Homestudy Draft!

We just got our homestudy draft on Saturday, got back our review from our RR helper - just need to add one thing and I think it will be good to go!

"His Eye is on the Sparrow"

Today we all walked up a hill on a trail we love. Along the way we found this:























There was a little bird, out of the nest, vulnerable. My son wanted to pick it up but he happened to have brought along his bug-house, which was perfect for catching it and letting it hop back into this (pictured above) little groove of a nest in a rock. His little siblings were happy to see him! Just as we were leaving (after letting the kids look at the frightened little critters in their neat little nest) the mama bird approached the nest with a "tasty" bright green grasshopper in her beak - back home and now "dinner"!

Normally, I'd think of what a great science lesson that was, as we are home-schooling Nathanael. But my thoughts instead turned to "Wallace". He is like that little bird. He needs help. He is vulnerable. Without help he may not have much of a future. And he is one in tens of thousands of orphans around the world, just a number to most people. But to us he is special. He is a little boy we hope to soon call "son"! And I pray, like with that little bird, we will make it to him and bring him "home" safe and sound. Who cares about one little bird? Baby birds fall and perish every day and it does not affect our life. Something else could have found it first or we could have left it to it's "natural" fate. But just imagine - not one thing goes unnoticed to God. He cares about even the little bird - how much more does He care for us (our family), and for all people, and for "Wallace"?

So 2 miles straight up and then 2 down - we are all tired! And Scott was getting a form notarized today. We came home sun-burned and tired and hungry. I scanned our prized document (one of the last "big ones" for our dossier) - only to have our team tell us it's missing one little piece of information. It has to be re-done! Ah! Not only will it cost precious time but also more money because we are paying a mobile notary to travel and per signature. Bummer. I was soooo looking forward to having this done. Deep breath. Keep praying! This is just like walking those 4 miles when you're out of shape!! This "paper-trail", as it's called, really is an emotional work-out as we scurry about to get ev-er-y si-ng-le document perfectly ready for the dossier (the documents that get sent to the country Wallace is in). Thankfully, it's almost the weekend and... we have ice cream! I figure a 4 mile hike entitles me to a scoop! :)

Also - I did put together a sort of flier for leaving in various places to spread the word about Wallace's adoption and hopefully raise funds too! It's black and white in Word Document format so I can easily print and copy it! Now to make some type of card to go with the bracelets display. That way people know what they are for (an adoption fund-raiser). I'll try to post a picture of it when I'm done!

Fundraiser!

We got our bracelets in today! They are light blue and say "ONE LESS ORPHAN" on them because once Wallace is adopted he will no longer be an orphan - one less orphan in the world in a positive way - because he became part of a family! Click on "fundraising" at the top of our blog if you want one.



Here's a picture of how they fit me (a woman) on my wrist.

Passports!

Our passports arrived in the mail today! And apparently our fingerprints finally went through for our homestudy to approve us!

One Step Forward, One Step Back

Today we attempted to get the mortgage statement done for the dossier. Didn't happen because the branch is not willing to have it notarized. Ugh. Have to fax request to corporate.

Scott mailed some docs to... Eastern Europe! It's pretty neat - ALMOST like mailing a dossier - okay will not really even quite at all! Good practice, huh? Did you know it's incredibly expensive to mail an envelope with a few pieces of paper in it across the world?

Our homestudy agency is just waiting for our fingerprint clearances (and apparently others went after us and have already cleared!! Ugh!), one non-relative personal reference letter, and I'm re-typing one other form they want (today!).

But I am so happy to report that another little boy from the same orphanage as Wallace is getting a family! "Nathaniel" is now listed on Reece's Rainbow under "my family found me"!

And the cherry on top of the good news for today: Kirill is going home with his family (a little boy who who's family was denied adoption of him by a judge but they appealed to the supreme court which ruled in their favor!) Praise God!

Quick update

Got our 8 documents back and all apostilled by our state. Sending them off tomorrow to the country Wallace is in!! This is not the dossier - these are papers that have to go ahead of the dossier.

"Evie's Baby Dedication!" & "The Kids hold a new lamb!"

Today's sermon at church you may notice in the background of the pictures was called "Dedicated" - just "happened" to be what the pastor was teaching about in the Bible on the same day we prayed with our pastor and church and dedicated our precious little daughter Evie to the Lord. Scott walked Evie down the aisle to show off her cute little outfit and flower headband to those in the congregation. I couldn't help but think, "someday he'll walk her down the aisle again all dressed up and showing her off - to give her away". So we very much cherished the day today and thanked God again for blessing us so much with our children! We know we only have them for a time and then they will be grown. I apologize that the pictures are a bit mixed up - they just loaded funny that way.















































































































After church we went to visit "Grammie" and see her brand new twin lambs. The children were allowed to pet and hold one!























