Well after getting off to a very slow and confusing start, we are back on track. There were a couple of months there when we actually had to release Harrison but God had allowed us to get back on track and and we are now in the final phases of the process. Our home study is complete and our USCIS had just been sent.
While we wait for the USCIS we are getting our dossier documentation current. Since most of our paper work is over 6 months old we are having to get it all redone so it will be current when we get our USCIS approval form back. Then we can send it to the state to get it apossilled and then send it to the Eastern Europe.
We are praying that we will be able travel sometime in February or March of this year and there will be much to do before then. We will be having seveal fund rasiers and we would be so grateful and honored if you could help us. Currently we still need about $20,000 for travel expenses, facilitator fees and lodging.
We have had a lot of calls this week wanting to know if the new Russian ban on American adoption will affect us. Currently no since the part of Eastern Europe is a seperate nation and has been since 1922. But we want to get over there and make Harrision a part of our family as as possible and we welcome all prayers and support.
Sunday, December 30, 2012
Monday, May 7, 2012
The Adoption Journey has Begun
After a little bit of confusion about which direction
to take, the team at Reece's Rainbow guided us in the correct paths. We have
completed all of our initial paper work from them and sent it off to them two
weeks ago by fax and we sent the hard copies last week. We have selected a Home
Study agency from North Alabama and we received our packet of required
documents from them. It took a couple of months but we finally got all of the
necessary paper work together and sent it to them last week as well. We were fingerprinted
last week and sent them off to the company doing the background investigations.
The reason for the delay is the first place we when to be fingerprinted would
only sign the fingerprint card and not the form. Kathy checked with the
background agency and she was told if they did not sign the form the
application would be rejected. So we went to the sheriff’s department and they
did the prints and signed the form and the card and did not charge us anything
for it.
After getting home from church last night we both sat down to check our email and we had received our Dossier packet from our Reece’s Rainbow representative. Wow what a packet of information, please pray for Kathy because she is going to be very busy getting all of this required information together, but I have the utmost confidence in her that she can get this done by the time we have our finally Home study document. By getting it now we both feel that we can get ahead of the game. We will be doing as much as possible and sending for reviews, so hopefully when the final Home study document arrives we will have everything ready to send for the final review before have it sent to be apostilled.
We have also been doing a lot of in home preparation as well. For the past three years we have wanted to replace our flooring but just could not seem to find the right deal. Well recently I was doing some surfing and I ran across a sale on the Home Depot site that was too good to pass up and by ordering it on-line I got an additional 10% off. And the best part is they delivered it to our front door with their truck and forklift. Me, our nephew, son and son-in-law have been working as much as we could on weekend and at night and last Saturday we finally had every stitch of carpet out of the house and our new laminate flooring in. We put it in every room including the closets; however, we opted not to put it in the Kitchen and bathrooms. We were able to find another type of vinyl flooring that perfectly matched the laminate flooring we put down and it also looks like a hardwood floor and we have it done in the master bath now for the guest bath. The kitchen and utility room will be left and we will be FINISHED with the flooring. Then all that will be left to do is the floor/shoe molding.
We have purchased a new bedroom for our (hope to be) new son, it is a very cleaver design because it is like bunk beds but each bed is free standing. The bottom is a full size bed that slide under the top bunk which is actually a studio bunk with a desk built in one side. We did this because we have a 7 year old grandson and a 10 year old nephew and Kathy and I both feel they will be bunking at our house quite a bit when we get our son home.
We have crossed a huge hurdle but we have many more to go and we request that you keep us in your thoughts and prayers. Also this is going to be a costly endeavor and if you would like to contribute to the cause please click on the link at the side and donate what you can. Any amount will be greatly appreciated and by donating from the site link it is tax deductible.
After getting home from church last night we both sat down to check our email and we had received our Dossier packet from our Reece’s Rainbow representative. Wow what a packet of information, please pray for Kathy because she is going to be very busy getting all of this required information together, but I have the utmost confidence in her that she can get this done by the time we have our finally Home study document. By getting it now we both feel that we can get ahead of the game. We will be doing as much as possible and sending for reviews, so hopefully when the final Home study document arrives we will have everything ready to send for the final review before have it sent to be apostilled.
We have also been doing a lot of in home preparation as well. For the past three years we have wanted to replace our flooring but just could not seem to find the right deal. Well recently I was doing some surfing and I ran across a sale on the Home Depot site that was too good to pass up and by ordering it on-line I got an additional 10% off. And the best part is they delivered it to our front door with their truck and forklift. Me, our nephew, son and son-in-law have been working as much as we could on weekend and at night and last Saturday we finally had every stitch of carpet out of the house and our new laminate flooring in. We put it in every room including the closets; however, we opted not to put it in the Kitchen and bathrooms. We were able to find another type of vinyl flooring that perfectly matched the laminate flooring we put down and it also looks like a hardwood floor and we have it done in the master bath now for the guest bath. The kitchen and utility room will be left and we will be FINISHED with the flooring. Then all that will be left to do is the floor/shoe molding.
We have purchased a new bedroom for our (hope to be) new son, it is a very cleaver design because it is like bunk beds but each bed is free standing. The bottom is a full size bed that slide under the top bunk which is actually a studio bunk with a desk built in one side. We did this because we have a 7 year old grandson and a 10 year old nephew and Kathy and I both feel they will be bunking at our house quite a bit when we get our son home.
We have crossed a huge hurdle but we have many more to go and we request that you keep us in your thoughts and prayers. Also this is going to be a costly endeavor and if you would like to contribute to the cause please click on the link at the side and donate what you can. Any amount will be greatly appreciated and by donating from the site link it is tax deductible.
Friday, January 6, 2012
Today is Epiphany
Just so you will know I am a Baptist Minister but I am also fascinated with religious holidays and what they represent. So it is because of this interest that I am writing about Epiphany today.
