Patience is the name of the game when it comes to adoption. Especially when you have submitted most of your paperwork. I feel like Dory from Finding Nemo, just replace the "swimming" with "waiting." "Just keep waiting..." You get the picture! As I mentioned before the process will end up taking a few more months than we had anticipated. This leaves us with many decisions but also gives us more time to get together the funds needed.
I just got back from working my "second job" which really is more like a when they need me and I am available to work kind of job... I normally don't work on Sunday's but the money was good AND I still got to go to Church! Overall not a bad day considering I was home by 3:30! I will take it!
Jason just started his new second job at a brand new restaurant at the end of last week. Tonight is his 3rd night working. I hope it will be well worth it in the end. He works LATE! On Friday night he did not get home until 2am(Sat morning) and had to be back his "real" job by 8am the next morning. I love him so much. What a hard worker he is! Jason is such an inspiration to me, a true warrior willing to do whatever it takes to get Claudia home.
We are patiently waiting for our USCIS approval to be in our mail box. It was sent out last week! So exciting but we still have so much to do before submitting our Dossier! We are having some trouble getting to the County Clerks office and having anyone available for our Certifications on our documents. I guess that is what happens when so many people go on vacation. Hopefully our Dossier will be out early next week as long as we can get everything done that we need to THIS WEEK!
Did I mention that it is July and that means that it is Claudia's birthday month! Just a few short weeks until she turns 3! We were REALLY hoping to be with her for it but she will be on our minds all day. I am even planning to make a cake! Is that cheesy? Oh well! I wish that she knew that we are doing our best to get her home soon! We are doing whatever it takes Claudia, we will be there soon!
Sorry for the hodgepodge of this post. This is as good of an update as we have right now. Please keep praying for our daughter, for us and for the finances to come in soon! Thank you all!
Sunday, July 8, 2012
Sunday, July 1, 2012
Time To Let it Out!
I have been trying for some time to find a way to write this post. I am still having difficulty. The past few weeks have been filled with some unfortunate circumstances that we are still battling to overcome. Please understand that the statments may be a bit vague out of respect for all involved.
I have written in the past about our predicament between our agency and psychologist. We are hopefully at the tail end of that BUT it has caused A LOT of added stress and tension as well as some delays. Many feelings were hurt over the situation and Jason and I were put in the middle of it. There were many things happening that we were not in the least bit of control of. We handled oursevlves in the best manner we could but we also let others know when we were upset and also that we would NOT compromise our integrity, sorry, just not gonna happen! This mama bear had to bear her claws on more than one occasion over the last couple of weeks. In the end (praying it was the end...) we had to do a few things that we did not want to have to do and that we felt were completely unnecessary and not our responsibility. We had to smooth the waters between these two individuals in order to move forward with the adoption. In the end, everyone had to compromise.
I just want to say that we believe EVERYONE has Claudia's best interest at heart. We really like our psychologist and think she did a great job. We also know that our agency probably works with the country on a more consistant basis and knows the current requirements. We are not saying that either one was wrong in thier stance, we just wish they would have worked together and "played nicely." If you have trouble finding a psychologist I would definately reccomend mine to you BUT I would advise you to speak to your agency first about performing the evaluation via tele-medicine (on the phone). It is completely legitamate but may not be accepted buy some agencies. Be upfront and clear about your intentions. I think this is what caused the biggest problem for us. We showed our agency who we were plannning on using to do the evaluation after already telling them we absolutely coud not find anyone local and they apparenlty did not understand that the eval was not going to be face-to-face. We will see if it works out in the end.
If it sounds odd to you to do a psychological eval over the phone and internet, we felt the same way! We did our research though and it is completely legitamate and legal. The Psychologist we ended up using (there are several that will do adoption evals over the phone/internet/mail) has done over 60 evals this way for our country and more adoption evals than anyone in the US. We are very confident in her abilities. If you are not sure, ask your agency! We went this route as a last resort since we could not find anyone local willing to perform an adoption evaluation.
We are trying to move forward from all of this now. Our agency has agreed to send our home study and Psych eval directly to the country (before submitting our dossier) to make sure that they are acceptable and to give us time to make the appropriate changes necessary. This could really be a blessing in disguise since we are still waiting on our USCIS clearances. Perhaps we will be pre-approved prior to submitting the rest of our documents which could possibly make the adoption go a little quicker. Praying this is the case and God's plan all along. I have to believe there is a reason for this situation. Please let it not merely be a lesson in patience... :)
So after all of this, after tryiing to move on, we received an email from our agency with a timeline. FINALLY! I had been asking for a timeline for a few weeks. The timeline we got described the process of the adoption after the submission of our dossier. It was not what we were hoping for. According to this timeline we could be waiting to travel for another 3 months or more! PLUS now we are hearing rumors that our country as slowed its adoption process recently which could cause further delays! This again could be a blessing in disguise but it is so hard to know that we have to wait even longer to meet our little girl and that she will have to wait even longer to get the proper medical care that she needs. Jason and I now have a few big decisions to make in the upcoming months. They have to do with who is going to travel for the entire time and what to do about work and school. We would appreciate your prayers.
The good thing about the apparent delay is that it gives us more time to save up the money and to fundraise. On that note: Jason is starting a second job this week. He was previously working two jobs, had to stop and is again working two... Confusing I know! He is such an amazing, hardworking man. Willing to do whatever it takes to get our baby girl home. I am still working full time (and then some) and picking up all of the little side-jobs I can. At least we will have a bit more time now.
We know that it will all work out in God's timing and according to His will.
