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!

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!

Give Away Does NOT End Tomorrow!

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***

That's right , so if you have not had a chance to enter yet, don't worry, there is still time! Click here:
http://www.prayingclaudiahome.blogspot.com/2012/06/give-away-continued.html 
AND make sure to leave a comment that you shared/donated to be entered to win one of these great prizes:

An herbal neck wrap and eye wrap set from Comfy Creations http://www.etsy.com/listing/50940291/herbal-neck-wrap-eye-pillow-set-hotcold

A 5 pack sampler set of Honey Tea from Honeyteathyme shop is here: http://www.etsy.com/shop/honeyteathyme?ref=pr_shop_more,

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

$25 Target Gift Card

Tutu

Photo Credit

Custom Made Emma Skirt

$50 Amazon Gift Card

$25 Gift card to the Cheesecake Factory

Photo Credit

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!

Pushing forward

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!

Paperwork Delivered!

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 make a purchase at my Etsy shop HERE

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!

So much going on!

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.