Tuesday, February 5, 2019
Saturday, May 5, 2018
Friday, August 3, 2012
Update: Trip 2 is done!!
Dear Friends,
I write to you as one tired lady;) This last trip was emotionally and physically exhausting. Kaila and Emma were both severely ill before we headed off to Russia (Kaila had Scarlet Fever about a month ago and Emma came down in some sort of infected tick bite/ impetigo/ who-knows-illness about a week before we left). We know we were leaving our precious girls in capable hands in Kentucky with my parents, but it makes it harder to leave. About two days into the trip, I got sick and was sick most of the trip.
BUT, the most important part: Nikolai is... AWESOME. He is such an incredibly precious, beautiful, fearless, trusting, awesome child. We got to spend about 2 days with him while we prepared for court. Court went surprisingly smooth and we are officially his parents! His name is now officially: Nikolai Thomas Cusick and we will be bringing him home on September 1, 2012.
I don't really know if he remember us per say (one month is a long time for a one year old), but he did bond to us VERY quickly this time. I had written a quick email to some family while we were in Russia and I am going to share it with you all. I must say it is a little bit emotional, but adoption is hard.... and we appreciate all your prayers & support.
"We are sitting in the Moscow airport waiting for our flight. The trainride last night was fairly long and uncomfortable, but overall I am feelinga little better.We are both tired, emotional, and hungry! I feel like we haven't reallyeaten any "food" in days... Russian food is very disagreeable (I sometimes think they like to drink more than they eat;) and you can only eat nuts, dried fruit, andpower bars for so long;) So as soon as we got settled in the airport I went to Burger King and we have NEVER enjoyed a whopper and fries more thantoday!!!!!!! Yum!!! Court went very well. Court consisted of us, our translator, the judge, and 3 other women, one inmilitary uniform representing something military, one from child protectiveservices, and no idea what the other lady represented. All threeq uestioned us about adoption, the judge was mostly nosy about Tom'sgovernment pension plan and questioned us about our pets and what we woulddo if Nikolai has pet allergies... mostly just so he could talk about thefact that he has a lab too. The judge actually made several jokes with us. It felt like they genuinely care about the welfare of the children andwant to make sure we are aware of what a momentous undertaking adoption isand to make sure we are completely informed all of the medical information. After court and lunch then went to orphanage to spend theafternoon with Nikolai. He was SUPER excited when he saw us and waved hislittle arms until we picked him up. He does seem to recognize us and love us. We took him for his first car ride to get his passport picture. The ride was terrifying (the driving here is worse than the D.R.... if that iseven possible)... but he thought it was GREAT fun and spent most of thetime trying to climb over the seats and pull leanne's hair.The child know NO fear and is completely trusting and extremely happy(something we never anticipated in an orphan and something we have not seenin any of the other orphans... most of them are timid, silent, and slow. He smiles and giggles all the time and he is one of the most active children we have ever seen (and I thought we would be getting a quiet, laid back kid...). He pretty much never stops moving. He is not completely walking by him self but crawls at a super fast pace. He is VERY curious about everything and it honestly seems like he is trying to make up for the last year by exploring everything at once. He seems very intelligent and does say several words. He grabbed ahold of my water bottle, tilted to his mouth and said "ba ba ba". He did say some other words/ sounds... but we have no idea what he is saying;) He will learn English quickly. We are just thrilled that he will not be overwhelmed by our family... I honestly think he loves noise and stimulation (the good Lord knew;) Several hours before we knew we were to leave, for the first time duringour visit this time he cried... I had set him down to play and all thes udden big tears and little sobs came. I picked him up and he stopped and was happy again. I set him down again and the tears started coming.... so Tom picked him up and he was all smiles again. We tested it enough torealize that little man has figured out what love is and what it is like tobe held by his mother and father and he has decided he likes it very much. Unfortunately, this made our parting grief-evoking. To be honest, I wasalready teary-eyed from our sweet bonding moments and by feeling soo in love with our little son... that when they told us it was time to take him back to the nursery, the tears came quickly for me. Tom prayed over him one last time and we walked into his nursery. He was clinging to my shirt and I set him down in the little play area with several other babies. Hei mmediately pulled himself up on the gate and began shaking it and waving his arms. He started balling and his little red face with big tears spilling down it will be forever frozen in my memory. We are changed ands haped by the things we experience and I have to say that that memory will never leave me.This trip has been hard. Emotionally exhausting, physically miserable, and we both are ready to just come home and be with our girls."
