So, what HAVE we been doing?

It has been SUCH a busy summer!  Sam is either gone or working very diligently on summer programs through his job during the summer months.   I run the farm and home while he's gone,  and in years past,  spend a lot of time working with the horses,  having a summer camp and catching up on household projects.   Generally, I had a good time. :)
This year was different!  I am not teaching,  so I worked full time straight through the summer while doing my best to keep the farm running and the adoption paperwork going.   I am not going to lie...  it was HARD!  I worked a full day on my feet,  then came home to eleven animals (who all took a turn being sick while Sam was away! ) needing my attention and a very weedy vegetable garden!   It was not easy, and I had some difficult moments,  but I am thankful for my family and a friend that stepped in to help.   All that being said, God and my determination to keep making money for the adoption kept me going... but I am NOT doing it that way again next summer!!!  :)  Hopefully we will have the children by then, but in adoption you have to expect the unexpected delays.
Sooooooo,  that's our summer in a nutshell.   On to fall:
Our paperwork is done (until we get a referral) , so we are waiting,  waiting,  waiting.   We've been using this time to get back into a routine after a busy summer and make some small preparations for our children.  One of the preparations we've been working on is designing a safe play area near the barn.  We know it will be a while before they can use it, but it would be great to have it done and ready before they come home.   We are taking any and all suggestions!  A swing set and a sandbox are a must, but where to put it and how to enclose it?  What other play equipment should we include (it does need to be reasonably priced! )?  Do you know anyone that has raised or is raising children on a farm?  What ways can we keep it fun and safe, but still include them in our daily work?   We've purchased a child sized wheelbarrow (modeled by Scout) and a few other things.  Any tips or recommendations?   Please let us know!   We are having fun thinking of all the things they can do on the farm with us!  :)

LID!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well, what we thought would take 4 to 6 weeks took only 2 days!!!!  We have our LID (Logged In Date) and are now able to be matched with a child.  We are thankful and excited to be where we are in the process. 

The next step is ...

Waiting.

Waiting for our first referral.  It could happen tomorrow, next week, next year.

We are praying that the wait is not too long and that God will use this time to prepare us for the transitions to come. 

Stay tuned! 

Dossier Success!!!

We have been silent for the past month but only because we have been very busy.  Sam had his 3 week adventure in the mountains for work.  Michelle was busy keeping the farm running and had family visitors to keep her company.  In the middle of all the travel our I-797 finally came.  This is the most important form we received.  It basically says that US immigration has approved us to bring our children home to the US. 

Michelle received it and the next day got it and the other 18 documents overnighted to Houston where they were hand delivered to the Chinese Consulate.  They reviewed all our documents and put a sticker on each one that tells the Adoption folks in China that it is legitimate and not forged, etc. 

Today we received the documents back and will now send them to our Adoption Agency for review. If all check out they will be sent to China next Friday and walked in to the CCCWA that Monday!  It will take 2-6 weeks for them to process the paperwork and get us in their database.  We will then get a log in date, which will mean we are eligible to be matched with a child. 

What's next after that??  Waiting....

We could be matched the next day, next month, a year, two years, who knows.

After we are matched with our first child we will have only about 4 months to find our 2nd child.  At some point time will run out on us being able to get them both in one trip. 

The paper chase has been a real test of our patience.  We really thought we would be done months ago.  God has reminded us that He is in charge, not us.  We know that His timing is perfect even if we think otherwise. 

We are very thankful for our family and friends who have encouraged us along the way. 

The pic below is the final stack of papers that we are sending off.

'That's a lot of money for a bunch of JUNK'

...that's how my (Sam's) dad summed up our yard sale.  We raised about $1,000 towards the adoption expenses!  It was amazing how much better it went with so many people involved.  We had some leftover stuff from our last yard sale, but the 'good' stuff came from our friends and from a local business who held a consignment sale a few months ago and gave us all the stuff no one came back to pick up.  And let me tell you, it was a  LOT.  Because this was part of the World's Widest Yard Sale it was a Friday, Saturday, Sunday affair.  I took it all to my parent's the weekend before and they got it all put out and some-what priced.  I have an aversion to spending lots of time pricing stuff for a dime.

Beverly Hillbillies?  All we needed was Granny

Even though it was a bunch of junk, God used it to not only allow us to raise some funds for the Adoption but also talk to folks about our adoption.  We were beyond blessed and so thankful for our family and friends who helped out.

Who is excited about finger prints???

