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!

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. 

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

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.

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