Crazy idea to ask the rich for money...

I got to thinking about all the super rich people in this world and how they have everything they could ever need or want and then some.  Then I thought I bet some of them are willing to donate and share their money to help others in need.  So I did some research on the internet last night and found an article listing the top 15 billionaires in the US who like to donate and help others.  After careful examination of this list, I picked 4 people and am going to write them a letter.  Now I know this sounds pretty far fetched and I probably won't hear back from anyone, but hey its worth a shot.  If some super rich person wants to toss a few bucks our way to help us with this adoption we would be truly grateful and so would our baby girl!!

I just got back from sending a federal express package with all of our documents to get them apostilled in Austin.  Then next week they will be sent to another family who are headed to Eastern Europe for their adoption and are going to hand deliver our package.

We are getting closer, no we just continue to wait for those FBI background checks and we are done!  Hold on baby girl we love you so much and we are coming as fast as we can!

Update and cute story to share...

FBI fingerprints were delivered Monday and they are working on background checks.  All documents have been signed and notarized and our health forms are getting signed today by our doctor.  Next week I will send all of our documents down to my niece in Austin to be apostilled.  Looks like we are on track for submission in Eastern Europe by the end of January.

Our children are so kind and loving and they have learned so much about orphans and what it means to not have a Daddy and Mommy like they do.  I am filled with joy when I seen my little ones playing with their dolls and they come to me and show me all of their babies that they have taken out of orphanages and gave a loving family to.  It also fills my heart when they say bedtime prayers and they pray for our new little blessing Maureen and they pray for all the other children in the orphanages.  They always ask God to put his arms around them and let them feel love from someone.  It always brings  tear to my eye.  I am blessed to have such beautiful kind children who care for others so much.  God bless everyone and have a very Merry Christmas!

Progress update

We have been working the past couple of weeks on documents needed for the Eastern Europe officials.  Our SW was so gracious and kind to offer our update for free (so we saved money there)!!  It took four attempts to get the home study paperwork exactly the way it needs to be for our Team in Eastern Europe and she mailed it yesterday, so we should have it in a few days.

Today we go for fingerprinting for our FBI background checks. We don't live in a State that offers them via electronically, but I found a company that can process our fingerprint cards within 10 days, which is much better than sending directly to FBI and waiting 7-9 weeks.  Once we get them back I found another company in Washington DC who will take them over to the Secretary of State's office and have them authenticated.  I am guesstimating this whole process to be about a 3 week turn around.  Which is the only thing that will take this long.

I have printed all the forms that we need to sign in front of a notary and our notary is coming to our house tomorrow morning so we can finish that part.

I have a call into our doctor to see if he will sign an updated health form without making us redo all the physicals and blood work, since it has been less than a year when we did it last.

So Monday I am sending a package to my niece with the majority of the papers we need to have apostilled.  She will hand carry them and return them to us.  Hurray we will be about 90% finished at this point.

Our goal is to have our completed dossier by the middle of January, so we can be submitted by the end of January.  This will put us travelling anywhere from the middle of March to the end of March.  Means we could have our precious angel home by the end of May.

Please continue to pray that our journey continues stress free and smoothly and we thank you for your support!

Kids visit Santa and Mrs. Claus!

We took our girls to visit Santa and Mrs. Claus.  Arielle did not mind sitting in Mrs. Claus' lap at all, as long as she had the bells to play with.  Natalie and Carissa were a bit timid and stood with Santa, at least Carissa did not scream and cry like last year!!  Natalie told Santa what she wanted and Carissa was afraid to speak to him, I did however get some pretty good pictures.

This week we are focusing on getting ready for Christmas while we print and sign documents for our Dossier for Eastern Europe.  Every night at bedtime Natalie prays for baby Maureen to be safe and feel loved until we can arrive to bring her home.  We cannot wait until she is home and next Christmas have four girls sitting in Santa and Mrs. Claus' lap!!

What a beautiful Christmas this will be!!!

First of all an update on Arielle.  This amazing and beautiful little girl is the light of our lives.  She brings so much joy to each of us everyday and we could not imagine life without her.  We came home in August 2014 weighing a mere 12 pounds at 11 months old.  She had open heart surgery in October, 2014.  It was a tough time for us, but this precious baby girl is such a fighter and did an awesome job with recovery.  Since fixing her heart, her little body is growing like crazy to catch up, she currently weighs around 18 pounds and she is 15 months old.  She has grown so much since surgery and she is moving all over the place.  She can sit up now and is trying so hard to crawl, but she is not quite there yet.  Her surgery made all the difference in the world.  Her heart surgeon who is world renown for pediatric heart surgery, said she would not have made it much longer in Eastern Europe without this surgery, he said it was that bad.  Here she is now:

Today my husband and I made a decision that we will go back to Eastern Europe and adopt another beautiful baby girl with Down syndrome. But this is not just any baby girl, you see when we started this adventure a year ago, we had selected a baby girl named "Maureen."  We were so excited that she was going to become a part of our family and everyday we looked at her picture and imagined what it would be like once she arrived.  Then right before our travel to Eastern Europe, our hearts were ripped out of our chest when we found out Maureen could not be adopted.  Her legal paperwork was a mess and she was not legally available.  We mourned her loss for a while, then we found our new baby girl Arielle, whom is home with us now safe and sound.  She is a blessing to us everyday and we love her so much.  You just cannot imagine the joy she has brought to our family.

