Reece's Rainbow, Twitter and Patricia Heaton

I came across a blog today written by Renee (blog link below) and felt the urge to share it. I can't word it better myself, so here goes:

What in the world could these three things have in common? Well, you see, it all started with Kirill... word is spreading about this sweet little guy, far and wide, and somehow Patricia Heaton (Everybody Loves Raymond, The Middle) got word of him and looked into Reece's Rainbow... here's what she had to say about what she found...


"I know there can be big pitfalls to social media, but I will be forever grateful to the tweeter who alerted me to the work of Reece's Rainbow. I clicked on a link to see the faces of those little neglected angels who have passed on, and immediately started weeping. It was so heartbreaking. Sometimes we feel helpless in the face of such horror, but because of the example of Andrea Roberts, we see that, with a lot of hard work and perseverance, there is something we can do.

Between work and family, I don't have a lot of time. But I do have financial means and a public profile. God charges us to use our circumstances, whatever they may be, to share His love with the world. I had just hit the 10,000 mark for Twitter followers, and the idea hit me - give $10,000 dollars - one dollar for every "Tweaton" who follows Reece's Rainbow. Accomplish supporting this great organization along with spreading awareness. So far, in a few hours, RR has about 500 new followers, and I hope many more to come.

I am involved in supporting various charitable organizations, but I have recently been asking God to show me where he wants me to be. I think Reece's Rainbow is an answer to that prayer. These kids have had very few people to be their voice, but Andrea Roberts has changed all that. I am so grateful to be a part of her work."


And so, remember when I said to watch for ways how you can help? Well, I still want you to pray, of course! PLEASE! But, you can also help out in another huge way! You can go follow Reece's Rainbow on Twitter. Don't have a twitter account? It's really easy to set one up. You don't even have to ever use it if you don't want to! Just set it up and click on the Reece's Rainbow page and hit "Follow". That's it. They could get up to $10,000 with Patricia's help! While you're at it, it might be nice to follow Patricia, too! ;) Thank you Patricia for supporting Reece's Rainbow in this amazing way that most people just aren't able to, and thank you all for helping out by following Reece's Rainbow!

Thank you Renee, Patricia, and Andrea!

News!

I didn't say it was good, but it's not really bad either. How can it be bad when we are adopting a beautiful little guy? :) Our dossier arrived safely in EE on Monday, but it will not be submitted to the SDA until April 14. The SDA is closed the first two weeks of April. We were hoping to slide it in on March 31, but there are several other families ahead of us that have dossiers being translated. This is also not a bad thing because that means there are orphans being adopted! I guess how it works is they can only submit dossiers to the SDA on Thursdays. So ours will be for sure on April 14, and that is okay! Two more weeks. I have said that patience is definitely not my forte. I much prefer things to happen quickly and according to my timeline. But in this very stressful process, I have learned over and over that this is God's will and His timeline. Things have set us back in some areas and been super fast in others. I have to "let go and let God." I am really at peace about this whole thing, and expected it deep down inside.

Second bit of news is wonderful! We have been put in contact with a wonderful woman in Micah's city who is a member of our church. She has graciously offered for us to stay with her for about 20% of the cost it would have been for our own apartment. We will get to grocery shop and use her kitchen (another blessing to not eat out every meal!) She also has internet for us to use and be able to Skype with the kids back home. I am so excited to meet her!

We have also decided to bring Annie with us on our adventure; something we just settled on after months of thinking she was staying in CA. I have been so torn up about the whole thing, not wanting to leave her, but thinking we wouldn't be able to take her (travel, appointments there, visiting Micah, etc.) But after visiting another blog, I saw they brought their 2 yr old son and mom with them. They were able to take them into the orphanage with them and let the boys bond. I started thinking and wondering if Micah's orphanage would allow us to do that (we had read that most do not). So I contacted our team, and we were told that although they do not encourage bringing children, we can take Annie with us to the SDA appointment and to Micah's orphanage, but not to court. We do not have anyone to take with us to EE, so we thought we were at another wall. But, after a couple days of talking to other RR families we feel confident that there will be someone to help us watch her during the times we really cannot take her with us (to court and all the paper signing processes). The woman who we are staying with also said there are many young women in the church who would be glad to help. So we are set! Her passport appointment is Friday (another reason it's okay our submission will be later).

