Money Math

  Now that we are starting the home stretch of the adoption I have started thinking about then upcoming cost. At this point we have used our tax refund this year and personal savings to pay for all the cost regarding the adoption. Our friends have donated items and/or bought from our fundraising campaigns such as Mary Kay and 31. We have raised $1,500 through those efforts, we have put in a little over $6,490 in fees (HS, vital records, apostille, mailing cost) Our little Nehemiah (Dane) had a grant for $4,000 donated to him prior to us committing to him. So that all totals to...$11,900. We need $18,100 to reach our goal of $30,000. We are hoping that our final cost will be under that total but that will depend on time in country and travel fees. Our known big cost coming up is facilitation fees we need $12,500 our Eastern Europe team when we get there. The rest of the cost are flights ~$3,000 (hopefully) $430 for childrens' embassy medicals, $460 for childrens' visas, $720 for immigration fees, and ~$2,000 for expedited passports. Total= $19,110 which doesn't include our logging and food for the time we are in country so I don't think that $30,000 is far off our total need. From what we have figured we need about $20,000 at this point to finish the adoption. Now some fun math!! that is only 200 people giving $100!! 40 people giving $500 (which two of our donors have given this amount!:) 20 people giving $1,000!! 100 people giving $200. When I think about it that way it seems so simple and doable. I know 100 people.
   I do want to also add that I have read in many places about how adoption will tell you who your true friends are. I am so very happy to say all our friends have come around us and supported us in so many ways. The two families that have donated monetarily are families that are "like us" young families with their own children to care for. These dear friends felt their donation, and knowing their sacrifice just shines God's love. We hopefully will be travelling in 3-4 months. Please pray for us to be placed with an USCIS officer so our application can be processed and for our fundraising efforts to be fruitful!

Our God is AWESOME!

  Our HS agency just called and our clearances were done today! God did send His angel armies to Richmond today!! I am an emotional disaster! We can now officially finalize our HS and send it off to immigration and finish this paperwork! Thank you for praying and to God be the glory!

The God of angel armies is on my side!

   This clearance thing has been so very hard for me, I pray and try to give it over to God but I still am so impatient. As of today it has been three weeks and they haven't charged our card the fee for the clearance which means it hasn't been started yet! Yesterday at church I felt like every word was directed at me. Every song was so special! I prayed for God's angel army to storm into the Richmond police station and supernaturally finish our clearances. That mental image really helped me!:) But I also heard what God was saying to me in the sermon. Our pastor, Drew Landry spoke of sleepless nights. I have had so many of those lately. Worrying about my sweet boys so far away from their mommy, possibly hungry and very possibly very very hot! I worry about getting to them in time, decreasing the amount of "damage" being done by neglect, and so many other things. My sweet sister-in-law told my husband this week that she was praying for someone/anyone that will be our boys advocate for them as they wait. Someone to hold and love on them as they wait for Mommy and Daddy to come. That touched my heart so much! As I wait and have these sleepless nights, God is using them to teach and mold me. I woke up this morning promising myself and God that I would focus my attention on something other then myself. This week is VBS at our church and Joey and I have the privileged to teach the entering K5 class. I have an amazing opportunity to impact these sweet little ones and tell them that they are special, God loves them, and that they are a blessing! So for this week, I have 18 adoptive children God has given me to love on. I intend to do it with all of my heart. If you all could pray for the clearance situation for us though that would be great!

The Pillow is gone!:)

 Ruth Einfeld is the winner of the quilted pillow! She really wanted that gift:) So we start anew with the quilted tote! After I receive 10 donations of at least $5 I will pick a winner!

Moving along as fast as a snail!