Epiphany is the climax of the Advent/Christmas Season and the Twelve Days of Christmas, which are usually counted from the evening of December 25th until the morning of January 6th, which is the Twelfth Day. In following this older custom of counting the days beginning at sundown, the evening of January 5th is the Twelfth Night. This is an occasion for feasting in some cultures, including the baking of a special King's Cake as part of the festivities of Epiphany (a King's Cake is part of the observance of Mardi Gras in French Catholic culture of the Southern USA). In some church traditions, only the full days are counted so that January 5th is the Eleventh Day of Christmas, January 6th is the Twelfth Day, and the evening of January 6th is counted as the Twelfth Night.
Epiphany is observed in most Christian Religious because it commemorates the coming of the Magi or Wise Men to present gifts to the Christ Child and to make him known to other non Jewish people. What is amazing is that we teach our children that the wise men came to present gifts the night he was born but if you will study the scriptures you will see the wise men did not actually find the child until he was about two years old. Think about it, Joseph and Mary were in Bethlehem when Christ was Born. Also the scriptures tell us that he was taken to the temple for his brisk or circumcision when he was 8 days old. And there they were met by Simeon and a prophetess who knew who this child was by sight. It was when the wise men came to Herod asking about the child that he became scared this child would take his throne and he ordered that all males 3 years and under to be killed.
During this time the wise men found Joseph, Mary and the Christ child and presented their gifts to him. And God sent an Angel who warned the wise men in a dream not to return to Herod but to go home another way. God Also sent an Angel to Joseph to warn him Herod was trying to find the child to kill him and told him to take Mary and the child into Egypt and remain there until he told him that it was safe to bring the child back home.
Just study the first four Gospels of the New Testament and think about it. Also use your commentaries and you will see but most of all let the Holy Spirit teach you. That is why God sent the Holy Spirit, to be our comforter and our guide.
Epiphany is the climax of the Advent/Christmas Season and the Twelve Days of Christmas, which are usually counted from the evening of December 25th until the morning of January 6th, which is the Twelfth Day. In following this older custom of counting the days beginning at sundown, the evening of January 5th is the Twelfth Night. This is an occasion for feasting in some cultures, including the baking of a special King's Cake as part of the festivities of Epiphany (a King's Cake is part of the observance of Mardi Gras in French Catholic culture of the Southern USA). In some church traditions, only the full days are counted so that January 5th is the Eleventh Day of Christmas, January 6th is the Twelfth Day, and the evening of January 6th is counted as the Twelfth Night.
Epiphany is observed in most Christian Religious because it commemorates the coming of the Magi or Wise Men to present gifts to the Christ Child and to make him known to other non Jewish people. What is amazing is that we teach our children that the wise men came to present gifts the night he was born but if you will study the scriptures you will see the wise men did not actually find the child until he was about two years old. Think about it, Joseph and Mary were in Bethlehem when Christ was Born. Also the scriptures tell us that he was taken to the temple for his brisk or circumcision when he was 8 days old. And there they were met by Simeon and a prophetess who knew who this child was by sight. It was when the wise men came to Herod asking about the child that he became scared this child would take his throne and he ordered that all males 3 years and under to be killed.
During this time the wise men found Joseph, Mary and the Christ child and presented their gifts to him. And God sent an Angel who warned the wise men in a dream not to return to Herod but to go home another way. God Also sent an Angel to Joseph to warn him Herod was trying to find the child to kill him and told him to take Mary and the child into Egypt and remain there until he told him that it was safe to bring the child back home.
Just study the first four Gospels of the New Testament and think about it. Also use your commentaries and you will see but most of all let the Holy Spirit teach you. That is why God sent the Holy Spirit, to be our comforter and our guide.
Friday, December 30, 2011
God still amazes me.
A lot has transpired since my last post. First of all, I am now an ordained minister and pastor of Macedonia South Bapitst Church in Montevallo, AL. I was called as the pastor a year ago and was ordained in December 2010 and I have been the bi-vocational pastor there since. I still find it truly remarkable how God works because this is the Church I have attended since I was 14. The Church where Kathy and I were married and raised our children in, the church where our children were baptized. And I had the wonderful privelidge of baptizing my daughter and son-in-law earlier this year. During all of this time I have been working on completing my seminary studies and I am hoping to be completed with my Master in DIV/Pastoral Preaching degree by the end 2013.
Our family has grown consiberably in the past couple of years, we now have 8 grandchildren, one of our grandsons is in heaven, and we are looking forward to welcoming his brother into the world next month. In July we had two added, one born July 26 and one July 27, WOW WHAT A WEEK for Poppa and Grandma. You ask how can this be, you see we took our nephews and neice in when my brother, their father, died in 2000. And we claim their children as our grandchildren because they are grand children.
In 2011 we also said goodbye to many family members, my father went home to be with the Lord on March 20, 2011 and one month to the day on April 20th, Kathy's mother passed away quite unexpected. It was a very hard and trying time because on July 30, 2010 we said hello and good bye to our grandson Isaac and Goodbye to an Aunt in June of 2010 and in November of 2011 to a dear friend we have known all our married life. But Life goes on.
What lies ahead? After much prayer and thought, A new beginning, Kathy and I are trying to adopt an young boy with hearying loss. We will post more details in the coming days. Also you may ask why a child with hearing loss, my reply is why not? You see I have deafness in my family on both sides. Both of my parents younger siblings are both deaf, and I have a hearing loss myself and wear hearing aids. So signing and talking with deaf is something that we grew up with and is a part of our family and this little boy will need that kind of family support around him.
What will 2012 bring, God only knows but I know that what ever comes we can handle all of them because, "We can do all things through Christ who gives us strength."
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)