Psychological Evaluation

Hey everyone!  As many of you know, we have been having an incredibly difficult time finding a licensed Psychologist to perform the psychological evaluations that our Country requires.  I found a solution, FINALLY!  We should have most of the evaluation done next week and have it in our hands the week after that or so!  This is great since many of the others we have found said it would take several months to complete!  That is the good news!  The bad news is that it will cost us about $1020 that we have to pay TOMORROW!  Please, please, please help us if you can.  This was an expense that was NOT spelled out for us from the beginning and we were not prepared for it.  If you can help in any way, please do, every little bit adds up so quickly! 

If you donate just $10 to our Chip-In, you will get a chance to win something in the giveaway www.prayingclaudiahome.blogspot.com.  The more you donate, the more chances you have to win!  More good news: the Psychologist takes PayPal, so anything going into our Chip-in will go directly towards paying for the eval.

A new way you can help is to purchase one of my European-Style bracelets (like Pandora Etc.)  The chains ans beads are Not name brand but they are beautiful. Below are bracelets, Down syndrome awareness style :) You can choose the dangle charm, choose between a boy, girl or both a boy and a girl on one (see the pics).  They are $20 each which will include shipping.  I only have 3 available right now (the ones pictured below) but I will hopefully have more supplies soon.  The bracelets are approx. 7.5" long.



SOLD

SOLD!
You can change the charm to any one of the three pictured for no extra charge :)

I also have many many European style beads to fit these bracelets!  Each bead will be $0.50, please add $2 shipping to the first bead, the rest will have FREE shipping.  Below are the beads I have available BUT note: I HAVE MORE THAN ONE of most of these available so ask me, and I will let you know if I have more than one available.  Here they are:

Convo me with any questions or orders, first come, first serve :) I hope you LOVE these bracelets!

Please pray for us, also pray that we can keep our sanity through this process:)  We appreciate everyone who has donated and prayed for us, thank you so much!

Current Happenings

Things have been fairly stagnant with the adoption lately.  We received notification from the USCIS that they got our paperwork and they cashed our check.  Today we received our receipt in the mail for our USCIS Applications stating that it is being forwarded to the Hague Adoption Unit!  We are still waiting to hear back from the FBI with our background checks.  We are also having a difficult time finding a licensed psychologist to perform our psychological evaluations that the country requires.  Thats where we are right now.

The last week has been so busy but not in a bad way.  Last Tuesday Jason and I went to see Abby (remember our Sunday "daughter?") perform in her band and chorus concerts and afterwards went to get coffee with some of our great friends. 

Jason, Abby and I after the concert

Abby and Grace (our other Sunday daughter :-p)  Abby had SOOOO many people show up to support her, we seriously took up over a row, it was awesome!

We got a lot of yardwork done this past week and Jason got a string trimmer from his grandma, yay!  My garden is coming along nicely but I have to water it a lot each day since it has been so HOT and DRY over the last few weeks.

I picked up a pet sitting job last week and got to watch several cats, 2 dogs and 2 horses!  That was pretty fun, AND I get to watch them all again next week!  This week I am "plant sitting" I get to water plants for the week :)  I am happy to be picking up these little jobs on top of my "real" job to bring in some extra money to bring Claudia home!

I have been selling jewelry from my Etsy shop and did well last week with that: www.simplyvintagefun.etsy.com

My aunt Pam held a yard sale this past week to help raise money for us and Claudia and that brought in about $200+.  Not too bad!  My mom and I are planning on hosting a big yard sale/garage sale in a few weeks and have some donations coming in to help with that! 

We are in need of about $4500 in the near future.  If you can help out, it would be greatly appreciated.  Prayers are always needed too!  Thank you for your support and for following along with our blog.

Paperwork Delivered!

Our USCIS paperwork is now in the PO box of the USCIS.  My delivery confirmation message: "Your Item's StatusYour item was delivered at 12:00 pm on May 21, 2012 in DALLAS, TX 75222" YES!  Now this does not mean that the paperwork is in anyone's hands, BUT I know that it has been delivered safely. One step closer...

