Merry Christmas - 2012

Merry Christmas (a few days late)!

We had a wonderful time celebrating Christmas with our family this year!

It's great our family lives 10 minutes away which keeps us from having to pack up the car and travel (and then repack everything along with loads of new toys and presents).  

My brother's birthday is Christmas Eve so we begin each Christmas Eve with a big birthday breakfast.  Can't believe he turned 13 this year!  11 years ago we had just received pictures of him from the adoption agency - Mom and I had the best time shopping for toys for him after Christmas that year.  

Happy Birthday to the BEST Uncle and brother possible!!!

We switch gears to Christmas Eve after lunch.  Our tradition is to attend Christmas Eve service with my parents and then come back to a house full of appetizers, Christmas goodies and food.  We then begin the evening full of activities such as putting food out for Santa, the reindeer and our Christmas mice (this is a special family tradition and doesn't involve real mice for anyone wondering).  We spend the night at my parent's house even though they live 10 minutes away!  

Christmas is SO much fun with the kiddos.  Addison was so incredibly fun and Xavier enjoyed having Sissy help open his gifts and then he'd hit at the boxes until we opened things up for him.  They are 100% spoiled by their Mimi, Pop Pop and Uncle!!!  There were even presents under the tree for our little boy waiting in Africa!  

 

Christmas (like Thanksgiving) felt a bit different this year....  Someone was missing and there was a small void in my heart.  I tried to remain focused on the "hear and now" by enjoying the kids, family and rejoicing in Christ's birth and the hope it brings to us.  But there was a part of me that kept yearning for our little boy to be here in our arms enjoying the festivities with us.  Can't wait to see him experience all the Christmas 1st's next year with Addison and Xavier.

A song I heard this year truly explained how we feel this Christmas season...  It's called Merry Christmas by Third Day - here is the link.

Baby boy, you are already SO loved and we can't wait to have you in our arms!  You're going to have a blast with your brother and sister next Christmas!

Here's a fun picture of something special that happened recently...

 Hopefully I'll be able to share some fun news with you in the next few posts!  

 

family

Have I mentioned how supportive and wonderful our family has been through our decision to adopt?

It's a fun thing to have had your parents walk the road of adoption 

and COMPLETELY understand this process...  

Like I've mentioned before, I knew I would one day adopt after spending ten minutes in the Albanian orphanage but I never expected my parents to adopt.  What a cool thing to watch my parents adopt when I was 19 years old - I had the opportunity to walk that journey with them and even travel with my Mom to help bring my brother home.  

We are BEYOND blessed that they now live 10 minutes from us and we get to see them all the time.  

They spoil our kids rotten!  

- Addison's favorite day is when Mimi picks her up from preschool...  they go to lunch (which usually involves a milkshake), go shopping and then play all day.  

- Xavier loves hanging with his Pop Pop and trying to steal the tv remote.   

- Pop Pop flies Addison to the car everytime we leave their house (not sure how he'll make 3 trips of flying once the boys are old enough to want this too...) and feeds her ice cream (with chocolate sauce and whipped cream) pretty much every night she's there for snack time.  

- Mimi loves on her boy and tells him "no" in the nicest of ways when he's into things he shouldn't be touching (which is pretty much all the time right now).

- Pretty sure my kids don't come home from their house without something new.  (I guess that's what grandparents are for... but if they get one more Christmas ornament this season, we're going to have to buy another Christmas tree.)

- Addison can't wait for us to go to Africa because that means 1-2 weeks at Mimi and Pop Pop's house.

- We love the fact they bought a house with a big inground pool - we kinda move in during the summer months.

- Addison has made the best memories while picking apples with Pop Pop and baking cookies with Mimi. 

Coffee cup we bought Dad for Christmas last year.

Addison enjoys helping Mimi decorate for Christmas.

What's Thanksgiving without a little pumpkin pie whipped cream sprayed right into the mouth?

This boy loves his Pop Pop!

Uncle...  now he's the coolest uncle a person could possibly have!  Addison thinks it's fantastic to have a 12 (almost 13 year old) uncle.  He jumps on the trampoline with her, lets her hang out with his friends, plays games, builds forts, shares snacks and candy, plays Rapunzel wii games with her, and the list could go on and on...  His reaction when we announced we were going to officially adopt... "Cool! But how an I going to entertain 3 of them???"  