We are!  Our appointment notice arrived today.  On June 11 we will have our finger prints taken (again) so the government can ensure we don't have an FBI record, etc. 

We are excited to be making progress! 

The big Yard Sale is next weekend in Troy (see previous post about that). 

I800a received!

We received confirmation that our application to US Immigration has been received and forwarded to the processing center.  We should receive an appointment to get our finger prints taken.  Hopefully this will be smooth and we will get our approval back in mid June. 

Yard Sale
We were rained out on our last attempt at a yard sale.  We will be joining Sam's parents on the weekend of June 1st.  It will be part of the World's Widest Yard Sale.  We have LOTS of stuff from our house, friends, family, and a consignment store.  Hope you can come join us!

Home Study complete! I-800a mailed!

If you look at our last few posts you will wonder why we have not written about the Home Study being complete.  Well, we got a final copy at the end of March, however our agency wanted some changes made.  One thing led to another and long story short we got the final, notarized copies in the mail Saturday!  We aren't sure why it took so long but we are trusting in God's perfect timing. 

Today we mailed the I-800a.  It is a 9 page document (that has 11 pages of official instructions, plus a full scale example).  This form goes to US Immigration and seeks approval for us to adopt children and bring them to this country.  We will also be finger printed, again.  This form is only valid for 18 months so we will be racing to finish when we get our approval letter back. 

We still have a few letters to collect and get certified. As soon as the paper work is all together we will send it to Houston to the Chinese Consulate for to be authenticated, then off to China they go!  At this point we hope the documents are
In China by the end of June. 

The Yard Sale (that wasn't)
we had scheduled a Yard Sale for Saturday, however the weather did not cooperate. Not only did we get 1.5'' of rain but it was one of the coldest days on May on record. But we have LOTS of stuff and we will participate in the World's Widest Yard Sale on June 1st.  Not sure where we will setup on the 300 mile route but we will be somewhere. 

Winter Review and Spring Preview!

Sam and I haven't posted much on the blog these past few months.  It is not that we haven't wanted to update you on our progress, but with our work, farm life and the demands of our adoption paperwork, the days end with us tired and falling into bed.  Despite the busyness, I feel like we are in such a sweet period of life right now!  I wake up daily with a quiet sense of joy each day (Sam probably wouldn't call the days I wake up with energy and an off-key song "quiet joy," but that's ok!). 
I thought I would share a few snapshots of what's been going on day to day for the last three months.   We've taken on some wonderful equine boarders, have been trying to enjoy our sweet, little farm and all of God's beautiful creation, spent fun time with each other, enjoyed all types of weather that winter in the south offers, been making great strides to be healthy, have begun planning our garden for the summer and have bought a little something here and there for some special little girls....  See?  Life is sweet!

Home Study Wrapping up!

Greetings Friends!
It's been a while and we wanted to give everyone an update.

We are proceeding SLOWLY through the process...but we are making progress!  Our Social Worker has met with us four times and asked a lot of questions about our background, parenting styles, etc.  She also educated us a lot on the process, including issues related to attachment  which are very important in children who have had 'less than optimal care.' It's all been very helpful.  So, that part is done and she is writing a 12+ page report just about us, our home, family, and stating that we meet all the requirements from the state.

Take 'Note'
Who ever knew that a Notary Public was such an important thing?!  We have to have every document Notarized. This means that the person signing has to do it in the presence of the notary.  However, because of all the scrutiny these documents will be under, it also has to be done exactly  right.  This includes:

• All dates must be the same date.  This includes the Date on the document, Date signed, Date notarized
• Needs to be signed with a blue pen
• The Notary’s commission must be valid for at least six months from the day it was notarized.
• Notary must include:
• Their stamp/seal (Must include the notary’s name)
• Their signature (Must match the seal/stamp name EXACTLY, for example if seal says Mary Jane Smith, do not sign Mary J. Smith)
• Commission expiration (no sooner than six months)

That's a lot to communicate!  We have had a couple of documents that must be redone. We've learned from these mistakes and are back on track now!

After we get items notarize the Notary Seal has to be Certified at the County Courthouse in the Notary's home County.  Then we will take them to the Secretary of State's Office so that they can certify that the Probate Judge's certification is authentic.  We will then bundle all of these documents together and send them to Houston, Texas to the Chinese Consulate where they will look at all the State certifications and attach  another piece of paper to each of them saying that the State certification is authentic.  If you are counting that is 4 steps including notarization.  Our agency will then bundle all these documents and send them to China where they will be Logged In to the system.  

