DTC!!!!

This is that exciting post I was talking about. Today our dossier was sent to China - DTC!!! I'm so excited about this milestone, the adoption process is a roller coaster of emotions but today i'm happy. I feel like we're finally getting close.

Now we wait for a letter of approval from China, it can take a up to 2.5 months but lately some have been getting them a lot faster than that. Praying for this approval to come quickly, We're hoping to travel in March at the latest. As soon as we get that approval we can share pictures of Gabriel. I can't wait for that!

While we were at church this weekend, which was amazing because the Katina's were there doing worship and they played Oceans, one of my favorites,  I feel like it's my adoption theme song. If you don't know about the Katina's you should seriously check them out. Anyway, Abby and Caleb filled out the little cards they give out for prayer requests and praise reports, I could not find where to turn them in so i'll share here so you all can pray.

Caleb's praise report: Praise for having the chance to adopt a brother from China.

Caleb's prayer request: Dear God, I pray my brother, mom, and dad make it home from China.

Abby's prayer request #1: I pray for my mom and dad to have a safe flight to and from China with our adopted brother Gabe.

Abby's prayer request #2: I pray for Gabe to be able to have a painless surgery to see for the first time.

Please pray for our kids, I know they're anxious about us being away for two weeks. Maybe even as anxious as I am about leaving them for so long. It's going to be hard on all of us.

*A couple of things have been brought to my attention that I want to clarify:
1. DTC- This means dossier to China, stay tuned for a full list of adoption acronyms in the next post.
2. Gabe is not scheduled to have surgery on his eyes, we won't know until he's home and sees a specialist if surgery is even an option. We are not expecting that it will be, but you never know.

Thanks for following our journey.

You Caring Link:

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

It's a good week!

This week our documents are finishing up at The Embassy, and next week's blog post will be very exciting (for me) because our dossier will be sent to China!

We also got 2 new videos of our little guy this week. I cannot stop watching them!! The first video is very short and shows him learning to feed himself. The second video he's walking! At first he's holding a caregiver's hand but at the end of the video he walks by himself and he has the biggest smile on his face, he's looks so proud.  This is huge progress, Gabriel has poor muscle tone and when he first arrived at the foster home a little over a year ago he couldn't even sit up. Way to go, little buddy!

We are going to do dinner and silent auction in December to help raise some of the big fees that come at the end of the adoption process.  If you are a crafty person and would be willing to donate something for the silent auction that would be awesome, or if you work at a place that might donate something that would be great too. Let me know if you are interested in helping us out with this. My email is sloankari78@gmail.com

Below is a link to our You Caring Fundraising page

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

A slight delay

I want to say a big thank you to everyone that bought a t-shirt last week.  I sold all of our remaining t-shirts in two days and it helped us pay our second agency fee with a little extra to spare.

We have a slight delay with our documents right now, last week they were getting a seal from the US Department of State and this week they were supposed to get a seal from the Embassy but the Embassy rejected 5 documents (we have 16 total)  because the previous seal wasn't imprinted strongly enough.  That is being fixed but we are losing 4 days and we definitely need an extension of our deadline now. Thankfully, its not a big deal and we'll only need a few extra days.

We're still waiting for an updated video of little guy, some info from his check-up and photos from the last care package we sent.  I'm hoping we'll get those soon.

We are starting from scratch now since we just sent a big check to our agency. That is a scary feeling! We need to try to raise as much money as possible before getting a loan. We are working on some fun fundraisers for the coming months. Stay tuned….

Below is a link to our You Caring fundraising page

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

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.