Levi Douglas Bradley: IN NEED OF YOUR PRAYERS!!

Our Adoption Story

Levi was born on April 21, 2007 in Chinautla, Guatemala, a small town known for pottery. He weighed 6.7 pounds and was 19.7 inches long. He was in private foster care in Guatemala City where he lived for 10 1/2 months with his foster mom, her son and daughter and Isaac, his foster brother. Throughout our difficult adoption journey, Isaac's mom, Nancy and I became very good friends. God placed our boys together and had the perfect plan in place long before we ever realized it. When I was undecided on an adoption agency, I joined an online forum where Nancy provided me with information about her agency and recommended them to us. We decided to sign with the same agency and I emailed Nancy back to let her know. Over a few months we emailed back and forth to learn we were both from TN and lived only 30 minutes apart... we thought wow, it's a small world. Little did we know a few months later we'd both get referrals, earlier than we expected, of 2 beautiful Guatemalan angels. When they turned 2 months old our agency called and decided it was time to tell us that they were in the same foster home together and had been since they were 1 day old. We were amazed they were together. Even more so, God amazed us once again when we learned shortly after that they were born on the same day and were from the same town... no longer a coincidence that was for sure. We were being told by the foster mom how attached they were and acted like brothers. But, Nancy and I got the chance in January '08 to go to visit them and see it for ourselves. It was an amazing time of bonding with our boys that we will never forget. After that trip it seemed when one of us would reach a roadblock in the crazy process of international adoption the other would be delayed with something else. We stayed right together until the very day we picked them both up. We had our US Embassy appts the same day and we flew home through Atlanta on the same flight on March 11, 2008 when they both entered the US as citizens! It was an awesome time for us in the Atlanta Airport when we rec'd the congrats they were official! We've made friends for life with Nancy, Eric, and with Isaac's extended families. We look forward to many years of watching them both grow up so close together. Over the past year, as we went through battle after battle to bring our boys home, Nancy and I both would never think of one without the other in our endless prayers to keep them safe, happy and healthy until they could be home with their forever families. We're finally parents and it's what we've both waited for, for so many years.. our families are finally complete!!!

Friday, September 28, 2007

IN NEED OF YOUR PRAYERS!!

Hey, I just wanted to post that we need all of you, our friends and family to continue to lift our adoption up in prayer more now than ever before. This week the State Dept issued warnings that after December 31st due to laws changing in Guatemala, they would no longer be grandfathering in any cases still pending under the old laws but, be stopping all intercontry adoptions to the US at that time. We are in the last leg of this long and difficult journye and are still joined together believing God will have Levi safe and home by Christmas but, we're "in the flesh" a little and also aware of the current uncertainty in that country. The Guatemalan President currently in office announced yesterday that he would be stopping all adoptions to the US on January 1, 2008. Those of us in the adoption world are certainly going to fight with everything we have in us that this is not allowed to happen by our government. We were issued an apporval that stated we could adopt back in May after we rec'd the referral of Levi and we entered into a contract expecting them to honor what they have promised us all along. We know as I have said over and over that God is in control of our timeline and our adoption. He's had a hand in this since long before we ever knew we'd take this long journey to finding Levi. He's waiting for us in Guatemala where his foster mom shows him pictures of us and plays our voices for him on a voice recorder everyday to be sure he knows we'll be back for him. We need your help praying and signing the petitions we forward you and most of all contacting any representative you can on our behalf and for all the 5,000 babies already referred to their forever families through adoption and currently in process. Please email us if you would be willing to simply sign and mail a copy of letters we have already prepared to your representatives in Congress, who are at this point our voices to the Guatemalan government to allow us to complete our adoptions under the laws we started the process with. I will keep you posted here as we learn more about the current situation. Until then, join me in believing and claiming in Jesus' name Levi will be home before this deadline is even a factor for us. We love you all and appreciate all you do to keep us sane during one of the hardest things we've ever encountered, adoption. They told us in the beginning, adoption is not for the faint at heart and I believe that now more than ever. I have trouble lately focusing on anything except for getting our son home and having this all behind us. God didn't bring us from Steve being in a wheelchair this time last year to where we are now to let something happen now. we just have to turn it over to Him and "Stand Still". **For this child I have prayed and the Lord hath given me my petition which I asked of Him 1 Samuel 1:27**