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!

:)

Dear Micah,

Dear Micah,
I think of you every day. You are always on my mind and heart. I glance at your picture often and wonder what you are doing. Are you warm, fed, happy, and loved? I know you are in a good orphanage, and I'm so greatful for that, but I want to hold you and let you know that your mommy and daddy love you so much. I look into your eyes and see hope; I look at your smile and see happiness. It's going to be so amazing to have you join our family. The girls talk about you every day... they say things like "When is Micah coming home?" "How many teeth does he have?" "How tall is he?" "I want him to come home now!" It's going to be really hard to leave them when we come to get you, but we know that the relatively short time we are gone from them does not compare to the lifetime we are able to give to all of you together. I hope you feel our love and know we are getting there as fast as we possibly can. All of our paperwork is being processed and we are just waiting for the approvals and appointments that will allow us to come and get you. If I could go to the offices and make them push the right buttons or sign the right forms, I would in a heartbeat! The waiting part of the process is a rite of passage from what I am told; it makes us grow and stronger. It makes us reflect on what we've done so far and hope for what is yet to come. It also makes us think and pray for his little crib buddies that are there waiting for their families also... thankfully the ones we know about all have families coming for them except Antonio, and we are praying so hard for him every day. If we had more room and approval for more than one, we'd probably bring him in as part of our family too. They all tug at our heartstrings and make us wish we could do more. For now Micah, please know that we love you more than you'll ever know and we cannot wait to bring you home.
Love,
Mommy

And we wait...

So this was the "hurry up and wait" feeling everyone told me about :) We submitted our USCIS paperwork via FedEx last Friday and it arrived safely in Dallas, TX yesterday!! We are done running around chasing papers, so now we pray, raise funds, and wait. We only have $10,000 to raise now after our sizeable tax return and a generous loan from Barry's mom. We are trying not to borrow the rest from her, but hope to get as many donations as possible while we wait.

We have beeing hearing about these wonderful waiting children getting grants at Reece's Rainbow, and I am so very happy that the money donated will help them all find families. I pray that their grants help their forever families find them soon. However, I can't help but wonder about the sweet children whose families committed to them on a leap of faith and really need help to continue with their travel journeys. I know God will provide, no matter what... He will provide as long as we are faithful and endure to the end. We are praying for all the families who are raising money for their sweet babies (especially my new friends the Goldens and the Cannells) and hope the money keeps coming in for them! We are trying to organize a jog-a-thon but are not getting a response from the locations we've contacted. We are running out of precious time and wish raising money was easier, and that the weather was warmer for some of our ideas :)

Well, for now I continue in prayer and gratitude for the generosity and support we have received so far. We have a wonderful support network all around us and are blessed by kindness each day. I pray Micah's story touches someone out there to help wherever they can to bring him home and out of the orphanage. I pray for all the sweet kids at Reece's Rainbow who need homes. Our FSP is at reecesrainbow.org/sponsorray (and you can click on the right to see other waiting children).

With a humble heart,
Shelly

Home stretch!

Two things happened today.

One was the usual running around for fingerprints, notarizations, etc. Same ole stuff, different day. But later in the evening, I realized that we are DONE running around! Once we get our signed Homestudy report next week, I can mail that off with our I-600a application to USCIS (formerly INS), then we just wait for an approval and biometrics appointment (more fingerprints, lol). Once we get that done, we wait for our I-171H a.k.a "golden ticket". Once we get our golden ticket, we can send our dossier to Micah's country, and wait for our SDA appointment to meet him! In reality, these last two steps can take 2-6 months, but we are really in the home stretch! I don't have to run around anymore, now I just get to sit back and wait, and FedEx will be my new best friend!

