We are close now!

Since my last post, we have been busier than ever with our everyday lives and adoption preparations. Samantha and Callie began school, with Sam being at the junior high building and Callie at Pre-K in Alexis. Callie has been pretty tired by the early evening! It shocks me to think Callie will be turning 5 in November! Sam has some pretty exciting news to share; we have begun using a new insulin pump which allows her to not give herself insulin injections several times per day. With this pump there is a pod attached to her body which administers the insulin. The best part is that there are no tubes attached to her body and the system is as close to painless as can be. I am so proud of how she is learning to take care of her diabetes. This semester at WIU I have taken over as the undergraduate adviser which I have enjoyed as I am able to work more closely with the students. I am currently teaching two courses as well, and supervising in the clinic. I miss having a full caseload of families personally, but enjoy seeing the students be successful as students and clinicians. I continue to work with a few families as I don't think I will ever stop being a therapist myself! Chad continues to work very steadily thanks to the good weather. Sometimes we wish he had a whole weekend off but that extra day on the paycheck can make a big difference too! Now to the adoption update....
We received very EXCITING news last week. Our dossier has been received in our region in Russia. The coordinator there has contacted our agency to let us know the boys are definitely still available for adoption and we will be traveling soon. The coordinator is working on acquiring firm travel dates for us. In a lot of ways the reality of our much anticipated plans is setting in for us. I find myself thinking about things like "next time I do this we will have the boys" quite a bit. We continue to hope to have the boys home for Christmas. Our fundraising efforts continue as well. Our local Applebees in Galesburg has agreed to allow us to hold a "Flapjack Fundraiser" on Saturday, October 9th from 8-10am. We are selling tickets for $5 each which includes pancakes, bacon, and juice/coffee. We will be able to keep $4 of every ticket sold. We are very thankful for Applebee's commitment to their community. We are also hoping to be chosen as a grant recipient next month as we are being reviewed by one of the granting agencies we applied to a few months ago. Finally, Chad and I have made an appointment with our bank to see about additional financing options we may have to complete our adoption. We are a bit overwhelmed at the amount of money we will need easy access to during our trips. I cannot imagine traveling to a foreign country with so much money! It is good to know we have a great agency of people in case we hit a problem while we are in Russia. It is also a relief to know we have a wealth of friends of family supporting us here in the US as we travel. I would like to end this post with an experience I had last week. I have been waking up Chad in the middle of the night as I have been talking in my sleep. We determined I must be feeling anxious or stress from the lack of control I have over our adoption process. Chad encouraged me to have faith as this will come together for us. Since he told me to "have faith" I have slept soundly (no 3am talking in sleep) which he greatly appreciates!

Results of our FINAL adoption fundraiser yard sale

This past Friday we held our final yard sale in Galesburg. Once again, our family and friends came through to help us out. Our friend Marlene Johnson allowed us to use her garage for our sale. My mom packed up and helped haul items to Marlene's. My friend Angi loaned her folding tables. My sister Jessica got up at 6am on her day off from work to help me run the yard sale. It was a very HOT day, but we earned $350 for the day's efforts. It is a comfort to see our total inch towards our next goal. Tomorrow I will travel to Springfield to apostille all of the necessary documents. On August 1 I will send our first dossier to our agency with our check for $6000. They will review our documents to make sure everything is in order, translate them, and forward our dossier to Russia! It is exciting to be able to cross items off of our list! While we await for our official referral of the boys, we will continue to work hard to save for our first trip to Russia. We will need to cover our expenses for travel (flights alone will be about 3200) and then pay the agency fees for that portion of the process ($6000). We have applied for two grants so far and have heard back from one that we did not meet the criteria for their program. I am completing a third grant application and hope to send that one out soon. Chad and I are considering our options for adoption loans as I don't think we will have much time in the next few months to complete new fundraisers. We will continue to collect aluminum cans. We are waiting for the price of aluminum to go up; right now it is at 35 cents per pound. We would like for it to get closer to 50 cents per pound again and then we will haul our bags and bags of crushed cans to the recycling center. Currently the girls are enjoying some time with their dad. I am trying to keep my days busy since I am "flying solo". I have been continuing with my private speech therapy practice and exercising. We started painting our fence as well. Chad bought me a spray paint gun but it is no longer working so I am doing it "Tom Sawyer style" with the paint brush. We will go on a short weekend vacation to Des Moines before school starts. I return to campus on August 17th, and the girls go back the following week. Callie will attend preschool at United this school year. She is so EXCITED to ride the bus with Sam. Chad has been working six days a week; he has worked more this summer than last and we are thrilled about it. He thinks his crew will be working well into December. Summers really do fly by, don't they? Thanks again to everyone who continues to keep us in your thoughts.

