A little about him...

I've idolized him my entire life. From as far back as I can remember, my love and admiration for him overflowed. My Mom says that he adored me, too, when I was a baby. I think we have one picture of him holding me when I was an infant. That would probably be the only proof to that theory.

When I got to be about 4 or 5 years old, he tormented me. He told me that Jaws lived under my bed and that piranhas and alligators were in my bubble bath. I took a running jump from my doorway to my bed every night for years because I believed him about the Jaws thing.

Our relationship went through many different phases as we grew older. The longest span of time would have to be the years that he ignored my even being alive. Mixed in there was the time that he told me I had no parents because my Mom found me under a bush and the time that he offered to hold me down so that the neighbor kid could shoot me with a BeBe gun. I remember leaving candy on his pillow in hopes that I could bribe him into actually liking me. When I was a teen all of my friends thought he was so cute. They all wanted to date him, and some even mentioned wishing to marry him. Come to think of it, even now people comment on how cute he is and they can't believe he's not married. (He is pretty cute, if I do say so myself.)

I remember one day many, many years ago my Mom telling me that one day we'd be the best
of friends. I used to laugh and tell her she was crazy.

Who Knew? Mothers really do know everything, and sometimes they can even predict the future.

Now as adults we can freely tell each one another "I love you", we can laugh and joke about our short comings and I can say with confidence that he is my friend. I am so glad that my Mom was right.

Who knows...he may have even liked me all along!

As I've already posted before, Scott left last Thursday for some training prior to heading to Iraq. He has started a BLOG to journal his events while there. You can check out my brother's BLOG here or by clicking on the link on my sidebar.

Face for Grace,

Holly

It is what it is

Well, today was our appointment in New Orleans for our fingerprinting. For those of you who read last time about the visit that I had, let me say that today was a totally different experience! We were treated so well ...and we were only there 40 minutes! It was unbelievably quick!

This morning as I was doing my devotional, God showed me the following two verses:

Psalm 85:1- You showed favor to your land, O LORD; you restored the fortunes of Jacob.
Psalm 86:10- For you are great and do marvelous deeds; you alone are God.

As we've been praying for favor today and for these reports to come back in record time, these verses were brought to my attention at the exact time that I needed them. It confirmed that God is in control, He shows favor, He still does great and marvelous deed...and He alone is God! How can you argue with that?

What an awesome God we serve!

Father God, thank you so much for revealing these verses to me today. To give me something extra to stand on. The thing is this...I don't deserve anything else. You've already proven yourself to me time and time again that this is your will for us. You've shown us that you are in control. Yet, you still give me peace when I need it...again. Thank you Jesus for loving me enough to be concerned with my emotional well being. I have no doubts that your favor rests upon our lives. We are praying to be able to receive this report expediently so that we will be able to log in our Dossier within a few weeks. However, we will accept Your will and whatever time frame you feel is necessary. Thank you God for giving us a good experience today! We felt your hand upon us!

Face for Grace,
Holly

Oh the goodness of it all...

We have everything in our possession for our Dossier paperwork except the report from USCIS in New Orleans. We go Tuesday for our fingerprints, then we will just wait for that report to come in. After we get that, we are good to go.

When we first began the paperwork process we were told it would take anywhere from 3-6 months to compile and complete the Dossier. Tuesday will be 3 months exactly from when we received the Dossier guidelines/information. So, I feel that we've been pretty quick in getting everything together.

I've burned the candle at both ends, hurried around, and basically have wasted no time. I've made phone call after phone call and sent email upon email. Basically, I've been productive and busy. Now, I will again relinquish the control and put it all in God's hands and wait. Just wait. I've hurried to get to this point. Now we wait.

I've mentioned before about the delays in New Orleans and that it's quite possible that we may have to wait 2 months or so to get the report back from them. I certainly hope not because that will push everything back. But, this will all be in God's hands. If He feels it is necessary for us to wait 2 months, then so be it. But, I will pray for favor and believe for quickness every step of the way!!

We brought our paperwork to church this morning and had our kids in Club Faith lay hands on it and agree with us for favor. They have walked with us every step of the way through the past 9 years of our lives. They have prayed for us through all of our pain during our losses. Even though they can't comprehend or totally understand our pain, they are super sensitive to our feelings and emotions. They love us with an unconditional love. We pour into them week in and week out. For some of them, from divorced homes or unstable homes, we are some of the only constant and consistent people that they see in their lives. And for many of them, we are certainly the only people who can show them the love of Jesus.

