Update on our waiting

Happy Valentine's Day, everyone!  People kindly ask me every so often - "Any adoption news?"  And I answer them honestly - yes, but it's still super boring!!!  Our dossier paperwork was submitted on Jan 22 to the Ukrainian government.  I tell people, "You can't tell, but I'm bulging paper-pregnant!"  Now we wait for our approval and our "invitation to travel".  The estimated time to get our approval was, at the earliest, today!  Seriously, Old Christmas and Valentines Day have been weird this year because they have been paperwork timing dates.  We should be receiving our approval soon.  If we're approved, that is!  So, rather, we should be hearing in the next week whether or not we have been approved.  *nervous twitching*  After that, it may be four days, it may be four weeks until we receive our "invitation to travel", which will then occur approximately a month after we get aforementioned invitation.  Clear as mud?  Told'ya it was super boring.  But... that's what I have for now!  Continue to keep our family in your prayers as we prepare with excited trepidation (is that a thing?) for this vague event in the unknown, equally hazy, future.  Ooh, a foggy post.  You know what else?  Today marks the 2nd anniversary of the first post of the adoption chapter of this blog!  We have been in process for 2 years now.  Wow.  Looking back on this journey, God's timing and sovereignty is evident in so many ways.  We marvel at how He got us to where we are now.  What a long, strange, paper pregnancy!

LIFE - preparation!

Every day Zack and I have a little fluttery moment that this is becoming so real!  Old Christmas in Eastern Europe is tomorrow and then... well, we don't know what yet, but we've been thinking more about Old Christmas this year than ever before in our lives.  We are learning Ukrainian (we spent about a week on the alphabet alone, it's really hard!).  Remember that list of books I read to prepare for this adoption?  Well, it's grown... quite a bit... and now it's time to go back through and read about what we need to know in this phase.  I'm so glad I took the time to take notes.  I also filled the little Android tablet that Kian got for Christmas with games and books for the plane.  We've tested a few out already - Kian approved!  (His favorites so far are Endless Alphabet and Pet Doctor.)  We are also going to shop for a few gifts for the orphanage workers.  I've bought a few very lovely brooches from Save and Serve thrift shop already.  My mom and I dug up some hairbows from my sister's and my childhood (was that correct grammar?) to donate to the kiddies in the orphanage.  This is some really fun stuff, right here!  We feel freer to do these things now that Christmas is done and we are looking at travel in the not-so-distant horizon!

PAPERWORK - Dossier in Ukraine!

Update sorely needed!  First of all, our dossier has been apostilled and sent off to Ukraine!  I'm told it's being translated and reviewed by staff in Ukraine.  Picked apart ad nauseam.  Then after the first of the year, (Old Christmas is celebrated in Ukraine) it will be submitted with the SDA.  That is, if we don't have to redo a portion - which often happens.  If it gets submitted early in January, we may be looking at travel by March!  That's so exciting to have a clearer picture of the process.  Liiiiiiittle by liiiiiiittle we are inching our way towards our child(ren)!!!  Carrie and Drew are being updated regularly on all this, too, as they are having to plan their lives around potentially traveling with us.  Kian asks every so often, "are we going to get my sister from Mykraine today?"  I have to tell him, "No, today isn't the day yet."

I am excited and yet terrified at starting this journey.  There are so many unknowns.  It's still so vague and impalpable.

The other day we were at Once Upon a Child in Canton, and we went over to the older youth clothes to take a look.  It put things in perspective.  I bought a size 8 outfit (no clue what size they'll really wear), just because.  It wasn't as large as I thought it would be - it still looked like a little kid to me.  I also bought two extra pairs of Christmas jammies.  Just cuz.  Our hearts are more and more ready - and it feels right that our family is just about ready to expand again.  Christmas is keeping me busy - after Christmas I'm going to need to find things to do.  Until we get our invitation to travel I'll probably be pacing the floor!  I'll keep you all updated, but it might still be boring for juuuust a little longer!

Happy Holidays everyone!!!

MONEY - garage sale, necklaces, candy bars

Our recent fundraisers have been surprising in many ways.  Since our dossier paperwork was creating a lot of... waiting... we decided to work on fundraising some more.  We can't be left with nothing to do!!!  :) just kidding.
   First, our town has an Antique Festival every fall, and we were excited about the opportunity to have a little garage sale and bake sale.  I say that a little sarcastically, because we weren't terribly excited about it.  We felt the need to take the opportunity, but the thought of having another garage sale so quickly was a little, um, overwhelming.  And what was going to be a small bake sale with a few garage sale items quickly turned into another full-fledged legit garage sale.  Lots of donations is a GOOD PROBLEM.  *keeps reminding self*  Bake sale items were made, items were priced, we were open for business.  Then it sleeted.  Not kidding.  Somehow despite the unsavory weather and the meager turnout, we made $141!  We were surprised by that.

   The next surprise came when we set out some candy bars to sell for our adoption.  We put them at our respective places of work.  I went to pick up the money in my envelope the same day our biggest bills came from our agency (translation is NOT CHEAP!).  I was shocked to find a WAD... not a few or singular.. but a WAD OF 20'S.  They didn't even take a candy bar!  I'm not sure why I'm fixating on that, it's my way of not being overwhelmed by the graciousness of unidentified people.  Talk about surprise!  Seriously the grace of people astounds me. 
   Next to report is our sale of necklaces.  Compelled Designs (www.compelleddesigns.com) sells the most beautiful necklaces and gives them dirt cheap to adoptive families to sell for fundraisers.  They are breathtakingly beautiful.  Check them out on my facebook page.  We have sold about half of them now, so pick them up quick for the holidays!!!

