After a few weeks of hearing nothing from our agency we were finally told today that our Article 5 was received by our agency yesterday. The Article 5 comes from the US Embassy in Claudia's country. Now that our agency has it, they will send it to the ICBF so that they can set up a day for us to meet Claudia! Can you believe it, after all of this time of waiting, we are FINALLY getting a date for when we will see our beautiful girl! Words cannot express how excited we are. Our agency is expecting the date to be in January still, that is NEXT month! Can you tell I am excited? On that day, we will take custody of her for our 5 business day bonding period and as long as the ICBF thinks we have all bonded appropriately, they will refer us to court to begin the completion of the adoption.
The other good news we got today came from the Consulate of Claudia's country in NYC. I called them to find out if we had to travel to NYC in order to get our Visa's. They told me that there were exceptions (I think for adopting families), and that we could do it through the mail. This means we will not have to miss work, pay the toll booths or gas. It saves us time and money, yay! Unfortunately the Visa's will cost $250 more than we were originally told plus the express delivery to the Consulate and back to us. We will be able to get our Visa's after we purchase of flights. Flights to see our girl!
Baby girl, you have grown so much since we first fell in love with you. Soon, you will no longer have
to grow up without a family of your own. We love you and we look forward to seeing you soon!
Mommy and Daddy are coming sweet girl!
God willing, in six weeks Angie and I will
be traveling to Latin America to meet our daughter for the first time.Neither of us has ever been outside of the
United States before (sorry Canada, you don’t count) and I will be spending two
months in a country where I speak so little of the language that I might as
well say things really loudly and slowly in English.A country that when I researched books about
it, every single one was the story of someone who had been held hostage and tortured
in the jungle for 6 years.A country
whose largest anti-American organization/army has a name that I cannot help but
laugh when I hear.(FARC!?I mean, c’mon, it’s hard enough to be taken
seriously when you’re a Marxist rebel army hiding out in the jungle eating capybaras,
but then to name your organization something that inspires gut-wrenching laughter
in your most hated adversary?That
sounds like something Mel Brooks would come up with.I am SO dead if I get abducted.)
And even more terrifying than becoming a
paycheck to a bunch of Idealist Latin-American Hippie-Soldiers is the thought of
having a 3 year old to take care of.I’m
not sure I know what a 3 year old is, let alone how to raise one.Is there an owner’s manual or something?Do I get points for effort?How much damage could a well meaning
father-to-be possibly do to a kid in just a couple of weeks, right?The good news is that we know she’s a tough
kid.I would rather not think/talk about/be
reminded of the things this poor girl has gone through, but she’s so tough she
puts Rocky to shame.And she (and EVERY
SINGLE ORPHAN) deserves a family that will love her forever.
For whatever reason (and I don’t hold them
accountable at all) Claudia’s foster family isn’t willing to adopt her.But she deserves to know that she is a
daughter, not a foster-daughter or ward of the state.That there is absolutely nothing wrong with
her, and that she has a Mother and a Father who love her no matter what, and
will raise her to know that her Father in Heaven loves her even more than we
do.That her Mother and Father’s friends
and family lover her so much that they are willing to sacrifice their own
comforts and time and money so that she can be with them.I can’t say it enough – I don’t deserve the
friends that I have, and it is inconceivable that I will ever be able to repay
your kindness and generosity.
My
hope is that by bringing Claudia home with us, that where she lives now will be
able to take in another child.It sounds
like they do a very good job with Claudia, and many kids would be lucky to have
a home like the one she is in right now.
And one by one (or five at a time for some
of the Reese’s Rainbow community) family by family,we’ll get there.
We have officially been asked if we want to be Claudia's parents!!!
We knew it was coming of course, but this makes it that much more real. It is surreal that our social worker, agency, doctors, psychologists, the US and her country (not to mention our friends and family) all think that we are capable of being good parents to this precious jewel. The hoops that we have jumped through already and the ones we will continue to jump through have been worth it; but this process has been difficult.
Today we got to learn more about our soon-to-be daughter. We learned about her medical history and some of her social history. She had a very sad start to life and I am not ready to share that, I do not know if I will ever post about it. Please forgive me for being vague, some things are best left private.