We found out a few weeks ago that Maureen was cleared legally for adoption.  That was the start of the praying and thinking process.  We could not handle the thought of her being left behind and we spent a lot of time discussing and deciding if we could handle two the same age, twin girls!!  We already have a 6 and 3 year old and then we would have twin girls.  It was an easy decision on whether or not we could handle having four girls, with two the same age, it was the logistics we had to pray about.  Our first thought was we already went over there, we already spent a ton of money, how could we possibly go back and get our baby that was meant for us from the beginning?  Lots of praying has gone into this decision and God has already opened some doors for us to start the process again.  You see He has provided us with the USCIS approval needed for this second child, so no money or time will be spent in that area, He provided us a discount on our adoption legal fees in Eastern Europe, He provided us a kind, loving and caring social worker who has agreed to update our HS for free and He has provided us with a very special family,whom we met while they were adopting a baby girl from Eastern Europe.  We have never officially met in person, only through FB and messages, but that have become very special to us and now they are offering to help us work towards obtaining donations and hosting fund raisers!!  Wow, He is moving in this adoption already and now we will trust in Him to finish finding the financing we need to go and get her.  As of right now, we are winging this and hoping He provides by the time we will travel in March.  We strongly believe God wants us to bring her home.  The region she is located in is OK for the younger children like Maureen, but upon transfer at the age of 4, the institution she will be moved to is horrible and her fate is a guaranteed death.

Stay tuned as we work through the process and paperwork to bring her home where she belongs.

In Kiev.....

We traveled by train yesterday to Kiev, arrived safe and sound.  It was a long ride with three little ones and a full train, but all went well.  We settled into our new apartment and today we had our first Embassy appointment then Arielle had her medical exam.  Her passport arrived in Kharkov today and is being sent here to Kiev on the overnight train.  It gets picked up in the morning and then we head back to the medical clinic to pick up our report, then back to the embassy to finish our documents and get her visa. One more day and then we leave for the USA!  We are ready to go home.  The kids miss their stuff and I miss my bed.  We all miss hubby and daddy.

Exciting couple of days....

Wednesday came and was extremely hot here, the girls and I piled into Tatyana's car and off we went. We started at the birth registry office.  It took about an hour to get the new birth certificate issued, then straight to the orphanage we went. That took about 45 minutes and we left with Arielle. Then off to get the tax ID number issued, why I don't know but you have to get it to get a Ukraine passport. After that to the passport office we went. Probably an hour spent there, it was hot with a lot of people in there. Luckily for us Tatyana knew people in every office we went to, she called upon our arrival and when we went in we always went straight into someone's office to do our thing.  Then Thursday we went to the bank and closed Arielle's bank account and went to the orphanage to donate the money.  Now one last thing, tomorrow we have to get Arielle's pictures taken for the US Embassy. Then we get on a train Sunday and travel 4.5 hours back to Kiev.  Monday morning at 9:00 is our first embassy appointment. Then Tuesday morning we will have our second appointment and get our visa (hopefully that is not delayed.) Wednesday we have flights booked and paid back to the US!! We are ready to go home, we have been here since June 24th and. I want to go home.  I like vacations and such, but not this long!

On another note, Arielle has been running fever and is congested.  I have infant Tylenol which I am giving along with cool baths, but we need to hurry home to her doctors appointment.

Please pray we will not get delayed with the visa on Tuesday.  The lady couple of weeks have caused thousands of delays because the computer in DC crashed and they could not get t
Visa printed.  Supposedly it's fixed praying!

The time is finally here.....

Tomorrow morning we get Arielle's new birth certificate and then to the orphanage to pick her up. After we pick her up we have a day full of errands, passport office, tax office, bank and notary. It will take about six hours to finish. Then we will be in our temporary home for a few days while we wait for the passport to be issued.  Hopefully, it shows up Monday like it's supposed to.  We leave Sunday on the express train and travel 4.5 hours back to Kiev. Monday morning is our first embassy appointment and the medical exam for Arielle.  Tuesday is our second embassy appointment and hopefully we get her visa. Please keep praying for the visa situation.  There are families still stuck here waiting for visas and they are delayed because our Government cannot fix a computer problem.  As big as our Government is, they should have been able to completely restore the computer by now, it's been 11 days now.  Keep us in your thoughts and prayers, we are ready to be home!

