This morning I woke up to an email from Immigration that confirmed they have received our application. This is excellent! We will receive an appointment letter in the next 2 weeks to have more fingerprints taken in the upcoming weeks. After that we will wait to be assigned an officer and they will either ask for more information from us or they will approve us. This is possibly the longest process ever. It could take 6 weeks or 3 months. Let's pray for the smoothest, easiest process possible. I'm praying we have approval by June 1.
So receiving USCIS approval is our second to last step. After that approval our team will submit us to the courts to petition to adopt. That's it! Yay! This also means that time is quickly closing in for our fundraising efforts. We still have about $12,000 to raise/earn. That is a lot of money, but I'm holding on to our faith. We know God will provide, but it does get a little heavy thinking about it. Please continue to pray for us and share our need. We will continue our own saving and scrimping and fundraising, but now is the time that I ask you all to give if you can indeed spare a little. If you can not, we understand. Would you be willing to share our need with those you know? You never, ever know who is listening.
There is a direction donation link for us through Reece's Rainbow, which means all donations are tax free! Just click the pink donation button and you can easily give through PayPal.
Thanks to those hanging in there with us!
Friday, April 14, 2017
Wednesday, April 5, 2017
Welcome to Holland and other fundraisers
Fundraiser's
1. Welcome to Holland - Tee shirts in Adult and Children ( check out the back too!)
https://teespring.com/dashboard/stores
2. Chinchak Family Adoption Auction
Facebook auction scheduled for April 24-April 28
There is a closed group set up for this. Just search Chinchak Family Adoption Auction on Facebook and request to join. There will be some items from Mexico, Ukraine, China and some goodies from locally owned business'. If you'd like to donate an item just send me a message. :)
Welcome to Holland
"Welcome to Holland" is a poem written by a fellow special needs Mom in the late 1980's. When I read through this poem there are a lot of different emotions I feel and thoughts I think.
For one, the late 1980's... how so many things have changed since that time. We are still changing many common misconceptions here in 2017. As of this moment we are fighting like hell to stop the "R" word. We are just coming up with better technology and equipment for our kids.
I think of the traveling aspect. I consider myself a world traveler. I've mainly been through the US, Mexico and Europe, but I think that counts as a World Traveler. My eyes have been opened to different cultures and heritages and I feel I have a deep respect for them. My eyes have seen happiness and trauma in these places and I've seen things that I'll never be able to un-see. I think being a good traveler is having respect for your destinations.
For this Mom (and undoubtedly many others) Italy was the place to be. She had already learned the language and the sites she wanted to see. It is what any expecting Mother dreams of it being and then God threw her a curve ball and tossed her into Amsterdam. She was unprepared, hadn't done any research. Over time she came to find out that although Italy and Amsterdam are nothing alike, they are as equally as beautiful as another. The view is just a little different and at times, a curve ball is exactly what you need.
I feel inspired by this poem. I feel better when I read this poem. I signed up for special needs motherhood, but I still had no idea what the differences would be. I had to get into the trenches. It is challenging to have a child who can not speak. He can not tell me when he doesn't feel well. I just have to kind of figure it out. It's hard.
Traveling to Holland has been challenging and rewarding. Therapy appointments, Dr visits all begin to add up and it can feel exhausting, but I've never felt more privileged. I look at my kids and I just know that God led us to him for a reason. My view has never looked so beautiful!
For one, the late 1980's... how so many things have changed since that time. We are still changing many common misconceptions here in 2017. As of this moment we are fighting like hell to stop the "R" word. We are just coming up with better technology and equipment for our kids.
I think of the traveling aspect. I consider myself a world traveler. I've mainly been through the US, Mexico and Europe, but I think that counts as a World Traveler. My eyes have been opened to different cultures and heritages and I feel I have a deep respect for them. My eyes have seen happiness and trauma in these places and I've seen things that I'll never be able to un-see. I think being a good traveler is having respect for your destinations.
For this Mom (and undoubtedly many others) Italy was the place to be. She had already learned the language and the sites she wanted to see. It is what any expecting Mother dreams of it being and then God threw her a curve ball and tossed her into Amsterdam. She was unprepared, hadn't done any research. Over time she came to find out that although Italy and Amsterdam are nothing alike, they are as equally as beautiful as another. The view is just a little different and at times, a curve ball is exactly what you need.
I feel inspired by this poem. I feel better when I read this poem. I signed up for special needs motherhood, but I still had no idea what the differences would be. I had to get into the trenches. It is challenging to have a child who can not speak. He can not tell me when he doesn't feel well. I just have to kind of figure it out. It's hard.