Thank you for following us on our journey. I hope to have some good news soon. Waiting for the rainbow after the storm :)
I have written in the past about our predicament between our agency and psychologist. We are hopefully at the tail end of that BUT it has caused A LOT of added stress and tension as well as some delays. Many feelings were hurt over the situation and Jason and I were put in the middle of it. There were many things happening that we were not in the least bit of control of. We handled oursevlves in the best manner we could but we also let others know when we were upset and also that we would NOT compromise our integrity, sorry, just not gonna happen! This mama bear had to bear her claws on more than one occasion over the last couple of weeks. In the end (praying it was the end...) we had to do a few things that we did not want to have to do and that we felt were completely unnecessary and not our responsibility. We had to smooth the waters between these two individuals in order to move forward with the adoption. In the end, everyone had to compromise.
I just want to say that we believe EVERYONE has Claudia's best interest at heart. We really like our psychologist and think she did a great job. We also know that our agency probably works with the country on a more consistant basis and knows the current requirements. We are not saying that either one was wrong in thier stance, we just wish they would have worked together and "played nicely." If you have trouble finding a psychologist I would definately reccomend mine to you BUT I would advise you to speak to your agency first about performing the evaluation via tele-medicine (on the phone). It is completely legitamate but may not be accepted buy some agencies. Be upfront and clear about your intentions. I think this is what caused the biggest problem for us. We showed our agency who we were plannning on using to do the evaluation after already telling them we absolutely coud not find anyone local and they apparenlty did not understand that the eval was not going to be face-to-face. We will see if it works out in the end.
If it sounds odd to you to do a psychological eval over the phone and internet, we felt the same way! We did our research though and it is completely legitamate and legal. The Psychologist we ended up using (there are several that will do adoption evals over the phone/internet/mail) has done over 60 evals this way for our country and more adoption evals than anyone in the US. We are very confident in her abilities. If you are not sure, ask your agency! We went this route as a last resort since we could not find anyone local willing to perform an adoption evaluation.
We are trying to move forward from all of this now. Our agency has agreed to send our home study and Psych eval directly to the country (before submitting our dossier) to make sure that they are acceptable and to give us time to make the appropriate changes necessary. This could really be a blessing in disguise since we are still waiting on our USCIS clearances. Perhaps we will be pre-approved prior to submitting the rest of our documents which could possibly make the adoption go a little quicker. Praying this is the case and God's plan all along. I have to believe there is a reason for this situation. Please let it not merely be a lesson in patience... :)
So after all of this, after tryiing to move on, we received an email from our agency with a timeline. FINALLY! I had been asking for a timeline for a few weeks. The timeline we got described the process of the adoption after the submission of our dossier. It was not what we were hoping for. According to this timeline we could be waiting to travel for another 3 months or more! PLUS now we are hearing rumors that our country as slowed its adoption process recently which could cause further delays! This again could be a blessing in disguise but it is so hard to know that we have to wait even longer to meet our little girl and that she will have to wait even longer to get the proper medical care that she needs. Jason and I now have a few big decisions to make in the upcoming months. They have to do with who is going to travel for the entire time and what to do about work and school. We would appreciate your prayers.
The good thing about the apparent delay is that it gives us more time to save up the money and to fundraise. On that note: Jason is starting a second job this week. He was previously working two jobs, had to stop and is again working two... Confusing I know! He is such an amazing, hardworking man. Willing to do whatever it takes to get our baby girl home. I am still working full time (and then some) and picking up all of the little side-jobs I can. At least we will have a bit more time now.
We know that it will all work out in God's timing and according to His will.
Thank you for following us on our journey. I hope to have some good news soon. Waiting for the rainbow after the storm :)
Friday, June 29, 2012
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:
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!
***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
Custom Made Emma Skirt
$50 Amazon Gift Card
$25 Gift card to the Cheesecake Factory
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!
Sunday, June 24, 2012
Sorry for the lack of posts...
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!
More to come as we get more info.
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!
More to come as we get more info.
Saturday, June 16, 2012
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!
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!
Friday, June 1, 2012
Application and Payment DONE for Psych Eval
One more step forward.
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.
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!
UPDATED FOR GIVE-AWAY
Ok, here are ALL of the items in the give-away, all on one page. The give-away is running until the end of this month. Don't miss out on some awesome items donated by some lovely and generous people! (Click on the pictures for a larger view)
|
| 1. An herbal neck wrap and eye wrap set from Comfy Creations See an example of it opened here: (the one pictured on the blog is what you will get) http://www.etsy.com/listing/50940291/herbal-neck-wrap-eye-pillow-set-hotcold |
 |
| 2. A 5 pack sampler set of Honey Tea from Honeyteathyme shop is here: http://www.etsy.com/shop/honeyteathyme?ref=pr_shop_more, |
|
3. 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
|
|
| 4. $25 Target Gift Card |
|
| 5. This lovely Tutu |
|
| 6. Custom Made Emma Skirt! From Flannel Queen |
|
| 7. $50 Amazon Gift Card |
|
| 8. $25 Cheese Cake Factory Gift Card. YUM! |
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| 9. Hand made little girl’s Pillow Case Dress in any size 2-6 (Several colors and styles available) from Na-Da Farm Life |
|
| 10. The Book Kisses From Katie |
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| 11. Package of 3 vintage sewing patterns (your choice out of a huge collection) |
|
| 12. A hand made scarf purchased in South America (we will purchase and bring back to ship to you) |
$10 = 1 Entry
$15 = 3 Entries
$25 = 5 Entries
or Post on FB/Twitter to get one free entry
Then GO TO Kaleighs Blog: www.prayingclaudiahome.blogspot.com and LEAVE A COMMENT on her blog that you donated or posted and how much (how many entries).
Simple as that :) 12 items to give away, great odds so far!
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