We are also getting Fischer's passport Friday "just in case" we can afford to send him out there at the end of the trip, after school is out. I'd really love to bring him to see Micah's country and all the wonderful sights/sites out there. And then he can help me bring home the kiddos :)

I am really feeling so blessed and at peace and ease about everything. It has seemed like eternity to get here, but we are really almost there. And when all is said and done, the adoption will have taken less time than a regular pregnancy! I still can't believe that part. Our SDA appointment should be sometime around May 15 I'm guessing, so we will be leaving in just about 6 weeks hopefully.

Thank you ALL again for your prayers, support, and love.

It's THERE!!!!!!!

FedEx Activity Location Details

Mar 28, 2011
2:00 PM
Delivered
(Location noted here)

Mar 28, 2011
10:49 AM
Int'l shipment release
(Location noted here)

Mar 28, 2011
10:44 AM
In transit
(Location noted here)
Package available for clearance

Mar 26, 2011
5:02 AM
Departed FedEx location
PARIS FR

Mar 25, 2011
8:42 PM
Departed FedEx location
PARIS FR

(They are 10 hours ahead of us, so it got there at 4am our time.)

HOORAY! Now let's pray that it gets submitted to the SDA on Thursday! :)

Dossier Sent!

Dossier (n). Fancy French term for "beastly stack of adoption papers for an international adoption".

What an awesome fews days! We got our USCIS approval "the golden ticket" on Tuesday and had it notarized on Tuesday night by an awesome lady who offered to finish our papers off for free! Here is a photo of the remaining pages to be sent to EE. The first 12 pages were sent in December to let Micah's government know that we want to adopt him, and the powers of attorney for the faciliation team doing our work over there for us.

All of the paperwork we've had to obtain had to be notarized, then apostilled. An apostille is a piece of paper with a state seal that authenticates the notary stamp and form. Each state has their own process, look, and price.

Here is what an Arizona apostille looks like. It only cost us $3 to get this authentication. The reason we had to have this one done in AZ is because our landlord had our rental form done in her homestate, and the form has to be apostilled where it was notarized.

This is what a California apostille looks like. It costs $20, unless you go in person, then it costs $26. Highway robbery? Yes... one of the most expensive states, but we are in a budget crisis. Go figure. About 44 of our pages had to be apostilled in CA. Yike$.

This is a picture of our beautiful golden ticket :) Not too fancy if you ask me... it should be lined in gold! But this is one of the most important pieces of our dossier. We're going to frame this baby!

Since we are in a hurry to get Micah as quickly as we can, I decided to get the last four pages apostilled in person instead of waiting 1-2 weeks to get them back in the mail. Sacramento is about 8 hrs from us, so I broke it up and drove to Turlock with the girls Wednesday morning and got there at 12:30pm and had lunch with an amazing new friend from Lodi, who is also adopting from Micah's country (http://bringcarsonhome.blogspot.com/) They are actually adopting Carson and his newfound older brother, John! We had a wonderful time, and I got to my mom and dad's around 3pm. We enjoyed a couple hours before having dinner with my brother and sister and kids at Chili's, then hung out at Adam's letting all our girls play until 9pm. It was so nice to see them because I haven't seen them since Thanksgiving!

Then I woke up bright and early to head to Sacramento Thursday morning. My best friend, April, came with me to help with my littles and we had a quick drive up and back in the rain and wind. Our plan was to sight-see in Old Town, but the weather had other plans.

This is the nice gentleman who did the last four apostilles for us at the Secretary of State in CA. I didn't get his name, but he was genuinely happy for us and wished us luck.

The beautiful State Capitol across the street from the Secretary of State office. I love going to this place. Had a 4th grade field trip there, then went back about 7 years ago and it's just FUN! A beautiful park surrounding it too.

