Shop so We Can Adopt

I sit here sick and stuffy this morning with my first cold of the winter.  I was able to sleep in (with much thanks), because my kids spent the night at the farm with my in-laws. Rather than spread my cold around this Sunday morning, I decided to watch church online and get caught up on some baby-blanket-making (don't worry, I have been applying lots of hand-sanitizer).

When I need the tissue box close by, I love the option of being able to watch Embrace Church online. (www.iamembrace.com) If you find yourself in the same situation this winter, feel free to join one of the live services online as well!

 I have brought the Singer out of the closet and made myself my daily iced-coffee. By this time of year, I have usually made the switch to black hot coffee, but I am always a little sad to do so. So this year I am still drinking iced coffee with below zero temps outside and loving it!

I managed to finish 3 baby boy blankets this morning. I ordered more fabric on a Black Friday special, so am excited to get those pieces in the mail and get started on some new blanket designs. Click HERE to learn more about our baby blanket fundraiser and see all the blanket designs to choose from.

But the main reason for writing this post is to announce an event we have coming up! We are calling it the Shop so We Can Adopt Fundraiser. If you are on facebook, check out the event page HERE.

Here is all the information about the event:

Need to get some Christmas shopping done? Want to go on a date with your spouse? Or  just need a little break?  We will be happy to babysit your kids for a free-will donation to go towards our adoption  expenses.  The fundraiser will be held at Embrace Church Sioux Falls (2800 E 57th st) on Friday  December 13th, between 5:30 and 8:00 pm. Supper will not be provided, so please  feed your kids before you drop them off. :) We will be serving a light snack. Thanks in advance for all your support and feel free to share this event with family, friends  and anyone you think might be interested! If you are able to help support our cause by letting us  watch your children, we would greatly appreciate it! I  will also bring my tub of finished blankets if you  would like to take a look at them. They make great  Christmas or baby shower gifts! If you have any  questions about the babysitting fundraiser, feel free  to message me on facebook or send me an email at  jessicarwaltner@gmail.com. Thanks in advance for all your support. Even if you  can't make it out on Friday night or don't have kids to  drop off, please consider sharing the event on your  facebook wall. The more the merrier! :)

Time to Wait

This week I learned about the importance of knowing when it's time to wait. Our women's group is doing a Bible study on the book of Esther. This week we talked about God's timing in our lives and how it's perfect. 

Isaiah 40:31

But they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.

This adoption sure has taught me the importance of waiting. But I can take comfort in knowing that I am not waiting on an event, a person , or a thing...but on God. Wait upon the Lord. Sometimes waiting is hard because I feel like i should be doing something instead of just waiting. But God is never inactive. During this time of wait, He is doing BIG things. And I know that God is for us and will continue to work on our behalf throughout this process.

We live in a culture that is training us to be impatient and where waiting seems to be a huge inconvenience. But the truth is, God calls us to wait upon Him to renew our strength. Not to wait on the next stage in our life or the next new thing or in our case, for the next step in the adoption process, a referral. His timing IS perfect and right now, it's time to wait

Last week we had a conference call with the team from our adoption agency. They updated us on a few happenings in the program. Here's what they told us: 

• The wait for a referral is still estimated at 3-12 months (we have been waiting 4 months)
• There are currently 30 families waiting for referrals in the program. The family waiting the longest has been waiting 7 months so far.
• There has been a slow-down in referrals, but they expect a new wave of referrals in January or February due to 2 new partnerships (orphanages) they are working with.
• Our agency is now working with 5 orphanages
• The courts close down half of December and part of January, so there will not be any new referrals through the end of the year. 

We don't know if we will be one of the families who receives a referral in January or February, as we haven't been waiting as long as some families. But we do know that God's plan is perfect and he knows the perfect time for our little girl to come home.

Psalm 37:7a

Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for Him.

grant week

Well things had been fairly uneventful around here as far as adoption stuff goes until the last week or so. 

