For anyone who has ever doubted God's existence, let me reassure you He lives! Our family is continuing to personally be blessed by Him as we follow His commands and walk in faith. We received notification that we will have to re-do 4 pages of our dossier, which have already been done and should be sent off to Austin to apostilled tomorrow or Friday. So praise God it was only 4 pages! We also were given the name of our Russian helper who will be our power of attorney and help us with all of our paperwork, Visas, etc.
This last week we held our second garage sale and wrapped up our Perpetual Change Fundraiser. We can not even begin to tell you how much we were blessed! Thank you does not even begin to come close to us expressing our deepest gratitude to everyone who donated, attended, and blessed us through these fundraisers. Our family is eternally grateful to each and every one of you and we want you to know that you each have played such an immense role in helping us bring our daughter home! We will be praying for God to bless you all as He has us.
We have also been trying to finish our 10 hours of Hague accredited courses, which has been a very great learning opportunity of some of the challenges we will be faced with once she gets home.
Prayer requests: Pray that all of our dossier paperwork is approved this time :), pray for patience as we begin our time of waiting, pray for Kinley to be safe from abuse, neglect, sickness, and that God would begin to prepare her heart to join our family and bond quickly. Also pray that God's timing would prevail when it comes time to travel and that arrangements would be easily made for us to get to Russia and for the boys as they will be staying here in the states while we are abroad.
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
Wednesday, March 16, 2011
bedding done and more
So, my big goal for spring break was to finish Kinley's bedding and it is done!!! Her room is coming right along and looking more and more like a bedroom each week. Our paperwork is coming along too. We are still waiting to hear back from our assigned region (the area we will be traveling to pick her up from) to see if our paperwork is officially complete or if we need to re-do any forms. If all goes well and they deem our paperwork complete then we are officially on the waiting list! Yea!! We'll keep you all updated :) Have a blessed and safe spring break!
Thursday, March 10, 2011
Waiting to hear...
We finally were able to make contact with our case worker today and were told that we are waiting to hear back from our assigned region to see if our paperwork was correct and complete. Yes...that is right I said complete! It turns out that we have already done all of our paperwork as long as the region will accept it. So, we are waiting to hear if they will accept our paperwork as is or if they have any other forms they will require. If everything gets accepted then we are officially on the waiting list!!!
So, while we wait we are going to begin our 10 hours of required education this weekend. Also, we have been busy, busy, busy preparing her room (thanks to my sister). Kinley now has a crib, complete with a crib skirt and bumper pad. The blanket is still a work in progress :)
Prayer requests: Pray that God's hand will be in the decisions made reguarding our paperwork and that hopefully it will be deemed "complete". Also pray for our family and that we will have patience as we wait for our referral. You can always pray for God to begin even now to prepare our hearts as well as our daughter's heart for the major transition as we become a family of 5 and that she will quickly bond with all of us and us with her. Lastly, be in prayer for our finances as things are starting to move quickly and we are going to be presented with some very large expenses in the very near future. Pray for fundraiser that is currently in the works and that God will bless it according to His will. Thank you all for your continued love and support! This has been amazing to be able to share our journey with you!
So, while we wait we are going to begin our 10 hours of required education this weekend. Also, we have been busy, busy, busy preparing her room (thanks to my sister). Kinley now has a crib, complete with a crib skirt and bumper pad. The blanket is still a work in progress :)
Prayer requests: Pray that God's hand will be in the decisions made reguarding our paperwork and that hopefully it will be deemed "complete". Also pray for our family and that we will have patience as we wait for our referral. You can always pray for God to begin even now to prepare our hearts as well as our daughter's heart for the major transition as we become a family of 5 and that she will quickly bond with all of us and us with her. Lastly, be in prayer for our finances as things are starting to move quickly and we are going to be presented with some very large expenses in the very near future. Pray for fundraiser that is currently in the works and that God will bless it according to His will. Thank you all for your continued love and support! This has been amazing to be able to share our journey with you!
Friday, March 4, 2011
Region assignment
Yea and praise God! We have our region assignment as of today!!! Can you feel the excitement? So, this means we can proceed with the final paperwork and be officially put on the waiting list. To top it off, as we are looking at the required paperwork, we have already done a lot of it and may not have to re-do it which means less paperwork for us! Double yea!!!
Jen has been busy working on baby girl's room...or at least her bedding. Pictures will come once it is completed, but it is going much better than she originally expected :) Also, we have decided on what her name will be. Kinley Grace Gibson.
As most of you following our blog know we have mailed out our adoption fundraiser letter over the last week. We ask that you prayerfully consider giving if God would have you donate to our adoption fund. We have been so blessed thus far in this adoption process and continue to put our trust in God to finalize the remaining finances. Thanks to each and every one of you for your support of our family through prayer, donations, and just caring for our family in general. We can not thank you enough or reitterate how much each and every one of you mean to us. We are continuing to plan for our service project and will post something ASAP.
Jen has been busy working on baby girl's room...or at least her bedding. Pictures will come once it is completed, but it is going much better than she originally expected :) Also, we have decided on what her name will be. Kinley Grace Gibson.
