I-171H is HERE!

It just came in the mail today... WHOO HOO!!!

Its very surreal that this is the long awaited document. And it doesn't look as official as I thought it would. But WOW this is it. :)

I THINK we are going to be able to email all of our stuff to our facilitator now to begin translating. And then when our home study paperwork comes in, we can MAIL OUR DOSSIER. Dude.

Wow, this is really happening!! :D

Show you love

Ok so I know I've been a little blogger happy the last few days, but I HAD to share this.

A lot of you may have already heard this song, but I just came across it last week and I can't get it out of my head. It just makes me want to cry...

Its "Show you love" by Jars of Clay. I'm adding it to my playlist. I hope you enjoy it as much as I am. The words are just so perfect...

Happy to report...

I just heard from the USCIS, and they ARE putting a copy of my i171H in the mail TOMORROW! Hurray! Not sure if the last one was lost in the mail, if its still on its way, or if they had our address wrong, but it doesn't matter now becuase they are mailing a new one! Hallelujah!

And the last of my paperwork was notarized today! Double Hurray!

Now we must wait for the updated licenses and papers from our home study. We have been told this could take up to a couple of weeks... PLEASE pray that it comes sooner than that.

We strongly believe in the power of prayer and we are also trusting that it is the heart of the Father that Pavel not be an orphan ANY longer than necessary. So we ask that you would pray with us that this paperwork would move QUICKLY.

Love to you all!

Award time!

Ok so, lots of my sweet new friends have given me some awards, and WAY past time for me to accept them and pass them along. Thanks guys!


My friends Renee and Lyndi awarded me the Best Friend's award! And the rules for this one are to pass it along to 10 of your own best friends!

1. Gillian- I'm so glad to be walking this road with you!
2. Wendy- So glad we are still in touch!
3. Mindy- My only other blogger buddy from our circle!
4. Sommer- One of my oldest friends!!!
5. Rochelle- I love you, friend!
6. Audra- Blessed to be on this road with you too!!
7. McKenna- What a joy to get to know you!
8. Katrina- My cheers group pal!
9. Brigitte- Hopefully my traveling buddy?! ;)
10. Courtney- Another adoption friend!



And way back in February Renee also awarded me the Lemonade award!

This award is for those who show GREAT ATTITUDE and/or GRATITUDE! If you are given the award, then put the logo on your blog or post. Next, nominate at least 5-10 blogs which show GREAT ATTITUDE and/or GRATITUDE! Be sure to link to your nominees within your post. Let them know that they have received this award by commenting on their blog. Share the love and link to this post and to the person from whom you received your award.

1. My mom. :)

2. Debbie definitely shows great attitude!!

3. Sarah is an amazing young woman with amazing attitude!
4. Beverly is an awesome example of a mom! I love her blog!

5. Lyndi has shown great attitude to ME! Thanks for keeping me possitive!


Melissa gave me the Life is Grand award! The rules are to give 5 reasons why I think life is grand and then tag 5 more people.

1. My God is ALIVE, He FORGIVES, and He LOVES me. That alone would be enough!
2. My husband is amazing and head over heals for him.
3. I have three beautiful, healthy little girls.
4. God is blessing us with a little boy from eastern Europe!
5. I have been blessed with WONDERFUL friends who encourage me, lift me up, and keep me in line!

1. Meredith always has the most possitive attitude, and just loves life.
2. Stephanie is celebrating her newest little miracle right now.
3. Renee enjoys every day with her special K's! :)
4. Heidi definitely LOVES life and enjoys all God has given her. :)
5. Erin is another ROCKIN homeschool mom who enjoys livin' life with her kiddos!


In case I don't get a chance to leave a comment with your award on EVERY one of your pages, if you see this, grab it! And pass it along. :)

Anybody in Texas?

Some dearly loved friends of ours, the Harpers, who moved away to Texas a few years ago, have decided to hold an Adoption Fundraiser Yard Sale... just for our sweet Pavel. :)

In all honesty I can't even hardly think about it with out crying, things like this truely humble and bless me.