Tuesday, July 3, 2012
Russia Trip 1 Overview
Wow. What a whirlwind. I can NOT believe it has almost been a month since my last post.... life has certainly been exciting;)
We scrambled to get all the documents and other "pieces" in place for our trip 1. We paid a small fortune for last minute airfare (which we are thankful we already have our trip 2 dates and have booked airfare already and paid less than half!). Everything DID indeed fall in place and we journeyed over to Russia on June 17th (Father's Day). We had a long layover in Amsterdam which we thoroughly enjoyed. Amsterdam is actually a beautiful city full of canals an over 1,215 bridges We caught the overnight train to Kirov and met up with two other families and the adoption team. We traveled with a wonderful Christian lady, LeAnne, from Athens, GA (who has previously adopted a Russian boy through FAC 2.5 years ago. Her Russian son is 5 years old now and a wonderfully adjusted genius of a child!) and a super fun couple from Germany: Kai and Melanie. Our adoption team consisted of our coordinator: Andrei, Translator: Leanne and Olga, and driver: Sacha. The train was absolutely, positively one of my favorites parts of our travels! We had our own private sleep car with two bunks over two couches, a TV, a radio, a small table, and the best part: a large window where we watched the Siberian lowland fly by. Because we were soo far north and in June, the sun started to set around 9:30 and we enjoyed 1.5 hr sunset over the green landscape dotted with bright purple alpine flowers and quaint wooden villages. The sun rose again around 2:00am.... great for sightseeing, not so great for sleeping (thank goodness for Tylenol PM- we did get some sleep). We arrived in Kirov, dragged our heavy suitcases through the train station and up several flights of stair to the waiting van. We then traveled to the Hotel in Kirov to freshen up before heading to the orphanage. The hotel was surprisingly VERY nice! All three of us families had trouble with the brand new hot water heaters... but thanks to Andrei... we did get one "hot" shower in;) After a nervous hour waiting at the hotel, we reloaded into the van and drove to the orphanage. In my mind I was picturing the very poor and destitute orphanages I have been in before. What a surprise when we drive up to a wooded gate, an adorable young boy ran to the gate to open up into a long driveway completely surrounded by beautiful gardens. Apparently the doctor/ director that runs the orphanage loves flowers and gardening and has done a lot of the landscaping with the help of some of the older orphans. There were the largest peonies I have ever seen! The entire orphanage smelled of flowers. The inside was spick and span clean and very organized. We were shown into a room where we waited for the children to be brought in. LeAnne's little guy was brought in first. "Elijah" is about 2.5 years old and a beautifully healthy, shy child. I can't help but go off on a sidetrail for a moment here. Kai and Melanie (the German couple) had gone to a different orphanage in May to meet with 2 other children. Both of the children that they met with were developmentally and physically unwell. Kai loves soccer and kept commenting (while almost in tears telling their heartbreaking story of having to decline those two referrals) how the children would not interact or be active at all. They are unable to have children and were obviously very apprehensive about meeting another child. The staff brought in their 3 year old little man. What struck me first was that he looks exactly like Kai. They then were trying to interact with him and gave him a soccer ball. The little guy, "Yoshon" took one look at the ball and kicked it straight back into surprised Kai. Kai immediately threw his arms up in the arm and exclaimed: "You are mine!!!". Love at first sight. Little "Yoshon" immediately bonded to Kai and Melanie and they to him. Thankfully we were distracted with the other children while waiting for our little guy to be brought in. We heard approaching footsteps to which Tom took the camera and urged me to go and meet our 10 month old little man while he filmed it (also because we had been warned that the orphans are very scared of men... to which Elijah had earlier balled at the sigh of Tom). His caretaker carried in 10 month old "Gleb Aleksandervik Krylov" in with the silliest little hat I have ever seen. As anxiety and emotions were about to produce a flood of tears in me, I reached my arms out wondering what he would do. He looked at me (admittedly a little crossed eyed;), in that silly green hat, and gave me that biggest smile and waved his little arms for me to pick him up. No words can decide that moment- much like holding Kaila or Emma for the first time. A beautiful, God-given, sacred moment.
