We leave today. It is almost 1am. I should be sleeping because we are leaving early to make the 3 hour drive to the airport. I'd like to know how many adoptive parents actually get rest before something like this? Goodness, we have waited for this day for years and yet it still does not feel real. I was good/ calm for the most part until I tucked my girls in. Our third daughter put on a brave face but mom sees through it. Our second daughter gets emotional when dad leaves on business trips. Having mom and dad leave was too much for her. She tried REALLY hard to put on a brave face but mom saw right through it. Of course her tears brought on mine (my mom also saw through my brave face ha ha).
I have never left my kids like this. EVER. I don't enjoy this part at all. Sure, the girls drive me batty at times, but they are my world. This is breaking my heart. I am asking for prayers of peace for this momma's heart. Please.
I cannot WAIT to meet our new daughter. I especially cannot wait to bring her home to her sisters. I cannot wait to watch her discover a world outside her institutional doors. I cannot wait to hug her and tuck her in at night and to let her know that her mom loves her soooo much and that I would do every minute of this over again just to see her loved. No one should be without a family. No child should be left alone.
We are not superheroes. We are ordinary people taking every day one day at a time (and sometimes it is minute by minute ha ha). We praise God for putting us on this path. I don't know why He chose us for this? I often ask "Why us" and the answer I always get back is, "Why Not?" God's got this.
Please continue to pray for us. We are gone for 10 days. Please pray for my mom (and brother) as they try to survive the upcoming days with the fabulous five. Please pray for Lilyanna and that she accepts us and bonds to us and is healthy. Please pray for our meetings. Please pray for us on the 29th when we get our final visit with her and then have to leave her for months before coming to get her for good. I'm already deeply dreading November 29th immensely.
Thanks.
Friday, November 22, 2013
Two More Days
We leave in two days to meet our baby. I am so excited! We leave here Friday for a 9 hour flight to London where we will spend the night (we have a 20 hour layover). The following day we fly three more hours to Sofia. There, we will spend the night and then on Monday we will drive to New Sister's village to meet her. Somewhere in that time we will drive to a nearby city where we will be staying.
We finally got a few little videos of her and some pictures. I'm so glad it came before our trip. The only picture we had of her was from a year ago. She was so tiny and laying on her tummy. The videos show her sitting up. I think the staff was trying to show that she could stand with support from them but Little Miss wasn't being too cooperative. They think she may be teething too. Poor little one. The staff seems caring but in reality, Little Miss needs a momma :(
We finally got a few little videos of her and some pictures. I'm so glad it came before our trip. The only picture we had of her was from a year ago. She was so tiny and laying on her tummy. The videos show her sitting up. I think the staff was trying to show that she could stand with support from them but Little Miss wasn't being too cooperative. They think she may be teething too. Poor little one. The staff seems caring but in reality, Little Miss needs a momma :(
Thursday, November 7, 2013
Two more weeks
Wowzers, in two weeks we leave. On a plane. To meet our daughter. We get to snuggle her and play peek a boo again (apparently she likes it so much, they chose that game to put in her file ha ha).
We get to try new foods; spend stotinki and leva and also pence and pounds; and attempt to communicate as foreigners (eek). This is so craaazzzyyyy (and a teeny tiny bit exciting).
Here's a little Bulgarian tidbit that will be COMPLETELY CONFUSING for us: They nod their heads for no and shake their heads for yes!!! Oh boy!
God has definitely got this adoption under His belt. Every little detail. It's pretty amazing to sit back and get front row seats to this show. On Sunday, our pastor talked a bit about the story of Jesus feeding 5000 + people with 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish (http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John%206:1-14&version=NLT). When Jesus told the disciples to feed the 5,000, it seemed impossible; they felt like they had nothing to offer ("Even if we worked for months, we wouldn’t have enough money to feed them!” verse 7). They were given 5 small loaves of bread and 2 fish by a selfless young boy. But when the meal was placed into Jesus' hands, he fed thousands upon thousands of people and made a miracle out of seemingly nothing. That is how we feel has happened in our life. It was put on our heart to adopt internationally (http://sparklesgigglesandtiaras.blogspot.ca/p/frequentlyasked-questions-1.html). The fees alone are enough to make anybody's head spin...especially to parents of a larger family. But we knew that if this was God's Will for us, He would direct our path. And that he has. Our thermometer to the side is proof of God's provision.