  We are still waiting for those stinkn clearances and yesterday I called to check on them because it should have taken 2 weeks and it has been 3! Sometimes I would just rather not know things! Apparently we signed an extra box on the form and they were sent back AHHHHHHHHHHHHH. I was pretty much in a funk all afternoon after hearing this news. But! Last week we applied to USCIS (immigration) to get the ball rolling with a nice $890 check, even though we don't have a finalized home study to send them. They emailed us saying our case has been started! so exciting the last step of this paper nightmare has begun! Our first set of papers is now transferring from TX to MO, which should take two weeks. In those two weeks we hope to get our finalized home study sent to MO to meet it and really get going with annoying phone calls to try and speed up the 2 month process to be approved:) Once we receive our official approval letter we sent that to Eastern Europe and that's it!!!!! We wait for our date to go. I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. Come on clearances come on!
   Oh and we just need a few thousand dollars too:)

try again auction pics!

Pillow is gone!:) 6/20/2013

Okay here is another try to have the auction pictures show up!

Wedgie!

   Well in my last post two days ago I said I was putting on my big girl panties the devil decided to give me a wedgie! Thursday afternoon we sent off our first wave of immigration paperwork to start the process, and we felt good to begin the final paper process. Joey headed off to play softball for a team that was down a player at 7 and I put the kids to bed. Earlier that afternoon I had mowed the lawn for Joey as his fathers day gift, and by now my back was killing me! I had been dreaming of my Epsom salt bath for hours. I no sooner climbed in the tub and Isaiah and Meah came running in to tell me Hannah was throwing up! NICE I get out clean her up and get all the kids tucked back into bed thinking it was just having too much candy before bed.  I climb back in the tub and...you guessed it! Repeat. We spend the next few hours cleaning and tucking until about 10:30 when she settles down. I crawl into bed and crash at 11. At 11:30 Joey comes home and I am going to be honest I was not happy with him. He was banging and booming all around! He is usually very careful to be quiet and I couldn't understand what his deal was! He came upstairs and went in the bathroom to shower, continuing to make such a ruckus that he woke the baby up. Now I was ready to let him have it! He crawls into bed at midnight moaning and groaning and wiggling so much I finally ask what is his deal! He hurt his knee and can't get comfortable. I am not too sympathetic at midnight  I shove a pillow under his knee and give him some aleve.
   Morning comes and Joey is feeling worse. He asks me to look at his knee and as I get out of bed I feel a wave of nausea come over me. I run to the bathroom and start my own journey of throwing up. When I finally make it back to bed 30 minutes later Joey is emotional realizing something is seriously wrong with his leg and what that means for our family.  So many things run through our heads but mainly we just try to make it through the day with lots of little kiddos running around. I survive until naptime and at 1:30 go and lie down. Joey heads off to the doctor to have his knee looked at. Thankfully it is his left leg so he can drive. The doctor thinks it is a torn meniscus and orders an MRI. A sweet friend brings dinner over and we let the kids watch tv for the rest of the day:) I may not understand why or what God's plan is but I do know that He loves us more then we can ever know. Each day I am learning to lean on Him more and more.

Discouragement:(

  To be honest this past week has been rough for me, I am discouraged! We have gotten no response to our auctions or sponsor letters we sent out. Actually we are in the negative for our photo cards because a few of them came back undelivered so we are out the postage! (I would like to add that after my pouting at the beginning of the week a few friends did order some of the totes that I have been selling as a fundraiser that really raised my spirits! thank you!) We are waiting waiting waiting on that second redo clearance and the third reference for our finalized home study draft. Joey has said from the beginning the money never bothered  him, weird because in matters other then adoption money matters usually stress him and not me! But the money part really stresses me out. I look at it from a different angle though. I am currently working night shift at a local hospital, my goal and dream would be to quit or at least minimize my hours after our kiddos come home. So when I look at having to finance $20,000 we have left to pay and then another vehicle to me it looks like more time at my job then time at home with my precious children. I should have given a disclaimer at the beginning that this is a whine post:) I just feel stalled with everything then we got more lovely news about our immigration paperwork. What used to be a relatively quick and painless process now will probably take at least 75 days! AHH
   I have prayed and prayed this week for God to guide our adoption and then like a light bulb in my slow dense head He spoke to me. I am working, I am drawing you close to Me. I always think about and look to the end of our adoption journey as the good part, the happy ending. I need to realize that this is a good too, this is a blessing! All these things are teaching and molding me into the woman that God desires me to be. I cherish my biological children more, I respect and honor all the work my husband has done. I have been on my knees more in the last few months then would have been if we were not adopting. I need to pull my big girl panties on and realize if I keep being discouraged then the evil one is winning. I refuse to let that happen! God is going to do great things in these little ones lives. I am so blessed to one day, hopefully soon, be their mother. I know He will open the doors in His perfect time and when He has finished teaching me what I need to learn. Please pray for grace because I can be a little stubborn:)!

