Amazing Yard Sale Update!

Wow! That is how I feel about our yard sale.  The weather was not cooperating with us and we decided at the last minute to go ahead a do it instead of postponing. It sprinkled off and on all day Saturday and we we kept dragging things in and out of the garage so they wouldn't get ruined.  Despite the rain and our last minute advertising people came out to the sale.  I met so many lovely people that wanted to support our adoption, some who have also adopted. It was so nice.  We've never had a yard sale before and we didn't know what to expect, especially since we live on a court without a lot of traffic. I was shocked when we counted our earnings and ended up with about $2,200!!! Can you believe it?!? As you know we have a very big agency fee coming up in a couple weeks, we were expecting to need to get a loan and now we will be able to make the payment and put off getting a loan for a while longer. Praise God! Thank you to everyone who was involved in the yard sale in any way, from donating items, to picking up donated items (mom, Ian, Ashley), to helping me organize, sort, and price things (Heather), to praying for our yard sale, working at the yard sale (Franny), and coming out to our yard sale.

About our documents:  On Friday I overnighted our documents to the courier.  I was so stressed out about it!  Something about letting go of the documents i've been working on for so many months and placing them in the hands of FedEx was just so hard.  It didn't help that I've never used FedEx before and I was worried I might have done something wrong.  I'm happy to report that they made it to the courier just fine and are now at the Department of State getting authenticated, next week they will go to the Embassy of China, and then to our Agency.  

Be Brave T-shirts:  We currently have two smalls in both the black sleeve and red sleeve baseball tees and one XL in the red sleeves.  Kids t-shirts we have 2T-10 youth.  $25 for adults and $20 for kids. Another shipment will be coming soon.

https://www.youcaring.com/adoption-fundraiser/waiting-4-gabe/341337

Moving along

Today is the first day of fall, it's my favorite season ( even though the allergies are awful ), and it means we are one season closer to bringing Gabe home.  I finished the last steps of our dossier today, at least the steps that I can personally do.  My brother, Chris was so sweet to drive me around downtown today to get certifications and authentications. I do not drive downtown so that was huge blessing!  In a couple of days i'll send our documents to a courier and they will finish the last two steps in Washington D.C.  I am so relieved that my part is done, it's been nearly six months of paperwork.

Sometime in early 2016, probably January, but definitely before Gabe is here, this sign will be posted around our neighborhood. I didn't even know signs like this existed before another adoptive mom posted something about it. So, that is really great!

A big thank you to everyone who has donated items for our yard sale. I will be putting your names on Gabe's puzzle.  We are so grateful for all the donations, a yard sale would not even be an option without them.  Our yard sale is this weekend, pray that it doesn't rain!

https://www.youcaring.com/adoption-fundraiser/waiting-4-gabe/341337

Thanks for reading!

I800A approval!

I've been putting off writing a new blog post because I really didn't have an update to share.  Well, this afternoon I got an email that our I800A has been approved.  Woohoo! Now, in a few days the official approval notice will come in the mail.  Once we have that final piece of our dossier, we'll get a few more authentications and and be DTC ( dossier to China ) in a matter of weeks.  This a a huge milestone in the adoption process!  Along with being DTC comes a big payment to our agency, we have more than half of it and are hoping to raise the remaining portion with a yard sale and t-shirt sales.  Our "be Brave" shirts have arrived and are awesome!  Email me at sloankari78@gmail.com if you want one. Baseball tees are $25 adult sizes and regular t-shirts are $20 toddler and youth.

In other news… we have 2 new pictures of our little guy.  A lot of times in the adoption process you may only get a few pictures total, but fortunately Gabe is in foster home that happens to have a Facebook page and occasionally they post pictures of him.  I know I say it all the time but the waiting is so hard.  Mike and I both have been dreaming about Gabe lately, dreaming that we have him with us, but then we wake up and remember we still have months to go. So, we study the pictures we have and we watch the couple of videos we have and keep on waiting for the day.

Thank you for following along on our journey.

Little Feet

We are currently 3 weeks into the 1800-A approval wait.  It can take up to 6 weeks, we should be getting a fingerprint appointment in the mail any day.  We were relieved to find out that if we don't meet our deadline in October its not a big deal and we can get an extension.  Still hoping we make it though.

Yesterday we received 2 new pictures of our little guy!  So, maybe his feet don't actually look that big.

We also got some information from his cheek-up. He's had all of the normal vaccines and blood tests came back normal.  We should get updated measurements and some other information we requested but nothing is guaranteed and we're thankful for any information we receive.

The waiting is getting harder by the day so we were especially happy to get  a couple pictures we weren't expecting.  We can't wait to show all of you his perfect, adorable, sweet face. 

Abby had a writing assignment at school this week, they had to write about someone they think is brave.  She wrote about all the ways her brother Gabe is brave.  Sweetest thing ever.  

