It's Been a Long Time

We have been waiting for many many months since we received our referral in October 2015.  We have run into many problems with our case and it has taken a while to get those things sorted out. As many of you know there has been a suspension on Ethiopian adoptions as of April 21, 2017.  We have advocated to the Department of State and Congress to assist in completing all pending adoptions.  As of right now the country of Ethiopia has said they will complete all of the pending adoptions as of April 21, 2017.  We are hoping and praying that our adoption is able to be completed in a timely manner.  We have also received news that our adoption service provider has had to downsize their staff due to low resources.  I may be planning a trip in the fall to go and try to wrap our adoption up and speed things along in our process to bring Willow home.  Throughout this time we have had to pay orphanage fees that provide care for Willow in her orphanage and we also need to raise money for travel expenses.  We are paying $250 dollars a month for Willows care which is hindering our ability to use our resources for travel costs.  We need to raise around $10000 for travel.  If you feel led to give we greatly appreciate the help. The link to give is on the right side of my blog. We also need prayer that the state of things will continue and everyone in process will be able to get their kids home.

This adoption has been so so difficult for our family.  This process has taken 5 years so far and we still aren't to the end.  Someone shared this with me today and it was able to quiet my heart during this storm. To know that Willow is loved by the Lord far more than we love her and that HE is watching over her every step of this process gives me peace.

I never could've envisioned in my wildest dreams how hard our adoption journey would be! And, the Lord sweetly reminded me of how HARD and UGLY and PAINFUL our adoption was by Him. THIS is the favor of God. That we might share in the suffering of Jesus and get a teeny tiny glimpse of the magnitude of our adoption by God. And, now we get to share in an inheritance with Jesus Christ! Because of all that pain and ugly, we get the BEST beautiful of all time! So, we look to God and ask that He have mercy on our adoption process and continue to make something really beautiful.

Referral Day

I know I haven't blogged in ages, but there really hasn't been much going on in our adoption for the past few years.  We have just been waiting and waiting and waiting.... you get the picture.  Our lives are very busy and full of blessings right now.  We are recently in the process of relocating to Camden, AR where Casey is pastoring. Last Tuesday was a normal Tuesday or as normal as things can go with 4 crazy kiddos 8 and under, but then the phone rang and I saw my social worker's phone number and knew that she had no other reason for calling us except to give us the call we have been waiting for for over three years.

Let me back up a bit. We had been waiting at the top of the list for about 2 1/2 months so by this time we were weary of waiting and pretty much told ourselves it wasn't going to happen anytime soon so "Get over it!"

....so I answer and she asks the question that I know means "I have a referral for you" (because I have read way too many referral blog posts by friends) which is "Is Casey around?" and I freaked out!  I asked "Is this it? Is this really it?" She said yes and I said Casey was at work, but she said she would conference him in.  He answered and she told us a little bit about our sweet girl.  She said she'd send us her file and would call back in a few hours for our answer.  He raced home because I wanted us all to look at her picture for the first time together.  We set the laptop up and realized we had a large file that needed to download.  So we waited and waited for what seemed like an eternity but was maybe only 10 minutes.  We all gathered around and saw the most beautiful baby staring back at us.  We knew she was meant for us and every hour, month, and year of waiting had led us to this day and this sweet baby.  Our social worker called and, of course, we said we would accept the referral.  

What's next you ask?  We will wait patiently, or not so patiently, for lots of paperwork to be submitted and then in 5-6 months we will travel to Ethiopia for court where she will legally become our daughter and then we will travel again about a month later where she will have an embassy appointment and we will bring her home.  We are praying for smooth sailing and that we wouldn't have any huge delays. 

How can you help? You can pray for us that everything will go smoothly. That the Lord would watch over her and keep her safe and secure until we can get to her.  Pray for her transition. Her little world is about to be turned upside down.  New people, new language, new country, new smells, new family.  It's all very hard on a little person who has known nothing but uncertainty and sorrow in her short life. Also, we still have a home to sell in Louisiana and a home to find in Arkansas. Prayer for both of these matters would greatly appreciated. 

