Still planning, working, etc

We are still working on paperwork! It never seems to end! I haven't finished our written financial plan for Buckner yet (I am still waiting to here that Chris got the part time job at Wal-Mart - it's been a month and he has been assured that they want to hire him, they just haven't called him in for the interviews & finalization yet!!). Please continue to pray for this situation. We really need this second income for Chris to go towards the adoption expenses.

I have been working on a Wish List at Wal-Mart. I think most of the things we need for the kiddos is listed. It is a work in progress (like the adoption!). You can access it through my name or Chris' name. It is registered as a Wish List, not a registry. I put our anniversary next year as the 'event date' for lack of a better date. It will change as we get closer to bringing our children home.

I talked with Donita Potts a few weeks ago and got some great ideas for fundraising! I was originally told that they fundraised both of their adoptions. Apparently that is not the case. She said that they fundraised the first adoption 100% through donations & activities. The second adoption was a gift from God. They prayed and said "God, if you want these children to join our family, you will provide the money". They didn't do any fundraising at all!! Just goes to show how great God is and how He provides for His children.

I heard from Amy Norton, a friend of our pastor's wife, and got some suggestions for agencies that we can contact about financial assistance (scholarships, grants, etc). I will be working on that this week.

Please continue to pray for us: stress levels are lowered (especially for me), we get clear direction on fundraising ideas, our children as they wait for us.

On a side note, my sister and I will be participating in a craft show at St. Andrews Episcopal Church in the Heights area here in Houston on Saturday, October 3. Feel free to stop by if you are in the area. Money from the items that I make goes toward our adoption expenses. Also, I make homemade goodies (desserts, enchiladas, lasagnas, etc) and the money from that also goes towards our adoption expenses. So if you don't bake or cook ......

Oh, the car is still for sale if you know someone who is looking.....

Life is settling down...

Okay, life is finally settling back to 'normal'. School has been in session for a week and a day and we can get back to doing what we need to in regards to bringing our children home. We have been given the phone number of a family that fundraised 100% of two separate adoptions from Russia, both of them being sibling groups. I called and left a message this afternoon to get ideas and talk with them about their experiences. I am looking forward to getting some great ideas!

On another note, we have decided to put my car up for sale and use the Dodge minivan God gave us back in May. It is an older model than my car, but will hold more people and stuff. If you know anyone who would be interested in a 2000 Chevrolet Prizm, let me know (rlarkins@pdq.net).

Please continue to pray for our children and their caregivers, our fundraising and the paperwork that we need to complete. Right now, we need $680 for Buckner (Home Study part 2), $750 for US Immigration, $160 for fingerprinting, $3,500 for Buckner (Agency fee part 1). Overall, we estimate that we will need $40,000 before we can send our Dossier to Russia (that includes all fees and travel & hotels/meals/etc in Russia)

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.

Papers are in the mail

I sent out the last of the papers this morning! Yeah!! I even paid to send the envelope via certified, return receipt. Don't want them to get lost or misplaced! I email our social worker (Joy) last night to let her know that they were going out today and she said that she would get back to us in the next week or two. It is going to be a very loooong week or two! At least I go back to school (in-services for the first 6 days) next Wednesday. I am really praying that we hear that we are "Officially Approved" before my birthday (August 25). That would be the Bestest Gift Ever!

Please continue to pray for us as we wait during these next 2 weeks (or so). Also keep the Wal-Mart job for Chris in your prayers (haven't heard from them yet for the interviews). We know the next set of fees to pay are: travel for Joy to visit the house ($117) and the second half of the Home Study ($500).

Home Visit Went Well!

Our Home Visit with Joy went really well! We were up early in order to pick her up at Bush Intercontinental Airport. Her flight was early and so were we. Chris and I made a sign with her name and she thought it was great (no one ever had a sign for her before as she usually gets a rental car for the day). It was a quick ride back home and we got to talk during the ride. After getting home, we gave her the "Tour", starting with the outside. She liked the space in the backyard! As far as the inside, she just checked for outlet covers, door & drawer latches, fire extinguisher in the kitchen and checked smoke alarms. We sat at the table and talked for about 2 and a half hours, before we had to leave to take her back to the airport. We got her there in time to check in for her flight, then went to breakfast at IHOP (which was around 2:15 by then).

We decided to pick her up and take her back instead of having her get a rental car for the day (it was less expensive and we have to pay her travel expenses for the trip). I think it was a great idea. Not only did we save on the cost of a rental car, we got to visit with her some more and relax a bit before the "Interview".

