Our Adoption Journey to Ethiopia

He is Alive!!!

2012-04-08T15:54:00.002-05:00

Today as we should everyday we celebrate our Risen Savior! Church service was so amazing today and all the songs the choir sang was amazing and soul searching! The Pastor delivered a wonderful to the point message about what we should be living for each and everyday of the year and for those who are only going to church on the holiday's, well that is simply not enough nor are you living a life for a savior who should be living and dwelling inside of you! I have a friend who used the term CEO christians which means Christmas, Easter and Other holidays Christian. It is very sad to only acknowledge our Lord on those holidays because He lives and breathes inside of us each and everyday and if He isn't then we need to be soul searching so we are His hands and feet here on this earth until we are living eternally with Him!!! I use to go to church on those holidays or most of them at least and I would pray when "I" needed Him to do what" I "needed to done or to help "me" through the day. Do you see what "I" was focusing on- ME and that is not what being a Christian is about or should be about. We should live and work for our Savior-being his hands and feet-teaching others about Christ and serving other's for Christ and taking care of the least of these. ⁴⁰ “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’ Matthew 25:40 NIV We will be face to face with God one day and I want Him to say those words to me! I need to be doing more and God is calling me to do something and I am still not completely sure what it is, so until He reveals that too me-I will be praying and working for Him.

Through this adoption process our Lord has been so gracious to show me how much we are "not" doing to help the least of these. We get so comfy cozy in our own little world and what we "have" that we forget to have the spirtual wealth we so desperatly need. I read those words in a book "Kisses from Katie". A great book which is helping me see more and more what we allow to get in the way of hearing God and being obedient to Him because our material wealth makes our ears and hearts more deaf so we do not hear God when He is speaking. We are commanded to take care of those in need and yet we don't, why? I know me and my family have just been too selfish and our needs seem to come before those who truly desperately need help and I think by paying our tithe at church is enough and yet it is not (or at least this is what God is pressing on my heart). We should tithe and we need to tithe and I am grateful to give to God to help the gospel being spread, but I need to do something more and what that is at this very moment-I do not know, but I am preparing my body to listen to my Lord and awaiting the answer He is going to give me. So as we continue to wait for His answer and for our precious child we will prepare our hearts and wait upon the Lord for His guidance in our lives. We can not wait to hold our little one and to teach them more about our Lord-the one who loves them so much that He held them in the time of waiting for us as He is holding us and we will be forever changed through this process and I pray we can be the hands and feet of the Lord so that other's may know Him and follow Him and grow in Him each and everyday not just on the days we as human's deem the "most" important-everyday is important in working for the Lord! May we all truly know that He is Alive!!!!

What we have been up to....

2012-04-01T16:13:00.002-05:00

Again, I lag in the time between post, but not much is happening. We have been enjoying the spring weather! It is so great to see how God has designed the season's right off of a brown dead winter time to seeing the new life grow on the trees, grass and flowers!!! It is always refreshing and amazing to see how God has orchestrated every single tree bloom, flower petal-I can get lost in the details and am always in awe of His creation. To just think that he designed all of this for us and that we are His prize creation!!! Gives me God bumps, as my sister calls them!!! God has been working in our lives as well with our adoption. We are now at 6 months into our wait and a long wait is still ahead of us, but in this time of waiting He continues to work in and on our hearts for the orphan and the widowed. We are called to take care of them and I am waiting for His instruction to see which avenue He wants us to go down. He moves my heart in so many ways with the information He is allowing me to see and I am ready to see where He takes us. He has also been working on our hearts to change or increase our adoption request and we are currently working on that as well. It is amazing, even though we or I may be scared, He gives us the information we need to calm our spirit and to trust in Him. My husband is a constant and such a strong man and is willing to do whatever God wants, it is me He is constantly pursuring to just give in and to trust His perfect plan for us and so I am taking another step of faith in God's provision to provide for our family and since I have said "yes, Lord" I feel so at peace. I love when I feel that amazing peace that can come from no where else but our God. It takes all the stress away and tension away better than a wonderful massage! :) Our God is an awesome God and He reigns!!! We continue to seek His guidance in and for our family and I pray you do too!!!!

