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!
Tuesday, December 30, 2014
Tuesday, December 23, 2014
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!
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!
Friday, December 19, 2014
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!
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!
Tuesday, December 16, 2014
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!!
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!!
Monday, December 8, 2014
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.
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.
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