Exceedingly Abundantly Above

As I was watching a program this morning, there was a woman who's favorite verse was Ephesians 3:20:
"Now unto Him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us..."

I began to think of our fundraiser and how God has done exactly that. I was thinking it would be great if we could sell 200 dozen, but God did exceeding abundantly above that, more than I could think. How great is our God!

We are coming close to 370 dozen sold, almost double my original hopes, plus donations and I'm expecting more orders! It's amazing!

C.P.A. anyone?

Does anyone know a C.P.A. that will help me with my Verification of Self Employment letter? I've not had time to look around, but I thought I'd throw the question out there!

Awww Phooee!

That's the way I feel. We didn't have "everything" (like the C.P.A. letter for my employment verification) from the list for our Home Study meeting so we weren't able to schedule a Home Study visit before Christmas. The office is closed for about a week and a half for the holidays. I'm really frustrated that I couldn't get all of the stuff done... MAN! It was impossible. Too many things on my have-to-do list, and unless I had gone without sleep completely, there was no way. I'm sure God has something planned, but for now, ugh.

About the meeting on Monday, it was very informative. There were 4 other couples there. David was very relieved when we left. He had this impression that the social worker would be like the gestapo and super picky and basically "out to get us". But our social worker, Amy, was so sweet and nice, and she said their goal is to help us get our children. Yay!

We went over the necessary paperwork and also a few other subjects like books to read and some of the travel expectations. We went over some things that might happen when we bring our child home, and what we might expect from people in the stores and church and such. Many people just don't realize what they are saying and can be offensive. Amy told us we should avoid using the term "Real Parents" vs. "birth parents", or saying the child IS adopted vs. WAS adopted. One other thing that I hadn't thought of, especially if the child is a toddler or older, is that for bonding purposes, the child should only be fed and mostly held by us. (Sorry everyone). Amy said that it's hard because grandparents and family want to help with and take care of the new child (diapers/feeding), but then the child doesn't really know who to connect with. Makes sense but I know it's going to be hard...

If you have any questions, feel free to comment!
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Cookies Galore!

We finished it! David took the order of 167 dozen cookies to his workplace this morning. Wow, what a doozy! What a blessing!
It took a while, and with God's strength, we were able to complete the job! I have to say, I don't mind all the baking, putting together boxes, wrapping them in ribbon and putting on their little tags. It's definitely tiring and really tough on the body to stand for 15 hours straight making recipe after recipe... after recipe... but somehow, it's also fulfilling. David thinks I'm weird, maybe I am. haha

David helped with setting up the boxes for me to fill, and cutting the ribbon that went around them, and tying the ribbon around quite a few of the boxes. He wanted to help more but I reassured him that I didn't mind doing the job and to go to bed since it was very late.

We have hit over 300 dozen ordered so far and it keeps going, woohoo!

Last Wednesday night (Dec. 5), our group read Psalm 46, and the feeling we got was "Bring It On", God can handle it!
God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging. Selah. There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy place where the Most High dwells. God is within her, she will not fall; God will help her at break of day.

The very next day we got this huge cookie order. These verses also help me when I feel anxious about our Home Study paperwork. God is definitely my strength. He can be yours too.

Update coming soon...

I know some of you might be wondering how things went this last Monday night with our Home Study meeting. I've been so busy putting together cookie orders that I haven't had time to really get my thoughts together for an update. I promise it will be soon though... stay tuned...

Christmas has begun!

I went to lunch with some great friends yesterday and they surprised me with some really cute baby gifts. They're killin' me though! I want the baby that goes with the baby things!!! I'm so thankful for their friendship, they are the best! Thank you ladies!

We also got our medical clearance letters done yesterday! Woohoo. Our doctor is so fun and the office staff is also wonderful. The bank lady came over to the clinic and notarized the two documents and that takes care of that! One of the last things we need for our home study is to find a C.P.A. to write a Verification of Employment letter for me since I'm self-employed. Pray that happens soon!

While I'm waiting....

I'm sitting here, waiting for the batch of Ossi (bones) to finish baking. Then I have another set of trays to put in the oven, and then one more set after that. At 40 minutes a set, I'll be up a little while longer.