Way too long

2012-02-28T10:17:00.001-06:00

First off, I apologize for not posting in such a long time. It has been busy and I just haven't made posting on here a priority. On our adoption front we are now almost 5 months waiting and at times it doesn't seem like it has been 5 months and other times it does. I know we are ready to have our child in our home and being a part of of family on a daily basis. We pray for them all the time and pray God is holding them through this until we can all be together and He holds us as a family! I just love that thought!!! There has been some movement over in Ethiopia with other families getting referrals, court dates, being submitted to Embassy and being cleared by Embassy and bringing their children home. It is so awesome to see the emails on those embassy clearances because it means another child is joined with their forever family and they are making their way back to their home TOGETHER! I just love that news and I can't wait until that is our news and we never have to be seperated again!

On to what has been in my heart:

Enjoying this Moment in your Life
Life is so short and we never know how long we will have each other, so cherish THIS day with your husband, children and other loved ones because only God knows what tomorrow will bring! I pray that I do that each day and not get bogged down with all the have too's of the day. Take that time when your husband calls to focus on him or when your child says let's play hide-n-seek-just do it. House cleaning, chores etc can usually wait so you can make a sweet memory with you loved one. I am writing this because just last week a friend of mine's brother lost their baby before he was born and it shakes you and it can destroy you if you do not have God as your center. It also makes me think of all of the orphans-some are orphans because they are just given up, but others are orphans from poverty, disease, terminal illness and I know it has to break those momma's hearts to give their children up because they can no longer take care of them and don't you think they relish those last goodbye's, last kisses, last hugs and hang on to those memories for the rest of their lives. I am forever grateful to those women and men who make this difficult choice for their children. So whether a sweet precious life is way too short or they are givin up for adoption we must relish in each sweet precious day with our loved ones because you will never get this day back!!!

I thank God for His loving grace that is there for all of us, if we chose to take Him into our hearts! I pray God is leading you in your walk in this life and I pray you are enjoying and making memories in the journey He has you on at this moment in your life!!!

What happened the day after Prayer and Fasting

2012-01-26T11:09:00.000-06:00

Jeremiah 29:12 Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. God is so good to answer prayer! The day after our group prayed and fasted about areas of the Ethiopian Adoption process several people were submitted to Embassy, some cleared Embassy and get to go pick up their babies and some passed court! God is so faithful to answer when we come whether alone or as a group. God so loves to hear from His children and we are so thankful for a God who takes care of us and all of His children!!! A lot of times we are meant to just wait and learn through the time of waiting and in this time of waiting we not only grow closer to God if you allow yourself you learn more than you ever could if your prayer was answered immediately!! At least that has been my case! :) So treasure the times of waiting-God hears the crys of His children and He will answer with the right answer whether it is yes, no or maybe-God knows what His children need each and everyday like we answer our children. We are able to see what is best for them because we see things differently than they do, just as God sees things differently for us! Take time today and everyday for the blessings He has surrounded you with and praise Him daily for these blessings!! In His Love, Cindy

