One Less

Update..... Since my last post we received our finalized home study got it apostilled and sent it to our adoption agency and we got it to Eastern Europe just in time! What I mean by that is that we had 6 months from the time we committed to "Kyle" to at least have the home study part of our dossier done and we got it there the week it was due!! I would be lying if I said I didn't have an anxiety attack at the post office when the gentleman said it wouldn't get to my case worker until Monday (which it needed to be in Europe by Tuesday). But somehow someway we got it there on time. So now we have sent a few final documents to be apostilled for our dossier and the next step is our I 800a application which is over $500. But we have been blessed and an awesome women I have never personally met has sent us a donation to pay for our I 800a application!!!! She is an amazing advocate for these children and is also the same persons that helped raise a large amount of the funds in his grant through Reece's Rainbow, which we will get to use for his adoption once we get our travel dates. This is a very long stressful process but I know it will be worth it in the end when we get to bring our son home. I did some calculations this weekend, added up the total cost we have paid so far and we really don't know how we have done it!! But we thank everyone for their donations, support and prayers! I am truly amazed at what this process has done for my children also, everything they talk about includes their Brother! Every little penny they find goes to his jar they try to figure out different ways we can raise or save money! It really shows me that we are doing something amazing and my children are learning from this experience.  

Winner!!

Ruben drew for the winner of our $50 gift card giveaway, which we posted the video on fb, and Alysha won. She has been so kind to donate the card back to our adoption fund. We are so blessed to have support from her. She was "Kyles" prayer warrior a few years back and is so excited to see he will soon be coming home to us. Now I'm thinking of our next giveaway or maybe an auction, just have to find some items to auction off. Hopefully that will have a good outcome also. I know my past few posts have been somewhat short, but right now we are just waiting on our home study to be typed up for us to able to send to our agency. :)

My reason: Thoughts

My reason: Thoughts: I'm full of thoughts tonight. Why is adoption so expensive? Why can't we be rich? Why don't we win the lottery? I would be happy...

On my mind

Our last home study visit was this past Monday and we are really cutting things close. Our home study has to be in our little boys country by December 10th or he will no longer be "on hold" for us. This has me very worried and stressed that it won't get there in time. Not only that but we will also need to pay our next adoption fees to our agency which is $6000! So you can imagine how stressed we are right now. This was definitely a leap of faith we have taken and pray it will all work out. So I ask you to please keep our family and our little boy in your prayers. Also all donations are appreciated more then you will ever know and remember no amount is too small. He has been on my mind so much lately and dream of holding him for the first time and how he will feel to know that he is loved! That I haves loved him from the first moment I saw his picture and new from that moment on that he IS my son! Hang in there little man we are working hard to bring you home!!

A little info

Reading through some of my previous blog post I've realized that I really havent giving much information on our little "Kyle". So here goes, I'll star with he his in Eastern Europe. We are not able to say what specific country he is in nor his real name to protect him. He was born March 2004 and had several surgeries shortly after birth for heart defects and anal atrisa. Then he was put up for adoption, it's hard to say why but it was more then likely due to his diagnosis of Down Syndrome. From 2004 to 2008 he was in a orphanage right after his 4th birthday he was transferred to a mental institution where he is currently and has been for most of his life. A mental institute is not the place for a child to spend the rest of their life. I can't even imagine being 4 years old and living in a mental institute,can you? This little boy is almost 10 years old and has never known the love of a family! God was preparing us for him and now we are ready! All these surgeries he had he never had a mother or father next to him when he woke up,  no one to hold him when he is scared and no one to tell him he is important! What stands between us and him(besides oceans) $27,000 approximately. That's his ransom!! That's what is needed to save him!! To bring him home to his brother and sisters who already love him and include him in everything they do by talking about him, saying what he would be doing with them. All we can do his pray and raise the funds so he can come home.                                                                                                                 
With that being said we will do our very first giveaway! Hopefully we receive support from many so when can do another giveaway shortly after that.                                                   
We will be giving away a $50 visa gift card, what we need is 11 entries for $10. Once we receive the 11 entries we will have Ruben draw for the winner!!
Why the number 11? Well that's his birthday!

We need these entries to our paypal account, anzadoptfund@gmail.com, to help with upcoming fees. Once we receive the 11 entries we will have Ruben draw for the winner and we will notify you!! Please make sure you put your name and email in the information on pay pal so we have a way to contact you. If you want to email me your receipt you can do so to the above email address! We hope to the draw for the winner soon!!

