I went back from the beginning when I first started this blog and read it Some of it I forgot we went thru and I forgot I even wrote. I did a special post to mark each month. I thought I would copy them all and post them all in one post so you can all get an idea of how the year of our adoption went. If you want to read more just go back to my first post and start reading.Oh and for you that don't know we were going to Name him Josiah before met him and he already knew his name as Vahnya we decided to keep his name Vahnya and name him Vahnya Josiah.
one month down
I can't believe it has been a month since we committed to Josiah on Reece's Rainbow sometimes, it seems so long ago but sometimes seems like just yesterday. I think of all the stuff we have gotten done in the last month and wow we really have done a lot. This week we are getting ready for our home study visit she will be coming on sat at 9:30 in the morning so we have been cleaning up the house for her lol.
Mike and I are going today to get ss cards for him, Josh and I because we can't find ours. We will be faxing the last of our paperwork to our social worker tonight. We still have to find a psychologist to do our psychological evaluation, not too excited about that but it has to be done. We will get thru it just like all the rest of the stuff they ask us to do. It is a great learning experience for both Mike and I.
So I guess that for now not too much to tell it will probably be slow here for a while while we start getting the things ready for our dosser.We will be sending out our I600A next and have to wait for our finger print appointment for FBI. I think we have to go to Salem for that.Today we are just going to think about getting things ready for the home study visit I'm not worried or stressed about it just want to get it done.
I do have to be honest I was starting to stress a lot about the finances for all this because we haven't gotten many donations and I was just thinking about all we still have to pay for, not just the big stuff but all the little things too. But I remembered that God said he was going to take care of it so I have piece about it. I don't know where it will come from I am just trusting it will come. so far it has and all we can do is have faith that it will be there when we need it.
Mike and I are going today to get ss cards for him, Josh and I because we can't find ours. We will be faxing the last of our paperwork to our social worker tonight. We still have to find a psychologist to do our psychological evaluation, not too excited about that but it has to be done. We will get thru it just like all the rest of the stuff they ask us to do. It is a great learning experience for both Mike and I.
So I guess that for now not too much to tell it will probably be slow here for a while while we start getting the things ready for our dosser.We will be sending out our I600A next and have to wait for our finger print appointment for FBI. I think we have to go to Salem for that.Today we are just going to think about getting things ready for the home study visit I'm not worried or stressed about it just want to get it done.
I do have to be honest I was starting to stress a lot about the finances for all this because we haven't gotten many donations and I was just thinking about all we still have to pay for, not just the big stuff but all the little things too. But I remembered that God said he was going to take care of it so I have piece about it. I don't know where it will come from I am just trusting it will come. so far it has and all we can do is have faith that it will be there when we need it.
TWO MONTHS DOWN
Wow it has been two months yesterday since we committed to adopt Josiah. I am amazed that I have only had this little boy in my heart for two months it feels like forever.we are more then half way there and to think in two more months we may be able to meet this little guy.So excited about that.It feels like the last month just flew by I hope the next two fly by as well.
3 months today
3 months wow we are thru the first trimester so to speak. when I was pregnant all 6 times, I remember being so excited to get past the 3rd month, to be in the 2nd trimester. so much more exciting things happened in the 2nd trimester, you start feeling the baby kick, you are not sick anymore with morning sickness, you get to see the baby on ultrasound, you get to hear its heart beat at each dr visit, your tummy starts showing so people can tell you are pregnant. so I was thinking maybe the 2nd trimester of adoption will be like that. maybe now that we are almost done with the paperwork, maybe its time to experience some fun. it leaves me to wonder what the fun could be. I'm sure the Lord has some fun up his sleeve for us. I do expect that in this next 3 months during this 2nd trimester we will get to meet Josiah, hold him, kiss him, get to know him for a week. it will give us the kick we need to get thru and make it to the 3rd trimester. sorta like when you go in for that big ultra sound, you know the one where you really get to see the baby and see if its a boy or a girl. I just pray that we will take time to take in and remember all of the special things that are about to happen in our lives thru this adoption, thru this special little boy. we will do what ever it takes to get him home, give him a new birth so to speak.thank you Lord for putting this little boy in our hearts, for giving us love for this little boy we have never met, we are trusting for the finances and everything else to work out.Both Mike and I know that the Lord would not lead us to do this if it was not his will and we just need to trust! and do as God wants us to. we don't want to miss the blessings he has for us by not being obedient. when he says go you go! no matter if he's telling you to go to China on a missions trip , to Africa to open up a orphanage, to Ecuador to start children's ministries, to your friend down the street to tell him about Jesus, or in our case to go get Josiah. you do what he puts on your heart no matter how much work it is, no matter how much money it takes, you do it in faith or you may just miss the biggest blessing you could ever imagine.
