NEW PICTURES

Isn't she so BEAUTIFUL!!!


Peacefully sleeping...How Adorable!!!


I love this one. If she could talk she'd be saying, "I know you didn't wake me up for a picture!!!


Yep, he's got teeth in there! Look at those LONG LEGS! I've said that so much now Colten says it everytime he sees his picture, "Mommy look at those long legs!"

Long Awaited Update

Well after waiting a couple months we FINALLY got some update on our babies! Matt and I had gotten in contact with a mother who just got back from picking up her 4 year old girl and we were anxious to see her pictures and hear about our babies!
We received a nice gift from our agency before Christmas...an email giving us updated measurements on Onah and Marie!!!

Onah is 8 months old now measuring 2 feet and 1 inch and weighing 16 pounds. Marie is 4 months old now measuring 1 foot 8 inches long and weighing 11 pounds. We have a friend who goes to our church and is a resident at Ball. I gave him the babies info. and he's going to see if he could put them on a growth chart :) To me the measurements seem small but in the pictures they look so big! Pictures can be so deceiving!

So we got in contact with the mother who just arrived home and asked if she got to hold our babies. She said, "Marie is a little sweet pea. She was always sleeping when I was there and it was so hot I didn't want to make her miserable." She said she did get to hold Onah and he's adorable, "He's working on a mouthful of teeth right now. He isn't crawling yet, but given the opportunity he would be all over the place, I'm sure! He has his two bottom teeth and is working on 4 more!" She said the babies are getting lots of attention and being well taken care of. She said they are pretty spoiled and hopes they don't get too attached to the "mothers" there (those are the women who run the foster care). She did say that the house there is much nicer than she had expected. I love hearing positive things!

I know there are a couple more kids getting ready to come home soon. Things are moving in Liberia now and I just pray it stays that way! Keep praying for us to bring home the babies in February! That's only a little less than 7 weeks away!!!

In other news we got the babies room painted and cribs put up! It's looks like a nursery up there! Colten is so excited! He loves Marie's bed :) I was pretty excited cause we had a crib, but were in desperate need of another dresser. We sent out an email to our church and found one! It's coming together! It will be here soon and I can't wait! Hope you enjoyed the pics of our little ones! We were online everyday about 10 times a day waiting for them, and they finally came in yesterday!

Keep the Faith!!!

Practicing Faith

Last week in bible study we were reading in Galatians. Paul was sharing about the faith of Abraham. Matt related that really well to our adoption and everyday life. He should have been the one to post this I'm sure, but I'll do my best :)
Basically we get asked all the time, "When are you bringing home the babies?" We always respond with, "Well, we don't know. But, we are praying that God will bring them home with us in February." We both know that would be a miracle, and we both know that God can definitely work miracles. In this situation we feel like this was His plan since day one. We started our adoption stuff after we found out about our trip, thinking that the adoption would take quite a while. We actually thought on our trip we might meet a mother who would be looking for a home for her child, but after going through the process with our homestudy social worker she made it seem like it would go fast and that we would be able to bring our babies home when we went. So we thought that would be pretty cool and started praying for that back in February last year.
The point is we have told people "we don't know, but we're praying!" Matt explained that's not really faith in action. So we have decided that we are going to tell people who ask, "Yes, we are bringing them home in February cause God's gonna work it out!" I kinda joked and told Matt, what do we tell people if it doesn't actually work out cause it wasn't really God's plan? Do we just come back and say, "Well, we lied :)". But then, I had to remind myself,...faith Terah! IT'S HARD! FAITH IS HARD TO ACT OUT AT TIMES, and it comes across as lack of trust.
I heard one time that if you feel like you are having trials with the same theme it's probably because you haven't mastered it yet. Kinda like in school, you have to keep going over those multiplication facts until you've mastered them! Well, I believe that God allows us to be tried to master things that will make us holy. Which is why this is our Journey of Faith. We are hoping to master it pretty soon so we can end this chapter of our Journey :) We're ready for our babies to come home!
In some other news. Little by Little God provides! Our church had given us some stuff that we could sell on Craig's List. We have sold alot of our stuff but the BIG stuff from the church wasn't selling. We finally sold one of the things from the church. Half of the money we gave back to go toward the children's new play ground at the church and the other half went to our adoption. Slowly that thermometer is moving up, and every time it does it's a testament of how powerful God is. We knew that He had called us to this adoption and we believe that He will provide for it all! He has so far! What an awesome God!