Arielle coming home!!!

Just a few more days and I pick up Arielle from the orphanage and go finish legal paperwork and apply for her passport. Lucky for us we are in a quick region that issues passports on the third business day. But please pray for the situation with the US government, the computer in the immigration and visa department crashed, they have not been able to issue visa for over a week now.  There are several families stuck here and cannot get out of country until this is resolved. We won't be asking for a visa for another week, but I don't want to get stuck here like these other families. Let's all pray this situation gets resolved quickly! Our budget is very tight and I don't have extra money for rent and food if we get stuck passed our original exit date.  We are currently supposed to leave Thursday August 7th.  Our sweet baby girl is so precious, we love her so much! God is so good, he sent us to this angel and now our hearts are forever changed!

All is good here...

We have received a lot of calls, texts and FB messages about the airplane that was shot down here in Ukraine. All is good here, we are located in Kharkiv, which is about 4 hours North of the area Russia has occupied and where the plane was shot down. The town we are in is beautiful, clean, peaceful and a lot of fun for our kids and family.  Shawn arrived backed into Country late Thursday night, we had Court yesterday and then spent the day at Gorky Park with another family we met here a few weeks ago.  Yes I can now say the location, because we had Court and Arielle Grace is officially and legally ours.  We cannot pick her up and start the process to leave the country until July 29th, but she is ours. Please pray for this Country, these wonderful people here don't want Russia taking them over, they just want to live in peace like every other Country, also pray for these beautiful babies and kids that are stuck in those regions being occupied by Russia, they cannot be adopted until Russia leaves.  I know one family in particular that are waiting to pick up their precious little boy and girl siblings and we pray daily for them to be able to get access to them very soon.  God is good and I know he is watching over them, please pray!!

Love my family!!!

I am so lucky my family is so caring, loving and giving to everyone. I cannot say the same for my husbands family. His parents are filled with hate. They are attacking my husband, trying to convince him to divorce me and leave his family behind. It is so sad that after ten years of marriage they are still attacking him and our marriage. Immediately upon his return to the States last weekend they marched straight over to our home and proceeding to show him some information from twenty years ago in my past, something minor that neither of us care about. But to them it was another way to try and convince him being married to me was a mistake. After all they said they are looking out for his best interest. Since when, they have never cared about their kids their whole life, why now? When that did not work, they came back yesterday and started yet another argument with him, bringing up information about my grown adult kids and things they are doing in their lives. Geez, let it go already, my husband is not going to divorce me, he is not going to choose his parents over me and his kids. All this because we are adopting this beautiful precious angel and they are against it. It does not surprise me because they are not grandparents to our other children anyways, they are filled with such hate. Please pray for them, anyone who can be so hateful and vindictive needs massive prayer. Also pray for my husband who is being attacked by his parents almost daily over this situation. He needs strength to deal with them and only God can give it to him. Love you baby, hang in there, you will be back here in three days and won't have to listen to them.

On an awesome positive note, we have Court either Friday the 18th or Monday the 21st. We will know more by Thursday, so Shawn will be returning in a few days. We are almost to the end and will be bringing our angel baby home.

We have met our angel!

We have been in country for one week and three days. We met our beautiful angel five days ago and accepted her referral. Shawn left this morning early to go home and will return for Court in a couple of weeks. The girls and I are here visiting the orphanage everyday and hanging out.  It is cheaper for us to stay here the whole time, than it is for the airfare for all of us and I won't leave the girls behind. Besides McDonalds happy meals are equivalent to .50 US money, the food here is cheap. I did under budget for in country transportation though, we are going to need an extra $1400 because the orphanage our baby is at cannot be accessed by the Metro, so I have to pay the driver $50 US per day for travel and I was not expecting that.

The first day we met, I was talking to the director and getting all my questions answered and they brought her in, immediately I started crying she is so much more beautiful in person.  What an angel she is. We also met a baby boy that we really wanted to accept referral for, but our finds are way short so we had to so no.  We are barely going to get out of here with one. I wish I could post my pictures here, but cannot until after our court date. I will update as we move through the process.

Thanks and God bless to all who donated!

Thankful for donations received!!

I received a list of all the people who donated to our adoption fund and I want to give a HUGE THANK YOU to all who donated, I am not going to list names because some people may not want it public.  We are very much appreciative of what you have done for us.  Of all the people on the list we only knew one of them, the rest were complete strangers.  God works in wonderful ways, I could not believe that complete strangers donated in the way they did and yet local friends, family, parish members that we attend church with and such, did not donate not one dime.  I will acknowledge my friend Carolyn and Laura who donated outside of the agency fund, as well as a fellow ACTS Team member (not sure if she wants her name mentioned) who donated to me personally, THANK YOU!! The donations we received can pay for items like medical exam and Visa which are required to get our baby out of the country and home with us.  God bless you all!!!!

