Odds and ends

I'm currently experiencing a very weird and heightened version of nesting. The combo of adding another child to our family, going out of the country for 6+ weeks, and trying to pull together cold weather gear for the lot of us means that I now have a 4 page long (and growing) to-do list.

Soon we will be setting up the second crib in EJ's room. I'm very curious as to how she is going to adjust to this new addition. We try to talk about "sissy" a lot and show her Nadiya's photo. She doesn't seem to have an issue with me holding other people's babies when we are visiting friends, but is *definitely* a momma's girl so I'm assuming there will be some growing pains ahead.

Here's to receiving travel dates very soon!!

November 3, 2012

This is the story I've been wanting and waiting to write- our adoption story one year in the making.

Over the years I've occasionally felt the discomfort of comfort. Have you ever felt it?  A comfortable life with stable jobs and a house in a safe neighborhood. Friends, parties, hobbies and church on Sunday. Please hear me say that there is NOTHING wrong with any of those things... I do, however, believe these lovely things become a burden when we ignore what we *should* do because it doesn't seem easy or safe or convenient. 

Many times I prayed that the Lord would give us the courage to be obedient if and when He asked us to step out of our comfort zone- truly having no idea what that might look like.

November 3rd, 2012

I found myself browsing the Reece's Rainbow website. It wasn't the first time I'd looked at the precious children listed or thought about the overwhelming need with regard to adoption. Some time previously I had cried many hot tears while reading the story of Katie's adoption. I remember showing Justin pictures of her painfully thin body and sobbing- it was the first time I truly understood the tragedy of Eastern European orphanages. But, in order to cope and move on, I pushed it from my mind. That's always been my coping mechanism with difficult things. Distraction and denial work wonders when you are trying to forget something sad.

Back to the 3rd... As I sat on the floor of our den I very simply and clearly heard the Lord tell me that our family would adopt one of these children. And as crazy as this sounds... I didn't feel scared. (Ok, well maybe a little) It almost felt like I had been preparing for years for this exact moment... that this thing that made absolutely NO sense in the eyes of the world made 100% sense in light of who God is. 

I later approached Justin, fully expecting him to laugh me out of the room. Imagine my shock when he thoughtfully listened and agreed we needed to pray and consider this endeavor. God was clearly at work in both our hearts.

The next weekend our church observed Defending the Fatherless Sunday. Justin and I were so blessed by the wise words preached by Tim Columbe, a father of 4. You can watch or listen to Tim's sermon here. (And I really recommend that you do!) More and more, this adoption "thing" seemed like a real possibility for our family.

We continued to talk and pray and read and research. We very clearly felt God was asking us to adopt, but timing and money were scary obstacles. After 9 months and many, many hours of conversation and prayer- we started our homestudy and began the process to adopt a child with Down syndrome from Eastern Europe.

So here we are, one year later. Waiting to receive travel dates and daily longing for our child who is half a world away. It seems mind boggling when I consider the way our hearts have changed and grown in just one year.   

My prayer this evening is that we will always have the faith and obedience to say "Yes" to what God asks, no matter how scary or uncertain the task. 

“Don’t hoard treasure down here where it gets eaten by moths and corroded by rust or—worse!—stolen by burglars. Stockpile treasure in heaven, where it’s safe from moth and rust and burglars. It’s obvious, isn’t it? The place where your treasure is, is the place you will most want to be, and end up being."
Matthew 6:19-21

Submitted!

On Thursday, October 24th our dossier was formally submitted to the government in Nadiya's country. Now we wait for our travel dates! We expect to receive dates in December and travel in January.

We are praising God for His faithfulness throughout our process thus far. It feels good to be done with the "paper chase."

As we wait to travel we will continue with our fundraising and begin to gather things we will need for our trip. Visiting Eastern Europe in the middle of winter is going to be quite an adventure!

Please continue to pray for our soon-to-be daughter. We cannot wait to hold her in our arms! I am going to have 15 months worth of kisses to plant on her sweet face :)

Paperwork update!

As of Thursday, our dossier is now in the hands of our in-country facilitation team! They will translate and notarize all the documents and then formally submit our dossier to the government. We will be notified when the dossier has been submitted and then the wait for travel dates begins!

If travel dates continue to be issued at the rate they have been for families recently, we would theoretically be invited to travel to Nadiya's country in mid to late December. There is a great likelihood, however, that due to the New Year and Orthodox Christmas holidays in EE, we will not be invited to travel until January.