We sweat, breath, drink, eat and live children's ministry. And let me tell you, Jesus absolutely knew what He was saying when he said, "unless you come unto me like a little child..." because they know that if they believe God it will happen. Their hearts and their spirits are pure. For them, there is no such thing as doubt. God said it, and they believe it...it's that simple. Oh the sweet goodness that encompasses a room full of children praying, believing and agreeing...for anything. Children's ministry is absolutely amazing.

It was so precious to see 150-200 kids this morning praying for our paperwork...and agreeing for us to have favor. One thing I know for sure, regardless of the outcome...we are certainly blessed.

God, we continue to pray for favor. You know the last hurdle that we must cross before we can get our Dossier logged in. You also know every detail of every aspect of this process. You thought this out and planned this out a long, long time ago. Thank you for allowing all things to work together for good. And in your word it says where two or more are gathered in your name...God we definitely have the "or more" part covered. Thank you for blessing...everything.

A lesson learned

After much discussion and even more prayer, we finally decided to tell Bayli about the adoption.

See, we were so excited about our last pregnancy that we told her very early on that she was going to be a big sister. We learned the hard way that you just don't toy with a child about information like that. Right after we lost the baby we really discussed and prayed about what to tell Bayli, if anything. We really thought that we'd just try again for another pregnancy, so therefore we wouldn't have to tell her anything at all. Then God led us in another direction, so we thought we'd just leave it alone and let her forget about it. Yeah right! Anyone out there who knows my child knows that she does not forget a thing. Ever! Telling her anything else about the baby going to heaven was never an option either because she would have never ever let it rest. Ever. Talk about opening a can of worms! Oh my word! But by the same token, telling her about the adoption we were afraid would be like telling her 3 years in advance that we were going to Disney World. You just don't do that to a child, or to yourself for that matter.

But, as time passed it became quite clear that she was figuring us out and she was becoming increasingly irritated with the lack of information that we were giving her. The positive but vague comments like, "Yes you are going to be a big sister...one day" just wasn't cutting it any more. Her questions were becoming more intense and were getting bolder too. Until finally last week she just point-blank asked me, "Mommy, do you still have a baby in there or what?" I could not lie to her. So, since we were in the middle of Old Navy, I told her that we'd talk about it when Daddy got home.

That night we briefly touched on the fact that Mommy no longer had a baby in her belly, but that Bayli was still going to be a big sister. God has opened a wonderful door for our family to grow! So, one day Daddy, Mommy and Bayli will all get on a big airplane to go get your little sister. And her name will be Gracie. She asked if we could get her tomorrow, to which, of course we replied that it would take some time...but that it would happen in God's perfect timing.

She was so totally ok with all of it. And, I am quite surprised about the fact that she really hasn't asked very many questions...she'll just mention a few things every now and then. She does, however pray for her little sister every night...she asks Jesus to watch over Gracie and keep her safe.

I am grateful for the opportunity to be able to share the rest of this process with our daughter. Looking back, I am a little bit ashamed of myself for thinking that she may not be able to handle this. We are children's ministers. This is what we do. We are constantly telling people that children can accomplish great and wonderful things now...they don't have to wait until they are older. We should have listened to our own advice and told her sooner. I could have saved her the months of curiosity and uncertainty. She is my baby, and it's my instinct to try to protect her. But it's obvious that she is already wise beyond her years and capable of handling much more than I give her credit for.

God, thank you for reminding me and teaching me a very important lesson through my daughter. God, I pray that she will have peace during this time of waiting. I know that she is anxious to become a big sister, just like we are anxious to grow our family. God, continue to bless us as we continue on our journey.

A Face for Grace,
Holly

A Healthy Dose of Fear

I shared in my previous post that my brother is going to Iraq. He joined the Marines right out of high school, back in the late 80's. He was activated during the 1st Gulf War. Things didn't seem to be quite so dangerous that time...at least it seemed.

This time is different. There is a great danger that all of our soldiers are facing daily.

My brother hurt his back in an automobile injury, probably around 1993 or so. He was medically discharged from the Marines around that time. He didn't want to get out, but the damage to his back wouldn't allow him to keep up with the requirements placed upon him in the service.

