Potty Training.......

It has been a week now that Michael has been wearing Big Boy Underwear during the day!  So far, only one accident (Wednesday night at church).  He is doing really well.  He changes into "Rest Time Underwear" for rest/nap time (the pull-ups he was wearing before) and has "Night Time Underwear" (pull-ups designed for night usage that he has been wearing for about 6 weeks) that is part of our bedtime routine.  We are hoping that he will be able to stop the "Rest Time Underwear" soon (when he runs out......).  So far, he is staying dry for the most part during the 1-2 hours of rest/nap time.  :)  He is also staying dry most nights, which is great!  Of course, he is reminded to go potty about every 45 minutes or so during the day.  It has been interesting today since the boys and I usually run errands and go grocery shopping on Saturdays.  Scheduling around a 45 minute 'Potty Time' has not been easy but he has done great today!!

We got THE CALL!!!!!!

Monday morning around 11:00 am, Rachael got THE CALL from our caseworker!

We have been assigned a date for the Court Hearing to finalize the adoption of our 2 wonderful boys.  (We are not posting the date for privacy reasons)

We are now working to get our visa application paperwork in order (Rachael has been working on this at home, at school, at home and will be finishing it at school tomorrow; hopefully it will print correctly!)  We will get new pictures made Wednesday and Rachael will take it to the Consulate Friday morning.

As far as the financials go, we think we are okay.  We still have the second payment to make in Russia (Russia fee part 2 is $7250) that will take a chunk out of our savings account, tickets for this trip (around $1500) plus tickets for us (and the boys!) on the last trip, hotel reservations for this trip (will be around $450+), hotel reservations for the next trip, visa application fee ($300), plane tickets on both trips to and from Archangelsk, meals while in Russia, and any other expenses that come up (including cost of wireless Internet connections at the hotels).

We are scheduled to run the DX Kid's Cafe at the Greater Houston Ham Fest on Saturday, March 5.  That should bring in around $1000+ after expenses.

We are very excited about this last leg of our journey (even though it hasn't really sunk in completely)! 

Please continue to pray for our boys and their current caregivers as we work to get all of this finalized so they can come home. 

Please continue to keep us in your prayers as well as we deal with all the remaining papers and plans.  We have some decisions to make regarding Chris' employment with Fort Bend and Wal-Mart and his time off.  Rachael will be taking 7 weeks off from school (will have about a week of unpaid days) that includes our court hearing trip and some time at home before and after we bring the boys home. 

Please pray for the judge, lawyers and all others that are also involved in this adoption process.

WE HAVE A COURT DATE!!!!

Adoptions continue!!!

Just got an email from one of the case workers at Buckner. Posted below is what was emailed to the waiting Russia Families. Please keep all those involved in the talks/decision-making process in your prayers.

Good news from the US Department of State:

Adoption Notice
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE
Bureau of Consular Affairs
Office of Children’s Issues

May 14, 2010
A U.S. interagency team met with their Russian counterparts in Moscow May 12 – 14 to discuss an adoption agreement. This most recent round of negotiations ended Friday, May 14, after three days of positive and productive talks. Both sides are committed to the common goal of increasing safeguards for adoption between Russia and the United States. “We listened to each other’s concerns and made significant progress toward an agreement that will improve the safeguards in the inter-country adoption process,” said the head of the U.S. delegation. The meeting participants shared their views on how to improve existing processes to better protect the children and families involved in inter-country adoption. The discussions were detailed and concerned specific issues, including the domestic laws and international obligations of both countries.
The negotiating teams are working on language of a draft agreement and plan to meet again in the coming weeks. The next meeting will likely be in Washington in June.
It is our understanding that there has been no change in the status of on-going inter-country adoptions originating from Russia. Many thousands of Russian children, who were not adopted by Russian families, have found loving, safe and permanent homes in the United States through inter-country adoption. We are pleased to be discussing with the Russian government a future approach to ensure inter-country adoptions continue.

News....

Chris was offered a position on the Fort Bend ISD Athletic Crew!! Yeah!! Now we don't have to decide what to do. He doesn't know all the details, but he did tell me that it should be the same pay & hours. He isn't sure where the Athletic Crew will be located (he is currently working out of the Hodges Bend Bus Barn), but it doesn't matter to him. The two possible locations aren't that far away. He will still be able to work his part-time position at Wal-Mart as scheduled. This is great news for us!

Regarding the incident that has been in the news lately about the adoptive mom who sent her adopted child back to Russia, we are not concerned. I got an email from our Buckner Caseworker today that basically said to not be concerned or worry that it will slow or stop the process. Until they hear specifics, things will progress as anticipated. If there are any changes or such, it will take time for anything to be done.

Please keep praying that things will go well. God has His hands all over this adoption (as seen in all the really cool things that have happened lately) and we just need to trust in Him.

Good; no, it's GREAT News!

I got a call Saturday night from Chris' dad with some wonderful news! His sister Sue has been talking with the family (Grandma, Grandpa, Aunts & Uncles in California) about helping with our adoption fund. I talked with Aunt Sue last Tuesday night about how things were going. The news that Mel had to share Saturday night was that the family was going to help us out with most (if not all) of what we need for the adoption! What excellent news! It really made our Easter very special.