Some info we can share: She is in a foster home and she is taken care of well. She continues to grow and improve with her muscle strength. She can stand and walk a little while holding onto walls and furniture but is eaily frustrated. She is in a regular kidnergarten program and is socializing well. We are so happy for this! She has a few medical problems that will need to be addressed but they are not as bad as we though they could have been praise God!
We will get out paperwork out as soon as we can and pray for a quick return so that we can travel in a month! Wow, one month... Crazy to think about. Oh I hope it happens.
By the way... Claudia is so little. She is only wearing a size 18 month clothing! We need to get some warm, winter clothes in a size 18 months or my girl is going to freeze! Most of the clothes we have are bigger than that.
Ok, so I know what you are wondering... Did you get any new pictures? As a matter of fact we did. We got these recent pictures of her. Oh my how she has grown. Claudia, stop growing until we get you home...
Look at that adorable smile!
I think she is mad that they are making her stand so long to take a picture!
These are the last pictures we will have of her until she is in our arms! We pray that that day is only a month away! Please continue to pray that the process move quickly and without any problems from here on out. Please pray to God for the financial provisions to make this adoption possible!
We are still waiting on our referral packet to arrive. Last we heard, it should be translated by now and on its way to our agency. We are hoping to have it this week, but that may not happen. Things are looking more and more bleak for Claudia to be home this year. This is very tough on us but we know that everything will happen according to God's perfect timing, so we wait and trust in Him.
You may have noticed that we took down the Chip-in for Claudia's quilt. Why? We did not see any progress with it. We understand that it was not a fundraiser to get her home and there was little in it for you so we decided to call it quits. BUT Brenda and Emily and so super sweet that they donated the quilt to us anyway! What a beauty it is. Not only is it gorgeous but the lining is super soft, perfect for a child. So without further adieu, here is Claudia's beautiful quilt:
The lovely packaged quilt
I wish I had better lighting to do this quilt justice. I assure you it is masterfully made, excellent quality. I urge you go to their Etsy shop: http://www.etsy.com/shop/masterpiecequilts and browse the available quilts. These would make an amazing Christmas gift for a loved one! Also, visit their website: http://masterpiecequilts.com/ to learn more about this Mother and Daughter team. They are amazing.
We will keep on waiting and update you when we have news. Please keep us in your prayers as we wait and pray that the funding will come in as we need it.
I thought since I was sharing about the blog on Facebook that I should actually contribute as well. Inspired by listening to Bethel Live Worship on Spotify. Video below, if you're not familiar with the song.
Because I’ve found a love greater than life itself.What does that mean?It means that I’ve found a love so strong, so
powerful that I will give up my life for it.Not “give up my life” as in die; I often think of how easy it would be
to do exactly that.Die.To not have to struggle and stumble and fail
constantly anymore.To not constantly
disappoint everyone in my life because of all the things that are in me that
are stronger than I am.Don’t doubt it -
If you knew me, knew the truth of who I am, instead of the front that I put up,
you would be disappointed.
When I say “give up my life” I mean it in the sense that I
will willingly give up everything that I have wanted in my life for this
love.That I will do my best to forget about
the big house, the fast car and the lavish vacations.That instead of everything that I want in my
life, I will make the choices that this love dictates.I will give up material things to bring a
little girl who was abandoned by her mother to be with her Real Mother.That I will give up the stuff that I want, to hopefully give those choices to children in
need.
As I re-read what I’ve just written, inspired by listening
to the Bethel Worship song “I’ve Found a Love” on Spotify, I’m struck by the
insanity and arrogance of the words.Even a couple of years ago, when I was starting to get involved at my
Church and considering myself something of a “Christian”, I would have thought
it was crazy to adopt a “retarded” kid.Why would anyone want to bring that kind of misery and suffering into
their life?Why would you want a child
that would never be able to do anything?
As I get older and less stupid (I’ll never be wise, trust me)
I’ve come to understand that what a person is actually capable of means very
little.The more important thing is how
much a person strives to reach that potential.The greatest hope that I have for my child(ren) is that they will work hard
to be the best that they can be, no matter what.I am more impressed and inspired by someone
who strives to overcome adversity than by someone who was Blessed with a huge
talent, and fails to take full advantage of it.I think I’m beginning to understand how a parent can be as proud of a
child who has learned to tie their own shoes after years of effort, as one that
goes on to law school or professional sports.And EVERY child, regardless of health, circumstance or race – EVERY child
deserves to be loved, and to have a chance at life.