4 months!
Today it has been 4 months! only 4 months and we have come so far. As I have said before we have gotten so much done in the last 4 months. I don't think anyone knows how much work it is to adopt. Only if you have done it or are doing it would you ever know.I have such a respect for those who have adopted.
When the Lord told us to do this we said, "ok Lord, lets do it," we didn't know it would be so much work. humm maybe we would have said no and if we had said no think of what we would have missed out on. Yes it has been hard work, it is stressful ,it is emotionally draining and it is hard work. But we have gotten this far, something I would have never seen Mike and my self doing. All this paperwork and digging into our lives, keeping on top of everything, making sure its all done, and doing it all during baseball/softball season our busy time as a family. with all-stars and Mike coaching, me doing uniforms, people wanting this and that from us, needing to be in 5 places at once. But we have still managed to get all of this adoption stuff done. I have to say I am proud of us.But I want all of you my family my friends to know this is not easy for us. we need your support, talk to us about the adoption, ask us questions, make us know you are thinking about us if you are we need to know,we need your support.
No we don't know where the money for this is coming from. We don't know how we will get it or when. All we know is that so far we have had it .So far we have had every penny we needed for each thing. and all we can do is keep on trusting that it will continue to be that way. We will take it one thing at a time.If you feel like donating some money to bring Josiah home then please do. Even if its $5 it all adds up. My friend the other day handed me $5 but was sorta embarrassed acting and apologetic that it was only $5. Well you know what we had just paid our agency fee that day and our adoption fund was down to $15 and that $5 made it $20. each and every dollar counts, my friend blessed me so much that day with that $5, it made me see that the jar was filling back up.
If you feel led to offer us a loan boy that would be a blessing as we have said all along we are willing to pay fully to bring Josiah home we just don't have that much money all at once so a loan would be fantastic. Anyone?
so as I look back at the last 4 months I think about how your life can change, your thinking can change and your heart can change in such a short time. and I wonder what the next 4 months will bring, what new lessons we will learn, what new people God will place in our path and how our love will grow? not only for Josiah but for eachother and for God as well.
When the Lord told us to do this we said, "ok Lord, lets do it," we didn't know it would be so much work. humm maybe we would have said no and if we had said no think of what we would have missed out on. Yes it has been hard work, it is stressful ,it is emotionally draining and it is hard work. But we have gotten this far, something I would have never seen Mike and my self doing. All this paperwork and digging into our lives, keeping on top of everything, making sure its all done, and doing it all during baseball/softball season our busy time as a family. with all-stars and Mike coaching, me doing uniforms, people wanting this and that from us, needing to be in 5 places at once. But we have still managed to get all of this adoption stuff done. I have to say I am proud of us.But I want all of you my family my friends to know this is not easy for us. we need your support, talk to us about the adoption, ask us questions, make us know you are thinking about us if you are we need to know,we need your support.
No we don't know where the money for this is coming from. We don't know how we will get it or when. All we know is that so far we have had it .So far we have had every penny we needed for each thing. and all we can do is keep on trusting that it will continue to be that way. We will take it one thing at a time.If you feel like donating some money to bring Josiah home then please do. Even if its $5 it all adds up. My friend the other day handed me $5 but was sorta embarrassed acting and apologetic that it was only $5. Well you know what we had just paid our agency fee that day and our adoption fund was down to $15 and that $5 made it $20. each and every dollar counts, my friend blessed me so much that day with that $5, it made me see that the jar was filling back up.
If you feel led to offer us a loan boy that would be a blessing as we have said all along we are willing to pay fully to bring Josiah home we just don't have that much money all at once so a loan would be fantastic. Anyone?
so as I look back at the last 4 months I think about how your life can change, your thinking can change and your heart can change in such a short time. and I wonder what the next 4 months will bring, what new lessons we will learn, what new people God will place in our path and how our love will grow? not only for Josiah but for eachother and for God as well.
5 months today
5 months today boy it seems to get faster and faster that I post these monthly posts. So it has been 5 months today that we committed to be Josiah's family. Not so much has happened in the last month .We sent in our application dossier, our facilitator is translating it and will submit it to the committee on August 23rd. In the mean time we have been getting the last things done for our court dossier ,getting a few forms filled out,a few things notarized, we had to go get a couple more copies of our marriage certificate, get the kids Dr. check up letters, and of course we got our the USCIS letter. We should have everything done by the end of this month and be able to send it all in to be apostilled . Then send it to our agency, who will send it to our facilitator, who will translate it and I think send it to the Judge. so that when we get back from our first trip our court dossier will already be in the Judge's hands and hopefully the Judge will give us a sooner then later court date.