More Auction Items!!!

•    The next great item we have to auction off is this beautiful pillow and tote, made with love by one of the children's advocates through Reece's Rainbow. Just $5 an entry!

  Perfect for 4th of July coming up! 

  Red, White & Blue raggedy 9-patch pillow. Measures 17"x17". Would look great in any room.... on sofa, chair or bed. Soft and cuddly. Made from 100% cotton fabrics and stuffed with 100% premium polyester fiberfill. Machine washable on cold/gentle cycle. Line dry or low heat. (Pillow is gone!:)
• 
  
   Quilted tote is great to carry those little extras that don't fit in your purse..... Kindle or Nook, magazines, kids toys and books, lunch and snacks.
  

  Tote measures 11 3/4" x 13". Straps are 9 1/2" long and reinforced for strength. Pleated bottom is 4". Has a loop and button closure and is fully lined in white.

  A patch work design in peachy pink, yellow, purple, greens and yellows. Back has two fabric loops for decoration or to use to clip something onto.

  
  

Auction!

   I am having a mini auction for an adorable Noah's Ark bedding set! Only $5 donation gets your name in the drawing to win it! Just go to the button on the side of this blog and donate then message, email, or text me your amount and you will be entered! $5=1 entry, $10=2, $20=4. The set includes quilt, bumper, bed skirt, diaper stacker, 2 valences, 5 wall hangings, night light, and cute lamp!

Home Study Draft

  Our wonderful social worker Clair sent us the rough draft to our home study yesterday afternoon. We read through it for spelling and information errors. After having those checked we get it checked by our facilitation team so that it all looks good for the country requirements and translation issues. We now wait for our new clearances and our last reference. It feels so good to have that semi-done! I started to feel like shopping and found these cute little sweatshirts on clearance and thought they were perfect! I laid awake last night imagining how cute my boys will be wearing these!:)

The first wave

  So excited to say our first wave of paperwork is off on it's way to Eastern Europe via another Reece's Rainbow family in CA. It contained a majority of our dossier that we had apostilled yesterday in Richmond. I  called our home study agency yesterday and everything is in except one of our references, which when we then emailed him said he did not receive it.:( We also learned that the state police clearances that we finished will not be good enough for our dossier, they are on Department of Social Services letterhead and they need to be on State Police letterhead. I told you this paperwork is annoying! So off we sent new forms with $50 yesterday hoping this doesn't add another 6 weeks to our timeline. We should be seeing our first draft to our home study any day now. We finished everything two weeks ago and Claire said give her about two weeks to write it up. Once we receive the draft we can start our immigration paperwork. Sorry if I have stated all this boring information already. I run what needs to be done multiple times a day in my head, and Joey calls and we do our checklist together at least once a day. I love how involved and invested he is in this process. Sometimes he annoys me with how much he wants to check and recheck that we have everything.
   Yesterday after coming home from Richmond and feeling like we had finished a big adoption milestone, I felt like shopping! I wanted to find one thing for the boys room. Joey took the two big kids to a nearby baseball diamond to play some ball and I took the two littles out shopping. Well 5 stores later I couldn't find anything that I liked:( I even went to JoAnns to try and find fabric to make something but didn't see anything that said buy me. I need to keep the room semi neutral so it is not too much of a shock to the boys. They are coming from an almost sterile white environment and too much color and business will be stressful for them. I  would like to do an airplane theme because that is how they are coming into our family, flying across the world. Oh well I have time, it just figures when I do have an evening to shop I don't find anything:)