Yesterday, we were also reminded of this. My oldest daughter lost her winter boots. Somewhere in this house is a lone pair of boots (or maybe it was accidently put into the donation bag...we're not sure). We got hit pretty good this week with snow. She was able to wear her rain boots for the first couple of days it snowed, while we were frantically searching the house, but alas the cold made it uncomfortable for her poor toes. She has big feet and wears ladies sizes (translation: more money). We are leaving in two weeks, money is tight and I did not want to buy another pair of boots. Lo and behold I got this duh moment (again). "Pray!" Ask God for help (duh). After battling the "this is a silly thing to pray for" I realized that God tells us to ask Him for help, no matter the size. So I did it...I prayed. And as the doubt came, I told myself that God wants us to have faith...why wouldn't He provide boots??? Just a mustard seed of faith...just a teeny tiny mustard seed... I can do that! So, I stopped worrying about it and went to pick up my kids from school. A friend waited with me. We talked about how she lost her boots and our daughter's boot sizes (my daughter is a size 6...my friend's daughter is the same age but wears a size 2). We parted ways when the kids arrived. Two hours later, this same person phones me up to say she was given a pair of ladies boots in the size I needed!! Thank you Jesus! Whoot whoot! When she dropped them off, she said, "think of this as helping with the adoption ha ha". I don't think my friend realizes how powerful those words were that evening!
People ask us ALL THE TIME how we do it. The truth is...God. God has blessed us with fantastic children. He has given me a husband that is amazingly loving, hard working, caring and PATIENT. He has a great job with good benefits and people he enjoys working with. God put us in a town that is so full of love. We finally have a church where we actually feel like we belong; where we aren't strangers to everyone (even though I am painfully shy and could hide under a rock most days). God has provided us with a home that fits our growing family. We have food on the table and warm clothes on our bodies. We have a SUPER supportive and amazing extended family. God has been good to us. Our life is not always easy. It has many ups and downs. But our faith keeps us going. And faith is getting us on that plane in two weeks! I can't wait.
We were supposed to get an updated picture and video of New Sister. Unfortunately, we were told she has a virus so our agency is going to try again next week. Poor baby. Please pray for her. We also have no idea where we are staying in BG. I don't know how many times we have asked and we keep getting the same answer, "[our BG agency] will be setting that up"...ummm...that is SOOOO not helpful!!! Do people not realize that it would be nice to know costs and what is around our place. Arg, so frustrating. So, it looks like we will be showing up to our room on faith too :) Oh, such an adventure.
We get to try new foods; spend stotinki and leva and also pence and pounds; and attempt to communicate as foreigners (eek). This is so craaazzzyyyy (and a teeny tiny bit exciting).
Here's a little Bulgarian tidbit that will be COMPLETELY CONFUSING for us: They nod their heads for no and shake their heads for yes!!! Oh boy!
God has definitely got this adoption under His belt. Every little detail. It's pretty amazing to sit back and get front row seats to this show. On Sunday, our pastor talked a bit about the story of Jesus feeding 5000 + people with 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish (http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John%206:1-14&version=NLT). When Jesus told the disciples to feed the 5,000, it seemed impossible; they felt like they had nothing to offer ("Even if we worked for months, we wouldn’t have enough money to feed them!” verse 7). They were given 5 small loaves of bread and 2 fish by a selfless young boy. But when the meal was placed into Jesus' hands, he fed thousands upon thousands of people and made a miracle out of seemingly nothing. That is how we feel has happened in our life. It was put on our heart to adopt internationally (http://sparklesgigglesandtiaras.blogspot.ca/p/frequentlyasked-questions-1.html). The fees alone are enough to make anybody's head spin...especially to parents of a larger family. But we knew that if this was God's Will for us, He would direct our path. And that he has. Our thermometer to the side is proof of God's provision.
