Fundraiser
Saturday, September 7, 2013
Getting closer
We just made our first payment! We have raised over $700 dollars online and needed $1,100 by Monday. I asked the woman if we can give $700 now and $400 next Friday (and told her she can see how much we have raised) and she said it would be ok. I can't actually take the $ out of the fundraiser or close it down until Im done and we have a long way to go but it's going well, and Im feeling so much less anxious! We filled out all the forms, got all the referrals in, got our background checks done and cleared, and composed our Welcome letters to the girls! Now all we have do is finish raising the money, have the social worker come (which they arrange, so nothing we really have to do, besides be home when she comes and meet with her) and WAIT to meet these precious kids!! I so thrilled that the boys and Danny seem just as excited (if not more, at times) as I am! I am trying to be prepared, as well as prepare the boys and Danny that it wont ALL be perfect! These two beautiful babies are hurt, and damaged, and have been through things we will probably never fully know or understand, and with that is bound to come some problems, and issues. Hopefully with much prayer, patience, understanding and LOVE we can work through it and help them to work through it, but I need to be realistic and hopefully get Danny and the boys to be realistic without discouraging them. Their excitement is so contageous and unexpected. They talk about it constantly, and literally tell strangers how they can't wait to meet their new sisters! I love their innocence, their acceptance, and their loving nature. Im hopeful all will go well when they meet the girls, and that any issues that arise between them will not be discouraging but motivate them to love even more :)
Wednesday, September 4, 2013
Twice as Nice
Absolutley amazing! What a whirlwind of emotions! Yesterday was so exciting as we FINALLY put a hold on not just one little girl but two! My husband and my sons have been saying to me that they really think we should adopt sisters. I was trying to be the sensible one and say "it's too much, how will we afford it" ect.... but I'm convinced God is trying to teach me to trust him, and so sure enough, not ONE child we were interested in hosting worked out for one reason of another....but TWO beautiful little blond sisters, were perfect. We put them on hold yesterday and they will be coming here mid December! I felt peaceful, confident and sure that we did the right thing. I still do, but today I am not only excited but scared out of my mind! There is so much to think about, so much to do, so much to learn about these two beautiful human beings who got such a raw deal at life to start and deserve so much more. So much to learn about the adoption process, and most importantly, "being" an adoptive parent. I want so badly to do everything right, and already Im learning things I had no idea about, and am so scared of making a mistake, and causing any more pain for these two girls who have already been through so much! Once again I am forced to rely on my faith in God, that he will bless these little ones and help our family to love and nurture them, and help them to work through the pain and neglect they have experienced in their little lives.
Sunday, September 1, 2013
Almost time
Sooooo excited and anxiously awaiting Tues AM!! The photo list of the organization we are hosting from will be out and we will be able to choose our little girl! Its exciting and weird and strange at the same time. Super exciting to get to see her face, and find out about who she is ect.. but so weird to just be picking a child from a bunch of pictures. I guess there is no other way to do it and in today's world of technology, it's really great that these things can be done so easy, just still feels a little strange.
I have poured over picture upon picture of previous photo lists just to get a glimpse of some of the kids that have been hosted in the past. Every one of them seems so precious and beautiful, I just can't imagine what it will be like to have a photo and be able to see her little face!! Then comes more waiting counting down the days till December! This will be the first year of my life that I can't wait for winter to get here. I guess I will have to keep myself busy fundraising in the meantime!
Tuesday, August 20, 2013
Waiting....
I'm getting so impatient! Waiting any day for the new photo list to come out and hoping I'll just "know" when I see her face, that she's the right one. We all pray every night for her, even though we don't know her yet, and I pray that God will show us the right one. It's so scary and yet so exciting. The waiting is killing me, and I keep telling myself this is just a little taste of the waiting game I'll no doubt be playing in the future! Ughhhh in the meantime I'm trying to busy myself with researching Latvia, the country, the language, and the Orphanages there. I set up an appointment to have my fingerprints done today. I don't have to do it until after I chose a child but figured its one more thing out of the way!
Saturday, August 17, 2013
In the begining...
This is the first of many posts I will make to my new blog. If you want to read a bit about what brought me to this point, click on "about me". I'd be glad to share more about that if anyone has questions, but since I want this blog to be about our future and our adoption, I won't start off by talking about my past.