Traveling to Holland has been challenging and rewarding. Therapy appointments, Dr visits all begin to add up and it can feel exhausting, but I've never felt more privileged. I look at my kids and I just know that God led us to him for a reason. My view has never looked so beautiful!
Monday, April 3, 2017
Efforts and set backs
Hello Everyone-
Sometimes I am so stuck in social media updates that I completely forget this blog exists. Have I complained yet that they discontinued the Blogger app?
We have experienced a mild set back and made some really great progress in the last couple weeks. So about..... 10 days or so ago our Social Worker decided to call us about a change in our oversight company's fees. The short of it was that they had spontaneously tripled the fee. I'm more then sure my face was not pretty when she told me that and I am positive I thought some evil thoughts for several moments. None the less, she assured me we would work everything out and in the next coming days I was told some confusing things; one of which was, "we will pay for this unexpected bit" and "we will call around for other agency pricing". I assumed all was going to be well, they said they'd pay, they'll find someone surely. I gave it until last Thursday before I decided to check in; low and behold, nothing had been done. I got an email in response that I was not to happy with and ended in "I'm out of town until Monday". I was expectedly quite angry and decided to make a few phone calls of my own including one to the oversight agency originally in place. I spoke with a great lady who was able to explain some changes in law and explain the updated fee's and she assured me all would be alright and explained what I needed to do from there. I am quite happy to say that our Home Study report should be in hand this week and we can FINALLY get it to the immigration department. (At some point I'll post a timeframe of how things work)
Now on to the good stuff!! Our almost complete dossier is flying over the Atlantic as we speak! A wonderful, beautiful family graciously offered to carry it in their carry on and will hand deliver it to our team tomorrow. Prayers for safe travels for this family are so appreciated. Literally the only thing we need to complete our dossier is our Home Study report and Immigration approval. That's it! We are soooo close!
Our fundraising has picked up a little bit and I am excited for it. I was trying to keep it low key as to not scare people off but I've decided that just doesn't matter. On my social media in particular there are people I've known 20 years who don't say two words to me. I've had more strangers participate in our fundraisers then "friends" and that's ok. Some are drawn to adoption and its purpose and some aren't. Oh well, honestly I've figured out that if they want to be active they will and if they don't they won't. I'll post about our current and upcoming fundraisers in a separate post. :)
I'll be back with an update as it comes along!
Blessings-
Hope
Sometimes I am so stuck in social media updates that I completely forget this blog exists. Have I complained yet that they discontinued the Blogger app?
We have experienced a mild set back and made some really great progress in the last couple weeks. So about..... 10 days or so ago our Social Worker decided to call us about a change in our oversight company's fees. The short of it was that they had spontaneously tripled the fee. I'm more then sure my face was not pretty when she told me that and I am positive I thought some evil thoughts for several moments. None the less, she assured me we would work everything out and in the next coming days I was told some confusing things; one of which was, "we will pay for this unexpected bit" and "we will call around for other agency pricing". I assumed all was going to be well, they said they'd pay, they'll find someone surely. I gave it until last Thursday before I decided to check in; low and behold, nothing had been done. I got an email in response that I was not to happy with and ended in "I'm out of town until Monday". I was expectedly quite angry and decided to make a few phone calls of my own including one to the oversight agency originally in place. I spoke with a great lady who was able to explain some changes in law and explain the updated fee's and she assured me all would be alright and explained what I needed to do from there. I am quite happy to say that our Home Study report should be in hand this week and we can FINALLY get it to the immigration department. (At some point I'll post a timeframe of how things work)
Now on to the good stuff!! Our almost complete dossier is flying over the Atlantic as we speak! A wonderful, beautiful family graciously offered to carry it in their carry on and will hand deliver it to our team tomorrow. Prayers for safe travels for this family are so appreciated. Literally the only thing we need to complete our dossier is our Home Study report and Immigration approval. That's it! We are soooo close!
Our fundraising has picked up a little bit and I am excited for it. I was trying to keep it low key as to not scare people off but I've decided that just doesn't matter. On my social media in particular there are people I've known 20 years who don't say two words to me. I've had more strangers participate in our fundraisers then "friends" and that's ok. Some are drawn to adoption and its purpose and some aren't. Oh well, honestly I've figured out that if they want to be active they will and if they don't they won't. I'll post about our current and upcoming fundraisers in a separate post. :)
I'll be back with an update as it comes along!
Blessings-
Hope
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