Can anyone help?

I want to add a gadget to the side reel that shows a link that people can click on so that they can see our adoption support letter.  Can anyone tell me how to do this?  I am not a technical person, it took me forever to figure out how to link a web page into my post!  I don't want to bother everyone with the letter, only those who are interested.

Amazing How Good God Is!

We got an email yesterday stating that we have received a matching grant from Hand In Hand Adoption Inc!  It is a matching grant, we have to raise a certain amount of money and Hand In Hand will match it dollar for dollar up to a certain dollar amount.  If we raise all of our funds that they match, we will be getting so close to our goal.  With the added expense of a second child, we unfortunately are going to have to ask our family and friends for their help.  This was not our goal in the beginning, but we have done everything in our power to get all our funds, we know we have great friends and family and will help us get to our goal!  All we have to raise now is our trip 2 expenses and we will be done!  How great God is!

Ok, I think I goofed!

I sent off all of our information for our USCIS update and amendments that we need to do.  Without thinking I sent it certified mail, we have been sending everything certified mail.  I looked it up today to see if it arrived, since it is only going across town.  They tried to deliver, but said no one was there to sign.  As I thought about it, I think the address I sent it to was a P.O. Box.  Of course they can't sign at P.O. boxes!  Hopefully someone will go get the letter at the post office, otherwise it is going to sit there for 15 days before it will be redelivered.  I know, stupid mistake.  Does anyone have their pink sheet from the USCIS, if so, can you tell me the address of the NBC in Lee's Summit that I sent it too?

Dossier 1 update is in the mail!

Randy spent about 5 hours on the road yesterday driving to Topeka, getting everything Apostilled, then going to FedEx, almost shipping everything without making copies of it for our agency.  We have to send along 2 copies of our Dossier along with the original.   If they do it, they charge like $.25 a page if they copy it.  All this time he had Camden with him.  Yeah for Randy.  All this time I was sitting at a school doing NOTHING!!!  It is state testing week at the district that I sub for.  Since I had not been trained to give the test, I couldn't give it.  So they had someone else come in and give the test so I sat in the room all day making sure kids didn't cheat.  BORING!!  But hey, I got paid.  Today, I am going to get our home study update to the USCIS, hopefully, and get that information updated. 

Question for those who have updated, we are having to change the age range on our 171-H to accommodate siblings.  We are also only 4 months away from our fingerprints expiring, can we do both at the same time?  I have a call into our agency, and waiting for their return call, but thought I would throw that question out for those who have done it before.  Any response would be great!
Denise

What a busy week!

First of all our home study is done!!!!  Yeah, we got it in the mail on Friday.  So we printed off all the other documents that we need for our dossier update and we marched off to the bank as soon as I got home from work on Friday.  Also we got Camden back on Friday.  He had spent a week with my mom so that I could work and Randy could get some stuff done around the house.  Mainly a fence, if we are bringing 2 kiddos home, I need a fence to corral them all!  So off to the bank we went.  The notary there knows us by name, but she gets so excited for us also!  On Monday, Randy and Camden will be loading in the car to drive to Topeka to get everything Apostilled and then copied, and finally to the Fed Ex office and mailed to our agency.  I know everything will not be in Russia by April 14th, but hey we did the best we could.  It will be in the hands of our agency by then. 

Camden and I finally got to the grocery store today which was a good thing, our refrigerator and pantry were getting a little empty, so nice to have some food again.  I just did not have the energy all week to go after work, I honestly don't know how working moms do it.  More power to you all!  I will feel much better when everything is in the mail on Monday, and I take a breath.  6 weeks is way too short to get that much stuff done, especially when you have to rely on other people.  I am just glad that stress is over.  Now all we have to do is resubmit our home study to the USCIS to modify our age range.  We are already approved for 2 children, but only up to the age of 2.  We have to raise it to the age of 3.  Thankfully the Government hasn't "shut down" yet, if they do, it is going to be bad.  No USCIS, and no passport and visa applications centers open.  Also I heard that US Embassy's will shut down also if there is a Government shutdown.  Praying that they get everything figured out ASAP!

Please Pray for this Family

You never really know how good we have it in the U.S. where special needs children are treated and educated.  They are given every chance to thrive.  Please pray for this family as they struggle to make their family complete.

Thursday, March 24, 2011Kirill's Story

Please feel free to share the following on your blogs. It is a summary of our adoption journey so far. Please help us spread the word. We are hoping somehow someone will be able to help us.


Two years ago Greg and I began praying for God to do whatever he wanted with our lives. We handed him a “blank check” so to speak, and told him to cash it. He opened our eyes to children with disabilities wasting away across the ocean in Eastern Europe. We joined God and started our adoption journey.

Our family is more than equipped to handle a child with special needs. I have a degree in Early Childhood Education. I am a member of the Board of Directors of Best Buddies of Alabama. I have volunteered for RISE and Eagles’ Wings. All of these organizations serve individuals with special needs. My husband I have close friends and family who have special needs and we are a big part of each other’s lives. Our wedding party included some of these special people. Our involvement with individuals with special needs led us to adopt a child with special needs; specifically, we chose Down Syndrome.