He immediately took to Tom (maybe even moreso to Tom than me!). He looks as if he could be our biological child. Dark hazel-green eyes with light brown hair. He is incredibly healthy and SUPER ACTIVE (he is a fast crawler and can even walk with assistance). He chatters and the caretakers document that he already has 2 words. An overview of our time: We played with him, took him down and met with the director/doctor, played with him some more, went to lunch, played some more, and then went to the hotel. Day 2 was a repeat of day 1... except that we had officially filed the paperwork to adopt him as "Nikolai Thomas Cusick". The flood of tears really came then. The adoption paperwork with his new name definitely had some tear stains;) The second day he truly felt like "ours" and leaving him was heartbreaking. HOWEVER, I felt some peace knowing that he is being SOO SOO SOO well cared for at this beautiful orphanage. The adoption team and several of the other families all talk about how this is the best orphanage in Russia.
I have soo much more to write about leaving the little man and his silent sobbing... but I will leave that for another day. I also meant to insert a lot more pictures, but the formatting is messing up... so please see the "Russia" slideshow on the homepage for all the pics!! And I will try to add in some links to some PRECIOUS videos (including me meeting him for the first time!)
Video links (you should be able to just click on them and a new window will open with Youtube)
fav smiles: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6v48edNb7Ho&feature=youtu.be
laughing, smiling: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tho6cXznF50&feature=related
first meet: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PKQNUigCZ6Y&feature=related
We left Kirov, took the awesome train back to Moscow. Ate a traditional Russian dinner in the diner car and watched the 1.5 hr sunset over the landscape while we celebrated with LeAnne. We left Moscow that next afternoon and had another long layover- this time in Vienna. Again, a blessed wonderful time of rest. Vienna is a beautiful city of music and really good food!
So in all: WE ARE BLESSED. We were actually rested and strong when we arrived back to our girls, which was good as Kaila became seriously ill with strep throat which led to the most severe case of Scarlet Fever we have ever seen with impetigo and a diaper rash. Very, very sick. We are 9 days out now and she is just now feeling better.
