I will not leave you as orphans

"I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you." ~John 14:18
"No los voy a dejar huérfanos, volveré a ustedes." ~Juan 14:18

This is the verse that has been our adoption verse since we began our adoption journey back in 2012.  It is the verse we have gone back to time and time again.  We've rejoiced in it with the miraculous ways God has shown his mercy and grace along the journey.  We've clung to it by a thread during the steps on our journey where all we had left was to turn it back to God.

 "I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you." ~John 14:18
"No los voy a dejar huérfanos, volveré a ustedes." ~Juan 14:18

In English and Spanish, I have prayed over this verse for my Dominican children.  It is with much excitement and joy that we can say we officially have been matched with the children we have prayed for for the last 4.5 years.  Sometime near Christmas (before or shortly after), we will be traveling to the Dominican Republic to meet our two daughters!!!  God's perfect timing and grace takes my breath away.

Since New Years Eve leading into 2012, Ben and I have felt called to adopt a sibling group from the Dominican Republic.  Last August (2015) we learned about our two girls and asked to see their file.  Unfortunately, things almost looked like the adoption was not going to ever be a reality for a while as the DR government entity took a long time to approve our dossier.  In December of 2015, our dossier was finally approved and we breathed a sigh of relief.  However, in early 2016, due to changes with the adoption director in the DR, our adoption journey was once again put on hold.  

"I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you." ~John 14:18
"No los voy a dejar huérfanos, volveré a ustedes." ~Juan 14:18

Time and time again, this verse and God's plan for our family sustained us.  This past May, we received a file about the two sisters we asked about nearly a year earlier.  Our agency said we were "soft matched".  Basically, we were getting a preview of the file before an official match.  The file included a picture.  I was in love.

We spent this past summer translating the documents, sending the girls to a pediatrician in the DR for better information and this past Wednesday (Sep 21, 2016) - we were matched and officially wrote our letter of acceptance!!!!

My heart has been mom to "more than two" for a long time, but now I can say I am mom to 4 beautiful daughters and know that the days are limited before I finally get to hug the two daughters I've been praying and preparing for all this time.  It almost doesn't feel real.

On one hand, it feels like the end of a long wait.  On the other hand, I know this is only the beginning.  I am overjoyed, thrilled, thankful and even a little scared.  Most of all and I am anxious to finally hug my daughters and start the bonding process with them.

We announced the news publicly on Wednesday and since then both Ben and I have had many people reach out to us asking how they can help.  After some thought to let it all sink in, here is the list we have at the moment:

1. Above all else: PRAYER
• Pray for our daughters - all FOUR of them! Pray for the new daughters that God will watch over them as we prepare to travel to the DR to meet them.  Pray for Shannon and Amelia that God prepares their hearts to meet their new sisters and move to their new rooms in our house since the newest Reillys will need to be closer to our bedroom (at least in the short term).
• Pray for paperwork.  Our next steps will be applying with US Immigration specifically for the girls.  There will be much more paperwork to come as well.
• Pray for God's perfect timing in scheduling appointments, funding, travel dates, meeting with our Human Resource departments at each of our employers, and so much more that I am forgetting to list right now.
• Pray that God's hand be present in unfathomable ways as we grow our family by two more.  Life will never be the same!
• Pray for Ben and me as we navigate the demands of daily life combined with packing up our family to meet the rest of our family.
2. Be a listening ear
• While we could not be happier, there is still a lot of work to be done before we travel.  Sometimes a supportive listening ear can mean so much.
3. Clothes and shoes - adding two more girls close to the age of Shannon and Amelia means they can likely share clothes, but I know we'll need more with double the love!  We'd also like to pack the two extra suitcases we take to the DR with us for the newest Reillys with items to give to their orphanage.  We would like to bless where our girls have spent the last 4.5 years.
4. If you feel so led, you can give financially.  Moving our family to the DR for 6 months won't be easy financially, so we would humbly accept a financial gift if you feel led to do so.  We have a fundraiser page here: https://www.adopttogether.org/reillyadventure or you can give to us directly.
5. Rejoice with us!

Praise the Lord for His plan to grow our family through adoption.  

Thank you for your support,

The Reilly Family

Ben, Jessica, Shannon, S & D and Amelia