2 Down, 1 to Go!

2 haircuts done!! Gotta make sure we are presentable and make a good impression :)  We've been doing the home "haircuts" (if that's what you call running clippers over your head!) to save money, but we splurged this week and wow, what a difference! 

Ticket Time!

I just emailed our favorite humanitarian travel agent (Eldon at Golden Rule!) :)  Yes, in about two weeks we will be on our way to our girls!!! We received our appointment date to appear and receive their referrals.  Well, we'll receive one first, travel overnight by train to meet one of them, go back to the capital city and receive the referral for the second child and then travel by overnight train to meet her. Not sure which girlie we'll meet first - but isn't life just full of wonderful surprises!?

Submitted for Two!

Introducing Cutie #2 - "Lora"!!!

"Lora" (the public name given to her for now) has or had her 6th birthday sometime this month. I'm sure she didn't have a party, cake or presents - not sure if anyone even told her "Happy Birthday."  You see, "Lora" was transferred about 18 months ago out of the nice baby house where she's standing in the above photo. :(  But you better believe that we are celebrating her life here. 

AND, things are moving mighty quickly on our adoption front!  Our documents were SUBMITTED to our girls' government this week - just a little over a week after we mailed them overseas!! And yes, we were approved and submitted for TWO children :)  Now we just wait for our travel dates, which means we could be traveling two weeks from now or eight weeks from now. Love the way we can pin that down :)

Since we will be bringing home two children, we will need additional funding for the in-country paperwork and court process, additional travel back and forth to the capitol city and a second orphanage, room and board for an extra 1-2 weeks, and costs for a second visa, medical, and airline ticket, and blah blah blah.  Basically, we need some pennies and dollars here - every little bit adds up!  The cost breakdown is listed on the right side of the blog for those of you who like crunching numbers (here, here, I'm guilty!).

We are working with two child advocate organizations that offer a way for your donations to be tax-deductible.  That way you can help us get our girls get home plus pay less taxes - gotta love it :)

https://www.adopttogether.org/ourgirl ("Donate with AdoptTogether" donation button to the right)
http://reecesrainbow.org/87610/sponsorclark-6   - Reece's Rainbow is the organization that helped us find Gerry :)
Thank you so much to everyone who has donated already! So far, we've raised almost $13,000!

Ok, I need to get back to clearing out "stuff" from our house. How in the world did we accumulate so much stuff?!?!  And we need to start adding "girl stuff" for two?  Yikes!

Guess Where I Was Yesterday?!!!!!

Here are some clues:

Yep!!! Went to downtown Chicago to have our last two documents apostilled (sealed to send to Eastern Europe).  THE. LAST. TWO. DOCUMENTS!!!!

Now we wait:
1. For documents to be officially SUBMITTED to the foreign government agency
2. Then TRAVEL DATES to meet our GIRLS (yes, that is an "s" on the end of there - another post, my friends, another post soon . . . .)

Just a little midnight fun! Making a trip to Chicago tomorrow to get apostilles for a chunk of our dossier! So could this be considered third trimester in our paper pregnancy?!?! We're getting closer, D!

WE ARE ADOPTING OUR GIRL!!!!

And yes, that is a photo of her at the top of the page. :)  Isn’t she beautiful?!?!

How in the world did this happen you may ask? Well, for starters, we had been “kind of starting” to think about growing our family again.  Someday!  Not right away of course!  Maybe in a year or two.  And definitely not by adding a teenager!  BUT, while reading the blog of an adoptive parent and missionary who has spent several months with kids in Eastern European orphanages, one young girl’s description grabbed our hearts - we just knew that “Loveday” belonged in our family.  “Loveday” is the name given to our girl to protect her identity until the adoption is final.  Even though we cannot share her birth name publicly yet, we can tell you that it means “God’s gift!”

 

Grant’s words as soon as he listened to the narrative that I read to him that afternoon were “We should go get her.”  Here are some of the missionary’s words about “Loveday” that stuck in our hearts:  

She is 14, and is an amazingly beautiful young lady inside and out.  

She has such a strong desire for family that on our last trip out to see our children she had tears in her eyes as she watched me with my children.

She is very shy but she was brave enough to ask for help to find her a family. 

She has 3 older brothers whom are all aged out so she is alone.  

Kind, funny, has character, responsible, smart, and has a great memory. 

She is known for being one of the best students in class and is working on learning English.  

She loves cats and dogs, but really loves cats. 

Her 3 wishes are to have a family, do well in school and be in a home with a family and not an orphanage.

And the best words that are now written on the missionary’s blog regarding “Loveday”: HER FOREVER FAMILY FOUND HER!!! 

Yep, that’s us – her forever family :)

We are excited to be working as fast as possible to get her home.  And Gerry is ready to “go now to get our girl” – his big sister. :)

Not only are we excited to be working on all of the mounds of paperwork and to be jumping through the many adoption hoops (woo hoo – sooo super excited – ha ha!), we are also anxious to get there as soon as possible.  As the days go by, Loveday gets closer and closer to the age when she ages out of the orphanage system and is either:

a) sent to a trade school of the government’s choosing (horrific places for a young girl, not anything like a college dorm here), or

b) put out on the streets and forced to survive on her own (60% of young girls have to become a prostitute to survive, and 10% of kids commit suicide within the first year of being on the street).

We are also fundraising to help us get there and get her home as soon as possible – we weren’t exactly planning on adopting again so soon but when you’re called, you’re called. (A breakdown of costs is listed to the right)  We have an AdoptTogether.org/ourgirl fundraiser (where donations are tax deductible – woo hoo!) and a YouCaring.com/ourgirl fundraiser.  Links to both of these sites are listed on the right side of the blog.  We are also working out the details of a spaghetti dinner fundraiser in Ohio, and brainstorming for more ideas.  Guess what I’ll be doing this fall and winter :)

So now you know a little bit more about what we’ve been up to recently.  Welcome back to our wild and wonderful world of adoption!!!

Ready or Not Kindergarten, Here I Come!