Happy Birthday To Me!!!

That's right folks, today is my birthday, a big one at that!  I just turned 29.  Where did my 20's go?

I got a nice surprise for my Birthday; today we recieved our updeated USCIS approval for 2 children!  The Us government says that we can adopt both children!!! 

 

Callie and Chance, we are working hard to bring you home!

 

So what happens now?  We have to submit our Dossier to the children's country.  In order to do that we will have to have several documents certified and Apostilled.  We have most of those documents ready to go.  Once NYS Apostilles everything and sends the paperwork back to us we can submit our Dossier to our placement agency for review, as long as they are satisfied with it, our Dossier will be sent to the country.  Then we wait.  It may take several months to hear back from the country.  If all goes well, we will be invited to meet the children for trip #1.  At the end of that trip, we decide if we want to move forward with adopting them, signn the papers and go home.  Then we wait another 4-6 months for a court date, go back to their country and stay for about a month.  For trip #2, I will have the children for most of the time and real bonding can begin.  After a month or so, we all come home!  The process could take a year or so from now to be finalized.  Please pray for a speedy and smooth process!

Our biggest hurdle currently is the fee that we must submit with our Dossier.  We will owe our agency $9000, at this time we simply do not have that.  I currently have a give-away going on to help us raise the funds needed for the next payment:

 

Party Lite Give Away with a First Prize AND a Runner up Prize! Donations will go directly toward our next fee and must be sent to our YourCaring Account: http://www.youcaring.com/adoption-fundraiser/bringing-home-callie-and-chance/186694
Each entry is $10, once we have $300 in our YouCaring account, we will draw the ...winner! You may also earn a free entry by sharing this on FB or Tweeting about it, post here or PM me with your entries!

First Place Prize is a Party Lite Change-O-Luminary, a luminary that takes tea light candles. It comes with 3 sets of shades: Spiderweb, Snowflake, Fall leaves, or you can leave them all off for the spring/summer. You will ALSO get 36 Tea light candles, 12 each of: Cinnamon & Bayberry, Pine Berry and Holiday Spices.

Second Place/Runner up will get 6 of each of the following 5 scents of votive candle: Ocean Mist, Seaside Mist, Black Raspberry, Mulberry and Strawberry Rhubarb.

 

 

 

The money must be sent to our YouCaring account, not our Reece's Rainbow FSP.  We will not have access to the money in our FSP until we are going on trip #1.

 

Another way you can help us out is to buy from my Origami Owl website: www.origami4orphans.origamiowl.com or host a party either online or in person.

 

We would greatly appreciate your prayers as we navigate through the process of this adoption.



Firsts for Claudia

Claudia has been home well over a year now, but she is just now getting to experience some new firsts.  A year ago, there was just no way she could have done the things we did this weekend.

On Friday night I took Claudia to our local carnival for the Fireman's parade.  I was not too sure how she would handle it but she did really well.  For the most part she sat on my lap the whole time.  We were even sitting next to another little girl, Claudia only tried stealing her stuffed dog once...  Claudia REALLY loved the marching bands as they walked by, she giggled with glee at each one.  I think she especially enjoyed the drums.  She also liked the noised the fire trucks made.  I was so proud of how well she did and that she sat pretty still through most of it.  If there were long gaps between entertainment she would get antsy, but overall she did great!

Yesterday I took Claudia to her first amusement park.  Last year she was just too small and was not able to walk, so she would not have been able to ride anything.  This year there are a few things she can ride, so we took full advantage of it.  She went on the kiddie boats, cars, airplanes, roller coaster, and on the carousel and tea cups with me.  Claudia was terrified of the carousel, I'm not sure what it was, she looked up at the mechanisms that made the horses move and started screaming and crying with fear.  She enjoyed the up and down movement of the horse for about 30 seconds though before she wanted me to hold her.

Claudia loved the little cars and liked watching the other kids in them too!  She loved the turtle roller coaster as well.  Twice when she was in it she had to share the car with other kids and she did really well!  I took her to the park not only for fun but also to help her learn to wait in lines and to get along with others.  She had a hard time understanding that she had to get off the rides before she could get back on and would not let the workers help her off, she was also not happy when mommy had to come and take her off!  I try to use what i can to teach her.

She did really well until the end of our time there when she was getting tired and not wanting to listen.  Then she wanted to stick her hands in the water on the boats and get out of the restraints on the airplanes... not good ideas, so we went home.  She had a blast and it wore her out!  Claudia wanted me to carry her most of the day.  I'm glad that she looks to me for comfort and knows that I am the one that provides for her, but my shoulders are feeling it today!

Next time we will venture to the water park too, stay tuned to see how that goes!