Tuesday's Mission complete

Well, we managed to get that oh so important form apostilled and mailed off yesterday. In the process we found out that we are not going to be required to get the county level verification for all our apostilles. Yeah! Every step saved is a great help! HS agency is still following up on the fingerprints. Tim's are supposed to be at DHR and mine.... well, seems like everyone is fingerpointing to each other. Hopefully, they will figure it out soon and hopefully find that it is further along in the system than we thought. That would be nice! HS agency provided a draft of the HS to us and our agency so we are able to proof and get back with them. Seems like things may start to progress. Continued prayers for the fingerprints and HS to be completed. Really hoping to be able to see this entire process through to completion before August ends! :) Many families are in country, traveling soon, or waiting on their dossier submission. So exciting that so many children are on their way HOME!

Update on today...

Well, this morning I posted my "to do" list and how overwhelmed I felt. To update you on that list. Kids all made it to school and back (mom's deserve credit as this is a chore at times!), tow truck came in good time, spoke with shop to arrange the repair, and made it to have letter notarized. Unfortunately, I was unable to go to the courthouse for county level verification today. Turns out today was a holiday. Didn't know that, did you? I don't imagine many knew. Confederate Memorial Holiday. I am a terrible southern gal, I guess, because I had know idea! Anyway... county offices were closed. However, our notary indicated this was not needed for her notary so I will check on that in the AM and hopefully be able to scratch that step anyway! Wouldn't that just be a blessing! Not sure how all this works yet, but I don't mind calling to ask! I've scanned/emailed our agency for OK and plan to get the apostille tomorrow once I get this county thing straightened out. In the meantime, I was unable to check on fingerprints today (holiday, you know). I did email our HS agency to check the status of HS. Asked if we and our agency could be proofing the HS so that everything could be ready (please be ready) when the fingerprints do turn up. She replied that was her plan for the day.... and this afternoon, she emailed the final draft for us to begin reviewing. Thrilled to have the actual draft available to us! Will follow up with HS agency tomorrow for them to check status of fingerprints. Another update on today... the car has already been repaired and picked up. Total bill? $277.81. My prayer was answered and it was below $500 and God threw in the bonus with the 'already repaired and picked up'. It is always a struggle to be out a vehicle!

oh.... and the most exciting thing that occured today?..... WE GOT NEW PICTURES OF 'SONYA'!

Overwhelmed and not even out the door!

Ever have one of those days that your 'to do' list is so big in your mind that you feel overwhelmed before you even get started? Today is that kind of day. I've been up since 4 am... (yes, most likely because of the 'list'). Not much you can accomplish at 4 am, but at least I am caught up for now on the blogs I follow and email. I also made some updates to some forms and emailed to our agency. Waiting on approval. Today we need to go have this form notarized and then take it over to the county for their stamp of approval. I then have to scan/email to agency for approval prior to having it apostilled. This means the apostille will have to be Tuesday. My list is to take Shelby to school, come back get little ones ready and taken to preschool. Somewhere during this time I have to arrange a tow truck and contact mechanic shop to arrange the repair (Satan's evil at work, I'm sure). Then off to meet Tim at notary, over to courthouse for county level verification, home to scan/email. Maybe a quick bite? Off to preschool for pick up, over to Shelby's school for pick up. The last two task signal the end of any productivity in my day. I was working to get all of the dossier info gathered that we have to date so we can get all of the notaries, county levels and apostilles when we get this one form done. Late yesterday I received some info from agency on some of them so I am now a little confused. If we hear back this morning on my questions I emailed last night and updates on the forms I emailed at 4 am, we may accomplish this. Otherwise, we will just hold all of that until we have everything else. Still no word on the fingerprints.... :( Prayers for forms to be done correctly, no problems with notary/county level and the blasted car repair to be less than $500 (I would love a very low cost repair, but since it is going to the shop via tow.... I'm trying to be realistic!).

Here we go....

