Trip One Pictures Cont... March 19th and 20th

These pictures were taken on March 19th.  It is amazing to see how far the children have come in the last 7 months. 

She's got my phone... Typical pre-teen!

Sibling love <3 td="">

My goofy girl!

Mr Handsome

The following were taken in March 20th, the last day I was able to spend with Milena on my first trip to Armenia.

I went to Milena's orphanage with her.  She made me some tea and lunch :)

More to come later...

More pictures from Trip 1

Below are pictures and video from my second day in Armenia visiting Aleks and Milena.  This was March 17th, 2015



Yep, she is silly!



But mom can be too!



Such a handsome smile!!

Sibling love:


She loves to dance:


March 18th, 2015 My 3rd day with the children:

So ticklish!

Playing with mom...

A Long Time Coming

 Wow, July 23rd was my last blog post!

I had every intention of blogging about our time in country but things became busy before I knew it.  I will try to bring you all up to date on our adoption journey in a few posts.  As you may imagine, our lives have been beyond busy for the last several months.  I'll begin where I left off... in Armenia.

Jason and I traveled to Armenia (I can say that now) to meet our soon-to-be new children in late July.  From my previous post, you learned that on Tuesday, July 21st Milena became our daughter.  I'll back track from there just a bit.  We got to Armenia in the wee hours of Monday morning, July 20th.  Jason and I got a few hours of sleep before meeting with our adoption team and heading over to the orphanage that our son Aleks (Chance) was in.  You see, as previously mentioned, Milena and Aleks were in two separate regions of Armenia and were about 2 hours apart so we were not able to see her before court on Tuesday.  We spent Monday with Aleks before going to court on Tuesday for Milena.  That was the first time Jason got to meet Aleks and see orphanage life up close and personal. 

On Tuesday we had and passed court for Milena and picked her up after some paper chasing.  She was so sweet and greeted us with big hugs.  We enjoyed some time at her orphanage before heading back to the capitol which is where Aleks was and where we were staying.  Milena did very well with the adjustment.

On Wednesday morning we were able to all go to Aleks' orphanage, Milena included and spend some time there before we had court for his adoption.  Milena spent the first 10-11 years of her life in Aleks' orphanage before aging out and moving to the other one.  Therefore she was well known and welcomed with open arms by the staff.  While Jason and I went to court, the orphanage was kind enough to allow Milena to stay there.

For some reason I was more nervous for Aleks' court than for Milena's.  It was not a long hearing nor was it particularly stressful.  The only downside to our court experience for Aleks was that the Judge did not sign the adoption decree that day (they have up to 5 days to sign.)  Aleks did not legally become our son until Friday, July 24th.  That meant that he had to stay in the orphanage until Friday.

Jason had to leave early Thursday morning to get back home.  I stayed for the duration of the adoption process. Starting July 24th, it was Aleks, Milena and myself in our little apartment; learning to live together, bond together and just getting to know each other. 

I will write more about our stay in Armenia later.  For now I am going to post some pictures and video from my first trip to Armenia in March when I first met Aleks and Milena!

This is the first day I met Milena, after being shy for  a while, she opened up after Aleks went down for a nap.

Below Aleks got a hold of my phone and was having fun:

Below Milena was showing her silliness:

Below: Milena showing off her English skills (some caregivers speak English so the children are exposed to it although they are fluent in Armenian)


Aleks has an adorable laugh:





The above pictures and videos were taken on March 16th, the first day I met Aleks and Milena. 
I will post more later and will try to continue updating the blog as I am able.

Big things are happening!

Where has the time gone?

The last couple of months have been so hectic that they have flown by!  We got out I-800 approval in June along with our NVC numbers.  In the mean time we had to update our USCIS Biometrics fingerprints and submit a Supplement 3 to the I-800a (even though we were approved for the I800. The reason for this was that our children have a few other diagnoses that were on their referral medical than we were approved for, so we wanted to make sure that even though USICS had approved us despite these additional diagnoses, that we would be covered once we got in country.  Actually, at this time I think we're still waiting on that approval... Why would I know know?

I'm IN COUNTRY NOW!

I told you it's been crazy!

At one point we were told that to get court scheduled for July would be practically impossible and that many people in country take vacation in August, so we should expect September travel.  Then, one day we were told they were trying to schedule court for July 20th and we should plan on being in country that day.  The biggest issue for us was that the judges were now requiring both parents to be present at court, we had originally planned on me coming alone.  We had about 10 days notice to get care for Claudia set us as well as getting everything situated with work.  That was actually a good amount of time all things considered.  Jason was able to get care for Claudia all figured out for the week he would be gone in just a few days.  We have several trusted friends and family that were willing to step up and help out not only for this week but also in the upcoming weeks while I am still away.  Thank you all!