The arrogance is something I have, and always will, struggle
with.Without bothering to look up the
references, I can think of a couple of different authors and speakers who have
made the case for Pride being the most dangerous of faults.I know that it is a huge issue in my
life.My pride is what causes me to
stumble the most, and also what makes me want to take credit when I actually
manage to not completely suck as a human being.Lately I’ve been looking around and judging people for not doing more
than they are, because I feel secure and superior in what I’m doing.What I forget is that Angie and I are part of
a community that could very easily look down on us because we’re only adopting
one little girl, instead of 5, and that she is comparatively very healthy.I don’t know if I could ever be strong enough
or faithful enough to do what some of the families on Reese’s Rainbow do, and
it is humbling to remember that.All of
this besides the fact that I haven’t really done anything.Angie has done most of the hard work, and our
friends and family have done as much financially as we have.Even the arrogance that it took to write that
first paragraph – every sentence starts with “I” and is all about “me”…it makes
me want to go back and delete it.I
leave it in hopes that it helps prove a point.Listening to a song that thousands of people know by heart, and I think
that what comes into my head makes me somehow special, meaningful or unique.
I’m not any of those things, and I can’t accomplish anything
on my own.I’m just another person
trying to put my selfish nature far enough aside for God to be able to do
something with the life He has given me.Despite this, He still loves me.Still wants me to be near to Him.Wants me to find my joy in Him, and in the purpose that He has given me.Maybe the reason we struggle with the concept
of God so much as a whole is because that kind of love is completely outside of
what comes naturally to us.Or maybe I
just struggle because I think I know better than Him.
Our Church is doing a series that poses the question “What
Breaks Your Heart?” and it is reminding me that this was not a logical choice
that Angie and I made.We didn’t sit
around and talk about how we could have an impact on the World.Angie stumbled upon Reese’s Rainbow by
accident while looking for adoption agencies.What she saw broke her heart.She
started trying to get me to pay attention to it, which I wanted absolutely nothing
to do with, of course.But I could only
take looking at so many of the pictures before it got to me.I didn’t think I had a heart to break.Apparently I was wrong.
The decision to act was not an easy one because the logic
kept winning out, which sounds better than “It took me a while to get over my
selfishness and build up the courage to actually believe in God.” The deciding
factor for me was that I had seen things that I couldn’t un-see, learned things
I couldn’t forget, and those things made it too painful to continue doing
nothing to help.It wasn’t so much a
choice of deciding to act as it was to pull my head out of the sand and see the
world around me.How you act will just
be seeing what hurts you the most out of all the ugliness that’s out there.
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.
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.
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!
Hello all! I have so much to blog about, and I will do it soon, I just need to get my thoughts together and organized! So for now I wanted to let you all know that:
***TOMRROW IS NOT THE LAST DAY FOR OUR GIVE AWAY***
A spa pack including: Sugar scrub, lotion, a candle and bath salts in a DELICIOUS Vanilla scent from Rustic Ridge Creations, Shop here: https://www.etsy.com/people/kimberlygoddard1
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)
Kaleigh is the one running the give-away and she is currently in Latin America with her family as they adopt TWO precious little girls. This is super exciting but has also made the logistics of shipping the items in the give-away difficult so we are extending it for a short period of time instead of making people wait a super long time to recieve the items! I will update you soon when we figure out when it is going to end. Sorry for the confusion!
I have been so terrible at posting lately and am sorry for that! Things here have been a roller coaster ride of sorts!
Last Sunday was my birthday, Happy Birthday to me! It was also Fathers Day! Jason and I spent a nice morning together, he made me breakfast of eggs, bacon and toast :) We had a good time at Church and spent the afternoon together before heading over to his parents house for a nice dinner with his parents and grandmothers.
Jason is such an amazing husband and I thank God for him every day. We have come a long way in the nearly ten years we have been together. We cannot wait to really begin the journey of parenting. Jason is so excited tat he even "helped" Claudia pick out a birthday present for me!
Isn't he just too awesome! I did have to point out that it says for ages 4+ but he says we will help her! Haha, I love that man! She also "gave" me a card:
I love it!