The second thing that happened was probably one of the most funny moments in my life. When we found Micah's profile at RR, we thought that was his real name. After we got attached to it, we found out that RR gives aliases to the kids to protect their identity in their home countries. We decided to keep Micah because it fits him, and it means "Who resembles God" or "Who is like God" depending on which website you check. So, it is fitting for him and the situation and we are settled on it. However, just for fun, I told the girls last night that we could name him anything we wanted; that he didn't know who Micah was. We were talking about middle names too. I offered Garrett because that is my grandma's maiden name, and it was a name I would have used if I ever had another boy. Chloe liked it, but Gracie did NOT! She retorted, "His name is Micah! Don't you understand? He's my brother, and I love him so much. I want him to come home with me. His name is just Micah and nothing else!" She was literally yelling at us and very upset by the whole thing. I was laughing so hard. She yelled, "Don't you understand" twice! So, we said, "Don't worry, his name is Micah. We aren't changing it." Then she calmed down. That little girl has some fire in her, but she knows what should be, and now Micah will know that we ALL chose his name :)

Bureaucracy

Contrary to the heading of this blog, I am not going to complain in this blog :) Out of all the documents we have had to have notarized, the most difficult have been the medical forms, the assessor's proof of home ownership, and the letter of VA benefits for Barry.

The medical forms took over a month because the doctor went on a two week vacation, then the first set of forms he signed had to be re-done according to the faciliation team in Micah's country. Those got done last week (Thursday), and we're good to go. Our doctor is very supportive of what we are doing and he and his nurses have been very helpful.

That same Thursday last week, two days after talking to a county assessor employee who said she could help me, I went in to have our "proof of home ownership" letter signed with a notary. The 3rd floor wasn't able or willing to help, the 4th floor supervisor stayed within his black and white lines sayin "no" while trying to be understanding, then the manager on the 5th floor was the nicest person in the world and was willing to help us. She even got a little creative with the document because the letter I brought in with specifics did not match their records. She screen-printed and cut and paste the information on their letterhead. Unfortunately, the document she provided was not accepted by the facilitation team so we had to start at square one. Yesterday, I called and emailed that same supervisor a blank copy of the letter and she filled in the blanks and made it work. I am so grateful for her! She even told me that the Assessor was happy she helped me even though it was a unique situation and so out of the ordinary. So even though there was no procedure in black and white, they were able to go out of the lines to help us. We were the first case in 27 years that came to them with this request!

Then for the last three weeks, Barry and I have tried to get a letter showing what his monthly benefit payments are from the VA (Veteran's Administration). Getting the letter was no problem, but getting someone to sign it in front of a notary was quite the ordeal. The call center was rude to Barry, saying "they don't do that." I called the local office two weeks ago and was told they couldn't help us, that we needed to go to the Regional office in Los Angeles. My notary charges 50 cents per mile and the office is 80 miles away... I did the math and thought no way! I would've had to find a local mobile notary in L.A., and they would probably charge just as much (my notary has given us half off everything and been more than accomodating for what we are doing). So I took a few days off from this and thought, I'm going to try with the local office again and talk directly to the supervisor just to see if I can convince her to help us. So two faxes and several phone calls later, she has agreed to sign in front of a notary. You would think the VA is all the same, but it's not. They have Federal, State, and County offices who handle different things. The State office cuts Barry's check, so they are the issuing authority. The county office (our local office) can verify benefits in writing, but do not want to be liable for anything legal having to do with Barry. It all makes sense, but it's bureaucracy as my title states. I am grateful for the Lord softening hearts in those around us to help us. The local supervisor has agreed to sign the letter in front of our notary tomorrow morning. Please pray that it goes well! I am nervous posting this before it's done. But now I have a contact in L.A. who can help us if anything does go wrong tomorrow. Oh the joys and perils of paperwork! :)

The best news is this VA letter was the last piece of paperwork we have any control over for our dossier. Now we are waiting for our signed homestudy to send to USCIS, and subsequently our "golden ticket" telling us we can go get Micah. Then, the FINAL piece is sending our dossier to the SDA in his country and waiting for an appointment to meet him. Once we are in his country, we have to wait for a court date, then the 10 day waiting period and he's ours! Realistically these last two steps can take 2-6 months, but our hope and prayer is that we can bring Micah home by Easter. Will you pray with us?

Thank you all for your love and support!

Scentsy Candle Fundraiser

Today was a productive day! Three more (important) forms were notarized, and we have 21 pages ready to be apostilled at the Secretary of State. We've had $70 in donations this week from two friends of mine from elementary and high school! AND, my friend, Gina Snow, just became a Scentsy consultant and is hosting a fundraiser for us! Go to http://www.ginasnow.scentsy.us/
, and look for the "Bring Micah Home" party. 20% of the sales will help bring Micah home :) For those who don't know, Scentsy has wickless candles and other fun stuff. The party starts today and starts over each month until he comes home :)

Bumps in the Road

I've tried to put my feelings into words but they are just not coming out right, so please forgive this jumbled mess. I'm also trying hard not to complain, because I know compared to other situations, ours is good. I'm especially praying hard for Davids from Latvia, read about him at http://iwillbeacarrier.blogspot.com/2011/01/davids-story-urgent-need.html. I hope he finds a family fast!