Right now we have decided to use a International Hosting Agency to start our journey to adoption. What this is, is an organization that goes to different countries and interviews and selects children from orphanages to come to America for a period of time (usually 4-5 weeks) and live with a "host" family. The family may be interested in adoption or may just want to advocate for others to adopt this child while they are here. Either way, these orphans get a chance to experience love, family, America, and many other things that have never experienced before. At the end of the host period, the child must return to their country regardless of the family or other families intentions to adopt. One criticism of these organizations is that is seems cruel to give these kids a taste of what life could be like and then send them back. The answer is simple, it gives these orphans a CHANCE and it sends them home with something many of them are completely without....hope. Most of the host families do end up adopting their host child or through word of mouth or other means, finding another family to adopt them. Another thing about these organizations is that they advocate for older child adoption. Most start from age 6 and go through age 15. When I first heard this, I wasn't sure it was for us. My dream has been to have a BABY, I mean my loss of not being able to have a baby was about a BABY, getting to this point and giving up the dream of holding a newborn in my arms again seemed odd. However, it seems so clear to me now that God has had a plan in everything that has happened since the day I sat in that doctors office and was told I would never get pregnant again. I believe he had a hand in this too. In what seemed like an instant I no longer craved that newborn as I have for the past 7 years but it suddenly seemed very content to add a child 6 or older into our family. The thought of changing diapers, buying all new cribs, highchairs, toys ect (bc I gave everything I had away a long time ago), waking up all night long to a crying baby, really didn't interest me anymore lol. Let's face it, Im 7 years older, and so are the boys. A six year old would be just as if we had gotten pregnant when all this happened and fast forwarded 7 yrs! It sounded perfect to me and also to Danny and the boys which just convinced me even more, we are on the right tack. The more I learn about older orphans, the more my heart goes out to them. After the age of 5, a child has only a 20% chance of getting adopted and obviously that chance decreased with each year. At age 16, the state no longer takes care of them. The Orphanage (the only place some have ever known as home) puts them out and says good-bye. Most turn to drugs and prostitution to survive.
Now that Ive told you what hosting is, I will tell you where we are in the process. We have pre- registered with a few different organizations, we are waiting for the new photo listings for the winter hosting to come out which should be within the next two weeks. Then we search through pictures and bios of kids and choose one that we like! In the meantime we pray that God shows us the right one!! Then we put a deposit, fill out a ton of paperwork, get fingerprinted and criminal background checks, put down more money and then hopefully by around mid December we will pick up our little girl from the airport. Needless to say I will be posting updates on here each step of the way! I think this is enough for my first post and hopefully gives everyone a good idea of where we were, and where we are going! One more thing I want to add, international adoptions are very expensive. The name of our blog A-Wing-n-a-Prayer kind of sums up how we are doing this! We have set up an adoption fundraiser to hopefully raise some money to add to our savings by the time we are ready to proceed with the adoption. You can purchase cool t shirts on the site and a percentage of the proceeds go to our fund! Here is the link www.adoptionbug.com/mullen Please check it out, and buy a t shirt or share our link with others! Most of all PRAY for us!! We are going to need it!! :)
Right now we have decided to use a International Hosting Agency to start our journey to adoption. What this is, is an organization that goes to different countries and interviews and selects children from orphanages to come to America for a period of time (usually 4-5 weeks) and live with a "host" family. The family may be interested in adoption or may just want to advocate for others to adopt this child while they are here. Either way, these orphans get a chance to experience love, family, America, and many other things that have never experienced before. At the end of the host period, the child must return to their country regardless of the family or other families intentions to adopt. One criticism of these organizations is that is seems cruel to give these kids a taste of what life could be like and then send them back. The answer is simple, it gives these orphans a CHANCE and it sends them home with something many of them are completely without....hope. Most of the host families do end up adopting their host child or through word of mouth or other means, finding another family to adopt them. Another thing about these organizations is that they advocate for older child adoption. Most start from age 6 and go through age 15. When I first heard this, I wasn't sure it was for us. My dream has been to have a BABY, I mean my loss of not being able to have a baby was about a BABY, getting to this point and giving up the dream of holding a newborn in my arms again seemed odd. However, it seems so clear to me now that God has had a plan in everything that has happened since the day I sat in that doctors office and was told I would never get pregnant again. I believe he had a hand in this too. In what seemed like an instant I no longer craved that newborn as I have for the past 7 years but it suddenly seemed very content to add a child 6 or older into our family. The thought of changing diapers, buying all new cribs, highchairs, toys ect (bc I gave everything I had away a long time ago), waking up all night long to a crying baby, really didn't interest me anymore lol. Let's face it, Im 7 years older, and so are the boys. A six year old would be just as if we had gotten pregnant when all this happened and fast forwarded 7 yrs! It sounded perfect to me and also to Danny and the boys which just convinced me even more, we are on the right tack. The more I learn about older orphans, the more my heart goes out to them. After the age of 5, a child has only a 20% chance of getting adopted and obviously that chance decreased with each year. At age 16, the state no longer takes care of them. The Orphanage (the only place some have ever known as home) puts them out and says good-bye. Most turn to drugs and prostitution to survive.
Now that Ive told you what hosting is, I will tell you where we are in the process. We have pre- registered with a few different organizations, we are waiting for the new photo listings for the winter hosting to come out which should be within the next two weeks. Then we search through pictures and bios of kids and choose one that we like! In the meantime we pray that God shows us the right one!! Then we put a deposit, fill out a ton of paperwork, get fingerprinted and criminal background checks, put down more money and then hopefully by around mid December we will pick up our little girl from the airport. Needless to say I will be posting updates on here each step of the way! I think this is enough for my first post and hopefully gives everyone a good idea of where we were, and where we are going! One more thing I want to add, international adoptions are very expensive. The name of our blog A-Wing-n-a-Prayer kind of sums up how we are doing this! We have set up an adoption fundraiser to hopefully raise some money to add to our savings by the time we are ready to proceed with the adoption. You can purchase cool t shirts on the site and a percentage of the proceeds go to our fund! Here is the link www.adoptionbug.com/mullen Please check it out, and buy a t shirt or share our link with others! Most of all PRAY for us!! We are going to need it!! :)
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