Mail Man Stalker

And so, for 2 weeks now I have obsessively gotten my mail, in hopes that our approval from US immigration would be there. Well, my obsession has not paid off! Still nothing. Yesterday I literally stalked our mail man as I sat and watched him fill the boxes. Thankfully he was very nice and understanding about it, he was even more understanding once I explained what I was waiting for. Although I'm sure he went home yesterday to tell his family about this crazy girl waiting for him. So today as I went to the mail box today, my blood pressure was extremely high, and the anticipation great, "maybe today was the day."

Since the mail failed me again, I decided to call USCIS to find out the status of our case. I guess we were recommended for approval on May 28th, it usually takes 5 days to process after that. The very nice lady told me we should have it any day, and if we do not have it by Friday, to call our case officer, whom she also gave me the info for. This is good news! In the mean time, I will continue to stock my mail man until we get our approval! =)

Garage Sale

This last weekend was our garage sale and bake sale to help raise money for our adoption. God blessed us with an unbelievable amount of donations for the garage sale and bake sale. We were reminded at how many wonderful people God has placed in our lives! The garage sale was slow, I guess there were 75 other garage sale ads in our small town, but despite how slow we felt it was, God blessed us more than we deserved!

Long Time No See

Hello everyone, I just now realized that it has been a long time since we posted anything. To my faithful followers, I'm sorry for the long delay. Nothing has really happened this last few weeks, we have been waiting for our fingerprint appointment (which was this morning in case you were wondering). We went to the immigration office had our biometrics (this is a very big word for me) taken. Now we wait again for our approval from the USCIS. Yes, this means I will be obsessively walking to my mail box again, this is the last piece of paper we are waiting for before we send our dossier away.

In the mean time we will be preparing for our fund-raising garage sale and bake sale. For more information on how you can help, see the post below.

For those of you just joining us, check out our first few posts this year to see why are where we are.

Garage Sale & Bake Sale

We will be having a garage sale and bake sale on June 4th and 5th to raise money for our adoption. Please let me know if you are interested in donating items for the garage sale and/or bake sale to help us raise money (themahoney4@hotmail.com). Also, feel free to email me if you would like more details about the garage sale. Come check it out, and bring your friends!

Field Trip to Denver

It's official, our dossier is now complete (minus our USCIS approval). The kids and I went to Denver today to pick up all our certified papers from the Secretary of State. Thanks to my wonderful friend who shares many similar OCD tendencies with me, she gave me fantastic directions on how get there EXACTLY (parking garage & all). I wish I had had a camera while there, the kids were really enjoying looking up at all the tall buildings. It was really cute and definitely a kodak moment that I missed. I'm such a good mom! =)

Biometrics Appointment

Well, my mailbox stocking paid off, today we received our fingerprint appointments in the mail from the USCIS. Although I cannot lie, I was a little disappointed at the fact that they aren't scheduled until May 24th. This means we will not get our approval in 30 days like we were hoping. We are praying however that we get our approval shortly after our fingerprints are done so we do not have to re-date our doctors letters again.

Newest Obsession

I sadly have to admit that checking my mail everyday and watching out the window for our mail man has become an obsession. My kids really enjoy this obsession, because this means that mommy takes them for a walk every day (rain or shine) in the wagon. Which by the way, I forgot what a good work out it was to pull a wagon.

Why this new obsession? Well I'm waiting on word from the USCIS (U.S. Immigration) of course. Yesterday we received our receipt from them pretty much saying our case has been opened, and now any day we should receive our finger print appointments.

So, until I get that appointment notice and our approval, I will religiously check my mail, get in shape while doing so (our mail box is a block away), and cause my neighbors to think that I am very dedicated when it comes to getting my mail.

Fundraising

Up to this point, we haven't really addressed the money aspect of our adoption, but we have had many people ask how they can help, so we felt it was time to address the topic.  This adoption is going to cost us somewhere between $25,000 and $30,000 (depending of the time of year, travel costs fluctuate).  I think many people assume you have that kind of money if you are choosing to adopt.  Unfortunately we do not have money like that laying around at all, not even in 401k's.  God has led us on this journey and we are trusting God to provide the money needed.  So far, God has literally provided every penny we needed, and definitely in unexpected ways.  Its amazing to watch God's hand in this whole process.  Listed below are some ways you can help:

1. Please pray for us, that God prepares each of us for the new additions to this family and how to effectively care for them.  Pray for the people who are doing the paperwork in Rwanda, especially our P.O.A.  Pray for patience as we wait and that we trust God's perfect timing.

2. If you feel called to donate money to help support our adoption and share in this journey with us, you may do so by clicking on the chip-in tab to the right of this blog.