Okay, so for the most part our adoption process has gone fairly quickly. Our homestudy is done and we are just waiting on the final signed copy so we can send it along with our I600a to USCIS. Then once we get our golden ticket from USCIS, we can send our dossier paperwork to Micah's country. The biggest headache we've endured so far is the dossier paperwork. Everything has to be exact, no exceptions. This has caused us to have to return to our doctor to have our medical forms re-done. We are also fighting with the VA to get a proper letter of income for Barry's VA benefits and our local office does not want to help us. So either we try again with the local office or we have to drive to Los Angeles to hope that the regional office will help us. We should not have to drive 80 miles to get an income letter notarized. We have been blessed to find a sweet notary to help us and give us a 50% discount on all our forms, but the mileage charge is 50 cents per mile, so that adds up quick. We've already paid her $40 just for our doctor visit, which as I mentioned has to be redone. In addition to money, these things take time. Time that our little boy is spending in an orphanage waiting for us. Time Barry can't afford to take off work because he's saving every hour and day for when we travel to get our little guy.

So in addition to all of this, yesterday, we got our State Clearances in the mail (after only waiting one day!) I was so excited. I opened the letters and see we are clear (SURPRISE!) j/k :), go to my file to pull out the "official checklist" and see that the letter is supposed to be notarized at the State level. I start sobbing. The State office is 8+ hours away from us in Sacramento. What does this mean? What do we have to do to get this done? Why was this not an option on the fingerprint form? Who do I call? Sob, sob, sob. So I went to the State website and did some more research and see that we checked the wrong box on the form. After paying $25 per print plus $20 per "rolling fee" (a total of $90), we find out we did them wrong. The problem is that I had the right box checked, but the fingerprint technician told me with my original option that we would not get a copy sent to our home, that it would only go to the US Embassy in Micah's country, so I changed the box. After research, I found out the tech was wrong, that it in fact would've been sent to us AND the US Embassy, so we have to re-do them. It's okay now; it's all a learning process, but I'm just so frustrated at the hurdles and bumps in the road that we are facing at the end of our journey. We are almost done. We are literally waiting on 6 pieces of information, one of which is USCIS and can't be sent yet. I feel like we are so close to Micah, but we keep hitting brick walls.

Then there's the fundraising aspect. We have raised about $8,000 total (including our personal funds). This is GREAT! We have about $15,000 left to go... not bad for 2 1/2 months of work. But we are running out of time to raise the rest. Our girls are asking every day, "When is Micah coming home?" They are so excited to have another brother. I tell them, "Soon." But I really don't know, because after all our paperwork is done, we have to have the money to finish the process. Without the remaining funds, we can't travel to get him. There are airline tickets, apartment costs, in country travel, and the $9000 facilitation team fees when we get there. There is Micah's medical appointment, visa and passport costs, and his airline ticket home. We are almost done with everything we can do here in the States. The remaining paperwork we have to have notarized, apostilled, and FedEx'd will only cost about $600-700. And our USCIS fees are $850. Everything else is in country costs.

So when our little girls ask me "When is Micah coming home?" I want to answer them "We've done all we can, and we're just waiting for our invitation to meet him." But I can't do that until we have the remaining money. We are still working hard on the puzzle fundraiser. Many people have donated to have their names written on the back of a piece for Micah to know who helped bring him home. This is what it looks like so far, but we still have a long way to go. Each piece is only $5. Will YOU help bring Micah home?

Thank you to the Hotchkiss Family for your $50 donation last night! Any amount will help us, literally ANY amount. Please help our girls get their little brother as soon as possible. Please help bring Micah home to his forever family.

Christmas blessings

As I sit here and write this, my heart is so very full. I am so blessed to have my loving family, including five amazing children. They all touch my heart so deeply. I only wish we could include Morgan in all we do in our everyday lives. We miss her so very much, and can only hope she knows how much we love her and desire to see her again. I am so blessed to have a husband who serves the Lord with all his heart and provides a warm, loving environment for all of us. I am blessed to be able to stay home and watch my children grow and flourish; seeing each day all that they accomplish and learn.

