Day 6: CHILLING DAY

We arrived to pick up LG( Little Guy) planning on going to an indoor pool and found out that that he'd had a fever the night before and that one of the other children had had it days prior. The foster mom had given LG Ibuprofen but he hadn't slept well and didn't really want to go. So Adam suggested instead of the pool we just go back to our hotel and if he was feeling up to it, we could go to the park. 

We got in the van and LG immediately put his arm up (he does this when he doesn't want to see us) and in about 10 min he started falling asleep. He slept almost the whole 1 1/2 hr drive and at the end he began crying and even when we got out of the van he was still very upset. We arrived in our room and he sat in Tony's lap and fell asleep again. About 1PM we gave him some more ibuprofen and fell back a sleep for a bit more. 

When he woke up he was still not his smiling self but he wasn't crying. He told us he had to go to the bathroom and we went in there. Next thing I know we were laughing as the water flushed and the shower was turned on and off. Then he saw our toothbrushes and decided he wanted to brush his teeth, so I got out his new toothbrush that we brought him and he wanted to brush after every time he ate something. :) 

After that we were good to go! He colored, played trains, played with his Kindle, ate grapes, apples, goldfish and Nutella-to-go sticks. 

We took a walk in town but soon he became tired (still not feeling well), soon it was time to bring him home. LG was tired but like yesterday he didn't fall asleep. Toward the end of the drive he really wanted to get home. We got there and said good-byes. As the door shut LG wanted to come back in the van. :) 

Tomorrow is our last day 'visiting' please pray LG is feeling better and that he is eager to spend time with us. 

Day 5: A TRIP TO THE ZOO

We had great weather today so Adam decided we should go to the Zoo. After we picked up LG (Little Guy) he fell asleep quickly in the van and slept almost the whole way there. We got our tickets, rented a wagon to pull LG in and we were off!

Right inside we spotted a smushed "penny" machine. Austin collects smushed pennies so we thought this would be a great addition. Then we actually headed off to see the animals. LG was pretty enthralled with all the different animals. We stopped and watched an elephant spray and splash water all over itself. I think LG could have watched him all day. 

He did go into the petting zoo with Jen and pet a couple of goats. There were llamas there too (not in the petting zoo) and one of them stuck his head over thinking LG was going to feed him. LG hadn’t been paying attention and then turned his head and there was this llama face in his. It definitely startled him but he handled it well. We thought it was odd seeing some animals from the U.S. in a zoo that we see all over the place (or at least not very often in zoos) such as Canadian geese, raccoons, and steers to name a few.

Someone had dropped a Star Wars ball cap into the baboon exhibit. One little baboon found it and stuck it on his head. Once, he threw it into the water, then grabbed it and started drinking the water out of it. Crazy little guy.

After the zoo we grabbed lunch and headed to a playground just down the street. Adam had said the place we were getting lunch had really good pizza…problem was, we got there and they were out of pizza. So LG and I had cheeseburgers, Austin had a hot dog, and Jen had a “cheese” gyro that had chicken and also ketchup. The ketchup was a surprise. The playground was fun and LG had a blast on the swings. It was pretty much the only thing he wanted to do. At the very end of our time he finally went on the big climbing and sliding play place in the middle. Austin did the zip line a few times.

Finally it was time to head back. This time LG didn’t sleep at all. He was in the “so tired that he was doing anything he could to stay awake stage.” Needless to say he was acting pretty loopy at the end. I kind of felt bad dropping him off with his foster parents in that state. 

Today was a really good day. For me it was the first day that we actually felt like a "normal" family....whatever that actually means. Tomorrow we are headed to an indoor pool. Should be a blast! Thank you for your support and prayers and we continue to ask for them!

Day 4: RAINY DAY INDOOR FUN

Austin 'lounging' on the slide :)

Today it rained again so Adam made plans for us to do some indoor activities. It is so nice having someone tell us ‘we’re going to do this and then this’. It sounds weird but it’s one less thing we have to think about.