Last week we got our first letter back about an adoption grant we applied for in July. It was a smaller grant, but welcome none the less! They also sent us a copy of the book Adopted for Life, which I highly recommend! I had already checked out the book from the Bethany library and read it last winter, but now I have my own copy to lend out! Who wants to borrow it!?

Last Monday we had a grant interview down in Sioux Center and were so blessed by the whole experience. After the "interview" the grant committee members each took turns praying for Travis and me, our boys and our little girl in another country. It was evident that each one of them has a heart for adoption and following the call to care for orphans around the world. We walked away from that meeting feeling supported and encouraged, not even concerned about the outcome of the grant. Well good news, we got one! We just got the email last night! That's 2 grants in 1 week....UNTIL TODAY!

I went to get the mail today and there was a letter from Show Hope, an orphan ministry through Steven Curtis Chapman. We've been getting their newsletters for a number of years, so the Show Hope return address stamp is something we've seen many times. But, we did apply for a grant through them, so I have opened the last few letters with anticipation. I wasn't expecting to hear back from the grant committee until October, so this was a fun surprise! We received a grant from Show Hope! 

The grant committees send the money straight to our agency to put towards expenses and travel when the time comes. 

That is 3 grants in under a week ...God is good. Well we should be all set then, right? Um, I wish. :)  We still have a ways to go....But you know...God has been SO FAITHFUL to us throughout this process. I have no idea where the money will come from, but I just know that God will provide. We are over half way there! 

I have added a few more blanket designs to the list of options, so feel free to check them out HERE. If you know anyone that is pregnant or adopting, these make great gifts towards a great cause! ;)

I-171H

Last week we received our I-171H (don't I sound smart) approval from the US govt. Basically we were given permission to bring an orphan into the U.S. It took about 5 weeks for us to get approved, which is why we sent our dossier to Uganda before waiting for the I-171H to come back. This form, which is the very last thing needed to complete our dossier is on it's way to our adoption agency global office here in the states. They will hopefully send it to country on Monday of next week.

So what now? WE WAIT. The next phone call we will hopefully receive from our agency is the good news of a referral, or match to a child! Estimated time frame is 3-12 months. From what I can see of other families adoption from the same country through our agency...average wait time seems closer to 4-5 months. One month down.....how many to go???

While we wait. Travis and I need to get an additional 10 hours of training. Training can include classes by our adoption agency, reading books, attending webinars, etc. I have continued to watch a lot of videos by Karyn Purvis and her team from TCU about kids that come from hard places. Very good stuff. Her website has a ton of free resources and good info found HERE.

We sent our first round of grant applications (second round to be sent after we receive a referral) over the last few months. We have yet to hear back from any of the grant committees but are hopeful they will be able to provide us some (much needed) assistance. Our baby blanket fundraiser is ongoing. Check HERE to see which blankets are available. 

This is the blanket I kept to remind me to pray for and think of our little girl. Turquoise is the color of her bedroom and the pink African animals are something I might use to accent her room. It's Jhett's room now, so is currently more boy-themed. 

On a personal note I have been having fun (sarcastic) mini van shopping! UGH. We are selling our little Ford Focus to make room for our third child and to make packing the car for a weekend trip actually doable. Last time we packed up the focus to go camping, I ended up sitting squeezed in the back between 2 car seats just so we could use the front seat to fit everything in. :) I think this family is about to (if we haven't already) outgrow our compact sedan. 

Today I am keeping busy with this bunch of rascals. My brother and his wife are currently on a family vacation, so we are watching their boys for a few short days. 

the DOSSIER is on its WAY!

Your dossier has been sent to your country -- Congratulations! 

This is the message I received this morning! Our dossier is on its way today! It arrived in Michigan last week Wednesday afternoon, but the offices were closed Thursday-Sunday for July 4th. This morning it was reviewed and got the go-ahead to be sent! They send a weekly shipment to Uganda on Mondays, so we got in just in time! Yeah!