   Dossier update: paperwork is being sent in the mail today or tomorrow!  We are DONE with our portion!  (I'll let you in on a secret - that's a REALLY GOOD FEELING!  I'M TALKING IN CAPS A LOT IN THIS POST).  From here on out it's the waiting game!  Waiting for the dossier to be submitted by our agency to Ukraine.  Waiting for the invitation to travel.  Waiting to travel.  Waiting to meet our new children!  Pray for us in this critical preparation time.  Thanks to everyone!

PAPERWORK - Dossier update

Sorry another boring post!  We're having a fundraiser this weekend and so then we may have some pictures to provide.  Until then, let the snores begin.  We are working through our dossier.  We have noticed that the dossier is less paperwork and paperchasing than the home study, but it's so METICULOUS!  Everything has to be dotted and crossed just perfectly!  The wording in some cases has to be just so, and things like that.  We are trudging through, in spite.  Here's a a list of the major items and what we've accomplished so far in the dossier world:

renew Rachel passport and get passports for boys - done
employment verification letters - almost done (need one from 61 Surplus yet)
marriage certificate papers - done
apostille marriage papers and home study - need to send to Columbus
medical certificates including bloodwork - done
criminal background checks - needed to be redone - got fingerprints and papers, need to send it away
proof of home ownership - had to get a lawyer to write this one since we don't have mortgage, we are working on it

Fun list, huh?  That's where we're at, as you can see a lot of things are coming together, shouldn't be long until we can send it!

Rachel

PAPERWORK - Dossier

Update on our paperwork situation.  I mentioned in my last post that we were told to wait until our move was done to start the dossier.  Everything is time sensitive regarding the dossier.  You can't do it and then wait to send it.  You have to do it all in one small time-frame.  It all basically hinged on the processing of our I-600A (our application to be approved as adopters of orphans).  We were told this takes a couple months, but the approval letter (I-171H) showed up at our door only a few weeks after our biometrics appointment up in Cleveland.  That changed the game a bit.  Now that we would have to process the address change with the federal government anyway, our social worker said, let's get to dossier-ing!  (That's not what she said, I made that word up.)  But that's how it felt!  Zack and I breathed a big fat sigh of relief and said "LET'S DO THIS!!!"  There was high fiving and grinning, and, well, you had to be there.  It was small scale torture to wait for my parent's house to be done and to get this move on.  Plus I felt like it was pressuring my parents which isn't fair.  So this really changed the game for my parents, too.  They can be a little more relaxed with the building.
The biggest change is that we will have to prepare this tiny, less-than-ideal home for potentially 2 more children!  Zack is up to the challenge and is at his best doing things like this.  We shifted stuff around and hauled some stuff off to storage.  We have been approved to house this many children in this house, so we'll make it work to the best of our ability, with loads of God's help!  Thanks everyone for praying and asking how we are doing even though we have such boring things to share!  Someday we will be posting milestones of our new child, and we will remember this paperwork stage as "the wilderness", but important nonetheless.

MONEY - Grants

We talked to our placing agency social worker this week about all that is needed for the dossier.  It is very similar to the home study, only a little less laborious.  The paperwork is a bit more streamlined and less tedious.  The best part is... fewer essay questions!  Just a few letters and things.  The dossier seems to be more "doing".  That doesn't make much sense.  It's more going to appointments and updating things (like fingerprints and renewing passports and getting another physical and blood tests and stuff like that).  All in all, totally doable and I'm excited to get started!  However, we need to move first.  In our conversation, we talked about our life changes coming up.  The move to the bigger house looming nearer, and Zack's opportunity for a new job (it came to find him!).  She suggested we move first, then do the dossier paperwork.  That way everything reflects the new address.  Another however, we will have to move before our USCIS application is processed. That's the approval from the US government to adopt someone of orphan status abroad.  It's currently being processed, our biometrics appointment is this week up in Cleveland.  So we have to do it by the end of September at the latest.  We are going to be laserbeam focused on moving for a little while.  Ok, enough boring update stuff.  Here's a picture.

Ok, sorry, that picture is totally boring, too.  It wasn't boring to do, though.  Those are our grant applications.  It shows how I'm getting used to doing these papers, because it really didn't seem that bad to do 7 of them.  Each one is a similar size to each of the 2 applications I sweated about a year ago.  I've done so much of this that I have all the information in a folder I call "Marriage Papers and Life History" (literally, that's what's written on the folder).  I just get that out and it has all the jobs we've ever had and addresses of them, every old address, our financial items in great detail, family info, you name it.  I wish everyone had to compile something like that because it's so very handy.  What's the value of your vehicles based on condition and mileage?  What's your net worth?  How much gets taken out of your paychecks for taxes monthly?  Annually?  What's your gross income?  Hmm?  Just kidding.  But seriously.

So out of all of those grant applications, 5 are for adoption expenses, 1 is for medical referral expenses, and 1 is for after you get a referral.  We already got turned down for the medical referral expenses, but we were not expecting to get them all.  So we're only a tiny bit bummed. :)  Here's hoping for the rest of them.  It's just another way we are trying to be good stewards of our resources and utilizing all the opportunities and gifts that God leads us to - or drops in our laps!  Praise be to God, the path has been laid out for us and we are following it.  Though we get scared sometimes, we thank God that we have this gift of a purpose and calling!  I know paperwork doesn't sound like so fun a gift, but when put in this perspective, it is somewhat exciting.