Prayer and Fasting

2012-01-23T16:43:00.000-06:00

Starting after dinner this evening several other adoptive families and us will be fasting and praying for the adoption process in Ethiopia. Over the past year the process has slowed down quite a bit and a lot of that has been changes in the adoption system in Ethiopia and for the protection of the kids (which is so important). It seems as if they are still trying to find their rhythm with the process or that is what it seems like to me. :) The referrals have slowed, the court process seems to have slowed, and the Embassy process has certainly slowed which is holding up a lot of families from going to pick up their kids. If you read this please say a prayer for the adoption process in Ethiopia and the families hearts that are waiting to bring our children home. I know God is creator of all and in control of all, but there is power in prayer!!!! God answers prayers and sometimes we just need to come together collective and cry out to our Lord for guidance and for movement!!! God knows each and everyone of us and knows our needs, especially all the orphans around the world and I know He wants them to be taken care of and there are many ways each of us can take care of and help orphans. We are not all called to adopt but we are all called to take care of the widowed and orphans: "learn to do right! Seek justice, encourage the oppressed. Defend the cause of the fatherless, plead the case of the widow." Isaiah 1:17 I only wish I had realized the extreme need for our help much earlier in my life and maybe I can share with you what we are commanded by God to do before you get to my age! :) You may feel called to help here at home and there is a great need here as well in other parts of the world. You can sponsor kids through some great organizations. I have a link at the side of the post for the blog family-from-afar and she has some great information and some amazing stories of the kids and what sponsoring them does-it is an amazing read. You can also donate items to pregnancy resource centers and many other organizations that raise awareness about children in need. Anyways, I don't mean to harp, but there is a great need. My husband and I were talking recently and we started this adoption process to add to our family and little did we know God had something else in mind as well and that is showing us the great need for these kids. It is heartbreaking and just thinking about now, I have tears in my eyes. I challenge you to just take some time and look into the faces of the fatherless and widowed-God wrote His words for a reason-He knew their need before any of us would ever realize it. It is so easy to get caught up in what is going on within our own lives that we/I fail to look at what is around me and that saddens me that I have done that for so many years. But there is always hope and faith in our Loving and Amazing God that He provides enough for some and even more for others so that we can help as much as we can. God will provide for our needs and theirs and maybe today the need of an orphan will be meet by you! Pray and see where God leads you and pray with us as we pray for the Adoption process to help some of the orphans be members of a family!!! With Gods Love, Cindy

Thirty-One Fundraiser ends Jan 29

2012-01-19T15:33:00.003-06:00

We are currently doing a fundraiser with Thirty-One. You can order online by going to www.mythirtyone.com/tracyboren go to my events and click on Cindy Montoya and start shopping. I decided to do the fundraiser this month for the awesome sale that is going on with their Thermal Totes only $10 or the new Cinch Tote only $15. I wanted one of each so I thought why not have a fundraiser. You can get the Thermal Tote personalized if you wish and it can be sent directly to your home. You get a great product from a great Christian based company (based off proverbs 31 woman) and you also get to help raise funds for us to bring our child home. It is a win win! :) As always we so appreciate all you prayers, we couldn't do our adoption without you all praying for us!!!

Tuesday was a Great Day!!!!

2012-01-19T15:31:00.000-06:00

Tuesday was a very busy day! It started with hurrying out the door to get Isabella to school, heading to Church for Bible Study and then back to school at noon to pick up Bella and then we brought her friend home with us but first we had piano lessons, lunch finally got home so they could play and I could clean. When her mommy got here to pick her up all the girls played for a while and then they left, grabbed our mail threw it by the door and started getting Bella ready for gymnastics on the way out the door I saw the mail and flipped through it and saw the envelope from Show Hope. I paused should I open it now or wait until we get home? If it is good news, I want to know now-if it isn't good news I never want to know.... I took a deep breath and opened it and started reading the first paragraph which said --First I should tell you what/who Show Hope is-they are a company who care for orphans through special care centers, impact projects and mobilizing churches to help. They provide awareness and help and adoption aid. Back in October we filled out all the paperwork to apply for a grant and the decision were due out this month, so you might understand better now why I was excited and nervous when I was picking up the letter. So, now to what the letter said:

On behalf of Show Hope and the donors who make our grants possible, we rejoice with your family as you step out in faithe to experience the miracle of adoption. Thank you for allowing us to be a small part of your adoption process. We are pleased to inform you that you have been awarded an adoption assistance grant in the amount of $4000.

