The "REAL" wait begins... once again!!!

OK.. so I made a dash to OKC and back and happily got all the documents apostilled, copied, sorted and in the mail to the agency today!!!!
YIPPEE!!
It was such a great feeling knowing it's being sent... however, it's almost unreal... and tonight as happy as we are... we have realized that the "real" wait is officially starting again... LOL!!! urg!!!! Haven't we already been there done that??? well, I guess so, but with this journey, sometimes you have to re travel some roads... or so it seems...

In the beginning of this journey Phil and I felt reassurance in knowing that God had already paved the road for this adoption... and that he has just been waiting on us to decide to jump in with him for the ride!!!
Even despite all the ups and downs... the unanswered questions regarding lots of things... the finances, and everything involved in this process... we know beyond a doubt that God has called us and brought us to this journey. However, even in the midst of knowing it's God's will.. there are still scary moments... but, in those moments we have all the promises of our Savior and KNOW that he will provide in all areas and he has already written the conclusion!!!! At these moments our FAITH kicks in... that's what FAITH is.. "the substance of things hoped for the the evidence of things not seen" (Heb. 11:1)!!! So, as tonight officially marks the 2nd beginning of the "real" wait for us... we are encouraged and know that God had this plan for our lives before we were even born... and he will see it through!!!! He desires to see the very thing that he births in us come to pass!!!

getting closer and closer!!!

well... we received word today that after our agency looked at our social workers update we are good to submit it NOW and don't have to wait the 1-2 weeks on that child abuse check!!! YIPPEE!!! I about fell over from shock... definitely not used to things taking less time than you'd think... so, I quickly began making sure my documents were ok... and found a couple of simple errors... got those reprinted and signed and notarized.. While going through my documents I ran across my new bank letter... and while reading over it had this check about the notary... started to continue on.. but, due to having to make 2 trips to the capitol both previous times.. I decided to call the Secretary of State on the phone and just see if they could tell me if the notary was OK.... Thank you Lord for the prompting to make that call.. I found out that NO, she was not ok... and that she was NOT bonded.. meaning when I got to the capitol tomorrow..that document would have been invalid.. and I'd have had to had it redone and take it back!!! Thank you Lord that I followed that prompting and followed through.. So, I called the bank asap and within 15 minutes had a new letter all ready to go!! (Thank you Lord for small towns and home town girl favors as well!!!) I then made a MAD dash to Stillwater to meet the social worker... who met me and gave me all the paperwork she had for me... (Thanks Amber, for being so AWESOME and prompt!! you are amazing!!!) The girls and I then stopped by kinkos to make our colored copies so that we had those done before the apostilling... makes it easier that way...
It's amazing how many tricks you learn as you do this process over and OVER and OVER!!! So, I am headed to the capitol (about 1 hour from our house) first thing in the morning, and plan to be there @ 8 am when they open to drop my documents off... then RUSH back to work.. and then back to OKC to pick them up when school is out!!! Then get them overnighted to the agency first thing Friday morning..
whew.... talk about a mess!!! Who ever knew it was this difficult!!!
Wow... are we really doing this??? :-) feels like a dream that was never going to happen!!!

Dossier update!!!!!! YIPPEE!!!!

Well, call it Motherly insight, intuition, or just a gut feeling, but I KNEW our FBI clearances would come today... and guess what??? They did!!! Yippee!!! I was a little concerned after reading Kari's nightmare with her FBI clearances (click HERE to read her blog about it!)... so sorry Kari... hang in there...

Ours came back fine... we were once again so relieved to know that we have no arrest record with the FBI!! ha ha... :-)
I just had this feeling the FBI clearances would come today.. so I did all my part of the dossier update last night... then today I finished collecting up the last few forms... visited the CPA to get the updated letter.... picked up a new copy of our marriage license on my planning time, etc. etc. etc..
I got all the documents notarized and we are ready to go to the capitol... except for our home study update. Our social worker has our update totally ready to go, except we are waiting on Child Abuse Checks to come back from the state of Oklahoma... those are dated back in June... so, she thinks they will be here anytime within the next 2 weeks...
So, we are REALLY close to being ready to send our dossier in for the 3rd time!!! It's almost a surreal feeling this time...
I am getting really good at redoing the documents, because with it being so close to 2008... lots of people accidentally put 08... then tried to grab the white out to fix it... only for me to have to redo the entire form... It's been a fun redo, but I'm so thankful to live in a small town... I had my bank letter within hours... I walked into the CPA's office and 10 minutes later walked out with the form completed and signed!!! I ran to the courthouse on my planning period and got a new marriage license!!! I am so thankful that all these people and business are all within blocks of my job! I am so blessed and everyone is more than helpful!!
I really think I could completely redo a dossier within 24 hours if I had to... (minus FBI clearances of course!) Let's hope this is the last redo for us.... we'll see... as I was telling someone the other day I hate to complain... cause what is a few more papers to redo when you are talking about your baby or babies lives??? I'd write out and redo a million papers if I needed to for my kids!!!
I already love those boys (or boy) so much I can hardly contain it... My Brooklyn was so sweet today... she was telling her teacher and friends at her daycare about her brother or brothers... and that they were coming from Kazakhstan... she says it REALLY well!!! It's adorable to hear my girls tell the story.. they love to tell it.. and share that Jesus told us to adopt brothers from there... cause if we don't ... they might not ever know about Jesus.... now that will definitely pull at your heart strings!!!!
We might not have a ton of material possessions in this world, but I guarantee you that my boy or boys will KNOW and feel Christ's love... and that's the most important thing in the world!!!!

