Urgent Pray Request for Families Waiting Court Like Us!

Oh, I so miss this precious girly - can't wait to feel her in my arms again!

Marin for the Schildback family

Nellie for the Schildbach family

The Offices of the head honcho in Christy's country had the vice minister sign some of the dossiers that are headed to court (ours could be in the 15 dossiers that are involved in this, or our is just behind these).  This was done in order to speed adoptions along as the minister is a very busy position and sometimes it takes quite a while to get signatures. This was approved by the minister and is legal, but one of the family court judges is saying that he will deny any adoptions that have the vice ministers signature.  This would not mean that the adoptions would not go through, but that they would have to be resubmitted, causing about a month's delay.

Hannah for the Carr family!
Here's their Reece's Rainbow Grant Page

Today we found out that the minister's office has held off on sending these dossiers to court and are trying to get it worked out so that they will not cause delays with these (and future) adoptions.

Ria for the Mayr family!

Please pray that this can be worked out quickly and favorably for these (and all other families in process) dossiers, and that in the end it may means a speedier process so these precious children can be home forever!

Marnie for the Horton family

Gary for the Horton Family

I've included some links here to families the I know (who use the same adoption agency we use and I have gotten to know through a Facebook group) who could be effected by this.  Please consider praying for each family specifically, and it would be seriously awesome if you can also see if these families still need financial help as they are getting so close to needing the money to make this final step in their journey to bring their babies home!

Trinity for the Johnson Family

Felicity for the Johnson Family

Remember these are mommies and daddies who have held their precious children, said goodbye to their babies with special needs, and are now counting the days until they can ransom them and bring them home.  This is THE hardest part of the adoption process.  Waiting and having nothing to do but pray.  The possibility of an extra month's delay just seems cruel to both children and parents.

(I have visited these family's blogs and some of them list the country where these children are located, please do not include this country in your comments, thank you!)

Christy ("Priscilla" on Reece's Rainbow) and Daddy....can't wait for this to happen again!

Surprise Blessings!

Photos taken 12/14!

We had something amazing happen last week!  While I was reading a blog from a family who was on their "meet ya" trip this week in Christy's country, I recognized Christy's city!  This family was able to bring their son to stay with them for 3 days instead of visits twice a day like we had!  Then she commented that now they have to find things to do.  I contacted her, as I had seen that she had the same translator/driver that we did (Yavor), to see if it would be possible to check in to see if the thickener I was able to have brought to Christy was working and how the supply was lasting.

Not only were they able to do that, but Yavor was allowed to visit Christy and take photos!  He said she was quite tired (probably just laying down for a nap).  He also found out that the thickener is working well, and that the supply I sent should last a long time.  The nurse also requested that we send her some orthotic hose to help with her legs as she is super flexible and they think it would help to limit her movement.  It would take yet another miracle, actually a series of miracles, but we might just be able to pull it off and get her some "hip huggers."  I will work to get the hip huggers to our adoption agency attorney over there through a family who is going over there for their first trip in early January, and then she'll need to give it to Yavor and he would have to be going to her city with another family and have time to go to Christy's group home in order for us to get them to her, but it is possible...Please pray that we will be able to do this for her.

Her email was so fun to read, I'll quote it here:

"Dear Ruth!

We were able to go to Christy's group home today twice. The first time we went and Yavor went in and the nurse wasn't there until 12:00. This was in the morning. Yavor got to see Christy, and the care giver told him that Christy was doing really well, but she didn't know about the thickener, or anything about the supply of it needed. She said he should ask the nurse. Yavor said Christy was doing really well, though, and the caregiver told him that she'd had a medical appointment the week before and that went great!

So we went and had Jerry's visa picture taken and then we went to the mall and had lunch and then came back to the group home after noon. I said to Yavor, "see if you can get some photos of Christy and tell them her American Mama would be soooo happy!"...so Yavor took my camera and went in to check with the nurse. On his way in he said.."Now you realize that I probably won't be able to take any pictures, but I"ll try anyway!"...and then when he came out he brought me these on my camera!

Oh Ruth! She's so beautiful! I'm so thankful that we got to encourage you in this way! I said to Yavor..."Bravo!" "Bravo!"..he was beaming that he got to do that!