Ok... so before you get excited- NO, the fingerprints have not surfaced yet. However, I'm not going to let that pop my little bubble today. It all started Wednesday with a rumor. Most of you have heard the rumor yourselves, but for those of you that haven't..... the rumor is that change may be in the air for a certain country that may impact the adoption process. This change may include a moratorium... this is where the concern came in. How would this impact the families in process. When would it occur, for how long and would we be able to complete the process prior to this occuring. Well.... the opinions vary. All have been advised not to PANIC (which is a shame because we are all getting so good at that!). Whether or not this moratorium ever were to occur, we have been advised to prepare a form from our dossier and submit it to our agency. The form has been prepared and approved. We will be getting with a notary on Monday for signatures, county verification and apostilled (most likely Tuesday). Then submit to our agency... who will submit to country! Wow.... finally progress! Call me crazy, but I have been so thrilled since I realized they meant for this form to be SENT NOW! Just makes it all seem like it will come together. Are things going to start falling into place??? Now.... if we could just get those fingerprints. I will be making some calls on Monday! Prayers please! Wouldn't you know something like this would come up on a Friday evening! I can't do anything until Monday, but loose sleep! I guess it is progress that it is from excitement instead of stress for a change! :)

No news....

Still waiting on the HS to be finalized. Waiting on those oh so important fingerprints still. I imagine the day I check the mail and the results are FINALLY back I will be crying my eyes out at the mailbox. My neighbors are really going to think I am crazy (good thing the letters of recommendation have already been submitted! LOL). We are moving on in the mean time. I am gathering the priceless dossier paperwork. I've been working on 2 other forms today. I've emailed for approval. I did hear back on the form from yesterday... approved! My emotions have been all over the place the last couple of days. Frustration with waiting, worry about things beyond my control (I know... I'm supposed to leave it with God. I struggle with that!), elation over the little signs that things are going to be ok, awe that we have come this far, praises for the other families that will be traveling soon, tears for those that did not hear what they hoped to hear. Two celebrations coming up that have me thinking alot about the girls. Mother's Day, of course and "Darcy" will be turning 5 on June 2. The hope to be there before her birthday is about gone now. The HS has so many steps to go through being approved before we are even able to submit to country, much less travel. The fact that the HS is still not complete itself makes it impossible to see this wrapping up soon. In efforts to see the silver lining.... this should be the LAST birthday that she spends without a family. As always.... please keep our girls and us in your prayers. We really need the support through this process. Thank you for being with us on this journey!

Oops... sorry!

I'm sorry, I didn't realize that I had not posted since Saturday! Wow... where did my week go? Well.... you haven't missed much. Miracle League game on Saturday... that is always fun. Sunday- church and working on projects around the house. Monday- wasted waiting around on the pest control guy to do the quarterly treatment (annoying having a AM appointment and they come at 11:50... fine it was still AM, but is there no way of telling people they have a LATE AM appt at least. Better yet... set an appt time?) Anyway.... Tuesday - just spent with the little ones and running Shelby to piano. Finally... today - I was able to get our Proof of Property Ownership form completed, signed by the Revenue Commissioner w/ notary. It has been scanned and emailed to our agency for approval (1st approval received and waiting on 2nd opinion). Check! Another thing done towards the dossier. I'm trying to focus on getting the dossier completed now and hoping that everything will be ready so that when our elusive fingerprints make it through the process we will be ready to go. Please pray for our family and our girls as we go through this process. For those of you in process as well.... I am praying for your family and children too!

To A Special Parent

It is time for IEPs again... this is the one that I have worried about for some time. Shelby will go to high school this year. This is the IEP where we have to decide which diploma she will work towards. This is the time of year that I really begin to doubt the decisions we have made and worry about what is best for her now and into the future. These are the worries of parents everywhere with children with special needs.... I know, all parents have doubts and worries. It is magnified though when your child has special needs. YOU are responsible for this child's future to a much larger degree than with a typical child. I have spoken to many parents through the years... you can hear their concern, feel their burden and I understand because I am shouldering these as well. One night a few years ago after speaking with a parent about these BIG decisions. I was troubled by the self-doubt that I could "feel" coming from her. During the night I woke up and had words going through my head... I finally got up and wrote them down. This is what God had placed on my heart that night. I know... I'm not a poet. I'm just a mom who understands and tries to bring some comfort to others when I can. I hope you enjoy...

To a Special Parent
(On behalf of the child with special needs)


Thank you for believing what many will never understand,
That I am also part of God’s great plan.

Thank you for always being there for me,
For helping me as I struggle towards my full potentiality.

Thank you for the countless trips to doctors and therapies,
For the endless hours spent at clinics and IEPs.