True Steelers fans together

They understand this waiting game.  They understand how adoption stretches you. They understand how adoption can draw you closer in your relationship with God.

We are blessed to have them encouraging us, helping us, praying for us and loving us through this journey.  There is a little boy half way across the world that is very loved already...

 

One Step Forward

We received I-600A approval last Thursday (12/6/2012)!  

This means we have USA approval to "look for an orphan".  

AKA -  we're referral ready!!!!

 

Our immigration officer was/is the best!  When I called to check on our status last Monday I had to leave a message.  I didn't expect a return phone call because I was just being a nosy, impatient adoptive momma.  She called right back and updated me on when she received our case and when she thought it would be approved.  She worked fast on our case and then even emailed me to say it was approved.  

On a different note, I have been reading the Jesus Calling by Sarah Young each day - this is a great 2 minute read to begin the day and get my mind more focused on God rather than my crazy day ahead or my to-do list...

Anyways, this was a portion of the reading today:

"I, the Creator of the universe, have designed to co-create with you.  Do not try to hurry this process.  If you want to work with Me, you have to accept My time frame.  Hurry is not in My nature.  Abraham and Sarah had to wait many years for the fulfillment of My promise, a son.  How their long wait intensified their enjoyment of this child!"  

Hmmmm....  that was perfectly written for a momma in the middle of an international adoption.  This might get written on a few notecards and placed throughout my house and life as a good reminder over the next 5 months.  I'm thankful for the nuggets of truth He has placed in my path and the way He is growing me as a person through this adoption already.  

2 Ways to Help....

We've had people continue to ask how they can help and assist with our adoption.... 

Here are 2 ways you can help out financially:

 1.  Donate to our family at AdoptTogether here.  

100% of these donations go straight into an account for our adoption.

2.  Buy something from the Thirty-One catalog here.

If you need to order a great Christmas gift for someone or a little something for yourself, all commission from orders made via the link above will go straight into our adoption fund.  Last day for orders is Thursday, Dec. 6th so make sure you get your orders in soon!

Lastly, please continue to pray...

Pray for our patience as we wait on our USCIS approval.

Pray for our hearts this holiday season as we ache to have our child in our arms and celebrating with us.

Pray for our child, that God will already be preparing his heart for our family.

Pray for us that God will continue to prepare us for our new little man.

Pray that our child has a peace and comfort that only God can give him right now.

Pray for his safety and health. 

Thank you for your continued support throughout this adoption!  It's so special to have friends and family text, call and email checking in on our process.  Our little guy is already loved so much! 

Blessings of an Ornament

We received an early Christmas present from a sweet friend the other night...  

I LOVE it!  

If you can't see the picture clearly... it's the cut out of Africa 

with a heart floating around in the ornament and it says 

"I will not leave you as orphans:  I will come to you." John 14:18

It's by far my favorite ornament on our tree.  I look at it multiple times throughout the day and pray for our little guy, the DRC and the other families I've "met" who are also on the adoption road to the DRC.  

You know how you have that super special ornament that you're just waiting to find when you're digging through the ornament box every year getting ready to decorate the tree...  well, I can tell you that this ornament will be the one I'm digging for each year for years to come.  It marks such a special time in our lives of getting to walk through the blessings of the adoption journey.  Sure, there are ups and down and looooooots of waiting but we wouldn't trade this journey for anything and we feel beyond blessed that God has allowed us to walk this path.

Thank you, Beth, for giving us such a sweet gift and for already loving our little boy so much! 

Thankfulness

I am thrilled the holidays are upon us.  

I love the time between Halloween and Christmas - 

so much to celebrate, time with friends and family and 

traditions from years ago and new ones to be made.