Either way, it won't be long until we travel! I am beginning to put together lists of cold weather items that I need to start accumulating. Tonight I even searched for baby sized snow suits at our local consignment store :)

Please continue to pray for little Nadiya. Justin and I so yearn for the day we can hold her in our arms!

T-Shirt Time!

Monday 11/11 Update:

I will be ordering the shirts this evening. They should be shipped to me in the next 2 weeks. Thanks to everyone who ordered. Personally, I can't wait to start wearing mine :)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Justin and I are super excited to roll out our next fundraiser! Money from every t-shirt purchase will go directly to our adoption fund. And seriously, these are some great looking shirts!

Keep reading for details on how to purchase your shirt.

As an extra incentive, the first 20 people to purchase a shirt will have the chance to win a $20 iTunes gift card! I will draw for a winner once we sell 20 shirts. 
Update: My dear friend Jenny was the winner of the gift card and insisted I keep it for another drawing. Let's keep this thing going :) The next 20 people to purchase a shirt will be entered to win the $20 iTunes card.
Sara G is the winner of the $20 iTunes card!

The Details:

Sizes Available: Adult XS-XXL

Shirt Cost: $20 (US shipping included for those who don't live near us)

How to purchase: Donate to our Reece's Rainbow FSP here. You can also write us a check or pay with cash if you prefer.

Send me an e-mail to let me know what size shirt you want! petersadopt13(at)gmail(dot)com

The last day to purchase shirts will be November 10th!

Shoes, shoes, and more shoes!

Ready to be amazed?

We ended up collecting 7,520 pairs of shoes! That's 8,340 pounds of shoes!! 

We will be paid $5,838 dollars for the shoes! Isn't that incredible??

To every single person who helped us by collecting shoes, donating shoes, or counting and sorting- thank you, thank you, thank you from the bottom of our hearts! Justin and I have felt so overwhelmed with love and support by our community during this time.

Piles in our living room, dining room, garage and driveway!

Counting the VERY last bag of shoes this morning!

Queen of the Hill

It took over two hours for the 2 men to load up and weigh all our shoes!

We are happy to have these shoes out of our house :)

American Girl doll madness!

Christmas is coming quickly! Here's a great way to potentially win an amazing gift for the little girl (or adult- no judgement here) in your life and help our adoption.

I'm so excited for our American Girl doll giveaway! Here are the details:

Entries are limited. The giveaway will conclude once 1,000 entries are received!

How to earn an entry:

Donate $5 to our Family Sponsorship Page (you can click here or use the donation box on the top right corner of the blog). And yes, you can donate more for multiple entries!

AND/OR 

Share our Reece's Rainbow FSP (this link) on your blog, Facebook page, or via e-mail. (Limit of one free entry/person)

You MUST let me know that you entered the giveaway! Please forward me your donation receipt or let me know you shared our FSP page. If you don't have my contact info, please use this e-mail address: petersadopt13(at)gmail(dot)com

Additional details:

The winner of the giveaway will receive their choice of any American Girl doll (value: $110) or their choice of Bitty Baby Twins (value: $115). The doll can be shipped anywhere in the US.

Are you new to this blog? Check out this page to find out more of our story!

Another Sunday Update

As I write this, it is a little after 5pm in our daughter's country. Here in the States, our day is just beginning. I woke to the sounds of my alarm clock (i.e. EJ) and after her morning nursing session we are in the den playing. It's hard to think about the fact that in the first 45 minutes she was awake, EJ probably received more attention than our daughter in EE received ALL DAY. More on that later in this post.

Highlights of the week:

Homestudy
Our homestudy was finalized and arrived in our mailbox on Thursday. Friday morning I sent it off to USCIS! Please keep praying for speed and favor as we are matched with a USCIS officer and receive an appointment for our biometrics.

Baby girl
There was also another pretty noteworthy event on Thursday. Click here to see a beautiful photo!
In a few days I will write another post answering some questions that have come up since we've committed to Nadiya.

I know it's easy to see Nadiya's sweet photo and become overwhelmed with how cute she is, especially with those delicious cheeks and darling ears! And oh, how fun to have a sweet little baby!
But that's not why we are going to fly across the world to adopt this sweet little one. It isn't because she is so precious, or because I LOVE having a baby so much (although she is, and I do).
I don't specifically know Nadiya's condition or situation, but I am familiar with what I know to be true of many former-orphans from her country. I know that most likely, she is not receiving the nutrients she needs and probably is hungry a lot of the time. Her interaction with caretakers is probably very infrequent. She might have already learned not to cry after months of having no one respond.
I don't say this to depress anyone (or myself). I think it's important to remember WHY we are adopting and the conditions orphans with special needs face each day in EE.

