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Just a quick note here…the home study is done! Our social worker is in the process of sending us the complete copy today. Once that is in hand we can send in our application to the US government for adoption and start filling out applications for grants! It feels so good to have that big step done!
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We are blessed. We had our first fund raiser yesterday and it was so encouraging. Our friend, Tracy, and her family drove 5 hours to get here to host it (you are a true friend!!) and we had a wonderful time. We haven’t seen Tracy in about 5 years and it’s wonderful to be around one of those friends who you can just pick right back up with and feel so comfortable. We’re already planning the next reunion and Josiah keeps asking when Jonah (her little boy) can come back and play. We had a pretty good turn out and have lots of friends who are still interested in shopping online. For those of you who still want to participate you can click on the Lia Sophia button to the right…it will be there for about 2 more weeks before we close the sale. continue reading…
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We’ve spent the last few days filling out the first papers for our dossier, getting them notarized and sending them to Des Moines to be apostilled so they can be sent to Ukraine. This first batch are the papers that let their government know that someone is trying to adopt Grace and asks for their permission to continue with the process. We were told to get these sent out ASAP so as soon as we received Philip’s new passport I entered the information and we got moving. Notarizing a batch of papers with 3 small kids in tow proved to be quite an experience and I was beginning to wonder if the notary was going to write something like, ‘These people don’t need another child right now!’ on our paperwork. It was late afternoon and both big kids were pretty wound up. Josiah kept running circles around the bank and Grace managed to sneak away and into the bank vault. We were all relieved when it was over. continue reading…
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We received the information for our dossier this week and the next round of paperwork has begun! Philip’s passport should be arriving early next week and once we get the number off of it we can send in the first set of papers to be notarized and eventually sent to our facilitator in Ukraine. We’re in the process of getting medical exams set up for Philip and me and are hoping to set the dates and get details figured out for our dinner and garage sale fund raisers. We also heard back from our friend who has contacts in the Ukraine and he’s hopeful there will be someone in our region to help us with housing and transportation. Each morning one of my prayers is that God would give us the jobs he has for us to do that day so we can keep steadily working towards our goal without getting overwhelmed and so far that prayer has been answered every day. continue reading…
Lia Sophia Jewelry
Ok, we just got word that we’ve been officially matched with ‘Grace’ and can start raising the funds we’ll need to bring her home! We’re starting with a Lia Sophia party and I can already hear some of the conversations that will be taking place at our friends’ houses…’But honey, I NEED to buy a new necklace to help out an orphan!’ We hope to have a lot of fun with this and get closer to our goal, but in all seriousness we appreciate all of you who have been praying for us and Grace and those who will be able to participate in this with us. For more information you can click the Lia Sophia Jewelry Fund Raiser button on the right side of the page. Another way you can help is to spread the word…if you know friends who like jewelry or have a blog where you can repost this we’d really appreciate the help!
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We’ve been warned that adoption is a process of hurrying up so you can wait and that’s already begun. The director of RR is back in town, but buried in emails and trying to catch up as fast as she can. While we understand that she’s doing the best she can we are impatient because we’re excited to get things moving and find out more about ‘Grace.’ I keep checking my email every couple of hours to see if she’s written, but so far I haven’t heard anything other than that she received all of our paperwork and check. continue reading…
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Josiah has had a few days to process the news of the adoption and is ready to share! Today he excitedly told a friend at church and a policeman all about a new girl who was coming to live at his house after his birthday to be his new sister. The friend gave a quick glance at my tummy and I just laughed…no way am I ready to go through another crazy Dean pregnancy right now! It’s neat to see him already including her in our prayers and everyday conversation.
Philip and I got our first round of fingerprints done today and I’ll be ready to send in all the info for our background checks tomorrow. We’re still waiting on the director of Reece’s Rainbow to get back in town (sometime early next week) to officially match us with ‘Grace’ and then we need to start fund raising pretty aggressively. We already have the first one planned and it will be ready to go as soon as we get word from RR…and it should make many of female friends pretty happy (their husbands might not be so happy with us)! We’re continuing to pray about other ideas…everything from a dinner and silent auction to garage sales to me trying to get an online tutoring job for awhile. We continue to ask for your prayers for us as we try to balance what needs to happen for this adoption and our everyday lives.
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Something came up in Sunday School this morning that God has been making abundantly clear to us these past couple weeks…there are no coincidences. When you pray for something, wait patiently and then it happens it’s not a coincidence. It’s an answer to your prayer. We certainly don’t always get what we pray for (thank goodness!), but there are those times in your life when you pray earnestly for something that is in God’s will and you see him do amazing things. We find ourselves in one of those times and the only response we can find is one of gratitude and awe. We have prayed to both feel passionate about this adoption if we were supposed to do it…and we do. We have prayed for people to come forth who have used this ministry, adopting through Ukraine and who are local so we might be able to meet them…we’ve found 2 families. We’ve prayed to start finding some contacts within the country and suddenly 3 of our friends and family have told us of missionaries they know living there and we found out today one friends’ Dad has worked with a whole network of churches in the Ukraine for the past 16 years. We’ve prayed that people would offer to help with childcare while we’re overseas and we now have 2 options of where to leave them. We’ve prayed for people to come along side us and help us bear the load of fundraising and the first thing I heard as I walked into church this morning was, “So what do you need? Will you need help with funds? How can we help?” continue reading…
Sometimes you plan for the big events if your life for months or even years. And sometimes they pop up over night and change everything. The journey that we have just begun fits into the latter category and may change our lives in ways none of us can predict right now. In some ways that’s very scary, but it’s also an amazing feeling to take a giant leap of faith and trust that God will come through for you.
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Eighteen days ago I was feeding Kasia and reading some blogs when I came across a post that included short biographies about a couple orphans. Both were beautiful little girls with special needs, but one of them really stood out to me and I haven’t been able to get her out of my head. I kept being brought to tears thinking of what faced this little girl and wondering what we could do about it and why God seemed to be placing her on my heart. The child’s name is Grace, she is 3.5 years old and has spina bifida. She is in the Ukraine and will be moved out of the baby house and into a mental institution when she turns 4, not because she has any cognitive delays but because that is simply what happens to disabled children there. With medical help this child may be able to walk, but instead would be left in a crib for the rest of her life. Philip asked what I was doing and when I showed him I expected him to say that was sad and let it pass. Instead he said we should pray about her and see what God said. The first open door. continue reading…
