"Sometimes Miracles Come in E-mails"

I borrowed this phrase for the title of this post. I"m not that clever...As I posted below, we are believing for a miracle to get our I-171H approval before the end of Sept.  Well, that prayer was partially answered today...

I have some VERY EXCITING news! I found out today - via email - that our EE country will not be closing November 1st for dossier submissions as we all originally thought. They will remain open until the END of November!  Praise the Lord! This gives us an extra 4 weeks of breathing room. This is HUGE! This means that our chances of having to wait until March/April to travel are greatly diminished. We also wouldn't have to redo several dossier documents if we missed the cut-off. And it saves me a few more gray hairs. :-) They will remain closed for winter break until the end of February. Now, if we were to miss getting submitted before break, ALL of our dossier that is done up to this point would need to be redone (6 month expiration date). I shutter to think about it.

However...please don't stop praying yet.  Elijah is sick and needs to get home ASAP. He spends his days in the infirmary - some days just outside of it - and he is in an orphanage that is very poor and all of the kids are tiny and undernourished. He needs to get outta there. (Well, they all do! Remember Noah - the Angel of the Week? Won't someone please bring him home too?) So, we are still praying for a very quick approval and submission sometime in October and will do all that we can here to make it happen. Also, please pray that our application to the USCIS ends up on the desk of a very quick officer - one with a very special heart for special needs kids. And oh ya, that they approve us too! That's kind of important...

A Busy, Productive Day!

Yesterday was a full, busy day! The highlight of the day was sending off our I-600A application to the USCIS in Texas! Yahoo!!! The home study is complete! PLEASE PRAY for a very QUICK approval. Please pray for the "right" orphan petition officer to receive our file - one that will work quickly and has a "heart". (Unfortunately, approval times seemed to be based on which officer receives the application.) Please pray that once we get our fingerprint appointments that we will be able to go in early w/o any hassles. (We need biometric fingerprinting done in Milwaukee before we are approved.) I've been saying all along that we need a miracle to get this approval in time. Miracles are exactly what God is in the business of doing. We are believing for this miracle! :-)


Let's see...what else? We went to the county sheriff's dept to get our black ink fingerprints done for our state background checks. I'll hopefully get that sent off today. Pat and I both went in together since he was off yesterday in between working shifts. We had all the kids with us of course. I went back first and had a nice chat with the detective about EE and homeschooling and this and that as he was rolling my fingers around on the ink. Then Pat went back. No problems. Please pray for a quick turn around on this one too.

And then finally, since Pat and I were in the same vehicle at the same time during banking hours, we stopped at the bank with our pack of blue pens to get some "easy" dossier documents notarized. We had about 12 of them done. (I think there is about 35-40 total.) These documents are "self generated" - sheets that get attached to copies of our passports, etc. I still need my state-side paperwork helper to check them, but they should be fine. Most of the kids handled all this running around pretty well. Suckers at the bank always help too!

We are moving right along. Praise the Lord! Hang on, Elijah.  Mommy and Daddy will be there as soon as we can...

Grab Our Button!

We have a "button" for our little Elijah! (See right sidebar.) Isn't it beautiful??? A very special lady, Lu, does a TON of computer work for RR and makes these "buttons" for adopting families to share and have others post on their blogs. She did such a great job with ours. It's perfect!  So, if you have a blog, would you please consider posting Elijah's button on your sidebar?  Thank you so much!

If you click on the button itself, it will take you to our RR Family Sponsorship Page. This is where you may make a tax-deductable gift towards bringing Elijah home if you feel led to do so. 100% of the donation goes towards our in-country facilitation and travel expenses.  Thank you!

Angel of the Week

Every week on the RR Blog, an "Angel of the Week" is highlighted. Each of these kids are still in need of a family to call their own.  This week it is sweet little Noah! (See the left sidebar.) He is at the same orphanage as our Elijah. Isn't he cute?  He even looks a little (A LOT) like our Elijah. Please pray Noah finds his forever family soon!

Timeline

I realized that when we started this blog we were already in the swing of things.  I wanted to make sure we were officially committed to Elijah before I started. So, I wanted to back up and explain a few things. Some the timeline is explained on the right sidebar (scroll down a bit). But there is more that's not there.

