As I sit looking out the window of the plane while flying back home I can not help but think about a flight that will involve most of my family going, and all of my family coming back. Yes, I am talking about our flight to Latvi@. If you haven't seen the puzzle fundaiser we are doing to raise funds for those tickets you can scroll down to a few posts.
A lot of people have asked where we are and what are the next steps. I figured I has a few hours to kill on this flight so I would try to address them.
We are. Currently we are in a waitng stage. Our finger prints have been taken and we are awaiting a case worker to be assigned to our case for approval. In the mean time while we wait for that step to be completed, our dossier has been sent to L@tvia and is currently being translated. Once we recieve approval from the Immigration department we will send that document over to complete our dossier.
It will then be sent to the court for their approval and we will then recieve travel dates. We have been told that we could be traveling as soon as October!
Wow looking at a calendar October is right around the corner. We are so very thankful for all that have added pieces to our puzzle and I cannot wait to get home to see it! I noticed between flights that four more pieces were added this evening!
You may recall in Linda's last post she mentioned that we would be doing an online auction. We have begun collecting things fir that auction. Do you have any goods, or services that you would be willing to donate? If you do would you please contact either Linda or I so that we can get it included?
Thank you all for following along on our journey with us, and if you have any questions feel free to ask! I am more than happy to answer them.
I loved the the sunset that God created tonight for me to witness from the sky!
After posting that we had 11 more pieces added to the puzzle this afternoon, there were 6 more pieces added!!! We are so grateful for each piece and thank you all.
I did not even think about it until Linda and I were talking about it, but with the addition of the 6 pieces this evening we should have our first plane ticket covered!
Can you add the missing piece for our adoption? A
$25.00 donation will help us travel and bring our child home. Every
donation will go to help fund our airfare. Our plane tickets for the
first trip are estimated to cost around $6,000. We have 252 pieces to our
puzzle.
252 x $25 = $6,300
. When you donate, we will put your name
on the back of the puzzle piece. Once the puzzle is completed, we will
frame it between two pieces of glass and hang it in our home. This will
be a wonderful keepsake and story to share with our child.
This week is a big week in our Journey. It is hard to express the amount of time and effort it has taken to get to this point. Through the process, I out what a dossier is, found out what it means to have documents apostilled, and learned about biometrics. I also find myself getting excited about emails, text messages and Mail from the Department of Homeland Security. Today was one big milestone, and tomorrow is another. Today we got all of the documents that we had to get notarized, apostilled. We have been working since February to get to this point. The road has not always been smooth, and it will probably not be smooth from here on out, but today is the day that Linda and the kids drove over to Springfield, and went to the Secretary of States' Index department (I did not realize the Secretary of State did so much, well not the Secretary himself, but his agency), and got all 41 documents that make up our dossier apostilled. I find it funny anytime I talk about getting the dossier apostilled everyone seems to say "What?". It is basically verifying that the notary is a valid notary and that it is completed correctly. Thankfully all 41 of our documents were accepted. and we were able to take our dossier to the FedEx store and ship them off to begin the translation process.
Success!!!
The other big thing that will be happening this week (actually tomorrow Tuesday), is that we will be going to our biometrics appointment. Many of you are probably wondering what a biometrics appointment is. It is basically a fancy term for getting your fingerprints done. Now for those that have been following our process you are probably thinking, didn't your fingerprints taken in the beginning of this adoption journey? That answer would be Yes, Yes we did, but apparently there is not such thing as sharing digital finger prints and their results. We have to get them taken again tomorrow and again ran through the FBI database. Seems strange but it is a necessary step along the way. We are super excited about where we are and can not wait to get our approval from Immigration.
So many people have asked us what the next steps are.
How was hosting? How are you guys? Well hosting was difficult,
wonderful, challenging, and amazing all wrapped into 5 short weeks. I
will say hearing him call us Mom and Dad was amazing! “Mommy where are my
flip flops” (insert strong accent).... Heart melting! Daddy's
home.... and watching him run to give a hug. Hosting has forever changed
our lives and our children’s lives as well. One night Caden was lying in
bed listening to music. He came into our room so upset just crying his
heart out. He told us the song "Kings and Queens" (music video below) had been playing and he just
realized that there are more children who need homes. There are more kids
like his brother who need a family. His words were “How can we help.
We need to do more!" We just held him and all cried.
The other day I had a coupon for a store. I told the kids that we
were only going to get what we absolutely needed. I prayed before going
in asking for God to help us be wise with our money. We do this often as
a family but that day it hit Libby! She honestly needs a pair of shoes but I could
not get her to pick out anything that day! When I hear her praying she
asks for God to help us spend our money carefully! She is 6. I am
amazed by her. Everyday Lexie ask where is he? It still stings
every morning! We are going through the motions of daily life but
everything is a blur. My heart just hurts. We are all exhausted and
it is going to take some time to find our new normal.
What are the next steps? We have gotten everything
into our agency for review this week. They are going to get our paper
work to his country where they will start the process. This will take
anywhere from 8-16 weeks. PLEASE pray papers move fast! We will get
an invitation to the country and have only a couple of weeks to get plane
tickets and an apartment rented. Our first trip we are going to take our
3 children with us. We will have to stay around 3 weeks. We hope
that we will be allowed to bring him back with us after our first trip.
Then a couple of months after the first trip Ryan will have to return for
a court hearing thankfully it will only be about a 2-3 day trip. Then our
third trip everything will be finished. That trip will be about 1 week.
