Auction is doing well!

I wanted to update everyone on our auction and give a little more information about it.  So far, we are 3 full days into the auction out of 14 days and we are at just over $500!  How cool is that?  Of course some of that money will have to go towards shipping the items but still, that is a great start!  We still have several items with no bids or very low bids.  We are also still accepting any donations of items that you might like to donate to the auction.  Just let us know what it is  and send us a picture so that we can add it to the auction.  Every little bit helps:)

How the auction works:
You have to have Facebook in order to access the auction, if you don't have it, find soemone that does and make them bid for you :)
Go to the auction here: Auction To Bring Claudia Home
Click on the Photos to be taken to the albums, open the album with the Auction Phots and start going through the pictures to find the items you would like to bid on.
To bid, look to the right hand side and find the comments section, each one will have a description of the item and its starting bid.  If there are no bids, you can bid any amount from the starting bid on up.  If there are bids, you will see them under comments. 
At the end of the Auction, Friday August 10th at midinght CST bidding will be closed, any bids after midnight CST will not count towards the auction.
We will contact the winning bidders for payment.
Local winners can pay by cash or check, all others we ask to pay using our Chip-in as we need this money immediately to accept our referral in a few weeks.

Let the bidding wars continue:)

If you have any questions about the auction, don't hesitate to ask! 

Here are just a few of the items up for bid:

Where we are now...

So many little updates and I have had so little time to post!

Ok, so the first thing is that Our sweet little Claudia just recently had her birthday.  Yes, our girl is now 3 years old!  Jason and I longed to be with her, to share her 3rd birthday with her but we are still a few months away from traveling.  Jason baked a nice yellow cake with chocolate frosting in honor of her birthday.  It was yummy!  We hope that her caretakers acknowledged her birthday and made it a special day for her.  God willing, that will be her last birthday without a mommy and daddy to love on her.  Who wants to help me start planning her 4th birthday party? 

We just received notice from our adoption agency that they have sent out our dossier to her country!  Ahh!  That sis so exciting, that means we had everything in the first time! Now I only hope that her country thinks so too!  It will take about 2 weeks for our paperwork to be translated and then it will be reviewed by her country.  After they review it, if they do not require any more information or paperwork from us, they will approve us for adoption and send us a referral for Claudia!  This could take 4-8 weeks.  Once we get our referral, we will have her complete social and medical history and we are hoping for more pictures (you can never have enough).  We have 2 weeks to accept the referral (of course we will).  BUT as soon as we accept, we will owe $3000 to her country.  We just sent our a check for $5400 and payed the $120 for our Apostilles so we are running low on funds and will need to raise $3000 in the next 5-8 weeks depending on how fast her country is.  We know that God will see us through with this, we have yet to miss a payment but sometimes I really wish it were in the bank already!  I cannot wait to see how God is going to use his people this time to get us funded for the next steps.

Speaking of funding, my friend Natalie is doing a fundraiser to bring her girl Sara home.  Ok, she is doing multiple fundraisers BUT she is using AdoptionBug to sell some really awesome T-shirts.  Jason and I just got our in the mail yesterday.  We decided that instead of doing something big for our anniversary, we would help a fellow adoptive mommy to get her daughter home.  You can purchase the shirts here: http://www.adoptionbug.com/keller/

Here we are in our new shirts!

And on to our current fundraiser, this is a HUGE Auction of over 100 items to be sold on Facebook.  Please share this with your friends and family, this auction could be a huge success if we get the word out about it. FACEBOOK AUCTION. 

Give Away Winners

Sorry for the delay folks!

Due to the low number of entries, we were unable to utilize every prize BUT  everyone has won something!

Thank you to each of you who participated in the giveaway!!! The winners were drawn using random.org and here they are:

Chaos-Jamie tutu & herbal neck wrap
Katie $25 Cheesecake factory gift card

Alison Dawn Green Handmade scarf

Julie Kisses from Katie Book

Jackie VanHalle $25 Target gift card

If you have won, please contact Kaleigh at: kaleigheanderson(at) gmail (dot) com with your shipping address so that we can get the items to you.