Cookbooks!!!!!!!

Below is an e-mail I sent out last night to all our adoption contacts:

Hello to everyone tonight.... Phil and I hope and pray that everyone had a blessed and wonderful holiday season!! We sure did... God just continues to pour out his blessings on our family!! We often stand back and are amazed at how God has moved in our world!!! wow!! What a truly amazing God we serve!!! We have grown and changed so much in 2008... and are so excited as 2009 starts... we have no idea what 2009 will hold for us... for our little family, but we've placed it all in our Savior's hands... and we know it will be awesome!!!!

Some of you already know... but, some don't so, I'll go ahead and share...
We received word on Dec. 22nd that our agency is going to submit our dossier asap to the consulate!!!! I was Christmas shopping when I received the call.. and man of man I about fell over... people in Target had to wonder what was up with the woman in the middle of the kids clothes!!! :-) We are updating all our documents and have sent for new FBI clearances (which will take the longest to get back...) so, hopefully we'll have all the documents redone and ready to send in a couple of weeks.... waiting on those FBI clearances will be the tough thing!! Please pray that they update them quickly and overnight them back to us ASAP!!! This is our 3rd time in 1 1/2 years for them to confirm that we have NO criminal record with the FBI.. maybe that will speed the process?!?! well, one can only hope and pray!!!
We have been really trying to remain positive, and have.. but, hearing the news that it's going to finally start moving again was such a much needed blessing... we've been waiting to have our dossier sent back to the consulate since May... that's 6 months... we submitted our completed dossier to our agency on March 3rd 2008.... so, we've been waiting a while... with no progress... just expiring documents!!!


As most of you also know we have been selling cookbooks for our adoption fund... it's a collection of 250 of our favorite recipes... family and friends submitted and we put them together in a cute cookbook as an adoption keepsake! They turned out adorable and I hope everyone who ordered one has been very pleased... We've have prayed that God will bless families, marriages, and lives as people come in contact with the cookbooks.....
We have around 130-150 cookbooks left (I haven't counted exactly...) and SEVERAL out that haven't been paid for... If you have cookbooks and haven't paid (meaning you are selling them for me....) please, send me an e-mail and let's touch base... I've not done a good job of being exact with who has what... I trust all of you.. but, I really would like to hear from everyone... and if you have money for us.... so what I am saying is that we have lots of money still out... and cookbooks left...
I have several people who preordered that I haven't heard from and haven't paid.. so if that is you as well... please let me know.. if you still want your cookbooks... that's great.. if you've changed your mind that is fine as well... (honest!) please, just let me know.. I know how busy we all get.....
I just want to begin to wrap this cookbook sales up... so I can embark on the next fundraiser, I guess :-) ha ha...

I have 317 people in my contacts (and LOTS more who read this blog) who receive these updates... if half of you would buy one more cookbook they'd all be gone in a matter of minutes.... and if some of you bought 2 or more.. .well, you do the math.... I am happy to reduce the price if any of you think they are to expensive... if you'd like to buy one for $10.00 you are welcome to... so, I challenge you to please help us out and let's get these cookbooks gone asap!!!!!!

Check out the right side of the blog for details of ordering or e-mail me back and I'll be happy to help... We are believing that in a matter of days they will all be gone!!!! Thank you Jesus... that would be over $1000...

Please know that Phil and I are praying for all of you and want to thank you for being such a special part of this journey....
and as always feel free to forward this and all information about our adoption to anyone you would like to share our story with!!!!
On behalf of our children.. thank you.. thank you for caring and thank you for helping a baby find their home forever!!!

Blessings always,
Lanetta (and family)
e-mail: lanettagobble@yahoo.com

The past 8 days....

well, today I am back to work after an incredibly sad, yet rewarding previous 8 days...
I have attended 5 funerals in the past 8 days, so as you can imagine my emotions are on overload. The deaths started with our pastors wife on Christmas night and ended with my grandma and aunt on my Dad's side of the family. It has been an amazingly unreal series of days... I have to say that with the deaths of my grandma and aunt, my brother and I saw family that we hadn't seen in years. It was stressful and emotional, but so nice to see that all our family had missed us and still loved us as well. My parents divorced back in 1997 and to say the least the relationship with my Dad since that point has been strained. I have struggled with this for years, asked God to please help me in this area, and just had to try to give the entire situation over to the Lord.
It was only on Tuesday (at my Grandma's funeral) that I saw healing began to happen. I am so thankful for this. It was so great to see all the family that I hadn't seen in years and I was able to share about our adoption... most of them asked if we were planning to have more children and that opened the door... I LOVE to share about our adoption, because you can't share much of anything about it without sharing how AWESOME our God is!!!
It was a good feeling to be able to share and know that through our adoption people were seeing that God is very much alive, well, and doing miracles!!! Thank you so much Lord!