The car ride is really hard for our little guy. It is so far to drive that it becomes hard for him to keep his mind off missing his foster family and wondering what in the world is going on! My heart breaks when he gets that sad look in his face and covers his eyes so he doesn’t have to look at Tony or I. 

Today we went to another play place (this one in a mall). This one was smaller but had some different things to entertain the kids. He enjoyed a musical book he found and he likes toys and games that when you push a button they do something.

After the play place we rode several escalators to the top of the mall to have lunch. We decided on one place and the woman behind the counter was very willing to try and wrestle down our English order. She seemed very happy with her self that she accomplished the task. We were very happy too (ordering food is by far the hardest thing we do every day). After each order she would ask (in native language) what else. When we said 'nothing’ she said 'Game over?’, Tony replied 'Game over!’ It was pretty funny.

We bought Little Guy (LG) noodles that looked like Mac N Cheese, when we got to the table he didn’t seem

so interested, Tony offered him some pork with lots of seasons and rice. He was all about it! So we know 'go big or go home’ on LG's meals. Austin had a plain hot dog 😉. 

Adam suggested that after playing and lunch we walk to our hotel where LG could take a nap. He was excited to be in the hotel room and see everything but no nap was going to happen (I had little hope in the first place) but we had fun playing and hanging out.

Today he seemed more interested in the iPad/phone so I am hoping that will help with the car rides. 

We left the hotel and we headed to get LG's photo taken for his passport, visa, and medical documents. We will need these at the US Embassy  next week. 

We weren’t in the car 5 minutes and LG was sound a sleep. 

Praying tomorrow goes smoothly as well.

Days 2 and 3 With Our Little Boy

Here is a recap of the last couple of days. We feel very blessed that they have gone very well. We wish we had more pictures that we could share on this blog but currently that is still not possible. As soon as we can, we will put more pictures up.

Day 2: TRIP TO THE PARK

This morning we arrived at his house and spent some time there playing with him and visiting. Soon we were given permission to go to a private playground that was owned by a neighbor at a event center (wedding/party’s). He was really excited to ride in the car. We were able to play on the playground together as a family and just give us some time the four of us. He was really happy about the playground and was smiling ear to ear for quite a while.

After a while the emotions of the day caught up with him and the tears flowed for a bit. He allowed Tony to comfort him and Austin did his best to cheer him up. We decided to get the flying airplanes and bubbles out to play. He enjoyed that for a while, but soon he was pretty tired.

We finished our outing with a picnic lunch and a walk around the fountain where we got our first family photo! Adam said that it was a good sign that he ate lunch with us because many children do not except the adopting family's food this soon.

He is a very compliant little boy however there are some words that even Adam does not know what he is trying to say (made up kid words). But overall a great 2nd day! When Adam asked if he wanted to come tomorrow to spend the day he said yes. Please pray for tomorrow. He will be spending the day with us here near our hotel. It will be a long day for him as he still continues to take naps.

Day 3: DAY AT THE PLAYHOUSE 


Today was another really good day. We went and picked him up from his foster family’s home and headed back to the city where we are staying (over an hour drive) to go to an indoor playground. He was really excited to ride in the van but after awhile started to get sad and would cry. Adam (the gentleman that is working with us and helping translate) talked with him and when he told him we were getting close he perked up and was ready to go. We got inside and he was very excited. He really liked being pushed around in the little tike cars and crawling through and sliding down into the ball pit. A crowd of about 20 kids came in after we were there for a bit and we weren’t sure how he would handle it but he did great! Austin also did great as a big brother, climbing and sliding with him and making sure he was ok around all the other kids.