We still have to raise about $11,500 for our travel for both trips and to update our home study since we are moving to Arkansas.  The Lord has been faithful to provide the money for two simultaneous adoptions so we know He will provide this last bit.  We will be doing several fundraisers in the next few months.  We are having a new shirt designed which is going to be super cute, so be looking for that.  We also have a way to send donations through our blog over on the right-hand side where it says Help Bring Our Children Home.  Just click that and it should be straightforward on what to do next.

We aren't allowed to share particular details about our little girl or share pictures until after we have been to court, but we will share as soon as we are able.  Thank you to everyone that has been so supportive through all of this.  We are so thankful for you!

a post of randomness

So this month we moved one spot last month. We are number 

66

We have been on the waiting list for 9 months so far.  It's looking like we still have a ways to go as you can see.  We are hoping that the referrals start to come a lot faster now.  We are trusting the Lord's timing and enjoying Eden and our boys. 

Eden is three months old today and is doing great.  She is starting to smile and hold her head up.  She is trying so hard to coo at us.  She sleeps most of the night now and takes a 4 ounce bottle every three hours.  She likes her groceries a lot.  She still hates tummy time and only wants her pacifier when she is hungry.  She is the easiest most laid back baby we have ever had.  Thank you, Lord.  

Pray with us for those at the top of the waiting list who have been there for a very long time that they would get the call that they are so desperately wanting. 

Thanksgiving and Christmas are already here which is really crazy.  I haven't even started Christmas shopping yet.  

On another random note the low for today is 27 degrees!!! Really?? I thought we lived in Louisiana.  

We are still selling tshirts and bracelets and necklace charms so let us know if you are interested for Christmas gifts.  I am all about buying handcrafted gifts this year.  Gotta support the small businesses and the uniqueness is awesome. 

Catching up

          So our new number for Ethiopia is

We moved one spot last month which is more than we thought we would move.  

The big news at our house is that we brought our sweet Eden home from the hospital. We have been home in Louisiana for a week. It was so good to be able to bring our sweet girl home. There were times when we didn't think this whole adoption would happen, but we knew the Lord was in control and are so thankful that he saw fit to add this sweet blessing to our home. She is so sweet and easy.  We can't get enough of her and are enjoying every sleep deprived minute with her. ;)

Our agency has said that when she is 6 months old if we are comfortable receiving a referral that they are fine with us moving forward with our Ethiopian adoption. They have said they think it will be about 9 months before we get one. We are totally fine with that and are praying that we can raise the remaining 11,000 that we need to complete the adoption. 

I'm not going to lie when I think about raising MORE money I start to hyperventilate a little bit.  More money? We have to raise more? I'm going to be brainstorming over the next few months on how to best do this and come up with some new fun fundraisers that everyone should enjoy.  In the mean time we still have Ethiopia t-shirts, bracelets, and puzzle pieces left to sell, so feel free to let me know if you want one.  We know that the Lord has called us to adopt both Eden and Willow so we will rest in knowing He will provide for Willow when the time is right.  He has done the impossible right before our eyes so many times with our adoption of Eden and we are so thankful and continue to anticipate what He will do with Willow. 

Here are a few pictures of Eden for your viewing pleasure.

                                   

Jude holding her for the first time

                                      

The first time Carter met her

The boys getting to see her for the first time

Getting to leave the hospital

Puzzle Progress

Here is how the puzzle is coming. We have sold 93 pieces so far

We have a little under $2000 dollars to raise before Eden is born. Not too bad, huh? We know The Lord is going to provide. We are so thankful for everyone that has purchased pieces so far.  Help us sell some more puzzle pieces to finish our girls' puzzle. Pieces are $10 a piece. I can't wait to hang it up in their new room :)

He's a SHE???