Needless to say I was bent over and crying big tears!!! Poor Bellas says, "mommy what's wrong? are you ok!" I told her yes, I am just so overjoyed that God continue to provide for us for our adoption! I said I am so happy and so grateful and humbled! I can not tell you what a big relief that was to see those words and to continue to see how God is providing the way spiritually and financially for our adoption. " For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." Jeremiah 29:11 This scripture has been on my heart for about a month and this one has been in my head and a friend of mine posted it on my FB page "Philippians 1:6! He who began this work in you will finish it to completion." God is so good to take each of us through our journeys, no matter how long or short or tough or easy. He will always finish the work He has started in you, in each of us!!! Praising our Lord for awesome news and He is working in our adoption yahoo group with bringing 2 referrals this week one to a family that has been waiting for 17 months. What a great day to celebrate orphans being brought to their forever families! God is good!!!

Monday, Monday

2012-01-09T10:57:00.000-06:00

Monday's are always such a hard day. Trying to get back into the rhythm of the week. Why is it so hard to get out of bed? Maybe because we enjoyed just having family time together and hate to get back to the day ins and outs of what we do each day. Oh well, it is here so we will conquer it with everything that we have and look at it as a new beginning to a week that awaits us!

Not a lot going on on the adoption front since we are in the waiting stage, but I did finish up my Hep B series of shots last week and today I got my tetanus and then over the next few months we will all get our yellow fever, typhoid and menigitis and then I still need to get my polio and then I will be done besides finishing up my Hep A series in Feb. Isabella hates getting shots and she gets so anxious about it-it is hard for a momma to see her child so nervous about something that you wish you could just get double and they would be protected. So, daddy will be going with us to help out a little. Good ole' daddy to the rescue- although I think it may be a little harder on him seeing his baby girl so upset, but we will get through it because it is for a great cause to give Isabella a little brother or sister that we all so desperatly want!!! Anyways, I am off to fold the mounds of laundry my hubby did yesterday, thank you sweetie for you help, and then off to pick Isabella up from school! I pray you all have a great day and enjoy this first day of the week because you never know what tomorrow will bring! :)

This upcoming year!!

2012-01-08T20:15:00.000-06:00

As we celebrated the New Year, so many thoughts ran through my mind, mostly will our child be with us this next year and I am believing that he or she will be here celebrating with us. We can not wait, but know God's timing is always perfect even when it doesn't fit in with our plan. :) I could not imagine going through this time in our life or any other's without our Lord leading and guiding us- I just don't know how people do it that do not have faith in Him??? I look forward to this year because each new year that comes is another year we have to strive to do better, be better and enjoy this time/moment in our lives. Each day is a blessing, even though some don't always feel like it, but even those days are probably even more of a blessing because we made it through!

This year we will be making a move to Texas and at some point be bringing our child home and although I get anxious with all the timing of everything all I have to do is pray and I find comfort in God's plan and know that even if it doesn't seem right to me-it is always just the way He planned it for us! The scripture that I am continuing to find comfort in is: For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Jeremiah 29:11 NIV This scripture pops into my head several times a day and has been for the past month and I find comfort in- I feel God is putting this on my heart so I know that He is there and that He is in control of everything and with that I find much comfort and I pray you do as well! I pray that this year will bring lots of growth in the areas each of us needs it. May God bless you this year and may everything we do bring Him the glory! Here is to 2012!!!!

The Day After

2011-12-26T10:27:00.000-06:00

As Christmas time has come and gone in the since of a day, but we need to celebrate Jesus Christ everyday! Anyways, it was such a joyous time celebrating with our family and watching all the cousins having fun and playing together. There is something so great about hearing the kids running and playing throughout the house. I just pray that next year our new little one will be laughing and running and playing with them.
Laying in bed this morning snuggled with my family I was thanking God for the true blessing of our family and anticipating/dreaming of our other child snuggling there with us by this time next year (oh how I pray that will be so)! Our family is just not complete without them and God is so good to have put that desire in our heart and to keep nuturing that desire for our child who is far away. We continue to pray daily for them and their protection and can not wait to pick them up and hold and squeeze and kiss their beautiful face. I am so thankful to God for helping me/us through this time of year knowing that they are far away from us and not knowing their situation is hard, but God has challenged us and brought us closer to Him through this time of growing and leaning on Him to take care of them and us. This time of waiting is hard (and we have only been in this stage for 3 months) but we are going to take this time to let God work on us and what He needs to teach us and if we allow Him to grow us through this time the lessons we gain are far more worthy than the hardship of the "waiting"! Everything comes in HIS timing! Merry Christmas to everyone and I pray we all learn and grow in Him this upcoming year!!!