After getting the last of the dossier in order, we through Capitol Park and found the FedEx office a few blocks up. In the Adoption Handbook from Reece's Rainbow, it says to kiss your dossier goodbye. I'm assuming it's for good luck, but we know who really is in charge of this process :) Still, Chloe and I gave it the good luck kiss goodbye.

I can't tell you the nerves that were balled up inside the pit of my stomach. I didn't know whether to be happy, sad, scared, or nervous. I was all of them. Here I am sealing up the envelope inside the box for extra protection. I was trying not to get emotional letting this "beast" go. Since November 5th, I have literally been running all over the place to get forms filled out, making requests for information that seemed to baffle the people I was asking, as if nobody in San Bernardino County has ever done an international adoption and asked for such things. In the end, 4 1/2 months later, I met some WONDERFUL people along the way who really cared to help us and supported our efforts in adopting Micah. To all of them I am eternally grateful.

Filling out the international airbill to get to Yulia ASAP.

We needed to get the dossier to EE by Monday in order for the team to translate it and submit it to the SDA on Thursday, but the FedEx lady said it won't get there until Wednesday. That is when I got choked up. The SDA is closed the first two weeks of April, so me rushing around may be in vain if they can't submit us until April 14th.

Goodbye old friend that has caused me more stress than anything else I've ever done in my life. From here it should be a downhill ride to bring Micah home.

Update: Found out when I got back to Wrightwood Friday night that the beast has already arrived and departed Paris, FR!!! Maybe it will be there Monday afterall. When I sent the CSPs and POAs, I sent it on a Thursday and it got there on a Monday. Here's to hoping and praying! Oh please Lord, stay on our side like You have this whole journey.

The hardest part

You will really want to read this whole post so you can learn our latest exciting news!

The hardest part about this adoption process has been waiting. I'm a planner and like to know how and when things are going to happen, even months in advance! As a mom of four full-time children, things can get hectic, so having a calendar with everyone's schedule really helps. When we jumped in (literally) into the adoption process in November, all we really had to go by was the timeline of Darya's adoption (my friend Marianne's daughter whom I've mentioned in previous blogs). It took them 7 months. So that's what I set for us, however unrealistic. I later found out that when you're adopting in regions of Micah's country, it can go much faster. With Micah being in the capitol, it can take weeks longer because their courts are busier. So okay, it might take us 8 months :) The paper chasing we had to do seemed to take forever, but in hindsight wasn't really. It was just a lot of driving around, hauling the littles around many days a week. That had to be the most stressful part of the process... paper chasing... hoping we could get something signed or notarized, then having to go back for certain forms... narrowing down appointment dates, etc. NOT FUN! There were moments I would cry uncontrollably because I didn't think I could get a certain form notarized, then later got it, and found out I didn't need it! Talk about frustrating. Many requirements have changed as we've gone along as well.

They call Micah's country a moving target. Talks have ensued on the adoption process coming to a halt there because of trying to streamline their adoption laws. If something like that happened, we could be waiting longer, or not get him at all. We have rushed through everything to make sure we could get there as fast as we could. We still are. It's a "hurry up and wait" process. We committed to Micah on November 5th. 4 1/2 months later, we have our golden ticket in hand. THAT IS RIGHT! We got our I-171H emailed to us today by our USCIS officer. This is our last step in the U.S., then we can mail our dossier (a.k.a. "Beast") to Eastern Europe. That beast is 45 forms that have been notarized and apostilled, containing hundreds of pages, that will be FedEx'd to the facilitation team in Micah's country. They will then translate it all into their language, then petition for an SDA appointment. This is where we get to see Micah's personal file, accept the referral to meet him and FINALLY get to meet him face-to-face! Then a court date will be set where we appear before a judge and hope that he/she approves us to adopt him (this isn't usually a problem). Then there is a 10 day waiting period that is rarely, if ever, waived. This can extend over 14-15 days if weekends or holidays are included. Once he is officially granted our son, we get to run around obtaining his birth certificate, passport, medical clearnace, visa, and come home. The process there could take 5-8 weeks.