Yesterday, we were also reminded of this. My oldest daughter lost her winter boots. Somewhere in this house is a lone pair of boots (or maybe it was accidently put into the donation bag...we're not sure). We got hit pretty good this week with snow. She was able to wear her rain boots for the first couple of days it snowed, while we were frantically searching the house, but alas the cold made it uncomfortable for her poor toes. She has big feet and wears ladies sizes (translation: more money). We are leaving in two weeks, money is tight and I did not want to buy another pair of boots. Lo and behold I got this duh moment (again). "Pray!" Ask God for help (duh). After battling the "this is a silly thing to pray for" I realized that God tells us to ask Him for help, no matter the size. So I did it...I prayed. And as the doubt came, I told myself that God wants us to have faith...why wouldn't He provide boots??? Just a mustard seed of faith...just a teeny tiny mustard seed... I can do that! So, I stopped worrying about it and went to pick up my kids from school. A friend waited with me. We talked about how she lost her boots and our daughter's boot sizes (my daughter is a size 6...my friend's daughter is the same age but wears a size 2). We parted ways when the kids arrived. Two hours later, this same person phones me up to say she was given a pair of ladies boots in the size I needed!! Thank you Jesus! Whoot whoot! When she dropped them off, she said, "think of this as helping with the adoption ha ha". I don't think my friend realizes how powerful those words were that evening!
People ask us ALL THE TIME how we do it. The truth is...God. God has blessed us with fantastic children. He has given me a husband that is amazingly loving, hard working, caring and PATIENT. He has a great job with good benefits and people he enjoys working with. God put us in a town that is so full of love. We finally have a church where we actually feel like we belong; where we aren't strangers to everyone (even though I am painfully shy and could hide under a rock most days). God has provided us with a home that fits our growing family. We have food on the table and warm clothes on our bodies. We have a SUPER supportive and amazing extended family. God has been good to us. Our life is not always easy. It has many ups and downs. But our faith keeps us going. And faith is getting us on that plane in two weeks! I can't wait.
We were supposed to get an updated picture and video of New Sister. Unfortunately, we were told she has a virus so our agency is going to try again next week. Poor baby. Please pray for her. We also have no idea where we are staying in BG. I don't know how many times we have asked and we keep getting the same answer, "[our BG agency] will be setting that up"...ummm...that is SOOOO not helpful!!! Do people not realize that it would be nice to know costs and what is around our place. Arg, so frustrating. So, it looks like we will be showing up to our room on faith too :) Oh, such an adventure.
Thursday, October 31, 2013
Confirmed date
This week has been crazy busy and emotional as one can imagine.
Our poor kids have lost their normal mom and in place have been given a serious space head! Thankfully, we have the most amazing and awesome and patient (most of the time) kids. So, if this message is all over the place, I apologize in advance. Please forgive me.... I have (paper) pregnancy brain ha ha!!!
I had to write out two really big checks this week. One for the agency fees and the other for our flight. It is so real now! I will admit, I am freaking out about the travel....freaking out! No matter how many people tell me, it will be ok...it still doesn't help! Not until I am experiencing it for myself. Instead, I am trying very hard to fight off all images, etc. that keep popping up in my head. If you would like to pray for me personally...this is where I need it...peace of mind. Corey too....we are a bit scatterbrained. He is having a hard time concentrating at work when his mind is across the ocean.
The girls are super super super excited. The youngest has been waiting almost two years to share her room with New Sister. She has New Sister's life all planned out already. It's SO cute!
