While I'm waiting...

If you are reading this on my blog and not through Google reader or email, then you should hear music start playing. I started with the song "While I'm Waiting". Thought that was appropriate. :-)  If you'd rather not listen, scroll down to the very bottom of this page and click pause. By the way, the Toby Mac songs are at Sarah's request after seeing him in concert Thursday night. (Someone blessed her w/ a free ticket! And thank you to our friends who took care of her for the night.)

Lord willing, there won't be any adoption news for a couple of weeks. (Any news before our travel date probably wouldn't be good news.) So, if you want to tune out for a couple of weeks, feel free! I do plan doing some catch up posts w/ photos though...a couple birthday parties, the Ds walk we attended, and some Ds awareness posts. It's ok if it's not Ds awareness month anymore, isn't it? :-)  But Nov is National Adoption month. Fun, huh?

So, while I'm waiting for our travel date, I'll be doing some serious "nesting" here, and trying to prepare for our trip as much as possible. There is still a slight possibility we'll be gone by Thanksgiving, but I'm guessing it will be early December. But really, what do I know??? Not much... Please pray that it is as soon as possible (as much as that freaks me out w/ what I think I need to get done here first), and even more specifically that it is on a Monday or Tuesday. Earlier in the week means we can get our second court date sooner, less time in country for Pat and that we can meet Elijah sooner! Thank you!!!

Ok, off to nest!

SUBMITTED!!!!!!!

After checking email 100 times today - maybe a few more - I got word about 9PM tonight from my most wonderful state side paperwork helper, Nancy, that all of our paperwork was successfully translated, no errors were found, and our dossier has been submitted by the RR facilitation team to the State Dept of Adoptions (SDA) in Elijah's country!!!!! PRAISE THE LORD!!!!!

So, for all you non-RR folks, you may be wondering what exactly this means and what all the exclamation points are about. :-) It means the government in Elijah's country knows we exist and that we are requesting an appointment with them to officially get his referral. See, right now, we are not officially "matched" to Elijah. His file has been pulled from the international adoption "pool" (I think, but I'm not 100% sure about that), but a family from his country could still adopt him. Chances of that happening are slim to none. No worries there. So, once we get his "referral", that gives us the legal authority to go to his orphanage and meet him and start the process to legally make him our son. Oh what joy! :-)  It also means that we won't have to redo any paperwork for our dossier. Our dossier is 100% done and 100% correct and 100% submitted! That is a huge relief as well!

So, now what? We wait. Many wise adoptive parents have said this process is a game of hurry up and wait, over and over again. Oh, how true.

We wait to hear from the SDA about when our SDA referral appt will be. Lately, families have been receiving their travel date about 2 to 2 1/2 weeks after submission.  The travel date has been about 2-4 weeks after that - sometimes even less than 2 weeks! So, we could be traveling as early as the week of Thanksgiving, or as late as mid-December! Holy cow! The thought is so exciting and honestly, a little frightening too. There is so much I want to get done before I leave. I'd better get on it, huh?  But the reality is that we cannot wait to wrap our arms around Elijah. This is the REAL DEAL, folks! :-)

Hang on, dear Elijah, Daddy and Mommy will be there soon...very, very soon...

"We interrupt our regularly scheduled program"...

...to celebrate a birthday!  Elijah's little sister turned one year old today! Happy 1st birthday, Rachel! We had a wonderful party today with lots of family. We are very blessed to have such wonderful family. Plus, it was a double party! Rebekah turns 4 on Monday!  We brought Rachel home from the hospital on her 3rd birthday. The best birthday present ever we told her. :-)  She believes it...for now...

Rachel is such a true blessing to our family. Her smile and giggle light up a room. She's doted on (and spoiled) by her siblings. We all love her dearly!

(I'm not ready to start a family blog yet - if ever - so hope you don't mind the little detour here. Couldn't resist! But if you think of her, please say a prayer that she will transition well to not having mom around when we travel and that she wouldn't give grandma a hard time in the middle of the night - something she's been known to do...once or twice...)

A few fun photos of the cute birthday girl!

How do they learn at such a young age to just toss the clothes aside??? She was enjoying herself though!



She wasn't too sure at first about the sticky frosting and the texture of the cake.



She got it though! :-) Yum-yum!

And look at what she's been doing for a couple of weeks! It will be so fun to watch her and Elijah learn to do things together.

WHAT A GREAT DAY!!!

Our package with our dossier paperwork in it was DELIVERED AND SIGNED for today! A whole business day early!  YAY!  Praise God!  Please pray all will be ok with the documents and our dossier will be submitted to Elijah's gov't very soon. :-)

AND.....even better news!!  TORI HAS A FAMILY!!!!!!!!!!!!

PRAISE GOD!!!  I am so, so, so happy!!!  God has answered many prayers said for her around the country. I haven't found out who it is yet, but I'll let you know when they have a blog up and running in case you want to follow along. :-) Andrea, the Executive Director of RR, also posted today they received some information about her. Here's what she said: "She is alive. Her lower body part is paralyzed. She cannot walk and probably never will. Upper body part is functioning normally. She has deep cognitive delay.


Can't wait to see her blossom!!!"

I can't wait either. :-) "Deep cognitive delay" - really, who wouldn't have deep cognitive delay after being in a poor orphanage for the first 4 years of her life w/o proper nutrition and stimulation and no love, and then another year stuck in a crib in MUCH worse circumstances.  But, please, please, please be in prayer for this family. The evil one is not going to be happy when someone comes to take away some of his long held territory. This really is a spiritual battle folks.  I'm SO very thankful that we have so many prayer warriors storming Heaven for us. I pray this family does too, in addition to all of you.