 

When I first inquired about Aloysha (that's Elijah's name on RR - we are changing it), we weren't able to officially commit to him right away because Andrea (RR Director) needed to get verification that Aloysha was still there (or even existed - yikes!). She said she'd had a hard time getting updates on him. New pictures were coming too! One of her in-country facilitators needed to take the photos and get the updates. Elijah's orphanage isn't very close to where the facilitators live. It might be a little bit. Meanwhile, on Michelle's advice, we got started on our home study. I'm SO glad we did. It went very quickly and would have been even quicker had Pat not been on his mission trip the first 3 weeks of July. Two days before Pat got home, I got the email from Andrea!  Three current photos of our little boy! I was SOOO excited!!! I cried...imagine that...He was just so precious and beautiful. I couldn't believe my eyes. Here are those 3 photos.

  

This bottom one is my favorite!

As my mom said, "You just want to go in there and scoop him up!" I couldn't agree more. We can't wait to do exactly that.

 

As we were getting the paperwork submitted to RR, Andrea informed me that we were in a time of the year that we either needed to go SUPER fast or just get things done w/o a rush.  As it turns out, the branch of Elijah's gov't that accepts the dossiers is closing from November 1st to possibly February 1st!  Yikes!!! That means that our dossier needs to be in the mail the first week of October to allow time for translation. I felt we could get the majority of the dossier done, except for that I-171H approval. They were currently running 2-3 months for approval.  The home study needs to be attached to the I-600A application, which gives us the I-171H. (Are you still with me? :-) The right sidebar has a glossary of terms to help both of us! We are learning right along with everyone else.)  We don't have 3 months...

We needed to PRAY! We needed to decide if we were going to "go for it" on the quick submission or not. While it seems perfectly obvious that we should get him outta there ASAP, we still wanted to be in God's will. There were other factors to consider.  If we are submitted before November 1st, we most likely would travel in December, which is great! But here's a list of other things we needed to think about:

• Pat has ZERO vacation time left this year (remember that mission trip?)
• One or both of us might be traveling over Christmas
• Much less time for fundraising
• Less time to get (and pay for) a different van if we need one.

There were other things that we came up with in our "human-ness", but I can't recall them at the moment.

Anyway, we prayed and knew the Lord wanted us to attempt the quick submission. If we are submitted, He will get ALL of the glory! All of those things on the list above will melt away. If we aren't, He will get ALL of the glory! Maybe that sounds like a cop-out to you, but if we don't make it, God has a reason and even if we can't see it why right away, I believe at some point we will. His plan and timing are always perfect!  As a side note, if we are submitted after February 1st, I'm guessing with the backlog it will be at least April before we get him home. My heart absolutely breaks to even think of that.

So, PLEASE PRAY for God's miraculous hand to work in getting our I-171H approval VERY quickly, as well as smooth sailing for the rest of our dossier. Our application will go in early this week I hope.

To summarize, here's our "hoped for" timeline:

• I-600A application in this week (waiting on final copy of home study)
• Finish dossier documents by mid-September and have them apostilled
• Get biometric fingerprints in Sept which are needed for I-171H approval
• Receive I-171H by the end of September
• Send dossier over to EE first week in October and translation started
• Dossier submitted before November 1st
• Get travel date in November
• Travel in December!

Like I said, this is our "hoped for" timeline. I'm very well aware that any one of these pieces could "hiccup" at any time. We will deal with it if they come up. But I'm also aware that we serve an awesome, powerful Lord that could even accelerate this timeline!  I can't wait to see how He works this all out...

Employer Letter - Check!

We are moving right along in assembling our dossier. Another one of the pieces we need is a letter from Pat's employer stating he has a job, is in good standing and what his salary is. Yesterday in the mail, I received the letter.  It looks GREAT!  Nancy, my most wonderful state-side paperwork helper, approved it and that's one more thing checked of the list. YAY!  And guess what?!? It was right on the first try! Pat's boss's secretary ROCKS!

Interesting thing to note: Since Pat's company is based in Indiana, I need to send this document down to Indianapolis to get apostilled. Each state needs to apostille documents notarized in their own state.  Not a big deal to send it down. The bonus is that Indiana has FREE apostilling! Our state is $10/document.

We have a few more "big" pieces to get yet for "the beast". The homestudy and agency licenses we should have early next week.  Notarized state background checks, mortgage verification and proof of living where we live...I've gotten a start on these, but hope to get them in full swing next week. Of course, the last BIG piece will be the I-171H approval from our gov't. Please continue to pray for God's hand to work a miracle for a quick approval. Thanks!

Medical Forms - Check!

As we work to conquer "The Beast" (the dossier), one of the somewhat bigger pieces to get done are the medical forms.  Pat and I both had to visit a MD for an exam and lots of tests. Our EE country asks that tests are performed for such things as HIV, TB, syphilis, alcohol/drug abuse, and mental illness. Fun stuff...Anyway, the exams and the blood tests were the easy part.  Have I mentioned yet that our EE country is picky...VERY picky on how the paperwork, especially the notary signature and seal is supposed to look? Well, they are! :-) I may mention it again once or twice.