So, when do we leave? We will be leaving for the airport on the 22th. We will stay in London for the night and arrive in B*lg*r*a for the 24th. We should be able to see New Sister on the Monday...yay! Our travel agent said we are able to bring 3 suitcases with us and so we plan to take as much as we can to the orphanage. If you have stuff, let me know and I can arrange something :)
My mom will be driving up to watch the kids while we are travelling. Please keep her in your prayers. She may be travelling alone 6 hours in the snow and that can be REALLY scary! We are so thankful that she was able to get the time off to help. It will be the very longest I have ever been away from my kids. Other than hospital stays, I have never been away from the kids. Can you see why I am freaking now?!?! It made me physically sick just writing out that sentence :( I am sorry to anyone who comes in contact with me in the next month (plus last week).
Our main man (driver/translator) in B*lg*r*a got permission to take pictures and a video of our girl to send us. He is going there on Wednesday to do this. I sure hope he is quick with feedback! The curiosity is killing me!!! The picture that we got with her referral is almost a year old and it isn't clear what color her eyes are. Maybe she will be crawling by then...eek!
I got the photo book completed a few days ago. A very good friend of mine took some pictures for us. She came the night I asked her so that we could get the book ordered and here before we left. We had just got home from school and swimming lessons and work....it was chaos. I wondered how she would take a decent picture of us since we spent no time getting pretty ha ha! She did over and above what I had envisioned. SHE EVEN BROUGHT US SUPPER to eat after we were done!!! Seriously, she is awesome!!! We are so blessed to have amazing people here!!! So blessed!
One of my sister's also got the brunt of the chaotic photo book. Because, my family all lives elsewhere, she was the lucky one to run around the city taking pictures of grandparents, great grandparents, aunts/uncles, cousins. She downloaded them into the program as I was creating ha ha! I am truly grateful for her help with this project too. Now to wait for it and pray it turned out well.
Because of the surprise (grr) increase (grr) in fees (grr) that we received this last month (~$4000), we have been FREAKING about finances. We're so dumb. We know better. God brought us here, God will get us through it. And He is. We were blessed with a lovely financial gift yesterday. It has taken us out of the red in terms of our projected budget for this trip. We are without words at how amazing it is to watch God's hand in every teeny tiny aspect. Even the bank paid for most of the fees/transactions that involved the adoption. Why do I put pressure on myself? It doesn't help. God's got this one.
Hmmm...I don't know what else needs to be covered. Thanks for the support. Thanks for the prayers. Thanks. We can't WAIT to meet our daughter :)
Our poor kids have lost their normal mom and in place have been given a serious space head! Thankfully, we have the most amazing and awesome and patient (most of the time) kids. So, if this message is all over the place, I apologize in advance. Please forgive me.... I have (paper) pregnancy brain ha ha!!!
I had to write out two really big checks this week. One for the agency fees and the other for our flight. It is so real now! I will admit, I am freaking out about the travel....freaking out! No matter how many people tell me, it will be ok...it still doesn't help! Not until I am experiencing it for myself. Instead, I am trying very hard to fight off all images, etc. that keep popping up in my head. If you would like to pray for me personally...this is where I need it...peace of mind. Corey too....we are a bit scatterbrained. He is having a hard time concentrating at work when his mind is across the ocean.
The girls are super super super excited. The youngest has been waiting almost two years to share her room with New Sister. She has New Sister's life all planned out already. It's SO cute!
So, when do we leave? We will be leaving for the airport on the 22th. We will stay in London for the night and arrive in B*lg*r*a for the 24th. We should be able to see New Sister on the Monday...yay! Our travel agent said we are able to bring 3 suitcases with us and so we plan to take as much as we can to the orphanage. If you have stuff, let me know and I can arrange something :)
My mom will be driving up to watch the kids while we are travelling. Please keep her in your prayers. She may be travelling alone 6 hours in the snow and that can be REALLY scary! We are so thankful that she was able to get the time off to help. It will be the very longest I have ever been away from my kids. Other than hospital stays, I have never been away from the kids. Can you see why I am freaking now?!?! It made me physically sick just writing out that sentence :( I am sorry to anyone who comes in contact with me in the next month (plus last week).
