Pennies From Heaven

We are still in the "waiting room". Don and I have realized that this delay could be a blessing in disguise. As many of you know, adoption is an extremely costly endeavor. We have saved and saved but it never seems to be enough. We have been operating on faith that God will provide for our adoption and He has. However, we still have many upcoming expenses that we still will need to pay.
I have read many adoption blogs and was surprised to see that several families have established fundraising activities for their adoption expenses. Don and I discussed this and feel we just could not ask anyone for money. Soooooo, I have been thinking and trying to identify ways we can increase our savings. We are already on a budget and watch our spending on eating out and entertainment. Here are some of my new ideas:

• I decided to try to use coupons and put the money in our adoption savings.
• I always throw my change in the bottom of my purse, now I am saving it in a jar and will eventually roll it and add it to our adoption account.
• I am one of those people who have a closet full of nice clothes in many sizes. I am always hoping to be able to wear them again. I have decided to take them to a consignment shop and save the money earned for our adoption. Today, I identified 5 pant suits (1 still has the price tag on), a skirt, and a top that I will be taking to consignment. I have many other outfits but thought this would be a good start. I will let you know how it goes.
• We have some collectible items and other things that we could sell. I am thinking about putting them on eBay. I have never used eBay and not sure how it works. One of those shops that will sell items on eBay for you just opened up here. Maybe I should stop in there when I take my clothes to the consignment shop. Has anyone ever used one of those stores before?
• We could always have a yard sale - hhmm - yard sales are not fun in Florida in the summer time. Maybe we'll delay that one until late fall.
• I could cancel our satellite MLB Baseball package but I think that would cause a lot of stress around the house :-)

Still thinking of more ways. We are interested in money saving ideas that others may have. Please post your suggestions.

In his heart a man plans his course, but the Lord determines his steps. Proverbs 16:9

Blessings,
Elizabeth

How We are Spending Our Summer Vacation

As we wait for the reaccreditation process in Russia and the referral for our precious little girl, we are reading, researching, and studying everything we can about adoption, Russia, and the Russian language.

Here is a list of the books we have been or are planning on reading-most of these deal with adopting from Russia or caring for adopted children. We are still looking for some readings dealing with Russian life and culture:

• Cline, F., & Fay, J. (1990). Parenting with love and logic: Teaching children responsibility. Colorado Springs, CO: Pinon Press.
• Gardner, M. (2003). Adoption as a ministry, adoption as a blessing. Enumclaw, WA: WinePress Publishing.
• Keck, G.C., & Kupecky, R.M. (2002). Parenting the hurt child. Colorado Springs, CO: Pinon Press.
• Kincaid, J. (1997). Adopting for good. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.
• Maclean, J.H. (2004). The Russian adoption handbook. Lincoln, NE: iUniverse Star.
• Melina, L.R. (1998). Raising adopted children. New York, NY: HarperCollins.
• vanGulden, H., & Bartels-Rabb, L.M. (2004). Real parents, real children: Parenting an adopted child. New York, NY: The Crossroad Publishing Company.

Here is a list of the resources we have found helpful in our struggle to learn Russian:

• Russian in 10 minutes a day
  This is a workbook with flashcards and labels to stick on items around the house - excellent for those who are visual learners
  Available through Bilingual Books, Inc
  www.10minutesaday.com
• Teach yourself russian conversation
  This is a CD with a booklet - reviews basic conversations that one may need when traveling in Russia
  We found this at Barnes-Noble
  Available through McGraw-Hill 1-800-722-4726
• Russian: The short course
  A Pimsleur Language Program
  This is a CD - reviews basic language and conversations - we like it better than the Teach Yourself CD because it drills you over and over. You will be able to speak some Russian in 30 minutes and feel good about what you can say.
  Available through Recorded Books.com
• LearningRussia.com
  Free downloads for your computer
• Master Russian.com
  http://www.masterrussian.com/blday_greeting.shtml

Here is a list of websites we have found helpful:

• Adopt-a-Child
  http://www.adopt-a-child.org
• Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Travel Guidelines
  http://www.cdc.gov/travel
• Families for Russian and Ukrainian Adoption
  http://www.frua.org/
• Joint Council on International Children Services
  http://www.jcics.org
• Lonely Planet
  http://www.lonelyplanet.com/
• Russian Adoption Medical Services
  http://www.russianadoption.org
• Russia Travel
  http://russia-travel.com
• US Embassy in Russia (adoption page)
  http://www.usembassy.ru/consular.php?record_id=adoption

We are interested in any additional resources others have found helpful. We are especially interested in readings related to Russian culture. Please post your suggestions.

