Thursday we were able to get the results of all of our tests! Unfortunately, our doctor was out and not back in until this coming Tuesday :( I was quite a bit disappointed and tried to see if anyone else at the office would sign the paperwork and they said "No. I'm sorry. It has to be your primary doctor." So I left the office in a bit of a huff with slightly glistening eyes, but after venting a bit to my husband I soon calmed down - and I thank him for it!
I am trying to stay busy this weekend, but I find my eyes wandering to the children's pictures more and more often. We have them taped to the wall in our kitchen so I pass by them often, but it is usually at night that my heart and thoughts are drawn the most to them.
One of my biggest prayers is that the children are able to attach easily to our family - to be able to trust us and to love us. I can't even begin to imagine what they will be thinking or feeling, what fears they may have when we come to get them. Not only will they be around a bunch of people who don't easily speak their language, but we will be whisking them away with us to a "new" temporary place (apartment/hotel) for them to live with us. They won't even have the opportunity to gradually get to know us. They will also need to learn how to live and interact with one another again because the five of them are not living in the same home together. I think that is very sad after everything they have been through so far.
Praying for five little ones,
Karen
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 :)
Saturday, August 11, 2012
Wednesday, August 8, 2012
Got our approval from USCIS for the kids!
We finally got it - our approval from USCIS to adopt the five children! Tomorrow we just need to try and get our test results back from the doctors and then get our doctor to sign our medical update. I need to look into whether or not we need to get that apostilled. If we do, we will have to do that on Friday. Once the paperwork is all put together we can get it sent off to Colombia and we can get the official referral for the children :)
This past week ICBF was asking our agency when we would get them the rest of the paperwork. The short answer: as fast as we possibly can!
:)
Karen
This past week ICBF was asking our agency when we would get them the rest of the paperwork. The short answer: as fast as we possibly can!
:)
Karen
Saturday, August 4, 2012
Oh my - what a day!
Our day started out normal enough with Kevin and I getting up bright and early to get our TB tests done for the medical update. Then, Lyric and I headed on over to a neighbor's for a play-date. We were having a great time chatting and playing when my phone rang. I almost didn't answer it. The number that came up was 816, from an unknown caller. It was our officer from USCIS!
I think my heart skipped a beat when she told me they were getting ready to close our file and NOT approve us for the kids. We had sent in the wrong paperwork that they had requested as evidence. She said she had tried calling yesterday to let us know but she didn't reach anyone and was trying one more time. Then she said if I could get the right paperwork to them asap (we could email it), they could approve us.
The paperwork they are talking about is considered "evidence". In this case USCIS had requested proof that our home study agency was Hague approved. I had called our home study agency when we got the letter requesting the evidence in the mail, and they very quickly sent me information to send to USCIS. I sent it and thought everything was good.
Then, a few days ago I got a call from our social worker. She said they were not Hague approved and that I needed to talk to our adoption agency to see if they had sent a letter to USCIS stating that they (CHI) were a Hague approved agency, that they had reviewed the updated home study and that they approved it. We had done this before, but didn't realize we needed to do it again. So I called USCIS and left a message for our officer that our social worker had called and told us we may not have sent the right evidence in. I said to please let us know if they needed anything different, and we would get it to them as soon as we could.
I think it was because of this phone message that our officer made the effort to contact us. She said that usually their policy is to NOT approve a file if the right evidence is not sent in. But she knew that we were trying to get them what they needed so she had called one more time.
I said I would go home immediately and try to contact Nichole (who we work with at Children's Hope) so we could get them the right evidence. Driving home, I was alternating between thanking God that I had answered the phone (I ALMOST left it in the car) and praying that I would be able to get in contact with Nichole and get the right information to USCIS.
At home, I quickly called Nichole and waited anxiously while the phone rang and rang and rang - and then she answered! I was so very happy to talk to her and not a machine! I told her what was going on and she said she would take care of it IMMEDIATELY and that she would copy me on the email to USCIS when she sent it! Phew.