On the flip side, my heart also breaks as I think of our soon-to-be little boy who is in an orphanage so far away. He probably doesn't even know what Christmas is, and possibly doesn't know who our Savior, Jesus Christ, is. This will be the last Christmas he spends in less-than-desireable circumstances. Even though he's in a "good" orphanage, there is much that can be given to him with a forever family. I shudder at the thought of him not being held, hugged, kissed, and genuinely LOVED this holiday season and every day. I am thankful for his caregivers and know they do all they can with what they have, but nobody can truly fill the void of a family or home until they have one. We are truly doing all we can as quickly as we can to be able to provide a home and family for him. I miss him even though I don't know him. I love him even though I have never touched or seen him. All I have are pictures and the knowledge from God that this is what we are supposed to do. I cannot wait to get to Eastern Europe and hold him in my arms and tell him how much I love him and how the last few months have seemed like an eternity. I can't wait to tell him that we are his mommy and daddy, and although we did not birth him, we know he was meant for us and we were meant for him.

I am so blessed to have family and friends who support this journey we're on. It is unbelieveable the network we have created in such a short amount of time. I look forward to sharing many stories of our future with our family as it grows to include Micah. I look forward to hearing stories from others as they go through this same journey. It is not easy. But Christ said so perfectly, "I never said it would be easy, only that it would be worth it." I always knew that meant this journey of life we're on to return to Him one day, but it also includes all the small journeys we go through each day, including this one of adoption we are on.

We love you all and wish you a very Merry Christmas, and invite you to take a moment to realize what you are truly blessed with and grateful for, and to thank the One who gave it all to you, even Jesus Christ, our eternal savior. I am thankful beyond anything else that I have my salvation and that my family is sealed together for eternity. I am thankful for Christ, who laid His life down for me, the greatest gift that could ever be given. And, I am thankful for being able to return gifts to Him by serving others in His name.

As I close this post, I want to leave a picture of our children. Morgan is missing, but Gracie made sure that Micah was included. Do you see him? I love the tenderness my children show me every day.

In the name of Jesus Christ,

Amen.

Whew!

It has been an overwhelming couple of weeks. Things are moving along, literally. We moved into our new house on the 11th and have been unpacking and decorating for Christmas. We are finally ready for Christmsas after doing ALL of our shopping on the 18th. We really love our new house and things are finally feeling settled.

In the meantime, we have diligently been working on our dossier and homestudy paperwork. We had 15 pages notarized and are sending them off to be apostilled in Sacramento. Basically, an apostille is a state certification that the seals on our forms are valid (like birth certificates, marriage certificate, notary stamps, etc.) It costs $20/page in California!! The dossier is the big stack of paperwork that eventually gets translated and sent to Micah's country.

The homestudy is almost complete. We have gathered most of the paperwork, and have done our first meeting with our social worker, Heidi. She is really nice and we had a great visit yesterday. She is doing homestudies for three Reece's Rainbow families! I think that is so amazing :) She is really focused on getting the report done quickly, so after our home visit next week, I'm thinking we'll be able to send off for the I600a (to USCIS - immigration) by the 10-1th of January! If all goes well, I would LOVE to be able to send our completed dossier to Eastern Europe at the end of February. It would be SOOOOO awesome if we could go get Micah in March or April! Oh, how I hope.

Of course, the other part of our plans is the fundraising. We have raised $7,000 to date and have about $18,000 more to raise. We are planning to do a pancake breakfast/silent auction on March 12th. And we are PRAYING daily for miraculous giving :) We were so surprised and blessed to hear about a friend of a friend sending in a $500 check to our FSP (grant at RR).

If you feel led to give, especially during this holiday season and before the tax cutoff, please visit our FSP at reecesrainbow.org/sponsorray, or you can click on the button to the right with Micah's picture and it will take you directly there. Also, our chip-in is still available if you'd like to donate funds for us to use immediately for things like the $20/page apostilles :)

Don't forget about our puzzle funraiser for only $5/piece (see posts below). We sold two more pieces today! (Thanks Mom and Dad!)

