To our friends and family, 

This past month has been a whirlwind of change for us so it is time once again to share an update in this crazy adoption journey, and to speak of God's faithfulness. To say we are exhausted is an understatement, but to say we are so thankful doesn't explain the depth of gratitude in our hearts. 

Our last update was about the referral we received from AGCI about a little girl. We still haven't heard anything and are waiting patiently for our answer if we are parents yet to this sweet 18 month old. In the waiting we have plenty to do and plenty of change to adapt to. Joseph has ended his job at Unishippers and is happily taking a position full time at Concordia College! He will be Head Coach of the Men's and Women's Tennis Team and Associate Director of Sales and Fundraising for the Athletic Department! Katie is waiting for a call that will schedule her midwifery certification exam any day now as well. 

In the midst of this change we have also about finished our Dossier and Home Study!!! This is a HUGE accomplishment and we are SO happy to have the majority of adoption paperwork behind us! The fees for submitting these documents and the processing of them is roughly $4800.00. We spent the last remaining $4000.00 from our adoption savings account on the processing of our request of the little girl we were referred to, so we knew we needed to fundraise a lot this summer. We are also needing to begin the immigration processing which is $900.00. With other little things, we were looking at a whopping $5985.00 bill this summer. 

So we set out to do a T-Shirt fundraiser first which many of you took part in. As we look at what we have raised so far, we are at $1184.00 in sales!!!! THANK YOU SO MUCH if you bought a shirt!!!! Then we collected donations from friends all over our city and had a massive yard sale on the 18th. It was extremely successful despite the torrential downpour we received in the middle, and we walked away with $2500.00 in cash. In addition to these amazing fundraisers, some of you continued to donate through this PureCharity site, and we have collected an extra $2253.00 in the last month. 

We are sharing these details with you to show God's faithfulness and the difference your support makes:

We needed: $5985.00
We received: $5987.00

We not only received what we needed, but $2.00 more. We feel like this is God's way of just making the cup overflow. We are humbled by His faithfulness, because when we look at these numbers we get intimidated, stressed and confused. We feel weak with worry and maybe even distant from God sometimes. But the $2.00 is His loving kindness reminding us that He is good and He is in control. Even when we feel alone is this struggle, and feel distant from Him, He is working and bringing in even more than we need to show us humorously that He's got this! Thank you for listening to His voice and giving generously. Thank you for letting your life overflow in generosity towards our journey, mimicking what Jesus does for us. 

We long for the day when we can announce to you who our little heart is, because we know that you will be just as invested in that joy. There are no words to say how thankful we are for your love and support, not just financially, but in your kind words and loving encouragement when you see us and write on our pages. Thank you, from the deepest part of our hearts, thank you. You are making a difference in the life of a precious orphan and helping us become loving parents. 

With love, 
Joseph and Katie Murrey