But if you are in the Midland/Odessa/Lubbock area of Texas, please stop by their yard sale on April 18th!!

For more info jump on over to Harper Crew News!

Happy World Down Syndrome Day!

Here's to my sweet little daughter playing in my living room... your extra little chromosome melts my heart on a daily basis. I can't imagine our lives without you.

And to the son of my heart, playing on the other side of the world... Mommy's coming for you baby, I can't wait to bring you home!

Confessions

Do you ever just sit at your desk, looking at your paperwork (even though you have done all that you can do) just because you feel like somehow... if you sit there and look at it more... that something will get done? Like papers will just magically be notarized and envelopes of papers you're waiting on to come in the mail will just magically appear in front of you? Do you feel like somehow, if you just SIT at your desk for longer, that something more will get done?

I'll even check my email and secretly hope that some email will just float in from never-never land saying that I've done enough, that I should just come on over to eastern Europe next week.

First adoptions are much like first pregnancies. As many books as you read and people you talk to, you still really have no idea what you're doing until its done. And as much as you want to rush it along to get to your baby, you JUST have to wait.

I'm tired. I'm going to bed. :)

Paperwork status

Just keep you all updated, here's where we are at with paperwork:

~Still waiting on the updated copies of our homestudy to come in. Not sure if I explained this before, but some of the notaries were done wrong on our homestudy papers. So they needed to be redone. But also- our homestudy agency's license expired March 17th. Fun. So instead of just sending me the paperwork, we opted to wait until the license was renewed and send it all together.

~Waiting on my i171h ANY day now. I mailed my homestudy (the last "piece") on Feb 19th. The notaries were not okay by eastern European standards, but okay enough for the USCIS. :) Which is good. They sent me back a letter with a question about where we were filing after we adopt (or something like that), I replied right away, and now... we wait. :)

~Everything else is basically done. We have a couple more papers to notarize, but I think that will be done Sunday. And I've been sending stuff to my stateside coordinator a little at a time, so there will only be a couple papers left for her to look over.

SO... once all that comes together... we can get some apostilles and mail this stuff out!!

Test of faith

We know that God called us to adopt. And we know that if He called us, HE WILL raise the money. And we have been told to estimate $24K for this trip. AND I'm thinking given McKenna's quick turn around time that we should have the money fairly soon within the time that we submit our dossier. Which will, Lord willing, be sometime the first of April.

If there were ever a test of faith- this one is really hitting me in the face RIGHT now:

We have to raise $19,188 in like 4 weeks. Maybe a little longer, maybe a little sooner... but nonetheless.

*Breath in, breath out. Breath in, breath out*

New Look

Ok so I've really been feeling the need to simplify... and this blog was one of the things on the list! I LOVED the frogs... (it seemed so perfect... my girls are obsessed with princess stuff, so frogs seemed like the perfect thing for my little boy!) but it was time to DEclutter! Whew!

This feels much better. :)

Sharing rooms?

Hey guys,

I've got a question for the moms who have already adopted.

Our original plan as far as rooms are concerned was to put Oleg and Pavel in one room and the other three girls (ages 5, 3, and 2) in the other. (They actually already share and have for a while. They like it together.) Now that we are just getting Pavel, I'm debating moving one of the girls in there with him. IF we did that, the one that makes the most sense to me is my 2 year old, Abby, who also has Ds. She turned 2 in November and is still in a crib. She's cruising around the coffee table and walks some with a walker the PT gave us, but nonetheless I'm probably still going to keep her in a crib for a while still. And the plan is to put Pavel in a toddler bed.

My question is- is this a good idea? Would he do better by himself? Would he do better with a sibling? Should I be worried that he'd climb into the crib with Abby? Obviously all kids are different, but I'm wondering how other kids who just came home from a life in an orphanage did... with or without other kids in the room. And I do have one of those video baby monitors, so I will be able to keep an eye on him, but... just curious what the rest of you did/thought.

Thanks!