Our main man (driver/translator) in B*lg*r*a got permission to take pictures and a video of our girl to send us. He is going there on Wednesday to do this. I sure hope he is quick with feedback! The curiosity is killing me!!! The picture that we got with her referral is almost a year old and it isn't clear what color her eyes are. Maybe she will be crawling by then...eek!
I got the photo book completed a few days ago. A very good friend of mine took some pictures for us. She came the night I asked her so that we could get the book ordered and here before we left. We had just got home from school and swimming lessons and work....it was chaos. I wondered how she would take a decent picture of us since we spent no time getting pretty ha ha! She did over and above what I had envisioned. SHE EVEN BROUGHT US SUPPER to eat after we were done!!! Seriously, she is awesome!!! We are so blessed to have amazing people here!!! So blessed!
One of my sister's also got the brunt of the chaotic photo book. Because, my family all lives elsewhere, she was the lucky one to run around the city taking pictures of grandparents, great grandparents, aunts/uncles, cousins. She downloaded them into the program as I was creating ha ha! I am truly grateful for her help with this project too. Now to wait for it and pray it turned out well.
Because of the surprise (grr) increase (grr) in fees (grr) that we received this last month (~$4000), we have been FREAKING about finances. We're so dumb. We know better. God brought us here, God will get us through it. And He is. We were blessed with a lovely financial gift yesterday. It has taken us out of the red in terms of our projected budget for this trip. We are without words at how amazing it is to watch God's hand in every teeny tiny aspect. Even the bank paid for most of the fees/transactions that involved the adoption. Why do I put pressure on myself? It doesn't help. God's got this one.
Hmmm...I don't know what else needs to be covered. Thanks for the support. Thanks for the prayers. Thanks. We can't WAIT to meet our daughter :)
Sunday, October 27, 2013
The commitment
We are committed. I am sure some people think we ought to BE committed ha ha!
All kidding aside, we are proud to announce that we have accepted the referral given to us for another beautiful daughter to join our crazy pink household!
It has been a SUPER CRAZY and UBER EMOTIONAL week. It is surreal. In one month, we will be in-country meeting New Sister!
As you probably guessed, the doctor saw nothing in her file that screamed out anything we didn't already prepare for. We figured as much but it was nice to get the official second opinion.
It was neat taking her file to the doctor. Although she was not there in body, it felt like the first thing I did for her that made her more real; more as a daughter. I walked out of the doctor's office and quickly got in the van before the tears fell. It was official now. Real. We are having another "baby".
The proposal papers took longer than we anticipated getting to our house. Finally they arrived on Friday! We had enough time to run to the bank for the certified cheque and mail it off at the post office. Hopefully our agency gets it tomorrow.
I don't know why there has been so much communication problems with our agency. We had a fee schedule that we budgeted for and when the bill came, we had another two thousand dollars in surprises! Seriously, we are so hurt and mad at this. Between, the additional jack in fees last month and then this month's surprise, we went from happily relieved and funded for this trip to a thousand dollars short! A thousand dollars! Arg! (That is me being nice)
A cool thing that happened this week... Hubby and I are trying to put together a durable family photo book to leave with New Sister and her caregivers at the orphanage in between trips. (We are praying her caregivers will show her the pictures of the family to get her used to us as much as she can ). Anyways, the books can be quite costly especially with shipping to Canada. Well, hubby bought a coffee from McDonald's on Saturday(which ...is RARE) and WON A FREE PHOTO BOOK!!! It was one of the brands we were looking into as well!!!!! Thank you GOD! Awesome, awesome. Now we have to get it done so we can get it here before we leave.
So, we have faith that everything will work out according to God's plan for us and for New Sister. We are throwing around names so that we can stop calling her New Sister and I think we may have one picked. Maybe...ha ha! We are also waiting on an updated phot of her and hopefully a video. The picture in her file is almost a year old...she should have change a lot since then!
I can only imagine how seriously cute she is now :)
Please continue to pray for our journey. Thanks you for the support. We have a lot of very caring and awesome people along for this ride. What a village!
All kidding aside, we are proud to announce that we have accepted the referral given to us for another beautiful daughter to join our crazy pink household!