So..the report from the nurse:

Christy is doing great. She's off of her heart medicine now and only on her brain medicine. She's growing and actually outgrowing all of her clothes! She doesn't need any more thickener at this time. It's working well, but she has enough for a long time to come she said. Also, she mentioned wanting some stretchy ortho type socks or tights that would help to keep her legs straighter. Not sure what that meant, but she thought you might know, and if you could send those, that would be great. When you come for picking up, you'll need to bring her bigger clothes, the nurse said!

Okay..love to you!! Praying this blesses your day greatly!

 Mary!!!

Um, yeah!  That totally blessed my socks off!  And she's a woman after my own heart with all those exclamation points!  LOVE IT!!!!!!

As far as our adoption stuff goes, we were able to get our fingerprints done last Thursday, and I will be mailing them in through an FBI Channeler.  This way we should get our background checks back in about 2 weeks instead of 6 - 8 weeks!  Then I will have to send them to Caring Hands (a service that hand delivers documents to the US Secretary of State in Washington DC to get apostilled) and we will have them send the apostilled background checks directly to our adoption agency!

I am still hoping to hear any day now that our second stage dossier has been submitted.  These fingerprints/background checks will not be needed until we are assigned a judge/court date (and they might not be needed at all, as it depends on which judge we get), so this is not slowing anything down.

So here are the steps we still have left to go through:

-Article 5 translated/authenticated and  added to complete dossier submitted to Big Wig (approx 12/18)

-Complete dossier goes through 1 month of passing through lots of hands (finish approx 1/20)

-Gets signature from big wig (approx 1/27)

-is taken to the courts. (approx 1/31)

-assigned to a judge (approx 2/14)

-assigned a court date (approx 2/20)

-court date/adoption granted (approx 3/1)

-adoption gets signed court decree from the judge (approx 3/10)

-new birth certificate is applied for (approx 3/11)

-travel dates given once new birth certificate is done (approx 3/18)

Then we get to go bring her home (end of March?)

We also were blessed to have one of our photos of our visits with Christy put in a video that was just released today!  Please share this video, and consider participating in the 2013 



And please read about the Winslow family and there visits with their precious children last week.  This is the family who worked with Yavor in order to get updates on Christy! They still stand in need of funds to complete their adoption, so please consider donating to their grant!

Thank you Mary Winslow!

Thank You Yavor!!

Thank You God!!!

Our First Week Home

Since getting back from our trip to meet Christy, I was very sick with a virus.  I was having much difficulty thinking clearly.  But starting on Tuesday I began to tackle the paperwork needed for the second stage dossier.

I was able to fill out the I800 (application to immigrate
 a particular child) and gather the required documentation.  I was also able to print out the three documents that needed to be notarized and apostilled and had Jessica drive me so I could meet up with Daryl and get the signatures notarized.  The went out to the Washington Secretary of State on Thursday, and I expect those to come back late this week.

This week our assignment is to get to the local City Police and have them run a background check, and on Monday Daryl and I go see our family doctor for an updated medical report.  Then those two document will be notarized and sent in to get apostilled.

We also authorized a payment from our Reece's Rainbow grant for the last payment to our adoption agency.

That's it!  So much easier than the first stage dossier!

So the waiting is once again upon us!

We hope to bring her home sometime in February and are already making plans for that trip.  I plan to go through all our girl's clothes that are in storage (and elsewhere since Esther just grew out of the sizes that Christy will be wearing) to find all the 3T clothing we have around here.

We are in need of a LARGE suitcase to bring the necessary equipment and clothing for our time with her on our second trip (the second trip has now increased to 10 days instead of 5 due to a change in policy by the US Embassy, as they now require a TB test and positive result before we can bring her home) .

We have gotten the words "Fully Funded" removed from our FSP on Reece's Rainbow, as this extended trip, plus expenses on our first trip being higher than we expected, will cause our adoption to accrue more costs that we originally projected.  At this point, it looks like we are running somewhere between $1500 and $3000 short.  If you feel led to help with this shortfall, we greatly appreciate your generosity!  I know that God will provide, so do not feel pressured to help us out - there are so many other families with greater needs that we have!