We are selling these "be Brave" shirts to help with the costs of our adoption.  Let me know if you would like to buy one.  Baseball tees are $25 (adult sizes)

Regular t-shirts are $20  (toddler- adult sizes)

Email me at sloankari78@gmail.com or PM me for more info.

Choose Love

Five months ago today we requested our little guy's file, we are about halfway through this process (hopefully), if everything goes smoothly and according to schedule. We can't get there soon enough!  How do you love a child that you've never met so much?  How do you miss a child that has never been with you so much?  I don't know, but we do.  We really do!  Please continue to pray for a speedy approval from our government.

I have a little story to share with you.

As I was finishing my morning walk, coming up my street I see some trash on the ground, it's been there a few days and nobody has bothered to pick it up, not even me, I saw it yesterday and walked on by.  I was feeling like God was nudging me to pick it up but kept walking because surely God was not asking me to pick up trash, right? It wasn't my trash so why should I pick it up?  Besides that, it was a smashed, dirty McDonald's bag and I'm sure it had tons of germs on it!  Still feeling the nudge I turned around and picked it up.  I continue to walk up my street, trash in hand and begin asking God to enlighten me because there must be a deeper meaning here.  Once home I throw away the trash, wash my hands, and get ready to clean the house.  I select shuffle on my Christain playlist ( worship while you clean ) that's what I do.  The first song is "Love People" by the Katina's.  Ok, I suppose picking up trash from this lovely street we live on is loving my neighbors in a small way, even though it wasn't my trash to pick up.  Still, there must be more…The next song is " Your Love is Extravagant"  by Casting Crowns.  Here is one line from the song:

"Spread wide in the arms of Christ is the love that covers sin."

Ok God, I get it now, that one powerful line says it all.  The work of the cross was the ultimate act of love but did we deserve it or earn it in any way? No, we didn't.

1John 4:10
This is love: Not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.

It's that simple, a little lesson on love. Love your neighbors, love your enemies, love people.  We know this already, don't we?  We just need to be reminded sometimes.  I could go on and on about this.  We are in need of Love in this world... Choose Love.

John 13:34
" A new command I give you:  Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another."

Now,  I'm off to clean the kid's bathroom, even though I don't use it and shouldn't have to clean it (that's what I always tell them ).  Do I want to clean their bathroom?  Never!  But I love them and today  I'll choose to so they can play outside on this beautiful day when they get home from school.

Another care package

UPDATE:  Our home study is final and approved!! Now we  send off our I-800A ( an application seeking approval to adopt from our government )  and wait for approval which can take 4-6 weeks. Please pray that this happens quickly, we really need to meet our deadline in October.  I finally feel like we're making progress. Yay!  I have to say that I was dreading the home study process, you have to be an open book and talk, talk, talk, talk, talk, talk….about everything in your life... ever.  If you know me you know that I'm not down with all that, but fortunately I love our social worker, she's been awesome, and it really wasn't bad at all.  I'm so glad its over though ;)

To our surprise we have another opportunity to send a care package.  I love that our agency does this for all the waiting families. We sent the first one just two months ago so we weren't expecting to have another opportunity so soon.  No complaints here, we're happy to shower our little guy with fun little gifts. I wish we were allowed a bigger package so we could send some extra things for his little friends and caregivers.  I'll definitely try to squeeze some extra goodies into the next package.

I just love that t-shirt and Gabe's daddy loves little clothes (but mostly pajamas) with dinosaurs.

Speaking of t-shirts, we have one adoption shirt available, size small-unisex  $20 shipped, message me if you're interested.

Thanks for following our journey.

http://www.youcaring.com/adoption-fundraiser/waiting-4-gabe/341337

A couple of things

A couple things happening this week.  Today we received our home study for review, it looks great to me but our case worker at our placing agency needs to review it also.  It would be great if no changes need to be made, we need to get this show on the road! It won't be long now and all this paperwork will be out of my hands and then we wait……

Yesterday we were informed that our little guy will be getting a medical check-up soon and they wanted to know if we had any specific questions to ask or tests done.  I had no idea what to ask because I didn't expect to have the opportunity to get any medical information besides what is already in his file.  I'm not sure how I feel about it though,  he does have some delays but it is not known if his delays are a result of his blindness or other issues.  Either way, he is our son and we'll figure it out.  After asking for suggestions and doing some research I came up with a few requests/questions. We'll wait and see. Im grateful he's in a good place and getting medical care.

In a recent update we were told that little guy was walking while pushing a toy or holding an adult's hand

I want to hold that little hand

To quote TobyMac's song " It's Way Beyond Me"- I just need to keep reminding myself of that.

Isaiah 41:10

So do not fear, for I am with you, do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous hand.

http://www.youcaring.com/adoption-fundraiser/waiting-4-gabe/341337