As we prayed over the faces of thousands of orphaned children with Down Syndrome, we ultimately chose a little boy named Sergey from Russia. Eight months later, as we neared the finish line of our adoption, one of Sergey’s family members in Russia stepped forward to adopt him. We were heartbroken for our loss, but God showed us that we were following him, and his ways are perfect. We knew we still wanted to adopt, so the way we saw it, two children would find homes because of our journey…Sergey went to his family and now we would choose another child to come into our family. We took great comfort in knowing that God could see this when we first committed to Sergey! We were honored to be a part of his plan.


Shortly after losing Sergey, we received a new referral with a grainy photo of a four-year-old blond-haired boy wearing pink glasses named Kirill. We were instantly in love with him. We had to re-file a lot of our paperwork because of the change in referrals and regions of Russia, but we were fast and we thought we were looking at three more months at the most until we would have Kirill home.

That was well over a year ago.

Since then so many things have happened. A tragic story of an adoptive mother sending her child back to his country alone on a plane with a note pinned to his shirt rocked our world…he was from Russia. Adoptions in Russia came to a screeching halt. Kirill’s region stopped processing adoptions for eight long months. The judge refused to accept any American adoption cases until an official treaty was signed between the United States and Russia.

Even though we wouldn’t be able to finalize the adoption in court until the treaty was signed, we were allowed to go visit Kirill and sign our official petition to adopt him in August 2010. We fell more deeply in love with him. This was our son.

During that time, we found out that Kirill is the first child from his region EVER to be adopted with Down Syndrome. A birth mother keeping her child with Down Syndrome is unheard of in this area of the world. Adoptions of children with Down Syndrome just don’t happen there, these children are literally hidden away from society in orphanages and mental institutions. As our process continued, it became apparent that Kirill would be a pioneer. If our adoption was approved, it would pave the way for other children with special needs to be adopted from this region.

Then, a miracle happened around Christmas and the judge in this region suddenly changed her mind and began processing American adoptions again. We were elated. Could this be the light at the end of a very long tunnel? I was somewhat nervous about Kirill being the first child adopted with Down Syndrome from his region, but our agency was very confident that if we got a court date, our adoption would be approved. In seventeen years, they had never had a case rejected IF the family was issued a court date. We were told not to worry, so I didn’t. After meeting the judge’s requests for several supporting court documents, we were finally granted a court date-March 17, 2011. St. Patrick’s Day…I was thrilled. This would be our new favorite holiday! Our son was coming home!

Our other son, Clayton, who had just turned three when we started this adoption process, has prayed fervently for his brother. He is now almost five. When we told him Kirill was coming home, oh my…we had an excited big brother on our hands! At one point he even went to his room, dumped out his toy cars and divided them into two stacks…one for him and one for Kirill.

Last week, as we sat in the courtroom and suffered through five agonizing hours of difficult questioning, we were not prepared for anything but an approval of our case. Two doctors, two social workers, and the Minister of Children’s Services all made very strong statements on our behalf. They fought for us. Hard.

But when the ruling was read, the judge said, “Your application to adopt is rejected.” The basis given was that Kirill was “not socially adaptable” due to his “medical condition” and he was better off in an institution than in a home with a family. As the judge read her ruling, she stated several times that we were a good family, that we met all the criteria to adopt a child, but that she would not approve our adoption because Kirill has Down Syndrome. She told us that we could adopt another child, because legally our application had no problems according to Russian adoption law. She said she would approve our adoption for a “typical” child, but not this child. Why? The only reason? Because he has Down Syndrome. Even though we were approved by our home study and by the USCIS to adopt a child with special needs. It makes no sense whatsoever. Denying a child a family because he has Down Syndrome is a violation of human rights at its most basic level!

It was like a terrible dream. We were so unprepared for this outcome. As we left the courthouse in a mental fog, the doctors and social workers that had testified came to us and said, “If you appeal, we will fight for you. Appeal. Fight this decision.” Of course we were going to appeal…I could no more walk away from our biological son, Clayton, at this point. Kirill is just as much my son.

So here we are, asking God to move the mountain that is standing between Kirill and us as we appeal to the Supreme Court in Moscow. There are also three other families who are in various stages of adopting children with Down Syndrome from Kirill’s region; one of the families has a court hearing set for next week.

We are hoping that someone will hear our outcry and help us bring our son and these other waiting children home. His adoption will set the precedent for many other children in his region. There are 98 children in his orphanage with special needs alone. It is one of many orphanages in this region that houses children with special needs. This is about more than just one child, the lives of hundreds of children with special need are at stake.  Please help us.

We got a grant!!!!

Just a quick snippet! We got a grant!  Yeah!!!!!  It is from a small local church in our area.  Since we are on two lists with our agency, we will get $500 if we get a referral for one child.  If we get a sibling pair, we will get $1000!!!!!!!! 

Either way every little bit helps, I have to work 6 days to make just over $500 so that is awesome to me.  11 days for a thousand.  Even better!

I also got word that all of our references are in on our other grant, so we will know within 10 business days if we get that one!  Praying hard.
Denise