In the aftermath of 9/11 my brother tried to re-enlist. I'm not sure about all of the main details, he didn't really tell anyone, but he's been trying on a regular basis to re-enlist ever since. From what I understand, he went as far as speaking to his old Unit Leader to see what he could possibly do to get back in. The ball really started rolling for him earlier this year. There was a huge paperwork process and a lot of "stuff" had to happen for things to work out. His paperwork had to go as far as Washington for someone there to sign off on it. The unit he was assigned to has known for about 2 months that they would be leaving at the end of this month. He was officially sworn in again last Wednesday and found out at that time that he'd be leaving on May24th. Talk about a whirl-wind of downright craziness going on for him to get all of his affairs in order. We hurried and scheduled some family pictures that we took over the weekend. He's trying to get his entire house packed up and in storage so that he can rent out his house while he's gone. This is just the tip of the iceberg.

The thing is...the devil is so smart. He knows that I lean towards the emotional side of things. I have been upset about this, but I am trying to remain strong. To depend on God...what is crying going to solve anyway? But, the devil is on full attack on every emotion that I own. He is trying to attack me from each and every angle. He's trying to scare me with fears about every aspect of my life and our adoption. He is trying to make me give in to worry...to fall for his silly tricks and get discouraged and/or depressed.

The key word here is that he's trying.

I am choosing to not give in to him. I am more than a conquerer through Christ Jesus and the enemy has already been defeated. I am not going to begin to fight a battle that has already been won. I will not give into his tricks, lies or attacks. We have God's hand upon us...we are walking in God's favor. I will not give the devil the satisfaction of controlling me through fear and worry. God and I have worked too hard for God to drive...to be in total control.

I am scared for my brother's life. I am concerned for my mother's heart as her son leaves. I am scared about the changes that could take place in our family if something happens to Scott.

But I am not controlled by these emotions or this fear.

I love my big brother and want to see him return safely. I am proud of him and I'm proud of the choice that he made. He always has been, and always will be a hero.

Father God, you know the fears that I am facing. You also see the attack of the enemy on my emotions. I'm feeling down and he's trying to sneak in. God I choose now to keep my eyes focused on you. I choose now to continue allowing you to be in control. I will not give into the fear...the fear that something is going to go wrong...the fear that things are going to fall apart...all of the fears that keep popping into my head. You have already paid the ultimate price. In your word it says that God hasn't given us a spirit of fear, but of power, love and a sound mind. A sound mind sounds really good to me right now...because my mind has been on overdrive the past several days. God, thank you for showing me the err of my ways before things got out of control. God I love you and I thank you for your amazing peace.

A Face for Grace,
Holly

A Day of Mixed Emotions

Today has been a day of mixed emotions. Actually, for several days leading up to today; it seems that I've been all over the emotional spectrum.

I remember when I was pregnant for Bayli stating that "next year, there won't be any of this running around to my Mom's then your Mom's for Mother's Day! Next year I will be a Mom too and it's going to be about me!" Looking back on that statement that I made 4 years ago reminds me of how much I've grown up since becoming a Mother. Because now, I go even more out of my way to make sure that my Mother and Mother in Law get the royal treatment for their special day. I guess because now I realize the magnitute of what great things they have accomplished as mothers. I realize the full extent of their mothering. And you can see the fruit of their many years of labor. I know first hand how hard they worked to get where they are. I know the tears they cried, the hours on their knees in prayer. Their motherhood has come full circle as now they both are grandmothers. I feel unqualified to be in the same league with them. To be honored on the same day as them.

Then there is another part of me who is anticipating the growing of our family. My heart hurts for my friend Amanda, and other people that she knows who are waiting for the green light to go get their babies from Guatemala. They've gotten their referrals, they've held their babies, they just can't bring them home yet. I can't imagine the agony that they must be feeling today...the day that honors mothers. And although we haven't officially even logged in our Dossier yet, I still know that there is a baby in another country that will be ours. I don't have a picture of her yet, and I don't know if she's born yet or not...but she will be mine. And I have a desire to be her mother. To hold her in my arms. Wherever she is...I am her mother and I desire to mother her.