Reflecting on the day, it's been a good day. I received the biggest cookie order today. An order that not even my biggest dreams could have imagined... 167 dozen from one customer and then Gina and Mark topped me off with another 3 to make a total of 170 orders! It was amazing... God really proved Himself today. What's even cooler... here's an excerpt of an email I wrote to David first thing this morning:

"I worry about how many orders I could get if I ship the cookies. But, as I just wrote that, I realize that God is in control and if he wants to give us a bunch of orders, then He knows I can handle a bunch of orders, right? OK, I'm kinda excited."

So what does God do? He works it out so I get a local order of 167 dozen cookies! I guess God really trusts me to handle a bunch of orders! Well, it's all gonna be with His strength 'cause I'm running low already, that's for sure!

On a note about the paperwork, it's really coming along. I only need one more form for myself, and then we have to write our Autobiographies (maybe I'll work on that while I'm waiting for the cookies, nah) and that will complete our portion of the documents needed for our Home Study! We've pretty much gathered almost all of the documents needed for the Dossier as well. There are several documents that are dependent on the completed home study, but truly, that's out of our hands. We've gathered almost everything we'll need to, for now anyway. Once our Home Study is completed we'll have some other things to do, like another type of background check and then get our fingerprints and stuff, but for now, it's almost all done! Woohoo!

Our First Cookie Deliveries!

Hello all! We're so priviledged to have people around us that support and help us. Thanks to all who have placed cookie orders! Our first deliveries are being made today thanks to Gabriella, my SIL, and David!

The packaging took a while to find and then receive, but now that it's in, the orders should only take 1 - 3 days to fill. I'm so thrilled to see this "working". God is sooo blessing us!

If you'd like to place an order, click on the link to the left, under Fundraiser!

Thank you all!

Early Christmas....

Thank You, Joanna!

My brother's wife sent us an early Christmas gift. These two books are so sweet!

We now have our very first book for our little one to come! The Little Golden Book! And, the "Our Chosen Child" is one of those fill-in-the-blanks baby books especially for adoptive children. It's so great!

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Thanks, God!

I'd like to take a moment and give props to my Awesome God. Without Him I would be going crazy for sure. With all the different forms we have to fill out and then get notarized and then get notarized again and then on and on, I've literally felt God's Grace keep me on track and going.

As some of you know, I am a great procrastinator. I don't like picking up the phone and making appointments or trying to arrange things. It makes me really nervous, for whatever reason. Send me an email and I'm all over it (usually). But with all the stuff on Friday and even all of last week, I have been pretty calm and composed and actually quite upbeat! I've been able to pick up the phone and talk with total strangers about our forms and needs (like the bank notary) without any hesitance at all and that's a total God thing!

So, thanks, God. I know it's all from You!

It has begun...

How do you get a notary to the doctor to notarize his signature???

Call the bank next door and ask their resident notary to walk over and do it! (Thank You Jesus, thank you Audrey, thanks David for thinking of it!) Now we're trying to figure out when the blood tests will come back so we can ask Audrey to come over at the right time! Oh, I just remembered, next Friday I'll be in that area eating lunch with some friends. Maybe the form will be ready and I could pick it up then! Oh how great that would be!

So, we've tried to complete TWO things off the check list today. The Medical exam and the Police Letter. We didn't get either completed. The police report notarizing was wrong. I thought it would be easy, and it should have been, but it wasn't. I have to go back and get them to re-type and notarize the form. First of all, the form for David doesn't have the notary stamp on it (she forgot). I should have noticed that. But, secondly, and most importantly, the girl notarized her own signature! I don't think you can do that, can you?

So, now that my head kind of hurts from trying to figure all this stuff out, (find a traveling notary, figure out the police letter, gather the blood test results, schedule the time to have the conference call with our family coordinator, etc.) I think we're just feeling our first pains. Hmm. Trying to take everything in stride! It's a long ride and we don't need to lose our sanity just yet!

Paper Pregnancy... Here we come!

"I'm so excited, and I just can't hide it,
I'm about to lose control and I think I like it!"