We scrambled to get all the documents and other "pieces" in place for our trip 1. We paid a small fortune for last minute airfare (which we are thankful we already have our trip 2 dates and have booked airfare already and paid less than half!). Everything DID indeed fall in place and we journeyed over to Russia on June 17th (Father's Day). We had a long layover in Amsterdam which we thoroughly enjoyed. Amsterdam is actually a beautiful city full of canals an over 1,215 bridges We caught the overnight train to Kirov and met up with two other families and the adoption team. We traveled with a wonderful Christian lady, LeAnne, from Athens, GA (who has previously adopted a Russian boy through FAC 2.5 years ago. Her Russian son is 5 years old now and a wonderfully adjusted genius of a child!) and a super fun couple from Germany: Kai and Melanie. Our adoption team consisted of our coordinator: Andrei, Translator: Leanne and Olga, and driver: Sacha. The train was absolutely, positively one of my favorites parts of our travels! We had our own private sleep car with two bunks over two couches, a TV, a radio, a small table, and the best part: a large window where we watched the Siberian lowland fly by. Because we were soo far north and in June, the sun started to set around 9:30 and we enjoyed 1.5 hr sunset over the green landscape dotted with bright purple alpine flowers and quaint wooden villages. The sun rose again around 2:00am.... great for sightseeing, not so great for sleeping (thank goodness for Tylenol PM- we did get some sleep). We arrived in Kirov, dragged our heavy suitcases through the train station and up several flights of stair to the waiting van. We then traveled to the Hotel in Kirov to freshen up before heading to the orphanage. The hotel was surprisingly VERY nice! All three of us families had trouble with the brand new hot water heaters... but thanks to Andrei... we did get one "hot" shower in;) After a nervous hour waiting at the hotel, we reloaded into the van and drove to the orphanage. In my mind I was picturing the very poor and destitute orphanages I have been in before. What a surprise when we drive up to a wooded gate, an adorable young boy ran to the gate to open up into a long driveway completely surrounded by beautiful gardens. Apparently the doctor/ director that runs the orphanage loves flowers and gardening and has done a lot of the landscaping with the help of some of the older orphans. There were the largest peonies I have ever seen! The entire orphanage smelled of flowers. The inside was spick and span clean and very organized. We were shown into a room where we waited for the children to be brought in. LeAnne's little guy was brought in first. "Elijah" is about 2.5 years old and a beautifully healthy, shy child. I can't help but go off on a sidetrail for a moment here. Kai and Melanie (the German couple) had gone to a different orphanage in May to meet with 2 other children. Both of the children that they met with were developmentally and physically unwell. Kai loves soccer and kept commenting (while almost in tears telling their heartbreaking story of having to decline those two referrals) how the children would not interact or be active at all. They are unable to have children and were obviously very apprehensive about meeting another child. The staff brought in their 3 year old little man. What struck me first was that he looks exactly like Kai. They then were trying to interact with him and gave him a soccer ball. The little guy, "Yoshon" took one look at the ball and kicked it straight back into surprised Kai. Kai immediately threw his arms up in the arm and exclaimed: "You are mine!!!". Love at first sight. Little "Yoshon" immediately bonded to Kai and Melanie and they to him. Thankfully we were distracted with the other children while waiting for our little guy to be brought in. We heard approaching footsteps to which Tom took the camera and urged me to go and meet our 10 month old little man while he filmed it (also because we had been warned that the orphans are very scared of men... to which Elijah had earlier balled at the sigh of Tom). His caretaker carried in 10 month old "Gleb Aleksandervik Krylov" in with the silliest little hat I have ever seen. As anxiety and emotions were about to produce a flood of tears in me, I reached my arms out wondering what he would do. He looked at me (admittedly a little crossed eyed;), in that silly green hat, and gave me that biggest smile and waved his little arms for me to pick him up. No words can decide that moment- much like holding Kaila or Emma for the first time. A beautiful, God-given, sacred moment. 
I have soo much more to write about leaving the little man and his silent sobbing... but I will leave that for another day. I also meant to insert a lot more pictures, but the formatting is messing up... so please see the "Russia" slideshow on the homepage for all the pics!! And I will try to add in some links to some PRECIOUS videos (including me meeting him for the first time!)
Video links (you should be able to just click on them and a new window will open with Youtube)
fav smiles: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6v48edNb7Ho&feature=youtu.be
laughing, smiling: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tho6cXznF50&feature=related
first meet: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PKQNUigCZ6Y&feature=related
We left Kirov, took the awesome train back to Moscow. Ate a traditional Russian dinner in the diner car and watched the 1.5 hr sunset over the landscape while we celebrated with LeAnne. We left Moscow that next afternoon and had another long layover- this time in Vienna. Again, a blessed wonderful time of rest. Vienna is a beautiful city of music and really good food!