Be blessed today!  God is Good and He does answer prayers! 

Be Still

I just saw this on a dear friend's blog. I SO needed to see this today, especially as I hit refresh on the FedEx tracking site for the 100th time today. (Really, how long does it take to get from Paris to anywhere? It left 18 hrs ago...anyway, see how I needed this reminder.)

Down Syndrome Awareness Artwork

When we took the tour of the state capitol last week, we toured the governor's conference room. Inside, we spotted this!



It is a very beautiful glass etching and of course, the photo doesn't do it justice. "Reaching for the stars!"




This was the sign right below. Way to go to the Madison Area Ds Awareness group!

 

TORI HAS A FULL GRANT!!!

PRAISE GOD!!!! 

If you've been reading my blog for very long, you know that Tori is near and dear to my heart. I've posted about her a few times here and here and even put her chip-in at the top of my blog.  Today, I found out her grant is now over $23,000!!! AMAZING!!!! I've never seen one so big before. She is fully funded! (A committed family would still need to pay for the initial fees for the home study, document prep, etc.) ONLY GOD could do that.  Now, please continue to pray that the Lord will bring her family forward - that they will submit to His will for their lives and take that leap of faith - trusting the Lord to guide them and bring them through. Thank you to all that donated and prayed.

Hang on Sweetie, your mama is going to find you and rescue you soon!

Dossier in Paris!

Yep, our dossier is in Paris, France already!  Yahoo!!! After "watching" it sit in Indianapolis all day yesterday and not leaving until 2AM this morning, I'm very surprised it's there already! The expected delivery date is Monday, the 25th, but maybe it will be early.  We'll watch and see!

Beast Photos

A few photos from yesterday and today...

All of the documents of the Beast before Pat left for Indiana! Isn't it pretty???

State capitol of Indiana - you know, just because we are collecting state capitol photos this past last week... Next capitol building I hope to see is the one in Elijah's country!  Do they even have a "capitol" building? No matter, we'll be in the capital city to get his referral. That's all I need. :-)

The "Beast with the employment verification letter with the IN state apostille. What do you say? Do you like the IN or WI one better?  I'm not sure, but I do know the IN one is much cheaper and quicker! :-)



Just think - the person that opens this will be in Elijah's country and will be part of the facilitation team that will begin translating it!!!!



What does this have to do with our adoption???  Absolutely NOTHING!  But it was on the camera as we took this tonight and I couldn't resist. It's a mongo HUUUUGE watermelon from our garden. That's a regular sized apple next to it.  We haven't cut into it yet...not sure how it will taste! Oh, and by the way, this watermelon has real black seeds in it, unlike the "fake" ones you buy at the store. LOL



We have a tracking number!!!

Thanks to the willingness of my awesome husband to drive down to the middle of Indiana, our dossier is on it's way to EE!!!!  That's right - the "Beast" has been slain. :-) YAHOOOOOO!!!!!!  Thank you all SO much for praying!!!!!!  But please don't stop. Please pray it gets over there ok and quickly, and that all the documents pass inspection so we can be submitted to the gov't in Elijah's country.

I can't believe it is done.  Countless phone calls (mostly to gov't entities), 2 trips to Milwaukee, 2 trips to Madison, a loooong trip to Valparaiso and Indianapolis (he waited only 2 minutes to get the document apostilled!), a trip to my home town for marriage licenses, a couple trips for birth certificates, visit to the sheriff's dept for fingerprinting, a trip to the town hall, a couple trips to the doctor's office (Hi Debbie!), lots of trips to the bank to visit the notary, a 10-pk of blue pens :-), lots of paper, lots of tears, and a whole lotta PRAYER!  It's done! THANK YOU LORD!!! To HIM be the GLORY!!! Is Elijah worth it??? Oh, most definitely YES!  Would I do it all over again? YES, in a heart beat. (I definitely have learned from my mistakes.) Are we excited we could be meeting Elijah in less than 2 months?  Most definitely!!!  

It's an emotional day for sure. And I'm not the only that gets emotional around here. :-)  Pat even took pictures for me today, which I'll post later.  He even had the camera packed yesterday before I asked about it. Whatta guy! Love you Honey!

The "Beast" has left the state...

and no, I don't mean my husband either!!! :-) Pat left for Indiana before supper with the "beast", a.k.a. our dossier paperwork, in hand. Well, actually it was in an envelope and double bagged in case a soda exploded in the car or something. LOL

And we have a new employment verification letter!!! Praise God!!!  Of course, as usual, the process has to have some drama to it to keep me on my toes (or I should say, on my knees). After leaving a message with Pat's boss's secretary before 8AM, I finally called the "operator" on the general number at about 11AM after not hearing anything.  Come to find out, both his boss AND his secretary are out of the office - all week! (Deep breathing...stay calm...) But a HUGE kudos to Melissa who came through for us. She typed the new letter (I sent her the scanned copy of the first one), had the one boss that was there (thankfully, Pat's company has 3 owners - only one was in the office today) take it to a notary at a bank, and the notary's name verified on the Indiana Sec of State website.  Melissa emailed me the scanned copy of the new letter, I forwarded it to my most wonderful state side paperwork helper, Nancy, and she ok'ed it almost immediately! Nancy rocks! Melissa rocks! Praise the Lord!!!  (Exhaling now...whew...) I think we should be good to go now - Lord willing.