So, despite emotional overload, the past week has been good.. relationships rekindled, and healing began in several situations...

as you can imagine I have not had a chance to even look at our dossier... so, that's on my list of things to get on now... still waiting on the FBI clearances, so I have a little time.. I'll be ready to apsotille it all when those arrive....
Blessings to all of you today.... wishing your families a wonderful and blessed 2009!!!

Lots of things.. but, we have NEWS!!!!

Hello to everyone tonight!!!!

We received word on Dec. 22nd that our agency is going to submit our dossier asap to the consulate!!!! I was Christmas shopping when I received the call.. and man of man I about fell over... people in Target had to wonder what was up with the woman in the middle of the kids clothes!!! :-) We are updating all our documents and have sent for new FBI clearances (which will take the longest to get back...) so, hopefully we'll have all the documents redone and ready to send in a couple of weeks.... waiting on those FBI clearances will be the tough thing!! Please pray that they update them quickly and overnight them back to us ASAP!!! This is our 3rd time in 2 years for them to confirm that we have NO criminal record with the FBI.. maybe that will speed the process?!?! well, one can only hope and pray!!!

so, due to this exciting news we are THRILLED!!!! We had a great Christmas... spent lots of good time together... and really celebrated Christ's birth! I have to admit that knowing our dossier was about to be resubmitted added such an awesome element to the holidays!!! We have been really trying to remain positive, and have.. but, hearing the news that it's going to finally start moving again was such a much needed blessing... we've been waiting to have our dossier sent back to the consulate since May... that's 6 months... we submitted our completed dossier to our agency on March 3rd.... so, we've been waiting a while... with no progress... just expiring documents!!!

I hope and pray that everyone also had a blessed and wonderful Christmas!!!
I will try to keep you posted.....
Blessings...
Lanetta

cookbooks, cookboooks, cookbooks... anyone???? We have cookbooks still available!

hummm... just some random thoughts..

Well, I have to admit that I have been out of the blogging loop for the last few weeks.... why you might add??? well, am I going to lay my heart out here... or just brush it all off... ummm.... I'm not sure...

well, I haven't posted since before Thanksgiving... not on purpose really, but just that I didn't take the time... I had the entire week of Thanksgiving off from work... which as awesome... and my brother, Phil and I re roofed my mom's entire house for her... OMG (oh my gosh!) Just typing it makes my knees and back ache!!!! ouch! It was a good week.. and I'm SO thankful we were able to do it for her.. cause we saved her about $5000.00 in labor... so it was VERY worth it!

Phil took the next week off as well, and he spent some time seeking God and really spent some good time in God's presence... I am so proud of him for being obedient to God and going away and seeking him! I am so blessed....
I wanted to do a I'm thankful for list for a Thanksgiving post.. but, since I missed Thanksgiving without a post... well, I guess I'll skip it..
but, I am so thankful for my Jesus, my husband, my girls, and my family!

I have been VERY busy in fundraisers...
we did 3 craft fairs in a row... 3 Saturdays in a row... we've done 3 teacher luncheons, we've sold poinsettias and we have the cookbooks still for sale.. we've made several several hundred dollars in the past few weeks and are so thankful for God continuing to bless our adoption financially. The account is just slowing increasing.. Thank you Jesus!!!

on top of all the fundraisers we've been doing.. I am also helping with the Musical at our church... which we are really excited about... it's going to be cute... I'll post pictures after the production! My girls are cheerleaders and are SO excited!

ok.. so honestly though, I have just avoided getting online... I felt that I needed to get my focus off the blogs, the other families who are traveling (whom I am so excited for!) and focus on my Jesus and my family... The holidays will be over before we know it... and I want my girls to have such sweet fond memories of this Christmas.... not Mama being sad because their brothers aren't here yet... Phil and I have been doing a good job of not focusing on it.. however it's really hard sometimes! In my own personal thoughts I think of the children in Kaz almost continually... and of all the millions of babies and children around the world, who are alone this Christmas... my heart breaks! I just thank the Lord that there are families who are willing to be his hands extended here on earth and open their lives and hearts to a baby or child who needs it! So, my hat is off to all you adoptive parents out there... who are trying to get to your babies, or who are already home and safe and sound... on behalf of all the babies and orphans in the world.. Thank you.... thank you thank you!!

and, just fyi... I have a couple hundred cookbooks still for sale.. if you are interested... please e-mail me... or see the info. on the right of the blog...

Blessings Always,
Lanetta