So, it's about time I tell the exciting story.  We had just had a super cute little gentleman's shower the night before for Malachi. So, keep in mind that I have received monogrammed stuff, boys clothing, and had a Malachi puzzle as well.  Our birth mom had had a Dr's appointment the day before, so I was just waiting to hear how her appt went.  At some point I looked down at my phone and saw that I had a missed call with a voicemail.  It was from the attorney's office.  In the message she said she had something to tell me but just added "All I'm gonna say is, I hope you didn't buy blue paint."  At this point I was in total shock. Did she say what I thought she said?  I called Casey immediately and told him what the message said. I kept trying to call her back and didn't get an answer. Was this true, could it really be a girl and not a boy.  I was hyperventilating, in case you were wondering. :) I did eventually get in touch with her and confirm that we were talking about the same birth mom and that the Dr also confirmed that it was indeed a girl! So, back to the store I went and exchanged all the blue for pink and can I tell you how much fun it is to buy girl's clothing? I had a blast. I took all the monogramming off the blankets and such and bought a new puzzle. So, we are now in girl mode. We are frantically trying to get her nursery done in these next 5 weeks before she is born. We'll see if we can do it.  So Malachi Davis is now Eden Elise, and we can't wait to have her in our arms.

We also had an awesome garage/rummage sale where we made over 3,632 dollars.  Such a blessing.  We have mailed our August check and only have to pay for one more month. We are in the home stretch.

Ethiopian adoption news.  It has been an incredible month of referrals for Ethiopia. We should get our new wait list number tonight and should move a lot of spots. Will let you know asap what that number is when we know.

Thank you to everyone that has prayed and supported us through this amazing adventure of adoption.

The Houghs

My Three Boys Soon To Be More

Today I am so thankful for these sweet boys.  They love each other so much.  Words cannot express the bond they all share.  I wanted to show you a few recent pictures that I love of them and tell a few cute stories they told me today about their brother and sister. 

They are so ready for their new brother and sister to be with us.  

Today the older two ran into the room where I was and excitedly exclaimed. "We need to go to McDonalds." Why, I asked. "Because they have a game where you can win 1 MILLION dollars." "What would you do with a million dollars," I asked.  "We would have enough money to bring Malachi and Willow home." Bless their little hearts. They are always thinking about our babies. 

We went swimming today which the boys absolutely love.  Everyone got a big sun burned. I told Carter "You got a little sun burned today." He replied "Well, then my dreams came true." I asked him what he meant by that. "I wanted to be tan like Malachi so we would match and now that I'm darker we will match."

These boys bless me every day.  Not every day is easy and not every day is fun, but at the end I'm so thankful that I get to be their mommy.  

And there is definitely room in my heart and my arms for a few more. :)

Be A Piece Of Malachi's Puzzle

So this is the puzzle we decided on for Malachi. Now let me tell you how this works. The pieces cost $10. For every piece that you buy we will right your name on the back. After all the pieces are sold and we have put the puzzle together we will frame it in a glass frame in Malachi's room and we will be able to tell him that all these people prayed for him and helped bring him home. 

The puzzle is 252 pieces. We are trusting that we can sell all of them. We have a pretty big deadline at the beginning of August, so we are praying that we can sell quite a few. We ask that you would prayerfully consider donating just $10. 

We will periodically post pictures of how the puzzle is coming along. And friends, please feel free to share this blog with anyone and everyone you know. :) 

You can simply click the Help Bring Our Children Home button on the right side to donate. Just leave in the comment section the name you would like on the puzzle piece :)

Thanks, the Houghs

Thirty-One fundraiser party

A sweet friend is hosting a Thirty-One party for us to raise money for our adoption of Malachi. She is giving us all the commission from the party. So sweet of her.  Any ways if you want to order they have some really neat stuff.  If we weren't trying to save every penny I would definitely be buying something. But you should check it out. Here's the info. 

To view a catalog please visit www.mythirtyone.com/rachelpenwell 

To order directly online for this event please visit www.mythirtyone.com/rachelpenwell click on "My Parties" and "Shop Now" under the Hough Adoption Fundraiser link. Or you can place your order directly through Hannah Hough. Please make note that online ordering DOES NOT open till Monday, July 1st. 

The party will go till July 15, so get your order in. 

We appreciate you so much for contributing. You are helping us more than we know. 