Pat will pick up the letter in the morning bright and early from his place of employment and then head down to Indiana Secretary of State's office. I posted a question on the RR yahoo board about how Indiana was about apostilling documents while you wait. A nice lady responded that she was there the day before and had 5 done while she waited. Yay for the Hoosiers!  So, please pray all goes well with that. A FedEx location is right in the same building as the Sec of State, so Pat won't have to go out of his way to send it off to EE. 

I can't believe it is so close! It's still all so surreal to me...like this is someone else's blog, someone else's story.  There is still a chance we could be submitted to the SDA (State Dept of Adoptions) in Elijah's country in early November!  Then we wait 2-3 weeks to receive our travel date, which could be 2-4 weeks out from that (or more). It's all up in the air. The Lord's timing is perfect. I will rest in that. Dear sweet, Elijah, your mommy and daddy are coming soon!

What do you say...

What do you say to a pastor and a church family that has welcomed our family with open arms?

What do you say to a pastor and a board of trustees that conceived the idea for Elijah's benefit and a committee that made it happen in less than 5 weeks?

What do you say to a church family, family, friends and others in the community that have shown Elijah and our family "Crazy Love" and COMPLETELY overwhelmed us with their generosity???

THANK YOU does not seem adequate to express the extreme amount of gratitude we feel for everyone that made the benefit last Sunday a HUGE success and to everyone that donated towards bringing Elijah home. Not to mention the extreme amount of gratitude we feel for our Heavenly Father for making this happen, for moving hearts to give and for providing the financial means to bring Elijah home.

Today in church we heard the news of the money raised so far (as checks are still coming in). (I asked Pastor Dan yesterday to tell me, but he has a fair amount of "stinker-ness" in him and made me wait until this morning. And yes, he knows I said that about him. :-)) We are overwhelmed, we are humbled, we are blown away.  Are you ready?  Are you sure???  The total so far is over.....drum roll please.....








$17,000!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


PRAISE THE LORD!!!!!!

Can you believe that!?!?!?  Nope. I can't either. Like I said, we are overwhelmed, humbled and blown away.

So, what does this mean? It means that we are FULLY FUNDED TO BRING ELIJAH HOME!!! PRAISE GOD!!! It means that once we get "the Beast" in the mail over to EE on Tuesday - Lord willing - we can focus on preparing our hearts, minds, and our home to bring Elijah home. You know, things like learning Russian, doing as much school as we can before we leave, reading adoption and Down syndrome books, spending lots of time with our kids, making a whole bunch of meals to freeze, making lists and more lists so my parents can find what they need here...stuff like that. :-)

Like I said, "thank you" just seems so inadequate, but I don't know what else to say.

THANK YOU TO EVERYONE WHO HAS DONATED TO HELP BRING ELIJAH HOME!!!  WE LOVE YOU ALL!!!

It says in my blog description above, "We pray you will see God glorified throughout this whole journey." All glory for this does belong to the Lord, not to our pastor, church family, friends or community. It belongs to HIM!

Rev. 5:13 - "And then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea. They sang:
“Blessing and honor and glory and power
belong to the one sitting on the throne
and to the Lamb forever and ever.” "

AMEN!!!

You are NOT going to believe this!!!

After sleeping in this morning, I was doing the happy dance when I checked the tracking # of Pat's employment letter coming back from being apostilled in Indiana. It was "out for delivery"! Yippee!!! I got all the other documents for our dossier in order - tripled checked everything - and was waiting for the announcement that the mailman had come. I went on-line to find FedEx places that ship on Saturdays. The kids ran down to get the mail and I eagerly ripped open the envelope...That's when I saw it. The letter had NO apostille!!! Instead it had a sheet of paper with it that said the notary was not found in their system. WHAT?!?! Evidentally, the notary that signed Pat's employment letter is inactive. SIGH...of course, as you read the other day, my usual first response is to panic (and cry!) and think about the worse thing that can happen (we would be delayed long enough to not get submitted before they close the end of Nov., etc). I thought the EARLIEST we could get the dossier out would be next Friday, if we overnighted everything and the processing time in Indiana was quick - once we got a new letter. And then the evil one is whispering in my ear..."this is all your fault...you could have had this taken care of 3 weeks ago...this is all your fault." Get thee behind me!

But my husband to the rescue!  I thank God the Lord gave me a man who isn't controlled by his emotions (like me!) and one that can think rationally and analytically (unlike me!).  So, after he processed this and had time to think, he came up with a tentative plan.  We call his office (secretary/boss) on Monday morning and explain the situation. Hopefully she can draft a new letter with all the exact same salary numbers (which is in our homestudy - they MUST match!). Maybe they can get it notarized on Monday with a new notary. I'll have her scan a copy and email to me to verify it's correct. Pat will drive down to Valpo Monday night (3 hrs) and stay overnight. He will then get the letter Monday night or early Tues morning. He'll drive it down to Indianapolis (another 3-4 hrs from Valpo) and pray they will process the letter while he waits. (I'll call on Monday to ask and beg.)  He'll bring the whole dossier with him, add this letter, and ship it via FedEx from Indianapolis and drives home safely Tues night ....LORD WILLING!  So, once again, I ask for your prayers for our paperwork and this process. Please pray that all goes smoothly with the new letter and notary, the Sec of State in Indianapolis is willing to process right away, and everything goes well with getting it shipped over on Tuesday. IF this all works, I guess we will only lose ONE day, as FedEx didn't pick up around here on Saturday anyway. So, once again, the Lord is faithful. Once again, he knew all of this was going to happen. He knew Pat would be able to take Tuesday off of work in between the projects he's working on. Oh, I pray that someday I'll be mature enough in my faith that my first reaction is not panic and tears and thinking worst case, but instead it will be a calmness knowing the Lord knows and that He has gone before us to prepare a way. Someday...

