Awareness Campaign

I have struggled with whether or not to write this post. I hope this is received in a positive way because that is how it was intended. We have made the decision not to ‘fundraise’ as we strongly feel that God led us to this process and that he will provide for our needs along the way. That being said, we understand that his provision may be via our own pocket book for every last penny of the $30,000 needed to bring home these two little girls. We are fully prepared to accept the entire financial ‘burden’ (for lack of a better word). However, we feel that in praying for God to provide, it may be that we have to make the need known before others can respond if they feel so led to join us on this journey. If anyone does at any point want to support our process in a financial contribution, they can do so via the link to our Family Sponsorship page at the top right corner of this blog. By supporting us via this link, your contribution is tax deductible (there is a paypal fee for donations made via credit card). We do not want to pressure anyone to give where they have not been led and understand that you may very well not be called to make any donation to our process.

However, we would like to ask for your support through prayer. Please pray for our little girls overseas. Pray for their continued health and for their needs to be met. Pray that they are shown kindness while they continue to wait. Please pray for our family here as we go through this process. Pray that we are able to go through this process as quickly and painlessly as possible. Please pray for our needs to be met along the way… spiritually, mentally, emotionally, physically and financially. We are asking that you join us in prayer for what we will call our “Awareness Campaign”. In honor of the Down Syndrome diagnosis that is shared by these girls and our biological daughter, Shelby, we would like for you to commit to praying for us for 3 weeks (21 days). We will officially begin our Awareness Campaign on March 1st so that it will end on March 21st (3/21) which is World Down Syndrome Day. The significance of 3 and 21 is the 3rd copy of the 21st chromosome found in a person diagnosed with Down Syndrome (Trisomy 21). We would love to have you join us during this Awareness Campaign. By no means are we limiting your prayers to this campaign period. Please continue to pray for us throughout this process and once we bring them home! Also, feel free to share this campaign with your own family, friends or co-workers to request that they join you in prayer for our family during this time.

We would like to thank you again for your support of our family’s decision to open our home to two more children with Down Syndrome and your continued support through this difficult process.

Thank you,
Tim and Christy Haire

In the eyes of a three year old....

I just had to share two things with you that our three year old, Abby, has said about adoption. On Monday, Tim and I were going to get our immunizations started for travel. She was asking why I had to get shots and I told her it was because we had to get on the big plane and go overseas to get the girls. She said that she was going to get on the pink plane, go get the pink shots and go save 'Sonya'. She says our grandson, Romney, is getting on the blue plane and going to save 'Darcy'. Now this morning she was telling me that Romney (he often gets drug into her games) was going to be the 'husband' and she was going to be the 'wife'. She said they were going to go get some kids. I asked her if she meant they were going to adopt some kids. She said "yes, we are going to Reece's Rainbow to get shots, then we are going to go get a baby and a big kid." She may be a little confused by the details, but I think she has a pretty good understanding about this.... for a three year old anyway!

Thanks for remembering to pray for our family while we "go gets some kids"! Please remember to pray for the continued health of our girls overseas as they continue to wait.

Medicals continue...

We went to our medicals and all appears to be going smooth. We are waiting on labs to come back before we can complete that step. Tomorrow Tim and I have to go back for our TB test and again on Wed. for the results. Both of us have to begin our immunizations for travel as well. Once we get our lab results and TB results we will schedule our follow up appt to complete the medical forms and have them notarized. Hopefully this is truly going as smoothly as it appears and not that we are just to clueless to see a red flag! :) We are working on scheduling our final interview with our homestudy social worker. We still have some paperwork to get to her, but we are working on being able to take all that with us to the appointment. Progress!

Medicals & Paperwork

I've been trying to dig my way through the paperwork requirements and get some more things checked off our list. We are completing the mandatory readings (training requirements for homestudy)and trying to get our next appointment scheduled. Right now my biggest concern is our medicals. We were finally able to get scheduled with the same doctor and even all of us in a row. Both Tim and I are required as the adoptive parents, but Courtney being 18+ is having to do this as well. Our medical exams are scheduled for tomorrow. I am praying that this goes smoothly and all paperwork is done correctly. From what I've read about the other families in process or that have already completed the process... the medicals can be difficult and to expect to have to go back (maybe more than once) for corrections/updates. This is why we struggled to get appts w/ the same doctor instead of having to chase down 3 doctors repeatedly if all does not go well. I have a friend that has adopted multiple times and had no trouble with their medicals (other than finding a notary to be there). Tim managed to schedule our appts with this same doctor so.. YEAH! I am ready to have that behind us and hopefully, without any glitches! Again... please keep us in your prayers. Things that seem so simple ordinarily become rather large issues when you have to have everything just so for it to be accepted. I started out dreading the flight/trip (I have never flown commercially), but I think I will start to look forward to that part as it signifies the end of the paper chase (at least stateside)!

Our progress to date...