I have been scrambling around all day today to find a licenced psychologist to perform our psychological evaluations and am having NO LUCK at all.  Apparently you have to be crazy to get in to see one!  All that I have called say they only do evals for rehab and counseling and such...  I am still looking for one to get our evaluation done.

Please do not forget all of the awesome fundraisers we have going on right now.  There are so many different ways you can help!  Kaleigh is still doing a give-away at www.prayingclaudiahome.blogspot.com

We have bracelets and other jewelry still for sale (click on the links on the right)

You can make a purchase at my Etsy shop HERE

You can purchase coffee (See the Button for Just Love Coffee to the right)

Or you can simply make a donation using our Family Sponsorship Page (tax deductible) or Chip in to the right.

Every day that passes is one day closer to the day that we meet our beautiful daughter.  It still seems so surreal that our daughter is out there, waiting for us. We are doing everything we can to get you soon Claudia!

USCIS sent in!

Yep, that's right, we have officially sent in our USCIS paperwork.  This could take up to (or maybe even longer) 8 weeks to process.  We are praying that it does NOT take that long!  Ideally we want to be traveling in 8-10 weeks.  Hopefully our paperwork gets into the right hands and they pass it along smoothly!  According to the PO it should arrive in TX on Monday.  I got delivery confirmation so we will see!

I took some pics of my garden today for your viewing pleasure :-p



Hot Portugal Pepper!  Has anyone ever had one?  I don't think I have, but it looks similar to the peppers I grew last year (I never knew what those ones were) I like hot peppers and this looked like a good one to try so we will see!

My Calwonder peppers, a green bell pepper variety, I do not think I have had this particular kind before either.

A view of part of my garden, yes I need to weed again soon already!  Pictured are my peppers and tomato plants.  For tomatoes this year I get Early Girl, Early Hybrid, and First Prize.  I like to try different kinds!

My strawberries appear to be doing well although the grass is creeping up on them again.  Last year they did not produce anything (was their first year), we will see what they do this year!

My parsley, a bit overgrown already but still tasty!

This is where my Red Burgundy Green bean will be sprouting in about a week!

I had to add this pic.  I was taking some other photos today when my hostas began moving on me.  Can you spot my visitor.  (Hint look in the center)

I will try to post more pics when my garden grows.  The garden will help me to keep my mind off of the things that are out of my control and to enjoy God's creations.  My flower garden out front is about to bloom soon too.  I am VERY excited to see what it looks like this year as it will be the first year that everything is gong to bloom!  I will have to put pics of that up too once it is in full bloom!

I cannot wait until Claudia can enjoy the gardens with me!

It's a Waiting Game

We are still waiting for our home study approval certificate to come in the mail.  I am hoping that it will come tomorrow so that we can get our USCIS paperwork out this weekend.  I now have a little more free time on my hands to focus on the adoption, for that I am so grateful!  I feel like I can now be more proactive, but how?  I wish I could just make people work faster, you know what I mean?  I don't know how long our USCIS paperwork or our background checks will take, these will be the longest parts of the adoption, although I hope they will move quickly! 

Now that I have had a little more time, I finally planted my veggie garden!  I am excited about it this year and hope that it does well.  However, if we are traveling this summer like we hope to, someone else will have to come over and enjoy the spoils of my garden:)  I planted some tomatoes, hot peppers, green peppers yellow squash, butternut squash and purple green beans (they turn green when you cook them, so cool!)  I also have a bunch of strawberries that seem to be doing great as well.  I only have a few of each planted since my garden is not very big, and only 1 squash plant per kind because they get HUGE!  Last year was my first year at attempting a garden, it went OK but this year, I think I have learned more... we will see!  I will have to add some pics of my garden once it get growing well.

Please continue to pray for our adoption, for the health of Claudia, for our papers to move quickly into the appropriate hands, for fast approvals and for the finances needed to bring her home. 

Progress, I think...