I think the most amazing thing that I've experienced since coming home is two things - I've accidentally called Carese "Christy" twice officially making her a part of our family, and when I watch videos and look at photos I can almost feel what it felt like to hold her in my arms, and it's nearly a physical ache.  I thought other adoptive parents were just overly sentimental about missing their babies between trips, but I can verify that it's all true.  They get into your hearts and make an indelible impression on your arms so very, very quickly!

The Second Trimester....

I find it very interesting how similar adoption is to pregnancy.  When you think about adoption, it's like the time when you aren't pregnant yet, but hope to be/plan to be/think you might be pregnant soon.  When you commit to a child, it's like a positive pregnancy test.  When your adoption plans are interrupted it's like a miscarriage - you grieve for the child you won't be able to adopt.

We committed to adopting Priscilla back in January.  I liken the last 4 1/2 months to the first trimester. The going it tough, and there's nothing to show for it.  You are working so hard on something you can't put your hands on.  You're tired all the time and there's always more to do than you have time or energy.  Then, you finally reach the end of this first trimester - the home study arrives!

We are now entering into a new phase of our adoption, the second trimester if you will.  We are waiting to "see" our little girl.  The hard work is done, I'll have more time and energy to function from day to day.  I have a list of projects to accomplish before she joins our family.  I'm sure, just like the second trimester in pregnancy, there will be days that it will seem like this isn't really happening.  Life will seem"normal" and there will be very little to remind me that we are adopting.  Except for those occasional little reminders, similar to those precious first kicks/movements, like getting our fingerprints done for the I800a, and submitting our dossier. I'll need to prepare and plan.

In about 8 weeks we will get to "see" our "baby."  To me, this will be very much like the big 20 week ultrasound (only better as we'll get to hold her and love on her!).  But it will be the first time we truly lay eyes on her.  At that point everything will seem so much more real.  Our hearts will be bonded with her and it will be SOOOO hard to walk away and not "see" her again for so many, many months!

After that, we'll be in our last trimester - the hardest part.  There will be so much to do to prepare, as I know I will be unable to accomplish much of anything once she is home, for months even.  We'll get her bedroom ready, get clothes for her set out (we'll know her size by then).  We'll have more paperwork to submit to finish the adoption.  But, mostly, we will be waiting.  Anxiously waiting.  Praying for her to stay strong, to remain healthy.  Each day will seem longer than the last.  Going "overdue" due to delays in the red tape/legal process will be excruciating.

Once everything is ready and the time has come, Daryl will take me to bring her home.  We'll leave our other children, and come home with their new sister.  Then everything will slow down, we will focus on our new blessing and keep tight for a while.  Time to bond, time to learn about her.  Time to allow her to adjust to her new world and new time zone (so like a newborn that is on the wrong time frame, awake all night, sleeping all day!).  Keeping exposure to anything outside our family to a minimum as we care for her and bond to her.  Taking her to doctor's appointments to make sure she gets the best start here as she can.

And, eventually, finding a new normal for us. I always find it takes at least 3 months to find a new normal after having a baby, but as I get older, it has taken longer and longer.  With Carese it was nearly a year. With Priscilla, it may take that long as well.  Our friends and family will need to be loyal and patient as we go through the process of making Priscilla a part of our family.  But it will all be worth it.

But, there are many ways that adoption is so very different from a pregnancy.  While we are waiting, our child is in an orphanage on the other side of the world, spending most of her day in a crib.  Not receiving the therapies, medical care and proper nutrition that she needs.  No amount of my eating right or being careful to guard my health will help her.  Granted, if I'm eating right and working on my health, I will be in better shape to care for her, but it doesn't help her right now.  When an adopted child joins the family, they are not a clean slate.  They have been damaged.  They have learned to cope in ways that a baby should never have to cope.  They have learned to never expect their needs to be met.  They have learned that crying does not bring about consolation.  They have learned that at night, there is no one to care for them, they are on their own.

And, unlike pregnancy, it is not 9 months, give or take a few weeks. It's more like a year, give or take a few months!  A year that YOUR child is not in your arms but living in a cold, sterile environment learning to rock in place to self-console instead of sitting in my lap, in my arms, rocking in our purple princess room.

So, when is our "due date"?  We really have no idea.  Sometime next winter.  October at the earliest, January or later if things don't go well.  Another winter in an orphanage for a little girl who has battled pneumonia 4 times in her first 3 winters.

