Moving forward!

This week we were able to speak to the embassy approved doctor that evaluated  our little boy's medical history, videos, and other evaluations. After speaking to her, we felt we had enough information to move forward in our adoption! First we need to change countries on our home study and our immigration paperwork.  We will also be required to have one more home visit. Travel dates will not be set until we receive our updated approvals. We are also eager to share photo with you but can't on-line.  We are excited to see God's revealed plan for our family.  God as provided for us financially and through prayer petitioning! We are ready to go get our boy!! 

Please pray specifically for:

- our sons safety and protection.

- a smooth transition with appointments and paperwork during the holiday season. 

- our home preparation 

-Austin's continued excitement in getting his brother. 

- Continually reminded of God's provision, protection, grace, and unearned love for me and my family.   

It's Been Awhile....But Good News On The Adoption Front!

I'm sure some of you have been wondering if we were still in the adoption process. Sometimes we have even wondered "Do they (the adoption agency) remember that we are sitting out here waiting for a child?" Well, they do remember and we have received some initial good news.

About 2 weeks ago, we received an email from our adoption social worker and it started out kinda like some of the other ones, that they still didn't have any referrals from the country we've been working with. Then it took a turn, they have been getting more referrals now from another country in that area (southeastern Europe) and that they currently had one for a little boy that they thought we may be interested in and wanted to know if we would be open to changing countries. "Of course!" we thought, but we wanted more information on what all would be involved in changing countries before we received information on the child. We didn't want to get emotionally attached to a child before we knew if we'd be able to actually make a change in countries work. Of course there are administrative things, i.e. paperwork, that has to be done but there were 2 other big hurdles in changing to this country. One of the hurdles is money. It is going to cost us about $5000 more than we were expecting to pay to complete an adoption in our initial country. Part of this additional cost is because of hurdle number 2. This hurdle to us was an even bigger obstacle to overcome, travel and time in country. The country we've been focused on required 2 trips with one being about a week and the other being about a week and a half. This new country is only 1 trip but it requires that at least 1 parent remain in the country for....wait for it....6-8 WEEKS! This is actually what had ruled this country out for us initially. How could either of us be gone from our jobs for 1 and a half to 2 months and still get a paycheck?

I began checking with my boss and 12Stone to see if there would be any possible way we could work out something so that I could take the time off. In the mean time, Jen started looking at what time off she had. Since she rarely takes any sick time off, she discovered that she had accrued enough sick hours to equal about 60-65 days. Since weekends wouldn't count in time off, she would have enough time to be gone for 2 months and still have some time left once she would get back. So immediately God had showed us the answer to what we thought would be the biggest hurdle in this! Meanwhile, checking back in with my boss and 12Stone, they didn't know exactly how it would work, but they were willing to make it happen. It looks like if all goes well the travel would happen in the February or March time frame and that Jen would be the one to stay in the country the full 6-8 weeks with Austin and I going over with her for 7-10 days and then coming back home. I would then have to go back out at the very end for us to finalize the adoption.

Once we knew that we had the travel figured out, we let the adoption agency know that we did want to move ahead with getting information about the child. So, they sent us over his name as well as some videos and pictures of medical records. Because of privacy and security issues and concerns we unfortunately can't share the name of the child or the videos & pictures on a blog or social media at this time. The initial information we've received is all positive. The little boy will turn 4 this month. In the videos we watched he seems to be a happy little boy, he runs around and plays and smiles a lot. The talking in the videos is all in Hungarian so we obviously don't know what is being said or what they tell him or ask him to do. We are very blessed to know a family across the street from us that are originally from that area of the world and know some people in their church that could translate the videos for us. We have received permission from the adoption agency to watch the videos with them and let them translate for us what is going on/being said. We are hoping to meet with them this week to have that happen.

The medical records we have pictures of are also all in Hungarian. The adoption agency, Lifeline Children's Services, is working on getting those translated for us. They also have a doctor on the ground in the country that will be checking everything out for us and they have another person heading to the country this week to check in with the boy and the foster family he is living with. The hope is he will be able to fill in some blanks as well as get some questions, that we had, answered.

We were ready to move forward and pretty much had said so to our social worker on the phone. She advised us to wait a little bit to get the information back from the doctor and the person that will be meeting with the boy and family. We aren't expecting any red flags but it does make sense to get as much information as possible to make the best decision we can for our family and hopefully for this little boy. Right now we are excited but trying not to get TOO excited until we have all the information. It does feel like God is opening doors for this to happen so we'll see how it unfolds.

While we know that God provides we also believe that sometimes we have to do our part in that, even if it's uncomfortable. So....this part is uncomfortable to me but, we have two asks. One is that you would continue to pray for our obedience to whatever it is that God has for us in this and that he would reveal that to us. The second has to do with the extra $5000 we have to come up with and I hate asking people about/for money but....  Would you consider donating to our adoption? If you have already, THANK YOU SO MUCH but would you also keep your heart open to hear if God may prompt you to help out some more? I know it's getting into the Christmas season and if it doesn't work for your family to donate, that is ok! We would just ask that you continue to pray for us and that God would provide! We are nervous but excited to see how God will unfold all of this.

If you do want to/can make donation, just click the link in the upper left of our blog that has the Promise686 logo. Any donation made that way is tax deductible. Thank you all for taking this adoption ride with us and we will keep you updated as things move along!

Gold Arrived in the mail today...

So many of you have asked about our adoption and how it has been going, thank you so much! I have been horrible at keeping our blog updated and hope to keep it up (even little posts) to let you know where we are in the process. 

So November 4th, Voting Day, Tony and I went to the police station and got our fingerprints done..again.., this time for the FBI background check for our Immigration paper work 800A papers. 

