A REAL Update!

Things are actually progressing, really!  We just got the AMAZING news today that Claudia's country has approved us! 

So what does this mean?  It means that we are eligible to adopt a child from her country within a set of parameters (age and sex of the child to be adopted).  Of course Claudia is within these parameters.  Her country knows that we want to adopt her specifically so now we are waiting on our official referral for Claudia specifically.  According to our agency this could take 5-7wks (it takes a while to translate the documents).  But we are praying it goes more quickly (the approval of our dossier was about a month quicker than expected). 

Once we get the "official referral" we have 2 weeks to accept it.  Our plan is to review it and accept the referral imediately.  Once we accept the referral to Claudia we will need to fill out more paperwork, the USCIS I-800 form, which is the"Petition to Classify Convention Adoptee as an Immediate Relative."  That is currently taking about 3 weeks to be approved.  The US gov. will submit out pre-approval to her country and then they will issue a letter authorizing that the legal adoption may take place which could take 2-3 weeks.  Once we have the letter, we can then get ready to travel!

Our hope and prayer remains that we will be in her country this fall and home before Christmas.  Her country shuts down for the holidays so if we cannot travel in the next few months, we may have to wait until next year to get her.  Please pray for smooth proceedings from here on out and specifically that she will be home this year.

We still need about $14,000 to get her home the majority of this money is travel expenses.  Please pray with us for God's continued provision financially.  Advocate and donate for us if you can. We still have T-shirts for sale as well as bracelets.  You can still purchase coffee to help us fund raise as well.

Baby girl, we are coming for you!  We don't want to miss any more moments with you.  No more birthdays or holidays alone.  You have grown so much since the first picture we saw of you, the picture that led us to you, we want to be with you to watch you grow.  You will be home soon!

Quick Adoption Update

We have not heard much but we did get something...

Our agency just told us that our dossier has been translated and submitted to the people in charge of reviewing it in Claudia's country.  They also said that we may hear back from them in September (instead of the previously mentioned October!)  I like forward progress.

Please pray with us that everything goes smoothly, that we do not need to send her country any more information and the the remaining $15,000 will come in as we need it (or sooner!)

Thank you for joining us on our journey, I hope you will continue on with us.

Mini Vacation

Now that I have a little while to sit down I can finally write a little!

This past weekend Jason and I got to spend some time with his parents, brother, his brothers girlfriend and their long time friend Casey.  We were up in the great old Adirondack mountains.  This has been a yearly trip for us for years now, we go up to Fourth Lake and spend a few days in a beautiful cabin.  We usually visit Old Forge and Inlet and eat at some AMAZING Restaurants.

In Old Forge there is this little Italian restaurant called Billys, the food is some of the BEST we have ever eaten and we always have leftovers.  The Pork a la Billys is fantastic, pulled pork over pasta.. oooh so good!  In Inlet we went to the Woods Inn where we got our own private dining room with a balcony overlooking a beautiful sunset.  At the Woods Inn, I highly suggest you get their Tuxedo dessert: white chocolate and chocolate mousse covered in a chocolate ganache.. deliciouso!  Hungry yet?

It was a great time of enjoying the company of family and friends and relaxing.  Monday I had a pretty rough day, felt down right sick.  It was the worst I have felt in 9 years and of course it had to happen while on vacation.  I did not eat anything all day except a small piece of cheese (Adirondack Cheddar... so good).  I took lots of meds and was feeling OK enough to attempt dinner, it was a good thing I did, that was the night we went to the Woods Inn.  Can you tell I love food?  I was able to eat a good amount for dinner without feeling too bad.  The rest of the vacation I did not feel nearly as ill.  Jason took good care of me, I love that man!

We did not get a chance to actually get out on the lake but we hung out on the dock and on the back porch with a great lake view.  We had a great time up there but we kept thinking about Claudia, about how much we could do with her if she were with us.  We also decided there were many stores that we would be unable to take her in or would have to carry her in.  We talked about her going in the water with floaties.  I cannot wait until she is here and we can do all of that with her.  I know that so many things will be different once she is here but we look forward to all of the exciting new adventures we will have once we have our daughter with us.

For your viewing pleasure:

Ryan, Holly and Casey on the balcony of the Woods Inn.

Jason and I on the balcony at the Woods Inn.

Sunset and view at the Woods Inn.

The beautiful sunset and view behind the Woods Inn.



The lovely view from the back deck of the cabin.



Taken from the dock at the cabin.



Jason and I outside of the cabin.

T-Shirt Sale at Breens

The wonderful owners of Breens in Palmyra let Alicia set up shop today to sell some of our T-shirts!  Have you seen these yet, they are pretty awesome?!  Thank you Alicia and Amanda for these great shirts! 

We still have more available for purchase if you would like them.  We have several available in the blue.  If there is a big enough demand we can put in another order for more shirts so let us know!  If you need a Face Book invite to the Adoption Shirt Event, let me know.  We can ship the shirts.  The cost is just $15 plus shipping.