Now we will just be busy continuing grant applications, as well as 10 additional hours of training on things specific to our country or things potentially relevant to our child or her experiences.

I am planning on going to a Karyn Purvis training at our agency branch tonight which will focus on "Empowering, Connecting and Correcting Principles." 

Here's a short description: In this nearly two-hour presentation, Dr. Purvis, a developmental psychologist, explains her research-based approach with children who come from what she calls “hard places.” These are children who have been exposed to drugs and alcohol in utero or suffered abuse, trauma or neglect early in life. She explains how harm during these critical stages of brain growth causes significant disruptions in a child’s development and behaviors and offers strategies to overcome these deficits. Through research and years of experience with children throughout the world, Dr. Purvis offers a path of healing through a trust-based, relationship-based holistic approach. She explains the principles and tactics for reconnecting with these children to meet their needs and help them reach their highest potential.

Since Travis is out of town at a staff retreat, I have hired our first official babysitter to come watch the boys. Hopefully all goes well!

Since my sister-in-law also works with Travis, I will be watching her kids while my brother works today and tomorrow. Cousin camp is in full swing! So far we have done make-overs including hair and nails (Ayin even insisted on some blue, superhero toenail polish...sorry Travis), play dough time, and will be making our own water park in the back yard this afternoon! I am not getting anything done, but having fun! Thankfully my nephew is helping by mowing the lawn and pulling weeds from the garden...all for payment of course. We had to bargain on the per/weed payment amount. Noah said 5 cents/weed, I said 1 cent....so we agreed on 2 cents. He quit after 100 weeds...thankfully. :)

Good practice for doing hair!

Play dough time! Notice the common kitchen items used for the play dough....they don't seem to mind! 

And I just realized that Jhett is probably eating some of his...

dossier...DONE.

This is the post I have been waiting to write....the dossier is done! 

Check out the sweet check list. 20 total items that we had to get signed, notarized, and then state authenticated in Pierre. It took about a month and a half to get everything done. Just a side not...of the 20 documents we had to prepare, Travis was responsible for 2 of them. Can you guess which 2 things got finished last? I was "this close" (holding my thumb and my pointer finger about 1 cm apart) to taking over and just doing them myself. But with some subtle...or not so subtle prompting, he got them done! To his credit, he has been very busy lately. The next day, they were Fedexed to Pierre to be state sealed, or authenticated. We got them back from Pierre on Thursday, and I got to work making copies of everything and putting it all in order. 

Here is a picture of all the documents and copies on my kitchen table. It might not look like much, but trust me when I say it feels like a BIG accomplishment getting it all finished. 

I will find out more on Monday, but from here our documents will be sent to Michigan, where the Bethany international office is located. After review, our agency will send our dossier off to country! I will try to keep you posted on when that happens...hopefully soon. Once our paperwork is in-country, we can begin the BIG WAIT, or the wait for a referral. Estimated wait time for a referral is currently 3-12 months. It seems like a pretty big range of time, and we are hoping for closer to 3 months. Once we accept a referral, we can begin to make travel plans. We will have to take 2 trips of approximately 2 weeks each and about 2 months apart...give or take.

We would appreciate prayer for the following:

• That our dossier looks good and will be sent to country promptly
• We will receive a referral sooner rather than later, but in God's perfect timing

post rummage recovery

 We are finished with rummage sales! At least for 2013. It truly was amazing how much stuff we had for this rummage sale. The picture below is only part of it....we still had a whole garage full of stuff and a whole front lawn of furniture! Another HUGE thank you to everyone who donated in any way, shape or form for either of our rummage sales. What a blessing! We had some fantastic weather, besides a down poor Saturday morning. But thankfully we waited until after the rain to set everything up. Traffic was a little lighter than our last rummage sale, but we still consider it a success.

