We received a letter from the LifeSong for Orphans organization yesterday stating that we did not get approved for the grant we applied for. I was a little down about it yesterday as I was really praying and hoping to get accepted. I know that God has His hands in this all and will provide for us but with us now traveling sooner than expected, I am worried that we will not have the finances needed to travel. We have been thinking of some new fundraisers such as a raffle that we hope to get in the works soon.
A praise right now is the success of my back surgery. It was done on April 26th and I am finally starting to feel more like myself. Today for mother's day I was able to be up and walking around. Tomorrow is my follow-up appointment and I am hoping the doctor will release me to be able to drive again! Thank You all for your prayers.
We are still waiting on our approval letter from the USCIS and once we receive that, we can send all of our documents to the Ukraine. I have already scanned them all and sent them via email to our contact in the Ukraine and everything looked perfect! She will be traveling to an orphanage this week and hopes to take pictures of a couple girls available for adoption to send back to us. That is exciting! Another praise is that the SDA in Ukraine was expected to close for the summer to move to a new building and now they have postponed it to a later date so that is good news for us to be able to travel sooner.
Prayer requests right now are for our financial needs to be met and paper work to be completed as soon as possible!
Family of Five!
Sunday, May 8, 2011
Thursday, April 21, 2011
We had our second "Gold Party" fundraiser yesterday! From both parties, we were able to raise a total of $650!! Thank You to everyone that brought their gold and sold it so that we could make commission on your sale! If anyone is interested in having your own party and make your own commission...Trinity Metals is a great company to work with and they will come to your home and buy you and your friends jewelry for top money and you make the commission! Just let me know and I will give you the information. If you book a party and use our name....we will get $50 to go towards our adoption.
Shawn and I went to the US Immigration Building today to get our fingerprints done! This is our last thing we needed before our approval from the government. Once we get the approval letter, we can send over our whole package of documents and get a date for travel to pick up our daughter!
Please pray that God will continue to provide for us financially since now we will be traveling sooner which means less time to fund raise. Also, Allison has her back surgery on Tuesday, April 26th so please keep her in your prayers as well.
Shawn and I went to the US Immigration Building today to get our fingerprints done! This is our last thing we needed before our approval from the government. Once we get the approval letter, we can send over our whole package of documents and get a date for travel to pick up our daughter!
Please pray that God will continue to provide for us financially since now we will be traveling sooner which means less time to fund raise. Also, Allison has her back surgery on Tuesday, April 26th so please keep her in your prayers as well.
Wednesday, April 13, 2011
Update!
Okay, so I am not the best at updating this blog....I know so many of you have been asking so here is where we are at now. If you think I have been a slacker in updating...just wait because in 2 weeks I have my back surgery and it may get worse!!
Our first set of documents were sent to the Ukraine last week and they received them on Friday. I spoke with our contact in the Ukraine and she will be delivering them tomorrow (Thursday) to get our dossier date (the date our whole application needs to be submitted). She already knows that it should be in October but that we wouldn't be able to travel until late November, early December. I really don't like that time line since that is during so many birthdays and Christmas but it will be fine. Shawn and I have been praying about things and made our decision last night that we are going to change our age bracket to 6-8 so we can travel sooner and since there is a bigger need for adoptive families for that age group. We will have to update our home study and go from there!
The next update is with our fund-raising. I was able to complete the grant application for Life Song for Orphans matching funds grant and sent that last week. We did receive a confirmation email from them that they received our application and were starting their process. Please pray for us that we get chosen so that we can get help in raising more money to bring our princess home! They said it could take up to 8 weeks for the process to be complete.
Our documents to USCIS were also sent and received last week. I was hoping that we could get our fingerprinting dates before my surgery but it doesn't look like that will work out.
So I think that is about it....our prayer requests right now are for Allison's surgery on April 26th, our USCIS documents to be processed and approved as soon as possible, and that we get accepted for the Life Song for Orphans Fund-raising Grant!
Our first set of documents were sent to the Ukraine last week and they received them on Friday. I spoke with our contact in the Ukraine and she will be delivering them tomorrow (Thursday) to get our dossier date (the date our whole application needs to be submitted). She already knows that it should be in October but that we wouldn't be able to travel until late November, early December. I really don't like that time line since that is during so many birthdays and Christmas but it will be fine. Shawn and I have been praying about things and made our decision last night that we are going to change our age bracket to 6-8 so we can travel sooner and since there is a bigger need for adoptive families for that age group. We will have to update our home study and go from there!
The next update is with our fund-raising. I was able to complete the grant application for Life Song for Orphans matching funds grant and sent that last week. We did receive a confirmation email from them that they received our application and were starting their process. Please pray for us that we get chosen so that we can get help in raising more money to bring our princess home! They said it could take up to 8 weeks for the process to be complete.
Our documents to USCIS were also sent and received last week. I was hoping that we could get our fingerprinting dates before my surgery but it doesn't look like that will work out.
So I think that is about it....our prayer requests right now are for Allison's surgery on April 26th, our USCIS documents to be processed and approved as soon as possible, and that we get accepted for the Life Song for Orphans Fund-raising Grant!
Monday, April 4, 2011
So we had our first fundraiser on Saturday. We had a yard sale and started to sell all of our baby items. It was emotional as I saw some of my favorite outfits go but I know its for a good cause! We made $330 during the sale and I had sold some stuff during the week for a total of $420!! Yay! This Thursday I am having another fundraiser. I am having a Gold Party where people can bring their unwanted gold and sell it for cash. Then the company will give me a percentage of what they buy to go towards our adoption. I hope a lot of people come!
