Sharing the stories part 7

This is a continuation of Sharing the stories part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4, part 5, and part 6. We have received so many wonderful stories of how people are touched by Valentin and some really sweet stories of giving and fund raising. We are so touched by these stories not only because so many want to help rescue Valentin but also because we see God moving in the hearts of His people. We hope you enjoy these stories, testimonies, prayers, and neat fundraisers as much as we do.

A little more Valentines for Valentin fundraising sweetness. A wonderful woman sold some 200 cupcakes to support grants for several children. 200 cupcakes...that is A LOT of cupcakes...that is A LOT of baking. And look how beautiful they are

Thank you my friend for helping to rescue Valentin :)

An update to the last post

Did you read the last post? This story gets more miraculous as the day goes on.

Get this - our immigration officer just told me that our fingerprints from our last adoption are still valid and we can use those to get approval. She will have our approval ready tomorrow or Friday. It usually takes 45-60 days to get approval and we will have Valentin's in 12-13 days...I mean c'mon! We are so unworthy of God's favor and yet today He is lavishing it upon us!

It doesn't stop there.

I had intended to do a post next week about the process to adopt from Valentin's country to let everyone know how it was going to work after immigration approval. Turns out our timeline just moved up big time. Here is a brief description of the process - and the thing to keep in mind about the country we are adopting from is that the rules change ALL the time. What is true today could be changed on a whim tomorrow, very unstable adoption program. Anyway, typically when our home study is done we send a document petitioning the government to adopt a specific child (Valentin). The facilitation team submits that and the government issues a date that we can submit our dossier. This date is taking longer and longer these days due to many rules recently put in place (wish I had time to talk about them but suffice it to say a certain organization -UN*CEF- is doing a huge disservice to orphans). Once you have that date you can submit dossier. I believe travel dates are issued typically 2 weeks after submittal (if they approve our dossier) and travel is about 3-4 weeks after that. I could be very wrong but that is my understanding and again it could all change tomorrow.

All that to say that I did not even know the facilitation team was submitting our petition yet since we did not have immigration approval yet. However I learned just a little bit ago that not only did they submit our petition but it has ALREADY BEEN APPROVED and we have a dossier submittal date of Feb 29th.

Ok, are you tracking with me? Our fingerprints are still valid which will allow us to get the last piece of our dossier to Valentin's country just in time for our already scheduled submittal date that we probably should not have had for many more weeks. And just to add to that, Feb 29th?!?! A day that only happens every 4 years?!?!

Really?!?! I couldn't make this stuff up if I tried! I am usually a pretty mellow person, not easily prone to sheer excitement and sensationalism...but today...today I am dancing before my God in amazement!

Hello mountain, God just moved you

You knows those prayers you have been praying for Valentin's immigration case to be expedited...

Get out of the way mountains, God wants Valentin home now!

Yep, just got a call from our immigration officer (I didn't even know we had been assigned to an officer yet) and she has ALREADY approved the case. I am not kidding guys, this is UNHEARD of! It is still not official until we get fingerprinted...let me give you a little run down of the process so you can understand what's going on here,

Usually you send your application, it goes to Texas, spends a week there and gets logged into their system, it gets mailed to Missouri, it sits a while, they assign a date for you to get fingerprinted at a local USCIS office (usually several weeks out) and they send you a notice, you get fingerprinted, and you wait, and you wait, and you wait. And some time, usually 45-60 days after you mailed your application you get approval. And 45-60 days is a conservative number, our other two adoptions took 52 and 63 days.

We sent our application 11 days ago. ELEVEN DAYS!

Our officers approval is not official until we get fingerprinted, we have to wait to get our fingerprint notice in the mail and then we will try to walk-in to our local USCIS office. Our officer said our fingerprint appointment was scheduled for 3/13. But, with our last two adoptions our local office allowed us to walk-in. Please pray that this is still the case otherwise we have to wait until 3/13. When our fingerprints are done (electronically) our officer said she can approve us (officially) usually within 24 hours.

Now, it ain't approved until it is approved but ummmmm, how good is our God???

I think I will be stalking our postman...