I spent the next hour on-line getting information from the USCIS website, downloading the I-600A form that we need to send in. This is the "Application for Advance Processing of Orphan Petition" that is required by the US Immigration Service we need to submit to get approved to adopt from Russia. It will also include getting fingerprinted. I spent time today trying to get more information (clarify a question regarding translating Chris' birth certificate from Spanish to English) and eventually had to send an e-mail (I really hate computers on the phone....). I hope to get an answer soon so we can send in the paperwork. The sooner it is processed, the sooner we can send our Dossier to Russia!

We are really excited about this new turn of events! Just when we thought that we would have to wait several months or a year to continue the process, God blesses us with this!!! God is so wonderful!!

Please continue to pray for us during this time of paperwork; pray for our children and their current caretakers; pray for our family as they help us out with the funds; pray for Chris' work situation (should know something around the 15th of April).

Spring Break Update

Well, Spring Break is finally here and I am looking forward to a week without my students!

Don't think that it will be a week of nothing to do; I have a list of things to get done:

** Work on grant applications

**Get blankets sewn for 3 upcoming Craft Shows

**Clean house & do laundry, mundane household things of that sort

**Get all of our papers together for tax preparation

**and other things I can't think of right now....

Chris still has to work this week (both jobs) so keep him in your prayers.

The DX Kid's Cafe (our concession stand) at the Greater Houston HamFest on Saturday, March 6, went really well! We had some great helpers for the day! Chris came with me in the morning (were there at 6:30 am) and his mom met us there and stayed to help bring the remaining stuff back to our house (got home around 3:30). Our friends, Dawn & Virginia, came out and were very helpful. Also the two daughters of one of my dad's friends (Andre) were a huge help as well! We didn't have as many sales as we hoped, but we did net about $1200 when it was all done and the money counted (after paying Dad back and our expenses). Not a bad day!! Of course, we do have stuff left over that I am not sure exactly what to do with, but I will figure it out this week.

We now have just a little over $10.000 in the bank! Only about $30.000 more to go. One of the things I need to do this week is see if I can get us a credit card for travel expenses. Need to add that to my list...

Please continue to pray for us during this time: that the funds come in, paperwork gets done in a timely manner, our children and their current caretakers.

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Happy Thanksgiving! I hope your day has started as nice as ours. Chris left to go to work (the part-time job at Wal-Mart) a little while ago and I got to sleep in till 8:00. Yes, Chris is now gainfully employed part-time at Wal-Mart! He went in Tuesday for the paper work and drug test, worked yesterday from 12:30 - 8:30 (doing the CBL's {computer based learning sessions} and other training things. Today he is back to {hopefully} finish the CBL's so that they can put him to 'real work' tomorrow, starting at 5:00 am. Yes, he will be working during Black Friday's morning rush at Wal-Mart. I will be at home, warm and snug in bed, hopefully still sleeping!

It is a great feeling to know that we will be able to put his paychecks directly into the Adoption Fund saving account. That will really help!

On another note, I have a good-sized deposit to make tomorrow into the Adoption Fund savings account. My 'catering' has really paid off this week (yes, the pun was intended). I have added to my menu: squash casserole, chili, green bean casserole, Italian casserole, lemon bars, brownies and a bacon & broccoli quiche. I am really tired, but no baking today! I made the pumpkin pie and squash casserole that we are taking to Chris' mom's house this afternoon last night after getting home from delivering all the goodies I made yesterday. Tylenol is my friend right now.

Well, back to finding something for breakfast and warming up the coffee! Enjoy your holiday!

We are OFFICIAL!!

I got THE PHONE CALL today around 1:45 this afternoon from Joy, our Home Study social worker informing us that we are Officially Approved to Adopt up to 2 siblings from Russia!!!

After some crying, writing information down and trying not to break down, I called Chris at work to tell him the GREAT NEWS!! Since he could tell I was (or at least had been) crying, he thought something was wrong, but was excited once I told him about Joy's phone call.

We have been waiting and praying for this day for about a year and God has been faithful. We really appreciate all of our family and friends that have been praying with and for us during this time. Please, Please continue to pray for and with us as we begin the next step.

From here, we need to submit a written financial plan (just saying that God will provide isn't good enough) for financing this adoption process. We estimate that we will need about $40,000 by the time we are ready to go pick up our children. Yes, that is a huge amount of money! And no, we are not exactly sure where it will come from. The nice thing about Buckner is that you pay as you go. If you don't have the funds for the next step, you wait until you do. The down side is that most of the paperwork that we will need to complete is time sensitive. So, we need to have as much of the money as possible (or all of it) collected before we begin the Dossier paperwork. Once we send the Dossier to Russia, it could be as quick as 4-6 weeks to get the referral from Russia. Apparently the referral process is not as long as we had originally been told!!

Right now, we need about $7,000 to start the next step: submitting the USCIS (immigration) form and get fingerprinted, paying the first half of Buckner's agency fee and several other miscellaneous fees. Now that our Home Study is complete, we can start applying for grants with various organizations (unfortunately most of them prefer stay-at-home, homeschooling moms).

Anyway, we are really excited!

Please continue to pray for our children and their current caregivers; our financial situation; school (starts on Monday and I am NOT ready yet); we have patience during the rest of this process.

Encouragement

One of the Assistant Principals at the school where I teach gave me some encouragement today. She and her husband are waiting to find out when they will be able to go to Korea to pick us their 2nd child that they are adopting through Dillon International. They have gone through this process twice and it was good to hear that she is also anxiously waiting for her son. It is nice to know that we are not alone in our feelings. Even though we are in the early stages, we are ready to bring our children home. I am beginning to feel that I am out of patience, and the process hasn't really started in earnest yet!