We feel that it all went well, and that we will be "Officially Approved" when we get all the other papers in. The only things that she said that she needs to talk with Buckner about are: the number of children we are able to take and the financial aspect of it all.

As far as the number of children, she is not sure that we would be approved for 4, probably 2 or 3 instead. We assured her that we are okay with the decision that they make (it is in God's hands anyway!).

Regarding the money, she doesn't think that we would be denied just because we don't have money in savings (like thousands in savings). We did talk about different ways to raise the money: applying for grants after the Home Study in approved, Chris picking up a second job (probably at Wal-Mart), various fundraisers/garage sale/bake sales that we can do.

Right now, we have an appointment next Monday with a psychologist for our "Psychological Evaluations" that Russia requires. Joy passed on the name and number of the guy that one of the other families that we know used. He charges $160 an hour/session and we are scheduled for 2 hours on Monday to meet with him. One hour is talking with him and the other is working on the 'tests'. I don't know how much it will cost for the test scoring, but he said that it usually isn't that long. We have an appointment with our family doctor to go over the 'Family's Opinion of Possible Acceptance of Child with Minor or Correctable Medical Needs' form. After that, just need to finish the other 2 books, write the reports and send it all in to Buckner; and wait.

Please pray that we have the money we need for the psychological evaluations, Joy and the Buckner staff make the right decisions, that we are patient as we wait for an answer.

Overwhelmed right now, but it's getting better!

Chris and I are still working on the Home Study stuff. We got home around 11:00 on Friday the 20th, after sitting in the Seminar all day and then driving home afterwards. Talk about exhausted! It took us a few days to get semi-caught up on sleep, although I don't feel like I am rested yet!

It was a great 2 days, but we hadn't had much time to really talk about what we learned when we got an email from our social worker the following Tuesday evening asking when (in April) can she come down for the home visit. As she was going to be out of town the last weekend, and Easter wasn't a good time, that left the first weekend and third weekend of the month available. Talk about extremely short notice! Since we haven't completed everything in the house that is on the CPS check list, the visit will have to wait! It took 2 emails and 2 phone calls to convince the social worker that we are not ready yet (in more ways than one!), but she has accepted that this is our process and we will let her know when we are ready. The good news is that we don't have to have all the other stuff (2 books, psychological evaluations, financial plan, medical check list) done before she sees the house. It all has to be done before the Home Study process can be completed and Final Approval is given to adopt.

Of course, we will have to pay as we go (which is something we already knew and planned for), so that will slow the process down as well. We need $500 for the second half of the Home Study process, fees for the psychological evaluations & medical check list meeting with a doctor, and $3,500 for the 1st installment of the Agency Fee when we are given the Final Approval. Please continue to pray that the funds will be available when they are needed.
Chris has installed the drawer and cabinet latches in the kitchen, children's bathroom and our bathroom; as well as smoke/fire alarms in the 2 extra bedrooms and checked to make sure that the other ones work. You never think of all that is necessary until you get 2 check lists that CPS requires.

School has been rather busy lately, but should get better soon. My students are starting their sewing projects this week and that is always a good time for me. Chris is seriously considering going back to Wal-Mart part time this summer (after the home visit by the social worker) to earn more to go towards the adoption (and get the last 2 credit cards paid off). I have been working on more baby blankets to sell. Liz (my sister) and I spent the morning at the Seven Lakes High School 3rd Annual PTSA Garage Sale on the 28th and sold 3 blankets! One lady bought a nap mat from our online store: www.LandRDesigns.etsy.com when Liz reactivated it on Sunday the 29th! I am really praying that more will sell (when they all get posted). If you know anyone who is looking for baby blankets, Burpcloth Babies or children's clothing, please feel free to pass our store site on!

Paper work is done! (for now)

Chris and I finally got all of our papers done this week (Thursday night to be exact) and sent it out this morning. The first set weighed just under 2 pounds and this set weighed exactly 1 pound. Talk about a lot of paper! All of our other papers (doctor report, references, etc) are in, or at least will be next week. One of our references didn't get their form out until yesterday, but that is okay with us as it was in the mail before our last set of papers! Buckner should have the package by 3:00 on Monday. Now we get to wait.

Chris and I were talking about the financial stuff this morning while running errands. We figured that we will need at least $35,000 for just one child. It will take around $45,000 - $58,000 to adopt up to 4 children. Right now our most pressing concern is the $8,000 that we will need for the home study process (Buckner fees, Immigration form fees, fingerprinting fees, etc).