The big question everyone kept asking, "What are you going to do with all the leftover stuff?!" I seriously think I got asked that about 20 times. Each time I said, "Well, I will keep some things to try to sell online, but the rest of it is getting donated to....somewhere." 

Well wouldn't you know it, there were a couple of ladies who stopped by to shop and when they were paying for their items, handed me a piece of paper explaining their charity organization that accepts donations of leftover rummage sale items to raise money for families of cancer patients. Their organization is called Compassion in Action and is through the Avera Foundation. And they pick up!  I finally had an answer to that question!!   So we arranged for them to come back to Tea a few hours after our rummage was scheduled to end. They loaded up a very large van and about 3 other cars full of stuff! I don't know who was more excited, me or them! Some of the leftover toys we kept to give to the church nursery. I also kept 4-5 totes of things that I will try to sell online to continue raising funds for our adoption. The Compassion in Action organization didn't take furniture, so we still have a few pieces left sitting in my brother's garage. We will be calling the Furniture Mission to pick up those items sometime this month. 

TEA POT rummage

We are busy getting ready for our second rummage sale in Tea at the end of this week. 

Dates and times for the sale: 

Thursday June 13th 9am-8pm
Friday June 14th 9am-8pm
Saturday June 15th 9am-2pm

My brother and sister-in-law, Jordan and Kimberly, will be our gracious hosts. The address for the sale is 115 St. Nicholas St.


We have a TON of great stuff. And if you made it to the Kingswood sale in April, come to this one too because we have SO MUCH new stuff!

Some of the items we will be selling include: Hide-a-bed couch, futon, shelf, end tables, bar stools, 3 dining tables and lots of chairs, other couches and love seats, Burley bike trailer, Bowflex, adult clothes in most sizes, kids clothes 0-4T and some older, lots of toys, books, baby bouncer, booster seats, jewelry, antique sewing machine, kitchen supplies, home decor, picture frames, miscellaneous household items, and much more!

If you have any items you would like to donate, it's not too late! Items can be dropped off at 115 St. Nicholas anytime Tuesday or Wednesday this week. Just email me if you are planning a drop-off (jessicarwaltner@gmail.com).

If you would like to donate any treats, baked goods, candy, bottled pop or water, we will be selling those as well! Anything individually wrapped would be great! Feel free to drop those off any time before or during the rummage sale.

Please come shopping or just stop by to say Hi! There will be lots going on in Tea this weekend for Tea Pot Days and there is also a parade Saturday morning! Check out the schedule of events HERE.

I also made a bunch of new baby blankets and will have those available at the rummage sale, along with some of the hand-made wooden crosses we have left. Check out the baby blanket inventory page.

We couldn't have done this with out all of your help and have been SO BLESSED by your generosity. Hope to see you this weekend!

home study... DONE.

"Hello Waltners,

I just wanted to let you know that your home study has been officially approved- congratulations!"

Those are the words I have been waiting to hear for the last month! All we need to do is sign a copy of the home study and we are good to go! What's next? We can now start plugging away on the dossier. 

 

Out of the 20 documents I am preparing for the dossier, I have about 15 of them finished. I have already sent the first round of documents to Pierre to the Secretary of State to get authenticated, or state sealed. I can't wait for the post where I take a picture of all the documents with their state seals ready to be sent off!

If you look at number 16 on the list, the USCIS Approval, we are able to send our dossier to country before getting this approval. This process can take a month or longer, so not needing it right away is a good thing. Once we do get the approval to bring an orphan into the US, we just send that paperwork as an addendum to the dossier.  We had been waiting on the home study to be finalized before we could send in that application, but will hopefully be able to do so next week.

Since reading the book "The Connected Child" by Karyn Purvis, I have really become a fan of her work. This website has short video clips of some of the topics she covers in the book about raising children who come from hard places. She is super smart and has tons of experience working with those types of children...check it out!

This week I also added "African Radio" on Pandora. The boys and I jammed out to some traditional African music....pretty fun! 