I'm so in love...

with this face!

Thanks for the comments

Thank you all for the sweet comments! To answer Tami- he's 3. He'll be turning 4 in June. We're probably going to be traveling in May... but praying for April! :)

The sooner the better! I keep watching this video over and over... he DOES look a little sad... just lonely I think. Pray we can get this paperwork done and the money raised so we can bring him home SOON!!!

Its HIM!

A dear friend who is there now was able to get a picture AND video of our little guy!!!

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

I'm in love!!! Daddy and I are coming for you, baby!!!

Adoption To Do list:

Ok lets see...

1. Wait for approval form from USCIS
2. Wait for updated hs documents from our social worker
3. Wait for our State clearance letters from TBI
4. Wait for my husband to get home with my notarized Dossier docs so I can...
5. Wait for my stateside facilitator to look over them

Is adoption exciting or WHAT? ;)

I hold in my hand...

18 DOCUMENTS that need to be notarized on friday! WHEW!

9 forms from Yulia,
6 copies of our passports
2 medical forms,
1 drs license
and a partridge in a pear tree!

Holli, if you're reading this, we are SO grateful you are our notary!
Meredith, if you're reading this, there are a lot of documents comin' your way this weekend!

Get your engines, I mean pens, ready! Bring on the blue ink!! :)

Family Movie Night #1

Sorry this update has taken so long, I've been a little under the weather this weekend.

Well... we had a fun night! We didn't quite have as big of a turnout as we had hoped. But you know, God is good, and He provides. Now, I'm not good at guessing this kind of thing, but I would say there were maybe 20 people there? (Not including all of the kids.) But somehow God brought in almost exactly $800!!! We have been DOUBLY blessed. ;) And we are grateful.

THANK YOU to all who came out. What a blessing you were and are to our family. And thanks to our friends and family who helped set-up, tear down, run concessions and make popcorn. :) You are loved!

(And I have to mention my dear friend Lyndi who braved it out to the booney's from Murphreesboro with poor directions!! Thank you, friend, for supporting our movie night! It was fun to see you and your kiddos!! Tell Bill I said thanks for giving you up on a friday night!)

USCIS

Ok all you international adopting moms....

Is it just me or does the USCIS give you a HEART ATTACK when they send you "receipts" or confirmation letters that they've recieved your documents? To see that envelope, man! It mostly freaks me out because they come SO soon after I send in my docs.

Twice now, they've sent receipt letters. The first time I thought it was my fingerprint appointment (which, eventually we DID get that letter... and it was VERY exciting :)) Then I just got another receipt letter (saying they recieved my homestudy) which I thought was my i171H and ALMOST pee'd my pants.

Its just cruel.

:)

Adoption fundraiser movie night!

For those in the middle Tennessee area! :)

Along with our friends, the Bailey's, we are hosting an

Adoption Fundraiser

Family Movie Night!!

Movie: Meet the Robinsons (G)

When: Friday Night, February 27th

Where: Fellowship Hall at Grace Chapel

Time: 6:30 pm

Cost: Donations accepted!

There will also be consessions available for purchase.

All proceeds will go toward the Bailey and Spencer Adoptions!!

If you have any questions, feel free to email me at

spencerchics@yahoo.com

Timeline

For those who have wondered, a timeline!

11/21/08 Received FSP Application, Matched with boys!!

11/29/08 Signed up for a fed-ex account

11/29/08 Mailed home study application (items 1-5)

12/30/08 Amy’s physical

12/30/08 Mailed INS Application overnight

1/3/09 Home study Visit

1/5/09 Jake’s physical

1/20/09 Received fingerprint appointment notice

1/24/09 Federal Fingerprints Taken

1/26/09 Found out that Oleg was taken into foster care and no longer available for adoption :(

2/18/09 Received first final copies of home study in the mail

2/19/09 Over-nighted home study to INS

3/20/09 Found out that our i171h had been mailed on 3/21, but we still don't have it.