Merry Christmas!
~Shelly

We are so very blessed!

Tonight was another fundraiser, this time at Pizza Factory in Phelan. We were able to earn 10% of the night's sales by helping bus the tables. It was a pretty good turnout for the first part of the night. I was so happy to see friends from my local area, as well as friends travel from Victorville to see us. We also held a bake sale, courtesy of friends' Maria Macdonald and Gina Snow's amazing baking skills :) There were many very supportive customers for our cause that bought baked goods, and some that even donated money just to help us out. We also sold two pieces for Micah's "Pieces of Love" puzzle (Thank you Cooper's and Peek's)! We raised $119 just on the bake sale and donations tonight. We will find out how much our 10% is in the next couple days.

Again, it was so amazing to connect with new people over our story. There was a neonatal nurse who talked to me for a while, then a woman who is adopting a little girl (this week!), and finally a special needs teacher. We had really good conversations with great people. And once again, I feel so tremendously blessed at the support we are receiving.

Thank you to everyone who came and helped out! A big thank you to my wonderful son Fischer and our friend Elyssa McAlister, who came and helped us bus tables and do the dishes. You are amazing kids :)

Progress being made

Monday our homestudy agency received our retainer and emailed the guide and forms for everything we need to do. I was pleasantly surprised (and honestly very impressed) that Barry filled out his personal history form yesterday before I even got a chance to look at mine! So I did mine last night and emailed those back. Then today, I made appointments for our fingerprints the same day that we have our physicals (Tuesday the 7th). All of this is coming into place nicely, and I feel like we are finally making some progress in the paperwork department. As soon as Barry's original birth certificate arrives (ordered Monday), then we can send off for our passports. His employer is already working on his letter of employment, and now I have to send off the guidelines for reference letters to four of my friends. This is all for the homestudy portion. The dossier guidelines are in process of being sent to me and a lot of this will be able to go in both files, but the dossier is going to be much more detailed. They call it "the beast", so that scares me a little. I'm also very scared about all the notary fees and later the fees to have everything apostilled (although this sounds like apostle, it is a VERY different meaning). In California, it costs $20 per page (the most expensive in the nation from what I've seen). And we have to either mail the forms to be apostilled or walk them into the office at the capitol building in Sacramento (yeah, that's an 8 hour drive). Fun, fun! I'm just glad to get the ball rolling in an official manner finally. We should be hearing from our social worker this week, yea! :)

In other news, we are moving into our new rental on the 11th. I'm very excited to be saving $300 per month, but that is Chloe's 3rd birthday and only 10 days away. I am mentally ready, but have not packed a single box. I will be gone with Fischer Saturday for Marching Band Championships and have so much going on next week with our Pizza Factory fundraiser for Micah on Monday, appointments on Tuesday, a band fundraiser on Wednesday, the winter concert on Thursday, and then moving! When do I have time for homework? Oh yeah, never. Crazy busy life :)

On to more paperwork and phone calls.

Pieces of Love for Micah - Our 2nd Fundraiser!

I got this super creative idea from my friend, Marianne (the one who told me about Reece's Rainbow). She did this same fundraiser for Darya (www.ahomefordarya.blogspot.com). So I ordered this adorable picture puzzle with Micah's photo on it. It has 252 pieces. I stole Marianne's idea that if for every $5 you chip-in to our adoption fund I would write your name (or whoever you want to designate it in honor of - your son, daughter, dog, whoever!) on the back of a puzzle piece.

As you read in my last post, I had a supportive yard sale shopper (Kathleen Serrano) donate for this, so the first piece is shown below.

As soon as I have a few pieces with names on the back, I'll post a picture on here and continue to update it as it is being put together. Once it's all finished, I will glue and frame it so Micah will know who helped bring him home and how many friends and family members loved him before he even got here! This is the beautiful tin it came in and what the picture looks like.

And this is what it looks like now, so please help us put it together! You can use the red Chip-in link to your right on the sidebar to donate :-)

Thank you all so much!! We are truly humbled and grateful for all your support, love, and prayers!!

First Fundraiser a Success!