Most Thanksgivings I'm overwhelmed with thankfulness and I can't stop thinking about my family, relationships and things that God has blessed me with.  This year was a bit different for me...  I had a hard time focusing on that thankfulness.  It wasn't that I wasn't thankful and overwhelmed by how blessed we are - but my heart was being pulled somewhere else and it was breaking.  Things in the DRC news were stirring.  M23 rebels took over Goma, a city in the Eastern DRC and have threatened to move forward into other cities, including Kinshasa, the capitol city where we are adopting from.  Thousands are dying, women are being raped and children are becoming orphans.  Local people are being forced to flee their homes on foot in hopes of protecting their families.  My heart has been heavy for the DRC this past week.  I can't get it off my mind.  I like to fix things but even I know this is WAY out of my hands but I'm so thankful to know it's not out of God's hands.  My thankfulness was more focused on His faithfulness and that He knows what tomorrow holds for the DRC.  My devotions today read "When your mind is occupied with thanking Me, you have no time for worrying or complaining." This adoption has already taught me so much about hitting my knees in prayer.  It was just a different kind of thankfulness that I had this year...

Here are some pictures of some Thanksgiving festivities and traditions that took place...

Addison's Thanksgiving Feast at school.  Doesn't Xavier look thrilled to be there?

Xavier was glad to join the boys this year to watch football.

Decorating cookies at the Christmas tree farm.

Visiting Santa at the farm...  (Xavier greatly dislikes facial hair so Santa isn't going to be his favorite this year).

Our family and my brother - the coolest Uncle ever!

Looking for the perfect tree.

Xavier has already yanked over the playroom Christmas tree 3 times - it's going to be a loooong season of Christmas trees,

We have a tradition of going out to eat with my parents and then driving through a local light display and seeing Santa...  Here's my girl and I getting ready to see Santa.

Todd and Xavier getting ready to see Xavier's favorite guy... 

Again...  not his favorite!  Poor kid - we just stood and laughed at him and his expressions.

We're waiting for you little man and we can't wait to have you be part of our fun and traditions next year!

 

Looking for Christmas gifts?

A sweet friend of mine decided to do a fundraiser for our family to help us add to our adoption fund.

She sells Thirty One - this is a product I love and use each day.  I mean, I LOVE these bags and totes!

She is giving us 100% of her commission on all the sale made online for us.  How awesome is she?!?

If you have Christmas shopping to do, think about ordering some Thirty One products as great gifts.  The products will be delivered in time for Christmas.

You can visit the website here.  Click on "My Parties." Find Adoption Fundraiser  -  Kristen Kocher and then shop away!  The great customer special for this month is:  For every $31 you spend, you can get one of 5 items for ONLY $5!  Great deal!!!  I personally plan on buying a few teacher gifts and then getting myself something for $5.  :-)  Let me know if you have any questions!  Thanks friends!

Kristen

Adopt Together

We've had several people ask where they can donate to our adoption fund by giving a tax deductible gift...  

We were blessed to find a fantastic adoption resource called

Adopt Together.  Adopt Together is a non-profit organization that allows families to set up a profile and adoption fund where people can donate money that is tax deductible. This organization was started by a friend that Todd and I went to college with - his family has some incredible adoption stories and has a heart for adoption.  He saw the need for an adoption platform to step up and help with adoption costs after his parents had adopted several children.

You can view a little clip about Adopt Together here.

You can view our profile and donate here.

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Small update... 

Todd and I went to Cincinnati today for our biometric fingerprint appointment. Quick, simple and another step crossed off the list!  

Here's a picture of Todd and I in the lovely parking garage taken by our professional photographer, Addison. 

Orphan Sunday

Today was Orphan Sunday and November is National Adoption Month. 

 

What I love about Orphan Sunday is the huge difference

 it's made for children around the world.

Lives have been changed because church services set aside a 

day to celebrate, raise awareness and pray for orphans.

In doing a little reading on how "Orphan Sunday" began, I was shocked to find out that it started in a small church in Zambia.  A church who had nothing when it comes to money/material goods was challenged to reach out to the orphans in their community.  

They began giving and helping (when they truly didn't have anything to give).

How humbling to realize that it took a small church in Zambia to ignite the fire to raise orphan awareness via Orphan Sunday.  This grew and grew to more churches and has now spread far and wide across the world.  It's been challenging for me to think that if the people in Zambia can give shoes off their own feet and the only food they have in their house to orphans down the street... what more can I be doing?  

We're adopting one and yes, that's one less but what a huge number - 147,000,000.