Now that I've got that song stuck in your head, here's the latest:

We received our Dossier Guidelines Packet!!! Actually it was six "Word" documents (via email, which is always so much better) that we'll have to go through. Remember that I thought the Home Study packet had a lot of words.... well that ain't nothin' compared to this! Ha! I'm just so glad that we're moving on. I'm so excited. (Did I say that already?)

We've been assigned our Family Coordinator and she will be our guide and assistant throughout our "pregnancy". Some of you might think the term "paper pregnancy" is a little corny but I think it's appropriate. I've heard that this could actually be more painful than a physical pregnancy. Euuuuwwww!

Pray for us!

We're Bookin'...

We're movin' now! I've typed up the checklist that came with our Home Study packet and checked off the ones we've completed so far! We've finished 13 of the 21 items and I'm hoping we can check off at least 4 more by Friday afternoon! That leaves only 4 after that, 3 of which we have to wait for someone else to complete!

Now, this list is what David and I have to complete. The Home Study will actually be complete when the social worker receives the certificates from the state and also when she has completed the home visits.

We've already scheduled our first meeting with the social worker. I'm not sure if it counts towards the total of 4 that we need, but I think so. It's the orientation meeting. Two weeks from yesterday (Monday). woohoo!

We're still waiting for our Dossier Guidelines packet, which has a ton more items. Some of the items we need for our Dossier are the same as for the Home Study, so that's less that we have to get done then!

Also, I want to send out a shout of thanks to those who have placed cookie orders! Thank you!

Fundraisers Have Begun!

Look to the left pane and click on the link under Fundraisers to see what we're doing for our first fundraiser! Unfortunately, I don't think I can ship these. Check it out!

Finally! - update

We received the Home Study Packet today in the mail. Finally. I'll fill you in more when we go through it thoroughly. Right off the bat though... lots and lots of effort to get this done. Please pray that things move quickly with all of the forms that require state responses. I saw one form that could take up to 6 weeks to come back.

Update: I've gone through the packet a little more and I can honestly say I'm o.k. There's a long list of more than 20 items we need, including lots of reading, like books and such, plus background check forms, more agreements, state forms for adoption, copies of certificates, plus the home study meetings and "letters", etc., but nothing that makes me too anxious! Has anyone ever written an autobiography? That's something I'm a little nervous about... haha

So, thanks for your prayers. Please continue them!

I'm Bored

OK, not really bored, but more like restless. So, while we're waiting for the Home Study Packet to arrive I thought it would be fun to take a survey.








• What is your favorite name for a boy?
• What is your favorite name for a girl?

Feel free to expound on why you picked the names.
Thanks!

Scary book...

OK, I finished the Adoption Memoir book that David gave me. It was great for me, in a preparation kind of way. Very interesting. The author was very candid and I think having read it will be very helpful in understanding some emotions that might come my way. The author is not a follower of Christ but it was still helpful for me to read.

As for a recommendation, I don't know that I would recommend it to anyone who isn't really serious about adopting. I wouldn't want it to scare anyone OUT of adopting. It gets a little scary with all the things that have to be accomplished for an international adoption, especially the travel part. Though, this is not an example of what WILL happen, just what happened to them.

So, if you're interested in what MIGHT be involved in an adoption from Russia and the Ukraine, this would be good to read.

Packet is on it's way

Got an email saying that the Home Study packet went in the mail today and we'll hopefully get it early next week. So, at least I know something is in the works!

National Adoption Day

As it turns out, November has been named "National Adoption Month" with the Saturday before Thanksgiving (this year, it's Nov. 17) being the "National Adoption Day". This is a very interesting initiative.

Check out this website to see what it's all about.

Still Waiting....

I know it's a little soon to be saying I'm still waiting. There is a lot more waiting to come! I am just ready to get this thing moving! I want to make appointments, send in forms, visit the embassy, get it out of our hands.

Right now we are waiting to hear from the Home Study office.

I don't like waiting. -michele

Off and Running

Praise God, I was able to fax the signed agreements and I was able to pay the initial fee online. They still need the originals but can get started with the fax copies for now. So, once I make copies for myself, in the mail they will go!