Jehovah Jireh--OUR PROVIDER

Yet, another lesson of TRUST! God is so good and he is our provider! We had an amazing Thanksgiving weekend with family. We were really looking forward to the weekend just to get away and be away from all the business we've had lately. We were surprised with the blessings God had in store for us! We truly had a thankful heart over Thanksgiving! Let me share with you how God moved! First of all...let we had been praying about our mission trip to Liberia, which is completely separate from our adoption. We had planned on going to Liberia before all the adoption stuff had happened. We had a huge deadline for our trip coming up the Sunday after Thanksgiving. Matt and I combined had to raise a total of almost $3,000 in two weeks. We thought we were going to have to come up with it on our own. We had been praying to God about it and asking for his help, and I KNEW He COULD do it and provide it all, but I didn't know if He WOULD. So we were blessed with some money right before we had left and had about $600 to go. I was satisfied, I thought, okay, we can handle $600, that's easier than $3,000, and thanked God for what He had done. But we soon found, He wasn't done.
Each year in the Huff family we use the money we would spend on each other to put into a big "pot" and give other families a nice Christmas that wouldn't have one. We collect a list from the families and get together as a family and have one huge shopping trip together followed by a fun filled lunch! It's alot of fun! So this year my dad announces that we only have one family to shop for this year and so all the money that was left over they wanted to give to us to help out with our trip and adoption. I was of course bawling my eyes out!
The next day we are at Matt's parents eating lunch when they announced that they wanted to help a family in need this year too. They wanted to be apart of bringing home our babies and helping us with our mission trip as well! It was an emotional weekend needless to say! God said, "You thought I was done? I have more blessings in store for you!" He opened up the floodgates on this one!
I am truly grateful for my family. Not just because of the financial support they gave us but because they are such an amazing group of people truly seeking to be Christ to others! I am proud to be apart of what they do and who they are and who they radiate from their lives, Christ!
So over the weekend we paid for our trip to Liberia (actually we have $30 to go), and we were able to pay $1600 towards adoption fees!!!! The funny thing is that the next week we got a bill in the mail for Marie...$1500 :) God is Jehovah-Jireh...The Great Provider!!! He's in control of any obstacle that comes our way!
Thank you God!

PINK AND PURPLE!

I was so excited last night!!! A lady from our church brought in some clothes that her kids had outgrown. (Now when I say clothes...she had 9 huge totes and about 5 misc. bags! So I got some pj's for Colten, (which he needed bad. He got made fun of for wearing his Christmas pj's in August, and they were super tight to top it off!). I knew I was set for clothes for Onah, but I was sweating having to go out and buy girl stuff. I knew it would be hard for me to stay on a budget with girl's clothes :)
There were a ton of girl clothes! Marie will be stocked in the cutest little dresses EVER! I can't wait to see her in them! Matt helped me rummage through those totes for 2 hours...I think he secretly enjoyed it! Anyway, I even found a cute pink crib set. I didn't find the blanket that went with it, but it had the skirt, sheets, and bumpers for the crib. I'm sure I can find a cute blanket to go with it, or some sweet grandma can make her one...(hint...Mom!)
So needless to say, today I'm a little excited and ready to get a room together for Onah and Marie. (I still don't know how I'm working that?...should they go upstairs? one up and one down? both crammed into our nursery downstairs? Oh decisions to make!)
By the way, Colten enjoyed the evening too...he found a karate costume, a pirate costume, a clown costume that he tried to squeeze on his melon even though it was way too small, and lots of cool toys!
The most exciting thing...we have a cute soft pink baby doll in our house with a super soft pink teddy bear! I think Matt's in shock! :)

The Ball's Still Rolling!

We received Marie's legal papers in the mail yesterday and sent them out today. Now these papers will go to the court, just like Onah's. Basically, we have accepted her as our child. Now the government has to accept us as her parents. Still lots more to do!
Meanwhile we had to make an ammendment to our homestudy because we were approved for twins or a sibling group but not two non siblings. Wording has to be just right on all the documents. We got our ammendment yesterday as well and have to send it out to everyone involved. I'm hoping that we don't have another fee with CIS (immigration services) and have to do all that over again.
I can't wait to get these babies home, because the emotional rollercoaster will be over! Every day it's hard to not think about what's going on that I can't see or be in control of. I pray earnestly every day for our babies to come home soon and it seems like we wait forever to get updates from what's going on. It's hard cause I'll get excited when we do hear news and then after a week or so right back down the rollercoaster, waiting to be picked back up again.
One night while doing devotions, I just began crying and asked God for strength. I read my favorite strength verse in Isaiah 40, and it didn't bring the usual comfort that normally follows. I opened up a book I've been reading, and every word I read brought tears to my eyes. It was pretty amazing how God just spoke to me, and not only in my situation but can speak this to many of you who might be reading as well. You know how you pray the same prayer over and over, and in the back of your mind you wonder, "Should I pray it today? Or was yesterday's good enough? When will I see an answer from this prayer?" I read something I'll never forget, the book said, "EVERY prayer sets SOMETHING into motion!"
Even though we can't see God working doesn't mean He isn't. Reading this gave me hope and determination to keep up the prayers. The bible says, we do not receive because we do not ask. I'm gonna keep seeking and asking for God to move. One other thing that kinda gave me a gut check that I read. It was actually a prayer and I had to read it over and over and realize this "written prayer" was just what I needed to ask God for, "Help me to be content with the step that I'm on and the light you have given me."
That's all the updates for now. We'll keep you posted!