P.S. If there is any adoptive parents reading this that will be getting documents apostilled in Indiana, there is a link on the Sec of State page to check to "Verify your notary information". Please use it. Wish I would have.

SUCCESS!!!

Thank you to everyone that was praying for us today regarding the apostilling "hiccup" we needed to resolve today. We are good to go! Well, good to ship our dossier over to Ukraine as soon as the other document gets here from Indiana, which should be Monday. (Wait, I just checked the tracking and it left Oak Creek - south side of Milw - at 6pm tonight! Maybe it will be here tomorrow?!? Is Fed Ex open tomorrow? I'll find out!) Anyway, today went very, very well! For how panicked I was last night, the Lord smoothed the bumps and took care of everything for me.

Just in case you need a little story to put you to sleep, here you go...Sweet Nancy (my most wonderful state side paperwork helper) answered my panic email from last night right away this morning. She has such a good way of calming me down. :-)  She recommended calling the Sec of State (SoS) office right away. They needed to be redone. I called right away and the regular lady (the one that goofed up) is out of the office today (ack!), but the person who answered said bring them down and she would fix them - today. Great!  But how do the fix them? She said they put a big X through the first certificate and write "void" on it, then attach a new certificate. Hmmm...not sure that is going to fly w/ this country. She said it's up to me whether or not I want to bring new documents or not. So, I email Nancy and she's never seen it done like that before. I'm NOT taking a chance, this is WAY too important. New documents it is then. I start printing the 14 documents we need redone that I have here. Pat agrees to drive back to our bank over his early lunch hour and sign them with me. GREAT! We can do this!

Now, the other document that was wrong was the notarized state police clearance/background check. This is the one we needed to send in ink fingerprints for, pay $20, wait a week, etc. I called down to the number on the letter, and explained my story. And wouldn't you know it - just as the Lord would have it - the person I was talking to was the one that notarized the letter! She pulled it up on her computer but said the man that signed it was out of the office today, but the other person that could sign it was leaving at noon. (It was 10:20am. Not going to make it.) I asked if she could do it for me ahead of time and I could stop by and pick it up later in the afternoon. Sure! No problem! Oh, everyone was SO nice today!

So, we meet at the bank, get our documents signed and notarized, stop for lunch quick as I feed the baby, and off to Mad-town we go!  Everything is so much easier the second time. We knew exactly what corner to park in at the ramp. The kids wanted to park on the very top floor. Sure, why not? :-)  We dropped off the first 14 documents and took a nice leisurely 2 block stroll alongside the beautiful capital to the Justice Dept. We got the letter in less than 2 minutes and went back to the SoS office. They were almost done and did the last one quick. I gave her a prayer card with Elijah's sweet face on it and she added it to their "wall of fame" of many other adoptive babies that have come home. Then we were out of there in 5 minutes!!! Praise the Lord! It couldn't have gone any better!  Of course, it would have been better to not have gone at all. But as I posted quick this morning, this could have been SOOO much worse.  The documents we could have needed redone could have been our medical forms - yikes!, mortgage/home ownership letter, homestudy license, etc. Any of those would have been much more difficult to get redone. Even worse, our whole dossier could have been over in EE before the errors were found. Or, I could have waited until Monday when I got the last piece before I checked them. I'm so amazed at the Lord's goodness and faithfulness!  What Satan meant for harm and delay and disruption, the Lord used for good to bring Himself glory! Amen!

Another little bit of "good" that came from this, the kids have had the first several lessons on elevator "manners". Don't stand right in front of the door while we are waiting to get on, step to the side so others can get on, get on before the door closes on you, etc. They also saw a bit how a parking ramp works, a little how our gov't works, and most importantly, how good God is. While I'll fully admit no 3 R's were taught at our school today, some good life lessons were learned. Learning isn't just academics.

I'll leave you with a photo in front of the building that we visited 4x in the last 4 days - taking the elevator up to the 10th floor each time. It's hard to see, but it says Secretary of State on the glass right about the kids' heads. You can see Sarah in the blue in the reflection. :-) And yes, I know this isn't quite how you are supposed to wear this Ergo baby carrier, but she was antsy upstairs so I took her out for a bit. She went right back in after this. Ok, good night now!!!

P.S. I found out how to pronounce "apostille" today. It's "AP-uh-steel". Who knew? Not me...my kids aren't the only ones learning things!



We have a plan...

The Secretary of State's office will redo the documents - today. They need to be redone. The way they redo them is to put an X on the form and write void and attach a new one. Nancy says she's never seen it done that way and this is WAY too important to have them reject the documents over there.

So, we are redoing the documents - meeting Pat at the bank to resign the 14 documents and then heading down to Madison. The State police should have a new letter waiting for us. Printing as I type this. This could have been SOOOO much worse. God is FAITHFUL! I'll share more about that and update when I get back. Please pray for no more hiccups! :-)  The document from Indiana is finally in the tracking system, so it could be here tomorrow or most likely, Monday. YAY!