We flew out of the US on Saturday, July 18th and after about 35 hours landed in our children's country.  Jason and my 7th wedding anniversary was on July 19th, we spent it mostly on a plane AND it was only 16 hours long since we changed time zones.  Pretty cool huh?  Anyway, we got into country Monday morning around 2am (6pm Sunday evening home time).

We did not have court on Monday but were scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday court hearing.  Our children reside in two different regions of the country, therefore we had to go to a separate court for each of them.  Can I just tell you that the thought of going to court and pleading our case before a judge (let alone 2 judges) terrifies me!!?!!

So on Tuesday after going out for breakfast and meeting wit hour lawyer to go over what to expect in court, we drove the 2+ hours to Callie's region.  The judge was a pleasant young man.  We were his first American adoption case (he did have one other but the woman was of the counties' decent.)  The judge asked us several questions before the hearing even started.  He wanted to know how much we knew about the country, its history, how we would help our child maintain their heritage...  It was not TOO bad.  Once the other party got there (the person representing the best interest of the child) court officially started.  We plead our case (Jason read our prepared statement) and the other party spoke on behalf of Callie.  All went well and the adoption decree was signed within  a half an hour after court (this is unheard of, it usually takes days.)  "Callie" is now Milena (pronounced Mee-lay-nuh) and is officially ours!  Then it was a mad dash to get the rest of the paperwork completed in her region so that we would not have to travel the 2 hours back to her region on another day.  Some calls were made, people stayed in the office late and we got what we needed.  It was around 6pm when we finally got to Milena's orphanage/home. 

The residents rushed to the gate to let us in after we rang the bell.  They knew why we were there.  Everyone was very excited for Milena, yet sad to see her go!  Milena was very well loved at her orphanage.  The Sisters prepared a HUGE suitcase full of clothes and belongings for Milena (more than we could ever take home).  This is unusual for orphanages, usually you have to bring a change of clothes for the child to leave in, they have to leave all else at the orphanage.  Milena was blessed to be in such a wonderful place.

We got back to the apartment late on Tuesday night and crashed.

More later... Milena is waking, time to start our day!  Pics to come later.

Continued Progress

We received our Article 16 (via email) on May 28th.  After a few edits we were able to send our I-800 (US Immigration paperwork) back to our agency on May 29th, they got it on the 30th.  Our agency reviewed the paperwork to check for errors and sent it to USCIS for us.  USCIS received the I-800 into their lockbox in Texas on June 3rd and shipped it out to our officer around June 8th.  On June 9th our bank statement showed that USCIS had cashed our check.

So, this is where we are at currently.  We are waiting for our I-800 approval or for them to send us a RFE (Request for evidence) to help them make a favorable decision.  We fully expect to get a RFE and are prepared with an updated Home Study in hand.  I say we expect to get a RFE because the special needs of the children we are requesting to adopt does not match exactly what our original USCIS approval qualified us for.  There were a few relatively minor things in the medical files that we did not have in our original home study, but we've got that all taken care or and ready and waiting in case we get the RFE.  We are hopeful that this would only slow us down a week or 2.
We should have the approval or RFE in the next couple of weeks.  Once we finally get approved that will go to the National Visa Center and allow us to essentially apply for US Visas for the children.  The NVC conduct an Orphan Investigation and then issue an Article 5 our court dates can be scheduled and I can travel back to the children.  After about 3 weeks in country, we'll head home!  That's about it folks, there is a light at the end of the tunnel!

When will we travel?  Well... we don't know, it all depends on how quickly things move along.  Best case scenario, we'll get court dates for the end of July.  I am really hoping for this but I don't think it is likely (so I won't hold my breath).  There is a chance we could get court dates scheduled for August, however August in a big month for vacations in our children's country and it may not be possible to get 2 court dates scheduled close enough together because of officials going on vacation. So that puts us into September.  I'm going to go out on a limb and say that I will be travelling sometime between July and September, of course I could be wrong and something else could come up to push us back, but I'm hopeful for a speedy process from here on out.

Please pray for a quick and smooth process and also for the circumstances to be right for Jason to get to travel with me for the last part of my trip and to be able to fly home with me and the children.