Last day of work
Many of you know that I've had the wonderful opportunity to return to work on a part-time/contract employee basis. Wednesday was my last day, as the hotel was sold and my services were no longer needed. I'm not going to lie- it was a stressful 3 months of trying to balance EJ's therapy (four sessions/week), getting this adoption process underway, being a FT mommy/wife, and fitting in 2 days at work. The money I earned is going straight toward adoption costs which of course is a blessing.
We want to take this opportunity to thank everyone who helped with babysitting EJ while I've worked. Justin and I know you all are busy and your sacrifice of time is so appreciated!! Auntie Arlene, Becky, Grandma Coco, Grandma Sheri, and Nana- thank you from the bottom of our hearts.

Fundraising Update
Our garage sale is on Saturday. We have tons of neat things to sell, please pray that there will be a large turnout! We have a little less than 3 weeks to continue our shoe collection. As of yesterday, we have gathered 820 pairs! Please continue to spread the word.

-M

Slow and steady progress

Here is a quick update of how things are going around here!

- We are very close to our homestudy being complete. (hopefully by Friday!) Once our homestudy is complete we can finish our application w/ USCIS- (US Citizenship and Immigration Services). USCIS will provide us with approval for the adoption and what is known as the golden ticket. This process can sometimes be very lengthy and could keep us from submitting our dossier before the winter cutoff. We are praying for favor and speed with USCIS.

- We are continually chipping away at our dossier. Our dossier is the collection of documents we will send to EE. This package contains some simple things (marriage certificates, copies of our passport) and some documents that are very complex and involved. As I mentioned above, if we are unable to submit our dossier before the cutoff date, it will add approximately two months to the process. This would mean that some of our documents would start to expire and we would need to redo things. More importantly, we don't want our child sitting in an orphanage a minute longer than she needs to and the thought of our precious daughter being stuck an extra two months in the dead of winter absolutely kills me. Please pray that all our documents and USCIS approval will come together beautifully and that we will be able to submit our dossier before the cutoff!

- Our garage sale is 2 weeks from yesterday. Justin spent time yesterday rearranging everything we have received and I am so thankful for all the boxes of donated items people have given us so far!

- I am happy to say that our house is filling up with bags of shoes! Please continue to share this fundraising opportunity. We are still very far away from our goal of 5,000 pairs.

Your love, support, prayers and encouragement mean so very much to our family. Thank you for coming alongside us!

Your help needed!

We are excited to share 2 ways that our local friends & family can help us fundraise- without spending a dime.

Opportunity #1

We need your old shoes!

We have 45 days to collect as many pairs of shoes as possible. Our goal? 5,000 pairs of shoes! It seems crazy, but I am told it is doable. We will be paid by the pound for the shoes we collect by a great organization that helps schools and charities to fundraise.

Ways YOU can help:
a. Check out your closet and donate shoes you haven't worn in ages... I'm sure I can't be the only one who hangs on to shoes for YEARS thinking that maybe they might be needed down the line. (Ok, I'll even 'fess up re: a pair of brown suede fur-lined clogs. A certain sister of mine thoroughly mocked me during a recent "What should I wear" closet exploration.)
b. Set up a mini collection! Can you post a flier at work and ask co-workers to bring in old pairs of shoes? Maybe spread the word online via your Facebook page? Perhaps you can ask around at your church. Please let me know if you would like me to e-mail you a flier!

Our home's garage will be our main collection area, but we would be delighted if others were able to collect at their house too! We are happy to come pick up larger collections. For obvious reasons, I am not going to post our address here, but if you need that info please contact me!

Opportunity #2
I don't know about you, but I am always looking to purge my house of clutter and unneeded items! If you've been looking for an excuse to deep clean and free up space around your home I have quite the opportunity for you :) We are hosting a garage sale on Saturday, September 28th. All funds raised will go straight to our adoption fund. If you have anything you would like to donate to the garage sale, please let me know! We can even start taking items now if you already have a pile set aside to donate.

We are so thankful to have these opportunities to raise money to bring home our sweet girl! Thank you for helping in any way you are able.