Finally, travel dates!!!

Last Friday came and went and I was bummed that we did not get a travel date that week, then resigned myself to hope for this week.  Imagine my surprise when we were shopping at Sams on Saturday and I got the phone call telling us our DAP appointment date is Thursday June 26th!!!  So excited and then I cried, it was a repeat from 6 years ago, we were shopping at Costco and I got a call from our surrogate with a positive pregnancy, I was so excited and crying in the store, people thought I was nuts!
Have a lot to do to be ready, already making a pile of things that have to be packed and lists upon lists.  We have vacation bible school this week, so it is making the week go by fast and it is taking up a lot of my time to prepare.  We also have a birthday party this Saturday for Carissa, so more busy things.  But next week I will have all day everyday to pack, make piles, fulfill lists and clean my house.  Still need to find a portable DVD player to take and find a ride to the airport.  Moving right along.
The best part is in about three weeks I will be holding my sweet angel girl and loving on her.

Earned more money!!!!!!

We finally sold one of the three horses we have for sale.  Yes!  I was able to add a good amount of money towards our fund.  Looks like we are half way there!!  Think about buying some Norwex from my FB party online and those proceeds will help as well.  God bless all of you and keep praying for little Arielle.

Another donation and thank you!!!

Checked our Reece's Rainbow family page today and another person donated $100, whoever you are, God will bless you and we thank you from the bottom of our hearts.  When we return from our trip I am going to get a list from RR of the people who donated, so I can send very special thank you's out to all!!!!  Today my online fundraiser starts, if you are interested in purchasing you can do so here:  https://www.facebook.com/events/459834457484698/ when asked your hostess name put Lola Walter and the proceeds will credit to us.  Thank you again for all the help we are getting, we love you, Arielle loves you and so does God.
Still waiting for our trip dates, still praying we leave around the 15th or 16th!!!!!  So much to do in such a short amount of time to prepare.  Trying to figure out how to pack for four people in two suitcases, considering three of those people will be staying five weeks.

Working on funds!

I sold my treadmill and the king size bed we had in our guest room, and I have a few more items out for sale.  Putting all the money I collect in an envelope in our safe and slowly watching it grow.  Been a bit bummed that nobody in our community or even our Church, seems very interested in our adoption or even trying to help raise funds for it, guess I really don't fit in, in our small community.  I was not born here, did not go to school here and am considered a move in, it is hard to fit in to any group here, they are not very welcoming, which is not very Christian like in my opinion.  But God knows who cares and He sees who has a good heart and who is just trying to show themselves off and pretend to be something they are not.  God loves this baby girl and so do we and we are following His commands and taking care of the orphans.  So you can imagine my surprise when a complete stranger, a person from our adoption FB page, messaged me and offered to donate all of her commission to our family fund with Reece's Rainbow if we hosted an online party with the home cleaning products she sells.  I was so excited that someone, was interested in helping us, it takes a very special person and we thank her very much!!!  I hope its not a flop, maybe people will buy if they get something out of the deal.  In the meantime, still waiting for our travel date, which I hope to get next week, but am not holding my breath.  Our appointment should be mid June, but they don't give you much notice, so we probably won't hear until the second week of June and then we will only have one week to prepare.  So I am trying to be as prepared as I can, knowing it is up and coming.

God is totally at work........

I have been depressed and pretty bummed about Maureen and then second guessing if this was our intended route, I keep praying to God to show me a sign, let me know we are following His will and doing as he wants.  Yesterday we were looking at baby bedding on the internet and found a beautiful set, but it was $250 and I need every penny for this adoption, so I put it aside and told Shawn we can buy that later after she is home, we don't need it right away.  Then I started looking on Craigslist for used cribs and such and came across the very same baby bedding, it was listed as brand new never being used, best part $45, but again we were not sure if God really had a little girl for us, so again I decided to wait.  Me being pretty impatient in some areas, did not want to wait because it was such a good deal and I did not want to come home and end up buying the same set new for $250 plus tax and shipping.  First thing this morning I get a message from someone on our facilitation team with pictures of a baby girl, ready and waiting for us.  I started crying immediately when I saw her picture, showed my hubby and we were all excited.  He said go get that baby bedding and I did!!!  All I am buying for now, we will come home from Eastern Europe to no crib, but we will have our precious love!  I saw a small bedside baby bed thing for $50 at Target and thought if all else fails I can go buy it and use it until we can get the bedroom furniture for her room.  Happy days are back, better yet we travel in about 3 weeks!!!!

Change in plans....

We found out that Maureen is not going to be available when we arrive in Country, due to her paperwork not being complete in time.  We have a couple of other baby girls in mind, so hopefully they will be ready to go when we arrive.  With that being said, and it being hard to reach our intended goal for two babies, we will just be going for one, so I adjusted our dollar figure to reflect one child.

