I love getting the Mail

Yeah I know, that sounds crazy right, but I really do. Randy thinks I am crazy that I like getting it, usually if he is home and I am not, he doesn't go get it, because he knows I like to get it. I just love going and finding a surprise in it. It hardly ever happens but it does happen sometimes. Usually though all we get is junk mail. We only get 1 bill a month, our electric bill so our mailbox is usually a disappointment.

Well not today!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

WE GOT OUR 171-H IN THE MAIL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yes I am a little excited. After the phone calls we have had with the guy approving our application I was about ready to call our Senator to get some action done. We got it though, I am so happy.

Also we had a nice extra envelope from some awesome people that I grew up with and they made a donation to our adoption. That is amazing. God does provide. Thanks so much. I really need to get my thank you cards done. I need to send them out for all the people who donated stuff to our garage sale, and a few other things. Thanks again.

Yeah, I love getting the mail!!!


Also, the timeline for our application was, we sent it in on April 14th, our fingerprints were on May 21st and we received it today June 30th. So total timeline is 2 months, 2 weeks, and 2 days! Kinda cool, 2,2,2. Yes I know I am corny too.
Paka,
Randy, Denise, and Camden

Camden's First Kneeboarding Experience

Last weekend we took Camden on his first kneeboarding experience. We are huge lake and water people, as you can see it is a long video, but man he loved every minute of it! Please ignore me in the video as I struggle to hang on, it is hard to drag that slow!!!

Our little Man is 2!!!!!!!

Yesterday was Camden's 2nd birthday, and we had a blast. We celebrated last weekend with my family, (Denise) and then we had our own private birthday celebration yesterday just the three of us. Unfortunately Randy's family lives too far away to celebrate every celebration with them.

Here are a few pictures of what we did that day!

Camden's favorite character is Elmo, so he got an Elmo cake.


The bike that we got him.


His really big present, his swing set, which will be enjoyed by his sister also.


Riding the Kansas City Northern Railroad train! Cutest setup and only 50 cents a ride.


Clifford is his other favorite character, and he was at Crown Center!



We also went to the splash park across the street and had a blast, he got soaking wet and loved every minute of it! We ended the morning with an awesome lunch at the best BBQ joint in KC, Oklahoma Joe's! You know it is good BBQ when it is made in a gas station.

Blog Junkie

I admit it, Hi, my name is Denise, and I am a blog junkie. First thing in the morning after getting Camden settled down at the table with his breakfast, I head straight to the office to see what people have posted. I had never even read a blog until we decided to adopt. When we first decided to adopt I had my reservations about Russia because they weren't a Hague country. Randy lead me to a great website that is dedicated totally to blogs of people who were adopting from Russia. After reading all the success stories and talking to people who had adopted from Russia, I was hooked. I look forward to witty things that people had said and the pictures that they have put up. It gets me excited. Sometimes frustrated, when I see people get dates when I know that I am so far away from any kind of date, travel for us, but still I love to read what they are doing. Also I love to read what first time parents are going through. Since we already have a biological child I can kinda relate.

As today was the day that we returned from our awesome RV trip from last year, I will leave you with one more picture. This is Camden getting his feet wet in the Pacific Ocean. He hated it, because it was so cold!!

Things are loking up...

Though I wish they would sign the agreement a little faster. See below

Click here for article

Update on USCIS

Well I called on Monday and actually talked to a person and it didn't take long at all to get to them, but of course they weren't the person that I really needed to talk to. So they transferred me to the person who I needed to talk to. Of course they transferred me straight to their voice mail. That just really annoys me, it shows me that they screen their calls, don't they know there are desperate parents-to-be that want to talk to a person, not a machine!!!

Well, I left a very nice message, and asked for a call back. Well, what we got was an email today. Not what I wanted, but a response anyway. They didn't like the wording in one of our documents that we submitted, so we have to reword it and the resubmit the document and then he will continue to review our application to see if we would be fit parents. I love how the government gets to determine if I will be a fit parent. But that is another soapbox all in itself. When you work in education for as many years as I have, you get a taste for all different parenting types!!! But that is where we are.