Breathing, breathing...

I was going to title this "PANIC", but decided I really need to take a breath and pray and ask you do to do the same. Breath in - breath out.

I pulled out all of my dossier documents and started comparing the notary's name on the documents to the notary's name on the apostille sheet - you know, the one with the shiny gold star. FIFTEEN of them are wrong!!!  The notary's name is spelled wrong on FIFTEEN of them!!!  14 of them are the same notary - the one at the bank. An extra "s" was added to her name. Then on a different one, the notary's first name is wrong. Listed as "Terri" when it should be "Teresa". Oh my!!!!

I have an email into my most wonderful stateside paperwork helper, Nancy, to ask her if the documents are going to be ok. Do you think that for a country that demands signatures in blue ink, notary stamps not touching any words, no white-out, etc, and requires an extra document that says Pat and Patrick are the same person is going to think this is ok? Nope. I don't either.  And in order for these documents to be official, an ink stamp is applied to both the 3/4 sheet of the apostille and the document itself. So, I have a hunch that all of these documents will need to be redone too. Maybe I shouldn't speculate, but I need to think out my plan for tomorrow - which includes asking for prayer support! So, that's why I'm here typing at you.



These are my first set of documents. You can see the stamp in the upper right hand corner.

The good news is that all but one of these documents are the easy "print and sign" type. The bad news is that the other one is my state police clearance. It was notarized at the state level. But hey, the State Dept of Justice is in Madison too.  So, here's my plan if they all need to be redone. Call the Secretary of State office that does the apostilling to tell her I'm coming down today to get them redone and ask nicely that she do them while I wait. Call the State Dept of Justice and ask if I can get a new letter. If it's another $20, so be it. Hopefully it will be close to the SoState's office. Somehow figure out how to get Pat out of work to get those 14 documents resigned with a notary close to his work. Go down to Madison, drop off of the documents to get re-apostilled, get my state police letter, go get it apostilled, and come home with ALL of my documents. (Wouldn't it be fun if the Indiana envelope was in the mailbox when I got back?) This is all great as long as everyone is in the office and feeling cooperative. :-)

The most wonderful news is that none of this is a surprise to God. He knew I needed my calendar completely clear tomorrow. Please pray that IF I have to travel back down, that everyone will be cooperative, in the office, and we get done what we need to. Prayers for safe travels too! Patience for the kids would be a good idea too. THANK YOU!

Almost there...

In the mail today, I received all of the documents that were in Madison to get apostilled. They all look so official and fancy! (I'll post a picture soon.) So, that's the good news!

The not-so-good news is that the document from Indiana is not here yet, so we can't send off our dossier yet until we get it. And I'm kicking myself for that. Since it is only one document and Indiana is FREE for apostilling, I could have sent this weeks ago. I intended to, but just didn't get to it. :-( UGH! Live and learn I guess. Next time I'll know better. Did you catch that Mom? Next time. :-)  Ah, we will see how the Lord leads. One just never knows...

Happy 5th Birthday, Tori!

Tori, just one year ago, your life was flipped upside down. You were torn away from all that you knew. You were placed in a place very different and scary place. I'm so sorry. Tori, may this be the last birthday you spend separated from the love of a family. I'm praying, praying, praying for your family to step forward very, very soon. I pray you will come to know how much Jesus loves you. I pray that you will feel Jesus' warmth around you now as the weather turns colder. I pray that your meals may be filling. I pray that you are healthy. I pray that someone will come and rescue you before it is too late. Hang on, sweet angel, your mama and papa will be coming soon, I pray.

In honor of Tori's birthday, I've added her "chip-in" to the top of my blog. If you remember, I posted about Tori here. My friend, Stephanie, is having a give-away of an iPod for everyone that contributes to Tori's ransom fund - no matter how large or small. Yes, I believe it is a ransom.

As I said, Tori has been transferred to an institution or a "home for invalids".  I hope to be able to visit her institution while we are in country and lay eyes on her. What is it like inside there?  Honestly, I don't want to think about it. But how can I not? Just the other day, someone posted a link about a mission group doing work inside one of these institutions in a country in EE (not necessarily Tori's country, but I'll bet they are all pretty similar).

http://www.worldnextdoor.org/2009/04/romaniv-boys-orphanage/

Then someone posted this in response to the article:

We adopted our son Micah from this mental institution in March of 09. This article was written Just weeks after we were home and I must say it is a very accurate account of the things we saw. Our experience at Romaniv has forever changed us and I must say has been part of what has spurred us on in bringing more kids home!

Tori and so many others need their ransom raised to get them out! Please pray her ransom is raised. Please pray that her family steps up, faces their fears and rescues her from living and dying in alone in horrific circumstances. Please pray about how you can help financially. Thank you!!!

Safely in the arms of Jesus

Today we found out that another little girl from an orphanage in EE is now in the arms of Jesus. Sweet Anne Marie...

Anne Marie blowing kisses

I'm heartbroken. Her death is a needless one.  So many advocated for her. So many loved her. (Please see this blog for a tribute to Anne Marie by someone who met her this summer.) So many prayed for her. She needed a family to call her own...to hold her and love her and give her the medical care she needed. This is the real deal folks. I know it's easy to look away. I've done the same thing. But everyone can do something. They can pray! Please pray for all of these children to find loving families. Pray that those families are willing to take the leap of faith to adopt a child with special needs. Ask the Lord if this is something YOU are to do! Pray for the Lord to provide the finances for those that take the leap. If you are able, please pray about making a tax deductible donation to one of the waiting children on Reece's Rainbow. It is very encouraging to prospective adoptive families to see a large grant for a child they wish to adopt.