Sweet Opportunity

We have been blessed by so many people along this journey, friends, family, and complete strangers.  Another has stepped forward with a lovingly sweet opportunity to bless our family and to bless our daughter.

Along our adoption journey, I have met a woman named Brenda.  Brenda is the owner of Masterpiece Quilts (visit her shop: HERE or her website HERE.)  Brenda has a beautiful daughter, Emily who has Down syndrome.  Masterpiece quilts is a two woman team of Brenda and Emily.  The Masterpiece in the name is Emily.  Emily picks out the colors and patterns of the quilts and Brenda quilts them.  Each quilt is an amazing work of love and shows the inseparable bond between a mother and daughter.  If you look closely, each quilt has one square that is slightly different than the others.

Brenda has offered to make our beautiful Claudia a custom quilt of her very own!  The quilts cost $85.  Here is where you come in.  Brenda has said that if we can raise the $85 she will not only make a quilt for Claudia, but will also donate $42.50 to our account!  What a blessing!  We are trying to get the $85 raised in one week, by Friday the 24th of August.  Can we do it?

I am adding a special Chip-in just for the quilt. 

If you feel led, please consider donating $5 or $10 for this quilt to be made for Claudia.

Thank you all for your continued prayers and blessings.

Shout it out!

We still have not received any new information regarding our dossier.  This could be a good thing or it could just be that no one has looked at it yet.  In reality we probably have a lot more waiting to do.  We got an email from our agency describing our newest timeline.  Now they have sent us time lines before, but to be honest, they have not included many "times."  For example, they never told us how long it would take for Claudia's country to review our dossier.  Perhaps I was naive in my thinking that it would happen quickly and smoothly BUT our agency said we "may hear from them in October." WHAT!  Seriously? But our daughter is waiting, we are waiting... I don't know if I can wait that long without hearing anything.  I will be in need of many prayers to get me through these next few months!  If it takes that long, then it will be Oct/Nov until we can get our referral in and her country closes for December for Holiday.  Guess what that means?  Yea... we may not be traveling until next year.  That sounds like so far away!  This worries me a little not only because I don't want to have to wait that long to see my little girl but the Adoption Tax Credit is set to expire at the end of this year.  If we do not finish our adoption by the end of 2012, we may not be eligible for the tax credit (about $12,000) at all unless it is extended.  I know that it is all in God's timing and not our own but could you say a few prayers for us please?

On another note, I want to thank all of the generous people who have won items from our auction.  So many of you have gone above and beyond in you generosity.  Thank you all so much for helping to make this auction a success!  This adoption is only possible because of you.

Claudia, Your mommy and daddy are working so hard to bring you home so that you may know the love of a family.  We cannot wait to hold you in our arms.  You have so many people out there that love you and are helping us bring you home!

Housekeeping

A wee bit of housekeeping to mention...

The auction is over and I am now in the process of notifying the winners.  Please be patient as I have about 50 people to get a hold of.  You can pay on the auction page or here in the Chip-in to the right that says "Auction to Bring Claudia Home" (the green Chip-in).  Please make sure that the address you want your item(s) shipped to is the same one on your Pay Pal account, otherwise, let me know in a message through Pay Pal with your payment.  If you want to pay by check, that can be arranged as well, just send me a message.

If you have any questions, feel free to ask me.  I will get items shipped as quickly as I can once payments have been received.  I will be away on vacation beginning next weekend and will return in the middle of next week.  I will have limited Internet access during that time (I don't know what I will do!)

A huge THANK YOU to everyone who helped to make this auction a success.  If every item is accounted for, we will have made about $1100 minus shipping charges!  This will go a long way towards helping us get closer to bringing Claudia home.  We have a ways to go still but God has been so faithful!  We have some truly amazing friends.  Thank you all for your support.  Keep those prayers coming.

Surrounded by Great Friends

Hey everyone!  We don't have any new adoption news to share at this point.  Our paperwork is either:

A) Still on it's way to Claudia's country
B) Being Translated
C) Being looked at, or
D) On it's way back to us (ok, this one is a long shot... wishful thinking)

Anyway, we have had some time to breathe, relax and work on some more grant applications.  We will be going on a mini vacation to the Adirondacks with Jason's parents for a few nights in about two weeks and are very excited about that.

Right now our auction is going good, we are up to about $700.  If you want to bid, don't forget to get your bids in by THIS Friday night at midnight CST, the auction is HERE.

My friend Alicia has been a tremendous help during our entire adoption process.  She has been one of our biggest advocates and now she has gone a step further.  Alicia has got a T-shirt fundraiser started now.  The shirts will be $15 plus shipping (if you need them shipped).  They come in men's or women's styles and the print comes in two different colors.  You can choose LOVE to be written in either hot pink or neon blue.  Below are examples of the hot pink.  The t-shirt color is charcoal grey.  Convo me if you would like a shirt or leave a message on the Facebook page for the shirts HERE.

Showing a womens and a mens style!