Monday, July 20, 2009

Happy Birthday Pappa - You Have a Court Date!

Woo Hoo! Yippee! Hip Hip Hooray!
WE HAVE A COURT DATE - CAN YOU HEAR ME SHOUT?
What a most wonderful birthday present for Don!

You know, if anyone has a doubt that our Angel is not to be ours, they just need to look at our story and all doubts would disappear. We have been in this process for over 3 years and we have definitely faced many challenges during our journey. But now, as we receive our court date, we know it was all in God's timing - we were just a little ahead of Him in our planning! Ha!

We slowed our adoption process down because of financial and health reasons in the fall of 2007. In January and February of 2008, we heard from our agency wanting to know our plans. We prayed about it and decided we should get our documents updated and resubmitted to Russia. We spent March through August updating our homestudy and dossier. Our timeline for the past 1 1/2 years looks like this:

  • August 12, 2008 - Dossier to Russia (3rd times a charm!)

  • September 15, 2008 - Heard from our family coordinator about an older girl

  • September 16, 2008 - Contacted our family coordinator that we were open to an older girl, our little Angel

  • September & October 2008 - Worked on regional documents hoping to be registered

  • November 12, 2008 - Registered in Nizhny Novgorod Region

  • December 4, 2008 - We got the call - referral for a little Angel

  • December 5, 2008 - Phone consultation with International Adoption Physician

  • December 8, 2008 - Accepted referral for our little Angel

  • December 16, 2008 - Received travel itinerary

  • January 9, 2009 - Left US for Moscow

  • January 12, 2009 - MOE appointment and met our Angel (my birthday) Found out our Angel's birthday is the same day as my father's

  • January 16, 2009 - Returned home

  • January 17, 2009 - Let the fundraising begin!

  • February through April 2009 - updated documents preparing to travel

  • April 2009 - Unable to travel lacking finances - continued to fundraise

  • May, 2009 - Updated documents hoping for June court date - Judge on vacation

  • June, 2009 - Unable to get June court date - updated homestudy and dossier hoping for
    July court date

  • June 18, 2009 - Documents sent for Apostilling lost

  • June 19, 2009 - Told we would not be able to receive July court date

  • June 24, 2009 - Documents still missing - began redoing all 22 documents

  • June 27, 2009 - Missing documents arrived to our home via USPS - very strange

  • June 27, 2009 - Updated documents sent for Apostilling - found documents sent to agency

  • June 29, 2009 - Documents received by agency and sent onto Nizhny to be submitted to
    court on July 3, 2009

  • June 29, 2009 - State unable to Apostille our updated documents because they ran out of
    Certificate paper - honest it really happened!

  • July 1, 2009 - Documents Apostilled and sent FEDEX overnight to our agency

  • July 2, 2009 - Documents received by our agency and sent via DHL to Russia - hoping to
    arrive in enough time to be submitted to the court on July 10 so we can get
    a court date in August

  • July 10, 2009 - Heard our documents were submitted to the court

  • July 16, 2009 - Heard our documents we okay but something was needed for our little
    Angel's documents

  • July 19, 2009 - We received our court date!!! (Don's birthday)

Whew!!! And that was just the past 1 1/2 years!

Now, I don't want anyone just starting the adoption process become discouraged by our experience. We have had many many unusual things happen and our process is definitely not typical.

Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart. Psalm 37:4

Praising God and Dancing the Happy Dance,
Elizabeth and Don

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Friday, July 17, 2009

The Judge Has Our Documents!

Well, after many obstacles, the judge has our documents in NN. Now we wait and pray for a court date. We should hear next week sometime.
On our knees praying that we will return in August to bring home our little Angel.

I will wait for you, O Lord; you will answer, O Lord my God. Psalm 38:15

Thanks for stopping by -
Elizabeth

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Monday, July 13, 2009

Mango Mania Meltdown

This past weekend we participated as a vendor at Mango Mania. It is a popular event in Southwest Florida sponsored by the Pine Island Chamber of Commerce. We thought it would be a good idea to set up a booth and fundraise for our adoption as well as provide information on adoption awareness. We handed out fliers we made about us and our story with information about why people should adopt and/or support those who adopt on the back - we also listed some adoption statistics.