I pray that Anne Marie's death was not in vain. I pray that the Lord will use it for good. RR has a program called Christmas Angel Tree Project. As an extension of this project, people can sign up to be Christmas Warriors. I just signed up to be a Christmas Warrior for a waiting child. As a Christmas Warrior, it is my honor to advocate for this child and help raise funds for him/her. The goal is $1000 for each child.  I wasn't going to do that this year, because...well...you know...we are fundraising for Elijah too.  But, you know what? It's not about me. It's about these kids needing their forever families! Anne Marie's passing made me rethink my decision to be a Christmas Warrior.  I'm praying more people will step up in memory of Anne Marie. 

Remembering those angels that have gone on before us...

http://www.reecesrainbow.com/newsite/inmemoriam.html 

Trip to the State Capital

Well, we had our field trip to the state capital yesterday! It was very interesting to see and I learned a lot. Not sure how much the little ones got out of it, but that's ok. Below are some fun photos from the day. It was a beautiful day.

Apostille update: I dropped our the I-171H cover sheet form to be apostilled about 2:30. My check had finally gotten there today. So, everything is all together in one place. Unfortunately, that place is not here.  I stopped back right before closing, and she hadn't even started on any of my documents yet. Bummer...so I'm praying they will get in the mail today. (Our state does not offer the  "while you wait" service.) Then we need the last one from Indiana to get back here. THEN....I can send it all off to EE!!!!!!!!  Yippee!!!!!!



Four of the kids and myself - Sarah was the photographer for the day


Fun views from the observation deck!

A PERFECT 10!!!!!!

I started this post last night (Sunday), but kept falling asleep at the computer. :-) So, here you go! Better get to bed as I think we're off to Madison tomorrow to get our last document apostilled and hopefully pick up the other ones still sitting there. Field trip to the state capital - YAY!

10-10-10!!! What a perfect day! Elijah's benefit was today and WOW! What a day it was!!! We are overwhelmed, humbled, grateful beyond words, and quite honestly, I'm a little emotionally numb. I had to be otherwise I would have been a puddle all day long (church was bad enough!). A special offering was taken during church today and Pastor Dan had envelopes printed with Elijah's sweet face on them. Something about seeing all those envelopes in the basket with all his faces staring back at me really got to me. And our church family's generosity!!! Unbelievable...simply unbelievable. My heart (and brain) really can't comprehend it all right now.


I just want to make a feeble attempt to say THANK YOU!!! THANK YOU to everyone who came to the benefit, who donated $, who baked for the bake sale, who donated silent auction items, who bid on silent auction items, who helped organize the event, who put up fliers, who bought food, who made food, who served food, who brought appetizers to share, who ordered and picked up the cake, who decorated, who cleaned up, who brought the little kids to the park and who conceived this idea and brought the benefit to fruition in a very short period of time, whatever else I missed, and most importantly, thank you to those that prayed!!! THANK YOU!!! This isn't about us, but about saving an orphan from a horrific life in an institution and bringing him to his forever family so he can know and feel God's love for him, and be all that God created him to be. All glory be to GOD! I just can't express in words all that I'm feeling right now with this extreme amount of gratitude.

So, I will leave you with some fun photos of the event!



The whole family by the cake made for Elijah

Left to right: Sarah, Anna, me holding Rachel, Isaac, Pat and Rebekah
(And yes, I do realize this the first photo of me on the blog!
That really wasn't intentional, just the way it worked out.)



Isn't it beautiful???
It is so cool how they can put pictures on the cake!



Poor Michelle who was cutting and serving the cake...she tried so hard to not cut into his face! :-)

  

Eventually, it had to be done! (I know, it's a little freaky...sorry!)





Just a portion of the bake sale, which was donations only, no prices marked. I haven't heard any final tallies yet, but just from the bake sale jar, it was enough to pay for Elijah's passport! ($600!!! Unbelievable!)



"Miss Mae" holding Rachel while she checks out the jewelry/beads for sale

 

Sarah's display of "Handiwork for Elijah"! She worked so hard crocheting ALL these items. I'm so very, very proud of her! FYI - she still has lots of items for sale. Her blog link is on the right side bar. :-)



LOTS of appetizers brought by the church family and hot dogs and sandwiches - YUM!

The "kids table" plus a couple of adults. We brought games and some coloring sheets for those that weren't interested in the game.



Silent auction



More silent auction - Sarah's "Frosty" on the left



More silent auction - framed Packer prints and artwork

Yet more silent auction items! Can you tell why I'm so overwhelmed?!?

THANK YOU again to all those that had any part in the benefit - large or small. My favorite part of the day was visiting with lots of friends and family - some that I hadn't seen for awhile. We even had special house guests that traveled across the state to visit on this special weekend. How fun! Thank you to all that came and supported us! We love you all!

Eph. 1:16 - "I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers."

APPROVED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I did not expect to post this today. (Oh me of little faith!) But I was shocked when I got the mail today!

 OUR GOLDEN TICKET HAS ARRIVED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  OUR I-171H IS HERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! PRAISE THE LORD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Can you believe it?!?!?!  I can't either!  I was completely shocked. When my USCIS officer did not call back yesterday, I thought for sure there was no news. She must have approved us shortly after I talked to her on Monday.  Oh, the Lord's Faithfulness never ceases to amaze me!!!! To God be ALL the GLORY!!!! THANK YOU to everyone who has been praying! Please don't stop!