Orphans Choir

Last week we went to a performance of the Ugandan Orphans Choir at the Children's Museum in Brookings. It was really fun to see those kids dance and sing! Most of the kids were 10-11 years old and all of them were orphans. They probably had more dance moves in one pinky than I will ever have in my entire body. So fun to watch!

Below is a picture of Ayin and his two cousins watching intently. 

 

 

Ayin thought the drums were a little too loud. 

If you would like more information on the Ugandan Orphans Choir or would like to host them, visit their webpage. Here. It was a great cultural experience and a really cool ministry. 

what the hey is a dossier

dossier

   Use Dossier in a sentence

dos·si·er

  [dos-ee-ey, -ee-er, daw-see-ey, -see-er; French daw-syey]  Show IPA

noun, plural dos·si·ers  [dos-ee-eyz, -ee-erz, daw-see-eyz, -see-ers; French daw-syey]  Show IPA .

a collection or file of documents on the same subject, especially a complete file containing detailed information about a person or topic.

Origin: 
1875–80;  < French:  bundle of documents with a label attached to the back or spine, equivalent todos  (< Latin dorsum ) back + -ier -ier²

Synonyms 
record, report, folder.

This week we had a meeting with our "dossier specialist" to go over everything that we will be working on in the next few weeks or months to come. In a previous post, I mentioned that the dossier could take 5-6 months to complete. But at our meeting, we were told 4 months at the most and probably less...so that's great! I am going to SUPER-SPEED through this paperwork as much as I can! 

It's nice to have another check list. Makes me think we are making progress and keeps me busy doing something. We are STILL waiting for our home study to be finalized, which we are assured will happen in the next week or two. We are trying to be patient. It's very long, very repetitive and very detailed. Our home study needs to be included in the dossier. 

We also need a copy of our home study to complete our I-600A form, which is the Application for Advance Processing of Orphan Petition. This clearance can take 1-2 months, must be included in the dossier, and is basically permission from the US government to bring an orphan into the United States.

I already have a couple of things checked off my list and a few more things in progress. The birth certificates and marriage license will probably be the easiest documents we have to get. Everything else has to be notarized, which we are finding to be a bit of an inconvenience at times. For example, we need medical letters from our doctors stating that we are in good health, etc. The clinic does not have a notary on staff, so we will have to have a notary come down to the clinic and witness the doctors sign and date our letters. I have a feeling this is not the first time we are going to run in to this issue. Our adoption agency has notaries on staff, so we will probably end up arranging someone from that office to assist us. 

A birth certificate for each member of the family and our certificate of marriage. We had to get new copies of all of them so they date with in six months of the time we send our dossier. 

Here is my effort to organize some of the information we will be giving to our sources. Emailing the info makes things easy, but most of these requests will have to be done in person to assure they are done correctly and in front of a notary, etc.

After all the forms are completed and notarized, we are to send it to our dossier specialist. Once she gives us the green light that everything was done properly, we send ALL of the paperwork to Pierre to get the SD State Seal stamped on the front. 

And then it's mailed off! Once our dossier is in country, we can begin the process of waiting for a referral.

referral

   Use Referral in a sentence

re·fer·ral

  [ri-fur-uhl]  Show IPA

noun

1.

an act of referring; the state of being referred.

2.

an instance of referring.

3.

a person recommended to someone or for something.

A referral is a match to a child, or a child that the orphanage/adoption agency has recommended for us. We have the option to accept or reject any referral. If a referral is accepted, then we can begin to make plans for traveling, court dates, and US Embassy appointments. The estimated wait time for a referral is currently 3-12 months. 

So, to estimate a time frame...I am guessing the dossier will take 1-2 months. Then a 3-12 month wait for a referral, and another couple of months before we travel. Total estimate = 6-18 months. Hopefully closer to 6!! I guess I wouldn't be surprised if everything was finalized sometime in 2014...hopefully not any later than that.