We stayed at the playground for about 2 hours and then headed to a mall food court for lunch. He definitely has an appetite. He ate a whole plate of spaghetti that would have been plenty for me or Jen. We then had an ice cream cone and rode a little train that was in the mall. After that, we all piled back into the van and headed back to the foster family’s house. On the ride back, he fell asleep and slept most of the way. Once we arrived, he seemed to be done with us for awhile and would kinda cling to his foster parents. We think he was really just still not fully awake from his car ride. Once he was totally awake we all went outside and played in the yard with all the kids, kicking and bouncing balls and had a good time.

As we got ready to leave he gave both Jen and I really big hugs and even started to head back to the van with us to get in. Adam asked him if he wanted to go with us again tomorrow and he nodded and told him, “Yes!” It was a very nice end to a really great day.

Adoption Here We Come!

So Saturday, May 28th we left Atlanta and we arrived Sunday morning in eastern Europe. Unfortunately we still can't post publicly yet about where our adoption is happening. All our bags arrived as well and that’s almost more of a miracle. We got to the gate about 12:30ish or about 6:30am EST. After we got to our hotel, we rested for a bit and then went for a walk to find someplace to eat. We had already told Austin that he would have to be up for trying some new foods over the next month or 2. But lucky for him we came across a McDonald’s and he got himself a Happy Meal while we found this neat little Hummus Bar. It was pretty good. We then just hung out in our hotel room and ended up crashing around 5:30pm.

Yesterday was a travel day. After our driver picked us up from the hotel at check out we were taken to a strip mall where we walked around the shops, purchased some tennis shoes, movies, drinks, and of course chocolates! At 3 it was time to pick up one of the gentlemen, George, who is helping us during our stay, from the airport. Then we started the 3 hr drive to the city where the little boy we are adopting is. During the drive a lot of the scenery reminded us very much of the Midwest in the U.S with the corn fields, round hay bales, etc. We arrived in on a beautiful evening, and got checked in to our new "home"/hotel for a week and then headed to find some dinner. Most shops close at 5 but restaurants were open. After dinner we walked around and explored the square that we will be staying in. We were very excited and nervous about meeting the little boy we are adopting the next day. 

Today, we woke up at 7 got ready and headed to breakfast. We were all pretty nervous not knowing how today would go. At 8:45 Adam, the other gentleman helping us, met us downstairs and we headed to meet with the Social Worker team that has been working with our new son. Everyone was very friendly and eager to answer any questions we might have and let us know they were here to support us. This was very comforting knowing we have a team here and in the US helping our family be a success.

The social worker rode with us the hour-ish drive to the foster family’s home. With each turn we felt more and more nervous and excited. We finally arrived and we had no clue how this would go. Adam said that we would only stay about 1-2 hrs to slowly adjust the little boy to us and our faces. Then we would slowly increase our time together each day to help the transition. So here we are getting out of the car, hearts beating out of our chests. The foster mom opens that gate and our new son runs out and jumps in my arms saying Momma (tears)! That smile, those happy eyes! I hand him over to Tony, Poppa, and he calls to him. He is introduced to Austin and both really don’t know what to make of each other. They hug and all is well. Then he runs off to show us around the yard and we are introduced to the foster mother.

He enjoyed the car we gave him and was fascinated by Austin's light up shoes and Fitbit. He tried them both on. :)

He is obviously still trying to figure things out, but he is doing a great job. We enjoyed playing ball, rocks, soccer, and scooters. We also had a cake and juice for a dessert and a very filling lunch all made by the foster mother. It truly was a feast. Our new little boy is a great eater and enjoying his soup with noodles, carrots, and meat. Adam asked him if he wanted us to come back tomorrow he said yes. Adam even got him to say his first English word ‘bye-bye’ as we were leaving.
Please keep in mind that while we want to post pictures, we still can't post any that will show our new son or will show where we are....yet. Thanks for understanding!

It was truly a great day and we feel it was such a gift from God to experience this journey.

Here we go! Time to take flight!

Gods amazing grace and love have brought us to this moment! May 28th we will leave to start the new journey to meet our son! Very soon we will become a family of 4!!! God is good- all the time!