So in all: WE ARE BLESSED. We were actually rested and strong when we arrived back to our girls, which was good as Kaila became seriously ill with strep throat which led to the most severe case of Scarlet Fever we have ever seen with impetigo and a diaper rash. Very, very sick. We are 9 days out now and she is just now feeling better.
Saturday, June 9, 2012
Our little man!!!!!!!!
We received our referral on Monday June 4, 2012!!!!!
Gleb Aleksandervik Krylov was born on July 29, 2011.
We received 2 full pages of medical history on him and some on his mother. We are very thankful that mom was not a registered alcoholic, drug user or HIV (all three are very common on Russian referrals- vodka is cheaper than water in Russia).
We conferred with our International Adoption Specialist, Dr. Staat in the Cincinnati Children's hospital, and we had a conference call with her on Wednesday June 6, 2012. She says that his referral contains some of the most information that she has seen in years. She was extremely positive about all of his medical information.
SO.... HERE WE COME RUSSIA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Sorry that we haven't updated more recently but we are in midst of this process and it is C-R-A-Z-Y!!! We have visas to get (which is WAY complicated and expensive... we have to include information on all of our job and educational institutions in the last 10 years, as well as the full names of both of our parents.... might as well ask for blood sample;), CRAZY complicated airline tickets (which are supposed to be refundable and changeable-- we also have military, adoption, and "points" options to research).
So, all in all... BE PRAYING FOR US! Be praying for traveling safety and childcare. We are trying to arrange family/friends to care for Kai and Em while we are away (probably about 9 days).
Our proposed schedule looks something like this:
--Fly out of Meridian on Friday June 15th (granted our visas get here!!! Monday and Tuesday are Russian vacation days;(
--We have to arrive into Moscow (the airport is about 1.5 hrs outside the city) and get to the trainstation by 8pm. We take a 14 hour train ride (on the Tran-siberian railway!!!!) into Kirov. We are excited as it is summer and the sun will not set until about 11-12pm and then it will be "twilight" until 4-5am when the sun will rise again!
We spend several days with our little man in the orphanage in Kirov. We then ride the train back, do a bunch of paperwork in Moscow (assuming that we accept his referral for sure) and then fly back of Moscow. We have to lay over somewhere and we think we are going to prolong our layover by at least a night to relax and try to unwind after our exhausting and emotional trip.
So.... gotta go. We have TONS of stuff to do.... so will talk to you later!!!!!!!!
ps: WE ARE C-R-A-Z-Y excited!!!!! God is sooo good;)
Gleb Aleksandervik Krylov was born on July 29, 2011.
We received 2 full pages of medical history on him and some on his mother. We are very thankful that mom was not a registered alcoholic, drug user or HIV (all three are very common on Russian referrals- vodka is cheaper than water in Russia).We conferred with our International Adoption Specialist, Dr. Staat in the Cincinnati Children's hospital, and we had a conference call with her on Wednesday June 6, 2012. She says that his referral contains some of the most information that she has seen in years. She was extremely positive about all of his medical information.
SO.... HERE WE COME RUSSIA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Sorry that we haven't updated more recently but we are in midst of this process and it is C-R-A-Z-Y!!! We have visas to get (which is WAY complicated and expensive... we have to include information on all of our job and educational institutions in the last 10 years, as well as the full names of both of our parents.... might as well ask for blood sample;), CRAZY complicated airline tickets (which are supposed to be refundable and changeable-- we also have military, adoption, and "points" options to research).
So, all in all... BE PRAYING FOR US! Be praying for traveling safety and childcare. We are trying to arrange family/friends to care for Kai and Em while we are away (probably about 9 days).
Our proposed schedule looks something like this:
--Fly out of Meridian on Friday June 15th (granted our visas get here!!! Monday and Tuesday are Russian vacation days;(
--We have to arrive into Moscow (the airport is about 1.5 hrs outside the city) and get to the trainstation by 8pm. We take a 14 hour train ride (on the Tran-siberian railway!!!!) into Kirov. We are excited as it is summer and the sun will not set until about 11-12pm and then it will be "twilight" until 4-5am when the sun will rise again!
