Bringing Hope Home

Wednesday, October 13, 2010

My Hero Zero!

Drums please:

Today I clicked on our Reece's Rainbow Family Support Page and...there is a lovely, glorious, cute, beautiful, awesome NUMBER 7 in front of that zero! Zero stands alone no more! Thank you to the hero among us who donated to help bring Ian home!

Tuesday, October 12, 2010

Ari and Ian (kinda)

My baby boy turned 4, and we had a great pool party for him. It was wonderful, but we sure missed Ian being there.

So.....we made sure he could see all the fun.

My little four year old surf monkeys. I love em.

Tuesday, October 5, 2010

We are a GO!

The FBI Package

Our FBI prints and clearances came back to our Homestudy agency today and so we are GO FOR HOMESTUDY completion! This is GIANT! I expect a completed and apostilled Homestudy inside of two weeks (you would not believe how exacting this document has to be). This is also big in terms of fund raising, as we will have to submit $3500.00 to Ian's Agency and about $850.00 to US Immigration to get the ball rolling on that end.

I have NO DOUBT that we can do this, we will have to raise another $3219.23 in two weeks! God says do your best and he will do the rest. This should scare me but honestly, I'm excited to see just how God is going to work this out. I love that we get to stand by and watch the magic, it is such an awesome thing to know faith.

There is some other news brewing about adoptions in Ian's city but I will hold on that because frankly, I fully expect, because I fully believe, that we will be covered, and that we will get to Ian before he is moved to an institution.

Ari's turns 4 this week, my beautiful boy, the joy of my life, the best gift I have ever gotten besides being saved, is growing up too fast for this mama! For all the news that is fit to print on Ari, visit HERE.

Ian's adoption Timeline

To view our DETAILED TIME LINE in its entirety, please click HERE

Updates for the last two months only appear below:

4/5/11 We met Ian in his country for the very first time!

4/5/11 Get the news that Ian is headed for heart surgery, eye surgery, and another in-patient surgery, were given the option to refuse surgery in his native country, and we did. Please pray for our Ian.

4/5/11 Friends the Fillmores post about Ian on their blog.

4/13/11 Friend Julia Nalle posts about Ian and our Hope for Ian Necklace fund raiser on her blog, very moving post.

4/17/11 Friend Julia Nalle posts about Ian again, to help us raise money to get him home.

4 18/11 Front page story in my hometown newspaper, The Racine Journal Times, about Ian. Thank you to Amie Miller, Hero of Hope for Ian, and Lindsay Fiori, the reporter, as well as Mark Hertzberg, the photographer.

4/19/11 Friend Lorraine Patterson, Chrissie's mom (the reason we found Ian), posts a beautiful plea for Ian on her blog, in memory of the one year date of Chrissie's heart surgery. The posted all week about Ian!

4/25/11 Received a grant of $1,925.00 from Golden Dawn Adoption Assistance, which paid the match fee's at Hand in Hand, bringing our Hand In Hand fee's balance to ZERO. Praise God! Since being home, God has lessened our financial burden to bring Ian home from a needed $18K to only needing $13K. $5,000 in 14 days since we met Ian. Many thanks are due to fellow adoptive and RR families who have blogged about Ian and our very special Hope Necklace fundraiser, and to all of the families and individuals who have donated to help us answer God's calling for our lives.

4/25/11 Friend Jennifer Dove posts about Ian on her blog to help us raise money.

4/29 & 5/1/11 Massive Hope for Ian yard sale is a success! Over $1500.00 raised for Ian, thank you to all who donated items for the sale and for my mother and grandmother who helped with childcare before, during, and after the week long preparations for the yard sale.

5/4/11 Gift for Adoption Grant submitted - Please PRAY, this could be the last big chunk of what we need to bring Ian home this summer.

5/10/11 Our adoption agency informs us that we will be required to complete a Homestudy update. This is very sad news as it means another $1,000.00 to do that, and countless hours lost from work and home getting our hands on difficult to obtain documents and reports. This also means further delay in getting Ian home. We press on, but this news is very challenging and disheartening.

5/15/11 Our court dossier is sent to Ian's country. We already know we have three errors that need to be corrected. We will attend to those and await word on what else will need to be fixed before we can be issued a court date.

6/14/11 Our new FBI clearances arrived, and our Homestudy update is ready. We are still waiting on a court date, we have no news. God is moving the financial mountain, and we have almost enough for the court trip, fund raising the last bit now for getting Ian home.

7/14/11 Trip #2, court date in Russia, Ian's adoption is approved! He can come home!

7/26/11 Gift for Adoption approves a $5,000 grant to complete our fundraising! Goal of $41,000 raised is met!

8/14/11 GOTCHA DAY! trip #3 to bring Ian home!

8/24/11 Ian came HOME, forever.