I know, another yard sale.... but we have so far to go!

I know, I know, we are going to give it another round now.... I have been talking about yard sales for months and didn't we just have one? Our sale of July 4th was immensely successful. But, we still have a LOT of really nice items as well. So, if anyone continues to have items you would like to get rid of, we will have a sale on Friday July 23rd in Galesburg. We are finalizing our items for our dossier. Our social worker should be mailing our FINALIZED home study tomorrow. Although we have already received one denial for a grant, I am hopeful that the other two grants we are applying for will possibly see fit to offer us some money. Either way, we are committed to completing our adoption. Chad and I enjoyed the beautiful day today by completing yard work. There is something to be said about completing something which takes manual labor; I think it is seeing your hard work come to fruition. We shoveled gravel into our driveway to help even it out. It was hard work! However, after we were done, it looked so much better. The best part was not having to drive around the "potholes" when we pull into our driveway. We then attacked the fence and tested out our new paint sprayer. I hope to complete painting in the next two weeks. Keeping busy helps us not think so much about how difficult it is to wait for things to move along with the adoption. And of course, the girls help with that too! My next post may provide further details regarding when we will travel to Russia! Thanks again to everyone for your support!

One Amazing Day

I can not believe I have been blogging for six months! I have many things to share as today has been full of nice surprises. First off, here is an update of our fundraising efforts. This past weekend we held our yard sale on Cameron Days. We made a little over $800 on Saturday and Sunday. I am so appreciative of our family and friends whom donated items to our cause. We had so many items to price and place onto tables neatly and I think it really paid off. Amanda and Chad Maleug came by Saturday morning and helped set up. Jessica met me early Saturday to get things rolling; her Goodwill experience was a big asset in helping me price unusual items. Jaimey and my mom also came by to help set things up. Jaimey hung out with Chad and I most of the day on the 4th at our sale. Although we sold a LOT of items, we still have many items left. Chad and I decided we would take some of the more desirable items to a friends' house in Galesburg for a yard sale there to see if we can sell more items. Once we do that we will probably donate the items to our different charities locally. We were so tired at the end of the day! We spent the 5th lounging around in the morning and then went to Chad's parents in Little York to swim in the afternoon. Today I returned to work at WIU feeling exhausted. I became reenergized upon receipt of an email from Susan our social worker. She had received an email from DCFS asking her to add additional information to our homestudy. She completed the requested information and faxed it back. Susan felt this was a sure sign our homestudy will be approved by DCFS very soon! I am excited to be able to submit our homestudy with our grant applications. This afternoon we were blessed to receive a wonderful donation from a family. I am overwhelmed with gratitude to this family as they saw our need and felt strongly enough to support our adoption to make such a contribution. I do believe that God is leading us on this journey and it has been difficult for me to not question the direction we are following. Giving it up to God can be such a challenge for a Type A personality! We received a much anticipated phone call this evening as I prepared dinner. Dr. Ladage from Cardinal Glennon Children's Hospital in St. Louis called me to provide us with a consultation on the medical records we have received for the boys. I had been nervous to hear her opinion, as I knew it could include negativity about the medical history. Fortunately, Dr. Ladage stated that she did not see any diagnoses that caused her to become alarmed. She gave me specific ideas to use when we visit with the boys to acquire further information for her. When we are visiting the boys in the orphanage she will consult with us again as we will receive their full medical history. Once we return with the boys she can complete a full evaluation of their development as she is an international adoption pediatrician. It is nice to know that we are linked with professionals whom can provide us with support when we are in Russia. We hope everyone is enjoying their summer! Thanks again for all of the prayers and support!

