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. 

rummage round one done

We just wanted to say THANK YOU to everyone who donated items and helped out in any way at our rummage sale last week! It was a GREAT three days and we have restocked our adoption savings account...for now. :) Thankfully the weather was amazing and we had a lot of traffic. A BIG thank you to our gracious hosts, the Larsons, for letting us use their home and more importantly, their garage! 

Thank you to Olivia and Katie for helping me set all THIS up on Tuesday before the sale. These pictures where taken after we had put everything back into the garage. We had to stack tables on top of tables! We stacked furniture and bikes on the left. It's amazing everything fit!

Below is a picture from Saturday. We put everything under twenty bucks at half price and had a pretty steady crowd most of the day! We were planning on closing at 1:00, but stayed upon until 4:00 because the people just kept coming!! Thanks to everyone who stopped by! Also thanks to Brittany, Ashley, Becky, and Cindy for making treats...we sold almost all of the goodies!

We still have plenty of great things left that get to hang out in our garage until round 2! Our next rummage sale will be in Tea during Tea Pot Days, June 14-15th. If you didn't get a chance to get your donations ready for last week, or found a few more things you are willing to part with, there is now plenty of time! Like before, I can pick up smaller items (that will fit in my trunk or back seat), or you can drop things off in Travis's office. Furniture or any other large items can be dropped off in the weeks or days before the sale or can be arranged to be picked up.

As I have said, we are SO thankful for all of you who donated, came shopping or helped out in any way. 

We feel blessed and supported and encouraged. 

One step closer to Bringing Africa Home!

4 home study visits

We just completed our fourth and final home study visit a week ago. The whole process was quite in-depth. With out going into too much detail, I will do a short recap of each of the visits. Each visit had to be scheduled at least one week apart. 

Visit 1: Friday, March 15 at 2:00 pm.

A large part of our first visit was spent going over the questionnaires that Travis and I filled out the week or so before. It involved lots of questions about our childhoods, relationships with family, friends, and each other. We both felt we had a lot of positive things to say about our upbringings, and feel very blessed that we didn't have any major issues that needed to be addressed.  

The boys were supposed to be napping during the visit, but I made the mistake of telling Ayin we had a meeting. Oh, did that bring on the questions! Unfortunately, he didn't fall asleep before the social worker arrived, and heard her come in the front door. Needless to say, Ayin did not take a nap that day and Travis and I took turns tending to our curious 3-year-old. It's funny now, but we learned our lesson. No telling Ayin anything, and make sure he is fast asleep before the next home study visit! Thank you to Jhett for being a good napper!

Visit 2: Wednesday, March 27 at 8:30 am.

This visit took place at the agency office, with the kids at my sister-in-law's. We started out talking together about some of the same things. This visit had a much more serious vibe and we addressed some more serious topics. Trav and I each took turns meeting with the social worker individually. I'm not sure, but I am guessing they were looking for consistency among other things. With out going into everything, this was definitely the most intense of all the home study meetings. 

We are thankful for a soveriegn God with a perfect plan. All of the adoption roller-coasters remind us of this very thing!

Visit 3: Friday, April 5 at 8:30 am.

This was the only visit where the boys were asked to be present. The social worker wanted to observe us as a family. It was pretty entertaining to watch her ask our 3-year-old questions about his family. She asked Ayin what things we liked to do together. It was pretty cute when he said he liked helping his daddy make pancakes for breakfast. When she asked him what he liked about his little brother, Jhett, he just said "I don't know". I guess we should be thankful that he didn't say anything worse...Ayin and Jhett have a love-hate relationship these days.

Our social worker also did a "safety check" of the house, checking things like smoke detectors, fire extinguishers, water temperature, and the general layout of the house. It was a lot less stressful than it might sound. I think we passed. 

Visit 4: Friday, April 12 at 2:00 pm.

We made SURE that Ayin was fast asleep before our visit started. And I did not make the mistake of telling him about it. This was the shortest of the visits, only 45 minutes. It was basically just a review of some of the things we covered. We also finished our "Special Needs Questionnaire" that we had started the previous meeting. This is an extensive list of medical issues that a child could possibly have, where we had to mark "yes", "no", or "willing to discuss". This was probably one of the harder forms we have had to fill out. We tried to be as open as we could, realizing that many things deemed as "special needs" might be easily addressed in a developed country. And so many medical issues can vary in the degree or severity, so we ended up marking "WTD" for a number of things. If we put "no" for any health issues, we are not legally able to adopt a child with that specific issue without making an addendum to the home study, which would cost us more time and money. For that reason, we tried to be as open as possible. 

The home study was a lengthy and in-depth process, and frankly I am glad it's over. Now we wait for our social worker to type and finalize our home study documents. She said it could take up to a month, but gave herself the goal of April 29th. 

Once our home study is finalized, we can begin working on our dossier (packet of paperwork) to send to the country. This process involves a lot more paper work, including getting the bulk of it sent to Pierre to get state-sealed. It can take some time to send things in, get things back, etc. The estimate to get our dossier complete is 5-6 months. Yuck! I want to do this like yesterday, but international adoption is not for the impatient. Oh wait, but I am extremely impatient....oh boy....

Well, in the mean time it's actually great that I have been very busy getting ready for this rummage sale next week. 
We also still have plenty of baby blankets if you are interested! 