Give-away ending

I just wanted to remind everyone/let them know that our give-away will be ending on Sunday at midnight.  The winners will be announced on Monday.  MOST items will be shipped shortly after that (once we get all of the shipping information from the winners).  A few items will not be shipped until Kaleigh gets back in the country.  We will let those winners know of this. 

You have until Sunday night (that's tomorrow) to get your entries in: http://www.prayingclaudiahome.blogspot.com/2012/06/give-away-continued.html.

Smooth Sailing Today

Ok, so we were not in a boat today (which would have been awesome) but we did spend over 7 hours in the car.  BUT it was SO worth it!  We drove the 3.5 hours to and from Albany to get:

Multiply that by 12 and we now have all of our NYS documents Apostilled!   We did not run into any issues, the office was easy to find and we were in and out in less than fifteen minutes.  Praise God for the small victories! 

On the way home we stopped in a random town to find their Post Office to send the documents to our agency since we would not make it back to our local one in time.

Now we are waiting for our agency to have our FBI background Checks Apostilled (should be this week) and for them to receive the packet we sent them.  Then, it's off to Clauduia's country they go!

Getting closer...

Today was a super busy day!  I finally got all of our documents certified, now they are ready to be Apostilled on Monday and we almost have enough money to do it!  We have had some very generous donations come in and we feel so so SO blessed!  I want to thank each and every donor, ever little or big donation has helped us to get this far.  Did I mention how blessed we are?  I wanted to remind everyone that has donated (unless you wish to stay anonymous of course) to convo me with your name so that I can have Kaleigh put your name on a puzzle piece!  Let's get this puzzle done so that it can be placed on Claudia's wall before she gets home!

Today was also a sad day.  My sweet kitty Gracie has two mammary tumors.  Almost 90% of mammary tumors in cats are malignant and of those that are surgically removed 66% of them grow back.  Gracie is only 10-12 years old which is not very old for a cat but she is sick right now.  I do not think she would even survive surgery.  There is no way to tell if the tumors are cancerous unless they remove them and we won't know if it is spreading until it gets bad enough to show up in a chest x-ray.  By then, it will have spread to her lungs :(  In order to do surgery she would need blood tests done to see if she is healthy enough for it.  All said and done the vet estimated $550 for everything, after paying over $100 for today's visit.  We have some decisions to make but for now we are going to get her health back up (she recently had an allergic reaction and licked herself raw) and go from there.  Hopefully the tumors are benign and she will be comfortable for many more years!

Gracie is the Tortie, the other kitty is Cerulea (She has beautiful blue eyes).  Gracie is such a good motherly kitty (not really Cerulea's mother though, at least as far as we know)

She gives you some strange looks but is a total sweetheart that likes to give hugs!

My vet and the County Clerk are both in the same town so thankfully I got to take care of two things in one trip!  That almost never happens.  I went to the County Clerks office first since you never know how long you will be at the vet (or the County Clerks for that matter...).  Before going, I called to make sure that someone would be there to authenticate our paperwork (I am learning to call before trying to do anything lately!).  While on the phone I asked them if I could bring my cat in since I would not leave her in my car considering it was 95 degrees outside today!  They did not have a problem with it since she would be in a carrier.  I sure did get some strange looks when I walked in with a cat though!

That is all of the updates I have for today.  Have a great weekend everyone and pray the we get some rain up here, we are in drought conditions and it is HOT!

We need HELP!

I come to you humbly as I write this post.  I am at a loss of what to do.  We are in desperate need of help right now.

I just got an email from y agency outlining all of the fees we need to pay in order to submit our dossier.  Most of them we were aware of but one, caught us off guard.  This fee is $2500! 

Here is what happened:  I asked my agency not too long ago for a list of all of our upcoming fee's, what we still would have to pay.  They sent me the list.  Great, not terrible, not as bad as I was expecting.  BUT I had a nagging feeling that something was missing, I just could not figure out what.  There was a place that had "In Country Fees" that said $2500, so I thought we were all set, that was the money that would be needed to cover the Country expenses. 

I WAS WRONG!

After receiving the email I got today, I realized they did not include the Program Fee's to the previous email.  Why they did not put it it in is beyond me.  Perhaps just an oversight.  But now we need to tack on an extra $5500 to our total expenses!  Oh, I feel so sick to my stomach right now!