We had great expectations that we would raise over $1,000 based on what we heard from others who participated in the past. We contacted a company, Ladybug Blessings, and purchased some lip balms, soaps, fireless candles, and loofahs to sell as a fundraiser. Ladybug Blessings is a great company with a heart to help families with adoption fundraising and they were very helpful getting us started on our booth. They had a Mango Parade with a Mango Queen. We even got into the "Mango Theme" and had mango papaya soaps and loofahs as well as passion fruit soaps and loofahs. We also decorated our booth go along with the theme. We were up at the crack of dawn both Saturday and Sunday with great anticipation.
Well, meltdown is the operative word here. It was so hot, I swear the soles of my shoes were melting! You could see the heat rising from the asphalt. People were melting in the sun and seemed to go more for the Mango Smoothies than our Mango Loofahs! Sadly, we sold very little - we didn't even break even on the fee for our booth. We were very discouraged and felt quite guilty on our way home for spending money on such an event and not breaking even. This was so supposed to be the event that brought in last funds we needed to get back to Russia! As we drove home, Don was asking me, "What did we do wrong? Why didn't this work for us?" I just had no answer and really felt bad because it was all my idea! I prayed a lot about it before I paid the fee and really felt it was something God wanted us to do. I was definitely scratching my head on this one. I was just so sure God spoke to me about this festival.

As Don and I discussed what we felt was a major failure, I kept thinking there just has to be a positive here. And my mind kicked into gear looking for that silver lining I just have to find no matter what. And I found it!
I am convinced God led us to Mango Mania not to raise funds for our adoption but, instead, to raise adoption awareness. We spoke to many many people about adoption, why we decided to adopt, why we chose Russia, the number of orphans in the world, how to get started, where to get grants, etc.... So, if just one person we spoke to decides to adopt, isn't that worth our time and what we spent to be a vendor? Oh, yeah, definitely!

Once again, I am reminded that our fundraising efforts are more than just raising money (See It's More Than Just Raising Money) We may never know what impact we had that hot weekend in July, but I am sure a life or lives will be blessed because someone stopped to talk with us.

But as for me, I will always have hope; I will praise you more and more. Psalm 71:14

Blessings,
Elizabeth
By the way, we still have a lot of product that we did not sell, if you think you might be interested what we have, please email us at murrayadoption@yahoo.com.

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Friday, July 10, 2009

And the Fundraising Continues........

We are so close to bringing our little girl home, we just cannot give up! We are still fundraising. You can view our fundraising activities at http://www.heartforadoption.net
One of our fundraisers was set up for us by another adoptive mom. She is so generous and set up a E-Show for us through USborne Books & More.
Here is the flier she made for us:

Usborne Books & More
Adoption Fundraiser
For Elizabeth and Don Murray

June 10-July 19, 2009

Usborne Books has educational and entertaining books for all ages. Browse the website and get some great books for your family.
Shop online at www.ubah.com/HOS145809 and your purchase will help to bring the Murrays’ little girl home from Russia. Your order can be shipped to your home right away or can be shipped as a gift to another address.

Please contact Heather at heatherb@kidsbooks365.com if you have any questions about any of the books or products. She will also be glad to make recommendations of books for any children in your life.

Thanks for making a difference in the life of an orphan!
PLEASE consider buying some books to support us in bringing home our Angel. Our book fundraiser ends Sunday, July 19 - Order today so you don't miss out!
We have another fundraiser this weekend. We will have a booth at the Mango Mania. This is supposed to be a great venue for bringing in money. We will let you know how it goes.
PLEASE pray for us that our weekend is successful and we can raise the final funds needed to return to Russia. Our fundraising thermometer has been inching up, we now need it to jump up!
If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer. Matthew 21:22
We believe!
God Bless,
Elizabeth and Don

Wednesday, July 08, 2009

Our Documents are in NN!


