We Had A Great Day!

The past couple of weeks have been frustrating, some of which we have blogged about on here. But today was AWESOME!!!

To begin with, we finally received current photos of our girl! Isn't she beautiful??? We can't wait to hug her and bring her home.

Plus, we received David's passport today...hopefully Christy's is on it's way.

We also are taking the final steps toward finalization of our homestudy, including getting appointments for next week for our psychological profiles.

The State of TN came through today with our completed criminal background checks...we are still waiting on New York's.

So, as you can see, we made a lot of progress today. But that picture tops it all!

Our Muffin Hat Sale Fundraiser Has Begun!

Great news! We have begun to receive orders for Christy's handmade "muffin hats"...little girls hats that we are selling to raise funds for Mindy's adoption. Thank you to all that have ordered, as well as those that have given money to the cause. We appreciate it more than you know!

If you are interested in the hats, please visit our Muffin Company page on Facebook at: http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Muffin-Company/330263417733?v=app_4949752878&ref=ts

Or, you can order right from the blog by following the "Add to Cart" link on the right hand side of this page. There are two sizes available: Infant (3 mo-1 year) and Toddler (1 year - 3 years).

Thank you so much for helping!

Is No News Good News??

We spoke with the agency again yesterday, and they said they haven't received any information yet on Mindy. She is in an orphanage in eastern Europe they do not commonly work with, so their contact did not get to see her like we were hoping. We had been praying for the past couple weeks that additional information on Mindy was forthcoming...but that doesn't seem to be the case now. I expressed to the agency how not getting information causes the mind to conclude that something is wrong. They promised us though, that there is nothing wrong...there is just nothing to report. So, at this point we can just continue doing the things that we have control over, and trusting that God is taking care of our little girl until we can get there.

Speaking of things that are in OUR control...we have made progress on the paperwork front! We received a draft of our homestudy, and our social worker also sent it to the adoption agency for them to review. I'm sure there will be some tweaks and maybe some additional information will be necessary, but we are fairly close to completing the homestudy. Yay on that!

Also, we know that the I-600A application is in process, as evidenced by two things; first, we received the green postcard back indicating that our certified mail package was successfully delivered, and second, the Department of Homeland Security cashed our check! So that is underway. We are waiting for our passports to arrive, and we have received the dossier packet from the agency to begin that process. Fortunately, they had already provided some of that previously so we are underway with compiling that information already.

We know that things are moving forward, so we are thankful in that regard. We could just use some additional prayers that Mindy is taken care of, and that our road to her is somewhat smooth and free of speedbumps!

God Bless!

Please Help Us....Buy a Hat For Your Little One

To raise funds for our efforts at bringing Mindy home, we are selling these handmade Muffin Hats. Christy has been making these hats for 15 years and used to sell them commercially. Now, she is making them once again, and all proceeds will be used to help bring our fifth girl home to us.

Please consider buying a "Muffin Hat for Mindy". We are selling them for $20. Thank you for considering helping us out. To purchase or get more information, please visit our Muffin Company page at: http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Muffin-Company/330263417733?v=app_4949752878&ref=ts

Homestudy Almost Complete!

We had our final meeting with the social worker tonight at our home. She met with the 4 girls, and had an individual meeting with Christy (after meeting separately with David last night). If all goes well we will have the homestudy written up and in our hands soon. We feel like that is a MAJOR accomplishment!

We also visited the post office today to get our passport applications submitted. And, we are ready to submit the I-600A to immigration to get that process started.

Now that we are getting close to putting the homestudy behind us, we have the big, bad dossier to tackle. That will take some time to complete. One step at a time...

Another Good Day!

This was a good week in our journey, and today was no exception. We accomplished several things today.

First, we had our physicals to get our medical forms completed. No issues there.

We also finally got the proper documentation in with VitalChek to get certified copies of our birth certificates and marriage license from New York. We had to get new Tennessee drivers licenses because we had moved a couple of years ago, and the addresses did not match our current address. That's done.

We got the mortgage letter and the employment verification letter for David's job. All properly notarized of course!

And, now that our agency contracts are in place, we have our Family Sponsorship Page set up with Reece's Rainbow! Our autobiographical write up is included....at:

http://www.reecesrainbow.org/sponsorstatz.html

Thank you for continuing to join us in our journey!

God Bless,
David and Christy

Agency Contracts Are Signed

Just a quick update tonight. We received our contracts from the adoption agency yesterday, and signed them, got them notarized and returned them to the agency. So, it's getting more official by the day!

Thursday evening is David's individual interview with the home study social worker. Then, we look forward to our first home visit next Tuesday. Step by step....