It has been a SUPER CRAZY and UBER EMOTIONAL week. It is surreal. In one month, we will be in-country meeting New Sister!
As you probably guessed, the doctor saw nothing in her file that screamed out anything we didn't already prepare for. We figured as much but it was nice to get the official second opinion.
It was neat taking her file to the doctor. Although she was not there in body, it felt like the first thing I did for her that made her more real; more as a daughter. I walked out of the doctor's office and quickly got in the van before the tears fell. It was official now. Real. We are having another "baby".
The proposal papers took longer than we anticipated getting to our house. Finally they arrived on Friday! We had enough time to run to the bank for the certified cheque and mail it off at the post office. Hopefully our agency gets it tomorrow.
I don't know why there has been so much communication problems with our agency. We had a fee schedule that we budgeted for and when the bill came, we had another two thousand dollars in surprises! Seriously, we are so hurt and mad at this. Between, the additional jack in fees last month and then this month's surprise, we went from happily relieved and funded for this trip to a thousand dollars short! A thousand dollars! Arg! (That is me being nice)
A cool thing that happened this week... Hubby and I are trying to put together a durable family photo book to leave with New Sister and her caregivers at the orphanage in between trips. (We are praying her caregivers will show her the pictures of the family to get her used to us as much as she can ). Anyways, the books can be quite costly especially with shipping to Canada. Well, hubby bought a coffee from McDonald's on Saturday(which ...is RARE) and WON A FREE PHOTO BOOK!!! It was one of the brands we were looking into as well!!!!! Thank you GOD! Awesome, awesome. Now we have to get it done so we can get it here before we leave.
So, we have faith that everything will work out according to God's plan for us and for New Sister. We are throwing around names so that we can stop calling her New Sister and I think we may have one picked. Maybe...ha ha! We are also waiting on an updated phot of her and hopefully a video. The picture in her file is almost a year old...she should have change a lot since then!
I can only imagine how seriously cute she is now :)
Please continue to pray for our journey. Thanks you for the support. We have a lot of very caring and awesome people along for this ride. What a village!
Tuesday, October 22, 2013
The call
Supper was just about to be served when hubby decided to follow up with a call that was made to us. I saw the phone number a couple of times in the day on call waiting but the name on the little screen did not ring a bell. We figured it was a solicitor since a message was not left on the machine.
I watched Hubby's face during the call. First he realized WHO it was and then WHY she was calling us so urgently. He brought the phone to me and placed her on speaker. The one and ONLY thing that I heard or got out of that whole conversation was: "We have a proposal for a little girl".
That's right folks, we have been MATCHED!!!!
With all the stuff that happened with the country's government, we stopped thinking this was going to be a possibility until the new year. We are in AWE!
15 minutes after we hung up (and after the kids got settled with their dinner), I had to call back our agency and confess that I had not listen to a WORD she said after she told us we were matched. Naturally, she laughed at me and proceeded to explain the details again. This time, adding to it, that she had just sent us the file via email. So, while I was finishing our conversation with our agency, hubby has already snooped in my email and scouted the sweet child's picture in the file!
Aw, she is darling. Simply precious. We will not give any info on her quite yet. We have a week to decide if we want to commit to her and start the process. During this time we are advised to seek a medical opinion.
From the time we commit, it should be around 6 or 7 weeks until we travel on our first trip to meet her. So....around Christmas...
This trip is not a pick up trip! After meeting her, we will have to tell our agency that we have seen her and are still interested in pursuing her adoption. More papers get filed and processed. Our in-country agency will do all the legal stuff and court for us. When court accepts us as her parents, she becomes legally ours and travel arrangements get made to go pick her up. It is estimated that all of that portion of the process is 3-4 months from the first trip.
Soooo....still more waiting. And a lot of moolah that we still need to fundraise. If you have ideas, let us know.
PLEASE pray for our family and this sweet little girl!!!!!!!!