We hope this has helped to explain why the paperchasing process takes so long. We have so much to be thankful for.  God has continued to bless us and show us His Great Wonders.  Thank you for keeping up with us and praying for us during this process.

Sweet Thoughts!

I love blog posts with pictures, so I thought I would post some pictures of gifts that our girls have received ALREADY from some thoughtful friends!  They deserve more than this simple thank you. 
Others have given, too, in so many ways, but more on that later!  ;o)  On to the pictures!
They include (but not in this order!):
1. Some gifts that Sam and I bought on our last anniversary.  I just couldn't wait to get them something!
2. My sister in law gave them this pretty reminder of God's love for them.  It was one of the first presents they got when we announced we were adopting. 
3. These cute little stuffies were from two of Sam's students in his programs.  So thoughtful of those girls!
4. My coworker gave us these BEAUTIFUL paintings of scenes from Peter Rabbit for the girls' room.  I was very touched because they came from her son's nursery - very special and hard for her to part with, I am sure.  I will certainly treasure them (and they go with the room perfectly!).
5. Lastly, this is a picture of a few wrapped presents we bought for the girls this Christmas.  I couldn't let the season go by without that concrete reminder that they are out there, waiting.  I am so thankful that God came into this world and adopted US to be His sons and daughters.  I hope the girls can open them sooner rather than later!
As always, thanks for reading, praying and being part of this journey.  It means so much to us.

Moving right along

We are excited to announce some progress!  We have gotten all of the paperwork done for our Home Study!  A Social Worker has been assigned to us and we hope to have appointments with her set up in the next few days.  For the curious among you, here is an explanation of what this all means:

Home Study
The Home Study is a report completed by a licensed Social Worker that basically says that we have enough character and means to support a child.  This is done through about four face to face visits and loads of paperwork.

Paperwork
Many have asked about the timeline of the adoption and why it takes so long.  The short answer is Paperwork.  Paperwork takes many different forms, is completed in many different ways, and is obtained through various means.  Here is a short list of what we had to assemble JUST for the Home Study to begin:

Letter from our Employers with our salary and a statement that we are both employees in good standing.  Notarized.

Physical Exam.  Thorough Physical Exam.  Notarized

Financial Statement.  Assets, monthly budget, debts.

Life Story.  Four to five pages each of our lives from birth to today (there were almost two pages of questions to answer!).  I actually enjoyed this because I was reminded of how fortunate I was to have such a loving family and life of abundance.   I’m thankful for those high school teachers that helped me learn how to write a paper!  You do use those skills later in life!

Online Parenting Classes.  12 Hours.  We actually learned a lot from these seminars that we watched online and then took tests to see if we were paying attention.  It would have been simple except for the fact that we don’t have internet access at our home and you can’t watch them on our tiny phones (we tried). 

Background Check.  Almost forgot about the trip to the courthouse to get fingerprinted!  That was a new experience for us both! 

Letters from family and friends.  Our parents (read: Moms) had to write a letter explaining that we had a somewhat normal childhood and would make great parents ourselves.  A few friends did the same.  Thanks!!!

Hopefully you will understand why we have been working on this since late October.  It’s a lot when you are working 40 plus hours, running a farm and just living day to day.  But…… we are done with this step!  Bring on the next set of paper work (that would be the Dossier Building)!  The good news is that as we were getting our physicals, etc. we were also getting them to fill out the very similar (but not identical) paperwork for the next phase.  There will be more documents than listed earlier, and they will not only have to be notarized, but also certified by the Alabama Secretary of State’s Office AND authenticated by the Chinese Consulate in Houston, Texas.

When we get all the Dossier paperwork and the Home Study notarized, certified, and authenticated we will send it to our Agency, who will then send it to China.  By then it will probably be a stack of papers over 3” thick! 

It’s a long journey.  There are times that we are exhausted with all the paperwork.  But we press on, knowing that our children are waiting for us.  Thank you all for joining with us as we seek to bring our children home. 

“I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.”  Philippians 3:14  NKJ

So thankful...

We are so thankful for all of God’s rich blessings that He has continued to pour upon us!  We have not written a post lately because of the busyness of the Holidays and other goings on (see below). 

Here are some things we are thankful for:
God has continued to show us His provision and blessing of this adoption journey we are on.  After only 5 months of saving and fundraising we are about 1/3 of the way there!  We are both blown away at the ways God has chosen to provide these.