We are working hard on getting money for our first trip we have sold things on Craig's list and had a couple small garage sales. On the 4th I have a table at the doll show where I will be selling my doll collection . So we hope to have the money we will need but I think we may come up $3000 short for the first trip. If you look to the right of this post you will see a chip in that still sits at 0, if you are reading this and would like to help us out you can donate by using PayPal on that chip in. Remember every little bit helps. We have not found out if they are giving us the loan yet, not sure when we will find out.
The next few weeks I really think are going to go by fast and I hope that when I post our 6 month post I will at least know the date that we will be going to see our boy. 5 months does not seem like a long time but when I look back on the last five months I can't believe we have come this far, just a bit more and we will have him in our arms.
We are working hard on getting money for our first trip we have sold things on Craig's list and had a couple small garage sales. On the 4th I have a table at the doll show where I will be selling my doll collection . So we hope to have the money we will need but I think we may come up $3000 short for the first trip. If you look to the right of this post you will see a chip in that still sits at 0, if you are reading this and would like to help us out you can donate by using PayPal on that chip in. Remember every little bit helps. We have not found out if they are giving us the loan yet, not sure when we will find out.
The next few weeks I really think are going to go by fast and I hope that when I post our 6 month post I will at least know the date that we will be going to see our boy. 5 months does not seem like a long time but when I look back on the last five months I can't believe we have come this far, just a bit more and we will have him in our arms.
6months
6 months today 1/2 a year wow ! so we are pretty close to getting to hold our baby and I pray that before I write the 7 month post we will have a bunch more pictures and stories to tell about him. 6 months can seem long at times but other times it seems so short, right now I'm back and forth on that because for one thing to tell you the truth I just cant believe we are done with all that stuff! homestudy and dossiers. I look back and it feels like it wasn't even us doing all that stuff,it amazes me that we did it all and have it all done and that our next step is to get on a flight to go see our boy . Then I think about how much kids grow in 6 months and I just wish we could have one new picture of him so we could see how big he is, if his hair has grown out. And an update on if he's walking, talking so on.As a mom you want to be there for all of their millstones. It's hard to think of everything he has probably learned or how far he has come in 6 months that I have missed. I know that I will see him not to long from now so that helps. So here is to 1/2 a year !!! let the next 1/2 be full of blessings!!!! We are still short $3,400 for our first trip if you can help us please do we hate hate asking for anything let alone money so this is a hard thing for us to ask but if you had been planning to donate now would be a great time. Thank you to all of you who read this blog all the prayers and support.
8 monthsToday it has been 8 months since the day we committed to adopt Josiah. And it feels about right if I were 8 months pregnant I would be having all these same feelings mood swings and such. Ok yah I don't have a big belly, a sore back and indigestion no wait I do have all that stuff just not from a baby lol. I know I have said this before but everything we have done to this point seems like a dream, like I can't even remember doing it. I know that at the time putting together the dossier and all that was stressful and I thought I may go crazy. But I can honestly say when I think back I don't remember that at all . Now I have excitement filling me each day that gives me a little stress but its a good stress. we are going to see our baby soon,in5 days!I have been thinking about money because although we have everything we need for this first trip. I calculated up how much we still need to finish this adoption and its almost $20,000 we have already paid over $18,000 and to tell you the truth I don't know how! we haven't gotten many donations or any loans or grants. The Lord just made sure we had what we needed just as we needed it. And that is a fact! because never ever before this adoption if someone asked us to have $18,000 in 8 months would we have thought we would have it. We would have thought they were crazy. But look we have had it, God is good!! We still need help though so maybe someone reading this will have it laid upon their heart to be one of the people the Lord uses to get us where we need to be to bring Josiah home. Maybe a donation, maybe a loan? like I said we still need $20.000 and we may get a court date as early as December, that does not give us much time to raise $20,000 but I know God has a perfect plan.
7 months
7months to tell you the truth when we first started this adoption I thought by the time we got to 7 months we would already have him home. After looking at other family's blogs and seeing that they had their child home in 7 months. But I have learned that adoption is not ever the same for anyone. For one family it could go real fast, for another it could take years. Different obstacles can get in the way, they are able to be overcome but it can slow you down. For some it could be the homestudy or USCIS or FBI fingerprints For another vacations taken by people in your Childs country,it could be something needed for the dossier or court and for another it could be a volcano eruption.You just don't ever know.But you know who does know? God because he is the one who has already gone before you and pathed the way, there may be bumps, hills or even mountains but if you just keep on the path you will get there. With each one of those bumps hills or mountains you will learn something, you will grow,your faith will increase. Each one is put there for a reason. you may never know what that reason is but it doesn't matter God does.
