On October 13th I was sitting on the side of my bed staring at my phone anxiously awaiting a friend to send a video announcing the gender of their baby. That's when the number of our agency came across my phone. Immediately my heart skipped because I assumed the only reason they would be calling was if they had a match for us. And that's what the call was about! Brooke from our agency called to let me know that they had a match for us. The way it works is they give you the childs name, age, gender, and whatever basic information they have on the child. You can then choose to look at the childs file and begin the 30 days of the file being held for you or you can choose to not look at the file. I of course said we wanted to see her file so she emailed everything to us including a picture. Joey and I both agreed to wait to open the email together once he was home from work and the kids were in bed. It was so hard seeing that unopened email and the curiosity was killing me. We sat down together that evening and began to review her file. We then got to see one little picture of her. We knew there was an immediate spark. We knew we "felt" something. We didn't know what that meant but we knew there was something. This was our second file to review. The first file we knew in our hearts almost immediately that that child was not ours. The story was different for her. We knew we felt something tug our heart for her. We even took a picture right after reviewing her file and seeing her face for the first time. We said "did we just see a picture of our daughter for the first time?" We took a picture together just to document the moment.
Her name will be Eva J. Hollenbeck. We legally aren't allowed to share her middle name yet because that is her given name. We love her given name so much that we considered keeping it as her first name. But, our girls both have E names so we wanted all of our girls to have E names. We chose Eva because it is actually an Indian name. In Hindi it means "to live, to breath". It looks like we may even be calling her by both her first and middle name. A double name, I thought I'd never do that.
Here she is! We are so proud to share our daughter, Eva J. Hollenbeck with all of you!
Again, legally we can not show her face but I surely can't wait to show you just how beautiful and perfect she is. She is strong and just incredible. What an honor it is to call her our daughter. I just can't wait to see how the Lord is going to use her life. I just can't wait watch her with her sisters. I know there will be hard days. Hard days for her, hard days for us. I know that I am not enough but He is! His power is made perfect in weakness. His grace is sufficient for all of us.
But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. 2 Corinthians 12:9
So what's next?
It's the most asked question. When do y'all get to go get her? I wished I knew for sure. Truth is its still quite the process and covid isn't helping anything. We are currently waiting for I800 approval. This is where the US approves us to bring Eva specifically into this country. Then we have to get approval from India to adopt her specifically. Then we start the court process and the length of court simply depends on the judge we get. Right now we are praying specifically for these things: 1. That we do not have to travel for court. It has been brought to our attention that it is very possible our judge will require us to travel for court which means traveling twice. Which would be hard for many reasons. Please pray that we will not have to travel for court. We are also praying that we would be able to get her by summer 2021. That timeline would be great for our family for so many reasons.
Fundraising Goals..
In one year we have raised $31,965! Whatttttt?! I'm still so surprised by that number. We still need about $15,000 more. It's funny how this last 15 thousand seems more daunting than the first 31 thousand. That's the enemy for ya. Just constantly trying to sneak in and tell us we can't do this. Full transparency though... fundraising has been a lot of work. There are times of feeling overwhelmed by trying to manage it all. I told a friend the other day that fundraising has been the most beautiful way to see the Lord be so faithful. To see the generosity of others, to see our friends be the hands and feet of Jesus by coming along side of us to help. It has truly been incredible and humbling. But its also been hard. We are looking forward to reaching our goals so we can rest and recharge before we become a family of FIVE!
Last year we started our puzzle fundraiser. 300 pieces each representing a dollar amount $1-$300. Today we have sold 204 pieces. That means we have less than 100 pieces left until we are fully funded. ALSO, there are only a few pieces that are over $200. We have sold all of the 300 dollar pieces and almost all of the 200 dollar pieces. Thank You Jesus! Thank you to everyone that has supported us!
If you are looking for the easiest way to support us then you can purchase a puzzle piece. This puzzle will hang in Eva's room in a frame to see the front and back of the puzzle. This way she can see all of the names of the people that supported us financially to bring her home. These pieces without a line through them are still available. You can Venmo me at Whitney-Hollenbeck to purchase a puzzle piece or you can donate through our Lifesong for Orphans page. This is a safe way to make a tax-deductible donation. We receive 100% of the donation!
You can also support us by purchasing coffee from Gobena Coffee. We receive 50% of every purchase and 100% goes directly towards orphan care.
Again, thank you all so much for following along and being supportive. We can't wait to bring our girl HOME!
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