Then there is another part of me who is feeling a little bit of emotion for the babies I've lost. For the fact that I should be 7 months pregnant. Feeling a baby move inside of me...right now as I type this post. I remember being in a very defeated state and sitting on the love seat in my Dr's office crying, asking "What kind of mother am I that I can't keep these babies alive?" The tears sting my eyes as I recall those feelings and those emotions. I yearned to mother those babies.

Then there is the part of me who hurts for my Mom. Just finding out 4 short days ago that her only son will be shipping out to Iraq with his Marine unit on the 24th of this month. He made it through this one time. God will surely have His hand upon him again. But, her torn emotions as she deals with knowing that this is something that he feels that he must do and that he was trained to do...defend our country. He supports our President and he would rather go and serve so that a soldier that is a husband and a father may not have to. But, I see the pain and fear and worry and anger and frustration and everything else that goes along with it. I see and hear the constant lump in my Mothers throat as she fights back the tears.

And I understand. Because when you are a mother, your heart is no longer your own. It is walking around outside of your body. My mothers heart is going to Iraq.

My own heart is in Central America, possibly in an orphanage somewhere...or still in utero; it's in heaven with 3 babies that have gone before me; and it's lying sleeping in the antique bed in the room next to me. And my heart is also overflowing...

Because I am a mother, and I am so thankful for it...and everything that goes along with it.

Father God, thank you so much for again allowing me to sort through my thoughts through my words. Father God, regardless of what we've walked through, we still have so much to be thankful for. God I lift up all mothers to you today. I pray that you strengthen those who wait. And comfort those who hurt. Protect Gracie...and protect her Uncle Scott. Keep your hand upon them both.

A Face for Grace,
Holly

A good morning

Although Bayli sleeps in her own bed all night every night, she always sneaks into my bed at about 7:00 each morning. Most of the time we drift back to sleep while I hold her. Some days if we have a lot of errands to run or things to do that day, I'll let her snooze in my bed while I get ready. Then there are the other days when she is ready for breakfast regardless of what my plans had been, so we relunctantly begin the day.

Today was one of the snuggle days. Something woke her up and she saw the light of day peeking through her blinds and decided it was Mommy time. I heard the pitter patter of her feet on the wood floors, then I felt her breath on my cheek. I knew she was standing there ready to be hoisted up into our big bed.

I am not too much of a morning person and I truly value every minute of my sleep. But, oh how I love these morning moments with her. She smells so sweet, morning breath and all. I love her bed head and I adore the fact that she drags her "be" (blanket) with her to cuddle with.

This morning she was snoozing again in no time. And then I could hear her sucking her thumb with a passion. I pried open one eye to look at her. I think my heart actually stopped beating for a moment. She looked absolutely precious with her hair gently falling over the side of her face, and her long black eyelashes were perfectly framing the rims of her eyes. And that still chubby baby hand next to her mouth, with her thumb slightly falling out and mouth wide open. All that I could do was barely catch my breath and just whisper a thank you to God for blessing me so much.

And then it hit me. This sweet little girl, my baby; is going to be a big sister one day...hopefully sooner rather than later. Within the next year or so, I will pry one eye open in the morning and see two sweet little girls sleeping on the pillow beside me, instead of one. I will hear the pitter patter of 4 little feet coming to the safety of Daddy and Mommy's bed when day breaks through the blinds in their rooms. I am suddenly more grateful than ever that we invested in a King size bed. Not so that they can sleep with us at night, but for lazy mornings like this. The type of mornings that motherhood is made for.

As I laid there and gazed at her sweet, sleeping little head, I couldn't help but think about what our future holds. I have no doubt that there is enough love in my heart and in our home for another child. I feel bold enough to say that we have enough love for probably 100 other children. But my mind can't quite comprehend how good it will be. I can taste it; but I can't digest it just yet.

Father God, just like in your word in Jeremiah 29:11 is says "For I know the plans I have for you...plans for a hope and a future". My mind cannot even begin to comprehend what your plans hold for us...for my family. I know that it includes a little girl named Gracie. But the magnitude of that we'll only be able to understand when she gets here and is officially part of our family. I thank you that in just 5 short months we've gone from an uncertain future, to being well on our way to a new addition to our family. Thank you Jesus for blessing us beyond measure. And for loving us enough to give the Moran family an amazing future.

A Face for Grace,
Holly

There is a light

There is officially a light at the end of the tunnel. And no, before you ask, it's not a train!

We can officially say that we only have 3 documents left to complete our Dossier!