God is not man that he should lie, nor a son of man, that he should change his mind. Does he speak and then not act? Does he promise and not fulfill? Numbers 23:19

Continuing in faith that we will be united with our beautiful little girl,
Elizabeth

Welcome to Our Adoption Adventure

A little bit about where we are in our adventure. I call it an "adventure" because that is exactly what it has been thus far. We believe God has put it on our hearts to adopt from Russia. As you know, once we are called to do God's Will, Satan rears his ugly head. We have had many struggles along the way but with God's love and guidance we have endured. Our journey has been slow but sure! Here is our timeline - keep in mind our journey has been a little slow, sometimes due to finances, sometimes due to delays in obtaining necessary documents (not our fault), and sometimes due to just plain procrastination!

• August 2004
  explored the idea of adoption
• August, September 2004
  Hurricanes Charley, Frances, and Jean hit Florida disrupting daily routines for many
• October 2004
  made the decision to adopt after much prayer
• October - November 2004
  explored many adoption agencies
• November 2004
  submitted application fee to adoption agency
• December 2004 - January 2005
  began requesting various documents needed for homestudy (ie birth certificates, divorce decrees, marriage certificates)
• January - March 2005
  had doubts about adoption, began to have financial issues (Satan's hand), began to worry about our age and what our families would think
• March 2005
  shared with our families our plan to adopt, everyone was supportive and excited for us
  shared with some friends our plan to adopt, not all were supportive - some think we are too old - this was disappointing and contributed to some of our doubts
• April 2005
  received our guidelines for homestudy, reading list, and ordered books from Amazon.com, continued to have doubts, Satan moved in with us
• May 2005
  banned Satan from our home and lives, focused to keep God in the center of our lives and marriage
• May, June, July 2005
  worked on budgeting strategies to save money
  decided we would forge ahead with adoption and pray that God would provide the finances as we needed them
• July - August 2005
  began homestudy process
  submitted our Dept. of Children and Families background check
  submitted our USCIS I-600A application
  traveled to USCIS in Tampa, FL for our fingerprints
  completed Florida Dept. Law Enforcement background checks
  asked my sister and her husband to be guardians (they agreed yeah!)
• September 2005
  obtained new passport for Don and updated my passport with correct name (names must be the same on all documents)
  completed physicals and bloodwork for homestudy
  submitted paperwork for our homestudy
• October 2005
  home visits by social worker for our homestudy
  Hurricane Wilma hit Southwest Florida
• November 2005
  homestudy completed
  homestudy sent to USCIS
  purchased books and tapes on the Russian language
• December 2005
  received our USCIS Approval (171H) to adopt two children from Russia
  What a Christmas present!
• January 2006
  sent our dossier to our family coordinator for review prior to apostilling
  personal issues requiring travel out-of-state and delay in being able to update dossier
• February 2006
  worked on updating dossier (ie some items not on letterhead from the homestudy, photo album not in current format, etc...)
  Russian government now requiring Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory 2 (MMPI-2) on both parents - made appointments with psychologist but the soonest we could get in was March
• March 2006
  completed MMPI-2, takes 3-4 weeks for results
• April 2006
  ready to submit dossier to State of Florida for apostilling and found Don's passport number was incorrect on several forms (praise the Lord I checked everything again)
  revised forms and notarized everything again
• May 2006
  Dossier appostilled and submitted to our agency!
  Dossier in the hands of our Russian coordinator for translation and certification in a region in Russia
• Summer 2006
  Reaccreditation process in Russia
  we are working on our Russian
• We are currently in the waiting room!

Whew! That's our story to date. As I mentioned earlier, it has been an adventure! Now we wait, and wait, and wait.....The last I heard, our dossier has been translated and is currently in Russia. However, our adoption agency is in the process of being reaccredited in Russia. All agencies go through this process annually. Unfortunately, the Russian government has now added another layer to the process. In the past, adoption agencies had to be accredited by the Russian Ministry of Education (MOE). Now, all agencies must be approved by both the MOE and the Ministry of Justice. This change is due in part because of the recent reports of abuses of children adopted from Russia!

During this adventure so far, we have learned the importance of faith, patience, and perseverance. Here are some appropriate scriptures for our journey:

Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. Philippians 4:6

Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. Hebrews 10:23

You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised. Hebrews 10:36

Thank you for visiting our blog. We will be updating it frequently.
Blessings,
Elizabeth