Thank you for wiping away my many tears,
For lifting my spirit after childish jeers.

Thank you for all the nights that you never slept,
While your worries and fears rushed out as you wept.

Thank you and know if you were to meet God today,
This is what I imagine he would say:

“I trusted you with my special little one,
Thank you very much for a job well done!”


By Christy Haire

Jesus loves the little children... all of the children of the world.

We have been asked why international? Why not a child in the US? This question appears to be very commonly asked to families going through an international adoption. Luckily we have not had the negative attitudes directed at us to date that many of the other RR families have encountered. I decided I will quickly address this here... in case you wonder. We were not just called to adoption. We were called to adopting a child with Down Syndrome (two, actually). This is what we felt God wanted our specific family to do. Why International? In the US, prediagnosis of Down Syndrome contributes to about a 90% abortion rate for 'unwanted' pregnancies that would result in a child being born with Down Syndrome. There is also a 'waiting list' of people in the US that are willing/wanting to adopt children born in the US with Down Syndrome. However, there are so many children with Down Syndrome waiting in orphanages around the world... facing instutionalization at very young ages and early deaths due to circumstances beyond their control. Why? Because they were born with a little something extra. Down Syndrome. The diagnosis is their death sentence unless someone does step up and bring them home. Why should we overlook these children... just because they were born in another part of the world? God calls us to care for the orphans... not just to care for the orphans in America. What about our girls? Or any of the children in the buttons down the right side of the blog? Why NOT them? They are God's children too.

Where in the world...?

Well... I ran out of patience yesterday and called DHR myself to see if I could find out the status of our fingerprints. Nope, they couldn't tell me. She did give me another number to call. Called that one today... it reached ABI. I was advised that Tim's ABI and FBI are completed and had been sent back to DHR. Apparently my FBI had to be resubmitted... I hate to think what that might mean time wise. I am trying to locate Tim's at this point since they should be in process somewhere at least. If we can have those located, maybe mine will process quickly and we can make some progress. Prayers upward that Tim's ABI/FBI surface soon and that my redo doesn't take anywhere near the time the originals have taken! Trying so hard not to be discouraged. I no longer eagerly check the mail since it typically ends in disappointment. One day I will be pleasantly surprised, but until then I just look crazy muttering at the mailbox!

A special gift

When we first found Reece's Rainbow, we were looking for an orphan to sponsor for the Christmas Angel Tree. We spent a lot of time looking at the precious little photos. We finally narrowed down our choice by deciding we wanted to help the ones "At Most Risk". We went back and forth between the Angel Tree photos and the At Most Risk photos. We found the ones that were the oldest (at greatest risk for transfer) and then from there we selected the ones that had the least money in their adoption fund accounts. This brought us to Sonya as our Christmas Angel and a little boy. They were the oldest listed at the time and had the least funds in their adoption accounts at that time. We have had both of their Angel Tree ornaments hanging in our living room ever since. I see them daily as a reminder to pray for them. I can only guess that Darcy was not posted at this time because she is actually older than this other child and had less money in her account. She would have been our other Christmas Angel had she been there at the time we picked our Christmas Angels. As you know from our story... we continued to be bothered by the knowledge that these children were sitting in an Orphanage waiting on a family and quickly approaching the transfer to a mental institution where they would live out the remainder of their lives. Lives they were not ever given the opportunity to truly LIVE. We did end up deciding to adopt and committed to bringing home both Sonya and Darcy. I tried to get a Christmas Angel Tree ornament for Darcy, but it was after the deadline and too late. I was thrilled when this little boy was spoken for recently. So glad that his forever family has begun their journey to bring him home. I have decided that I am going to send his little Christmas Angel Tree ornament to his new family which is why I am not saying his name... I want it to be a surprise for the family. I am thinking this will be the perfect 1st Christmas ornament. I hope the family enjoys the gift. I wish that I had been able to get one for Darcy and maybe someone somewhere has her ornament. (If you do... I would so love to have one for her to hang on our tree each year). I think this is something I will do from now on.... sponsor an orphan from the Christmas Angel Tree, display the ornament throughout the year as a reminder to pray them home. Once they come home (or are very close to being there), how great it will be to mail them the Christmas Angel Tree Ornament so they can have it as another token of their journey home.

Are we done yet?