Michelle’s job at a local store. It has been a real blessing to have this consistent income that we have applied 100% towards the adoption fund.

Sam’s job.  It has remained stable in a turbulent economy and has been able to cover all of our regular expenses.

New horses boarding with us.  Some friends who are living out of state right now needed to move their beloved horses that were being boarded in the area.  We were asked about it and now have 2 new horses at the farm that we are caring for.  Another totally unexpected way that God is providing.

Giving from friends and family.  We are going public with our “Puzzle Fundraiser” that has been quite fun so far.  We have two puzzles and we are ‘selling’ pieces of the puzzles.  For every donation we will put the contributor’s name on a puzzle piece.  When completed we will frame the puzzles in a double sided frame so that our children can see all the names of those who helped bring them home.  We have sold over 40 pieces thus far – get your name on one before they are all gone!  If you have our mailing address just send a contribution there and include the name(s) you would like included.  If you don’t have it send an email to GoTeamSam@gmail.com and we will send you the info.  The 1000 piece puzzle pieces are $5 each and the 500 piece puzzle pieces are $10 each.  If God blesses us with two children through adoption, they will each have a puzzle of their own to remind them how many people loved, prayed and cared about them.

Adoption Tax Credit made permanent.  In all the last minute negotiations over the ‘Fiscal Cliff’ it was unclear if the Adoption Tax Credit would be included.  Thankfully part of what we were all seeking did make it!  The Credit is now permanent, meaning it will not have to be re-authorized in another session of Congress.  Although it is not refundable for special needs, which means those families would get a check upon adoption, it will help families by lowering their tax burden substantially for up to 5 years after the adoption.  We won’t bore you with the ins and outs, but this is a huge blessing for us and the other families who are in the process of adoption.

Concerns
We were shocked and disturbed – as most were – at the news from Russia on their decision to stop international adoptions to the United States.  It is appalling in so many ways.  There are hundreds of thousands of hurting children in Russian orphanages that need forever families who can give them love and proper medical care.  The families that have been part of the Russia program for years are now struggling to negotiate the next steps.  Many have already been matched with children and met them face to face.  It is heart wrenching to think about.  PLEASE be in prayer for these children and families.  Pray that the Russian officials would change their minds and reverse this decision.

Other Prayer Requests

Ability to focus on our paperwork.  We have a milestone that is not far ahead, but a lot more work lies on the other side of it.  We are praying for perseverance. 

Fundraising.  As we said earlier, we are so encouraged by the outpouring of support from our friends and family.  We prayer for continued gifts and opportunities to earn money towards this beautiful journey we are on.

Orphans.  We are following several blogs that show us some of the reality that is the orphan crisis in this world.  The needs are dramatic.  The conditions miserable.  The numbers overwhelming.  BUT the families that are ahead of us on this journey are amazing.  They are beautiful vessels that God is using to make a difference for His Glory to be magnified.  Pray for them as they raise funds, travel, have surgeries, encounter road blocks, and are exhausted. 

Thank you friends for being a part of this journey.  Great are His Wonders.

Catch up!

Wow!  It has been such a busy holiday season, so forgive me for not keeping up with the blog more!  Let me throw a few updates at you and catch up!

I worked my first Christmas in a retail position, and while it was super fun (really, it was!), it was SUPER busy!!!  I am very glad for the experience, but I am also glad it is over.  I've never wrapped so many gifts so quickly in my entire life!  I am thankful for the extra hours I was able to work each weekend as that put a little more into our adoption fund.   This next month I am looking forward to resuming teaching horseback riding lessons on the weekends and just being on the farm.

We had the opportunity to take on two horses as boarders at the farm.  They're both polite guys.  Shine can't wait until we put them in the pasture with her (see pictures)!  It is nice to "put the farm to work" for us, so to speak and any extra income this generates will go towards the adoption as well.

We are still completing the different steps that lead to a home study.  It is our hope that we can have it all done before the end of the month.  We so appreciate all of those who have asked about our progress.  We NEVER tire of answering your questions and are always happy to do so.  It warms our hearts to think that so many are interested and want to be part of this journey.

I hope your holidays were merry and bright.  We are so thankful for this season to celebrate God and His son and all He has blessed us with this year.  We are anxiously looking forward to 2013 and even 2014 as we know they contain not only pictures and information about two very special little girls, but the day we will get to meet them as well.