Shawn is worried about being away from work so long, so the plan right now is for him to travel with us initially and then come home and wait for our Court date, then travel back and come right back home. The girls and I will remain in Ukraine the whole time.  We will be using credit cards to cover airfare and the money needed is cash we have to hand carry to cover expenses while in Country.

Stressing...

Here I am again stressing over the new law going into effect July 14, 2014.  Our dossier is in-country, waiting to be submitted on Thursday May 8, because May 1 was a holiday.  We will be cutting it very close on this adoption and the new law.  According to the new law, our adoption has to be completed by July 13, 2014 in order that it won't cost us more money and time.  We should be in country the first or second week of June, but then Court can be scheduled two or more weeks out and then after Court there is a ten day wait period before its final.  If I understand the new law correct, if we can have our ten day wait expire prior to July 14th we will be OK, but if not, it will delay everything, and cost us more money, that we don't have.  Please pray that our court date will be scheduled quickly allowing enough time for the ten day wait to expire prior to July 14th.  Lord we know that you are overseeing this adoption and you want those baby girls to come home as quick as possible and not be subjected to a life in an adult mental institution, so we ask that you have mercy on us and on our baby girls, allowing this process to move quickly, placing it on the hearts of all involved to schedule are DAP appt. quick, and schedule our Court date quickly as well,  Lord all things are possible through you and your mighty hands, we trust you and we hand this situation over to you and know you will handle it.  Jesus name we pray, amen.

Donation received!

When I was in Muenster yesterday, I saw a friend who was on the ACTS team with me, and she said come here and opened up her wallet and gave me a cash donation towards our adoption fund.  Thank you so much sweet friend, it was much appreciated!!!!  God will bless you.

Prayers needed!

We just found out there are some Government changes taking place July 14, 2014 that could potentially disrupt and even stop our adoption process.  With this said we are racing a clock, but our Dossier is in Country and due to be submitted this week, and our Team is working for us the best they can and will try to submit us as expedited, with that said it means we could be travelling the first week of June vs. the first week of July.  If this happens it is totally God trying to get our baby girls out of the Country and into our home before they are forever left in an orphanage and then moved to an adult mental institution.  We are still short on funds and now our travel date will be moved up, so we have less time to obtain these funds.  If you are not in a position to donate financially, then we ask that you donate your prayers and share our story with others you know, who might be able to donate.  Please remember all donations are tax deductible.  We are taking three horses to a trainer today or tomorrow to get them evaluated and hopefully sold.  If they bring what the trainer thinks they are worth, and if we can get a buyer quickly, then we will have all of our funds.  Please PRAY that we can get them sold quickly.  Again all of this is up to God now, he will provide if this is the path we are to travel.  Thank you Lord Jesus for bringing these beautiful little girls into our lives and family and Lord we know you will provide.

Trusting God...He has a plan...

Today I am feeling overwhelmed, a lot.  We have sold every available item we have to put towards going to Eastern Europe and bringing home our baby girl and possibly the second baby girl, if God puts her in our path, but we are still short.  I feel like people look at us from the outside and say "gee they live in a nice home, they don't need the money" but reality is, we are like everyone else who lives check to check.  Problem is in our case my husband has his own business and he does not get a check, we have to live on whatever money is available after all his business obligations are met, and these days it does not look good, between Shawn being off work from having his neck/spine surgery and customers not paying their bills we are struggling.  Next week is the first of the month and I am worried because he has no money as of today to contribute to paying our monthly bills.  This has never happened to us before and I believe the devil is attacking us, he knows we are saving to travel and get our babies, he knows this is Gods intention and he is trying to make us have to dip into our adoption fund to meet our bills.  The devil knows we don't have all the funding needed to travel to Eastern Europe and he is attacking my mind as well.  I am a wreck to the point I am having a hard time concentrating on my school work.  My semester is almost over, I have one final test tomorrow in Sociology and its done, then also by tomorrow I have to turn in a six page essay, along with three AB's of one page each, then next week I have an eight page essay due and then I will be finished with my English class.  I am struggling to get my essay written today, I have not even started my AB's, I will do them last, so all the way to Muenster when I went to pick up Natalie, I just prayed to the Lord and left all the finances at His feet, asked Him to put the knowledge and words in my mind to finish my semester and still make a good grade (I currently have an "A" in both classes), and asked Him to open doors where He wants us to go and close doors where He wants us to keep away from.  I still firmly believe He wants this adoption to happen, as I have prayed the whole time that His will be done and every time I have prayed and asked Him to continue to show us a sign or open a door so we know what we are to do, God has opened the door and led us once again towards the adoption.  Then He did it again today, after we got home I checked our FSP on Reece's Rainbow and our donation amount had increased by $240, I was so excited, I don't know who did it, but am so thankful they did and feel like its a start and another sign from God that all will be OK.  God will provide, God wants these precious baby girls to have a good home and be loved.  Thank you Jesus, we lay all our burdens at your feet and trust in your will for us!!