So, what exactly does this mean?  It means that once we get a cover sheet notarized to go with the I-171H, we need to have it apostilled. So, my plan is to drive it down to Madison on Tuesday AM. I plan to call first, so she will hang onto my documents already there. Hopefully, she will be able to do this one "while we wait", even though they don't offer that service. Please pray that all works out ok.  IF the apostilled document from Indiana comes on Tuesday (pesky gov't holiday on Monday, so no mail and no apostilling going on), we will send our whole dossier over to Elijah's country!!!  I can't believe we are SO close. It all seems so surreal.

VERY tentative timeline from here once our dossier is in country:

• 2-4 weeks for translation and submission of our dossier to the EE gov't
• About 2 weeks after submission we receive a travel date
• Travel date will be 2-4 weeks out from when we receive the date

But keep in mind, EE closes down the first 2 weeks in January. New Year's is a BIG holiday over there, as well as they celebrate Christmas on January 6th or 7th.  A few years ago, someone was submitted on Nov. 7th and didn't travel until Jan 20th or so.  So, there are A LOT of variables here.  "Best case" in my mind would be to have our travel/court the 2nd or 3rd week in December (or earlier!), have our 10-day waiting period over their holidays and bring Elijah HOME the 3rd week in January.  Although, it is very possible we will have to wait to travel until mid-January. :-( I probably shouldn't have even speculated this much. But the Lord knows!  His timing is PERFECT.  Proverbs 3:5-6 - "Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight."

And wouldn't you know, this precious piece of paper that we've been praying for and waiting so long for is just a plain sheet of white paper. The letters "I-171H" are only printed on the very, very bottom in like pt. 2 font. I had been warned about this on the RR yahoo board, so I knew what to expect. But poor Pat...he was a little disappointed...no golden star (not yet!). Very anti-climatic. So, I thought I would share a little video with you. This is the song that plays in my head whenever I hear the words "Golden Ticket".



(It wouldn't let me embed the video where you can actually see Grandpa Joe dancing, but here's the link if you want to watch it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=29_uSlEEPSk&feature=related .

So, off to church in the morning and then Elijah's benefit!  We helped set up tonight and can't wait until tomorrow! It will be so much fun seeing people, and I know the food will be wonderful. Please pray that God gets all the glory tomorrow!

Elijah's Benefit THIS Sunday!

We are so excited! The benefit our church is sponsoring for Elijah is Sunday starting at 11am. Click here for more details. (It's at the American Legion in my town which is right next to the fire station - "kiddy corner" from the swimming pool.) It will be a "open house" type thing, so if you are local and can come even for just a little bit, we would love to see you! There will be a ton of food too and bake sale items for sale. We continue to be incredibly humbled by the generosity of those in our church, as well as in the community. In addition to the awesome Packer framed photographs, some really fun stuff has been donated for the silent auction.

• (2) Beautiful handmade purses from my neighbor (Thanks Lori!)
• Signed Tony Dungee books donated by someone who heard our story and has adopted four children from Russia
• Gorgeous watercolor print by local artist Sherri T. She has her artwork displayed at the library gallery right now, and I knew her ages ago from MOPS. Thanks Sherri!
• FROSTY the Snowman!  This adorable holiday decoration is handmade by my very talented oldest daughter, Sarah. It is about 16" high and is crocheted from cut up plastic bags! You can click here and here to see some really cute photos of him. She even got a blue ribbon on him at the fair.
• Packer Nesting Dolls - You know, the wooden ones that come apart in the middle and fit inside each other? They are well-known in EE. But these "dolls" are in green and gold! No, I'm not kidding! :-)
• One hour free riding lesson donated by our 4H club leader (Thanks Michelle!)

I know there are other things that I've forgotten, but this gives you an idea. Sarah has been very busy making items to sell as well. I'll be sure to post photos from the benefit too.  My daughter, Anna, told me again that my blog is boring because there are no pictures. (She LOVES to watch videos of Ruby and Lily!) Soon, my dear, very soon.

Hope to see you Sunday!

Sometimes I wonder...

...about myself and my ability to function with my "mommy brain".  If Rachel is 11 1/2 months old, is that too old to blame it on post-partum hormones??? Yep, I thought so too. Anyway, yesterday I sent all of our dossier (30 documents!) to Mad-town to get apostilled at the Secretary of State's office. I've mentioned before that they charge $10/document.  Do you suppose they would want the check for $300 BEFORE they start processing the documents?  Yep, I suppose so. Last night, I realized I forgot to include the check for processing fees!!! Ugh!!!!  So, I called this morning and she said she would set it aside and wait for the check. I sent it out via priority today. Hopefully, we will only lose a day or two of time and we should be okay. I also asked her if they have a "process while you wait" service. (When we get our "Golden Ticket", I was going to drive it down to get apostilled and then send the whole dossier over to EE!) But, they don't do that.  She said I could take a chance and bring it in, but it all depends on how many they get in the mail that day. We'll see how it all works out.  I sent Pat's employer letter to Indianapolis to get apostilled since his company is in Indiana. That was free. Maybe that's what got me goofed up...ya, that's it. :-)

In the saga to get our "Golden Ticket", I called again today and left a message with my USCIS officer at the suggestion of my most wonderful state-side paperwork helper, Nancy. My officer returns calls between 1pm and 2pm only and if she doesn't call back, that means there is no status change.  I would LOVE to hear from her tomorrow afternoon! Wouldn't that be a fun way to start the weekend!?!