Please pray with us that our paperwork will sale through all the red tape.  That we can go get our precious little girl in October rather than January or later.  Pray that she remains healthy.  Pray that we can make all the needed preparations in our home for her.  Pray that we will be healthy for our traveling to meet her and to bring her home.  Pray for our family as they prepare to hold up while we are gone.

But even more.....

PRAY that others will see the needs of these children to be adopted!

EVERY life is worth saving.  These children will NOT be OK if left where they are.  Unlike children in need of adoption here in the US, they are not in homes.  They are  not receiving therapies to help them grow and learn.  These children face a death sentence if they are not adopted.

If you are pro-life, then you should consider the plight of these precious children, loved by God, who desperately need a home.  These are children abandoned because they are not perfect.  But in God's eyes they are perfect.  In God's eyes they are worth every penny, every sleepless night, every sacrifice of time it takes to bring these children into a home where they can be loved, cared for and taught of the ultimate adoption.  That they can be adopted by God Almighty and be His child.

Adoption is the ultimate outreach to a sinful word.  Adopting is being a missionary, an evangelist.  An adoptive family is a physical manifestation of the spiritual reality of salvation.

If you can't adopt, the support adoptive families through prayer and financial giving.  If you can't give financially, give some physical help to a local adoptive family.  And everyone can do this - advocate for children who are waiting for their forever family to find them.  Share the plight of these forgotten children.

If you think you can't adopt because you don't have the money, I say "pshaw, that's nothing."  I know because we have experienced God's provision in a way that astounds me every day.  If God is calling you to adopt, He is MORE THAN ABLE to provide such an easy thing as money!

Plus - did you know that there are 3 children listed right now who have enough money in their Reece's Rainbow Grants to nearly pay for their entire adoption?????

Check them out:

Nolan is almost 10 years old
He has been transferred to an adult mental institution
His life is in imminent danger
But he can be adopted!
He has over $15,000 ready and waiting to be used
for his adoption!!!
Can you save him?

Iris has over $16,000 to use for her adoption!
She loves to care for the other children in her orphanage
Here's is a blog post about her:
http://www.tinygreenelephants.com/2013/02/beautiful-iris-video.html
This country is fast -
most children are home in 7 months!

Maria is an 11 year old sweetie pie!
She has $15,000 for her adoption
Are you her momma???
She's in the same ORPHANAGE as Iris
(hint, hint, hint!)

A Red Letter Day!

Today two things we have been waiting for have happened within hours of each other!

Our Home Study is Completed!  

AND

Our Matching Grant has arrived in our Reece's Rainbow FSP!

But first, the final numbers on our funding!  When our matching grant began, we estimated that we needed around $21,000 to complete the adoption from that point forward.  We set our goal of raising $10,500 to use for our matching grant.  Our matching grant also matched the value of items donated, so that kind of made things a little complicated, but it all worked out so amazingly well!  Our matching grant was for up to $14,000 (half of the entire cost of the adoption, including expenses we had already covered).  

So here's the totals:Monetary donations/commissions earned (FSP or directly to us) = $10,476Value of items donated for auctions/sold & proceeds sent to us = $3193

Total of Matching Grant - $14,000

Notice that - they rounded up! Astounding!

So, in summary, we are fully funded.  We even have extra funds in case our projected costs are less than our actual costs (especially for plane tickets)

We also found out last week that the process for filing the dossier has changed slightly, speeding things up.  Before you had to first apply for the I800a (application to immigrate a child), and then once you have the I800a approval, you would include that in your dossier and send that off.  Now, you send off your I800a and dossier as soon as they are ready, and then send the I800a to join the dossier once you get the approval!  This will save 4 - 6 weeks of processing time!  Good thing I've been steadily working on the dossier items!

Right now I have the I800a completely ready, just waiting for signatures and that Home Study, and I also have everything for the Dossier ready, waiting for signatures, notarization and then off to get apostilled.  Once everything is notarized/apostilled I can send in the Dossier.  This should mean that I can send in the dossier by the end of next week if all goes smoothly!

And that means that we will be traveling to meet Priscilla sometime around the end of July or August.  Her birthday is August 5, so would you pray with me that we will be traveling the week of her birthday?  Her birthday falls on the Monday, so in all likelihood, if we travel that week, we would meet her on her birthday!  She would probably have no idea of the significance, but when she's older, it would mean that she did not spend her third birthday alone!