So as I type this and try to understand I realize I don't need to understand I just need to trust. I know the Lord told us to do this, I know Josiah is our son, I'm not gong to let any bump, hill or mountain get in my way! Yes we still need money,no we don't have many people that seem like they care, yes there is nothing we can do about the committee saying no more adoptions in 2010,there is nothing we can do about the one lady we need being sick for two weeks. There is nothing we can do is that true? No we can pray and God can move mountains RIGHT!!
So as I type this and try to understand I realize I don't need to understand I just need to trust. I know the Lord told us to do this, I know Josiah is our son, I'm not gong to let any bump, hill or mountain get in my way! Yes we still need money,no we don't have many people that seem like they care, yes there is nothing we can do about the committee saying no more adoptions in 2010,there is nothing we can do about the one lady we need being sick for two weeks. There is nothing we can do is that true? No we can pray and God can move mountains RIGHT!!
9 months today
Today it has been 9 months since the day we committed to adopt Josiah. Since I have met him, looked into his sparkling eyes, kissed his sweet face, held his cute little hands, listened to his magical giggle I am changed!! As Mike has said, "He has a joy for life in his eyes and smile that I can't really describe.."
With all six of my pregnancies as my belly would grow I would have the feelings will I love this baby as much as I love the others? Will I feel that same strong bond? Will this baby love me ? Then the baby was born and there was no doubt. That is the same way I felt about Josiah when I first held him in my arms. I am so thankful to God for that. I can honestly say I love him with everything in me, just as if he had grown inside me for nine months. That saying "born not under my heart but in it" is so true. It is hard now because we can't be with him,he is so far away from us and we don't know when we will get to see him again maybe not for 2 or 3 months. I have to keep reminding my self of what all we have already done, how far we have already come, that we are in the home stretch rounding third base, we are almost there.
With all six of my pregnancies as my belly would grow I would have the feelings will I love this baby as much as I love the others? Will I feel that same strong bond? Will this baby love me ? Then the baby was born and there was no doubt. That is the same way I felt about Josiah when I first held him in my arms. I am so thankful to God for that. I can honestly say I love him with everything in me, just as if he had grown inside me for nine months. That saying "born not under my heart but in it" is so true. It is hard now because we can't be with him,he is so far away from us and we don't know when we will get to see him again maybe not for 2 or 3 months. I have to keep reminding my self of what all we have already done, how far we have already come, that we are in the home stretch rounding third base, we are almost there.
10 months
Today it has been 10 months since we committed to adopt V Josiah. I almost didn't post because I really didn't know what to say. I feel content right now, I know God is working. we have had a few pretty good donations in the last few weeks, something I didn't anticipate. we have had ups and downs since we got back from our 1st trip almost two months ago. I miss him really bad one day and the next I'm fine. Right now I'm feeling good, I know we will have him home soon and like I said I'm feeling content. That is a strange feeling for me because for the last ten months I have felt everything but content. I just thank the Lord for giving me this peaceful feeling in my heart right now because its something I really needed. I could be stressing out over the fact that we still need just over $12,000 before we go for our next trip but I'm not. I could be stressing out that our coordinators in-laws were hit by a car and are in the hospital but I'm not, I just pray for them. I could stress out about getting our visas, our plane tickets, booking the hotel but I'm not. I could be stressing out about COURT or the 8 DOCTOR MEDICAL EXAM we have to have but I'm not. I'm calm, I'm content and I'm fine. For now anyways lol.I hope that I will have him in my arms when I post that it has been 11 months.
one year
Today it has been one year since we said yes to adopt our sweet little boy and I don't think I can say anything better then this, please go read Madison's and Amanda's posts his big sisters.
http://from-myheart-toyours.blogspot.com/2011/03/tomorow-will-mark.html
http://thesunshinebehindtherain.blogspot.com/2011/03/year.html
OH and today is my birthday! and in 5 days I will be going back to get our boy to bring him home forever.
http://from-myheart-toyours.blogspot.com/2011/03/tomorow-will-mark.html
http://thesunshinebehindtherain.blogspot.com/2011/03/year.html
OH and today is my birthday! and in 5 days I will be going back to get our boy to bring him home forever.
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