Also on Saturday we received our home study reports! This morning I went to the post office and over-nighted some of our paper work to Tallahassee to be apostilled to then be able to send to the Ukraine. This paper work, once sent to the Ukraine, will give us a date to send our whole packet over to be approved to adopt. I also then over-nighted our paper work to the USCIS to be approved through them. Lets hope they don't take the normal 8 weeks to finish our paper work so that we can be fingerprinted as soon as possible.
Today my goal was to finish the paper work for the LifeSong grant I am applying for. I finished most of it and hope that tomorrow I can put it in the mail. If approved, LifeSong will match our funds that we raise up to a certain amount. That would be a huge help for us if we get picked. Pray that they see our financial needs and will help us meet them!
Also on Saturday we received our home study reports! This morning I went to the post office and over-nighted some of our paper work to Tallahassee to be apostilled to then be able to send to the Ukraine. This paper work, once sent to the Ukraine, will give us a date to send our whole packet over to be approved to adopt. I also then over-nighted our paper work to the USCIS to be approved through them. Lets hope they don't take the normal 8 weeks to finish our paper work so that we can be fingerprinted as soon as possible.
Today my goal was to finish the paper work for the LifeSong grant I am applying for. I finished most of it and hope that tomorrow I can put it in the mail. If approved, LifeSong will match our funds that we raise up to a certain amount. That would be a huge help for us if we get picked. Pray that they see our financial needs and will help us meet them!
Friday, April 1, 2011
So tomorrow is our first fundraiser. We are having a yard sale to sell all of our baby clothes and baby items. It has been a sad week going through everything and remembering the times we had with our boys when they were so little. Seeing all their baby clothes and how little they all are makes me sad to think how time has gone by so fast. I just hope that time goes by fast until we bring home our daughter and then let it go by slow so we can treasure every moment from then on with her!
Our home study report was finished and we should be receiving the actually document tomorrow as well. On Monday I can then send it to Tallahassee to get apostilled to then be able to send it to Ukraine to get a date for our dossier to be sent over. I am so thankful that everything seems to be going smoothly.
Our home study report was finished and we should be receiving the actually document tomorrow as well. On Monday I can then send it to Tallahassee to get apostilled to then be able to send it to Ukraine to get a date for our dossier to be sent over. I am so thankful that everything seems to be going smoothly.
Sunday, March 20, 2011
A sweet story...
Last week we were at a pig roast down in the keys with some family from out of town. During the event, they were giving away prizes and Ethan won one and got to go pick something out. When he got back, we opened it up and it was (or we thought it was at first) an Asian style dress for a baby doll. Right away we said...we should give this to your cousin Libby because she is from Cambodia and she would love this for her dolls. Right away Ethan put his head down and started to get upset. We asked him what was wrong and he said "Mommy, this is my prize and I wanted to give it to my new big sister". Wow....this is from my 4 year old, isn't he so sweet. I just wanted to sit there and cry happy tears. I was so proud of him. Now everyone we talk to, Ethan will go up to me and say "Mommy, did you tell them that I am getting a big sister?"
Another great story that I forgot to post in the beginning is that for Valentines Day, my wonderful husband surprised me with a beautiful batch of sunflowers because he knows that sunflowers are my favorite and I prefer them over any other type of flowers! So on the day that the Hill family (the family guiding us through this process) came over, we had sunflowers on our table. Right away, Becca tells me that sunflowers is the national flower for Ukraine and there are fields of them all over the country. Isn't that breath taking? I got chills all over my body. I had never known this. Any one who knows me knows that I have always LOVED sunflowers and even used them for decorations all over my college dorm!! It just shows another sign from God that this is His plan for us. I can't wait to go and see the fields of sunflowers. I just might make our first family pictures with our daughter in a field of sunflowers!!
Another great story that I forgot to post in the beginning is that for Valentines Day, my wonderful husband surprised me with a beautiful batch of sunflowers because he knows that sunflowers are my favorite and I prefer them over any other type of flowers! So on the day that the Hill family (the family guiding us through this process) came over, we had sunflowers on our table. Right away, Becca tells me that sunflowers is the national flower for Ukraine and there are fields of them all over the country. Isn't that breath taking? I got chills all over my body. I had never known this. Any one who knows me knows that I have always LOVED sunflowers and even used them for decorations all over my college dorm!! It just shows another sign from God that this is His plan for us. I can't wait to go and see the fields of sunflowers. I just might make our first family pictures with our daughter in a field of sunflowers!!
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
Getting excited!
So I was at Target today and walked by the little girl section. I stood there and wondered, should I go and look through the clothes or just walk by? I decided to look through and I was so happy I did. I started to picture our little girl in the clothes and noticed tears coming down my face. I am so thankful for God giving us this opportunity to bring a child of so much in need of a loving family to us! What a blessing we are going to get from all of this. I am beyond excited! At the same time we received a letter from our agency letting us know that if we request only a 6-8 year old, we can travel very soon. But if we request 0-16 (which is what our paper work has), we can't travel till October. Shawn and I sat and prayed about it and have decided to keep our request somewhat the same but change it to 4-16 years old to show that we are okay with an older child and don't need a younger one. Waiting a couple extra months will be worth the extra years we get to spend with our daughter!
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