Two special things about today

Today is Anastasia's 4th Birthday. She will not be celebrating with her family because she continues to wait for her forever family to find her. Please pray for little Anastasia today. Pray for her safety, her health and that her family will find her soon. Happy Birthday, Anastasia! We are praying you home!





Today is also the "Spread the Word to Stop the Word" Campaign. Together we can make a difference.

Not much to tell....

No news, no mail, nothing. We did one of our recently assigned required readings that our SW gave us (the page was missing from our HS manual so we didn't complete this one). There is supposed to be another one as well to make up for a previous assignment having invalid links so we could not access the info, but we haven't been given the assignment yet. Still waiting on the ABI/ FBI fingerprints to come back. Other than this make-up reading, the prints are all we have left for the HS... or at least that is all we know about right now! Most of the household has been 'under the weather' the last few days, so a breather was most likely in order anyway. Really hoping things start to come together though. Starting to worry that our dream to travel in summer may not have a chance at coming true! Why summer? Crazy I know since it will be HOT and the cost will be higher to travel during the peak season. The reason is I really want to be back home before school starts back here! Shelby will be transitioning to High School! I had not worried so much to start with because I thought it wouldn't be an issue for her aid to go with her (had the same aid for 3 years and they get along GREAT!). We are willing, she is willing. What is the problem? Funding and her aid is considered an employee of the Jr. High, not the school district. What? I know. We have started expressing our desire for Shelby to remain with the same aid so hopefully the powers that be will work with us on this. For those of you that haven't heard the trials of our school days.... we have had some rough school years! Shelby had a new aid every year and some years it would work, others not so much. Her 5th grade year we had finally had enough. We made the decision to begin 6th, but with the understanding that we would pull her out and homeschool at the first sign of trouble! The Lord showed us mercy and blessed Shelby with a wonderful aid.... for the last 3 years! I'm just praying this is not one of those "the Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away" situations! Anyway... we really would love to complete our travel this summer! Praying things come together quickly!

Thrilled!

We are so thrilled to have been able to go up today (2 weeks early) and have our USCIS biometric fingerprints done! I have been worried about what day/time we would be scheduled since Courtney's schedule is crazy. We were glad to see our appts come for a Saturday, but Courtney's never came. When we found that military could go without an appointment, we decided to make the trip today and pray that we could all 3 be fingerprinted now. Little worried at first because they insisted that we had to all have an appointment letter. However, we were the ONLY people there so the INS officer on site went into the system and printed one for her so she could be printed today as well. We were in and out in about 10 minutes! So thrilled to have that stess off of us! With such a big check off the list we have taken some time for us today. We visited family, I took a nap and we all enjoyed a little family time watching Bolt together. Nice to have some down time!

Thank you all for following our journey. It means so much that you worry about our girls as well. In talking with one of my sisters today I realized I failed to mention this in an earlier post about the differences I find between a paper pregnancy and typical pregnancy. During my previous pregnancies I have enjoyed the comfort of knowing that my unborn child was being fed, protected and loved. I was reassured at each OB visit that my child was developing well and appeared to be healthy. I could HEAR the heartbeat myself and FEEL the life growing. I felt I had some control over the wellbeing of my child. With this paper pregnancy we do not have those assurances. We do not know if the girls went to bed hungry. We can only pray for their safety. We do not know what their health status is at any point and honestly, do not know if their 'known' medical status is even be valid. These unknowns are the driving force of the urgency we feel to rush through this process. This process that we have absolutely no control over. Thank you for your support during our process to bring them home. We greatly appreciate it and need your continued prayers.

Our Girl's Button

Meredith took mercy on me and helped update our button so that others can post it more easily to their blogs. Thank you, Meredith!

<a href="http://www.reecesrainbow.org/sponsorhaire.htm"><img src="http://www.chancetribe.com/images/haire/bringthemhome.jpg" alt="Haire" width="160" height="160" /></a><br/> <a href="http://ourlittlesunbeams.blogspot.com/2009/03/our-girls-button.html">Grab This Button</a>
The code will produce this on your website:

Grab This Button

Riding the wave

I am finding the adoption process to be more emotionally straining than a pregnancy. The total lack of control and feeling like you are always a step behind (or more). With the pregnancy (assuming all is well) you are waiting and you are an emotional wreck, but you at least go about your daily life for the most part. With the paper pregnancy I find that you are waiting, you are an emotional wreck, you have to balance your daily life while trying to appease the 'powers that be' with every little detail being absolutely PERFECT. I find I am riding the emotional wave constantly. Checking my inbox and mailbox like a maniac. Trying to rush this impossibly slow process when we have absolutely no control. The lack of information will drive you insane. I guess this is where the "that which does not kill you will only make you stronger" comes into play. Trust me... everyone that you know that has survived an adoption process must be STRONG because they have been put to the test! However.... luckily my day ends with responses from both our HS agency and our adoption agency! SW has received the last reference. They are checking into the status on the remaining backgrounds since the others all came in a month ago. She received the updated warranty deed. She is sending us more links for additional readings (UGHH!). Our adoption agency received the corrected warranty deed and believes that will work. She is going to forward it on for second opinion, but thinks this is great. RELIEF! I know it is crazy, but I have felt so cut off today not having heard back on these few items. You just sit here with this constant feeling that you should be doing something, but there is nothing to do until you hear something! I did make contact with the USCIS again today. Yesterday their system was down so they couldn't help me. Today, they couldn't help much, but while waiting on them to check I came across a little something on their website. When she came back I asked and she verified. Military will be seen WITH OUT AN APPOINTMENT! This means I am not going to sweat Courtney's appt letter not coming yet. We are going to take advantage of this and go up there Saturday! Hopefully, we can all be fingerprinted without any problems! :) Fingerscrossed!

Today's progress

Got started early this morning. Dropped Shelby at school,then Abby and I headed out. Mailed photos and copies of medicals to our HS agency for our file. Went to base to get the 2nd Hep B shot (dropped off videos at library while there). Then we headed over to our closing attorney's office. He graciously made the corrections to the original warranty deed while we waited. Then we headed towards the courthouse where we re-filed the deed. We were also able to go ahead and get a certified copy of the corrected deed while we waited. So... hours later and having drove all over 2 counties, we have the revised warranty deed in hand! Hoping to get this scanned and emailed to our HS agency and adoption agency later this afternoon. Right now we are off to lunch, pick up Shelby and head back into town for Shelby's piano lesson. Hopefully there will be a surprise or two in our mailbox this afternoon! Fingerscrossed!

Paying it forward...

Shelley at Embracing life as Household 6 was sweet to mention our family adoption process on her blog post Sisterhood. I loved the idea of changing the blog award rules and instead, spotlighting families in the process of adoption. I am going to pay this forward by also spotlighting some of the Reece's Rainbow families in this blog post. First, Shelley's family is in the process themselves of their 3rd International adoption! They are planning on bringing home another (#3) little boy with DS. The next are children we had been praying for families to find them and these families stepped up: the Booth Family, the Watson family, the Burckhard family, the Taborn family, and the Montilone family. Please pray for these families... there are many more as well that are in process, travelling soon or newly committed. They all have stepped up to the challenge laid before them and are going forward to bring home one of God's special children. Please pray for all of the families and the children that continue to wait.

Monday updates

We were able to catch up with our closing attorney from 2000, 2001 and 2002 (lot purchase, permanent financing on home and refi on home). He will process a deed correction to update the mailing address to our current address on the warranty deed in order to satisfy the SDA when our dossier is completed. This will cost <$100 so that is good news... considering. I hope to be able to take the original deed to him tomorrow so they can make the corrections then I can run it to the court house to be refiled. Hopefully I can then get new copies of the warranty deed, but I am going prepared to be told to come back another day for the corrected copies. Tim was able to take the medicals back to the MD for re-signing today. She had forgotten to list her license # and one of the dates had an alteration. Better safe than sorry! We are still waiting on the reference (checking w/ SW to see if she has received yet) and waiting on the ABI/ FBI background checks. Glad we did these early on so we wouldn't get held up by them! :) Courtney's Immigrations fingerprint appt did not come today either. I do not understand why everything is coming in bits and pieces when they were all submitted in the same package! Can you 'hear' the frustration? Feeling exhausted by the process today. I really would love to have the homestudy completed soon! The completed HS has to go through DHR, then Immigrations before we can complete our dossier and submit to country. After dossier submission, we wait for SDA approval and a travel date. Some have been given dates 2 weeks out from the date they are notified. With all the steps listed above it seems less likely that we will be able to travel in June. The later the travel date, the less likely we will be back prior to school starting back which causes another level of stress for us! Shelby starts high school this year! I really want to be here for that transition! We know that everything will work out in God's time, but my mother's heart is very worried on many levels! Please pray for us and that everyone that is part of our process will work as quickly and efficiently as possible. It frustrates me to think that the paperwork that we are waiting on is most likely buried on someone's desk!