Woo Hoo! We are very happy today because we heard our paperwork made it to NN and in the hands of our facilitator. Yipee!
We will be on pins and needles the next week waiting to hear about a court date. Thank goodness we have a lot going on.
We will keep you posted.
God Bless,
Elizabeth

Tuesday, July 07, 2009

Desperate Times Require Desperate Measures!

We have not heard yet how our package is doing as it travels across the world but we are continuing in prayer that it will make it on time.

We continue to fundraise! You are probably tired of reading about it but it is what it is! We are still a bit short - we may have to have medicals in Moscow which will cost about $860 each and require us to spend an extra night in Moscow. Sooooo, we continue to fundraise pray that when it is time to leave we have all the money we need as well as a little bit of a buffer.

I have decided to sell a ring that I have had for about 26 years.
I had it made when I graduated from nursing school. Here are several photos of the ring.
The ring is 14KT yellow gold with royal jade cabochon and diamonds. Twelve prong set baguettes total weight of 0.76ct.
Eight round brilliant cut diamonds total weight .40ct.

I recently had the ring appraised by a well-known and reputable
jeweler in Fort Myers, FL. My ring was appraised at $2,910.00.
I would like to sell it for a reasonable amount and plan to put it on E-bay but thought I would post it here first. If anyone is interested in making an offer on my ring, please email me at murrayadoption@yahoo.com

We have several other fundraisers coming up as well as our online fundraiser store. You can visit it at http://www.heartforadoption.net/ We will be updating our webstore with new items frequently so please check back often.

Thanks for following our journey,
Elizabeth


Friday, July 03, 2009

The Package Arrived!

Just a quick update here - our package arrived on time! Yeah! Our family coordinator was able to get it to the DHL office and send it on its way to Russia. Now we are praying our documents make it to Russia next week in time to be translated and submitted by Friday, July 10. If, and that is a big IF, our documents are submitted by Friday, we could get a court date for August.

We are on our knees praising and praying:

  • Praise that our documents arrived in Virginia and that they are on the way to Russia;
  • that our documents arrive in Nizhny by Wednesday, July 8;
  • that our facilitator is able to translate everything in time to submit our documents to the court by Friday, July 10;
  • and that we receive a court date for early August.

We will continue to be faithful on our adoption journey.


O Lord, you are my God; I will exalt you and praise your name, for in perfect faithfulness you have done marvelous things, things planned long ago. Isaiah 25:1

Blessings,
Elizabeth

Wednesday, July 01, 2009

Another Blue Streak Day!

For those not familiar with the Blue Streak Roller Coaster, it is by far the best roller coaster I have ever been on! It is at Cedar Point in Sandusky, Ohio on Lake Erie. I grew up near there and spent many summers with my friends riding the Blue Streak. It's one of those old fashion types made with wood and it makes that great clickity clackity sound as it climbs toward the first drop. Once at the top, you hang for a brief moment with a breathtaking view of the lake and the anticipation of teetering over the top - fear, excitement, exhilaration - then you begin to slowly roll over the crest feeling yourself come up off the seat and you briefly think to yourself, "will my seatbelt hold" as you scream your head off! Then on you go, up and down, over and under, twisting and turning, screaming and laughing, until it finally slows down, and clickity clackity comes to an end. And when you climb out of the car, your legs are shaking, you're still laughing, and your throat feels raw. You think to yourself, "that wasn't so bad" and you decide to do it again!

We spent most of our day trying to get our documents apostilled at the State. Finally, after many phone calls and emails, they were able to apostille all of our documents. Our courier picked them up and dropped them in the FEDEX box. The package was picked up by FEDEX at 5:46pm and is on track to be in Virginia by 10:30am tomorrow morning. We are not quite breathing easily and won't until we know those documents are in our family coordinator's hands. I'll be tracking that package all night!

Yes, today was a Blue Streak Day! (except for the "do it again part").

Praying our package is delivered on time,
Elizabeth