After I got off the phone, I tried calling our officer at USCIS again - but I had to leave a message. I let her know that I had gotten in contact with our agency and that she would be sending over what they needed asap.
I then drove back to my neighbor's house where I had left Lyric playing with her friend. I tried not to think too hard about what was going on, but it was really hard not to! Around 11:00 we headed back home to fix lunch before Carissa, Tyler and Kevin headed to the state fair to show the kid's rabbits.
After I got them out the door I tried calling USCIS again to see if our officer had received the email from our agency (Nichole had copied me on it. She got it sent out really fast!). The phone rang and rang and rang. When voice mail picked up I just hung up. I didn't want to be a pest to our officer so I decided to call at 3:00.
And after all that... I took a nap. I needed it! I figured it was the fastest way to pass the time :) I woke up just after 3:00 and placed my call again. I had decided that I would just talk to whoever answered the phone to see if I could get any answers. I told them that we had sent in some important paperwork earlier and that I needed to make sure it was the right information our officer needed but her phone just went to voicemail.
And then the officer said, "Mrs Burgess? This is Officer ....)" It was our officer! She said she had to work the call center and when she does that her number goes right to voicemail. She said she did get exactly what she needed and as soon as she was done with the call center she could send us an email letting us know their decision - which was an approval! I rather giddily thanked her and hung up the phone. I would have hugged her had we been in person.
An hour or so passed when I got another call with the mysterious 816 unknown caller id. Why do I automatically think that something is wrong when when we get a phone call from USCIS? It was our officer again. She was calling just to let us know that we were approved. She had sent an email to our adoption agency and to our address. We would be receiving the paperwork in the mail within a few days. Again, I could have hugged her!
Kevin and I ended our day with a date to a carnival fundraiser at a church. We watched fireworks, ate a bit of ice cream, and had a really nice time together talking about our day and dreaming about the future.
As for the medicals, we were able to get all of our tests done this last week. Now we just have to wait for the results, which we should get all of them back this coming week accept for one test. I'll have to look up the information to see which one it was, but it's not supposed to come in for another 2 1/2 weeks! We are going to contact our regular doctor's office on Monday to see how much it would cost to get it done there and how long it would take to get the results back. If it isn't too much, we will do it there.
As always, thank you so much for praying for our family and for our children in Colombia. Can't wait to show you pictures! The children are adorable!
Karen
I think my heart skipped a beat when she told me they were getting ready to close our file and NOT approve us for the kids. We had sent in the wrong paperwork that they had requested as evidence. She said she had tried calling yesterday to let us know but she didn't reach anyone and was trying one more time. Then she said if I could get the right paperwork to them asap (we could email it), they could approve us.
The paperwork they are talking about is considered "evidence". In this case USCIS had requested proof that our home study agency was Hague approved. I had called our home study agency when we got the letter requesting the evidence in the mail, and they very quickly sent me information to send to USCIS. I sent it and thought everything was good.
Then, a few days ago I got a call from our social worker. She said they were not Hague approved and that I needed to talk to our adoption agency to see if they had sent a letter to USCIS stating that they (CHI) were a Hague approved agency, that they had reviewed the updated home study and that they approved it. We had done this before, but didn't realize we needed to do it again. So I called USCIS and left a message for our officer that our social worker had called and told us we may not have sent the right evidence in. I said to please let us know if they needed anything different, and we would get it to them as soon as we could.
I think it was because of this phone message that our officer made the effort to contact us. She said that usually their policy is to NOT approve a file if the right evidence is not sent in. But she knew that we were trying to get them what they needed so she had called one more time.
I said I would go home immediately and try to contact Nichole (who we work with at Children's Hope) so we could get them the right evidence. Driving home, I was alternating between thanking God that I had answered the phone (I ALMOST left it in the car) and praying that I would be able to get in contact with Nichole and get the right information to USCIS.
At home, I quickly called Nichole and waited anxiously while the phone rang and rang and rang - and then she answered! I was so very happy to talk to her and not a machine! I told her what was going on and she said she would take care of it IMMEDIATELY and that she would copy me on the email to USCIS when she sent it! Phew.
