it should be sent out next Thursday evening (March 18) to China. I am really hoping that we don't have to redo any of the paperwork, but I won't be surprised if we have to either - there was a lot of it!
The Burgess Family
Thank you for visiting! This blog is a hodgepodge of things that interest me such as writing about our family and our new adventure into soap making, advocating for orphans & adoption, providing links for freezer meals we like etc. etc. We are a Christian, homeschooling family with 9 children: 1 was born in China, 5 in Colombia 3 are biological. Welcome! I hope you find something that interests you :)
Thursday, March 11, 2010
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
Our dossier is on its way!
Kevin took our dossier (translation: pile of important paperwork) to Fed Ex today and sent it on its way to our adoption agency for review! They will get it tomorrow (Wednesday), review it and let us know if we need to change or add anything. Once it looks good they will send it on its way to China! It feels so good to have the paperwork out of our hands (we had it locked in a safe!) and working its way to the other side of the world :)
We were originally waiting to send in our dossier until we received a referral, but China changed the process for how they make special needs children available for adoption - for the better, I believe. It used to be that individual adoption agencies could have their own individual list of children, to kind-of get the word out and help find a family for the children. Now, the only way an agency can have an individual list is if they host a child's camp in China - then the agency can post pictures and information about the camp kids. (Hopefully this will lead to even more camps for the children in China!)
So where do all the children go that aren't on the individual agency lists any more? They go on the shared list - the one that all the agencies who work with China have access to. The shared list was there before, but now you have to be "logged in" (have all your paperwork in China) if you would like the referral of a child who is new to the shared list. Once a child has been on the shared list for a month, then you don't have to be logged in to pursue the adoption of that child. The goal is to make it so that a child doesn't have to wait as long to get home to their new family - it should make the process a lot quicker for a family to go get their child because the paperwork is already done. What great news for those precious boys and girls who need a family!
I'll let you know when that paperwork leaves our agency's hands and moves on into China!
In His name,
Karen
We were originally waiting to send in our dossier until we received a referral, but China changed the process for how they make special needs children available for adoption - for the better, I believe. It used to be that individual adoption agencies could have their own individual list of children, to kind-of get the word out and help find a family for the children. Now, the only way an agency can have an individual list is if they host a child's camp in China - then the agency can post pictures and information about the camp kids. (Hopefully this will lead to even more camps for the children in China!)
So where do all the children go that aren't on the individual agency lists any more? They go on the shared list - the one that all the agencies who work with China have access to. The shared list was there before, but now you have to be "logged in" (have all your paperwork in China) if you would like the referral of a child who is new to the shared list. Once a child has been on the shared list for a month, then you don't have to be logged in to pursue the adoption of that child. The goal is to make it so that a child doesn't have to wait as long to get home to their new family - it should make the process a lot quicker for a family to go get their child because the paperwork is already done. What great news for those precious boys and girls who need a family!
I'll let you know when that paperwork leaves our agency's hands and moves on into China!
In His name,
Karen
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
Free Coffee Giveaway!
Post a comment here orSend an email to kevkarb@yahoo.com for one entry,
or
If you would like two entries simply post a comment on your blog or on facebook with a link back to our blog/giveway. Be sure to leave me the link of where you posted so I can count it as two entries.
That's all you have to do for a chance to win a free 14 oz. whole-bean bag of Honduran coffee! For every 25 posts we will give away 1 bag of coffee! (up to 4 bags) Be sure to leave a way for us to contact you if we draw your name! The last day will be on Tuesday, March 9th and we will draw names on the 10th.
Here is what the coffee label says:
"This 100% shade-grown, Arabica coffee is from the Marcala region of Honduras, known for producing premium quality coffee. The coffee is high-grown at over 4,500 feet, producing the finest beans and giving this medium body coffee an exquisite flavor and a smooth finish. This is a 14 oz bag of dark roast coffee, purchased from small, family-operated farms at a fair price."
If you would like to purchase a bag or two of the Honduran coffee we do have some bags left to sell. We have them priced at $10.00 a bag plus the cost of shipping. Just shoot me (Karen) an email at kevkarb@yahoo.com and we can work out the details.
Thanks for visiting - and please spread the word about our giveaway to friends, family, yahoo groups... anyone you can think of :)
The Burgess Family
Monday, February 15, 2010
In the "Top Ten"!