We also did some re-arranging in the girl's bedroom as Elizabeth didn't like sleeping in the bunk, and having a bunk above Esther's bed made it nearly impossible to get Esther in and out of bed without putting your back out.  So here's some updated photos of their bedroom.  Carese sleeps in the white crib, Priscilla will sleep in the brown crib, and Esther sleeps in the bed to the right of the brown crib, and lastly, Elizabeth sleeps in the bed next to Esther's bed.

That's another project I have to tackle this week - I almost forgot!  I have to make up new photo sheets to send in with the Dossier showing our home and our family, or should I say "her home and her family!"

So, we have made it over the biggest hurdles - the home study and funding for our adoption.  Isn't that amazing!  From here on out it will be mostly waiting, waiting and more waiting.

I'm  planning on taking a week off from the internet once I have the I800a and Dossier submitted, but I'll update the blog if anything important happens.  I've been spending WAY to much time online since this adoption started, and we have so many project around here that we need to get done during this waiting period, since after Priscilla comes home, projects will take a back seat for a long time!

Thanks for your prayers and encouragement through these past few months, and we appreciate your prayers that this next step will go smoothly as well!

Astounding Final Tally (well, mostly final)

Wow, Tuesday was incredible.  Well, actually, all of last month was unbelievable.

But before I go into details, I have not had time to tell you about the conference call with the doctor for the University of Washington Adoption Medical Clinic.  He was very encouraging.  He enjoyed watching Priscilla's videos and got a kick out her little personality.  By the end of the conversation he told us that he had no reservations about how we would handle caring for Priscilla when she comes home.  He gave us some questions to ask when we go to see her the first time in order to better prepare for her medical needs when we bring her home.  He even told us that he believes that Priscilla will thrive in our home and under our care.  The phone call was absolutely so encouraging!

I have crunched the numbers.  I am waiting on just a few Facebook Auction winners to pay, and for a the checks for the proceeds from the parties to arrive.

Just as a reminder, when we were offered the matching grant, the two limits were donations being given by the end of April and a maximum matching grant of $14,000.

Here are the preliminary total amounts donated to our adoption in the last 5 weeks:

Reece's Rainbow FSP Grant - $4560 (before Paypal fees taken out)
Cash/in person donations - $1015
Commissions on Amazon Sales - $89
Paypal Donations during April - $913
Spaghetti Feed/Silent Auction Donations - $3198
April FB Auctions - $616 (all but 4 winners have paid, so this is approximate)
Party Commissions - $193.00
Checks coming for Waldorf Doll's sold - $180.00

When we started out 5 weeks ago, we had approximately $21,000 in adoption costs still to cover.

That meant, that with the matching grant we needed to raise $10,500.

Did you add those figures up???

$10,764 was donated!

I know, no way! Right?!

Also, if you remember, that I shared that we would need $6,000 in order to prepare and submit our dossier, and that we would not have access to our Reece's Rainbow Grant (which is where the matching grant is going) until after our dossier is submitted, approved and we have been invited to travel.

Well, readers, it looks like we will reach that goal.  Right now, we have just shy of $4,000 in our savings account (after transferring the money needed for the I800a application), and we have over $1,000 in our Paypal account that I have not transferred yet.  We still have a few hundred dollars coming our way in the next week (proceeds from parties and the sale of the Waldorf dolls and a few FB auctions).  Since then, we have actually done some preparation, so we no longer need all $6,000 in place, it's more like $5,600. With a little of our personal funds, we will be able to accomplish this easily!

Five weeks ago, $14,000, $10,500 and $6,000 were numbers that I was working with, and every single one of them seemed so out or reach.  It just didn't seem possible.  Humanly possible that is.

But my God is so much bigger and better than I could have imagined.  He took those numbers and showed me that NOTHING is impossible with God.

Lastly, we have doubted.  Others have doubted.  Some have expressed their concerns to us in person (and their concerns are mostly valid!).   There have been so many times in the last few months where we have thought to ourselves "what in the world are we doing."

 Well, God has over and over assured us that this is His will for our family.  Priscilla is our child, born on the other side of the world, but our child.