After I got off the phone, I tried calling our officer at USCIS again - but I had to leave a message. I let her know that I had gotten in contact with our agency and that she would be sending over what they needed asap.
I then drove back to my neighbor's house where I had left Lyric playing with her friend. I tried not to think too hard about what was going on, but it was really hard not to! Around 11:00 we headed back home to fix lunch before Carissa, Tyler and Kevin headed to the state fair to show the kid's rabbits.
After I got them out the door I tried calling USCIS again to see if our officer had received the email from our agency (Nichole had copied me on it. She got it sent out really fast!). The phone rang and rang and rang. When voice mail picked up I just hung up. I didn't want to be a pest to our officer so I decided to call at 3:00.
And after all that... I took a nap. I needed it! I figured it was the fastest way to pass the time :) I woke up just after 3:00 and placed my call again. I had decided that I would just talk to whoever answered the phone to see if I could get any answers. I told them that we had sent in some important paperwork earlier and that I needed to make sure it was the right information our officer needed but her phone just went to voicemail.
And then the officer said, "Mrs Burgess? This is Officer ....)" It was our officer! She said she had to work the call center and when she does that her number goes right to voicemail. She said she did get exactly what she needed and as soon as she was done with the call center she could send us an email letting us know their decision - which was an approval! I rather giddily thanked her and hung up the phone. I would have hugged her had we been in person.
An hour or so passed when I got another call with the mysterious 816 unknown caller id. Why do I automatically think that something is wrong when when we get a phone call from USCIS? It was our officer again. She was calling just to let us know that we were approved. She had sent an email to our adoption agency and to our address. We would be receiving the paperwork in the mail within a few days. Again, I could have hugged her!
Kevin and I ended our day with a date to a carnival fundraiser at a church. We watched fireworks, ate a bit of ice cream, and had a really nice time together talking about our day and dreaming about the future.
As for the medicals, we were able to get all of our tests done this last week. Now we just have to wait for the results, which we should get all of them back this coming week accept for one test. I'll have to look up the information to see which one it was, but it's not supposed to come in for another 2 1/2 weeks! We are going to contact our regular doctor's office on Monday to see how much it would cost to get it done there and how long it would take to get the results back. If it isn't too much, we will do it there.
As always, thank you so much for praying for our family and for our children in Colombia. Can't wait to show you pictures! The children are adorable!
Karen
Wednesday, August 1, 2012
We made it 14 years without a cast!
Our
oldest daughter is 14 (made it 14 years without a cast on any of our
kids!), but this smiley faced girl is our 10 year old. She got
to go skating for the first time with a friend of hers on Sunday and
towards the end had one big fall. We thought her wrist just had a bad
sprain with some swelling - there wasn't any bruising and she
could wiggle her fingers without a lot of pain. We were wrong.
We ended up taking her to the doctor. He said he was 95% sure she had a fracture and sent her to get x-rays. She had two fractures - one in her ulna and one in her radius. One of the fractures goes up into her growth plate so they had to put the cast up over her elbow to help it heal even better.
On top of all this, my sweet girl has poison ivy - on her face! That's the other reason we took her to the doctor. You can't see it in the picture because the swelling is already starting to go down, but the redness and swelling from the poison ivy was so bad that she could hardly see out of one of her eyes. Even half of her nose was swollen. We are so thankful that the swelling is almost completely gone now!
As you can see in the picture, Laurel isn't a pink or purple kind-of girl - she's a green one! When she was younger we always called her froggy - she had and still has one big frog hop! Because her favorite color is green, she picked the green tape for her cast. Then she found out they have glow-in-the dark tape - boy, was she excited! She has to keep this cast on for three weeks, then she gets a shorter cast on that is below her elbow. That one is going to be the glow-in-the dark color, and she is already planning a camp out :)
Laurel is a funny girl - she can make you laugh and laugh. While she was getting the cast on she asked the doctor what the part of her arm was called that she hurt. He said it was called her forearm. And she said, "But I don't have four arms!" He laughed and explained to her the difference in spelling. Too funny.