This past weekend on Thursday, Friday and Saturday we had our BIG garage sale. You would not believe how huge it was. Seriously! We had the garage and sun porch completely full PLUS the equivalent of 5-6 tables in the driveway, two huge tarps in the driveway, a retaining wall covered in items and the stuff on the ground! It was A TON of work but it went very well. Overall we made a little more than $800 for the adoption including the donations. We had some wonderful friends posting about the sale on Facebook and I posted it 3 times on craigslist. We had a great turn out on all three days! My 6th (ok now 7th) graders Abby and Grace showed up to help out on Friday, they did an awesome job! I love those girlies :) The sale was sooo much work. We spent several evenings tagging and setting up everything, trying to organize it and then getting it outside WOW, garage sales are very tiring. Today I am just trying to relax, I am whipped but it was so worth it. I got to spread the word about Reeces Rainbow and the troubles that children with special needs face in other countries. The postings that our friends did on facebook not only brought people to our sale but has also helped bring money in from outside of the sale, how awesome is that!? The leftover items from the sale will be donated to our Church's yard sale benefiting our special needs ministry called the Friendship Ministry. Win, Win, Win for everyone!
I want to thank everyone who donated items for our sale and everyone who posted and re posted about it on Facebook. It is because of you that it was such a success. You are all such wonderful people, THANK YOU!
After a nice week it ended with some not-so-good news. We are still running into difficulties with our agency about our psychological report. They don't like the way it was done and are requesting more changes that our Psychologist does not seem to think need to be made. Please pray that they can overcome their differences and do what is right by us and for Claudia. We are on hold until this can all be resolved and we are unsure of how long it could hold us up, possibly for 3-4 weeks. We do not want that at all!
Hello my friends. I know it has been a while since I have posted anything. Things have been very busy around here. Jason has been putting in 55 hours a week at his job and just picked up a second job to top that off. I can't wait until this adoption is paid for and Claudia is home so that I can see my husband regularly again! I have been doing quite a bit of pet sitting over the last few weeks to earn some extra cash :)
Next week is our yardsale! Please keep this in your prayers as we are still about $2800 away from being able to submit our dossier. Praying for a miracle. The sale will be June 21-23, if you are in the area feel free to stop out and help support us. On Friday of next week my friend is throwing a fundraiser for us by selling her Arbonne products and donating her profits to the adoption. How awesome is that!? We also still have the puzzle fundraiser going and could really use some more names to put on those pieces Click HERE! The give-away will run until the end of the month Click HERE.
As far as the adoption goes we are still waiting for our FBI background checks to come in. We had our Psych eval done and are waiting for that to be approved by our agency and sent to us. We had our biometrics fingerprints done for the USCIS and are awaiting their approval. I also have to get my paperwork to our Doctor to be signed and sent back to us. Once this is all taken care of we have a bunch of papers to be notarized, certified and then Apostilled so that we can send them off to Claudia's country. It seems like a lot but really we can see the light at the end of the tunnel!
My birthday is tomorrow, I get to share it with all the wonderful fathers out there for Fathers Day this year. It would be such a blessing for me and Jason, the soon-to-be father, to see our donations grow tomorrow and through the upcoming week. Please consider donating to our FSP HERE or to our Chip-in on the Right-->. Use your donation to get something for yourself through the give-away, purchase coffee or purchase something from this blog or my Etsy shop. So many ways to give and also get something in return.
We have had so many people bless us thus far through our journey. We are amazed at the generosity of complete strangers, acquaintances and friends. We hope you will continue to pray for us and follow our journey through to the end. We hope that our story will be a blessing to others and even an inspiration. We just want God to use us to further His Kingdom and do His will.
Prayer requests: Please join us in praying for the following: Claudia's health and safety, our paperwork to come in quickly, for financial blessings, that the officials in her country will find favor with us, and for safe travels.
I will update you all when we hear back from those we need to hear from and of course let you know how the yardsale went!
I just submitted the paperwork and payment for our Psych Evals. We take our MMPI-2 tests on Monday, have our interview later in the week and then our psychologist writes up our report, has it Certified and will send it back to us! So happy to have finally found someone to do it AND she seems like an excellent Psychologist with TONS of Adoptive parent evals. If anyone else is having trouble looking for a licensed psychologist, let me know, she can do them for just about anyone in the US and sometimes for other countries! Convo me for more information.