I want to thank each and every one of you who have shared a kind word with us, prayed for us or donated towards this adoption in anyway.  Your efforts have not gone unnoticed and ultimately will bring Chance and Callie home.  We cannot thank you enough!

Good News!

We finally got the news we have been waiting for! On Friday our agency sent us an email saying we can expect to receive our Article 16 (basically all the info the government has on the children) in about 2 weeks. That means that our children's government has given us their second approval. I love forward progress! With this news we were also given the next several steps and an approximate timeline to a court date. Barring any further issues I could be heading back over in 10-12 weeks. That means that there is still a small chance that our children could be home (or at least I'll be with them) for their birthdays is September. This is my prayer!

We have less than a month to finish paying our adoption agency. Our final fee to the agency is $10,000. After we pay that, we'll only have to pay for our next step with the USCIS (only because we added a second child), for flights, food in country, money for visas, medicals and other smaller incidentals. We're getting so close!

I just started up another t-shirt fundraiser.  This one should appeal to the masses, it's quite fun if I do say so myself! These come in Youth XS (size 2-4T) up to Adult 4x. You can make a purchase here: https://www.booster.com/dontfitin If we don't sell enough (11) shirts, the company will not print them and your money will be refunded.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I am also still selling Origami Owl! The end of the school year is here which means GRADUATION! An Origami Owl locket would make a fantastic graduation gift. Summertime also means lots of weddings! We have great gifts for those too! If you are or know a bride who would be interested in ordering Origami Owl as gifts for her wedding party, please contact me for possible discounts. And last but not lease, summertime means Baseball!  Origami Owl has teamed up with the MLB and has charms for all National and American league teams!  Show your team spirit this year with Origami Owl!  If you are interested in ordering, you can do so through my website:: www.Origami4Orphans.OrigamiOwl.com at check out type in Code 34357.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thank you for your continued support and your prayers.  This part of our journey is getting closer to the end, 3 months still seems like a long ways away but it will get here soon!

Trip #1, Part 7

This post is about my last day in country, my last day visiting Chane.

When I went into the baby room that morning Chance was asleep in his chair. It took him a minute or two to really wake up. After he was awake I got to feed him a biscuit (rather than his usual pureed food).  According to the Sisters, Chance was unable to chew anything just a week ago (I'm not sure if this is true, or just what they thought). After playing for a little while, I fed him his lunch. Chance was full of it that morning. He kept spitting his food out/blowing raspberries with it and laughing. He'd only done that once or twice before when I fed him, and then it was only once at each feeding.  This time it was nearly every bite!  He is a funny guy and I'm glad he found something amusing! After his lunch we played and relaxed until it was time for his nap.

After the visit I went back to my apartment, ate some leftovers, started packing and took a little nap before my second visit.  I had to get some energy so that I didn't have a complete breakdown when I had to say good-bye.

When I went into the room for the second visit, I touched Chance's shoulder to get his attention, he looked up, saw me and gave me a nice, big smile. My heart melted.  I hate how just as he is getting to know me and recognize me, I have to leave him for several months.  It is not fair to the children!  We played together for a while and also played with some of the other babies. Later I gave Chance his afternoon tea in his bottle and he fell asleep in my arms. I love that he was so comfortable with me. I then put him in his crib for a nap. I stayed for a little while longer playing with the other children and then I got ready to go. One of the Sisters woke Chance up for dinner and I said goodbye to him. I can't wait to see that smiling face again and to hear is laugh.

In the week I was in country, I saw some changes in Chance. I think he is able to stand for a bit longer now than he was a week ago. He also interacted more with me by the end of the visit. One of the Sisters said that he seems more alert and aware. I can only hope that he keeps up his progress.

After I left the orphanage, I got to meet up with another adoptive mother who just flew in that afternoon. We had a nice dinner together, got to know one another a bit and then i had to go back to my apartment, finish packing and take another quick nap. I left my apartment at 1am to catch my 3am flight back home.

It has been 7 and a half weeks since I last saw my children.  Each day without news on the children or news of progress in our case wears on me.  I wonder all the time how Callie is doing, what she is thinking, if she thinks of me often. I wonder if Chance is standing on his own yet, if he continues to progress to eat more solid foods.  I wonder how much longer until I get to see them again.  Please pray that we get news soon!

We still have our matching grant ongoing.  We need $846 more to hit the match.  If you feel led, please consider donating towards our adoption.  You may do so here: http://reecesrainbow.org/69430/sponsorvanhalle-2