Once in the United States we will have to get things done here. My
head spins when I try to thank about it all. We are so thankful that we
have the funds to send off our paperwork. After next week our savings is
gone. I have to be honest there is a part of me that is worried. We
are going to apply for grants, loans, and fundraise like crazy. We have
about 3 - 4 months and are trying to fund $20,000. I cannot say enough GOD
has amazed us already with how HE has provided for this whole process.
We are very thankful for everything. Our friends, families, and
church family have been so supportive and encouraging. There are people who
think we are completely crazy and that's ok. It hurts but we truly
believe that GOD has called us to this adoption. We are going to
follow this path that has been laid before us. I'm sure this sounds like
I am getting all "churchy” that is not my intent. I believe with my
heart that we are to do this! The other night I was with a wonderful
group of women and we were praying. One Mom shared that God has in
trusted us with his children because we will fight for them, stand up for them,
encourage them. We are ready to fight for him. I love this child so much
but GOD loves him more. He loved him before I ever knew his name.
I am thankful and honored to go on this journey...
Amazon, coffee, Origami owl, Issak's Family fun,
garage sales, pizza fundraiser, cupcake fundraiser, T- shirt fundraiser, and a
silent auction.
How can you help! You can share our journey. Not
only will it help us but you never know who might be interested in hosting!
We want to do more and help other children who need a forever family.
We are going to have a silent auction. If you have something that
you would like to donate to our silent auction please let us know. We are
thinking gift cards, tickets, homemade items, food (another family had a well-known
lady in her town offer to make a meal or desert for the winning family).
In a few weeks we will be able to take any donations that you can make
for our Garage sale. We have had a family offer to have a garage sale in
their town in our honor. Would you be willing to arrange one in your
town? Issak's Family Fun is a great place for the entire family.
The owners have offered to donate 10% to our adoption. You will need this flyer. We have a fellow host mom who has graciously offered 50% of her
proceeds for Origami Owl jewelry sales. Ryan signed us up the other day
for coffee. They have K-cups for you keurig users. We will profit
15% - 30% off of every order. Using our Amazon link will allow us
to earn 4% -7% of your purchase. I know it’s a pain to use our link.
Ryan put it on our blog to help make it easier. Or you can bookmark
our link. We are also the chosen family for Worthy of the Prize . Roughly $5 of every keychain wristlet sold on their site through the month of August, and $10 of every Chosen necklace purchased will be donated towards our adoption fund.
Coming soon:
We will be doing a pizza fundraiser. We could
use help with taking orders, making, and delivery. Friends are graciously
helping us with a T- shirt fundraiser. We have been in contact with a
bakery who has offered to do a cupcake fundraiser for us as well.
There is no way we can thank everyone enough for their
support! We are deeply touched and moved by everyone. When
people we know and even those who we don't know share our blog, use our
Amazon link, send us cards, leave prayers and scripture on our answering
machine, emails with prayers or words of advice, take our children out for a
special day, and my sister who cleaned my house. We are greatly blessed
to have all of you in our lives. You are on this journey with us. I
thank GOD for all of you. The other day, while we were hosting, I
was out at the skating rink with the kids and casually talking to this lady.
She was a friend of a friend and then she said wait you are the Henry's
wish. LOL It was great to meet her! I didn't even get a chance to
catch her name but thankful for her kind encouraging words. This
little guy has no idea how many people are praying for him. Thank You for
being the hands and feet of Christ to our family.
Tonight was the night that I believe every host family dreads. It was our last night at HOME. He does not leave tomorrow but we have to be at the airport early Thursday morning so that causes us to get a hotel room. We had put packing off until the last possible minute causing a trip to the store this afternoon.
This evening we had a laid back evening. We spent some time playing with some radii control cars making ramps and jumping them at high speeds causing gasps and laughter all around. We then settled in with some leftover birthday cake and watched a family favorite American Ninja Warrior. He had asked if tonight was the last one and a pit formed in my stomach formed when one of the kids said no it will be over after you go back to Latvia. I just wish that once he said yes that he could stay forever bit I know that is not the case.
I will wrap this up with a bit if good new s that I found out yesterday. As many of you know we were the chosen family to recieve the proceeds. We were informed that the chosen family for August was very close to meeting their need, so they gave up their spot and gave it to us, so once again we will receive the proceeds from Worthy of the Prize. To find out more click the banner on the right!
When he got here this summer we knew that one thing that he loved to do was swim. We have a pool in the back yard and it has been used often this summer. Sunday I took him golfing for the first time. After we got away from him trying to swing it like a hockey stick (another of his favorite things to do) we were good. He hit the ball for the first time and said " ah that was cool".
Last night we were looking at the calendar and telling him what was going to happen on each day. We got to next tuesday and had a couple of choices. We could go to the pool, the pool has a waterslide that he enjoyed as well as some diving boards that he loved jumping off, and the other option was to go golfing. I asked if he wanted to go swimming and he said " ahhh yes". Then I asked if he wanted to go golfing instead... and he said "ahhhh" and was torn between his old love of swimming and his new love of golfing. It is a beautiful thing seeing him do things that he loves. It is hard to believe that we are down to under a week left. We have a few things planned including a special two on one, mommy and daddy date day. We are making the most of the time that we have left with him.
With the new news that I blogged about last night we are back into full swing again. If you shop on Amazon.com, would you please consider accessing the site through our link. We are signed up as an Amazon Associate and 4%-7% of your purchase will go towards our adoption fund!
We are the chosen family for Worth of the Prize. They have chosen us as the family that will receive the proceeds of the sale of their keychain wristlets. We will receive approximately $5 of every wristlet. They have also partnered with someone that sells necklaces that say "Chosen". You can get to the Worthy of the Prize page by clicking the link or the picture on the right.