I watched Hubby's face during the call. First he realized WHO it was and then WHY she was calling us so urgently. He brought the phone to me and placed her on speaker. The one and ONLY thing that I heard or got out of that whole conversation was: "We have a proposal for a little girl".
That's right folks, we have been MATCHED!!!!
With all the stuff that happened with the country's government, we stopped thinking this was going to be a possibility until the new year. We are in AWE!
15 minutes after we hung up (and after the kids got settled with their dinner), I had to call back our agency and confess that I had not listen to a WORD she said after she told us we were matched. Naturally, she laughed at me and proceeded to explain the details again. This time, adding to it, that she had just sent us the file via email. So, while I was finishing our conversation with our agency, hubby has already snooped in my email and scouted the sweet child's picture in the file!
Aw, she is darling. Simply precious. We will not give any info on her quite yet. We have a week to decide if we want to commit to her and start the process. During this time we are advised to seek a medical opinion.
From the time we commit, it should be around 6 or 7 weeks until we travel on our first trip to meet her. So....around Christmas...
This trip is not a pick up trip! After meeting her, we will have to tell our agency that we have seen her and are still interested in pursuing her adoption. More papers get filed and processed. Our in-country agency will do all the legal stuff and court for us. When court accepts us as her parents, she becomes legally ours and travel arrangements get made to go pick her up. It is estimated that all of that portion of the process is 3-4 months from the first trip.
Soooo....still more waiting. And a lot of moolah that we still need to fundraise. If you have ideas, let us know.
PLEASE pray for our family and this sweet little girl!!!!!!!!
Saturday, September 28, 2013
Update, update, update
Update, update, update...
Nothing too exciting. It's been a while since my last post. What has happened since???
We had to do our yearly homestudy update yesterday. For so many reasons this makes me want to cry. For one, it is an additional cost and not a cheap bill either. $500 to update our Homestudy and $1200 for an annual File Maintenance (we won't even go there with how I feel about this fee...I'm SURE one can imagine!!!!). Secondly, it is a nagging reminder that we are STILL WAITING for things to progress (for us to get matched)...tick tock, tick tock....$$$$....$$$$$....
We have been asked by a few people about our Homestudy Update. Let me start by saying what it is not. It is NOT going to speed up the process! So many people have asked us this. What the update is for, is to change anything in the previous homestudy.
So for us, the kids got older, joined new activities, ended other activities (like kickboxing because the whole school was shut down whaaaaa), we had a cat before (now we don't), our back yard got an awesome play set and we LOWERED our age parameters (still a girl though).
Why did we lower our age limit? We discussed it quite a bit and realized that if there was a girl who was younger but wasn't being matched with us because she was months shy of what we requested, we would hate to miss out or have her orphaned longer than she needs to be. So, if we end up with a baby (which I really doubt would happen) then so be it. We've done babies five times already ha ha!
Thanks for praying for us!
Nothing too exciting. It's been a while since my last post. What has happened since???
We had to do our yearly homestudy update yesterday. For so many reasons this makes me want to cry. For one, it is an additional cost and not a cheap bill either. $500 to update our Homestudy and $1200 for an annual File Maintenance (we won't even go there with how I feel about this fee...I'm SURE one can imagine!!!!). Secondly, it is a nagging reminder that we are STILL WAITING for things to progress (for us to get matched)...tick tock, tick tock....$$$$....$$$$$....
We have been asked by a few people about our Homestudy Update. Let me start by saying what it is not. It is NOT going to speed up the process! So many people have asked us this. What the update is for, is to change anything in the previous homestudy.
So for us, the kids got older, joined new activities, ended other activities (like kickboxing because the whole school was shut down whaaaaa), we had a cat before (now we don't), our back yard got an awesome play set and we LOWERED our age parameters (still a girl though).
Why did we lower our age limit? We discussed it quite a bit and realized that if there was a girl who was younger but wasn't being matched with us because she was months shy of what we requested, we would hate to miss out or have her orphaned longer than she needs to be. So, if we end up with a baby (which I really doubt would happen) then so be it. We've done babies five times already ha ha!
Thanks for praying for us!
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