Prayer Needed!

2011-12-22T16:39:00.000-06:00

As I mentioned in my last post that even though this is a wonderful time of year it is also very hard at times when you are in the "waiting stage" of adoption and we have only been here almost 3 months there are many others that have been in the "waiting stage" for 16 months and are struggling not having their babies home with them. So, I am asking for any of you that read this to please keep them and all those in the adoption process in your prayers. Most of we all know that God has called us on this journey and there are times that we just need to be lifted up by others to help carry us a little when we can't stand on our own. Through this journey God is pruning and teaching us in many ways, but at times it gets hard and I can only imagine the struggle that those feel that have been waiting for a year, 14 , 16 months must be feeling. I asking that you not only pray for them, but to pray for referrals to come. There are many children and sometimes the paperwork just isn't getting done in a timely manner or they don't have all the clearance levels in place and so the children who are paper ready are just left waiting in the orphanges. (this is in the southern region of Ethiopia-please pray for this area). God is so in control of every step and as much as you know that at times you just need a little hope. Please pray for all of these families who have been waiting so long to bring their children home and pray for the children and their hearts to be prepared for their forever family. May God truly bless you during this time of celebration of the greatest gift that could ever be given to each and everyone of us and that is the birth of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ! If you don't know how ask Him into your heart and learn about the most perfect gift that has ever been given to you and I! Merry Christmas!

Christmas Time!!!

2011-12-14T15:17:00.000-06:00

As we are getting ready for this time of year and enjoying our time together as a family we can't help but know that our other child is not yet here with us and we pray they are with us next year, actually I am assuming they will be!!! As we decorate, buy gifts and prepare you still feel like you are missing someone and that is a bit hard! So, we pray a lot for them and where they could be right now and their situation. I pray so often for God's arms to be wrapped around them carrying them and protecting them and whispering to them that everything will be ok. I pray for their birth family and the situation they are in and the decisions they will be making or already have made and how hard it must be for them to make that decision to give up their child for another to raise... It is a little overwhelming everything that can and does surround the adoption process. Things you don't think about when your pregnant with a baby in your tummy. But, knowing that God is preparing their family for the decision they will make and preparing our hearts and our child's heart for each other is an utterly amazing and overwhelming sense of peacefulness. This time of year and everyday for that matter is about God and for God and through this journey of ours to get our other child we will praise God and give Him all the glory, because HE IS GOOD!!!

Thanksgiving!!!

2011-11-29T15:05:00.001-06:00

What a wonderful time of year to celebrate with your family and friends and to think about what God is doing and has done for you and your family. We are just so blessed to be His children and to be going through this life with Him. He is so amazing to show each of us His love through this life and we are forever grateful and thankful. With each day that goes by we long for our child that is in Ethiopia and even though we don't physically know them we feel them and pray for them each and every day. It is hard to explain for others to understand. I guess I can compare it to being pregnant and longing to see your babies face and hold them because you can feel them inside of you, but with adoption you don't have their presence in your body, but God is so gracious to give you that feeling in your heart and it is amazing that He can create that sense of feeling inside you without a physical baby being there. I am so thankful to God for this journey to adopt another child of His as we are all adopted into His family through knowing Christ!!!! I pray you know the living God and if you don't please ask!