Now we wait, and wait.......

Today our very last document needed for our dossier was apostilled in Austin and is on its way to Houston for a lovely couple traveling to Eastern Europe to hand deliver to our legal team for us.  The paper chase is over, now we just sit and wait for our dossier to be submitted.  We are told it could either be submitted Thursday May 1 or Thursday May 8, after its submitted we wait for travel date, which is running 5-7 weeks after submission.  According to my calculations we should be traveling the last week of June or first week in July and we will have to remain in Country for about a month.  Shawn is trying to work his schedule so there will not be any conflicts for him while we are gone and his business will run smoothly.  I am happy it will be summer time and the weather will be nice, since we will have to walk to restaurants and shopping from our apartment, and we will have Natalie and Carissa with us, so much better all the way around.  Plus no missing school if we travel during the summer months.  Now we just have to get the rest of the money put together some how before we travel.  Please continue to pray that God will provide the finances in time for our travel.

We did it!!!!!!

We took the plunge yesterday, Monday and we drove to Dallas for a walk-in at the USCIS fingerprint center.  There was a security guard at the front desk, showed him our appointment letters for the end of the month and our medical expedite letter from the pediatrician, he was rude and kept telling me we had to call the 1800 number to reschedule if we could not go to the assigned appointment, I said you don't understand we want an early appointment because of the expediting and your Missouri office told us to walk-in, so I took a deep breath and kindly said, please call a person who works here that handles the appointments so we can ask them about taking us early, so he did, and the guy told us to come back in an hour and they could squeeze us in, so we hung out in Dallas a bit and went back and were fingerprinted.  I was finally able to speak to our assigned case officer today and she is printing our approval letter tomorrow and federal expressing it to us, we will have it Thursday morning!!!  Plus the last package of documents were apostilled today in Austin, thanks to my niece who lives there, she was kind enough to drive it to the Secretary of States office and then federal express it to me, so I will receive those tomorrow.  This package will be sent to a couple in Laredo who will be leaving on Saturday for Eastern Europe and they will hand deliver our babies.  Then the USCIS approval letter will be sent to my niece again and she will take it down on Monday and get it back to me by Tuesday and I will federal express to another kind lady from Houston who is leaving next Friday for Eastern Europe, she will hand deliver this last piece of document and it will complete our dossier.  Then we sit and wait for the Eastern Europe Government to approve us and send us a letter to travel.  Supposedly our travel date is anywhere from 5-7 weeks after we are submitted.  So hopefully we will be traveling during the summer, kids will be out of school and we will have great weather, because I understand it gets pretty cold over there in the winter months.

We are still working on the financing and have some deals in process to sell some items of value and hopefully be able to fully fund the adoption, other than running up our credit cards, which we have already been doing.  On another note, my husband spoke to his brother last night about our adopting a special needs child and he was not very positive, as a matter of  fact, he seemed a little bitter.  They have a son with Autism and he said you really need to think about a special needs child because ours has changed our lives forever, we never get to go anywhere as a family and enjoy outings.  We fully plan on carrying on our lives with Arielle just as if she did not have down syndrome, we will still go to church as a family, vacation, camp, swim, go to dinner and hire a babysitter for adult date nights.  We know down syndrome and any other special need will be a challenge, but should never stop your life from being full of fun and enjoyment.

Lord grant me patience and understanding!

This week has not been good. Shawn is in extreme pain and does not seem to be able to get it under control.  I am not sure if its because he is a man, or if its because its the first time he has ever had surgery like this and therefore has never experienced this sort of pain.  Its hard for me to empathize with him because I have had many surgeries over my years and normally within a few days post surgery, all is well and I can function and get rid of pain with pills.  That on top of my classes and the work involved there, I am currently trying to write three annotated bibliographies and a three page essay, all due in a couple of days.  Every time I sit down to devote time to my studies and homework, either Shawn needs something or Carissa is crying for something.  If all else fails, I will stay up all night after everyone is asleep and try to complete my work.

On an adoption note, we received our appointment letter in the mail from USCIS, which is not for another three weeks.  However, I spoke to the supervisor and he told me we could take the letter and try to get a walk in appointment.  He said it depends on how busy they are when you arrive, if they are not too busy they will take us in, if they are too busy they will turn us away.  Now I have to decide if its worth the risk to load up my husband who is in pain, drive 1.5 hours to Dallas and possibly get turned away.  I do have to leave on Sunday and drive down to Austin, spend another night and get my documents apostilled so they can be delivered in Eastern Europe.  This will only leave the USCIS approval letter as our last piece of information to be apostilled and delivered.  If we wait for our appointment, I won't get the approval until the first week of May, if we happen to get fingerprinted earlier, then I can get the letter ahead of time.  Decisions, decisions.  I guess its time for prayer!!!  God will lead us in the right direction on how to handle things.