Hello everyone.  Thank you for dropping by to read another blog post (and welcome if this is your first time here!)  It has been a tough week to say the least, especially on the adoption front.  So the weeks adoption events in short:

- Home Study approved! (we are still waiting on our "certificate of approval" from the adoption agency)

- Our HS agency never mailed the HS to our adoption agency, causing some delays but we took care of that today.  Once the agency gets this they will issue our certificate and we can send in our USCIS paperwork.

- No one seems to know NY requirements for sending the HS to USCIS so that caused A LOT of confusion and frustration (I called USCIS and they told me to just send it in, so we are praying that it will be OK!)

- Our adoption agency sent me a list of documents required by the country we are adopting from that will need to be included in our Dossier.  This was the first time hearing about getting our own fingerprinting done for our background check which could push the process back 8 weeks while we wait!  On the up side, Natalie Keller has supplied me with a letter to send with the fingerprints and application form that MAY help expedite the process (please pray for this)

- We ran into a slight financial blip, please pray that we can overcome this soon!  I have faith that God will provide!

-On the upside Claudia's prayer warrior Kaleigh has set up a give-away on a special blog just for Claudia, please check it out!  http://prayingclaudiahome.blogspot.com/ Below are the items in the give-away, please visit her blog for more info on how to enter. She will also be hosting a puzzle fundraiser soon too! 

 

$25 Target Gift Card

Tutu

Photo Credit

Custom Made Emma Skirt

$50 Amazon Gift Card

$25 Gift card to the Cheesecake Factory

Photo Credit

Hand made little girl’s Pillow Case Dress in any size 2-6 (Several colors and styles available)

Kisses From Katie

Package of 3 vintage sewing patterns (your choice out of a huge collection)

A hand made scarf purchased in South America (we will purchase and bring back to ship to you)

 

I think we are now moving in the right direction.  We have done all we can for the week and everything else is in other peoples (and God's) hands for the time being. 

 

On Tuesday my aunt Pam and cousin Claudia took me to see the "Heart of Dance" at Nazareth College.  It was so amazing!  Th "Heart of Dance" is a dance production composed of people with varying abilities and disabilities.  There were several performers that had Down syndrome.  I was so amazed at how great the performance was and how talented many of them were.  They did very well!  I can see my little Claudia up there on stage some day. 

 

Thank you for your continued prayers and support.

 

 

Sorry It's been so long!

I am so sorry that I have not posted in a while.  Things have been, well BUSY!  Jason and I were fighting that cold for quite some time and are only now starting to get over it so that did not help at all.  Jason has been busy working two jobs trying to make money so that we can get our little girl home so he is worn out right now.  I love him so much and it would be awesome if he did not have to work so much but for now, we need to do all that we can (short of sin of course!) for more money. 

I have not actually slept in my own bed since Monday night and have not seen Jason since Wednesday (and won't see him until Church on Sunday) because I picked up a dog-sitting gig for the week on top of my regular job.  I have watched these two little guys before, they are so much fun!  They are two mini dachshunds and sooo cute and spoiled.  When Claudia is home I will not be able to watch them anymore, so this could be my last time with these boys.  It is fun but hard work since I have a lot of running around to do.  During the day I have had to get back home to take care of our dogs since Jason works all day.  I do not have internet access where I am staying so I have to use it during the brief periods when I am at my house (like right now!) It has been hectic to say the least.  Please keep us in your prayers, we are going all out right now.

Since I am home right now, I am multitasking, writing my blog, doing dishes (ok so the dishwasher is doing them) AND cooking dinner!  Jason will be so prud of me.  Usually he cooks because he is an amazing cook and I am rarely home in time to cook.  I hope it comes out since this will be dinner and lunch for a few days. Jambalaya yum!

As far as the adoption process goes: We had to answer 2 more questions for our home study (both that we HAVE answered several times already UGH!) and that was re-submitted to our adoption agency for further review.  I cannot believe this is taking so long.  The rough draft has been with them for over a week and a half, can't we move forward?  Patience... I know, I know.

In need of some encouragement right now...

Have a wonderful weekend everyone!