We mailed them off and felt accomplisind that we could mark off another item on our 'adoption to do list'. While we were in Missouri for Thankgiving we received a phone call from our social worker telling us that our country changed some requirements and we needed to redo a medical document and add two other documents. Fustrating... but doable. We got home and set to work. In the middle of holiday season it becomes very difficut to get the right papers from the right people in a timly manner and we finally received the last of the papers after the new year. DONE! We were so excited to hand over the last document for our Dossier, knowing that in about three months we could be seeing our son's picure for the first time! We attended a wonderful adoption training put on by Lifeline Childrens Services buildng us up to become better adoptive parents. We arrive home hopefull and ready to utilize all the we have learned. 

A week later Tony received an email from our SW. As she is putting together our Dossier to send she realizes that our FBI finger prints have never been received. So ensues our attempt to track them down. Feb 2 we finally got a number to call we are told that they are just now opening mail from Nov 13th and until our application is opened it wont show up in the system. We then called back each week until we got the news we were waiting to here! You should be receiving your results in 7 days!!! TODAY was the DAY, even sooner than the 7 days!!! Praise God!

I smile about it now but I wasn't earlier. Our immigration paper came back in weeks (we were told months) and our FBI came back in months (we were expecting weeks). God is in our plan and as I have told Austin, I keep reminding myself, God has our child picked out already it is already written! Leaning on him is the only way to get through this process. 

In the meantime many of you have been sooooooooo generous with your prayers, donations, orders and watching Austin. THANK YOU is just not enough! 

As our last post indicated we received a matching grant from Promise 686. Promise686 is a non-profit ministry dedicated to serving the needs of “the fatherless” both here and abroad. They are committed to inspiring and equipping families in the Atlanta area to foster and adopt with the goal of placing children in loving, permanent, Christian homes. Many of you have prayed and donated to our grant. Thank you! Your generousity has been overwelming and humbling. 

I have been crocheting and making 'canvas art' like a crazy nut too! Thank you for all of your requests. I have had a steady flow of business and love the requests to try new patterns! I also love the smiles when kids and adults receive their crocheted item. Each one has been prayed over and I wish you much joy :) 

Today I am happy. Happy I serve an awesome God. Happy to have a family of two awesome guys.  Happy for my extended family. Happy for my friends that have supported us every step of the way. Thank is not enough. xoxo

Promise 686 Grant

As this year comes to a close we have so much to be thankful for. God has kept us healthy and our family busy. Austin is enjoying karate, reading, computer science club and Cub Scouts. Tony has been busy assisting with Scouts, working with 12Stone to open five new campuses and volunteering at Austin’s school. Jennifer has been crocheting like mad, crafting, and enjoying running. But our biggest excitement of the year has been Gods call to adopt.

Last November we felt called by God to adopt an orphaned child into our family. We then began the process of trying to adopt a little boy from Bulgaria. We have now completed our home study as well as our first round of immigration paperwork and are currently compiling our paperwork for a dossier to be sent to Bulgaria. We then will be waiting on Bulgaria to send back information on little boys (ages 3-6) that are a match for us. It is our prayer that God will reveal to us the boy that he has picked for our family. Afterwards we will be making two separate trips to Bulgaria (hopefully taking Austin with us on the second trip) and would bring our new son home with us on that second trip. Unfortunately right now we don’t have a definite time line but our hope is that we would have our son by the end of this next summer.

The biggest challenge for us is not bringing this little boy into our hearts and home, but it is in finding the finances to make this happen. We estimate our total cost for adoption fees, document preparation, home study, airfare, travel, attorney fees, etc. to be $32,000. That’s certainly money we don’t have right now, but we know God is faithful and is leading us to trust Him. By God’s grace we’ve been able to raise a little over half of this amount so far.

Honestly, it’s a little difficult, to ask for financial assistance. We do trust that God will provide and know that he doesn’t need our help at all to do so. But we also know that most of the time it does require of us to step out in faith. We appreciate our family and friends very much and would like you to pray & consider helping us in our adoption.  There are two ways you can help:

1. Prayer – Please pray God would tenderly care for our son in Bulgaria until we are able to bring him home, that God will direct the matching of our child in a way that it is clear, prepare all of us for the upcoming changes to our family, and that God will give us wisdom, discernment, and insight as we raise both of our children to know Jesus Christ. 

2.  Financial support - Will you please consider making a tax-deductible donation to help us pay the remaining $14,000 in adoption expenses, to bring our son home?

Promise686 has graciously given us a Matching Grant of $4,000 to help us bring our son home. If you would like to be a part of our journey, you can send your tax-deductible gift to the address below. Another option is to go to this link- https://connect.clickandpledge.com/organization/promise686/campaign/195Mimms  and make your donation there. Your donations will be matched by promise686 on a $1-for-$1 basis up to $4000.  Promise686 will pay adoption expenses out of funds received.  Promise686 is a non-profit adoption and foster care ministry dedicated to expanding God’s Kingdom by helping to bring the fatherless into Christian homes. 

Please make checks payable to:  Promise686, Inc. You may preference how the donation might be used by writing “Mimms Adoption” in the memo section of your check. 
(*Note:  per IRS guidelines, promise686 maintains complete discretion and control over the use of all donated funds, but intends to honor the donor’s suggested use.)

Mail checks to:
Promise686
4729 Peachtree Industrial Blvd
Suite 100
Berkeley Lake, GA. 30092

Thank you for investing in the Kingdom through prayer and finances – it will be an investment with an eternal return!  (Matt 6:20)   We’ll give you all updates and details via Facebook and our blog,  http://tjmimms.blogspot.com as we receive them.  Please pray this entire process will glorify God and fulfill His purposes!

In Christ,

Tony, Jennifer, and Austin

“A father of the fatherless…God setteth the solitary in families…” - Psalms 68:5,6