Friday we received to go ahead to purchase tickets. This means that our immigration I-800 will continue through the process smoothly and no additional information will be needed from us. Saturday and Sunday Tony started researching options for tickets and we found a wonderful organization- http://www.adoptionairfare.com/. They helped us find the best plan and price for our needs. It was nice to not have to stress about this part of the journey!

I also finished my last paid project that has helped fund our adoption! Thank you ALL for purchasing my crafts to support our adoption. Thank you to all those who supported us though prayer fundraisers, and donating to Promise686 matching grant. EVERY bit helped! Every penny mattered, EVERY prayer mattered, EVERY donation mattered, EVERY offer to help mattered! We love each of you!


So you might be wondering what happens next and when will we start posting pictures of this cute little boy!?!?!

• 1- General Itinerary

Leave Atlanta on May 28th arrive May 29th in our little boys country.
Head to the area we need to be in
Arrive at Foster home on May 31st for 1st of 7-9 days on in home bonding
Receive Temporary guardianship
We all will go to our apartment where we will stay the remainder of our trip
Toward the end of our trip we will head to the capital to finalize passport, visa, etc for our little guy.
Head home!
All of this will happen in 6-8 weeks. so we are not sure the exact dates each will happen,

• 2- Pictures and Country?

We have been told that the country we are adopting from works much like the U.S. as far as privacy of the child in foster care. We cannot post pictures of him until he is legally ours. We have also been encouraged to keep the country out of our posts as they also frown upon publicity on their country's process (this is a public blog and is searchable on the internet). So I PROMISE we will get pictures out there just not as fast as we'd like!

Please continue to pray for :

-our travel
-finalizing paper work
-our time in country
-transition for our boys
-the foster family

Referral has been received!

Thank you for all your payers! We have finally received our referral!

You might be confused about this post.. wait... what was the post about at the end of March? Right?!? Well our paperwork was received in country and it appears that the gentleman who needed to sign the actual referral (this is the country approving us to adopt our little boy) was in the hospital and finally this past Friday was able to sign our document. Our document is now on its way to the country's capital for its official seal of approval. This means we should be traveling in approx 4ish weeks!

God as seen us through, and made us lean into him, focus on his goodness, love, and care. He has really spoken to me (Jennifer) though these two songs on auto play as loud as my 17 year old CRV speakers can take. Lauren Daigle's Trust in You and Casting Crowns Just Be Held. I hope they bring you comfort in a time of drought. It has been a long couple of months but I am learning that even in the waiting there are things to learn.

Next step is to get the document approved, translated, and attached with our Immigration 800 Application.


Please pray:

-for God's peace over the next month

-that the gathering of all the paperwork (referral and immigration) goes quickly.

-over our little guy as he waits

-over his foster family

-for preparation for his arrival

-our unknown travel schedule

Answered Prayers!

I want to thank EACH & EVERY ONE of you! Our prayers have been answered! My fingerprints were a success and our immigration approval is complete and in country!!!! GOD IS GOOD!

George (our in country guy, you will hear his name a lot) now has it and the he is obtaining our referral documents.


Now for the next step.. Immigration 800 form... yes you heard right. The second set of Immigration forms.


Let me explain.

So, when you adopt internationally your dossier must have immigration approval, this form is the 800a. The 800a basically states that we want to bring home 'a male child', it's very generic but needed in order to obtain a referral. Once a referral has been received the 800 is filed, this request states the child's actual name and and specific data about the child coming into the US. Our immigration documents are back to back since we were matched and moved countries at the same time. The 800 can take 3-4 weeks to complete due to processing and gathering all the information about the child that is needed.


So as of right now we are 3-4 weeks away from traveling! This is soo close, yet soo far away!


Please pray:

-for God's peace over the next month

-for the gathering of information

-for our filling out the forms accurately and swiftly

-over our little guy as he waits and possible medical & mental evaluations

-over his foster family

-for preparation for his arrival

-our unknown travel schedule







Thank you!