We had our first fundraiser, a yard sale, today. There were so many donated items toward Micah's adoption from close friends, and even a few extra donations today! One woman in particular made me smile. Her name was Kathleen Serrano (I hope she doesn't mind I use her name), and she was just THRILLED that we were adopting a baby with special needs. She worked with special needs children at a local school and you could just tell she had a huge heart for them. I told her we started a puzzle fundraiser (will be explained more on next post), and that for $5 she could put her name on a puzzle piece and Micah would know who helped to bring him home. She put $10 in the can and was so excited to be helping him out. She asked if I was going to glue it all together and frame it for him and I said yes! She stayed and talked to me about Micah and the process for quite a while, and the funniest part was she didn't buy one thing from the yard sale. It was like she was led here just to share our stories with each other. What a wonderful lady!

Then, another family we know from church happened upon our yard sale, bought a couple things, and ended up taking Reece's Rainbow information for a family member who is looking to adopt. Special needs didn't seem to be an issue at all! What a wonderful day of sharing our story. I felt so truly blessed.

So with all the donated items, and some things we had to sell, we sold a total of $593.33 today. We still have about half of the items we started with, so we will most likely have one more sale before we donate the rest to Deseret Industries. What a very blessed day we had!

P.S. It was about 40 degrees all day today.

National Adoption Month

National Adoption Month
We committed to Micah (on the right) November 5th. Jackson's forever family found him soon after. We had no idea it was National Adoption Month! We are so excited to be on this journey and are really grateful for the amount of love and support we've received already.

A few points I'd like to make in love though: Micah has Down Syndrome. We do not know how severe it is, nor do we care. We also do not know if he has any other health issues other than a heart condition he had surgery for last year. What we DO know is that God led us to him and we want to bring him home. We do not know how the funds will come, but we know God will provide a way. We are doing many different kinds of fundraisers in the hopes that something will appeal to someone along the way. Our intention is not to bug anyone and we do not expect everyone to help at every fundraiser. We do understand this is the holiday season and the economy is bad. However, we still hope that we will have morale support and that if our friends and family feel led to help financially that they do so in the way they feel the most comfortable. We've had friends donate $20 and strangers donate $10. We've had other friends donate items for our yard sale coming up this weekend. We've had friends interested in the family photos for $20. We've had other friends and family just HELP SPREAD THE WORD, in the hopes that someone else may be able to help in some way. There will be a pizza fundraiser night coming up on December 6th at Pizza Factory in Phelan. We also hope to do a pancake breakfast or spaghetti dinner with a silent auction.

What we'd like you all to know is that every little bit helps us get closer to our goal and we appreciate your help in ANY way you give it. Please don't take our requests as badgering. We are simply trying to save an innocent boy's life from permanent institutionalization. Yes, there are children who need homes in our own country. However there are many parents on waiting lists for these children. Most adoption processes involve the birth mother choosing the family they want for their child. Other kids are stuck in foster care. We do not wish to do foster care in the hopes of adopting a child. For us, international adoption of a down syndrome baby was our door. It's not for everyone, but it is for us.

We are grateful to my friend, Marianne, who introduced us to Reece's Rainbow. We are grateful for all that Reece's Rainbow does to help find families for these adorable and very needy children. Unfortunately, adoption is not cheap. Domestic adoptions can cost $20,000-30,000 just the same as international adoption. It is unbelievable what is involved. It is much cheaper to conceive a baby, and we are some of the lucky ones who have that ability. We do not take it for granted, but we just KNOW that we have to do this. We are in love Micah already and are emotionally and mentally prepared for what bringing home a special needs child may involve.

Lastly, we know Micah will have a loving and caring family with us and that we can offer him a forever family that will always be here for him (yes, even if he lives with us his entire adult life). We are committed to anything we need to do to save him. If we were adopting just for our personal desire we would not ask for financial help, but we are adopting him to save his life. We don't have a lot of time to get the money together to save him. He currently does not get the care God intended for him to have in his life (basic things like cuddling, playing, hugging & kissing, holding, loving, constant attention, nurturing, a mother and a father, and life outside an orphanage). We feel the need to do this as quickly as possible. This is not something we saved up for or planned for. It just sort of fell in our laps. But we know there's Someone greater than us who has had this in His plan for quite some time. Everything we've done in our lives has led us to this point. And we are ETERNALLY grateful for a loving Father in heaven who provides the way for all of us, especially Micah.

Thank you all for love, support, prayers, friendship, and donations (in any way they come).

With love,
Shelly