So, in order to submit our dossier next Monday (that is when we were planning on submitting it) we owe an additional $2500 (the first part of the program fee)!

I am writing this post to ask for your help.  We cannot come up with an additional $2500 on our own in one week.  We need your help.  Would you please help us storm Heaven with prayers that this money will come in?  Please share our need with your friends and family and donate if you can.  Donations should be made directly to our Chip-in to the right (not the Reeces Rainbow links please) so that they can be put to immediate use.

We have been humbled by so many generous donations already but now we must ask for your help again.  If we cannot submit our dossier soon, our daughter will be waiting even longer for her family and the medical treatment she needs.

Please consider helping in any way you can.  Thank you in advance.

I came across this insightful article while on the IDSC for Life (international Down Syndrome Coalition for Life) Facebook page.  The information is from the National Down syndrome Congress website and can be viewed in detail here: http://ndsccenter.org/resources/new-and-expectant-parents/language-guidelines/

The statement helps the public to better understand the correct terminology to be used around people with disabilities, specifically Down syndrome.  Before I started this adoption process I too was clueless about how to talk about people with Down syndrome and other disabilities.  I had heard other people speak about them in so many different terms that I now know are disrespectful and just wrong.  I wanted to share this with those of you who may not be aware of the information because of a lack of education about it.  Let's start treating people with disabilities with the respect they deserve:

Public Awareness Guidelines

• The correct name of this diagnosis is Down syndrome. There is no apostrophe (Down). The “s” in syndrome is not capitalized (syndrome).
• An individual with Down syndrome is an individual first and foremost. The emphasis should be on the person, not the disability. A person with Down syndrome has many other qualities and attributes that can be used to describe them.
• Encourage people to use people-first language. “The person with Down syndrome”, not “the Down syndrome person.” A person with Down syndrome is not “a Downs”.
• Words can create barriers. Recognize that a child is “a child with Down syndrome,” or that an adult is “an adult with Down syndrome.” Children with Down syndrome grow into adults with Down syndrome; they do not remain eternal children. Adults enjoy activities and companionship with other adults.
• It is important to use the correct terminology. A person “has” Down syndrome, rather than “suffers from,” “is a victim of,” “is diseased with” or “afflicted by.”
• Each person has his/her own unique strengths, capabilities and talents. Try not to use the clichés that are so common when describing an individual with Down syndrome. To assume all people have the same characteristics or abilities is demeaning. Also, it reinforces the stereotype that “all people with Down syndrome are the same.”

The main idea is "People first language," do not define a person by a condition that they have.  They are people first.  I hope this helps!

Still Waiting...

Patience is the name of the game when it comes to adoption.  Especially when you have submitted most of your paperwork.  I feel like Dory from Finding Nemo, just replace the "swimming" with "waiting."  "Just keep waiting..."  You get the picture!  As I mentioned before the process will end up taking a few more months than we had anticipated.  This leaves us with many decisions but also gives us more time to get together the funds needed.

I just got back from working my "second job" which really is more like a when they need me and I am available to work kind of job...  I normally don't work on Sunday's but the money was good AND I still got to go to Church!  Overall not a bad day considering I was home by 3:30!  I will take it! 

Jason just started his new second job at a brand new restaurant at the end of last week.  Tonight is his 3rd night working.  I hope it will be well worth it in the end.  He works LATE!  On Friday night he did not get home until 2am(Sat morning) and had to be back his "real" job by 8am the next morning.  I love him so much.  What a hard worker he is!  Jason is such an inspiration to me, a true warrior willing to do whatever it takes to get Claudia home. 

We are patiently waiting for our USCIS approval to be in our mail box.  It was sent out last week!  So exciting but we still have so much to do before submitting our Dossier!  We are having some trouble getting to the County Clerks office and having anyone available for our Certifications on our documents.  I guess that is what happens when so many people go on vacation. Hopefully our Dossier will be out early next week as long as we can get everything done that we need to THIS WEEK! 

Did I mention that it is July and that means that it is Claudia's birthday month!  Just a few short weeks until she turns 3!  We were REALLY hoping to be with her for it but she will be on our minds all day.  I am even planning to make a cake!  Is that cheesy?  Oh well!  I wish that she knew that we are doing our best to get her home soon!  We are doing whatever it takes Claudia, we will be there soon!