I also spoke to our agency today about when we would get a region assignment, and they said that sometimes we don't get a region assignment until we get a referral!!! I like that they work on so many regions, but hate that I don't know where we are going. We could be in Moscow, or we could be over in Siberia!!! I want to research where we are going, not wait until 2 weeks before we leave to get a feel for where our daughter is from!!!

Paka,
Randy, Denise, and Camden

USCIS

Okay, so I read on another blog that someone who had their fingerprints done the Monday after us, we had ours done on a Friday, got their 171-H approval back last week. So I am thinking, ohhh, ours should be in the mail really soon. So Randy decides that he is going to look up our status on the USCIS website. Well of course our receipt # does not exist, and looking into it a little further today, they only show status updates for receipts that start with EAC, WAC, LIN, or SRC, our receipt starts with SIM. So then I call the number that they provide, and of course forgetting that it is Sunday they are closed. So hopefully I can call tomorrow and find our where we are in our 171-H approval. Praying that it comes soon!

So long for now,
Randy, Denise, and Camden

This is a busy month.

Wow, lots going on this month, on the 5th Randy had his birthday, his 35th. On June 26th Camden has his 2nd birthday. Last weekend we spent all weekend long building Camden's birthday present. A massive wooden fort swingset. It took a lot of time, but I think he is going to love it. He hasn't really gotten to play with it yet because we haven't put the pea gravel in yet, so right now it is just sand and it is a huge mess. Randy took his Nursing Boards exam today, we should find out next week if he passed, if we want to pay to see his score, if not then we have to wait a few weeks to get his results in the mail. I forgot to post that he graduated from the Nursing Program on May 26th, so he is done with school for now. After the adoption he is wanting to go back to school to get his Bachelor's in Nursing. We are going to the lake to celebrate Camden's birthday with family. I also got to get Camden enrolled in swimming lessons this year. I just got done subbing for 3 days for summer school, and of course we got church and small group! I love to be busy, it seems to make the time go by faster.

On the adoption front we got an email on Monday marking the 1 month date of our DTR (Dossier to Russia). We are just waiting on a region assignment and then we can wait on a referral. Our agency works with 9 regions in Russia, so they try to match us up with the best region for our wants and our family and then assign us there. So waiting is our game right now.

If anyone has any good fundraising ideas, please pass them along!!! Also the totals for our garage sale, ebay sales, and craigslist sales came to $2470.73! Woo Hoo!!!

1 Year Ago...

I never would of dreamt that 1 year ago we would be on this journey that we are on. Last June 4th we left KC for a 17 day 5,000 mile RV trip with our little man with dreams of expanding our family. We went to 5 National Parks, visited family in UT, and CA, and had an amazing adventure. For those of you who know me, knows I hate to be in the car especially for long drives, but let me tell you, RVing is the way to go! I am attaching some pictures of our adventures.

To keep this adoption related, :-) for those who have finished their adoption, or are almost finished, how did you all finance your adoption? Fundraisers, extra hours, loans. We want to cash flow this, no loans, but I am curious as to what others have done before us. I have racked my brain and I am out of ideas now. If you could help that would be awesome!

This is Camden in the RV. He was such a good little boy! Strapped into his car seat sometimes 8 or 9 hours a day traveling!


We are hiking the Narrows in Zion National Park. That backpack was amazing and Camden loved it!


Sitting in front of Lower Yosemite Falls! Love Yosemite National Park.


Hiking to the Natural Arch in Arches National Park in Moab, UT!

Quilt for Raffle Giveway!

Okay, our garage sale raffle did not go so well on our donated quilt. So we are going to try a chip-in widgit for our blog. How this works is we are doing one raffle ticket for $5 or three raffle tickets for $10. On July 15th, we will draw for the winner and who ever wins will win an absolutely georgeous homemade quilt made by my aunt. We will pay for the shipping, so if you are a blog reader out of state, don't worry, we will get it to you! We thank you in advance for supporting our adoption! If you could help spread the word on your blogs, or social media sites we would greatly appreciate it! The quilt fits a queen size bed, which is what is pictured, but would look great on a full size also! No dust ruffle needed on the full! If you have any questions please feel free to contact me here.