One is Jason's birth certificate, which I ordered on February 20th! Who would think that it would take 12 weeks to receive that? I contacted the necessary personnel to find out where we stood in receiving this vital piece of paper. To which they repied, it's on hold indefinitely due to Katrina issues. My goodness, I'm sure that my mind can't comprehend the magnitude of the issues that dear Katrina posed on our great state, but it would seem to me that they should be a little bit closer to being able to get a man a copy of his birth certificate, huh? Especially considering the fact that I received mine from like 8 states away in less than 5 days! And especially considering that we already have his birth certificate, it's just not a brand-shiney-new one. But, never fear...my dear friend Amanda gave me some inside scoop on how to get one expedited to us! We should have said birth certificate by the end of this week! YEAH!

The other piece of information that we are lacking is my passport. Let me just state, for the record, that I ordered that on February 22nd. One might think that 11 1/2 weeks would be enough time to get a passport. Apparently with all of the seniors heading to Cancun in the next 3 weeks or so, mine has taken a backseat. So, according to the state department website, mine is being processed and should be received within the week also. Don't think that I didn't take it upon myself to go ahead and send a follow-up email just to be sure. 'Cause I did. One has learned that one can't be too careful in dealing with things of this nature. (I may not be able to do math in my head or know my odds of grabbing a green paper clip...but you better believe that I've got one seriously quick learning curve when it comes to deadlines!)

The last piece of information that we are lacking is a biggie. It's the USCIS I-171H. Fancy lingo for "important report from the feds". That's the immigration/fingerprinting thing that I've been referring to. I think I've mentioned before that the word on the street indicates that the New Orleans immigration office being "backed-up" is an understatement to say the least. So I've been very careful about what I post and what I confess about when we'll get our report from them.

But I'm done with that. So, I'm going to go ahead and say it. We've got favor. We're going to get our report in record time. 2 weeks. Or less. There. It's done.

With all of this said, I must say that as much as I have been enjoying the busyness of preparing all of these documents...I'll be oh so glad to send them off and make the waiting official.

Dear Jesus. Thank you so much for pouring out your favor upon us. Thank you for blessing us with inside scoop and ways to get things wrapped up. Thank you so much for having your hand upon us during this time. Thank you for giving me the grace to keep my OCD side in check so that I was able to enjoy every and all things involved in this process. I am thrilled to death over this journey that we are on and I'm so greatful that you are in the drivers seat. Bless our baby girl...keep her safe.

A Face for Grace,
Holly

A different viewpoint

A friend of mine from church inquired about our adoption progress the other day. So I emailed her the link to my BLOG. She emailed me back the next day with some comments that really made me think.

She had been adopted as a baby. I think I had known this, but had forgotten. When I told her that God has led us to adoption, she began crying and reminded me that she herself had been adopted. So, it goes without saying that adoption will be very close to her heart. I got her permission to quote some lines from the email that she sent me:

Thank you for sharing your blog with me. As an adoptee, it really warmed me to read some entries (and brought some tears). Gracie will be so very grateful to you and Jason, even though she may not realize all you have and will go through until she is an adult, for the effort you put into being her Mommy and Daddy. Just as God has ordered the steps of your life with Gracie, He has also ordered the steps of her life to be with you.
I am brought great comfort in my adult life knowing that God planned and cared for me enough to have not been an abortion, but also that my Mom and Dad were obedient to the call of adoption.

Wow. I was officially at a loss for words after reading these comments. It has taken several days for me to be able to put my thoughts into words.

I have thought time and time again about how adoption is God's plan for us and how all of our lives will change, Gracie's included. And even though I refuse to think of us as a hero or anything like that (I don't like when people refer to us as rescuing her or saving her), I do absolutely think that her life will be better with us.

But thinking about this in the terms that God cares so much for Gracie that He called us to adopt her. And how utterly amazing is it that God even trusts Jason and I enough to call us to adopt her as our own? To place her in our hands; in our family forever? I have been thinking about our need to grow our family; not as much thought has been on her need to have her own family. I have been thinking of this from the top down, instead of the bottom up. God will always think of the children first.

I have been viewing the "paper pregnancy" process as necessary for us to get her; not as necessary for her to get us. It's the same thing; but yet very, very different. Absolutely none of this has anything to do with us...it's all about her. God needing to provide for His child. We are simply vessels.

