vitali home.
           Final thought, our adoption agency has told us that we can pen-pal with Vitali!  We are not going to let him know that we are adopting him until our home study is finalized  but we can start sending him letters and pictures and being his friend.  Please keep this in your prayers as we want so much for him to have hope that someone out there cares about him and we pray that this paves the way for him to feel connected with us.  We have a date set for our homestudy and we are feverishly working to get documents together.  Your love, prayers, and support mean so much to our family.  Thank you for making us part of your lives.

The battle for the Mustache

I have my first idea for a fund-raiser for our adoption...my dearest husband has been hinting that he would like to shave his mustache. I, however, am opposed to this idea. During our first year of marriage he shaved it and I didn't like it at all. He has had it for 15+ years and I would like it to stay. What do you say? $1 a vote for let it stay or shave it off. Voting begins now and ends Saturday October 1st.      To vote you can go to our facebook pages Kimberly Morrison Thompson or Brandon Thompson and there is a Battle of the Mustache link to vote via Pay-pal.  If you don't want to pay via pay-pal you can send us an e-mail at graceinfl@hotmail.com and we can give you our mailing address.  The Pay-pal option only lets you vote one way to let the mustache stay so if you want to vote to shave it off, please comment to this post or send us an e-mail.  Thank you for your support! 

We are announcing our plan to adopt

 Psalm 82:3  Give justice to the weak and the fatherless; maintain the right of the afflicted and the destitute. 

This blog is designed to ask you to journey with us on our quest to adopt our son.  The young man whose picture you see is 9 year old Vitali who lives in an Ukrainian orphanage.  It is our hearts desire to make him a part of our family.  Vitali was a part of a hosting program that gave him the opportunity with the organization Redline United to come to the US for 3 weeks in hopes that an American family would hear about him and would choose to make him part of their forever family.  Brandon and I have heard his cry and we are responding with a burning desire to bring him into our family Forever! 

          Some of you may have known about our desire to adopt and our initial plan to adopt from the American foster system.  We made several calls and sent plenty of e-mails and no one replied.  After 3 weeks we were feeling very discouraged.  Then we received an e-mail from a friend about a group of kids from Redline's hosting program that didn't have anyone looking to adopt them.  Vitali was one of the kids from that e-mail.  Out of curiosity I e-mailed back how to get more information about these kids.  Within 3 hours I got a phone call from the lady in charge of the hosting program she said she was passing on my information to the agency that works with getting these kids adopted.  I expected several days to pass but 1 hour after I hung up the phone I got the call from the agency!  Brandon and I took that as a clear open door from the Lord. 

          Adopting from the Ukraine is very expensive so this blog will also serve as a progress to see how the Lord will move in providing the funds to bring our son home.  We have some creative ideas for getting the funds we need and I will post them soon, very soon because some expenses are due now.  If all the paperwork and funds are acquired in a timely manner we could possibly have Vitali in our home as early as March! 

       Please join with us in prayer and support on redeeming this boy who has no future where his is.  We have some specific prayer request that you can present to the Lord with us.

1.  We are asking for wisdom.  To understand the legal process that must take place

2. We are asking for a softening of hearts, our own hearts, Grace and Hanna's and for Vitali too.  This is going to be a big transition and we are asking for Jesus to prepare our hearts for the changes and challenges ahead.  We, of course, are asking for the Holy Spirit to reveal himself to Vitali so that he comes to know Jesus as his Lord and Savior.

3.  We are asking for protection of Vitali's heart, mind, and body.  He has been in the orphanage for 3 years and as of yet he hasn't lost his hope for a forever family. We are praying that the Holy Spirit will increase his hope as our adoption of him draws nearer.  He is one of the younger and smaller boys in the orphanage and is at the mercy of the older boys who have lost hope and have hardened hearts. We are asking that the Holy Spirit be his comforter and protector until we can save him from that place.  The orphanage is nice and the workers are nice but they can never take the place of a family.  He needs a forever family.

4.  There are mounds of documents and paperwork that needs to be done perfectly in order to move from one step to the next.  We are dealing with 4 countries.  U.S, Italy, Ukraine, and South Korea (we need a certified copy of our marriage license).  There is red tape and ignored in-boxes everywhere on this journey but we know that the Lord is more than able to make our paths straight.  Please pray for the paperwork process.  This is definitely a deal breaker if an issue comes up.

5.  And finally, we are asking for creative miracles so that the finances will be available for each step along the way.  If we break down it down into 8 steps, each step costs about $5,000.  We know that the Lord is able to do exceedingly more than we can ask or think.  If you have a fund-raising idea we would LOVE to hear it. 

Our dearest friends and family please join with us in bringing our son home.  You will take part in an incredible miracle of God's saving grace.