Current Fundraising Efforts

2011-11-14T11:01:00.000-06:00

Well I will be going to another craft show this weekend with my sister and I will be selling those cute hats with bling on them, you know everyone needs one or two :)!!! They sold great at the last craft show I did a couple of weeks ago which we also sold some beef jerky which went pretty well and we still have a little bit left so if you would like any-just let us know and Isabella had her cocoa stand which did awesome!!! She is so funny and quite the little salesperson. She would call to people when they would walk by saying "Cocoa here-it will make you warm inside". She is so beautiful to help raise money to bring her brother or sister home and she can't wait! She had a lemonade stand in the summer and we are thankful to all who came out to support her efforts! I love how she comes up with the ideas to raise money and it is so precious that God gave her a heart of compassion! We appreciate all of your support and we greatly appreciate your prayers-we could not do this without them!!! Also we just started our T-Shirt shoppe through Adoption Bug and there are some great designs on there, so please take a look and pass along the info to you family and friends and Christmas is right around the corner!!! wink, wink :)

More of the Story

2011-11-01T16:01:00.001-05:00

So, we sent our application in and started our process of going through the paperwork and scheduling our home study. I was so nervous about the home study, but it was great!!! Our social worker was just wonderful and made us/me feel so at ease through the process. We meet with her on three different occasions and received our completed home study the end of June. During our waiting time we continued to complete our physicals, background checks, financial info etc. We also had to have letters of reference and we are so thankful for those who did that for us and our family!!! After we received our finalized home study we were able to apply for our I-600 (immigration background clearance) we had to be fingerprinted (which I thought was very interesting, Matt not so much since he has had to do it several times with being in the Army). This is probably the most important piece of paperwork, this piece of paperwork will tell us if we are approved to adopt from Ethiopia and they approved us. We received our clearance pretty quickly. So, after that last piece of paperwork came in we got everything notarized and took the items to be State Certified and then made three copies of all the paperwork and mailed it off to AWAA with lots of prayers and we became DTE (Dossier (all our paperwork) to Ethiopia) on 9/30/11. So now we are in the waiting phase of our adoption and this can take between 10-16 months for us to receive a referral. During this time we are going to be fundraising like crazy and trusting in God for His perfect timing for Him to bring us our child!! Please be in prayer for us as we continue our journey to meet our beloved child of His!!!

Our Decision to Adopt

2011-10-16T15:21:00.000-05:00

We knew we always wanted to have more children and the old natural way (meds and IUI treatments) didn't work the second time and we did not want to go any further with infertility treatments and we were not disappointed (this time around, but years prior it was very hard) because we knew there was another way to grow our family and that was through adoption. My husband and I had the apps and looked at different agencies through the years and this last time back in Feb 2011 we had started it again. This time we or I was more serious about finding the right agency and we kept going back to the one we had first looked at several years earlier and that is America World Adoption Association. We finally decided on them mainly because they are a Christian based company, great customer service and then the reviews were fantastic and we felt it was the right fit for us. The only thing was the money-where were we ever going to come up with $30-$35,000. It is the main reason we had never moved forward before and it was stopping me because of the anxiety that I felt even just talking about i was very overwhelming. So, one day my husband told me send in the application and there was me, but what about the $$$ where is that going to come from and then he said it- You are not having faith in God to provide if this is what He wants for us He will provide and show us the way. Talk about a gut check and actually more of a heart/faith check, he was right. My lack of faith in God (really Cindy, doubting God) has held us back from growing our family for way too long and I am forever thankful for my hubby calling me out on it and who better to hold a mirror in front of you besides the person God has put by your side and the one to lead our family. So, that night we filled out the application online and sent the application fee and so our journey began....

A little about us

2011-10-15T20:10:00.000-05:00

We are the Montoya Family and Matt and I have been married for 14 years and we are the proud parents to Isabella. We have always desired to have a family and after 8 1/2 years of trying we became pregnant with our daughter and we have been so blessed by her in our lives. We are continually grateful for this precious gift from God. Although we are extremely happy with our family we have always wanted to have more children and we didn't care whether or not they are biological or born to us through adoption. So, after a few years of trying and looking at adoption agencies we took a leap of faith and applied to our adoption agency and we were accepted to begin the process of adoption. We were excited, but overwhelmed (especially me) with the financial aspect of the adoption. But through taking the step of faith and trusting in God to provide we have been walking through this process. Though there are times when we get weary He is always there to pick us up to guide and direct us on the path we need to go. We have been so blessed thus far and can not wait to see how He continues to nourish and grow us deeper in our faith with Him through this season in our life!