On an adoption note: we are still waiting for our I800a approval from USCIS. I put in a call today to see if they needed anything else but had to leave a message. We also need to get our medicals updated, which we are working on tomorrow. I thought we could just get our regular doctor to fill out a medical form but as it turns out we need all new testing done for TB/HIV/VD and HEPB/C. We go to one clinic to get the testing done for the TB. We go to a completely different clinic for the other tests...
To all those who are in the process of adopting - if your insurance doesn't cover you for HIV, VD and HEP B/C testing try seeing if you have a local clinic that tests for sexually transmitted diseases - it's A LOT cheaper (ours is like $15.00 total!) than getting it done at your local doctor's office, and it can be a little eye opening watching the videos they like to play at the clinic (at least our local clinic here in Indy plays them) :0
Karen
Friday, July 27, 2012
?
I put the question mark in the title, because I couldn't decide what to call this post. See, I just got done reading a little bit on another blog and was a overwhelmed with emotions. I think, that in this land of America, most of us are so comfortable and we have such cushy lives, that it is really, really easy to forget about our Father and not to lean on Him for all of our daily needs. I believe that's one of the reasons why so many missionaries go to other countries - because there people realize they need Jesus. We don't (I am being facetious here). We just need our weekly paychecks to pay for our mortgages, cars, pools, parties...
And while we are living our cushy lives, it is so easy to forget about, to not care about, to not even think about or pray for those who are really suffering. And they are suffering. The post I read was about a little girl in another country with Down Syndrome. She is eleven years old. She weighs 10 pounds. It's obvious she was left alone. Hardly fed. Not hugged. Not loved. Not given nourishment for her body and her mind and her spirit.
But one family is bringing her home. In one day, yes one day, over $23,000 was raised to help this little girl. A plea went out to help the family and prayers were answered. This one little girl is getting help. But what about the others? The ones that are left behind?
How much am I and my family really doing in the name of Christ? Is it enough? Can we do more?
How much are you doing in the name of Christ?
Are you doing anything?
Please, take a moment and follow the link below. It is my prayer that at least one who reads this has their heart not just touched, but will take action on behalf of orphans as well.
Please take a look and pray for this precious girl
Karen
Tuesday, July 24, 2012
Two new additions to our "family"!
Can you guess what our new additions are?
They were once called kids.
They have hair.
Two eyes, two ears, a nose and a mouth.
Did you take a guess?
Here are two more clues:
They each have a tail.
They each have 4 legs.
One more hint.
They go "maa maaaaa"
Did ya' get it?
We have goats! I know. I never ever would have imagined that we would have goats (let alone chickens, turkeys, guineas, rabbits...)
Their names are Velvet and DD (short for Dip n Dots!). DD is Velvet's mom, and we are currently getting fresh milk from Velvet twice a day. Her milk is WONDERFUL! And that is coming from a once-upon-a-time non-milk drinker. The only thing I used milk for growing up was for my cereal and the occasional dunk from a chocolate chip cookie (and even then I forced myself to drink the rest of the glass of milk). The milk is just ever-so-slightly sweet and it does not smell "goaty" at all. Did I mention that is is wonderful?
Before we got Velvet and DD we had to put up the fence. That just happened to coincide with the 100 degree to 106 degree weather that we were having here in Indiana. It was HOT! We drank lots of water and had lots of water pouring out of us. Our foreheads would drip (a fast drip) with sweat. But it was fun, and we got it done!
Since then we have been getting used to milking twice a day. I think I must be a little protective or possessive because so far I haven't let anyone else do the milking!
In addition to drinking the fresh milk, we have also made "farmer's cheese", pudding, ice-cream (without an ice cream maker) and yogurt! They are all surprisingly simple to make. I am very excited about all the other things we are going to try making from the goat's milk - including our own soap! We ordered the soap supplies, and they should get here tomorrow - which means that within a number of days I could have a batch of fresh, all-natural goat's milk soap bars curing!