Our family is officially within the "top ten" waiting families who are adopting from China through our agency - Families Thru International Adoption (FTIA)! There are a few families ahead of us who are open to adopting a little girl up to 3 years old, but of those we are open to a few more special needs than what they are. So.... this means we could see who our next daughter will be within about 3 months or less! Makes me a little nervous! Getting a referral and accepting it can be best compared to taking a pregnancy test and having it show positive! I remember those first moments after finding out we were pregnant with Carissa (our first daughter) - all the feelings and emotions that came rushing in - I was happy, scared, joyful, and nervous all in a matter of seconds :)
On a side note - Kevin recently went to Honduras on a short missions trip to help a wonderful organization called Give Hope 2 Kids. They have been working on setting up an orphanage in Honduras for about 3 years now and pray that in 2010 they are finally able to get permission to bring children into the homes they have built. Their website is www.givehope2kids.org if you want to take a look at all they are accomplishing. One of the things we like best about what they are doing is that they are striving to become as self-sufficient as possible on the land they have purchased for the orphanage!
Kevin was able to bring back some wonderful coffee from Honduras for us to sell for our adoption. My next post will be about a free give-a-way for a bag of the coffee and will include directions on what to do if you would like to purchase a bag or two!
Thanks everyone!
Karen (aka The Burgess Family)
P.S. The puzzle is looking great - Thanks everyone!
On a side note - Kevin recently went to Honduras on a short missions trip to help a wonderful organization called Give Hope 2 Kids. They have been working on setting up an orphanage in Honduras for about 3 years now and pray that in 2010 they are finally able to get permission to bring children into the homes they have built. Their website is www.givehope2kids.org if you want to take a look at all they are accomplishing. One of the things we like best about what they are doing is that they are striving to become as self-sufficient as possible on the land they have purchased for the orphanage!
Kevin was able to bring back some wonderful coffee from Honduras for us to sell for our adoption. My next post will be about a free give-a-way for a bag of the coffee and will include directions on what to do if you would like to purchase a bag or two!
Thanks everyone!
Karen (aka The Burgess Family)
P.S. The puzzle is looking great - Thanks everyone!
Monday, February 1, 2010
Started a new blog!
I am so excited about the new blog that Kevin and I were able to build called The Gift of a Family. Our main goal of The Gift of a Family is to raise money for our adoption and to donate towards other adoptions at the same time. We have done this by becoming affiliates with some excellent character-based companies. One is Lamplighter Publishing - a Christian-based company that sells excellent character-based books (which our family happens to love!). Our other affiliate is called Just Love Coffee - a business that sells wonderful fair trade coffees from other parts of the world. Not only do they donate to an orphanage in Ethiopia, but their only affiliates are families who are raising money because of adoption expenses.
We would love for you to take a look at our new blog at http://www.thegiftofafamily.blogspot.com/.
If you are ever in need of some great reading material or a cup of coffee - please think of us :)
Thank you!
The Burgess Family
We would love for you to take a look at our new blog at http://www.thegiftofafamily.blogspot.com/.
If you are ever in need of some great reading material or a cup of coffee - please think of us :)
Thank you!
The Burgess Family
Friday, January 29, 2010
Advocating for a precious little girl from China
This adorable, precious little girl is on FTIA's (Families Thru International Adoption) designated list of children. She has been waiting since March 2009 and her file will be returned in February. I was told she may get placed on the shared list or another agency-specific list, but she may not either. Many children are not made available for adoption. Everything in her file says that she is a bright, happy, on track child. In one photo, she is standing with a little lego stuck on her finger! They say her favorite thing to play with is a toy telephone :)
Her name is Dang Hong and she has had an operation every year since she was born. One in 2007, one in 2008, and one in 2009. She was born with bladder exstrophy. A doctor described it best as a hernia of the bladder. Here in the states, such a condition would usually only require 2 or 3 surgeries - but hers was not done correctly and the doctors tried to fix the first surgery at least one time - but that repair did not work. Basically, her bladder isn't in the right position so she will need a surgery to correct this and then another surgery when she is 5 or 6 years old with the goal of having her develop continence. Our surgeons here are very successful with this type of surgery!
She looks like a happy, confident child. Her little arms look like they were made for hugging!
If you would like, you can email me at kevkarb@yahoo.com and I can pass on the contact information at FTIA or you can contact them directly. She is on their FTIA only list of children - group 2. The rest of the children in group 2 will have their files returned as well so please take a look at them as well. There are 14 of them!
We are praying that a family is found for this precious girl. Please, pass this information on to any group or blog you are a part of. Feel free to give out my name and email address as well.
Thank you everyone,
Karen
Her name is Dang Hong and she has had an operation every year since she was born. One in 2007, one in 2008, and one in 2009. She was born with bladder exstrophy. A doctor described it best as a hernia of the bladder. Here in the states, such a condition would usually only require 2 or 3 surgeries - but hers was not done correctly and the doctors tried to fix the first surgery at least one time - but that repair did not work. Basically, her bladder isn't in the right position so she will need a surgery to correct this and then another surgery when she is 5 or 6 years old with the goal of having her develop continence. Our surgeons here are very successful with this type of surgery!