As most of you following our blog know we have mailed out our adoption fundraiser letter over the last week. We ask that you prayerfully consider giving if God would have you donate to our adoption fund. We have been so blessed thus far in this adoption process and continue to put our trust in God to finalize the remaining finances. Thanks to each and every one of you for your support of our family through prayer, donations, and just caring for our family in general. We can not thank you enough or reitterate how much each and every one of you mean to us. We are continuing to plan for our service project and will post something ASAP.
Wednesday, February 9, 2011
Paperwork "take 1" on it's way
We received official confirmation from our social worker that our initial paperwork "the first half of our dossier" was mailed last Friday to Russia. I have no idea how long it takes to make it all the way across the world, but when I looked it up on-line it estimated a week. Of course with all of the crazy weather we have had lately, who knows! When it is received in Moscow, it will be decided which region we are best suited for and thus they will assign us to that region. Once we know which region we have been assigned to then we can begin working on the official dossier.
Dossiers are region specific which just means that some regions are more meticulous about their requirements than others and they require certain additional paperwork.
Prayer requests: Pray that we will be selected for the region that God has picked for us and that the region will be helpful and not over daunting with the paperwork requirements. Also pray for our family and that we can get our dossier completed as quickly as possible so that we can officially be on the waiting list to travel. This last week we received notification that we are being considered for a matching grant. Pray for God's direction in this and if we are to be blessed with this as well as any of the other grants we have applied for.
For those who are following our adoption journey and keeping us in your prayers we are truly greatful! It really does mean a lot to us to have all of your support for our family and we just want to say thank you! We pray for God's blessings for each one of you.
Dossiers are region specific which just means that some regions are more meticulous about their requirements than others and they require certain additional paperwork.
Prayer requests: Pray that we will be selected for the region that God has picked for us and that the region will be helpful and not over daunting with the paperwork requirements. Also pray for our family and that we can get our dossier completed as quickly as possible so that we can officially be on the waiting list to travel. This last week we received notification that we are being considered for a matching grant. Pray for God's direction in this and if we are to be blessed with this as well as any of the other grants we have applied for.
For those who are following our adoption journey and keeping us in your prayers we are truly greatful! It really does mean a lot to us to have all of your support for our family and we just want to say thank you! We pray for God's blessings for each one of you.
Thursday, January 13, 2011
Our latest and greatest
I got confirmation from the Secretary of State that our packet was delivered and that she has apostilled all of our documents (which I hope means they were all ok). They are fowarding it on to our agency today :) Once they make it to our agency, as long as all of the paperwork is correct, it will be forwarded on to Russia. From there our region will be selected, so that we will actually know which part of Russia it is that we will be traveling to. Also, we mailed off our applications for grants to help fund our adoption, but we probably won't find out anything for a few weeks about those.
Brent and I are going back and forth talking about names and have yet to solidify what our daughter will be named. Of course we waited until we were 36 weeks pregnant before we picked out our youngest son't name ;)I am looking forward to my sister coming into town sometime in the next month or two so we can start working on her room. I can't wait to turn it from a storage/office to a little girl's room!
Prayer requests: Please remember to pray for our family and that God will put His hand into deciding which region we will be adopting from. Also pray for our daughter and her birth mother, that they both will be healthy and that she will obstain from drugs, alcohol, etc. You can also pray for a sense of peace for our family and that we will continue to just take everything in stride and not be overwhelmed by all of it. Lastly, pray over these grants that we have applied for. Pray that God would deliver these grants to whatever family needs them the most, whether that be us or someone else. Adoption is such an amazing opportunity and while we could definitely benefit from receiving adoption assistance, I know that our God is faithful and that He will provide the means necessary for us to fullfill his plan for our family. I would hate for another family to forfeit an adoption experience just because they are intimidated by the financial demands.
Brent and I are going back and forth talking about names and have yet to solidify what our daughter will be named. Of course we waited until we were 36 weeks pregnant before we picked out our youngest son't name ;)I am looking forward to my sister coming into town sometime in the next month or two so we can start working on her room. I can't wait to turn it from a storage/office to a little girl's room!
Prayer requests: Please remember to pray for our family and that God will put His hand into deciding which region we will be adopting from. Also pray for our daughter and her birth mother, that they both will be healthy and that she will obstain from drugs, alcohol, etc. You can also pray for a sense of peace for our family and that we will continue to just take everything in stride and not be overwhelmed by all of it. Lastly, pray over these grants that we have applied for. Pray that God would deliver these grants to whatever family needs them the most, whether that be us or someone else. Adoption is such an amazing opportunity and while we could definitely benefit from receiving adoption assistance, I know that our God is faithful and that He will provide the means necessary for us to fullfill his plan for our family. I would hate for another family to forfeit an adoption experience just because they are intimidated by the financial demands.
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
paper work...take 2
Well, we are having our first "take 2" when it comes to our mound of paperwork. At least these mistakes were made prior to us mailing them off to Austin :) Now, we only have to get them notarized...again. I did a count and we will be mailing 60, yes that is a 6-0 pieces of paper to Austin. I am not lying or exaggerating when it comes to how much paperwork is involved. That is completely ok, though. It will be well worth it in the end! Until then, bring on the paperwork!
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