Prayers Needed!!

Please pray for Jennifer as she attempts to go to the  Immigration office Monday, without an appointment, and tries to implore the officer on duty to allow me to get biometric fingerprints again.

So the long story of what is happening...
So as of our last update February 3, Our paperwork was complete for immigration. What Tony and I learned later is that the time 'waiting' in immigration is to refresh our fingerprints. This was done for two reasons: 1- Immigration certificate only lasts one year, and 2- we changed countries since our last certificate. So then we waited.... and waited... and waited. Our agency has done a FABULOUS job of keeping us updated and we have recently learned of an immigration officer who has been going above and beyond her call of duty to get us our documentation as quickly as possible.

Earlier this week we received notification from our agency saying that Tony's fingerprints had been refreshed but I hadn't. We don't know why they were able to do one but not the other. So we waited the rest of the week until yesterday when our agency and the officer assisting us decided we were better off attempting to go in the the office in Atlanta and try to get in. There have been cases of success but it is not a guarantee. The officer is also setting up an actual appointment incase this doesn't work but it's not for another 2 weeks.

Why does this seem to be a rush you might be asking? Well since we do not have a referral for our little boy and the country has been told often 'any day now' about our paperwork, they could choose to give up on us and release him back into the adoption pool and we could lose our chances of bringing him home. If I can get my fingerprints done Monday, get the approval next week, and FedEx'd to eastern Europe then we think we can get the official referral document very quickly.

I can not express the urgency of us getting this doument! Please pray with us.

Please pray:
-for Gods revealed plan
-for the quick email arriving Monday that I need to have so I can drive to Atlanta (with smooth traffic)
-for the officers favor on our case
-our thoughts as we sit and wait this weekend
-our unknown
-over our little guy  as he waits
-over his foster family
-for preparation for his arrival
-our unknown travel schedule

Thank you!

Next steps on the crazy train of paperwork

Just wanted to let you know that our immigration document is finally being updated! This is the last step to sending our Dossier to Eastern Europe. It will be held there [immigration] for 2 weeks and then will be processed.  

**update** it was only 2 days before they began processing it. Hopefully we'll get an update on it soon!

Generosity and Staying Steadfast

Since we last spoke of our adoption let me update you:

First I want to say THANK YOU!! Many of you have felt God prompt to donate to our adoption either by direct donation to our Promise686 grant and/or by purchasing crafts. We are overwhelmed by your generosity! Many of you have been praying for us through our journey and I can't even tell you the peace He has given us! Thanks to all of you, when we get back with our new son we will be adoption debt free! (We're almost there now!) God is good!! All the time! 

Prayer has impacted our journey and brought us to a place I could have never imagined. When we stared this journey we were pretty nervous, I mean how in the world would we be able to make this happen? We were filled with worry. Then, we followed God's lead and started the process of adopting. Yes, you have heard about the paperwork, the red tape, and the frustration. But you have to look in my heart to see that God's hand has been on every step preparing for THIS little boy and at THIS particular time. We had to be dependent on God and his timing (if you know me, you know I like to plan and know what's happening and when). 

As this new year approached I was so excited for each day to reveal this next step. I have no clue what to expect but I do know God's got this! 

Today we are still waiting and preparing for our little guy, here is an idea of what has to be down and what we have done since last update: 

To update our Homestudy and immigration to the new country we have had to get:

✔️New physicals

✔️New CAN (Child Abuse &Neglect) reports from 4 states 

✔️Updated financial summary

✔️Personal letter to Ministry of Country 

✔️New Country signed forms

✔️Home visit

✔️Updated FBI fingerprints 

✔️Updated GBI fingerprints

✔️Updated Employee status letters

All this needed to happen so our home study could be updated, which will be sent for immigration update with the correct country. Once immigration documents have been revised, translations can occur, afterwards our dossier will be sent to the country's adoption council. THEN we can wait on a travel date (usually 3 weeks before travel) 

- Pray for swift hands that are preparing and delivering paperwork.

