"Coffee for Wallace"

We have a new fund-raiser up and running! It's through a neat company called "Just Love Coffee" that raises funds to benefit fair trade coffee farmers, Ethiopian orphanages and adoptive families adopting from all over the world. Our "store" is at:

www.justlovecoffee.com/centerfamily

$5 from each bag of coffe or each t-shirt and a monetary amount from other items is donated towards our adoption expenses.

God's timing, not ours

Patience....... Waiting....... Long-suffering.....





These are not my strongest areas of virtue! Last week we got some news about the country we are adopting Wallace from: we knew there was going to be a switch at some point but were hoping and working hard to get in before the switch but it seems now that the official date is out - that now we will indeed be waiting a bit longer, and so will little Wallace. On July 11th the current government agency in that country will shut down and in an *estimated* three months a new one will open up. We were hoping to get submitted this week and somehow get invited in the earliest dates of July but it does not seem possible now.

So right now we are still working VERY hard and PRAYING!! - that our dossier (documents) will be ready and get submitted before July 11th in hopes that it will get "grandfathered" in to the new government agency that will be in charge of adoptions in that country.

I hate that little Wallace has to spend even one more day away from his family, in an orphanage. I've been thankful for the business of getting all the papers out. I am trying to focus on the positive and trust that even though I can't see why God might allow this - that there are reasons, some I may never even know this side of Heaven!

Last week was just a bit crazy trying to figure out exactly what we still had left for compiling our dossier and how to obtain it - fast! Then we celebrated Father's Day over the weekend - and might I say we are SO thankful for the AMAZING father that Scott is!

Today our finalized, notarized homestudy arrived in the mail!!! Then we ran it off to be overnighted with our USCIS (US Department of Homeland Security) "i600a" form - to the post office! It is MAILED and guaranteed to be THERE to them by noon tomorrow!! Yes!!

Please continue to pray that things keep moving along and we can get EVERYTHING else in (just a few docs then ALL we have apostilled) and our dossier submitted before July 11th!

I'm showing some pictures in this post of our sweet Arielle modeling a little apron ruffle dress set with matching ruffle pants that I made - it is up on our fundraiser site to help with the USCIS fees! Just click on "contact" and let us know you want to purchase the dress (suggested $30 plus shipping costs) to help us raise funds for Wallace's adoption. The dress/pant outfit is a typical size 2/3t.

Happy Father's Day!

Happy Father's Day!!! I want to take a chance to tell more about my amazing husband. Scott has been so supportive and encouraging to me during this process to bring our son home. I've watched him grow in his faith as he is trusting God through the adoption process and through what comes our way in life. He is so patient with our little ones and just has a neat way with the kids - calming - or often a riling riot of fun! He helps with our son's school activities, with cleaning up after messes, and playing games like pretend sword fights, legos, board games, singing songs, reading bedtime stories... it just goes on and on! So, in short: I'm so blessed to be married to a man who loves God, loves me and loves our children so very much! Here's to a happy father's day to my wonderful husband! Love, - Rachel!!

Homestudy being mailed today!

I just got word our homestudy has been finalized (signed/notarized) and is in the mail today - should be to us in 1-3 days!

In other news - apparently our state is now doing adoption fingerprints in such a way that the homestudy does not get a hard copy that we can use for the dossier (group of papers that gets sent with our request to adopt from Wallace's country). Instead they send the homestudy agency a very un-official looking result(s) and then they REQUIRE us (adoptive parents) to do a totally seperate live-scan (fingerprints) and you guessed it - more fees. Looks to be another $70-90 for us to get Department of Justice (State) clearances for the dossier.

We are getting our forms filled out so when our homestudy arrives we can send it with the USCIS forms to get approved by the US government to adopt internationally. That is estimated to cost just under (around) $1,000. These are "out of pocket" costs. Our Reece's Rainbow "Family Sponsorship" amounts do not go towards homestudy (or homestudy-related - like adoption classes) fees, dossier prep (notary) fees, or USCIS or fingerprinting fees. The RR FSP donations will go directly to help with travel to Wallace's country to get him, program (facilitation in-country) fees, and some others - later.

Scott has our flyer up at our local coffee shop, his work, our chiropractor's office (also has a jar of bracelets), - we are trying to think of where else we can get these bracelets out so we can fund-raise as much as possible to cover the USCIS fees.

We've got one more fund-raiser that is almost ready to go... stay tuned!

Final Homestudy Draft!

Our home study final draft is being sent in for review by our Reece's Rainbow state-side helper. Soon as she says it's good to go they'll get it notarized and then we'll send it with our USCIS!!!!

"One Less Orphan" Jars - recycling at it's best!

As you can see in the picture I put together the display for our bracelet fund-raiser by using jars. The spaghetti sauce jar worked quite well, I think! I even put a bracelet around the top and it fit well!

The bank letter we needed for the dossier (posted about a couple posts back) - not only did they help us out at the local branch but then today I got a Fed-Ex'd envelope with 2 more copies, no extra charge! Way to go, bank!


We are waiting for the final draft of the homestudy any time now! Then it will get signed, notarized and sent to us to send to USCIS!!!!


















In other exciting news - our 5 year old Nathanael finished his season of gymnastics on Tuesday. He worked very hard and learned so much in these past six months! Tomorrow is his last day of school and then we'll have "summer break" before school starts again in the fall. Great job, son!

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!