This is the picture of our " Kyle" when he was probably 4 and its the picture we have hanging on our living room wall right next to Sandra's pictures, since they are only 2 years apart. Sandra is happy sharing her side of the wall with is pictures too. We can't wait to have a family picture with all 5 of our kids together.

Been a while

It's been a while since I have blogged, have been rather busy. We have received new pictures and a video of "Kyle" which brings him to life!! He has such a beautiful smile and Ruben loves to watch the video over and over. The boys room has been painted and we have his bed ready! We are still working on our paper work to finish up our home study, but we have been getting other items out of the way so once the home study is finished we can put it all together to receive USCIS approval. We pray it will all come together since we have faced a small obstacle which we hope to resolve asap! I'm not much of a writer I like to get straight to the point, I've had this issue since high school I always had a rough time trying to make my research papers long enough. So please bare with me since this is all new to me. Just know we are working hard to bring our little guy home, every time we get one thing accomplished we look at each other and say " Oh Kyle if you only knew you have a family working hard to bring you home" 

Moving forward

These past few days have been very exciting for our family. We sent in commitment paper work for our adoption. Whe can officialy say that we are adopting "Kyle" on Reeces Rainbow! He is no longer classified as a waiting child yesterday he was under My Family Found Me (MFFM), and today he has been placed under New Commitment!! Our social worker has scheduled our home study and so we begin the many piles of paper work. We have no doubt that this process will be long and stressful, but it will be all worth it when we get to hold our son for the first time! We know there will be plenty of challanges once he is home, but we have our mind set and are ready for it all! Our kids are so excited to add a brother to our family and they have been saving every penny in our "Kyle" jar which sits on top of our intertainment center. We show Ruben the picture of his brother and he smiles and tells him hi. We know they will be the best of friends. Kyle is on the left and Ruben on right.

Our journey

We began fundraising a few days ago and are at our $300 mark today!! Thank you to all the wonderful people that have donated and to all that our praying for our family. We hope to soon be able to share the face of this adorable little boy that has stolen my heart. The adoption process is very long and involves a lot of paper work and patience. So far we have submitted our application to the adoption agency and a social worker to begin our home study. The home study can cost a little over $2000 and the commitment fee is $3500 once we have paid our commitment fee then we can share to you all the name and face of our future son. Then it will be more paper work. We are all very excited to begin this journey and save this little boy. Bring him into our own and show him what it's like to have a family. Mark and I have already thought about what it will be like to travel to his country to bring him to our home and show him his own bed!! I can't help but picture him smiling, which I have seen his smile in a picture, and feel sad because I don't know if he has anything to smile for right now. It's amazing to think he is there living his life day to day not knowing there is a family doing whatever they can to bring him into their family. He has no idea that there is wonderful, giving people helping us for HIM and that we think about him every day!! One month ago I saw his picture and now he is forever in my heart. We have set up a Paypal account if anyone would like to make a donation. anzadoptfund@gmail.com, prayers are also greatly appreciated!!!

Adoption

Some people may wonder why we are wanting to adopt. Well here it goes... It's not because we can't have children of our own, because we do we have 4 beautiful children. It's simply because we fell in love with this little boy we saw on Reece's Rainbow. I don't know why I was on the website looking at children, but when I found his picture it was like looking at Ruben and haven't stopped thinking about him. I wonder how is day was if he ate if he has his own bed, and if he knows that somebody loves him. That somebody thinks he is perfect just the way he is!  I pray that one day soon he will know that because we will tell him!! He has never had a family nor know the love of a mother/father. I want him to feel all the love Ruben feels every day. I love this little boy unconditional as I do my own kids. I feel god prepared us for him by sending us Ruben. I feel Ruben was sent to us to open our heart and mind to children with that extra something, that extra chromose that makes Ruben so special. Yes it was hard for me to see it when we first discovered Ruben has Down syndrome and yes I was angry with god, but god doesn't make mistakes and now my eyes and heart are wide open! I was angry because I didn't think it was fair for my child, my SON, to live his life feeling "different" but he's not different he is just like us! He just has an extra chromosome which he uses to give us extra love. I am glad that god has made all of this clear to me now. Now I want another child with that special chromosome to know just how great he his! This road may not be easy but I know it will be worth it, when I can hold that little guy in my arms and tell him just how much I love him. To see him smile, that smile that makes everything better, those almond eyes that see no evil and that heart so willing to love all.