We spend several days with our little man in the orphanage in Kirov. We then ride the train back, do a bunch of paperwork in Moscow (assuming that we accept his referral for sure) and then fly back of Moscow. We have to lay over somewhere and we think we are going to prolong our layover by at least a night to relax and try to unwind after our exhausting and emotional trip.
So.... gotta go. We have TONS of stuff to do.... so will talk to you later!!!!!!!!
ps: WE ARE C-R-A-Z-Y excited!!!!! God is sooo good;)
Wednesday, May 30, 2012
May Update
Can you believe that May is nearly over?! Time is absolutely flying by. My mom always tells me that time flies by even faster as we get older; its not that I don't believe her... its just that I can't imagine time passing more rapidly than it has been recently!
Things here in Mississippi are good. Girls are good, Aunt Jen Cusick moved down here this week (she took a job out on base), and things just continue to move along. I resigned my nursing job to focus on our precious family.
We received our notice to be fingerprinted for USCIS (which is the petition to bring home an orphan into the US )- we have to go to Jackson next week to be fingerprinted (again;) That means the petition is in the works and that is good news (the petition has to be officially approved before our 2nd trip and Court date in Moscow).
We have taken out a loan to help cover the immediate costs and large sums of cash we will have to travel with to Russia. We are thankful that the Lord opened up a SUPER low interest loan option for us. We researched personal loans, adoption loans, and hundreds of grants... but we really don't qualify for any of them. SOO, we will be working our tails off in the mean time to pay for this process. It's not our money anyways... the Lord has provided abundantly for us and we are just giving a (bunch) of it back in order to bring our baby home from Russia.... and friends, is there ANYTHING else more worthy of spending our hard-earned money on?! Yes, this process is ridiculously expensive and yes we feel like Russia has made the process both difficult and crazy-expensive. But we are supposed to rend unto Ceasar what is Cesar's.... and is there is anything better than to give to ransom a soul from darkness?
This baby is born. This baby is waiting for us. And we are ready.
SO, Sweet Jesus... we plead YOUR FATHER'S heart to hear our prayers and to send us our baby soon. We are ready. His room is ready. We pray for him all day and night long.
So, friends, pray with us. Pray the Lord will (continue) to pave the way for us to bring our son home. And... pray for patience and peace in the meantime;) We are learning ALOT in this process.
And in closing... I will share a story from sweet Emma. She was playing in the play area at Chikfila and there was an older girl playing with her. Girl to Emma: "Hi, whats your name?". Em: "I be Emma". Girl: "Oh... well, see that boy out there? Thats my brother and he is CRAZY. Do you have a brother too?" Em: "YES!!!! He be Nik-o-why. He not crazy. He gonna LOVE the Emma".
He isn't gonna love the Emma.... he already loves the Emma-- because we pray AND WE BELIEVE that in his little heart, he knows that he is LOVED AND CHERISHED AND PRAYED FOR by his family.
Lord, we wait... on You (and on Russia;) Send us that referral... send us his picture and lets get this traveling going so we can bring this precious soul home!
Things here in Mississippi are good. Girls are good, Aunt Jen Cusick moved down here this week (she took a job out on base), and things just continue to move along. I resigned my nursing job to focus on our precious family.
We received our notice to be fingerprinted for USCIS (which is the petition to bring home an orphan into the US )- we have to go to Jackson next week to be fingerprinted (again;) That means the petition is in the works and that is good news (the petition has to be officially approved before our 2nd trip and Court date in Moscow).