Melanie

Downtown

On Wednesday we made a trip to Downtown LA to have some of our adoption paperwork apostilled. (Never heard of an apostille? Neither had I before we started researching the adoption process. Essentially, an apostille is a form of authentication that is done to a notarized document before it is sent overseas.) Almost every piece of paper we will send to the country we are adopting from has to be apostilled. Some states charge $5 per document. Some states even have a cap on the amount they will charge you. But not our wonderful home state! Lovely California charges $20-$26 per document with no cap.

EJ and I were happy to have Bethany join us for the trip downtown. Bethany and her husband are friends we met through our small group at church. Coincidentally, they are also in the middle of an international adoption. You can check their blog out here.

Here we are in front of the state building. Sadly, the smiles you see above are a bit misleading. We left empty handed as our paperwork was refused. Thankfully, we've figured out the problem now and it shouldn't be difficult to fix.

One highlight of the day was Justin unexpectedly joining us for lunch. Thanks again, Bethany, for being such a delightful partner in adventure!

FAQ

Where are you adopting from?
We are adopting from a country in Eastern Europe. We cannot publicly state the country until after we pass court. 

Do you know what child you will be adopting?
At this point, no we do not. 

When will you bring your new child home?
We won't know an exact date for travel until several months from now. At this point we expect to travel sometime in the first few months of 2014.

How much will the adoption cost? 
Final costs will vary due to time spent in country and things like the unknown costs (at this time) of plane tickets. However, we expect that it will cost approximately $25,000.

How are you going to fund the adoption?
We will be using money from our savings account. I (Melanie) have started contract work on a part time basis in order to save more money for the adoption. We will need to fundraise for a large portion of this adoption. More information will come soon on two local fundraisers we are planning. Also, we have an online "Family Sponsorship Page" set up through Reece's Rainbow. Donations can be made to our account via mail or the internet and are tax deductible. (Please note that gifts given online are subject to a 3% PayPal fee. To ensure that all of your donation comes to us, please consider sending a check instead. Checks should be made payable to Reece’s Rainbow- with our name included on the memo line- and mailed to PO Box 4024  Gaithersburg, MD  20885)

Why adopt? Isn't one kid with Down syndrome enough?
We firmly believe that each and every human being was created in the image of God and has great value and worth. Our hearts were broken when we found out how orphans with Down syndrome and other special needs are treated in some countries around the world. In the country we are adopting from, orphans with Down syndrome spend the first 4 years of their life in a "baby house." Many times these beautiful children are left in their cribs the vast majority of the day and receive no interaction other than hurried feedings and one diaper change a day. At age 4, the children with special needs are transferred to adult age mental institutions. The statistics vary, but it is understood that something like 90% of these sweet children die within one year of being transferred. 
We feel that God has asked us to step forward in faith and parent one of these children. We know that God LOVES adoption. He asks us to care for the fatherless many times in the Bible. In fact, God was the one who adopted you and me to be His own children! As we act in obedience, we are confident that God will provide for every need we have throughout this process.

Galations 4:4-7 But when the right time came, God sent his Son, born of a woman, subject to the law. God sent him to buy freedom for us who were slaves to the law, so that he could adopt us as his very own children. And because we are his children, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, prompting us to call out, “Abba, Father.” Now you are no longer a slave but God’s own child. And since you are his child, God has made you his heir.

James 1: 27 Pure and genuine religion in the sight of God the Father means caring for orphans and widows in their distress and refusing to let the world corrupt you.

Please let us know what other questions you have!

Great resources

I know many of you probably have questions about what this process is going to look like for our family. No two adoption journeys are the same, but I wanted to suggest some blogs that were helpful to me as I began researching what an adoption might look like for us.

I am so thankful for families who make the effort to diligently record details of their adoption adventure!

Carter's Family

Zoya, Mila & Sofia's Family- here and here

-Mel

The big announcement!

After many months of thoughtful prayer and deep conversation, our family has begun the process to adopt a child with special needs from Eastern Europe.

There are many stories we could share (and some we will, down the line) about how God has led us to this exact point. Our decision to adopt was born out of a desire to be obedient to what we feel God has asked our family to do in this season of our lives. We know we have been equipped in a unique way to care for a sweet little one with special needs.

As many of you know, we were shocked to find out our first child would be born with Down syndrome. It hasn't been easy, but the first 16 months of our daughter's life have been rich and filled with joy. We are very blessed to have many local resources available for our sweet EJ. She has amazing therapists and we've met many friends who are walking this same path as us. It's been wonderful to become a part of the local Down syndrome community.

We are thrilled to have so many supportive family members and friends and hope that you will come alongside us as we move through this adoption journey!