3/27/09 Received I171H!!! Yeay! Still waiting one HS paperwork to come in so we can mail dossier

4/9/09 Received HS paperwork in the mail!

4/13/09 Had dossier certified, apostilled and mailed it to eastern Europe!

4/16/09 Dossier arrived, everything looks good!

4/20/09 One document is wrong, need to send another in its place

4/23/09 Document arrived there

4/27/09 DOSSIER SUBMITTED!!

4/29/09 Dossier approved! Waiting on travel date.

5/5/09 Got appointment with SDA- May 19th!!

5/16/09 Leaving for eastern Europe!!

6/1/09 He's legally OURS!!!!

6/2/09 Home from our first trip

6/10/09 Jake going back...

6/18/09 GOTCHA DAY!!

6/27/09 Daddy and Pavel Micah came HOME!!!!!

Medicals

I just got my medicals and as far as I can tell... they are perfect!!!! Another check off the ol' dossier!! :)

Some of the signatures/dates on my homestudy weren't quite the way they were supposed to be, so we're having to get some new copies :( but they were good enough for the USCIS, so I went ahead and mailed a copy today! :) And they already have our application and fingerprints, so the wait is on!!

Please continue to pray that the paperwork runs smoothly so we can get this little man home quickly!!

Its here!

I am looking over the final, notarized copies of my homestudy! I'm going to fedex them to the INS right now!! Yeay!

They already have my application and my fingerprints, so hopefully it won't take long for them to send me that approval letter! And with my homestudy came some other documents for my Dossier, which means... that letter should be the last piece! Pray pray pray! We want to go SOON!

Little updates

Well, I feel like its been a little while since I've given a paperwork update... and there's really nothing new to report. Still waiting on the final copies of our homestudy to come in the mail (supposedly this week). And I'm going to pick up my medical forms today... let's hope they're right this time! What an ordeal the medical papers have been!!!

I met with my new friend Lyndi yesterday for lunch. :) She lives just a few miles from here and is adopting from the same country we are! (See her button for Patrick to the right.) It was so fun to meet her and her husband to just chat and talk about adoption stuff! I love that when God calls you down a new path that there are so many fun people you meet along the way. Lyndi is one of them! Its so nice to "compare notes" on paperwork stuff and I just can't wait until both of our boys are home and can play together!! :)

We're still working on fundraising... we have a LONG way to go, but I do want to thank each and every person who has contributed so far. Each donation that comes in through paypal gets emailed to me... and every time I see a new donation, I tear up! Seriously! I know how tight finances are for SO many people right now. Its very humbling that you would give to us to help bring our little boy home. Thank you. :)

Prayer requests:
~Please pray that our paperwork trail speeds up a bit. This homestudy has taken WAY longer than it was supposed to which is really frustrating.
~Pray for Pavel. That he would be healthy and safely waiting for us.
~Pray that God would provide the right people to help watch our girls while we are gone.
~Pray that we are able to raise all of the money we need (and that we wouldn't stress about it!).

We love you all!

Two angels

Yesterday on the Reeces Rainbow group, we learned of two little girls, both with Down Syndrome, both living in a mental institution, just passed away from a flu epidemic in eastern Europe. My heart is broken and hurting for these two. I have no words right now.

Margarita

Katarina

This was written by one of the RR moms and I thought it was too precious not to share.

While we were eating...

... they were hungry

While we were playing...

... they were restrained

While we were tucking our kids into bed...

... they were alone

While we turned up the heat...

... they laid in the icy cold

While we wrapped our children in blanket sleepers...

... they laid in their own excrement

While we sang songs and listened to music...

... they listened to the screams and cries of those around them

While we rocked our babies...

... they silently rocked themselves

While we hugged our kids...

... they scratched at their own faces and pulled their own hair for stimulation

While we cried over scraped knees...

... they moaned in their loneliness

While we brushed our daughters' beautiful hair...

... they had their heads shaven to stave off the lice

While we fought off the flu with love and nourishment...

... they got the flu and went Home.

No longer suffering... but so many more still are.