Thanks for your continued support and prayers. We truly need them!

new blankets coming

Well, we have our fourth and final home study visit this afternoon. I will plan on doing a post to recap all of the home study visits sometime soon. Hopefully this last visit is short and sweet. I am ready to move on to....you guessed it! More paper work! 

In the mean time, I am keeping busy with preparing for the Kingswood Rummages to start in a week and a half. Click HERE to read that post.

I have also been working on a new round of baby blankets so I have a good supply when we have our rummage sale. Click HERE to see that post.

Here are a few pics of some of the new fabrics I have washed, ironed, and cut. They are ready to be sewn, ironed and sewn again!

Add caption

And here is my bin of completed blankets, ready to find homes!

Click HERE to see a picture of each blanket individually.

Kingswood Rummage

Thanks to some friends of ours, we will be having a rummage sale during the Sioux Falls Kingswood Rummages! Our sale will start Thursday, April 25th and continue through Saturday April 27th. 

At the following address:

2208 South Sheffield Ave.
Thursday, April 25th: 9:00 am to 8:00 pm
Friday, April 26th: 9:00 am to 8:00 pm
Saturday, April 27th: 9:00 am to 1:00 pm

How can you help?

• Come shopping! Here is the listing of just some of the items we will be selling: Amish-made kitchen table w/ 4 chairs, antique vanity, dresser w/ mirror, end table, LOTS of baby and children stuff, toys, Bumbo, toddler bed, women's clothing, shoes, wood bench, TV, microwave, treadmill, weight bench, eliptical, kids bikes (6 of them!), toy kitchen, bike trailer, high chair, hand-made baby blankets (by yours truly), hand-made wooden crosses (thanks Scott and Seth), cupcakes and cake pops by The Mad Baker and much more!

• Bring your donations! You can drop off your donations the days before our sale on Tuesday or Wednesday (April 23-24) at Sheffield Ave. We could also use any clothing racks to borrow if you have any. Items that tend to sell really well: anything baby or kid related, furniture, brand-name or like-new clothing, collectibles. But anything works! One man's trash is another man's treasure! 

• If you would like to get your donations to us earlier (if you just want your stuff OUT), I can come pick them up, you can bring them to our house in Tea, or you can drop them off in Travis's office at Embrace Church (labeled RUMMAGE).  I will be borrowing my parents pick-up for a few weeks starting April 16th, so I can come get larger donations at that time if you don't have a way of transporting them to Sheffield Ave. You are welcome to price your items yourself, but I anticipate doing the bulk of it. Please mark all items with a "W" next to the price if you do decide to price your own items.

• If you would like to help price and organize the days before the sale, just let me know. Or if you would like to help during the rummage sale, whether it be for a few hours or all three days, you can email me at jessicarwaltner@gmail.com. 

• If you don't have any furniture, kid stuff, or misc. to donate, we would welcome any snacks, pop, bottled water, or baked goods to sell during the rummage. Anything that is individually packaged would be great. We won't be selling any hot foods, as that requires additional permits from the city.

• Pray! We would love your support through prayer. Pray that the adoption process continues in a smooth and timely manner. Pray that the rummage sale is a fun event for all parties involved and that it would be well worth the effort. Because this is A LOT OF WORK! :)

Check out the Kingswood listings at www.kingswoodrummage.com. They will be available staring April 19th. 

spring cleaning

Happy first day of Spring!  Kind of hard to tell around here. Remember last year? People were getting sunburns and out planting their gardens by this time. Crazy.

Along with spring comes spring cleaning! For me, that means some deep cleaning...like pulling out all the appliances and sweeping up the Cheerios, crumbs, and nastiness that managed to sneak its way under there. Dusting the top of our 1 ceiling fan, cleaning the tops of the kitchen cabinets, cleaning windows, and maybe even reorganizing a closet or two. And the garage. And the basement.

 

It also means getting rid of our junk and clutter that has built up over the winter or over our last move or over the last 20 years... 
Getting rid of clothes the kids have outgrown or toys they don't need after making a haul at Grandpa and Grandma's during Christmas. Maybe we read the book "7" by Jen Hatmaker and are inspired to give away a bunch of STUFF that is just taking up space or collecting dust and maybe someone else can use it. If you are anything like us, you have one of those extra deep closets and you have no clue what's in the back of it. So why keep it? (I ask myself)

 

Well I just might have an idea for you! This summer we will be having a rummage, garage, yard sale. SO, if you are one of those people that do have a few things lying around you would like to donate (get rid of), we would be happy to accept your donations (stuff, furniture, clutter, etc).

 

Tea Pot Days are the weekend of June 14-15. We are planning on having a second rummage sale that weekend. We have found a gracious host for the Kingswood Rummages in Sioux Falls the end of April. See that post HERE.

Our sale hours will be:
Thursday, April 25th: 9 am to 8 pm
Friday, April 26th: 9 am to 8 pm
Saturday, April 27th: 9 am to 1 pm


How to donate:

I can pick up your small items/bags, just send me an email. (jessicarwaltner@gmail.com)

You can bring your large and small items to our house any time and we will store them in our garage.

You can bring your small items/bags to church and drop them off in Trav's office (please label your bag RUMMAGE).

If you have any large items or furniture, I will plan on borrowing a pick-up for a week or so and can come get those items at some point.

If you would be willing to volunteer your time in the weeks before and the weekends of the sales, we could use extra hands pricing items, setting up tables, and bargaining with shoppers.