Ethiopia Update

This month we are #

We moved 9 spots this month. This is huge movement for us. Definitely the most we have moved since being on the list in February. We are very encouraged and are hoping that we have many more months where we move a lot of spots. :)

There were 11 orphans matched with forever families. Praise God!

Malachi's Adoption

So we sent our first payment to go towards Malachi's adoption and I have learned more about his birth mom and what a sad story it is. I hate that one day I'm going to have to explain some hard things to him.  I'm praying even now that the Lord would give me grace to tell his story with as little hurt to him as possible.  Adoption is such a sad beautiful story.  His mom is about 27 weeks and had her last baby over four weeks early, so we plan to have our bags packed in 9 weeks or so.  So, what happens when she goes into labor, you ask? Well, they will let us know that she has gone to the hospital and we will grab our bags and head to Dallas. We aren't sure if we will be able to be in the delivery room, or if we will have to wait till he's discharged to get him.  It all depends on the birth mom's request and what the hospital allows for adoptive parents.   We will have to wait for ICPC clearance to be able to take him across state lines. After his birth mom signs the papers after 3 days then we will be his legal guardians till we go to court when he is 6 months old.   We will be going to meet with the attorney in Monroe in July and after this time will be contact with his birth mom till she gives birth.

 So far we have used our Ethiopia adoption money to pay the first $5000.  We have to pay the next $5000 in the beginning of July. We have received a grant from the SBC for $500 and we have applied for an interest free loan if we end up not having the money in time.  Praying that they will expedite our application since we had such short notice.  I'm trying to trust the Lord and not be anxious about where the money will come from.  I do know that the Lord has brought us this far and will continue to show the way. We are also planning another big garage sale/bake sale for July 27th, so mark your calendar and clean out your junk, because we will take it :) If you feel led to give toward our adoptions you can donate on the top right through our pay pal account. Even if it's only $10 dollars that is more than we had and are so grateful.

the Houghs

We NEED your PRAYER

What does adoption look like? It looks like James 1:27. It looks like Christ. It looks like the gospel. It looks less like what we want and more like what God wants. Adoption to the world doesn't make a whole lot of sense. Why would you want to love someone else's child? Why would you want an interracial family? Why would you risk that?

When we first started our adoption we were looking for that perfect fit for our family, A little girl! We would have her home in no time.  Maybe a year or so. We had our own ideas about what it would look like for our family, but we forgot that God is ultimately in control.  He knows what her name is, where she is, and when she should come home to us. We rest in the fact that He knows and He has her in his hands and will bring her to our family in His time, which is beginning to look like three years or so. Three years is a long time it seems.  So what will we do in the meantime? We thought we would be doing nothing but living our lives and waiting for our family to grow through adoption from Ethiopia.

A few days ago we received an unsolicited call from our social worker. She had a birth mom who would deliver in September with a little boy.  She wanted to know if we knew anyone that was interested.  Casey and I had talked previously that if we could we would love to adopt in the interim time before Willow comes home if the Lord saw fit.  What an amazing providence, so we said we were interested. Actually, we asked for more details.  We would have to decide within 48 hours if we wanted to move forward and would need to pay $5000 deposit to commit to him. No pressure right? Well, we prayed and cried and prayed and cried.  Well, I did anyway. I don't think Casey cried.  We wanted to have faith that the Lord would provide the $19,000 that we needed for this baby, but also didn't want to be presumptuous. A very thin line to be sure.  There was another catch, there was another family also interested.  Somehow they were going to decide which of us it should be. The next morning we received a call that the other family had withdrawn from the process, and that left only us. After much prayer and 48 hours we decided to move forward and so here we are. 