God's church at work

Okay, let's see if I can write this post through the tears and heaps of tissue. Remember the last post about the fundraiser for Valentin? I just received pictures and honestly I am speechless...just speechless!

The last two days I have been reading posts on a blog about children left unadopted and transferred to institutions (I am going to repost them here soon). These posts are so heart-breaking and so unspeakably sad that for the last two days I have been in such a state of loss and sadness I can hardly think of anything else. Thoughts have circled my mind about how in the world can we not help these kids, how can they be sentenced to such horrific conditions, and I have to admit I get a little angry and feel like screaming "Where is the church?!". Then I get an email full of pictures that remind me God is still very much at work in His church. And His church is still very much at work. His church came together bringing what little or as much as they could and worked to save one. Even just one. How I wish I could travel to Mississippi and hug everyone of you who worked on or gave during this fundraiser! I am so grateful for the pictures so I can put faces to the people we have been thanking God for.

How I wish I could hug and thank all of you who have given your money, your prayers, and your time to this mission to rescue Valentin. I will repost the blogs about life in an institution soon and you will see that I am not kidding when I say that you are literally saving Valentin from a life of misery.

Valentin, my sweet son, just a little longer and you will know how loved you really are!

Sharing the stories part 6

This is a continuation of Sharing the stories part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4, and part 5. We have received so many wonderful stories of how people are touched by Valentin and some really sweet stories of giving and fund raising. We are so touched by these stories not only because so many want to help rescue Valentin but also because we see God moving in the hearts of His people. We hope you enjoy these stories, testimonies, prayers, and neat fundraisers as much as we do.

Remember this post about a Sunday School class raising money for Valentin from now until Valentines? How amazing is this group? The Sunday school class consists of what they told me is “4 teenage boys and 1 old lady.” It has been so much fun to be in contact with the “one old lady” as she calls herself (I think that is so cute). We have had wonderful exchanges over email and I have absolutely fallen in love with her, the boys that are working so hard to raise money, and the amazing community that has come together to help rescue Valentin! 5 people in a small town in Mississippi, a few states away from where we live, were able to raise $4,200. I almost don’t know what to say except praise God for His faithful servants!

Here are excerpts from some of the emails I received:

“Here is a picture of our money jar for Valentin collected this morning. This shows what God can do with 4 teenage boys and one old lady! I wish everyone could have seen the smiles and enthusiasm. They brought their blessing bags and dumped their money, there are too many stories to tell. There is about $200 in the jar. Can't wait to see what next week brings. Thank you for giving us such an awesome opportunity. Your family has touched us forever.”

“The kids will be hosting a luncheon after church. All we make will go to Valentin. They will be cooking the food on Saturday. This has and continues to be such a blessing. You can definitely see the hand of God. As a footnote: we were planning the menu and I said to them what are we going to do about dessert? One of the kids said ‘You could make those cut out cookies you used to make us!!!!!!!! You can make them in the shape of hearts and we can ice them in pink!’ (I used to make those for them when I tutored them years ago). So I have been up making cookie dough this morning with a great deal of joy in my heart. God has been working in this project for a long time.”

“We have fallen in love with Valentin!! There are so many things about all of this that show God's hand. I really think God has been preparing "five teenage boys and one old lady" for this moment in time. I have a special connection to all the boys, I kept two of them in an after school program for about four years and tutored the other three for awhile so there is a bond there. We also lost the only girl in our class in August in a car accident. Her initials were GEM so we are thankful to be a part of helping another of God's GEMs to be a part of your precious family."

"The boys had $465 in their jar as of Sunday. They wanted to count it during school so we looked like we had been to the casino. Our plans for the lunch after church are coming to fruition. They are going to help cook cause I think that is important for them to learn that stuff just doesn't appear. I can't begin to tell you what your story has meant to so many people in a small town in Mississippi. I am overwhelmed that there are people willing to do what you are doing. You have touched so many by your willingness and unselfishness. Thank God for leading us to Valentin and his rescue. Thank you for giving us the opportunity to be a part of something so wonderful. To paraphrase we have been 'Changed for the better'."