Two of our nephews and our niece came with Rachel's mom "Mimi" to join with us as we dedicated Evie to God. The kids had such fun playing together after church!
































Our good friends were so kind to bring a special little gift for Evie: a little soft lamb!





































































































And click HERE to see some adorable pictures taken of Evie on May 22, 2011!

About "Wallace"

As most of you know we are in the process of adopting a little boy from Eastern Europe through an amazing ministry called "Reece's Rainbow" who has, for various purposes dubbed him as "Wallace". To answer some questions we're often asked about: We do not yet know what his "real" name is. We are not yet sure if we'll keep his original name or re-name him. All we know is that he is just about in between our girl's ages - still so little! And as I am watching Evie at 9 months begin to stand up and try to walk (wow! she's looking to beat Nathanael at this!) - I remember that little "Wallace" can't - not yet. He is in need of a prosthetic foot in order to walk and possibly help with his other foot as well. He probably doesn't get out much, if at all, since he is not mobile. I can't imagine how upset Evie would be - as she LOVES to explore - if she could not crawl around freely and could not learn to walk. The sooner we get this little guy home and fitted the better!

Most often, digital (fingers/toes) deformities are caused by amniotic band syndrome which occurs in utero. Damage to the amnion (part of the placenta) may produce fiber-like bands that can trap the arms, legs, fingers, or toes of the fetus. These bands reduce blood supply to the areas and cause them to develop abnormally. These children may also have deformed or missing limbs, clubbed feet or permanent “band” or indentation around a limb.

Children with mental or physical handicaps are usually sent from the "baby" orphanage to mental institutions for life where they deteriorate over time, sometimes rapidly. This is why Reece's Rainbow International Downs Syndrome Ministry works so fervently to help children with Down Syndrome, HIV, and other special needs from Eastern Europe and other places to find their permanent families before it is too late and they end up in an institution, on the street at age 14-16, in crime/jail, prostitution, or death by suicide, illness, lack of medical care, etc...

"To the world, you may be one person, but to one person, you may be the world." - A quote from a little box with Mary Engelbreit illustration of a mother rocking her child.

Warfare!

This past two weeks has been very interesting, to say the least! I was reminded by a good friend this morning that our battle is not with flesh and blood but with powers and principalities of darkness. We must remain focused in prayer and in perspective that this is indeed a spiritual battle! We had bees attempt to nest in our garage, we had our pipe break under the kitchen sink, we had our fingerprints rejected due to our PD not having their system updated, we had my husband's car over-heating and have to get fixed, we had our family car break and though Scott worked on it all day Saturday he is still planning one more day of fixing so at the moment we are down to one vehicle (that won't fit our whole family). We also had both doctors refuse to give a copy of the license so we are probably going to write to the medical board for license certification letter (and hope these are acceptable in lieu of license copies). Right now Scott is doing his THIRD set of fingerprints because we got the notice last night that due to a clerical error they were again rejected. I get mine re-done tomorrow and am hoping it will be done correctly this time.

Thankfully, at least both our Dr.s filled out our medical forms and did sign with the notarization. We also did get some other papers that are immediately necessary notarized and mailed to be apostilled/certified by our secretary of state. We also got one personal reference letter back (of 3 required), Nathanael's teacher's letter back, Scott's employment letter back, and the bank and county are working on our home papers. So PLEASE - family and friends please pray for us to have strength and endurance as we chase this paper trail to get what we need to bring our son home! And also pray as there are a lot of things going on in Eastern Europe right now that may or may not affect if/when/how Americans may adopt from various countries, our son's included. Every step we take, every form we fill out, every dollar we spend is in faith - everything is uncertain - we feel a bit "blind" walking without knowing for sure exactly where/when we are going. We are working as quickly as possible to have our home-study finished and ready to submit our forms to the US for permission to adopt an orphan overseas - this is another large expense that's coming up soon (besides the other half of our homestudy fee) and so we are praying for God to continue to provide as this adoption progresses each day.

Running all around!

Tomorrow is going to be a crazy day! First off there was a glitch in the system so our fingerprints got rejected and have to be re-done - this time hopefully the system updated should take the correct code! That's in the morning then we meet a notary and she will follow us to have employment verification notarized then off to the Dr. office (meanwhile my hubby has to get his prints re-done too at 2:30pm) and praying everything here will go smoothly (thus far the papers have been confusing to everyone - why we have to have them, etc..) and hopefully get the medical forms notarized and then we might possibly go get one more form notarized at the bank. I'm just so thankful to have found a local mobile notary who will help us out!

Have I lost anyone yet?