We would ask that you would pray for our family. Pray that the Lord would supply all the money we need to bring this precious baby home. We know that if it's the Lord's will He will provide exactly what we need.  So, Lord willing, in September, Willow will have a brother. A brother that will share her skin tone. She doesn't know it yet and neither does he.  Isn't it amazing how the Lord moves? We are in awe of His goodness and mercy to us.  Pray that we would have faith to press on. We are clinging to Malachi 3:10 Bring the full tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house.  And thereby put me to the test, says the LORD of hosts, if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you a blessing until there is no more need.  This is our cry for this baby boy. And we would name him Malachi. Casey happens to be preaching through Malachi and what a providence that this is the passage for next week.  Most of all we want to see the Lord glorified in all of this and the gospel proclaimed and exemplified through adoption.

thanks, the Houghs

June Number

Our number this month is:

There was actually a family that dropped out of the program because they just adopted domestically a beautiful set of twins. So that makes us actually at 92.  Glad that we moved a few spots. Wished it had been more spots, but still thankful :)

May Number

Our new number for the month of May. We thought we would only move one spot so we were very thankful to find out that it was four. This month I really had a peace about waiting. I think I have gotten used to this wait list thing. Hah! Remind me of this in 10 months when I'm pulling my hair out about the wait time. We are working on our 3rd month on the waiting list right now.  We received a check last week from a friend for $5000. Wow. The Lord is moving in the hearts of His people for orphans and for our child/children.  Praise God! We have raised most of what we need for one child, but we put on our application that we would be happy with two kids, so we are going to continue to raise support. We feel like the fact that the Lord has raised what we need for one child so quickly that maybe He has two in mind for us. Who knows?  If we only get one child what will we do with the rest of the money, you ask? Well, we are planning to adopt a waiting child from China after our Ethiopian adoption is complete, so if we only get one child then we will use what we have left to start our second adoption.

We are still selling the large and small Africa bracelets, and we have more tshirts on the way and will have children's sizes again for anyone interested in those.  We are also planning to have  5K walk/run on June 1st. More details will be coming on that soon.

Just wanted to share one little fun story from Carter this past week. I bribed him to try to ride his bike without training wheels last week. I told him if he would do it that I would go buy him a treat from Walmart. Well, when we were pulling up to Walmart he tells me "Mom, don't you dare use any of Willow's money to buy my treat.  That is her money and we need to save it!" Love that sweet boy. He loves her so much already. Needless to say, I told him that we aren't using her money for anything and that we had our own money to buy his treat.

Fundraising Goods

Here are the items we are selling right now for fundraisers. We have the bracelets also in chocolate brown as well.  They are $25

These are $15 and come in silver and grey and gold and brown. Perfect for a guy or girl!

These are our tshirts. We have sizes from youth xsmall- adult XL. Children's shirts are $15 and adults sizes are $20.

If you would like to order you may either send me a check in the mail to:

Hannah Hough 

161 Albert Ave, Shreveport, LA 71105

or you can pay through our paypal donate button at the top right. Just put in the comments what you want and what size you need if ordering tshirts and leave me your address. 

Thanks, the Houghs

April Number

We got our new number for April. We are number.....

We were trying to keep our expectations down so we only thought we would move three spots from the referrals that we knew of, but we moved an extra spot.  Yeah! We are out of the 100s. So thankful.  This wait list thing is slow progress but that's better than no progress. We are praying for many referrals this month.  Pray with us. God is able! :)

~ The Houghs

Big News

So, the garage sale was a huge success.  Thank you to everyone that participated and helped. There is no way that we could have done it without you.  We made almost $3000 and still have a garage full. We will probably have another garage sale in May or so since we have so much left.  The Lord was truly good to us.

We have big news.  I have just not had a peace about the length of time that we would be waiting to receive a referral for an infant. I had been losing sleep and had been anxious. This thing called adoption is an ever changing ever sanctifying experience.  For my own selfish reasons and I had wanted a baby girl to dress and relive what I felt I had missed in not having a little girl of my own, so that is one reason that we had decided on an infant.  I know, it's sad. I'm being very transparent here. I'm selfish!!! Seeing all the people on our waiting list and getting to know them through Facebook, I saw all these families that either could not have children and were willing to wait however long for an infant or on the other end of the spectrum, families, that would adopt a child as old as they could.  Either one is awesome! One less orphan, right? Well, I have been able to have my own babies, and don't get me wrong, I LOVE babies, but I just didn't have a peace, like I said before. So, the other day I mentioned to my husband about raising our age range.  He was totally on board.  We feel like there are so many unwanted older children in Ethiopia and their likelihood of being adopted is far less than those of infants.  We had always felt like adopting out of birth order was a bad thing and would "mess" things up, but I've seen families that adopt out of order and what a blessing it is to them. We talked to the kids and they were totally on board.  We do feel that we shouldn't go older than our oldest, though.  He takes being the big brother very seriously, but who knows, that may change in the future too.  So we are now saying one or two children 0-5 with minor/correctable disabilities.  Please pray for us as this opens us up to more possibilities and shorter wait times and more money. :) But, God is able, Is He not? We are praying that He would continue to provide.

