Blessings and Updates

We are moving forward! Today we received a packet of paperwork from our home study agency and I have been happily copying, filling out and signing away! We struggled a bit wondering what to do and were stalled out for a few days, but we are moving again! There is paperwork to fill out for our placing agency (the people who will eventually send us our little mans picture and info) and there is home study paper work and backround checks to complete (these need to be finished to request grants and loans). We had a few thousand dollars to use to move in one direction or another. Dillon talked to the director of Across the World (our placing agency) and he recommended we start with the home study, so we are following his advice and trusting that when the time comes we will see the Lord's provision for the next step.

Dillon has started his second job and we are very thankful! It has been hard having him gone in the evenings, but we see each opportunity to raise money as another step closer to our son.

There are still many bags of coffee left if anyone wants to buy some! Please shoot me an email with interest(or use paypal up top! Its easy! You will put in your address and your coffee will be shipped right away!), this coffee is delicious and it will help us go a long way to be able to sell it.

There was an African Bazaar at our church last week to raise money for an AMAZING organization, HOW 101. We went to support this beautiful group of people we have grown to love, but we left more blessed than I can explain. The precious ladies there donated some necklaces to us, handmade by women in Uganda! We now have these necklaces to sell to YOU!

We are asking for a suggested donation of 20 dollars for these necklaces. There are different sizes and colors (many more than I have shown here) so email or call me if you are interested! adriennestengel@gmail.com 720-841-5976

Before we left the women circled our family and prayed over us. I didn't know I should have brought a box of tissues to the Bazaar! God is showing us His Hand every turn we take, but even though this is true, it is still hard not to fear when we look at what we will owe. If I may, can I ask you to join us in praying about this aspect? We DO NOT want to give in to fear or worry. We know these things are not of the Lord. The amount of money we need to raise is so great, far beyond our reach, but I am reminded of the community around us and I give thanks!

Our next step is to finish our home study paper work and set our dates to have the social worker here. When we have the finances raised we can send in our first payment to Across the World and they will begin working with the people in Uganda to match our family with a precious boy. Thankfully we received Hailey, Caleb and Adeline's passports Saturday, so when the blessed day comes for travel, all of us Stengels will be ready! Thank you for praying with us and loving us through this process.
Adrienne

Here we go again......this time UGANDA!

Hello! We are so excited to be walking the path of adoption again! Bringing a child into a home in any way is a journey filled with all kinds of emotions and this fourth child for us is no different than the past three. We are so happy, and nervous, and filled with awe that God would bless us this way.

We have been talking about another child for a while, but in February we started considering it more seriously. About a month and a half ago, we took our kids out to eat and told them our plan to bring home a brother. Their response was beautiful and it is a lunch date I do not ever want to forget! Hailey and Caleb have a heartbeat for children without families and they were all in. So, we have begun the paperwork again!

We learned many things the last time we grew our family through adoption, but we will mention this one main truth. WE DID NOT ADOPT ADELINE ALONE. It was a community of family and friends who helped us arrive in the beautiful country of Rwanda and bring home our precious little girl. We know it will take this community again. We want to share this journey with any of you who want to walk it with us. We have been accepted by an agency that our social worker told us about that works in Uganda. We are asking for a little boy younger than Adeline. Uganda requires a stay in country for approximately 6 weeks. This was too long to leave our other children, so we have applied for passports for all! This is very exciting for us as there are people we know who live in Uganda that we can hardly wait to connect with during our stay.

When we were waiting for Adeline to come home there were countless days (and nights) we wet the floor with our tears, crying out to God for His Hand to move and bring her to us. We did not see how we could ever raise the money needed. This is the place we are in again, and this time we are talking about travel for 5 to Uganda and 6 back home! We have already been amazed at God's provision for our application fee. We owed $250 to send in with our application last week, so we had a garage sale. We made $265! Amazing!!! Our next step is $4000 to the placing agency and some dear friends just came together and gave us a little over $3000! WOW! We fully trust the money will come in God's timing, it is just hard because there are many moments when we would rather just see the money in our bank account instead of living by faith. There are things we can do though. Dillon is starting a second job this week and we are cutting back from our already tight (or so it feels) budget... but there is NO way we can do this alone. Will you join in and be part of our community this way? Our goal is $35,000. (Placing agency, home study, travel costs, post placement fees and paper work) Unreachable, unattainable, too much - if we were doing it alone, but we are not! Praise God, we will NOT bring home our next son alone!

With love, Dillon, Adrienne, Hailey, Caleb, Adeline Stengel


Our dear friends are hosting a Coffee Fundraiser for us! This coffee is delicious and even better comes straight from Africa! The bag is 1/2 kilo or 1.1 lbs. For a suggested donation of $18 they will mail you a bag so you can try it yourself (and help bring our little guy home in the process!) You can use the PayPal link below or mail us a check. If you use the Paypal link, when you get to the page that says "review your donation" there is a section with special instructions for the recipient. Please let us know how many bags you are ordering and give us your address so your coffee can be sent off as soon as possible. Thank you for being part of our community!