In between milking, the children have all stayed busy with 4H. This year projects included photography, health, electric and woodworking. For livestock, they entered rabbits, chickens and ducks. It was a busy, fun week for us, but I am really glad that it's over! Now we can get into a routine again. We should have that down just about the time we travel to get the new children :)
Speaking of new children... we are slowly creeping along. The other day Kevin and I got our letters in the mail telling us that we could get fingerprinted the first week in August (this is all a part of getting our paperwork updated to approve us for the five children and to extend our I800a at the same time). Thankfully, the Indy office doesn't turn you away if you go in before your appointment date, and we were able to get our fingerprints done a few days ago! It felt sooo good to have that done.
Now we are waiting. (I think there should be a new word made to describe the consistent waiting for paperwork to be completed during the adoption process - maybe call it adoptaiting???) Within a week or two we should hear back from USCIS on our approval. We will then get that sent to our agency who will get it to Colombia. And then we will be "adoptaiting" again for the official referral of the children. Just thinking about it makes be a bit nervous and excited at the same time! After the official referral of the children and our acceptance we would be traveling in 8 to 10 weeks. (And I think I'm busy now!)
Thank you for all the prayers for the children and our family. We continue to pray for their health and for an easy transition for them into our family (as well as for our children to transition well to having more siblings). We pray also that all the children are able to attach well and grow to love us. I can't wait to hold them in my arms.
May God bless you,
Karen
They were once called kids.
They have hair.
Two eyes, two ears, a nose and a mouth.
Did you take a guess?
Here are two more clues:
They each have a tail.
They each have 4 legs.
One more hint.
They go "maa maaaaa"
Did ya' get it?
We have goats! I know. I never ever would have imagined that we would have goats (let alone chickens, turkeys, guineas, rabbits...)
Their names are Velvet and DD (short for Dip n Dots!). DD is Velvet's mom, and we are currently getting fresh milk from Velvet twice a day. Her milk is WONDERFUL! And that is coming from a once-upon-a-time non-milk drinker. The only thing I used milk for growing up was for my cereal and the occasional dunk from a chocolate chip cookie (and even then I forced myself to drink the rest of the glass of milk). The milk is just ever-so-slightly sweet and it does not smell "goaty" at all. Did I mention that is is wonderful?
Before we got Velvet and DD we had to put up the fence. That just happened to coincide with the 100 degree to 106 degree weather that we were having here in Indiana. It was HOT! We drank lots of water and had lots of water pouring out of us. Our foreheads would drip (a fast drip) with sweat. But it was fun, and we got it done!
Since then we have been getting used to milking twice a day. I think I must be a little protective or possessive because so far I haven't let anyone else do the milking!
In addition to drinking the fresh milk, we have also made "farmer's cheese", pudding, ice-cream (without an ice cream maker) and yogurt! They are all surprisingly simple to make. I am very excited about all the other things we are going to try making from the goat's milk - including our own soap! We ordered the soap supplies, and they should get here tomorrow - which means that within a number of days I could have a batch of fresh, all-natural goat's milk soap bars curing!
In between milking, the children have all stayed busy with 4H. This year projects included photography, health, electric and woodworking. For livestock, they entered rabbits, chickens and ducks. It was a busy, fun week for us, but I am really glad that it's over! Now we can get into a routine again. We should have that down just about the time we travel to get the new children :)
Speaking of new children... we are slowly creeping along. The other day Kevin and I got our letters in the mail telling us that we could get fingerprinted the first week in August (this is all a part of getting our paperwork updated to approve us for the five children and to extend our I800a at the same time). Thankfully, the Indy office doesn't turn you away if you go in before your appointment date, and we were able to get our fingerprints done a few days ago! It felt sooo good to have that done.
Now we are waiting. (I think there should be a new word made to describe the consistent waiting for paperwork to be completed during the adoption process - maybe call it adoptaiting???) Within a week or two we should hear back from USCIS on our approval. We will then get that sent to our agency who will get it to Colombia. And then we will be "adoptaiting" again for the official referral of the children. Just thinking about it makes be a bit nervous and excited at the same time! After the official referral of the children and our acceptance we would be traveling in 8 to 10 weeks. (And I think I'm busy now!)