I can't believe how unbelievably nervous I am right now. (Was that redundant or what?!) Shaky hands, anxiously beating heart. It's crazy!

Anyway, we now wait for a Social worker to contact us about our Home Study, and then we wait for our "to be assigned" Family Coordinator to send us our Dossier information. Right now, our next step is to fill out a government form and send it to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) Office along with a check and several other things like copies of our birth and marriage certificates, etc. Then they will contact us with a fingerprint appointment date. I think I'm freaking out inside because I'm afraid I'm going to do something wrong and delay everything or cause some sort of problem. I don't fully understand everything and that makes me nervous. I feel like I'm missing something.

I think it will help once we're assigned our Family Coordinator. I can then ask her all the questions I have and hopefully not make her crazy. Thanks everyone! Keep praying for us!

Paperwork Signed

We read all of the paperwork, signed all of the agreements and will be sending them out tomorrow with our first agency fee. What an ordeal! How tiring to have to read 37+ pages of text. (Amy... we took turns reading it out loud!) It took us an hour and 20 minutes!

It's amazing (and funny), some of the things that have to be written out in a legal document. One of the points we were made aware of is that the "headings" in the document don't mean anything but only the information written under them are binding. Crazy.

Another note we read was that the form could be faxed and it would be considered a legally binding document with our signatures. That would be great because it would save time and money (I would have overnighted it). So, cross your fingers and hope it applies. We want to get this party started ASAP!

Too Many Words!

That sums up my feelings for this very beginning step of this process. Pages of agreements to be read and signed. Information to be read and understood. Good thing David doesn't mind reading.

So, we got home late on Saturday night and checked the mail. There it was! The envelope I've been waiting for. I was concerned that if we didn't receive it on Saturday, that I would then have to wait until Tuesday (due to no mail delivery on Veterans Day). But, thankfully, it came.

Weird thing is that I'm kind of feeling overwhelmed (too many words) and I just don't want to get into it. Maybe because the last 2 and a half days have been full (but great) and I'm kind of mentally tired.

Well, that's the latest!

Lovely Gift

Hello everyone. Still waiting to get our packet. ugh. All in God's time, right?!

Just wanted to share with everyone the thoughtful gift that David gave me for our anniversary. As you know, we're working on adopting a child from Russia. There are tons of stories and journeys out there from people who've adopted, but mostly from China.

David got me a book called "Two Little Girls, A Memoir of Adoption" and it's about parents who journeyed to MOSCOW and KIEV! How cool!


If anyone has read it already, don't give me any details! I can't wait to get into it!

-michele

Email from Intake Assistant

Got an email from the agency today welcoming us. She wanted to let us know that we'll be receiving our overview packet in the next week to 10 days. She also wanted to check if we lived in a state where they are licensed. We are, so we'll be able to use America World for our home study.

I replied asking them if they would overnight our overview packet, in case they hadn't sent it already. (worth a shot!)

LOL! She replied saying that it was already in the mail but could understand we were eager to get started. Considering they're in Virginia, I hope we get the packet before the end of this week!

Woohoo!

Sharing with Friends

We've decided to "go public" with our news. It's exciting to hear the great reactions we get when people find out we've decided to adopt. Thanks everyone!

Approved!

At 3:54 pm today we received the call from the agency that said we were approved! They will now mail us our paperwork to get started, so we're in another waiting room (7 to 10 days for the mail). But, at least it's official, we are on the road to becoming parents! Woohoo!

The Beginning

David and I have been discussing adoption for a long time and we've finally decided to go for it.

We submitted our application to America World Adoption Agency on October 23rd, 2007 and are waiting to hear back from them as to whether they have approved us. This is just the very tip of the huge iceberg.

Once we've been approved (which I'm hoping to find out today) we'll then move into the "paper chase" or "paper pregnancy" phase. It's the phase that I've heard is time consuming and grueling. With God's help, we'll make it through and in hopefully less than 18 months we'll be parents to a wonderful gift from God.

Pray for us as we embark on this journey. I'll try my best to keep everyone updated as to our progress!

On a side note, this month is the 10th anniversary of the beginning of our life together. How fitting that this be the beginning of a new type of journey together.