I've struggled with questions like "What do we do after the adoption? Do we keep adopting kids? How can we help make that number even less?"  I don't have those answers yet but my heart hurts just thinking about the fact that there are so many children desiring a family.  

We understand that not everyone is called to adopt but we are all called to help. 

 I ask that you pray about what you can be doing to help. 

 Is it supporting an orphan monthly? Supporting an adoptive family? 

Providing shoes to children who don't have any? 

Please pray with me about what God might have you and I do to make this number less.

Here's the Orphan Sunday video - a short video that puts things in perspective...

Watch Video Here

Waiting for the next step

Our mailman is relieved because he's got a few weeks off 

before I start stalking his arrival again...

We received our fingerprint appointment from USCIS today 

and were thrilled that our appointment is only 1 week away.  

Next Friday Todd and I will go to Cincinnati and get our biometric fingerprints done. 

Then we wait some more (and watch for the mailman each day) until we receive our I-600A approval which allows us to move to the next (and VERY exciting step) of getting a referral.  You can be praying our I-600A is processed very quickly after we have our fingerprints done - generally it takes about 3-4 weeks to receive the approval post fingerprints but we're praying for a quick turn-around.

I'll leave you with a picture of Merida (from Brave) and a little lion who are anxious for another brother to join them for trick-or-treat next year...

 

  Doesn't that lion look thrilled to be a lion?  HA HA!

 

In process...

2 quick things to update about:

1.  We received our I-797C form from USCIS which states they are processing our I-600A (the I-600A allows us to proceed with petitioning for an orphan).  Wahoo!  We are now waiting on our biometric fingerprint appointment from them so we can move on to the next steps with immigration. We're praying we get appointments in the mail this week.

2.  As most of you know, I sell hair bows, bottle cap necklaces, etc through Pink, Pearl and Pigtails.  I have several bottle cap images to help towards our adoption and raise awareness.  

You can see samples below.  

If interested, you can private message me to place an order.  

Bows - $7

Necklaces - $5

Key Chains - $4

Either image can be put on any item.  

All proceeds go straight into our adoption account.   

Happy Fall!

John 14:18

John 14:18

"I will not leave you as orphans; 

I will come to you."

We had fall family pictures taken a few weeks ago... 

We can't wait until there is another sweet face in these pictures.

We can't wait until there is another small child to chase 

around while we're trying to take family pictures.  

We can't wait until that chair has a precious little boy sitting in it.

 

I-600A Filed = on to the next step of waiting

Home Study = check that off our list

 

Our Home Study came in the mail today so the kids and I loaded up in the car and got our I-600A paperwork to the UPS store immediately.

Some of you may ask "what does that mean?"  It means, now we wait some more. HA! HA!  We wait for our biometrics fingerprinting appointment in Cincinnati and then wait on the approval of our I-600A (this is an application that allows us to petition for an orphan).  This is typically taking about 6 weeks right now.  

On our way to drop off I-600A at the UPS store...

Crazy boy -  he was so excited that he kept turning his hat sideways like this.

Patience... 

this is something the Lord is already teaching 

me so much about through this adoption. 

I was not being patient as I stared at our mailbox for a few days waiting for our home study to arrive.  Yes, I even glanced at the mailbox on Sunday and I may have put the flag up on the mailbox yesterday and today (when there wasn't any mail in it to be picked up) so I knew exactly when the mail came in case I didn't hear the mail truck.  

I was in a bad mood when our home study didn't arrive Monday.  I had a small come-to-Jesus and had to work on my attitude when my daughter asked me why I was so mad.  Oops!  I spent Monday evening praying for patience and peace as we waited and also praying it would arrive in our mailbox on Tuesday.  

I had some good friends praying with us that it would come today and for us to have peace while we waited.  One sweet friend even prayed specifically that the home study would be right on top when I opened the mailbox today.  Wanna guess where it was?  Yep, right on top!  Kinda fun how God works!

I remember reading someone's post to another adoptive momma who was getting ready to travel to get their child.  She told the adoptive momma that she had "waited well in Him."  That stuck with me...  that's been my prayer from the day we filed our first piece of paperwork.  I want to "wait well in Him."  I have failed at this already but I have plenty of waiting ahead to turn this around.

Trying to wait well in Him 

(and meanwhile, praising Him that another step is done),

Kristen