World Down Syndrome Day

As I mentioned before, today is World Down Syndrome Day (3/21). We spent part of our day starting a new season of Miracle League baseball. So much fun watching the players give it their all and their excitement when they play! It came to mind throughout the day that next year we hope to have 2 more players out on that field! Oh, to just have them home!

We did get a surprise in the mail today! Our USCIS fingerprint appointment letters arrived... well 2 of the expected 3 anyway. I have been worried about the appointed date/time since I was told they assign your appointment and rescheduling delays the process further. With Courtney's school schedule being rather hectic I have been really worried this would be an issue. Thank you, Lord! We have a Saturday appt!... at least Tim and I do! Hopefully Courtney's letter will show up and be scheduled with ours! We are scheduled to go in 3 weeks. Progress! Today wrapped up our Awareness Campaign. Thank you for joining us during the last 3 weeks for our prayer campaign. Even though our prayer campaign has ended, our need for prayer continues. Please remember our family as we go through the process to bring home our girls. Pray for the girls safety and well being as they continue to wait. Pray for our needs to be met along the journey to bring them home. Thank you for joining us on this journey.

Just a little update...

The warranty deed is coming back to haunt us. Our deed was filed before an address was assigned to the lot and before we built here. That being the case... our deed references another mailing address, where we rented at the time we purchased the lot. This is causing concern since our deed does not reference our address even though it does give the legal description for this location. This was an issue for our HS, but was easily solved by providing the annual statement from our mortgage company referencing our address. Our dossier... a little more picky. After many emails to our adoption agency and calls to the county courthouse (varous depts) and attorneys, we are waiting to find out how much more $$$$ it is going to cost to have our deed refiled with our current mailing address listed. This most likely would never have been a problem, but for the adoption process everything has to be PERFECT! Frustrating!!! Still waiting on fingerprints to come back.... We have had 3 of the 6 reports back for almost a month now, but still waiting on the last 3. Everyday I wait for the mail only to be disappointed again. I must look like a little child checking the mail for the package that never comes!

Tomorrow is 3/21/09 - World Down Syndrome Day. Also, the end of our prayer campaign, but by no means the end of our need for prayer! What else happens tomorrow? Miracle League! We begin our spring season! If you haven't had the opportunity to watch a Miracle League game yet.... you have been missing out! Truly inspiring! These kids/adults really enjoy the game! The first game we attended just about had me in tears. To think how often we think 'woe is me' while we are 'fully-abled'. These players embrace life to the fullest while meeting and exceeding the challenges that they must fight ever single day. Support your local Miracle League and the athletes! You'll soon understand that it is you who will be rewarded for your efforts. http://www.miracleleague.com/

Unexpected encouragement

Shelby and I have followed the bedtime routine of prayers (hers then mine) followed by a song for years now (Abby joins in now as well). The song has changed off and on. Months ago... maybe close to a year now, I remembered a song from my childhood that I thought would be very good for her to learn. We started working on this one and have been using it nightly since. My original thoughts were that this would be a daily source of encouragement for her (she is our daughter w/ DS). I feel that if you help your child have a strong feeling of self-worth up, they can face the negative comments from others with a little less pain. Well... since we have begun this journey, I find the words also apply to Tim and I. Each night I am now reminded that WE CAN DO THIS! Here are the Lyrics:

I AM A PROMISE (written by Bill & Gloria Gaither)

I am a Promise, I am a possibility
I am a Promise with a capitol "p"
I am a great big bundle of potentiality
And I am learning to hear God's voice
And I am trying to make the right choices
I'm a promise to be anything He wants me to be
(Repeat)

I can go anywhere that He wants me to go
I can be anything that He wants me to be
I can climb the high mountains
I can cross the wide sea
I am a great big bundle you see...

I am a Promise! I am a possibility
I am a Promise with a capitol "p"
I am a great big bundle of potentiality
And I am learning to hear God's voice
And I am trying to make the right choices
I'm a promise to be anything He wants me to be


I searched for this song on children's CDs for Shelby so we could learn the lyrics and hear it sang correctly (when I said we sang each night.... I never said we sang GOOD!). I found it on a Veggie Tales CD. Here is a link if you are interested... You can hear a sample as well (#9). We found the cd at Walmart in the toy dept where the cds/movies for kids are located.
http://bigidea.com/products/music/music_content.aspx?pid=107

Thankful!

