Court Day...

****THIS INFORMATION IS STILL TOP SECRET FOR NOW. WE WILL ANNOUNCE IT PUBLICLY WHEN OUR 15 DAY WAITING PERIOD IS OVER*****Please do not post anything about this anywhere, Thanks for understanding! We value your friendships and trust you with our daughters future!

I prayed for this child, and the LORD has granted me what I asked of him.
1 Samuel 1:27

One year ago (Sept. 2009) God led Brad and I to Kazakhstan on a mission trip to Kazakhstan to bring supplies for Two Hearts. That was the trip that would Forever change our lives again. I fell in love with a little sweet heart named Balnur. I was bound and determined to fight for her to have a family. My fight began shortly after we returned home from our trip. I knew that God was working in my heart, I just knew that if he was wanting us to be the family for her, he would have to move in Brad's heart. Little by little Brad would open up to the thought until one night it hit him, we needed to fight for this little girl. Our journey to our second adoption began in mid-november 2009. We quickly gathered our paperwork and were waiting for our Immigration approval when we got word from Kazakhstan that there was no way we could adopt her. Unfortunately her "paperwork" is not in order and there is not way to get it in order, Ever. I was crushed, I knew that this was God's way of closing the door.

Brad and I prayed about it and after about a week many talks and lots of prayers and we decided that if we said no to another child, we would be abandoning them both. We stepped into this adoption on faith, we followed God's calling and he led us here for a reason, so we went ahead and submitted our paperwork in April, hoping to adopt another sweet baby that was waiting at the same BH. We hit many more bumps and waits along the way but in July we got the call to travel to Kazakhstan. We traveled to Kaz on August 18 and on August 20, we met our 4th daughter. She had the most BEAUTIFUL almond eyes we had ever seen. She was so full of life and from the minute we laid eyes on her, we knew she was supposed to be ours! We know that God had a plan for her, we know the reason Balnur was not available at this specific time is because this child needed us more. We bonded with her for 17 days and then returned to America to "not so patiently" wait for our court date. ( For all of you that wonder what will happen to Balnur, we found out while we were bonding that they are going to fix her papers now so she can find a family, PRAISE THE LORD!)

We got our court date and we headed back to Kaz on October 8. We went to court today (October 12), it was quick and painless. They asked us 3 questions, how much money we made, if we both worked and how did Addison feel about our adoptions? Then we waited for 5 agonizing hours for a verdict. In the end the Verdict was ......................YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!God's hand was all over our process, our timing, our adoption, our daughter, our children, our in-country team and us. Trust me if you follow God's call, he will lead!! Just sit back and enjoy the ride! I have never felt so close to God as I have through this process. There is so many times he calmed my heart and let me know that he was in charge.

Thank you all for the prayers, Thank you Balnur for leading us to Selah, (we will always pray for you), Thank you Kazakhstan for giving us another beautiful daughter, Thank you Ardock and Tatyana for being such a Great in country team, Thank you Brad for being the best husband in the whole world, Thank you Lindsay & Charlie, Grandma & Grandpa, and Grammy and Papa for taking care of the kids while we traveled, Thank you Gayla, Billy, Jessica and Stacie for holding down the office so Brad could be away, Thank you prayer warriors that faithfully prayed for our adoption, Thank you Kim for taking care of Two Hearts stuff while I am gone, and Thank you everyone else that has supported us and loved us along the way!

We head home tomorrow for another "not so patient" wait. Hopefully this time away will not be very long and we will be on our way back soon so we can all be together FOREVER !! We are ready to have all of our family on one continent!!!!

Today October 12, 2010 we welcome Selah Niana Annelle Segebarth in our family forever, she captured our hearts long ago, but today she is no longer an orphan!


Our family’s like a patchwork quilt,
With kindness gently sewn.
Each piece is an original,
With beauty of its own.
With threads of warmth and happiness,
It’s tightly stitched together.
To last in love throughout the years,
Our family is forever!