- God to continue to prepare Tony and I to travel and loving this little boy. 

- Pray for peace for Austin as he processes through having a brother. 

- Pray for our little guy as he is prepared for adoption. 

- Pray for my colleagues as they navigate without me during our travel. 

-pray for our country to continue to stay safe for travel. 

-Pray for other families that are currently going through this journey and that God continues to make them strong! 

“God is our place of safety. He gives us strength. He is always there to help us in times of trouble.”

Psalm 46:1 NIRV

http://bible.com/110/psa.46.1.nirv

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

Worship in the Waiting

Last post in March (I know, I know) I think about posting often but it never happens. So here I am!!!

Over the last couple months God has put us in a waiting period, a drawing closer to Him period and I have been drawn to the song While I'm Waiting by John Waller.

Since our last post:
We met with our social worker to discuss a book we read in April. Then we hit a CRAZY time at work with extended days and lots of end of the year work. Next, we had to watch a bunch of educational videos and complete some Hague Convention training. Hague Convention was established to create safeguards that ensure intercountry adoptions take place in the best interests of the child and with respect for his or her fundamental rights as recognised in international law. This was quite overwhelming along with my work obligations, so we had to postpone final meeting to June.

June we completed our final phone interview.

August we were able to complete our paperwork requirements.

Last week we received communication to review our application and confirm.

Today we received our OFFICIAL document! We are excited but know this is the first of many waiting periods. 

Yesterday we started our documents for immigration for the child. Each part of this process requires each part before and it builds together to create our dossier- a file containing detailed information about us, our home study, and info about the type of child we are looking for. The dossier will be sent to our adoption country for matching to the child God has chosen for us.

As I've been doing a bible study, Experiencing God, I read this- 'God wants to involve you in His Purposes. God has been working in the world all along (see John 5:17). He was accomplishing His purposes for your life prior to your birth, and He has been active in your life since your were born. God said to Jeremiah the prophet, "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations"(Jer. 1:5). When God is ready for you to take a new step or direction in His activity, it will always be in sequence with what He has already been doing in your life. He does not go off on tangents or take meaningless detours. He builds your character in an orderly fashion with a divine purpose in mind. So amazing and somewhat imaginable!!

Many of you have been asking about our process and have been praying for us. Thank you!

Continue praying for:

The workers at the orphanage taking care of our son
Gods protection over our son
Continued success in completing tasks and requests
Focus on receiving our son

Fingerprints, Background Checks, Autobiograhies- Oh My!

Sorry for the delay- life got busy!

By nature Tony and I are 'get things done by the deadline' kind of people. So when one of our major homework assignments for our second meeting was our individual autobiographies we under anticipated the depth of thought and typing this would take!  So one week before our meeting we are going through a list of questions that we can either answer or write in story form. We both chose to  just answer the questions. This resulted in an 11 page document each! It was interesting to look back on my life and reflect on how it shaped my now and how it could shape my future. 

The other task was to get our finger prints done twice (apparently and GBI and FBI don't like to share, which means 2x the cost) If you haven't gotten your finger prints in a while (and I hope you haven't for bad reasons) its pretty cool. There is no more ink and they run your finger print card through the printer! I know cool huh!?! When you place your finger on the glass it takes a perfect picture of the finger.  I had some problems rolling my fingers so we wouldn't get smudges but eventually we got each finger detected.

We also had to fill out the paperwork for our background checks. Each state is different but we were required to recall all the states/addresses we lived. Have you ever tried this?!? I couldn't remember my 3 college addresses and Tony was never going to recall his California address from 21 years ago. (No cool Pinterest ideas back then). So we headed to the good-old internet. Sure enough for $7 Tony was able to get every address he had ever had in his life. Then received a coupon code for a free second person look-up, which he used to get all my addresses. So my puzzling question is it cost us $7 to get just about everything we put on the forms why did we still have to send $34 for the background checks to be processed?  