I'm a very thankful for the way today has gone! We heard back from our HS SW and they will accept copies of the corrected medical forms that we have for our adoption agency. This saves us from having to go yet again to our MD for corrections. Still waiting on the background checks and last recommendation.

Today I am also thankful that the dreaded dentist appointment is behind us and Shelby did very well.... considering. Shelby is our 14 yr old w/ DS. For some reason unknown to us, she developed a fear of the up/down movement of the dentist chair (this also applies to the up/down movement of xray tables). This came up out of nowhere about 3+ years ago. Our pediatric dentist office has been real good to work with her on this... they clean her teeth with her sitting in a regular office chair. Well, she had to have 2 teeth pulled today. To date, she has NEVER lost a tooth. She has had 4 pulled in the past, 2/per visit. Baby teeth are not meant to stay with you this long and the 2 pulled today were worn out! If she would not cooperate today, they were going to refer her to an oral surgeon so she could be given an IV. Well... Shelby has an even greater fear of needles/bloodwork/etc... due to the 5yr protocol against Acute Lymphocytic Leukemia. Thankfully... with out much fuss (relatively speaking) they were able to get her into the chair, eventually laying back, and finally able to adjust the chair with her staying in it (ok - being held in it). We are very excited to be waiting on a visit from the Tooth Fairy tonight! This will be Ms. Tooth Fairy's 3rd trip to see Shelby in Shelby's almost 15 years! ... Very thankful for each of those almost 15 years!

Yeah! A Good Day!

I'm having a great day! Tim was able to get the MD to sign the corrected medical forms. I've emailed the scanned medicals to both our agency and HS agency for approval. Our agency has tentatively answered they are good! They will be reviewed by another set of eyes for the final OK, but I'm pleased with the sound of that! Our SW will review the medicals with her supervisor on Monday to see if they will accept these forms as well. They have their own forms that we had completed, but were missing a couple of things that we are praying these other forms will address. Fingers crossed that these work because our MD is sick of seeing us! I also emailed the scanned employment letter for the ok from our agency.... this has been ok'd as well! I am just so thrilled things are starting to look up. We have had a couple of unproductive days so it is nice to end the week on this note! Oh... one of our remaining recommendation letters was mailed yesterday. We should be just waiting on one more! Still waiting on the background/fingerprint reports to finish coming in... I think that will about wrap up our HS as far as what they need to complete it. So exciting to be nearing the end of this phase!

Praying them home

I was just on www.reecesrainbow.com looking again at all of the beautiful children that are waiting in various parts of the world. Waiting for something they may not even fully understand. Waiting on a family to take them into their home and teach them what it means to be loved and provided for. Waiting.... All of those beautiful children break my heart each time I look at them. Please take a moment of your day today and look through the Reece's Rainbow website. Look at the Older Children, at the Children at Most Risk, and at the Other Angels. Find one that draws you in. Please commit to praying for that child. Pray that somewhere there is a family that feels God's call. Pray for this family to be provided for as they step up to make a huge difference in that child's life. Pray for that child to be provided for and kept safe until their family can come for them. Pray them home. I would love to hear of your commitments if you would like to share... please post a comment about which child you will being praying home.

Please continue to pray for our girls and our family in our process. We have our up days and our down days. A paper pregnancy seems to have the same emotional rollercoaster as a typically pregnancy. There are days that I just want to cry, cry, cry! There is so much that is so out of our control that I struggle not to worry! I know that God is in control, but I struggle...

Another day...

Today has been spent back and forth with our SW trying to make sure if medicals need any corrections for them so we can get all things corrected in one attempt (or at least that is the plan). Also, made contact with the remaining references and both are being submitted ASAP. We really appreciate all of you who have been willing to complete the letters of recommendations on our behalf. We understand this was time spent out of your day and we thank you for taking the time to complete these so timely! We also found out our SW will be moving back to FL with her last day being the end of the month. This is not supposed to impact our homestudy since she will be completing it. I am a little nervous though, but they have assured us there will not be any problems. I do wish the best for our SW and her family. We hope everything turns out for them and they have a smooth transition back home!