So, the last thing that put a lump in my throat is this last comment:

This may sound weird, but I have sometimes wondered where I would be if my Mom had not had so many miscarriages, and turned to adoption.

I know that God has been speaking to us about adoption for the better part of a year now, but we've only been obedient in the past 5 months. So what if we would not have obeyed? What if we would have decided that we'd continue to "chance" a pregnancy working in our favor? What if we would have held out for pregnancy #5, in hopes of not having another miscarriage? What if we had not been obedient?

What would then happen to the little baby girl in El Salvador that is to be named Gracie...the one that is supposed to be our daughter? What would happen to her?

Father God, thank you again for your divine revelation through the amazing friends that you have placed in our path! God, I apologize for thinking mostly of what Gracie will bring to us..instead of her need to be in our home and lives...a part of our family. God, thank you for calling us and using us...we are willing vessels. God I thank you for our sweet baby, she may already be born...or maybe not yet. Keep her safe. God, when I may get a little sad or discouraged about the wait, help me to remember that in essence she's waiting too...and when it's your perfect timing we'll be placed together as a family.

Face for Grace,
Holly

Another day with the Psychiatrist

I've got to be totally honest that this whole psychiatric evaluation thing was absolutely insane (no pun intended). It seemed to drag on forever. And the crazy tests...oh my goodness! Stuff that I cannot repeat without blushing, asked over and over in one form or fashion.

Then, just in case all of that was not enough, we did the IQ testing today. Even though we will not have official results for another 2 weeks, I'm pretty certain that there is absolutely no way on God's green earth that I have an inkling of a chance of scoring higher than Jason. I was prepared for matching shapes, and putting some things in order but when she started with the mathmatical word problems...and no paper or pencil to use as scratch paper. I was done for! (Yes, you heard me right...WORD PROBLEMS!) Fractions, averages and percentages...oh my! All off the top of my head. Then the geography started...yikes! Then the whole, who was Mahatma Ghandi (did he invent Mahatma rice?) and who was Catherine the Great? The current world population? If you have 28 orange paper clips, 5 green ones and 12 red ones, and you grab one without looking...what are the odds of grabbing a green one? I told her it depended on which one God wanted me to grab. Because, in all honesty...I. had. no. clue. There...I said it. No clue. So then when we got to the part of if you are lost in the forest, what should you do to find your way out? Jason later told me that my answer of sit on a rock and cry loudly so that they can hear you and find you quicker really was not the correct answer. Go figure. That is really what I'd do. Well, actually if you want to get technical, I'm such a city girl...I will never be in the woods, period...much less alone. (In my defense, did tell her that aside from sitting on the rock and crying I thought that there was some technical thing that you can do with following the sun or something, but wasn't exactly sure how it worked.) So, I really tried my hardest, and of course I'm only stating the blatantly obvious WRONG answers here. But there were several that I think I got right...hopefully. And I'm good with grammar and vocabulary, so I'm pretty sure I got all of those right.

So, speaking of needing to know the world population in order to be considered competent enough to raise a child...

How crazy is it really that an IQ test is even required for this process? The only way that I can imagine that having that tidbit of information handy is when Gracie refuses to eat her vegetables, I can tell her, "I know from taking my IQ test that there are 8.5 Billion people in this world and I'm sure that a good percentage of them are starving...eat up little girl!"

In summary, it was a rather stressful event to say the least. All that I could think was that poor Gracie was going to have to stay in El Salvador permanently because her Mommy wasn't smart enough to pass an IQ test! Hopefully they will give me an "A" for effort and call it even!

God, I promised to make it through this process without murmuring or complaining. I'm going to honor my word, but I'm glad this part of the process is over with. Thank you for seeing me through today. I am going to try to begin paying more attention to useless information...just in case it's ever necessary again! God, thanks for creating me with a sense of humor...we both needed it today!

A Face for Grace,
Holly

I almost forgot, we got to cross two big things off the list today. We not only finished the Psychiatric Evaluations today, but we also finished with our Home Study! Yeah! Anyone who is reading, we still need favor with Immigration in New Orleans (we go May 22nd for fingerprints) and we need to get Jason's new birth certificate and my passport. Both of these appear to be held up due to crazy things in Louisiana vital records and the new passport laws. I will need these in soon to finish everything up!