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
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."
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".
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!
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.
...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!?!
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.
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)!
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!
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!
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.