February 27th we met with our SW for our second at home interview. Each of us had a long individual interview and our SW was here for 4+ hrs. 

She gave us our new assignment- online learning and to finish reading The Connected Child. Then our last face to face meeting will be held on March 21st for another joint meeting.

Please continue to pray for:
The workers at the orphanage taking care of our son
Gods protection over our son
Continued success in completing tasks and requests
Focus on receiving our son

First Steps towards a family of Four

After collecting and collecting lots of yellowed papers, we were able to complete the first of 4 steps toward completing our home study! Our scavenger hunt included many personal documents but also signing forms. The fun part was finger prints. Its kind-of cool (new to me) the GBI fingerprinting is done inkless. They have this 'box' that they press your fingers on to capture each of your finger prints and no black finger prints! FBI is a different story :)

We met with our assigned social worker (further refereed as SW) on Feb 3rd, and talked about our families, dating life, married life, parenting, etc...
Note: NO privacy when going through an adoption. :)

SW was very pleasant to work with and really stressed that her goal is not to eliminate applicants but to help in areas of need. Marriage problems before an adoption = MORE marriage problems after.

SW got to meet Austin, observe our interactions with him, and tour our home. I have really enjoyed working with an organization that focuses on education, family unity and God.

February 28th we will be meeting with SW to have individual interviews and again to observe our interactions with Austin. This is also when our autobiography's are due.

In the meantime we are reading our required text: The Connected Child: Bringing hope and healing to our adoptive family by Karyn B. Purvis, David R. Cross, and Wendy Lyons Sunshine.

Please pray for:
The workers at the orphanage taking care of our son
Gods protection over our son
Continued success in completing tasks and requests
Focus on receiving our son 

It's the little things

  

Listening is one of those things we just take for granted.  Really have you ever thought about the sound of things that just make noise and are tuned out because you always hear it? 

When Austin was little he could tell us a plane or helicopter was up in the sky WAY before we could see it. He was learning to listen and could hear EVERYTHING! 

Looking back I remember always being told to lower my voice or I was too loud. But not until I had my son that I was concerned I wouldn't hear my baby in the monitor if he cried. Being responsible for someone truly makes me take care of myself better, knowing someone is depending on me. 

The first time time I put a pair of hearing aids in I thought something was wrong with the hearing aides. All the sounds I had never heard before. Florisent lights, carpet, paper (yes paper!)

I had a headache for a week trying to adjust to my new improved sense. I wish I had gotten them sooner, it has opended up my world. I am not just nodding n' smiling. I can actually have a conversion and know what is going on! 

Now after 7 years I am on to my second VERY pricey pair and these are AMAZING!! Technology has come a long way just since my first pair in 2006. 

If you know some one who could benefit from hearing aides even at the young age  PLEASE encourage them, allow them to be part of the conversation, laughs, TV shows. Help their spouse not have to repeat every punch line and quick comment. Enjoy life and all the sounds of our life. 

Hearing my world also makes me ponder how my spirit is listening to Gods call on my life. Everyday I need to reset and focus on Him. To start listening to His call for me to join Him when our world has made me immune to looking for where He is working. 

Onward and forward!

Well our first phone interview is complete and now we beginning the process of the home study- We have been told that this could take 3-4 months to complete and that there will be a couple more face to face interviews along with a home visit to our house. If you don't hear about the adoption for a while we are knee deep in looking for long lost certificates and proof that we exist :)

If you pray we specifically ask that you pray:
1- First and foremost for our child's safety, protection, and well-being as he will already be born.
2- For those taking care of him.
3- For strength and endurance in this long process.
4- Make financially good decisions now as it is easy to think of today and not next year.
5- Parenting growth for Tony and I as we prepare to bring home an orphan.