Show Hope Grant

We received a $5000 grant from Show Hope for our adoption. We were blown away by the amount considering we didn't think we would get anything.  The Lord is making a way to bring our daughter home. We have $11,000 more to raise to be able to complete our adoption. Please pray for us as we have about a year to raise the remaining funds. We know the Lord will provide.

We have our big garage sale/bake sale this Friday and Saturday and we are hoping to raise $1000 from all the donations that we have received.  Thanks so much to our friends and family that have donated. We are so blessed by your generosity.  It has been a lot of work, but we know it will be worth it.  It's amazing how supportive you have all been.  

Please specifically pray for me, that I would have patience.  This process is so long and hard. Pray that I will seek His face and trust His timing.  

My prayer this week is "Lord, help me to wait well and trust your timing to bring Our Girl home"

Hannah


A song that has encouraged me this week.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=EufaligPigU

Wait List Number

We got our wait list number.  We are..... 

This is about what we expected it to be. Things have been moving pretty slowly with relicensing at West Sands as well as with many orphanages in Ethiopia. There was some concern that some agencies would not be relicensed, but our agency was not one of them, praise the Lord.  

The way our list works is that everyone is on the same list whether they want older children, younger children, girls, boys or special needs, so you don't have to get down to number one to get your referral. 

We are thankful to be on the list even if our number seems forever away. We have much to do and much money to raise before we are ready for our sweet girl, alway.  

Thanks for your Prayers. We are praying for patience right now. 

Moving Along and Unknowns

So our dossier was shipped to Ethiopia last week which many of you know if you keep up with me on Facebook. We should find out our wait list number on Friday. I'm expecting the number to be in the low 100s so we should have a pretty good wait till we get our referral.  There is one thing that could make a difference in wait times. Dove Adoptions International announced that they will be closing and we got an email from Lifeline saying that they are going to be partnering with Dove and letting our accreditation cover them so that they will be able to finalize the adoption for their waiting families. I was concerned at first that this would slow down things for us in the event that they would jump us on the wait list, but my social worker assured my that the results would be positive for all Ethiopia families that are adopting.  I've done some research on the internet and it looks like Dove has a lot of orphanages that have a lot of children available, so maybe if Lifeline is able to have access to those orphanages as well then that could speed things up.  That's just me trying to understand and figure things out on my own, but things are still very new on how the relationship will work, but all that to say, we are planning to try to raise the money a little more quickly than we had thought.  In case things do move faster we want to be prepared.  

I'm excited to be planning a silent auction and also we are getting closer to our garage sale date (March 23rd).  My garage is totally stuffed but that is a good thing.  I need to start sorting and pricing things.  Anyone is welcome to come and help if they feel so led by the Holy Spirit. :) hah! We are still trying to figure out the best place to have the auction and how to publicise it.  

Casey was awarded a $1000 ministerial grant through Lifeline, so we are very thankful for that.  This was our first financial aid that we applied for so we are very grateful to get it.  

We know that the waiting will be hard, but we are praying that the Lord can speed things up which He may even be doing, so we are praying that the money will come in as well.  We are saving and I have been working part time and I have a peace that the Lord is going to provide.  I'm trying not to take for granted me three precious boys that I do have now.  They are a joy and a blessing to me every day and they are very ready for their little sister to come home. Continue to pray for us in this endeavor and for us and our sweet girl in Ethiopia.

Hannah Hough