Well...to the small town in Mississippi, lead by 4 teenage boys and 1 old lady, you my friends have changed us for the better!

Where have you been?

In the past month if you have sent us an email that has received no response, if you have called us and not received a call back, or if you have wondered what the heck happened to us, this is what happened to us…

This is what we have been doing for a month. That is 43 documents all notarized and apostilled by the Secretary of State. Yes, you read that right 43 documents!!!

43 documents obtained as quickly as possible through multiple trips to the County Clerk, the notary, our mortgage company, the notary, the County Assessor, the notary, our home study agency, our doctors office, the notary, the medical lab, our pediatrician’s office, my husband’s office, the post office, the bank, the Department of Public Safety, the notary, the fingerprint office, the Secretary of State’s office, did I mention the notary, and days of endless stress and many emotional breakdowns.

And you know what? Each document…totally worth it!!! Because Valentin is totally worth it!

I have to give so much credit and thanks to our friend Kristi who would, on a moments notice, drop what she was doing to notarize our MANY documents, FOR FREE. If you are adopting or thinking about adopting your best friend will be a notary. If you don’t know one, find one. :)

We wondered if this day would come, the day we finished our dossier documents and sent it to Valentin’s country. After so much blood, sweat, and tears it was hard to hand over our precious documents and entrust them to the shipping company. We kissed and hugged the documents, we talked to them and told them to be safe and we loved them, and we prayed for them and we reluctantly handed them over.

The boys still don’t quite “get” all this paperwork stuff but they sure thought it was cool that the package would be getting on a plane and flying over the ocean.

Now, sending the dossier does not mean much as far as process goes. We are still waiting for immigration approval and until then our dossier is incomplete. But at least our documents will be in Valentin’s country ready to submit when immigration approval is done.

Important prayer request

As if we weren’t asking for enough prayers, right?!?!

We just sent our package off to USCIS (Immigration) and we are asking all of Valentin’s prayer warriors to join us in praying that immigration will expedite his case. If Valentin’s case is expedited that could mean up to 2 months less time he will have to spend in an orphanage. That is 2 months sooner that he could be here with a family and getting the medical/therapy attention he so desperately needs.

Immigration applications are processed on a first come first serve basis so normally I would not feel comfortable asking immigration to expedite his case. Every adoption is important and deserves immediate attention. By expediting we are asking to ‘cut in line’. Not something I am comfortable doing.

We have put a lot of thought and prayer into the decision to expedite. Yes Valentin needs to receive therapy for his cerebral palsy, yes he needs to get off anti-psychotic drugs that are given to him simply to keep him still and quiet, yes he needs to receive proper nutrition, yes he need to get OUT OF THAT DARN CRIB, yes he needs to avoid transfer to a mental institution, yes he simply needs to be hugged. But really, most orphans deal with some degree of these types of problems.

It was not until we talked to our pediatrician about his heart condition and anemia that we started feeling convinced that Valentin’s life might truly be in danger and it truly was important to get him to the States asap. Our doctor talked to us about cardiomyopathy in children and to be honest it scares me. Cardiomyopathy is the leading reason for heart transplants in children. When he started giving me specific instructions on how to travel with him and how to identify cardiac distress I knew in my soul Valentin must come home immediately. When you add the anemia to his heart condition he really IS in danger of death.

We are still not comfortable ‘cutting in line’ but feel confident it is justified. During our previous adoptions we did not expedite their cases because we did not want to abuse the use of expediting and even as much as we wanted to bring our kids home we had no problem with more desperately ill children getting processed first.

Now asking for expedite and getting expedite are two different things. We pleaded our case in a letter to immigration and our pediatrician wrote a letter too. Some cases get expedited and some don’t, it all depends on what immigration officer you get and the decision they feel like making. That is why we are asking you to join us in praying that God has already picked an officer who will look on Valentin’s case favorable and will work quickly to approve it.

Immigration approval can take up to 3 months to receive. That is 3 months that Valentin has to stay in his orphanage, drugged, immobile, isolated, lonely, and lacking proper nutrition and medical care. That is not okay with us and we are working like mad to get him out. Let’s storm heaven with our prayers!!!!