So tomorrow, I drive to Turlock with the girls and head to Sacramento Thursday morning to get our last documents apostilled (fancy, expensive piece of paper that authorizes the notarized forms). Then the beast will be sent via FedEx to the facilitation team! Our SDA appointment should hopefully be in the next 4-5 weeks, then we will be with Micah in his country until we bring him home!

SOOO happy the longest wait is now over. We are at the top of the roller coaster, and from here everything is DOWNHILL. Thank the Lord!

Ya te-be ko-kha-yu (I love you)

To put that in the proper Cyrillic letters would be hard on here, so I did the best pronunciation translation I could :)

Last night we were so blessed to find a video of the children in Micah's orphanage. My friend said she hadn't found Micah, but to try and look closely because she had found Johanna and Jackson (the two other littles being adopted). So I looked with faith and I came across a little person that looked like it could be Micah, but I thought maybe it was a girl (his hair was longer), and thought there's no way she would've missed him if that was him because the pics are so big compared to some. So I was sad, but still hopeful. Keep in mind this friend has seen him in person, so she would know! So I asked her what she thought and she said, "That's definitely him! I can't believe I missed him. His hair is so beautiful I thought it was a girl." HAHA! Then her husband confirmed too, so we have new pictures of Micah on a video that I can't copy and get still photos from, but they are still new pictures! If you watch the video below and pause on :23 and :43, you will see our sweet love. My friend is going to a conference this weekend and will try to get more for us. I am elated to see how he's grown in 8 months. The most recent pictures we have are from July 2010, so this is awesome. And to think, we should be there in the next month or two is unbelievable. Hurry up golden ticket!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qdkDqo_iDQs

Ya te-be ko-kah-yu, Micah!

Biometrics DONE! :)

Whew! What a whirlwind... we FedEx'd our USCIS I-600A application to Dallas TX on January 28th, it arrived on February 1st and our check was cashed on February 3rd. I thought that quick turnaround meant things would go fast. From there, our file was sent to MO. I called every week to see if we had a biometrics appointment and kept being told it was "on the floor" and we'd hear soon. I kept asking how much longer and there was no timeframe, no appointment, no officer. Last Monday, March 7th, I called again and an officer answered the phone who was willing to look a little deeper into our file and offered to pull the file herself and made our appointment ON THE PHONE! :) That was a surprise and an answer to a prayer. Unfortunately, the first appointment she had in the system would be on April 4th, another MONTH away :( So as soon as we got our official appointment letter on Saturday, we planned to walk in today and hope we could be seen. We were blessed that our friend, Amy, could watch all the girls for us, got to the Pomona ASC office right at 9:05 with the hopes that they would do our prints without an appointment today... we were told they could see us but that we'd possibly have to wait and that others would have priority over us. There were only about 4-5 people in there, but he said that if new people came in with appointments, it would set us back further. We said, "okay" and were prepared to wait all day if we had to... we just wanted them done! Can you believe we only waited 5 minutes before they called our number?! We were in and out of there in 20 minutes! YEEHAW as Marianne said this morning :) haha

Once we got home and settled in, I called USCIS and asked for the same nice officer who helped me last Monday, and she was available. She remembered me! I told her we were able to walk in and do our prints this morning and she sounded so happy for us. She told me that she would get to our prints by Wednesday and process us within a week! What a blessing!!! She offered to take our file personally and handle it and that if we don't hear something in the next couple weeks to call her. After talking to friends, I found out this is the same AWESOME officer that helped them! How blessed they were to have a caring, compassionate officer who processed them quickly. So, we are hoping to have the same outcome, and are confident we will because of how proactive she has been. It is nice to have someone on our side helping things be expedited along :)

When this is all done, I will give her proper credit by name and explain more about the country we are adopting from and why she found the need to be urgent with us. But for now, just know that we are so extremely blessed and the Lord is looking out for sweet Micah!

:)