God doesn't limit Himself to using people who are capable, strong, and have plenty of resources.  If He did, He wouldn't get much of the credit.  He chooses people who are incapable of doing what He is asking, unless He steps in and equips them to do His will.

Voddy Bachaum talked a lot at the Home School Conference about the fact that God doesn't require something of us without enabling us to do it first.  Our pastor has said "His Commands are His Enablings" (or something like that).

God has taught us through this that He is more than able to meet our needs - all our needs.

Amazing. Incredible. Unbelievable.  These are words that I using far too often of late...so I went to the thesaurus to increase my vocabulary.

Astounding, Bewildering, Marvelous, Spectacular, Staggering, Stupendous, Astonishing...words only begin to describe how I feel right now.

I hope you are as in awe of what God has done as I am.

Life will seem quite dull after this month.  Well, life is never dull around this house, but you know what I mean!!

Before I end, please pray for the Browns and Gemma.  I had the blessing of meeting Maria, Gemma's mommy, at the home school conference this past week.  I was able to see the many photographs and videos that she took when she went to visit Gemma in January - Gemma is beautiful, but she needs to come home as she is not receiving the care that she desperately needs.  They have been waiting for over 3 months now for a signature from the government in Priscilla's country (Priscilla and Gemma are in the same country, but different cities).  Some families who have gone to meet their little ones after the Browns returned home have already gotten their signatures and invitations to travel.  This is very discouraging for them.

Please pray that the Browns will get their signature first thing after that government resumes (they are on holiday all this week).  If you can, stop over on their blog, Carry Your Light and give them some encouragement by commenting on her blog, or better yet, donate to their FSP, because as you can see, they have received very little financial help for their adoption.  They also have an Amazon search button that you can use to do your shopping and help them bring Gemma home!  But most of all, pray for this family, that they would be encouraged and that they would be going to bring Gemma home soon!!!!

CLICK HERE to find out how you can become a Reece's Rainbow Warrior!

34 Hours and Counting - New Waldorf Dolly For Sale!!

Priscilla Look Alike Waldorf Style Dolly

Our Matching Grant expires at midnight, PST tomorrow.  It has been absolutely amazing to see God work in the lives of others to generously give to our adoption fund.  Amazing.

Lovely hand knit hair!

Just this morning I was fighting tears in the bank, as I unfolded a donation given to me at church yesterday.  I had been amazed that someone would give us yet another $100 bill in cash in person, but then as I was making out the deposit, it was THREE $100 bills!  When I got to the car, I could no longer hold it in.  God has blessed us beyond expectation over and over again, people have surprised us over and over again at their generosity.  Donations from people that we know are struggling to make ends meet themselves, enormous donations from people who have extra, and everything in between.  Even the coins given to us by children amaze me,

Custom Made Dolly - you pick color of hair, eyes and skin!

And just minutes ago, this beautiful dolly (who looks an awful lot like Priscilla might just look like once we get her hair to grown out from it's "orphanage hairdo") has been offered for sale and all of the proceeds (minus shipping) will go to our adoption fund!

And if that isn't enough, Cheryl just listed a CUSTOM Made Waldorf Style Dolly - you pick the hair color,

Please share this listing on your social media - let's find buyers for these dolly!

As of the donations of these dollies, we are down to under $1000 to reach our goal of covering all our projected estimate future expenses for  our adoption (barring anything unforeseen like price hikes in airfare).  Isn't that AMAZING????  Just 5 weeks ago we were looking at needing to come up with around $21,000 to complete this adoption!!!

Oh - and our Home Study is waiting for the final director's signature today!

Lila Rose Party for Priscilla!

But first - News!

Our home study is written, and awaiting the signature of the home study agency director - he'll be in the office on Monday to sign it!

Today I sent in our FBI background checks to be Apostilled in Washington DC!  This cost us $75 for this service, we used Caring Hands to do this service for us.  We need these apostilled for the dossier.  We have some other home work for the dossier, but I have plenty of time to get them done - apostilling our marriage certificate, new medical certificates (apostilled of course), getting a psych evaluation done and a local police background check (I have to find out if we'd need to do this in our local town or with the Sheriff since we do not live in the city limits).

I have the I800a all ready to go, we just need to sign it (all adults) and attach the home study and a hefty check (around $1000 because we have 5 adults in the house).  This takes 4 - 5 weeks to process, and then once we get that back, we send in our dossier.