Yesterday, I picked up the medical forms from our doctor's office and my most wonderful state-side RR helper okay'ed them!  Yippeee!!! I will have to say though that it took 3-4 tries, but we got it right. 

The Lord has continued to bless us immensely through the beginning of this process.  One of the ways was to lead us to this new doctor's office.  (Our regular doctor is a D.O., not a M.D.) And guess what?!? This wonderful doctor's nurse is our pastor's wife! How fun is that!?!  (It dawned on me after I found her doc on the website. I'm a little slow sometimes...) Debbie went above and beyond to get these forms done for us - over and over - until they were right. Thanks so much, Debbie! You're the best! She and her husband have been so supportive of us and this adoption since the beginning, and have been faithful prayer warriors for us too.  We are truly blessed!

Where do I start??? Part 2

In my very first post, I shared about how our journey to adopt Elijah was like 2 different paths coming together at the same time. I shared about Path #1 and the mission trip that prepared our hearts for the disabled and forgotten people of Eastern Europe. Path #2 is very different, but is much more directly related to this adoption. 

I couldn't even tell you when I first met Michelle. Sometime before 2005 I know. We were in a direct sales company together (both of us have since retired).  She was always such a joy to be with because of her infectious laugh and always positive attitude! :-) So, life was happening both of us and I heard she was expecting twins!  How fun and cool is that! And 2 girls too! At that time, we had 3 girls and 1 boy at our house, just like she would. But, I didn't see her much while she was pregnant...I guess being pregnant with twins can be a bit tiring. :-) But then the email came in early May of 2007.  Michelle had had her precious girls but one of them didn't make it. She was stillborn.  And the other was doing ok, but was suspected of having Down Syndrome. I cried for her and cried some more. I think I cried for 2 or 3 days. How completely heart breaking. I was crying for her loss -sweet Lydia that was never held alive by her mama or daddy. I knew how painful early miscarriage was - I couldn't imagine the depth of her pain.  And to be honest, I was crying for the Down Syndrome that Ruby had too. See, I didn't know anyone or any families with a child with DS. I had had at least one of my children during my "advanced maternal age" (over 35) and of course, I was warned about the potential risks of DS as I was getting older. If the OBs were telling me that there was risk, it must be "bad", right? So, that was my viewpoint at that time in May of 2007.

I'm so thankful that Michelle started a blog chronicling her family's journey with a child with Down Syndrome. This was my first experience with blogs too.  It was lots of fun!  Michelle was, and continues to be, a great advocate for DS awareness. I would often click over to links she shared or had on her sidebar. I learned things like it is "Down Syndrome" not "Down's Syndrome". I read the story about arriving in Holland instead of Italy (an allegory about having a child with special needs unexpectedly), and whole bunch of other things. And that little Ruby! She was/is so stinkin' cute! I could hardly stand it! I just couldn't stay away. I had to keep coming back to see what she was doing next and another cute photo or video of her.  Over the first couple of years, thanks to Michelle and her diligent blogging and advocacy, my own personal awareness and acceptance of DS was growing a lot. That awareness grew for my own children too. They would often look over my shoulder at the cute photos of Ruby.  Sometimes, they would even ask to see her if I didn't have it up.

I began to feel the Lord was preparing me for a child with DS. At a women's retreat, I remember writing a letter to the Lord that I would surrender everything to Him...that I would let Him have His way with my life, no matter what. (I will fully admit that I took it back many, many times, and still do.) I also remember thinking that this might mean our next child might have DS...and I was OK with that. Three months later, I found out we were expecting our 5th blessing! We were all thrilled! Again, I felt the Lord preparing me.  But Sweet Baby R was born with just two 21st chromosomes, not 3. Things were fine.

When SBR was just a month or so old, Michelle announced on her family blog that they were adopting a very special girl from EE with DS. I was so thrilled for her!  Sweet Lily would never replace Lydia, but she was a twin that was abandoned at the hospital while her "healthy" twin was taken home. It was SO meant to be for them. So, now, I had 2 blogs to follow. Fun! Michelle had mentioned Reece's Rainbow on her family blog earlier in the year, but now I heard all about it. What an awesome ministry RR had in raising awareness about these beautiful, sweet kids that were rejected because they were "genetically enhanced". They needed homes before they were sent away to mental instituitions! And Michelle and Brian were going to bring one of them home! I will fully admit that the thought of adoption for us NEVER crossed my mind at that time. The kids and I followed along on the journey to bring Lily home. When they first met Lily, we would check every morning to see if any new photos were posted of her sweet face.