3.  We will be having a fund-raising garage-sale and bake-sale at our house on June 4th and 5th (Friday & Saturday Morning).  All the proceeds will go to our adoption.  To help, you can donate items or baked goods to sell and help us raise money.  You can also just come and check it out and invite your friends.  For more details about the garage sale, or if you are interested in donating items, please email me: themahoney4@hotmail.com

4.  Coming Soon:  We will be selling flower hair bows and headbands on this blog to help raise money for our adoption.  So keep watching!

Reality

My heart is heavy today for those families who have been waiting for their children for such a long time now.  Please pray for the staff in Rwanda as well as all the families in the adoption process.  As time goes on, this process gets longer and longer.  I ache for those families who long to hold their children, and for those children that need mommies and daddies.  God has perfect timing for each of these children to come home, but He can also move mountains.

Progress

Our home study was approved by the state in record time, literally.  It's supposed to take about a week.  They were mailed our home study on Thursday, and our agency received the approval today!  Wow, God is so good!

Now our papers are  off to the USCIS for approval.  What does this mean exactly?  Well, I'm glad you asked.  The USCIS is the U.S. immigration office.  They now have to approve our adoption.  In other words, we need their permission to bring 2 more children into the country.

Finally

Yay!  Today has been a very exciting day.  1st, the FBI finally did Luke's background check correctly.  Yay!  If you can't tell, I'm completely ecstatic about this!  Now our home study is on its way to be approved by the state.  This just makes us that much closer to Rwanda.

2nd, another family adopting from Rwanda received their referral today.  Yay!  I am so excited for them!

Rough Pregnancy

After having our baby boy, I said I didn't want to be pregnant again (when I said this, I meant physically).  But this paper pregnancy has already proven to be so much harder than each pregnancy and loss I've been through.  We have been in this process for only 4 1/2 months, and it has already been quite the emotional ride.  Don't get me wrong, we are so blessed to going through this, but it isn't easy, and God definitely continues to teach us so much through this process.  Not to mention, we were hoping to get our babies early in 2011, but at the rate things are going in Rwanda right now, it will probably be in the spring of 2011.  God's timing is so perfect, and I know this, but a mother's heart longs for her children to be home, where they belong.

An update from my last post:  Our case worker called yesterday and said the FBI did L's background checks wrong again (yes, this is the 2nd time).  Thankfully our agency is not okay with this and they are doing everything they can to get it corrected this week.  I guess we'll just wait and see, it's in God's hands.  And I'm a little concerned as to how the FBI can be protecting us if they can't even do a background check correctly.

Why I No Longer Trust the FBI:

They have now officially done L's background check wrong twice now!!! 

Dossier

I thought I would share a bit with you on my thoughts about our dossier.  For those of you not familiar with this term, our dossier refers to the stack of papers that will be sent to Rwanda requesting 2 children for adoption.  This stack of papers includes things like our background checks,  physical forms, birth certificates, financial statements, letters requesting our children, and many more things.  I have had this stack of papers ready for a couple months now (with the exception of re-dating our doctor letters, state certification, our home study, and of course our USCIS approval). 

I will honestly admit that this stack of papers is currently the most valuable thing I own.  I have actually contemplated putting it in our fire-proof safe, because if anything happened to it, I would be devastated.  To me, our dossier represents our children that can't be with us right now.  It is literally the ticket to our children, the one thing that allows us to get them.  It is also the only thing that I feel connects us to them right now.  The dossier is what makes this paper pregnancy seem real.  So if you are asking if I have an obsession with a stack of papers, the answer would be "yes."  I have such an obsession in fact, that I check it regularly to make sure everything is there.

10 signs that you might have Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (O.C.D.):

1. You have such an urge to spring clean and re-organize everything, that it drives you crazy not knowing where you will be living in the next 6 months.

2. Your urge to spring clean is so strong that it seems to be all you can talk about when people ask how you are doing or what is going on in your life.

3. Your enthusiasm is so persistent, that one of your friends has contemplated inviting you over to clean her house.

4. You find yourself re-organizing cupboards and closets constantly, to use space more efficiently of course, and your husband can never seem to find anything. =)

5. You lose sleep over trying to figure out the best way to organize your children's toys.

6. Some of your favorite shows to watch on TV are the ones on TLC and HGTV that have to do with cleaning and re-organizing people's houses.

7. You find yourself spending hours in the "Container Store" getting all kinds of great organizing ideas.

8. Your favorite things to shop for are different kinds of storage containers, shelf re-organizing systems, etc.

9. You spend so much time re-organizing and cleaning, as well as obsessing about it, that you have no clue what else happened this week.

10. You have passed your obsession on to one of your children, who know freaks out if things aren't put away correctly, and they find joy in organizing their toys instead of playing with them.