My mom took me out to lunch today, it was so nice of her. We went out to the local Chinese buffet, the food is never great but for whatever reason, I love it! Anyway, I am not one big on fortunes but...
Quite true, although my family includes so many more than my biological family! I can't wait until Claudia can join this family and be a part of our home:)
On another note, another thing happened today:
Kaleigh is such an awesome friend. On top of the giveaway HERE, she is hosting a puzzle fund raiser HERE! Kaleigh has purchased a lovely 500 piece puzzle! You have the opportunity to "buy" a piece of the puzzle for just $5, your name will be written on the back of your piece. Once each puzzle piece has a name written on it, it will be assembled , framed and given to us to hang in Claudia's room. You can be a permanent part of her journey and she will get to see the names of all of the generous people that helped to bring her home.
Here is what the puzzle will look like completed
Here is an example of what the puzzle pieces will look like with your name put on them!
As always, thank you for your prayers and support. We are working hard to bring this beautiful girl home soon!
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!
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.
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 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!
This past week has felt like a whirlwind. We have had so many things going on and it has been absolutely crazy! I feel like I have so much to write about and I don't know where to start, I think I may have to separate it into different posts just to get my thoughts organized! Please be patient.
Ok, so first... the one thing that Jason and I have been waiting for came! Claudia's updated information with new pics! I will share those shortly for your viewing pleasure. These pictures and info came at just the right time! God knew that we needed some inspiration for a difficult week! These pictures helped us get through it. I now have her beautiful face as the screen on my phone and I smile every time I open up my phone. As for the medical information we were not surprised by any of the information we received but we know now more than ever that she needs to come home soon to see a cardiologist in the US. This beautiful girls has several delays but we are primarily concerned for her little heart. Please help us spread the word and help us get her home soon.
And now for what you really came here to see:
Isn't she just precious? Sadly, these will probably be the last pictures we will get before we see her. I hope we can travel soon. I would really love to be travelling this summer but I do not know how feasible that is. I am praying for a July travel date but our HS is only now being completed. It would make life so much easier on us to travel during the summer since I could do the bulk of the travelling and Jason could be home working and paying our bills. If we cannot travel until the fall, I will need to stay home :(. I know that God can do anything and I am trusting in His timing. Praying for paperwork to travel quickly, get into the right hands and be approved. Our little girl needs us.
I don't have any new news or updates today but I wanted to say Thank You to all of my friends and family for all of the support they are giving to us. We could not do this without you. I want to thank God for continuing to lead us through this adoption because it is IMPOSSIBLE without Him! We appreciate your continued prayers and support as we continue through this journey. It is truly unbelievable how much you can love someone that you have never met before, and to feel such a strong bond already. I know that she probably does not even know that her mommy and daddy are trying so hard to come get their little girl. I just want to hug her and kiss her and let her know that she is loved. I want her to know that she has so many supporters here that are waiting to meet her. I know that this will not be an easy road but it is the road that has been chosen for us by Him. I would not have it any other way.
So, now that Angie has finally allowed me to post on here, I figured the time was ripe for my first ever blog post.
First things first: A lot of people that I haven't been able to catch up with for a while probably think that this is really out of character for me.
I completely agree. This is a good thing, really.
My "character" is selfish, prideful, quick-tempered and lazy. If something I'm doing now is out of character for who I've been for most of my life, I know I'm doing something that's heading me in the right direction.
The person that I want to be is not who I have been, so the more out of character I act, the better.
Second: The first thing that most people (outside of my Cross Creek family) ask me when I tell them that Angie and I are being called by God to adopt a soon to be 3 year old girl with special needs from Latin (/South) America is "Are you crazy!?" To which the answer is of course: "Yes, quite."
If you had tried to tell me a couple of years ago that I would ever be the kind of person who says stuff like "I know this is what God wants me to do right now" I would have laughed in your face and walked away.
I do NOT cry. Ever. I make Chuck Norris look like a big softie. But when I think about meeting our little girl for the first time - wondering if she'll hug me, or be afraid of me - I come close to tearing up. We don't know if she can walk, or talk or what her level of independence is, or will ever be, but I love that little girl more than my own life.
If the change that's taken place in me isn't proof that God is real, and working in people's hearts and lives, I don't know what is.