Thank you for all the prayers for the children and our family. We continue to pray for their health and for an easy transition for them into our family (as well as for our children to transition well to having more siblings). We pray also that all the children are able to attach well and grow to love us. I can't wait to hold them in my arms.
May God bless you,
Karen
Tuesday, June 26, 2012
One crazy, long, rickety roller coaster ride of a month!
Well, I know at least one thing for certain - I'm not a dedicated blogger!
It's really hard for me to believe that it has been so long since we made the announcement about bringing 5 more into our family. A lot has happened during that time, and considering that the adoption journey in general is a roller coaster ride, you could say that for the past month we have been on one crazy, long, rickety ride - filled with many of the emotions that a person can experience during all the twists and turns and really steep hills, where you can't see the rest of the track and you feel like your falling into the unknown and then when you finally see the end your stomach can start to settle back into place and you are so very happy to get off the coaster (at least, that's the way it is for me when I ride one!)
I know, I'm being vague and I'm sorry that I can't be more straight forward, but the important thing is that our home study update approving us for the children is, as we speak, being fed-ex'd to USCIS so we can now get the approval from our government for 5 children instead of 4. I'm not positive how long this will take so I'll have to hop on over to China Adopt Talk, a website with a forum that tracks the paperwork process of adopting from China (among other things adoption related) and let you know what I find out. Our last update took about 3 weeks, but a friend said they just did theirs and it took just over a week (but they are not adopting from a Hague country, so I'm thinking it will take longer for us).
After we get the approval from our government, we will then be waiting for the official referral for the children from Colombia. There has been a really big slowdown in Colombia recently due to an investigation into the files of children who can be referred for adoption. We aren't sure if that will effect us or not. We are getting kind-of used to this adoption taking way longer than we expected so I figure if we plan on it taking months to get the referral than we may just be pleasantly surprised :)
Tomorrow is a day that will be filled with applying for grants. There are a couple that are due at the end of this month, and I didn't feel we should apply for them until our update was complete - so I'm going to be pretty busy!
Thank you to all who have been praying for us and the children this past month. We really, really appreciate it and know that God has heard you.
In His name,
Karen
It's really hard for me to believe that it has been so long since we made the announcement about bringing 5 more into our family. A lot has happened during that time, and considering that the adoption journey in general is a roller coaster ride, you could say that for the past month we have been on one crazy, long, rickety ride - filled with many of the emotions that a person can experience during all the twists and turns and really steep hills, where you can't see the rest of the track and you feel like your falling into the unknown and then when you finally see the end your stomach can start to settle back into place and you are so very happy to get off the coaster (at least, that's the way it is for me when I ride one!)
I know, I'm being vague and I'm sorry that I can't be more straight forward, but the important thing is that our home study update approving us for the children is, as we speak, being fed-ex'd to USCIS so we can now get the approval from our government for 5 children instead of 4. I'm not positive how long this will take so I'll have to hop on over to China Adopt Talk, a website with a forum that tracks the paperwork process of adopting from China (among other things adoption related) and let you know what I find out. Our last update took about 3 weeks, but a friend said they just did theirs and it took just over a week (but they are not adopting from a Hague country, so I'm thinking it will take longer for us).
After we get the approval from our government, we will then be waiting for the official referral for the children from Colombia. There has been a really big slowdown in Colombia recently due to an investigation into the files of children who can be referred for adoption. We aren't sure if that will effect us or not. We are getting kind-of used to this adoption taking way longer than we expected so I figure if we plan on it taking months to get the referral than we may just be pleasantly surprised :)
Tomorrow is a day that will be filled with applying for grants. There are a couple that are due at the end of this month, and I didn't feel we should apply for them until our update was complete - so I'm going to be pretty busy!
Thank you to all who have been praying for us and the children this past month. We really, really appreciate it and know that God has heard you.
In His name,
Karen
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