Home Study and Shoes

We have officially completed our home study as of September 26.  
YEA!  
We have been impressed with our home study agency and 
how quickly they have worked to get this done for us.  
We were told when we began the home study that Todd's Pennsylvania child abuse clearance would take 3-4 months... WHAT???  
It had taken almost 3 months to receive his certified
 birth certificates from PA so we believed it.  
We were not big fans of PA at this point
 (although, there is some good from PA...
I'll always love my Steelers and Todd will love his Eagles :-).  
Shockingly we received his abuse clearance in 3 weeks!  What a praise this was!
At this point we're just waiting on the agency to write the home study.
Very excited to get the home study papers in our hands because that means we can file I-600A (immigration paperwork), get biometric fingerprints
and then wait on referral.  

Meanwhile, we have seen a huge need to help get shoes on more children's feet in Africa.  There is a big problem called jiggers throughout Africa.  Jiggers are tiny fleas that look for a warm blooded place to burrow and reproduce.  They like to choose feet of people and children who do not have shoes to wear.  One jigger can produce literally hundreds of eggs.  One jigger is irritating and a bit uncomfortable, but not life threatening.  However, one leads to many in a short amount of time.  At this point, walking becomes difficult due to intense pain.  We've heard and read about many adoptive families whose children are affected by this.  After hearing enough stories, we realized we had to do something to help.  This was no longer something we could sit in awe about and wonder how we could help, we had to find a way.  
This was about the children...  our child. 

I found a fantastic organization called Sole Hope who focuses solely on providing shoes for children in Africa and educating them on feet care and jigger removal.  I decided to host a shoe cutting party...  (Sadly, I only have pictures of the aftermath because we were having so much fun during the party, I forgot to take pictures.)  Some girls from our Young Family's class at church came over to help cut shoes for a fun girl's evening of snacks and conversation (without those adorable little voices interrupting). 

These girls blessed my socks off by praying for our little guy and his protection before we began cutting material.  We've been BEYOND blessed by friends and family praying for our son and the process.  It makes this Mommy's heart smile when people tell us they're praying for him each day.  It eases the waiting and wondering when I know he's being covered in prayer.

We cut 26 pairs of shoes which will now be sent to Africa where African women will sew the shoes together and distribute them to children who need shoes.  We were also able to send a HUGE box of donations to help with jigger removal.  Very thankful for friends who helped their kids get involved by picking out fun character band-aids to send to Africa.

Continuing to be blessed from sweet friends and 
family who are walking this journey with us!  

Children are Blessings

Today we had Xavier's baby dedication at church.  What a blessing he and Addison are to us!  We love them soooooo much and can't imagine life without them making us laugh each day, keeping us on our toes, giving us hugs and kisses, and every once-in-a-while making us a little crazy. 

God has a perfect plan for each of their lives and I can't wait to see that develop throughout their years.  Todd and I constantly remind ourselves that these two blessings have been entrusted to us for a short time...  they aren't ours, they are God's.  We get the privilege to love, train and raise them up and then send them on their own.  We get to share Jesus with them each day and show them what it looks like to love God and live it out in our lives.  God knows what the next days, months and years hold for their lives and that's exciting.  I can't wait to see where they'll live, what they will do for a profession, how they're going to serve God, who they will marry, etc etc etc.  It's comforting to know that regardless how far they move away one day or what they're future days hold, God's got them in His hands and has a perfect plan laid out for them.  

All these thoughts today made me think about our baby boy in the DRC.  I struggle each day with wondering how and what he's doing.  Did he eat today?  Does he have somewhere safe to sleep?  Does he have a blanket?  Is he fussy and have someone to cuddle him?  What has he already had to face in his short life?  I don't know the answers but God does.  He already knows our little boy and He loves him so much.  I have given our little boy to God in my heart.  I'm learning to lean on the fact that God's holding our little guy in His hands.  God knows the difficulties that our little boy is facing and none of it is surprising to Him.  He has a perfect plan laid out for him too.  I've been praying that our little guy will have a peace and comfort that only God can give him.  It hurts not to be able to physically be able to love on our little boy but God is teaching me a lot about trusting Him and relying on Him to love on our baby boy until we can get him into our arms. 

Here are a few pictures of our family at lunch today after Xavier's dedication...  

We were blessed my parents were able to join us to dedicate Xavier and have lunch today.  So glad they live close - except for the fact that our kids cry 

EVERY time we say goodbye to Mimi and Pop Pop.  

They sob like they won't see them for days...  we see them multiple times a week. Crazy kids!

Family of four for now...

Lovin' their Pop Pop & Mimi!

Garage Sale Blessings

The garage sale was beyond anything we had ever imagined possible.  

Let me share a few examples of how we were blessed...

1.  We were blessed by many friends taking the time to swing by and many who were at work that kept texting to check on us.  We appreciated your support!  It was good to see their faces and have their support.  Thank you to those of you that drank Addison's lemonade or ate a muffin she made.  

2.  We were blessed by friends who donated items for the sale.  There was SO much stuff (and this was going to be my small garage sale)!  I felt the need to let people know it wasn't all from our house. Someone said to me, "Wow, you guys sure had a lot of desks in your house."  HA HA!  We had 6 desks at the sale along with tons of other furniture (none were ours). 