She looks like a happy, confident child. Her little arms look like they were made for hugging!
If you would like, you can email me at kevkarb@yahoo.com and I can pass on the contact information at FTIA or you can contact them directly. She is on their FTIA only list of children - group 2. The rest of the children in group 2 will have their files returned as well so please take a look at them as well. There are 14 of them!
We are praying that a family is found for this precious girl. Please, pass this information on to any group or blog you are a part of. Feel free to give out my name and email address as well.
Thank you everyone,
Karen
Sunday, January 10, 2010
Searching and searching....
Searching and searching and searching and... that is what we have been doing - searching for our next little girl - and waiting. There is A LOT of waiting (and did I mention searching?) during an adoption. For weeks now we have been waiting for China to release a new list of children to the shared list so that either our agency could refer us a little girl or so we could find one ourselves. Nothing. Nilch. In the past we had asked about many little girls, but they had already been put on hold with another family - that's good though because I know that even though I don't know who our daughter will be yet - God does - and He will have the perfect one for us... at the perfect time!
It's hard looking at all of the children. Really hard. At the age of 14 children in China are no longer able to be adopted into a family. When I look at the children on the lists, it's really hard not to let myself think about those boys and girls who won't have a mom or dad to call their own. And then there are the children with the medical issues. Money and some good doctors could help so many of them physically. A mom and dad to call their own could help even more. We'll take one!
We never did send in our dossier - even though it is finished. We decided to hold onto it for a little bit so we could look at the children on other agency websites. The dossier is burning a hole in my pocket :) I want to be able to send it in so much! China allows certain agencies to advocate for children who, for a short time, are only assigned to their agency, so we may actually find our next daughter through another agency other than the one we are working with now. There is also a great website at www.rainbowkids.com where agencies post children who are available for adoption from all over the world. It's a great site - and I'm on there often :)
We made great strides in the puzzle piece fundraiser. If you look at the picture here and at the Christmas-framed one you can see that a lot of pieces were added to it. Yeah! I love the panda bears in the picture and how it looks like they are climbing out of the frame. You will be able to see it more clearly once we get it all put together.
If you would like to help with that (putting it together) we would love a donation :0 Every $5.00 that is donated gets one puzzle piece added to the puzzle. We are going to write the names of those who donated on the back of the puzzle, glue it all together, and hang it in our daughter's bedroom. It takes a lot of people to make an adoption come together. All the pieces have to fit together exactly in order to make it work. I know that years from now, when I look at the puzzle hanging on the wall, I will remember all of the people (friends and strangers) who helped to put it all together. Thanks everyone!
In His name,
It's hard looking at all of the children. Really hard. At the age of 14 children in China are no longer able to be adopted into a family. When I look at the children on the lists, it's really hard not to let myself think about those boys and girls who won't have a mom or dad to call their own. And then there are the children with the medical issues. Money and some good doctors could help so many of them physically. A mom and dad to call their own could help even more. We'll take one!
We never did send in our dossier - even though it is finished. We decided to hold onto it for a little bit so we could look at the children on other agency websites. The dossier is burning a hole in my pocket :) I want to be able to send it in so much! China allows certain agencies to advocate for children who, for a short time, are only assigned to their agency, so we may actually find our next daughter through another agency other than the one we are working with now. There is also a great website at www.rainbowkids.com where agencies post children who are available for adoption from all over the world. It's a great site - and I'm on there often :)
We made great strides in the puzzle piece fundraiser. If you look at the picture here and at the Christmas-framed one you can see that a lot of pieces were added to it. Yeah! I love the panda bears in the picture and how it looks like they are climbing out of the frame. You will be able to see it more clearly once we get it all put together.
If you would like to help with that (putting it together) we would love a donation :0 Every $5.00 that is donated gets one puzzle piece added to the puzzle. We are going to write the names of those who donated on the back of the puzzle, glue it all together, and hang it in our daughter's bedroom. It takes a lot of people to make an adoption come together. All the pieces have to fit together exactly in order to make it work. I know that years from now, when I look at the puzzle hanging on the wall, I will remember all of the people (friends and strangers) who helped to put it all together. Thanks everyone!In His name,
The Burgess Family
P.S. One of the gifts given to me for Christmas was new photography software - and I love it! It is Adobe Photoshop, and I was able to figure out how to do the picture above with it. Thanks Kevin! (He bought me the software).
P.S. One of the gifts given to me for Christmas was new photography software - and I love it! It is Adobe Photoshop, and I was able to figure out how to do the picture above with it. Thanks Kevin! (He bought me the software).
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)