Taking care of hubby...

Well Shawn had neck surgery a couple of days ago and came home from the hospital yesterday.  All is well with him, he is in the normal amount of pain and discomfort from having surgery, but other than that, his neck is 100% better.  He can actually feel his arm and fingers without any pain.  He is a bit grumpy since coming home because I am trying to make him follow the instructions from the doctor and that was, do no stay in bed, get up and keep moving and sit in a chair, use the bed only for sleeping.  Well since I am not the nurse at the hospital, he will be grumpy with me because he just wants to stay in bed!  I am glad to have his surgery over and get him on the road to healing, I need him 100% for traveling to Eastern Europe for our baby girl or girls I should say.  Yes we are considering a second baby girl and if everything continues as smoothly as they are now, then we will bring her home as well.

I called USCIS to see if they matched our home study up with our application yet and their computer system is down, she said call back in a couple of hours.  I called Texas Department of Public Safety on Monday and somebody had placed our fingerprints to the side and never did anything with them, she was upset and apologized and said they would print the report immediately and put in the mail that day, so I expect to see them today in my mailbox.  Next week we will drive down to Austin and get our documents apostilled and then overnight them to a friend who is leaving for Eastern Europe soon and she will deliver the documents for us.

Today is going to be another excellent day!!!

Our coordinator approved our home study yesterday, our social worker has signed it, notarized it and put it in the overnight mail.  I am expecting Lone Star Overnight to deliver our special papers today!  I am heading to Denton to pick up the letter signed by the pediatrician to get USCIS to expedite our approval, then the home study and letter will go into todays mail to USCIS.  Next step wait for them to schedule a fingerprinting appointment, hopefully very quickly!  Still waiting on DPS to deliver our background checks that were completed two weeks ago, hopefully they arrive today, I expect them any day now. Then the only document left for our dossier to be submitted will be the approval from USCIS.

On a different note, things have been stressful around our house, we are still trying to find all the funds needed for the adoption and Shawn's doctor scheduled him for surgery Monday, so he will be away from work for a while.  Ugh!  It's always something.  He has two crushed vertebrae in his upper spine and has been in severe pain, they did testing and scheduled him immediately after reviewing the results.  More money out of our pocket, so what exactly is insurance for?  I guess next week should go by quickly as far as waiting for the adoption process to run its course, because I will be dealing with his surgery and being in the hospital a couple of days and his recovery.  Hopefully they don't schedule our fingerprints before he can be up and around. Please pray for a quick and successful surgery, as well as a pain free recovery for Shawn.

Happy, happy day!!!

We received the draft of our home study today via email.  It has been reviewed and I sent it over to our coordinator for her approval.  Once approved our social worker will overnight it to us and then I can forward to the US government to get our approval from them.  This is the only piece of information they are waiting for to schedule our fingerprints and approve us.  I also had a very nice conversation with a pediatrician who specializes in international adoption and he is willing to write a letter saying it would benefit the child for the US and Ukraine governments to expedite our process.  Our coordinator said it would help us get a travel date quicker.  I am still hoping to have our dossier submitted to Ukraine no later than May 1st, and all I need to do that is my approval letter from the US government.  I am happy and excited the process seems to be back in motion once again!

Waiting patiently.....

I believe the hardest part of this journey is waiting on other people to do their part of the process.  I am the type of person who takes charge and accomplishes tasks right away, I do not procrastinate.  This week I pray everyday for God to give me the patience to sit back and wait while our social worker types up our home study and emails it to us for review.  I find myself checking email constantly throughout the day, hoping to find The email.  It is one of the last pieces of information to get approval from the US Government and then send to Eastern Europe for travel to meet our baby girl.  We should be receiving our original background checks from DPS this week and the home study and then I will feel like we are back into motion instead of sitting still and waiting.

We pray together everyday as a family and ask God to continue to take the lead on this journey, as it was Him who brought us here to begin with.  We pray for our baby girl that she will be kept safe and feel some sort of love until we can get her.  Our little Natalie is so excited to get another baby sister, she picked her name and every night at bedtime she asks God to watch over her and help us bring her home.  We have been selling items of value in order to get enough funding to accomplish this task, but we are a bit short and are asking anyone who feels lead to help us bring our baby girl home, to donate directly to our agency by clicking on the button on our blog and it will take you to a donate page.  If you cannot afford to donate anything, perhaps you will feel lead to sign up on the Reece's Rainbow website as a prayer warrior and pray for all the children who are in need of homes.  I pray that God blesses each and everyone of you reading my blog.

Another busy and exciting week....