3.  We were blessed by my mom and dad.  My mom came to take care of Addison and Xavier each day so we could focus on the garage sale and the people who came to hear our story.  She takes our children multiple times throughout each week for fun stuff so this isn't uncommon, but it was a blessing.  Dad came with his truck after the sale to help clear out the little things that were left and bought a cookie from Addison.

4.   We were blessed by many people dropping money into the donation jar or stopping by to shop because they also have an adoption story that affects their life.  Adoption is a special connection for people and we're glad to be a part of it.

5. We were blessed by a sweet lady who pulled up in her car, walked up the driveway, handed me some money and said, "I just wanted to give this to you for your adoption" with tears in her eyes.  She walked back to her car as I said "thank you" several times.  A few minutes later, I noticed she had placed a $100 bill in my hand.  I was overwhelmed by her generosity and a little sad I don't have a way to show her the end result of this journey because we don't know her.  It also made me very excited to be able to someday return that blessing to other families on the adoption journey.

6.  We were blessed by another lady who stopped at the end of the day, not to shop but to hear our story.  She had adopted her son years ago and saw our adoption fundraiser sign.  She listened to our story of how God brought us to adopt and shared a little of her own journey 12+ years ago.  What a blessing!!!  We laughed and cried together at God's faithfulness throughout the journey.  She proceeded to hand me some money and said it was all the cash she had in her purse.  I was overwhelmed and felt very blessed just being able to meet and connect with her.

7.  We were blessed by meeting another very special adoptive family.  A lady walked up to the sale with a bio son on her hip and 2 beautiful twin African children in tow.  She asked us where we were adopting from and I told her the DRC.  She smiled and informed me that her two adopted children were from the DRC.  WOW!  We only knew of one other family in this area who had adopted an older child from the DRC.  We connected immediately and tears were shed again in just discussing the country and the children.  We also learned of several other families in the process adopting from the DRC in this area.  

8.  God also blessed us above and beyond what we thought was even possible in regards to the money that was given.  At final count we are at $2,107!  WOW!  We were worried no one would even show up Thursday morning - it's rather laughable now!  God provided in an amazing way that only He could do!  

What a blessing the garage sale was!  Sure, we raised $2,107 which is beyond helpful but I think if you asked either of us, the people were the biggest blessing to us for the past 3 days.  Thank you to those of you who helped, gave or prayed in any way for us throughout this garage sale process!

Kristen

Here are a few pictures of our sale...

Frequently Asked Questions About This Journey... with some answers

We've had lots of people asking questions about the adoption so I thought 

I'd try to answer a few of them in this post...

1.  How much will this adoption cost and can we help with the money aspect?  

I've been overwhelmed by the willingness of people to help us financially in order for us to get the necessary funds.  It's been fun to see God work - I listed our adoption fundraiser garage sale on craigslist and a lady messaged me saying she's interested in hearing more about adoption herself and would like to donate to help with our adoption.  WOW!  

The adoption is estimated around $33,000.  That's a lot of money but we know a BIG God is in control and He's bigger than those numbers.  We're trying to let this area be an area of trust rather than a burden or stress.  We lean on the fact that this is something God has called us to do so we're trusting Him to provide.  We have added a Paypal donate button to the right side of the blog if you feel called to help us on this journey.  

2.  What age/gender of a child will you get?

We are requesting a boy that is around Xavier's age.  We hope to have 2 little, rambunctious twin boys from different parts of the world.  

3.  Why Africa?  Why the DRC?

Like I said in the first post, we don't have a good story for how we ended up deciding on adopting from the DRC.  However, we do know that we're right where God wants us.  We truly believe there is already a little boy sitting in Africa who God has picked out for us.   We don't know his story, we don't know where he's living or who is taking care of him, but God does.  We're putting him in God's hands to take care of him until we can have him in our own arms.  

4.  What does the process look like and where are you in the process?

Rather than breaking this down and listing 10,000 steps in terms that you (and I sometimes) don't understand, I'll summarize and say that we're in the middle of our Home Study process.  We will then file some papers and wait for approval from those forms.  We then will wait for a referral of a sweet little boy.  Then there's more paperwork and waiting until we can wrap him in our arms on African soil.  The entire process is estimated around 12 months which means by hopefully next August we will be bringing home our little boy.  I think this is where God is going to grow me in this process - "waiting patiently" isn't something that I do well.

5.  What do your kids think about adopting a child into your family?

Addison is beside herself excited about bringing home her brother.  She has enjoyed telling everyone that she's getting a brother from Africa.  I find her talking about both her brothers each day and we've had many conversations with me trying to explain why we can't hop on a plane now and go get him (although, I am wondering the same thing :-).  Xavier is mainly into eating these days so he's pretty cool with the idea too as long as he's been fed.  

I hope this answers some questions.  We love talking about the adoption and sharing our journey so feel free to ask questions.  We want to be transparent throughout the journey so you can also enjoy the ups and downs and the waiting with us.  

Kristen