October is National Down Syndrome Awareness Month!

Can you believe that over 170 bloggers have committed to blogging about Down syndrome every day this month??? That is awesome!  If you would like to read some of these blogs, click here for the list. I have decided that this isn't the time for me to attempt blogging daily about Ds. Next year I will try though! :-) (I'll have a little more experience by then!) But I do plan to post a few things about Down syndrome throughout the month. I believe it was through this daily blogging that Michelle did over the past several Octobers that my eyes were opened, my heart was softened and my mind was educated about Down syndrome (in addition to her "regular" blogging about life and a soapbox or two :-)). Thanks Michelle!!!

I've seen lots of great posts already, so maybe I'll just post some links.  The first link I want to post about is not a personal blog though. It is about a website I just found out about today. It is only 4 days old and has received 3000 hits from all over the US and 49 countries! Amazing!  It is http://www.downsyndromepregnancy.org/. Pretty self-explanatory. The site offers a free e-book download for mothers that have decided to continue their pregnancy after receiving a pre-natal diagnosis of Down syndrome for their unborn child.

The site explains their audience this way:

The audience for this website and book are expectant parents who are moving forward with a pregnancy after learning about a prenatal Down syndrome diagnosis. The material is not appropriate for women who are still weighing options about their pregnancy.


The audience may also include medical professionals, Down syndrome organizations who are providing support to expectant parents, and the family and friends of expectant parents.

It sounds like a great resource for mothers! Although I haven't read the e-book, what a wonderful thing to have, especially to share with family and friends, who may or may not be supportive of the decision to "keep" the child...Hopefully, you can tuck this little tidbit about this website in the back of your mind in case you or someone else you know needs it someday.
 
(Soapbox warning here) But all these terms...continue their pregnancy, options about their pregnancy, keep the child...they seem to be a politically correct terms for aborting the baby or not. Did you know that the US "termination" (shall we just say "murder"?) rate for a prenatal diagnosis of Down syndrome is 90%????  We can talk about how horrible it is that parents in Eastern Europe abandon their babies at the hospital if they have Down syndrome. And yes it is. But are we really that much "better off'" here in our country? I think not. God help us.

Fingerprints - Check!

Our biometric fingerprints are done!  YAY!  Our appointment wasn't until 3 this afternoon, but they worked us in early thankfully when we arrived at 8:30. We waited about an hour and a half, so not a big delay. I'm just so thankful they are done! I talked to my USCIS officer this afternoon, and she said she would try to get our case reviewed this week - hopefully. I'll have to wait until next Monday to check back with her. She is still willing to help us, which is great! Please pray she DOES get it done this week and that Monday will bring good news (if we don't get it in the mail first)!

Fingerprints tomorrow!

We'll be driving down to Milwaukee tomorrow to get our biometric fingerprints done. Please pray all goes well!  I'll be calling my USCIS officer when we get home to let her know they are done and when she thinks we can expect our I-171H approval - the last piece needed for our dossier before we can send it over. YAY!

TORI & Elijah's Orphanage

My friend, Stephanie, has a burden on her heart, and so do I. Our burden is for a beautiful little girl called Tori. Tori WAS at Elijah's orphanage, but was transferred to a mental institution nearly a year ago when she turned 4.
 

TORI

Tell me? Does it look like she belongs in a mental institution??? Nope. There is something very special about this little girl. She has JOY!  And I believe she has a huge amount of potential too. NO child deserves to be living in such a place as this.

After Stephanie brought home her two little boys from Elijah's orphanage, she was forever changed. (I know I will be too! How can you not?) She has decided to do something. Something to help Tori find her forever family and open up Tori's facility so others can adopt from there too.

Stephanie is doing a fun give-away on her blog. She's giving away an iPod! All you need to do to get a chance for the iPod is to donate to Tori's fund. Any size gift will be multiplied by the Lord. Please stop by Stephanie's blog and read her post about Tori. She also has a picture of Elijah's orphanage too and describes the conditions there a little bit.  C'mon, I know your curious. :-) Go check it out!  And if you can't help Tori right now, that's ok. Either way, please pray the Lord will raise up her family and give them the boldness and courage to go forth! Please feel free to spread the word.

Oh, by the way, her birthday is October 14th. Wouldn't it be wonderful if she received the gift of a committed family for her birthday? Please pray she does!

Update #2 on Sweet Baby Lyla

I know several of you have been praying for sweet baby Lyla since I posted about her dire medical situation here and here.  Thank you for praying! Sadly, Lyla is still very sick and the doctors don't want to risk surgery at this time, so her family is not able to bring her home right now. :-( They are praying she will improve enough and possibly go back for her in the spring. Her family's journey has been heartbreaking to say the least.

But, they decided that Lyla would not suffer for nothing, so they are forging ahead to adopt another little girl from EE with Down syndrome! What a testimony to God's strength and faithfulness. Their new little girl will be named Isabelle. And the very fun part is that she is from Elijah's orphanage!!! Perhaps we will be in country at the same time. How fun! Of course, the best news is that another precious child will be getting out of his orphanage (more on his orphanage in my next post) and coming home to the forever family she so desperately needs and deserves. Praise God!

Here's Isabelle!!! Isn't she adorable???

You can follow her family's journey here. Please be in prayer for them.