I hope you all had a wonderful Easter with your families! We had a good day with our family as well. I couldn't help but think about the girls though... they didn't have little Easter baskets or an egg hunt with family yesterday. I tried not to focus on this year's holiday for them though. Instead I tried to look toward next year and the excitement of having 2 extra baskets to sit out for the Easter bunny next year. Two more little Easter dresses to prepare for church. Two more plates to fix at the family Easter dinner. Two more little children running around searching for Easter eggs. Two more members of our family...

I did complete the updates to the financials and emailed them to our SW around 11:30 last night. Hopefully they make sense! We think we are done now with everything we need to submit for the HS, but then again... we have thought that a few times before! :) We are really hoping this is the end of the HS step so that we are able to progress. Of course, we are STILL waiting on our fingerprints and that will continue to hold us up. Praying for those fingerprints to come in ASAP! We have had half of them back since late February so it is hard to continue to wait on the rest. We submitted the package to our HS agency in mid January so we have shown patience (I think anyway). I am hoping to shake off this blah state I have found myself in lately and get going again. Hoping to have everything else ready to go for when things do start to happen again. It is easy to feel like we will NEVER get a travel date, but we have to get ready for the reality that it will come! Please pray that our fingerprints will surface and our SW can complete the HS. Until then... we wait.

Welcome Home Winkle Family

Another button comes down as the Winkle family have made it home! It is always so great to be able to take down a button... celebrating a child coming home to their forever family!

Still waiting...

Sorry for the lack of posting! We have had Tim's mother in visiting and we are also still trying to get over this illness that has gotten us run down. No real updates. SW is working on completing the HS, but is still waiting on those fingerprint reports! I need to turn in the updated financials to her as well. I've been working on it, but wasn't in a real hurry since the fingerprints were outstanding still. She emailed asking if I could have them to her by Monday.... of course! I will have that done ASAP now! I have been feeling 'down' about the delay in the process, but hopefully her trying to wrap it up this week (other than fingerprints) will light the fire under me again! I need to take time to drag it all out again and see exactly where we are. Tomorrow we have Miracle League and some last minute preps for Easter Sunday... I'll be sure to squeeze in the financial updates in there somewhere! Oh... we have been busy the last few days completing the fencing project. The kids now have a good-sized fenced play yard. Looks really good and now all the play areas are within the fenced portion of the yard. We decided this was a must when adding to more to the mix! They can have fun, but we can relax a little as well! Well... hopefully soon I will be able to update you on receiving our fingerprints back and having a completed home study!

Welcome Home!

Two more RR families have made it home with their precious children. Welcome home to the Hollis family and the Dickinson family! What a blessing to have you home with your new children!

Just keep smiling...

This has been a non-productive weekend (well adoption speaking, anyway). We spent Friday night at our down syndrome support group meeting. Saturday working on fencing in a larger play area for the kids and then at the Miracle League for the better part of the afternoon. Today was church and errands (and a much needed hour nap... still not over the cold/allergies so sleep is not going so well). I was getting caught up on the emails when I noticed a new one from our SW. The subject was "a few more things". Honestly, what else can come up??? Anyway. One should not be an issue since she was asking about a Hague Training that we were not required to do since it does not apply to us. This was most likely an oversight since most of her clients have to complete this. The other is wanting us to update the financial section of our app to include changes that have occured while we were waiting on the HS to be completed. We have updated all along, but she just wants us to redo the form now to contain everything in one place. Not a huge deal, but so ready for this HS to be OVER so we can continue to the next step! Trying to remain optimistic, but I keep feeling like we take one step forward and then two steps back! Praying for progress to be made, but we all know this will come together in God's time. I guess I should spend my prayer time asking for patience instead of progress???

Sorry for lack of updates!

I know you don't want to spend your time coming out here just to find there have been no updates posted and I apologize! Two reasons though... not much to tell and we've been sick. We have completed our readings so that was a little progress. We also heard that our MIA fingerprints have surfaced so that sounds promising as well. They should be the last piece of the HS needed before our SW can complete our HS. After HS done it can be submitted to DHR then to USCIS.... We are just sitting tight for now! Thanks again for all of your support!

A Button Down

So thrilled to say I get the opportunity to remove a button from the blog! Little Reece is home with her family now! They arrived close to midnight 3/31/09. Welcome Home Reece! Congratulations to the Powell Family!