USCIS!!!

We received an amazing email that said our USCIS application was approved!!! Which means that once we get that in the mail we will send it to the state capital to get apostilled the we can send it to our adoption agency. Which will then send it to Europe with the rest of our dossier! Unfortunately it's not that easy, in order for us to submit our dossier we have to send $5500!! In December we were given a 3 month extension to finish our dossier, which will expire in March. If we don't have our dossier in country by March we will be forced to release our son and our adoption journey will end, and our son will be stuck an orphan! Just the thought of that makes me suck to my stomach. We are so close!  I hear a song on the radio almost every day and it keeps me going "Don't quit don't give in you're an overcomes!"  By Mandisa Overcomer. I'm staying in this until the final round! 

Another step forward

Last weekend we were out looking for a new vehicle we spent all day at the car dealership with our 4 kids and had no luck. I was feeling really down about it since we are needing a vehicle with more space soon. We got home around 8:30 pm Saturday night and I checked the mail, guess what was there?!! Yes our biometrics appointment for USCIS!!! I thanked god it's like he knew that was going to make everything better and it did!!! The stress of that day flew out the window. We are getting the last few documents apostilled for our dossier and then we will send that to our child's country to be translated and the only thing that will be left is our USCIS approval which we pray we will soon get. Which means we will hopefully be traveling to meet him the end of April or beginning of May. We are so grateful for everyone that has prayed and donTed to our family to help us bring our son home. This journey has been full of stress and tears but it will all be worth it. We are all anxiously waiting the day he walks into our home and life's forever.

New Church... Faith growing

We attended a new church December 22nd, 2013 and we truly feel welcomed. We have only attended 2 services but everyone is so nice and friendly and the service is great! They have a great band and sing Christian songs, songs we have never heard before. It could be because we have not actually look for Christian music, but either way they are amazing songs that just seem to fit exactly how you feel. They played a few songs that touched me, one says "Spirit lead me where my trust is without borders

Let me walk upon the waters

Wherever You would call me

Take me deeper than my feet could ever wander

And my faith will be made stronger

In the presence of my Savior"      This song just makes me think of how we have jumped into our adoption with no questions asked. Yes in the beginning our big fear was coming up with the funds we will need but we soon started getting signs that this was meant to be. This is our SON that has waited so long for us to find him!!! My faith is growing every day!! At the end of this Sundays service we received a personal prayer specifically for our adoption which made my husband and I feel an indescribable way, almost like gods reassurance that he was with us through this and it will be fine. God will not lead us this far and fail us, he has a plan and we are following it. With that being said we have sent off our USCIS application, which takes about 90 days, at the most, to receive approval. We pray it goes a lot faster and that we can raise the funds to submit our dossier as soon as we can. We appreciate all the prayers for our family and our son that is oceans away! We are also selling silver plated book marks for $5 they are made by my daughter and myself. If you are interested just send me an email mrzanzaldua@gmail.com. Thank you!!

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!!