Now - about that Lila Rose Party!

We're hosting a Lila Rose Party as a fundraiser for our adoption!

We have a Facebook Page set up for this, but you can order using this link too!

Party Closes Monday Night, but we'd really like to get the bulk of the orders placed today and tomorrow!

So Close! And Auction News!

Turquoise Slouch Hat

Our home study draft is written, it's just waiting for one document.  That document was a background check for child abuse registries in Iowa (where I went to college).  I sent this in nearly a month ago, but it still hadn't arrived as of this morning.

Soft Soled Baby Shoes

So I called that office in Iowa and found out that they do not make note of what background checks they do, so even if they had processed one for me, they would have no record of it.  They thought it should have arrived by now, so they suggested that we try faxing it in and they would fax it back to our home study agency.  Great Idea!  So it has been faxed to the Iowa office.  Now we wait for them to process it (they say it takes them about 5 days to get to a report due to their backlog.

I'm going to call them on Monday and see if it can't be processed quicker since this is the second time around.

Turquoise Chain Scarf

Please pray that this would come in quickly so we can get on to our next step - filing the I800a.  I have the form all filled out, along with all the documentation required, and the money is all in place...we just need to add the home study!

On another note - we've added some new, donated, items to our Facebook A Seventh Sister Auctions, as you can see in the photos in this blog post!

And lastly, 11 days left for our matching grant, $2600 left to raise before he 30th.

PS. We cancelled the giveaway due to lack of interest (not one paid entry in 4 days)

Spaghetti Feed Report, plus Matching Grant Update!

Yesterday was our BIG fundraising event!  We hosted a Spaghetti Feed Date Night that included a silent auction and raffles as well as a movie too!

While we didn't have as many people attend as I had hoped, the evening was a smashing success!  Those attended had a great time, the food was delicious, all the planning made for a smooth evening and best of all, we brought in more that I had hoped for!

So here are the numbers:
$2100 in donations before the event - food, money for food, items for the silent auction
$2800 in cash donations at the event (including winning bids on auction items)
$4900 will be matched in with our matching grant!

So we now have $7700 to use for our adoption that we didn't have yesterday morning!

I worked feverishly all week making posters for the event as well as all the papers needed for the event (bidding sheets, directional sheets, thank you notices etc).

Here'a photos of the events as well as some of the images I used to create the posters.  If you are interested in using my posters at an adoption awareness or adoption fundraising event, please contact me and I'll tell you how you can get access to the larger files!

So here is where we stand as far as getting the most out of our matching grants after last night's huge success!

We still need to raise a total of over $8,000 yet in order to have all the funds to pay for all future events for our adoption, including projected travel costs.

We also need $3000 in readily available cash in order to submit our dossier around the end of May.  Our Reece's Rainbow Grant funds will not be available for our use until after our dossier has been submitted and approved.
So if we raise around $4,000 before the end of April, we will no longer need to do any fundraising as all our future expenses will be covered!  If $3,000 of that is money donated outside our RR account, then everything is all set for the dossier as well.

So there it is - $4,000 in donations in 2 weeks.  That will make the most of our matching grant!  If we bring in more than that, it's OK as the traveling expenses are just approximate.  If we raise more than we need, then we will consider helping out another adoptive family with the fund once we are home with Priscilla!



That could be 80 people giving $50, or or 100 people giving $40, or 200 people giving $20, or 800 people giving $5!  Every dollar counts double with our matching grant>

Here are a few of the posters I made for the event - I'll post the rest on my next blog post as they are on my external hard drive...and I have no idea where that is right now (we had to use it to get the HUGE poster files to my husband's workplace to get the HUGE posters printed - the biggest one was 4 ft by 5 feet!

Tomorrow's A Big Day + What We Have Yet To Raise

Tomorrow we will be holding our Priscilla's Ransom Spaghetti Feed/Silent Auction Date Night!

Amazing things have been happening - here's a few of the unbelievable providences straight from the hand of my Heavenly Father:

Food Donated plus money donated means that this event will cost our family NOTHING!

        Right Down to the last Dollar!!!  This included the fact that garlic bread just happens to be on sale THIS WEEK ONLY!  

Over $1500 in merchandise/gift cards/services have been donated!