4th of July

We had a wonderful turnout last week on Friday for our "More on 34" yard sale, making a little over $300 in one day. Unfortunately, Chad and I both unexpectedly had to work on Saturday so we were unable to have it on that day too. This week we have been moving items from our garage to the Tin Shed here in Cameron to prepare for this weekend's big yard sale. Back in January when we formally began the adoption process, I had imagined holding a yard sale on Cameron Days because there are so many people here in town. We are really hoping the weather holds out so we can have a lot of people stop by the sale and add to our savings for the adoption. We are continuing in the "Waiting Game". DCFS still has our homestudy at this point. Apparently there is only one person in charge of reading all of the homestudies for families in Illinois. The turn around time has been rumored to be six to eight weeks. I have our grant applications completed but must send a copy of the homestudy with them. Thus, everything is waiting until we receive the approved homestudy from DCFS. Until then, I have been doing a lot of reading and researching on parenting techniques with internationally adopted children. It has been very interesting, and has caused me to consider doing my own research in this area. I have also been attempting to learn some simple Russian phrases to use while we are traveling and also to help communicate with the boys during our visit to the orphanage. Samantha attended church camp where she received the "Positive Attitude Camper" award. While I was picking her up, three different camp counselors approached me to state how helpful and bright Sam was and they enjoyed getting to know her. Someone even said Sam was very responsible in managing her diabetes! Callie missed Samantha quite a bit, but didn't waste any time enjoying being an "only child". Callie enjoys being the center of attention, that is for sure! Samantha celebrated her 11th birthday today; it was a momentous day as she woke up with her first zit on her chin. She asked me to wait until she is sound asleep and then pop it for her! She surmised that since she is such a sound sleeper she wouldn't feel it sting. We are still hoping to travel to Russia in September, but I will not be holding my breath either. Our adoption has been like playing dominoes, one misstep and everything seems to fall apart. You don't lose the game, just have to reset the dominoes and start over. We hope to see some of you at Cameron Days this weekend! This is my favorite time of the year!

Garage sale part deux

Our next yard sale is on June 18th and 19th. If anyone has any items they would like to donate, please let us know. We are hoping there will be a great turnout for the Cameron yard sales that weekend! We have been working hard to complete our dossier. Chad and I have completed online courses regarding international adoption and we have been notarizing several documents for our dossier to send to Russia. We are fortunate that Chad's bank (Midwest in Monmouth) notarizes documents for FREE for customers. We have been in three times already and will probably be in several more before this process is over. Thanks to Connie for all of her help with notarizing! Today I returned to campus to meet with students for our summer clinic. I will be supervising Monday through Thursdays in the mornings. We are thankful I was able to do this to help us continue our saving efforts. I am beginning to get pretty concerned how we are going to financially pull all of this off; the dollar figures I look at seem unattainable. We are praying that the grant applications I completed this week will be successful. I know there are so many other families who apply for the grants as well; I would not want to be on the committee to decide who gets the grant and who does not. Chad and I remain optimistic that we will continue to find ways to make everything come together. The faces of the boys on our refrigerator are extra special incentives to think of extra ways to scrimp and save! OK, so this is where we are at NOW in the process. Susan, our lovely social worker, has completed our home study report and forwarded it to DCFS. They have to approve it then we can send it to the federal government who will then give us the green light to adopt "officially". The homestudy report will also accompany our dossier to Russia. Once our dossier gets to Russia, it will be reviewed for accuracy and then we will be invited to travel to our region in Russia to meet the boys. Anna, our worker at our agency thinks we will travel for our first time in September. Let's pray that the weather stays dry so that Chad can work as much as possible... his overtime pay is AWESOME! The girls had a great Memorial Day weekend since the weather was superb. They were able to swim in Nana and Papa Mike's pool with their cousins and aunts/uncles. The girls truly are blessed to have so many people in their lives who love and care for them. Please continue to keep us in your prayers as well as the two little boys who have yet to know us.

Results of Yard Sale

Yesterday Chad and I FROZE at our garage sale! Thankfully we had a couple of space heaters to make things bearable early in the day on Saturday. We had several people come and make large purchases. Jaimey placed our signs on the interstate, which got several other customers to our house. We completed the two days with a profit over $200 dollars! Thank yous go to Amanda and Chad Maleug, Stefanie Gipson, my family, Laura and Gail Strope, Lynn Ewing, Mandy Fisher and Amanda's best friend. They all donated sale items or helped get ready for the yard sale. As for an update with our adoption, we have crossed several other items off of our list. This week we received our fingerprints from the FBI. Chad completed his physical, and I will complete mine this coming week. This week is Finals at WIU so I hope to focus on completion of our dossier. We hit a small snag in the testing of our water. We hope to solve this problem in the next few days as this will be the final component for our dossier. Before summer school begins in June, I will have our dossier finalized so we may begin the notarization process. Following notarizing our documents, I will fax them to our caseworker at the agency so she may review they are in order. Once they are approved by her I will drive them to Springfield for apostillization. The last piece will be getting our clearance by the US Government certifying we have met the criteria for adoptive parents. This is based upon our homestudy and other documents we submitted. Please continue saving aluminum cans. Also, if anyone has items you would like to donate for our future yard sale, the next one will be on June 18th and 19th. Stay in touch as things should move along more quickly at this point (we hope but in adoption who knows!).