Sorry for the hodgepodge of this post.  This is as good of an update as we have right now.  Please keep praying for our daughter, for us and for the finances to come in soon!  Thank you all!

Time To Let it Out!

I have been trying for some time to find a way to write this post.  I am still having difficulty.  The past few weeks have been filled with some unfortunate circumstances that we are still battling to overcome.  Please understand that the statments may be a bit vague out of respect for all involved.

I have written in the past about our predicament between our agency and psychologist.  We are hopefully at the tail end of that BUT it has caused A LOT of added stress and tension as well as some delays.  Many feelings were hurt over the situation and Jason and I were put in the middle of it.  There were many things happening that we were not in the least bit of control of.  We handled oursevlves in the best manner we could but we also let others know when we were upset and also that we would NOT compromise our integrity, sorry, just not gonna happen!  This mama bear had to bear her claws on more than one occasion over the last couple of weeks.  In the end (praying it was the end...) we had to do a few things that we did not want to have to do and that we felt were completely unnecessary and not our responsibility.  We had to smooth the waters between these two individuals in order to move forward with the adoption. In the end, everyone had to compromise.

I just want to say that we believe EVERYONE has Claudia's best interest at heart.  We really like our psychologist and think she did a great job.  We also know that our agency probably works with the country on a more consistant basis and knows the current requirements.  We are not saying that either one was wrong in thier stance, we just wish they would have worked together and "played nicely."  If you have trouble finding a psychologist I would definately reccomend mine to you BUT I would advise you to speak to your agency first about performing the evaluation via tele-medicine (on the phone).  It is completely legitamate but may not be accepted buy some agencies.  Be upfront and clear about your intentions.  I think this is what caused the biggest problem for us.  We showed our agency who we were plannning on using to do the evaluation after already telling them we absolutely coud not find anyone local and they apparenlty did not understand that the eval was not going to be face-to-face.  We will see if it works out in the end.

If it sounds odd to you to do a psychological eval over the phone and internet, we felt the same way!  We did our research though and it is completely legitamate and legal.  The Psychologist we ended up using (there are several that will do adoption evals over the phone/internet/mail) has done over 60 evals this way for our country and more adoption evals than anyone in the US.  We are very confident in her abilities.  If you are not sure, ask your agency!  We went this route as a last resort since we could not find anyone local willing to perform an adoption evaluation.

We are trying to move forward from all of this now.  Our agency has agreed to send our home study and Psych eval directly to the country (before submitting our dossier) to make sure that they are acceptable and to give us time to make the appropriate changes necessary.  This could really be a blessing in disguise since we are still waiting on our USCIS clearances.  Perhaps we will be pre-approved prior to submitting the rest of our documents which could possibly make the adoption go a little quicker.  Praying this is the case and God's plan all along.  I have to believe there is a reason for this situation.  Please let it not merely be a lesson in patience... :)

So after all of this, after tryiing to move on, we received an email from our agency with a timeline. FINALLY!  I had been asking for a timeline for a few weeks.  The timeline we got described the process of the adoption after the submission of our dossier.  It was not what we were hoping for.  According to this timeline we could be waiting to travel for another 3 months or more!  PLUS now we are hearing rumors that our country as slowed its adoption process recently which could cause further delays!  This again could be a blessing in disguise but it is so hard to know that we have to wait even longer to meet our little girl and that she will have to wait even longer to get the proper medical care that she needs.  Jason and I now have a few big decisions to make in the upcoming months.  They have to do with who is going to travel for the entire time and what to do about work and school.  We would appreciate your prayers.

The good thing about the apparent delay is that it gives us more time to save up the money and to fundraise.  On that note:  Jason is starting a second job this week.  He was previously working two jobs, had to stop and is again working two... Confusing I know!  He is such an amazing, hardworking man.  Willing to do whatever it takes to get our baby girl home.  I am still working full time (and then some) and picking up all of the little side-jobs I can.  At least we will have a bit more time now.

We know that it will all work out in God's timing and according to His will.

Thank you for following us on our journey.  I hope to have some good news soon.  Waiting for the rainbow after the storm :)