I'm sorry not to have posted this info before, but with the chaos of beginning this adoption progress I haven't found time (and quiet) to sit down long enough to fill you in on our progess. I will try to back track and update on where we are now (this will be in random order). We have begun our homestudy and had 2 of the 3 interviews. The second one was the home tour as well. We have some reading assignments to complete before we can schedule the last, but hope to have that interview done ASAP. We have already applied for and received our passports (in less than 2 weeks!). We have begun gathering our paperwork as a lot is required for homestudy and the Dossier. We have turned our house upside down and inside out, but now have a bedroom ready and waiting! We have already submitted round one of fingerprinting and background checks (for homestudy)... round 2 will be for the USCIS. There are other things as well that aren't huge steps, but more things checked off our To Do list: signing up for the family sponsorship program, beginning this blog (bigger step for me than others), getting a blog button (thank you Alicia), and attending International Adoption Clinic seminar. It feels like we have done a lot, but we have so much more ahead of us! We are trusting God to provide for us along this journey... spiritually, physically, emotionally and financially. Please pray for us during this process... it is a very large undertaking! Please pray for our little girls' health and wellbeing as they continue to wait, not knowing that a family is trying very hard to bring them home.

In loving memory of Margarita and Katarina

Today I just want to share with you a previous post from another mom's blog (www.cornishadoptionjourney.blogspot.com)


Wednesday, February 11

While we were... in memory


While we were eating...
... they were hungry

While we were playing...
... they were restrained

While we were tucking our kids into bed...
... they were alone

While we turned up the heat...
... they laid in the icy cold

While we wrapped our children in blanket sleepers...
... they laid in their own excrement


While we sang songs and listened to music...
... they listened to the screams and cries of those around them

While we rocked our babies...
... they silently rocked themselves

While we hugged our kids...
... they scratched at their own faces and pulled their own hair for stimulation

While we cried over scraped knees...
... they moaned in their loneliness

While we brushed our daughters' beautiful hair...
... they had their heads shaven to stave off the lice

While we fought off the flu with love and nourishment...
... they got the flu and went Home.

No longer suffering... but so many more still are.


In memory of those that have never felt the love of a family, but have passed away alone. Today we learned of the passing of these two girls in Eastern Europe.

Thank you, Meredith, for sharing this tribute with us all. These girls did not have a forever family, but they were loved and are mourned by many.

ONE can make the difference!

I want to draw your attention to the precious blog button in the top corner of our blog. This button was made for us by another mom that was blessed to be the parent of a child with Down Syndrome. Thank you Alicia! Alicia and I had a good laugh during her creation of this button that I wanted to share with you as a way of emphasizing the importance of the number one. As you see the button contains the reference to John 14:18, "No, I will not abandon you as orphans- I will come to you." (New Living Translation) Somehow during the emailing or a simple typo the number ONE was in error left off on the first draft which then referenced John 4:18, "for you have had five husbands, and you aren't even married to the man you're living with now..." Wow, what a difference ONE made! Needless to say, the correction was made since we are trying to get approved for an adoption! :) The point of this is to stress to you the importance of one. ONE can make a diffence! You make a difference! We greatly appreciate your prayers and support during this process. Thank you for helping us as we work to bring these girls home.

PS: check out the precious photos and videos on Alicia's blog at http://mihijoelias.blogspot.com ... Thanks again Alicia!

Star Fish Poem

Today has been busy around here so this will be short. I just wanted to share a poem that I read on another family's blog (http://www.portis.org/). You may have seen this before, but I had not until after we had started our adoption process.

Star Fish Poem

As I walked along the seashore
This young boy greeted me.
He was tossing stranded starfish
Back to the deep blue sea.

I said, "Tell me why you bother,
Why you waste your time this way.
There's a million stranded starfish
Does it matter, anyway?"

And he said, "It matters to this one.
It deserves a chance to grow.
It matters to this one.
I can't save them all I know.

But it matters to this one,
I'll return it to the sea.
It matters to this one,
And it matters to me."

-- Anonymous

Please continue to pray for the girl's wellbeing and our family as we go through the process to bring them home.

Welcome

Welcome to our journey. For those of you who may not know how this journey began...
Tim and I are proud parents of three girls (21, 14, 3). We were blessed with the opportunity to be included in the world of Down Syndrome through the birth of our 2nd child. We felt our family was complete. On Friday, December 5th our family (minus Tim who was home sick) attended our Down Syndrome support group Christmas party and were introduced to the Reece's Rainbow Christmas Angel Tree by presentation of another member/mom. I spent the next day on the Reece's Rainbow website pouring over the photos of all the little orphans with Down Syndrome trying to decide which Angel we would support. Their precious faces and stories deeply touched us. So easily this could have been our child had she been born to other parents in another place. After sponsoring an angel we still were bothered by the many precious children with no family. After much prayer and discussion, we both felt that we were led to provide a home for two of these children with Down Syndrome. On 12/26 we decided we were led to adopt 2 little girls with Down Syndrome. On 12/28 we committed to begin the adoption process. Please join us in praying and hoping that we will be able to bring these little girls home.