Our Adoption

I've been trying for days now to write a Q &A post to try to answer all the questions we've been getting from family and friends about our adoption.  Most adopting families take for granted how the whole process works but I'm realizing that a lot of sweet people around us that are not at all familiar with adoption have A LOT of questions...we are still in the first steps of this long process, and do not have all the answers,  but I will try to give more info. over the next few weeks.

First, a cute little side view picture of our little guy!

  Most people seem to think that we've committed to a child so now we just need to go get him!  Wow, don't I wish it was that easy :)  We actually need to spend the next couple months finishing our homestudy.  We will also be spending the next 6 months compiling our Dossier, which is all the official stuff that needs to be put together and sent to his country.  This is a very long and tiresome process...lots of paper chasing to do.   Overall, this adoption will probably take about a year to complete. 

People have also heard that we have had our first homestudy visit so now the homestudy is over and we need to go get him.  Not that easy, either.  Yes, we've had an official homestudy visit but now we need to finish gathering up all the paperwork needed to finish our homestudy, do medical exams and also do 12 hours of online education- with homework and paperchasing....lots of studying up and making sure that we know what we need to know before our little man joins our family. 

Then there is all the fundraising that needs to happen in the midst of us running all over the place with errands and paperwork and official this-n-that.  Honestly, now that we're in the middle of all this, its hard to think about making time to do the fundraising.  Dan and I have been spending a lot of time trying to design a T-Shirt that we'll be selling here on the blog to help fundraise for this adoption.  We're also looking into doing a puzzle fundraiser where for every $10 you donate, your name or message gets written on the back of a puzzle piece.  Once we get all the puzzle pieces donated, we put the puzzle together and frame it with a glass back as a gift to our little guy when he gets home.  He can then flip it over and see all the amazing people the donated to help bring him home.  I'm still trying to find a usable photo of his country to make a puzzle out of.   I'm sure we'll be doing bake sales, yard sales...you name it.

Right now, we are learning how to get passports and FBI Fingerprints.  I've gotta get us all physicals and get the rest of our paperwork into our home study agency.

Please pray that we can get all of this done and still balance our lives and give time to our children here at home...its going to be very hard to manage it all.  But our little guy is valued and he is worth it.

Things you can do to help:  Pray.  Pray for our family and pray for our little man.  Spread the word about our adoption...the more people that know means the more support we have!  I will not turn down prayers or help of any kind!  If you feel called to help let us know!  You could collect loose change (we've done it for adoptive families), have a bake sale, have a yard sale, donate to our chip-in button on this blog, buy a shirt or a puzzle piece once their up here on the blog...

Its hard for me to ask for help, I'm really an introverted person, but this little boy is no less worthy of the love of a family that you or I.  The country and the culture that he comes from says that he's not worth anything...he's not wanted.  When you think of orphans, you think of only kids that parents have died, right?  Not in Eastern Europe...a lot of kids are orphans simply because they aren't good enough...their not perfect.  Kids with Down Syndrome have no place in society in EE.  Our little man was born with Down Syndrome.  And because of that he is abandoned to an orphanage and runs the risk of growing up and being transferred to a mental institution for life just because of his extra chromosome.  He needs a family.  He needs us.  And that means that our family is going to have to   adovocate for him.

Thank you for following along with us as we travel this road as a family.  We so very much appreciate your prayers.

Blessings,
Kimberly