Praise

We have a HUGE praise!!! As you can see the thermometer went up a little bit since the beginning. YEAH! Every little bit is a blessing and we know God will continue it. We are now paying for foster care for both babies which is $225 a month per child. So we decided to sell some stuff since we haven't heard anything from our grants. In one day!!!!...Matt sold his motorcycle and a tool (don't ask me what one??? CLUELESS) that totaled $720 bucks! Plus, some friends of ours wanted to be apart of bringing our babies home and helped out. We had a payment due of $450. this month and God supplied us with $900!!! Enough to pay for not just one month but 2!!! HOW AWESOME IS THAT????!!!! God is faithful and will provide for our family! I know he's going to bring a downpour of blessings and I'm so glad I get to share with all of you how mighty He is through it all!

Start at the bottom!!!

I posted a whole bunch of posts in the same day so if you want to read them in order of what's happened in our adoption so far start at the bottom and work your way up.

MARIE

God shocked us last week!!! We got a call from our agency and they said they noticed in our homestudy that we were qualified for siblings and we said we would accept twins if available. (Matt and I secretly wanted two children, so one wouldn't be alone, but were happy with what God had blessed us with...who wouldn't be???? Onah's a doll!) So she said Onah didn't have siblings but there was a baby girl dropped off at the orphanage that was about the same age as Onah and we were the only family on the list to adopt an infant in Liberia, so she didn't have a family. We couldn't just LEAVE HER THERE! God's word says, "I will not leave you as orphans, I will come to you." John 14:18 At first I was scared out of my mind cause I knew what God wanted us to do but of course I thought, "how in the world can we afford it? One is expensive enough!" Then God whispered to me as if he took my hand and said, "Remember you doubted me in the very beginning. You said, 'if money wasn't an issue you would adopt.' I made it so that money wasn't an issue and you learned to trust me. Obviously you didn't get it the first time so let's try this again...I want to show you how BIG I AM! You can't do it, but I CAN!" So we said yes!
Her name is Marie and she is NOT the same age as Onah. She is 2 months old!

We don't have any idea of her weight or size yet. We did get the medical results via phone that she checked out healthy. All her test came back negative. (That was barrier number one that we wanted God to open/shut the door...it flew open). Marie's mother was supposed to meet with a lawyer on Tuesday to relinquish her rights. Then we will have the paper work to sign and accept her as our second child, and from there it will go through the courts like Onah. She is currently in the foster care home with Onah and so just like Onah we are having to pay $225 a month to meet her needs as well.
You can do the math and see that I'm learning to TRUST GOD to provide the $450 a month for our children. But now even more than ever I'm crying out to God to move the adoption along quickly through their government and ours so that we can bring them home with us in February cause the $450 will become very difficult eventually. But, I know that God would not have given us Marie as well, if he wasn't going to provide for her. He will never give us more than we can handle so I have to TRUST that he knows our path and is giving us just enough light for the step ahead! I'm hoping that through all this and sharing it with you that you can learn that as well! Our God is BIG and he can do ANYTHING!
I never thought he would bless me so big with two babies! "Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the man who trusts in him." Psalm 34:8

Onah

Many of you know about our little boy Onah who is now 6 months old. We got the referral for him about a month ago. We received all his medical results in the mail and have signed the legal documents that say we have accepted him as our child. Now it all has to go through the court system in Liberia so they can accept us as his parents. In the mean time he is in the foster care house in Monrovia, Liberia where we pay $225 a month to buy any medication/food/care that he might need.
We got some stats on Onah and a new picture
Onah is now 6 months old. His birthday is April 12, 2008. He weighs 15 pounds and is 25" long. What a cutie!!! He's got some long chicken legs in this picture! I think he's going to be tall. Colten tells everyone that Onah is his twin brother, but he's black. This is the first time I've heard him mention his color. Before, he's never said anything. I can't wait to bring him home and I know Colten is going to go into shock when he finally has a brother here to keep!
We have lots of babies at our church and he loves the twins. For the longest time he was fascinated that Lilly had 2 babies. He thought for sure he should be able to take one home since she had two! Then for a short while we were watching Garrett, who he calls his brother...long story..., and he thought since he was coming to our house every Tues. we should be able to keep him as well! Poor guy! He's desperate! When he found out about Onah the first thing he said was, "Can we keep him?" Now he asks all the time when he's gonna get here. It hasn't been too bad lately.
Keep praying that he can come home soon, that God would knock down walls in their government to allow our paper work to get done so quickly that we can bring our children home in February! OOPS I kinda gave a hint away to my next post ;)

Adoption

Our family is on a Journey of Faith. A little over a year ago we heard God's calling to adopt. I've learned that it's not about the adoption but really it's about what God wants to show me...HIS POWER! We have to fully rely on His power. We can't do this on our own!
"Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name; you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you passt hrough the rivers, they will not sweep over you...For I am the Lord, your God..." Isaiah 43:1-3a
This is our story...we hope through our story you can experience God's Power with us!

So many of you might be curious as to why I've set up yet another blog??? We wanted to be able to share details of what is going on with our family and friends, but didn't really want all the details public for the whole world to see. That might get us into trouble and I bet the Liberian government would not like that too much.
So we decided to set up a private blog where we can share with the people we've invited what is going on. If you know of someone who would like on our list and I don't have their email address...send it to me.
We are truly excited about our adoption and can't wait to see what God's going to do. He is SO BIG!