If you answered "yes" to any one of these, you might have O.C.D.  If you answered "yes" to all of these, you need some serious help.  Okay, so I answered yes to all of the above, and I admit, I have O.C.D.  But in my defense, I am also nesting like crazy.  I have an overwhelming urge to prepare our home for 2 more children more than anything.  This of course includes a lot of re-organizing because 2 more kids, means a lot more stuff.  By the way, we do now know where we will be living, which was such a relief to me because I have the spring cleaning bug, nesting bug, and O.C.D.

Hooray!

First, I would like to take a minute to apologize. I am so sorry for my meltdown blog this morning.  Definitely some emotional verbal vomit, but I feel that I need to keep it real, especially for those to who will take this same journey.  The path God leads us down is never easy, and I wish I could tell you that I can handle each bump well, but that is obviously not the case.  I guess that's what makes me human, and each day God teaches me over and over and over to trust Him, rest in Him, and find peace in Him.

On a very exciting note, I did get an email from my case worker this afternoon.  For those of you wondering, I didn't contact her 1st, she contacted me, I did restrain myself.  She said L's CBI came in the mail today and his FBI should be no more than 2 weeks behind.  Such a huge answer to prayer, keep praying that the next one comes in soon.  And pray that I will once again find peace in God's perfect timing.

S.O.S.

Okay prayer warriors, I really need your prayers this week!  Please pray for my sanity and for L's background checks to come in.  We are arriving upon week 9 of this wait, and I'm not going to lie, I am now REALLY struggling with this.  This wait was supposed to be very short in relation to the rest of our adoption.  It is going to take everything in me to not contact my case worker everyday this week to see if she has gotten the background checks or to beg her to make some phone calls to find out where it is.  I have also thought of every possible thing that could have happened with his background checks:
       1. the post office lost his fingerprint card 
       2. our agency mailed them to the wrong address
       3. the fingerprint card is lost in a stack of papers at the
          CBI/FBI
       4. the CBI/FBI mailed the clearances to the wrong place
       5. the post office lost the clearances
       6. they are sitting on my case workers desk, but she didn't get
           them because she's been out of the office
       7. they have already come in but my case worker forgot to
          call me (she assured me this wouldn't happen)

As you can see, I've lost it, and this list goes on and on if you were wondering.  My mind is now consumed with possible scenarios, and I have started to lose sleep over this.  Please pray for me to have peace in God's timing and for the papers to come in soon!!!   

Quote of the Day

"Our greatest fear as individuals should not be of failure but of succeeding at things in life that don't really matter."  -Francis Chan (Crazy Love)

8 Weeks

Nothing new here.  We have now been waiting for L's background checks for 8 weeks (this was only supposed to take a few weeks).  Below is a bit of information for you to absorb about Rwanda (got it from another adoption blog).

"Rwanda, one of the poorest countries in the world, is a beautiful country struggling under the weight of the devastating genocide that occurred in 1994, when over 800,000 Rwandans were brutally murdered – leaving families decimated and the country’s infrastructure in shambles. In the aftermath of this tragedy, poverty increased, particularly among children. Half of Rwanda’s population is under the age of 18. Most of these children live on less than $1 a day. The infant mortality rate remains high at 37 per 1000 live births, and illnesses like HIV/AIDS have created a new wave of orphans. (Source: UNICEF)

Since the genocide, Rwanda has made great strides in advancing its economy and stabilizing its government; however, the orphan crisis has been largely unaddressed. In the entire United States, with a population exceeding 300 million people, there are 130,000 adoptable children . Compare that to the nearly 860,000 orphans in Rwanda - a country just the size of Maryland, with total population of 10.7 million people. This number of Rwandan orphans includes children in orphanages as well as an orphan group made up entirely of ‘child-headed households’. “Rwanda has one of the world’s largest proportions of households that are headed by children (i.e. children raising children) with an estimated 101,000 children heading up some 42,000 households.” (UNICEF, 2004)
Until 2008, Rwanda did not allow international adoptions. Because Rwanda has just recently opened to international adoption, the country does not have the same advanced adoption resources and infrastructure as seen in the United States and other countries. There remains an overall lack of awareness of the crucial needs and life-threatening conditions that Rwandan orphans face."
 

God is SO Good

This last week I have been reminded at how amazing God is and that when he calls you to do something, He will provide.  As we have embarked on this journey, we are trusting God to provide.  And last week we were reminded at how amazing our God truly is as he provided a large amount of money that will pay for the next part of our adoption!  You truly learn amazing things when you put your complete faith in God's plan for you!

As for the status of our home study:  It is still complete, minus L's FBI check that we are still waiting on.  But, it has been approved by our agency and we are going to sign it tomorrow.