Sorry, this is getting long...almost there. So, by now, we were very familiar with RR and the work they were doing. In fact, when Lily's adoption process first started, my oldest daughter Sarah, being a new blogger herself, started following the blogs of several RR families...like the one of my now state side paperwork helper! Cool, huh? I remember having a conversation with a friend that had recently adopted two girls from Africa. She said she had always had a heart for adoption and that maybe God was planting seeds in Sarah's heart for this type of adoption someday. Little did I know this spring that the Lord was preparing MY heart too.

Now, I finally am bringing the two paths together for you. (If you are still reading, thank you!) I was looking at the RR website, pouring over all the sweet faces, doing "research" for Pat and Sarah's mission trip. We knew they would be visiting orphanages and possibly see some of these beautiful children in their particular EE country. (RR has kids listed from all over EE and now all over the world!)  Then I saw his picture.  His name was Aloysha. His eyes pierced my soul. The Spirit of God spoke to me and I just knew we needed to bring him home.  I can't explain it any better than that. I would stare into his eyes. And he seemed to have some familiarity about him. I never did put my finger on it, but after we shared his photo with close friends and family, at least 3 of them independently said he looked like he could belong in our family, for whatever reason. Only God could do that. For 3 or 4 days I kept this "conviction" to myself. That first night, I woke up thinking about him. I prayed and prayed.  I asked the Lord to take this away from me if it wasn't from Him. It got stronger and stronger. I would sneak on the computer during the day to gaze into his eyes. I finally shared my heart with Pat. He was surprised at the timing with SBR being so young, but he also shared that he knew adoption would someday be part of our family. He never told me that before!  I asked him to pray about it and together we would discern if this was what the Lord was telling us to do. After what seemed like an eternity a few days, Pat agreed this was the Lord's call on our life. OK, Lord! Here we go!!!!  We are taking a huge leap of faith to bring him home! This is all SO new for us in SO many ways. While I have learned a lot about DS over the past 3 years, I've never parented a child with DS. We've never obviously adopted before. We've never purposely cleaned out our savings account before. So many unknowns, but so many opportunites for God to reveal Himself to us. God is FAITHFUL! To Him be all the glory, honor and praise! This is going to be the ride of our lives! Care to tag along? :-)

Home Study is almost done!

The home study is a big piece of getting things moving along in the adoption process. Our most awesome social worker, Amanda, sent us the draft of our home study yesterday! She is "speedy quick"! It looks great to me, besides a few misspellings of our last name. She certainly isn't the first one to do that.  Just imagine, our whole lives summed up in just 10 pages. :-) And we were humbled to see some of the comments that our 5 references submitted to her. You guys are the best! We really appreciate your help in getting the forms turned in and for your honest comments. We couldn't have done it without you!

Today, my state-side paperwork helper/approver will read through it from the viewpoint of what EE wants to see in it, as well as the USCIS (U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services). I'll send in the last half of our home study fee and we'll get notarized copies of the home study. We'll use them to send in our application to USCIS to get approval to bring an adopted child back into the States. (That's kind of important!)  We also need to send a copy in with our dossier to EE. So, things are moving along nicely. Praise God!

Handiwork for Elijah

My very talented 12 year old daughter is an awesome crocheter and sewer. She LOVES to crochet and her crocheting skills surpassed mine awhile ago. About a year ago, she started her own crocheting business and has been fairly successful. She sells mostly crocheted items for the kitchen and some other fun items. Sarah also has a tremendous heart for missions and for the Reece's Rainbow angels. She has been following several RR adoption blogs for many months. She was absolutely thrilled when we told the kids were adopting Elijah!

Last week, she asked if she could start a 3rd blog. Yes, I know...how many 12 yo girls have 3 blogs? But she has done very well with her other blogs and has greatly increased her writing and computer skills. (Since we home school, we counted it as Language Arts while her teacher was on maternity leave last fall. LOL) So, why not? Anyway, on her 3rd blog she is selling beautiful handmade items to raise money for Elijah's adoption expenses! This was all her idea!  Yes, the Lord has blessed me with a very generous, talented, and dedicated daughter. So, please feel free to check it out! She'll be adding items all the time and will take custom orders. 100% of the sales of these items goes towards bringing Elijah home!

http://www.handiworkforelijah.blogspot.com/

Thanks for looking! :-)