             And more items are still coming in!!!

A Sheet Cake with over 90 servings was donated, as well as all the spaghetti!

Decorations were obtained just hours before the person who had them left to go out of town!

And just because He can, I got word from two different people that they were each sending in checks to our Reece's Rainbow FSP for $500 - That means $2000 when our matching grant come into the picture!

Here's a list of some of the items that we will be auctioning/raffling off tomorrow. along with their approximate value:

$30.00	Willow Tree gift basket
$55.00	Custom Modest Swim Suit
$220.00	professional matted photographs
$50.00	sports car rental - Mustang!
$25.00	Vision Plus Gift vouncher
$25.00	Wee Ones children's consignment shop
$20.00	personalized Tee from Bellingham Baby Company
$12.00	Hobbit Posters ($3 ea)
$60.00	Complete Custom Scrapbook Album, baby boy
$150.00	Cornerstone Auto Care Gift Certificates
$20.00	Grace Cafe Pie
$38.00	quilting gift set from Fabric Etc
$65.00	Pain Relief Clinic GC for consulation and adjustment
$13.00	violin lesson
$28.00	hand knit wool socks
$20.00	hand knit toddler hat
$60.00	Carl's Mower GC
$75.00	Hannegan Farm & Garden
$25.00	Jonathan Park's CDs
$25.00	Child of God framed print from Surroundings,
$25.00	tackle box/hat/fishing tackle-Dave's Sporting Good
$35.00	Family Bookstore – CD/ DVD/devotional books
	$400.00 Little Earthling Photo session + prints $84.00 Tupperware FridgeSmart 4 Piece Set

So Here we are...I've crunched the numbers, and in order to cover all remaining expenses that we expect to encounter, including all travel, legal fees and document preparation and we "only" need to raise $7000 if we can raise it before the end of April!  This will only work if we raise all $7000 while the matching grant is in effect..so here is my thermometer to help track our progress!  You can also see it in the right hand column!  I'll update it as we get donations!  This accounting for all donations that I am aware of as being made, or is in the mail as of this moment!

Edited to add that I found that I missed a number in my calculations, so right now we are down to $6,335 needed to raise if we are to have all funds in place by the end of April.

We don't need to have the money by the end of April...this is just showing what it would take to raise enough so that with the matching grant all our projected expenses would be covered by donations + matching grant! We would no long have to do any fundraising if that happens!!!

Update on our Matching Grant!

Late last month we were contacted by someone I did not know.  Her name is Anita.   She wanted to let me know that her husband and herself wanted us to be the recipient of the portion of their corporate profits that they donate to charities and other needs.

Juni

Lelia

She explained that she and her husband, Steve, had been drawn to Priscilla when she appeared on Reece's Rainbow Newly Listed Children Page!  They had actually gone to commit to her the day after we did.  They were disappointed, but prayed about it.  The Lord has led them to pursue adopting two little girls from China instead!

But get this - they have already adopted - FIVE TIMES!  They have 5 biological, grown children, and they have adopted five children domestically who all have special needs, and now they are adopting two little girls who have Down Syndrome.  The Lord will bless them richly, both now and before His throne!

But they continued to read about our adoption journey through our blog.  The Lord moved them to reach out to us and offer us a matching grant!

I was so amazed.  God is so amazing, isn't He?

So here's how it works.  They will match any and all donations to our adoption that we receive by the end of April!  They will match money donated to our Reece's Rainbow FSP, our FundRazr Account, directly to our Paypal account, checks and cash given to us directly and any goods that are donated for our auctions they will match at their estimated value, regardless of what is actually paid for the item!

The only limit is being fully funded - that means up to $14,000 given will be matched!!!

Is that generous or what!  I gives me goose bumps to share this with people, and I tend to cry just thinking about His goodness to us.  We just don't deserve this.

Here's a quote from her email to me - "My prayer for your family is that by the end of April you are blessed to be fully funded, so you can focus on the process of adoption and preparing your hearts and home for your beautiful daughter. :)  We don't want any public  "credit" because we just see ourselves as processors for God's blessings in our lives."

Praise the Lord with me on His blessings to us.  Pray that we can make the most of this opportunity!  Pray for blessing on Steve and Anita and their family!

Help us by sharing this blog post so more people can be aware of this unprecedented opportunity!