We got our tax returns notarized and our medical clearance forms, then I traveled yesterday down to Austin, stayed the night and was in the Secretary of States office at 8:00 this morning.  I was able to get all the documents apostilled that I carried with me, and I stopped in Belton on my way home and picked up a copy of another document needed by the Department of Homeland Security.  I arrived home around 2:30, stopped at the post office and sent 8 documents off to another couple that are traveling to Ukraine on Monday, they are going to hand carry and deliver for us.  Plus we completed our second set of fingerprints yesterday.  Now I have to focus on my school work, I have to finish reading a chapter for Sociology and take a test, then read several chapters for English and write a report, all before Sunday.  We are expecting our home study report to be completed and a draft sent to use by Monday or Tuesday next week, once finalized a copy goes off to the Department of Homeland Security and they will approve our application and our approved package will go to Ukraine.  It is looking like we may travel earlier than Sept/Oct, possibly July, which works out much better for school purposes.

What a day....

Today started with me seeing my doctor and ordering labs so he can sign the health form. That was a 2 hour visit, mostly waiting on him to show up.  Then off to the lab, only to have to wait again because the doctors office did not send over the request.  Then off to the County Appraisers office to pick up the letter he signed, only to have to get another signed because the notary stamped her seal over some letters on the paper and that is a no no. But the good things are, letter from County Appraiser approved from my coordinator.  Now I am putting together a stack of documents that need to be apostilled in Austin.  My plan is to travel down there Tuesday night and be in the office at 8:00 am when they open.  I am going to try and have as many of our documents ready and with me as I can.  And I received an email today from USCIS saying they received our application and assigned it a number and will start working on it.  Yeah, now will have to wait for a letter from them telling us to come and do fingerprinting.  We already have fingerprinting tomorrow morning for the other country, then we will have to fingerprint for our social worker and again for the US government.  You would think they could all get together and share one set of fingerprints.  The process is moving along smoothly, a few bumps but nothing major.  The quicker we can get all documents completed the quicker we can travel to get our baby girl.  Keep praying and visit our family page on Reece's Rainbow at http://reecesrainbow.org/sponsorwalter

Start of Second Week......

This week started with having 22 pages of documents notarized for the Country where our baby girl is located, only to get home and find the notary made a mistake in her dates.  This meant having to reprint and resign and re-notarize because you cannot have any cross outs, changes, white outs anything, they have to be perfect.  Well that is behind us, now we have fingerprint appointments and doctors appointments this week and our social worker will be here Sunday for the home study, we also signed up for our required adoption classes online.  Things are moving along really quick, and we are getting excited as each day passes and we accomplish another task on the list.  Next week should bring a trip to Austin to have documents Apostilled, but we shall see..

March 17, 2014 moved from old blog

First week down…

MARCH 17, 2014GODSHANDONUSLEAVE A COMMENTEDIT

Last week was a busy week starting with commitment to our baby girl, hiring a social worker to complete our home study, paying fees to Reece’s Rainbow, communicating with our facilitation team in Ukraine and starting all of their paperwork, compiling lots of copies of documents for our social worker, filling out the really long autobiography for both Shawn and I, dropping off medical forms to our pediatrician for the our little ones, and ending the week with a TB test on both of us.  Now today starts just as busy, mailing off our I600A to the US Department of Homeland Security, getting certified copies of our marriage certificate, having our TB test read and picking up the medical form on both of us.  We are praying hard every day that the Lord watches over our baby girl and keeps her safe. With all the turmoil taking place in Ukraine, we pray she is in a safe area and will not be affected by the outcome, for if she is, she will forever remain in Ukraine.  We are also praying for God to watch over and protect all those precious kids that are in Crimea and will be affected by this outcome.  We are still waiting for Reece’s Rainbow to complete our family profile page so people can donate directly to them for our adoption.  Please pray for our family and all the kids in Ukraine.

March 16, 2014 moved post from old blog here

Submitting to Gods will for us

MARCH 16, 2014GODSHANDONUSLEAVE A COMMENTEDIT

When we begin an adoption journey we submit ourselves to a process, which enables us to bring the child home. We submit ourselves to someone else’s opinion because we have to have a home study created by someone else who judges our motives, our character and our means. We submit ourselves to God’s will for our lives even when others would deem us irrational. Yet we submit. God does not call us to become part of the crowd. He does not ask us to go with the flow. He asks us to submit to His calling on our lives whether it makes sense or not. Noah building an ark on dry land made no sense yet he submitted. Abraham sacrificing his only son made no sense, yet he submitted. Mary, was chosen to be the mother of Christ which she must have known would submit her to others ridicule, yet she submitted when she said “be it unto me according to Your will.” She submitted. And so do we. God gives us strength to continue to submit to His will even when it’s not easy. Proverbs 3:5-6 says: 5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; 6 in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight. Shawn and I are submitting to Gods will with the adoption of our new baby girl, He placed her in our hearts and life, He has already provided some of the financing and we are trusting in Him to provide the rest as we submit to His will for us.