We have taken out a loan to help cover the immediate costs and large sums of cash we will have to travel with to Russia. We are thankful that the Lord opened up a SUPER low interest loan option for us. We researched personal loans, adoption loans, and hundreds of grants... but we really don't qualify for any of them. SOO, we will be working our tails off in the mean time to pay for this process. It's not our money anyways... the Lord has provided abundantly for us and we are just giving a (bunch) of it back in order to bring our baby home from Russia.... and friends, is there ANYTHING else more worthy of spending our hard-earned money on?! Yes, this process is ridiculously expensive and yes we feel like Russia has made the process both difficult and crazy-expensive. But we are supposed to rend unto Ceasar what is Cesar's.... and is there is anything better than to give to ransom a soul from darkness?
This baby is born. This baby is waiting for us. And we are ready.
SO, Sweet Jesus... we plead YOUR FATHER'S heart to hear our prayers and to send us our baby soon. We are ready. His room is ready. We pray for him all day and night long.
So, friends, pray with us. Pray the Lord will (continue) to pave the way for us to bring our son home. And... pray for patience and peace in the meantime;) We are learning ALOT in this process.
And in closing... I will share a story from sweet Emma. She was playing in the play area at Chikfila and there was an older girl playing with her. Girl to Emma: "Hi, whats your name?". Em: "I be Emma". Girl: "Oh... well, see that boy out there? Thats my brother and he is CRAZY. Do you have a brother too?" Em: "YES!!!! He be Nik-o-why. He not crazy. He gonna LOVE the Emma".
He isn't gonna love the Emma.... he already loves the Emma-- because we pray AND WE BELIEVE that in his little heart, he knows that he is LOVED AND CHERISHED AND PRAYED FOR by his family.
Lord, we wait... on You (and on Russia;) Send us that referral... send us his picture and lets get this traveling going so we can bring this precious soul home!
Thursday, April 26, 2012
Things are moving ALONG!!!
We sent our finished dossier packet off to Frank Adoption Center this last Tuesday April 24!!! Attached is a picture of the notes the girls wrote for the adoption agency staff. After they review all the info and make sure it is complete, we are then officially on the "wait list" for a referral. Currently there is NO wait as there are more little boys available than there are families. So basically, as soon as we are ready we will be able to start looking at referrals.
So, what will take for us to be ready? Availability to travel (Tom can't leave work until early June), money (We are still trying to figure out where the money is going to come as we need to have the funds available to write two LARGE cashier's checks- like $25k to the Russian government on our second trip when we go to court to officially adopt him), and be emotionally ready (I feel like we are THERE;).
The money is going to come- we have FAITH!!! We are in process of looking at a very low interest rate loan.
Part of the reason I am recording this amazing journey is to help others in the adoption process. I have extensively researched many different grants and loan options to help fund aoptions. Unfortunately, we do not qualify for almost any of them (it looks like we make too much money on paper), but I want to write them down for other folks to look through. I started by just searching the internet for different sources and here are the ones that I took some time to dig through:
-Show hope: Shaohannah's hope
http://members.shaohannahshope.org/site/PageServer?pagename=Grant_Application_Landing&JServSessionIdr004=dtacd1a8l7.app214a
-Life Song for Orphans
-Parenthood for me
http://www.parenthoodforme.org/grants/faq/#Adoption
-NAFA (must make a donation before applying)
-God’s Grace Adoption Ministry (combined income needs to be less than $60k)
To complete after at least 1/3 of all adoption expenses have already been paid:
We sent our finished dossier packet off to Frank Adoption Center this last Tuesday April 24!!! Attached is a picture of the notes the girls wrote for the adoption agency staff. After they review all the info and make sure it is complete, we are then officially on the "wait list" for a referral. Currently there is NO wait as there are more little boys available than there are families. So basically, as soon as we are ready we will be able to start looking at referrals.So, what will take for us to be ready? Availability to travel (Tom can't leave work until early June), money (We are still trying to figure out where the money is going to come as we need to have the funds available to write two LARGE cashier's checks- like $25k to the Russian government on our second trip when we go to court to officially adopt him), and be emotionally ready (I feel like we are THERE;).
The money is going to come- we have FAITH!!! We are in process of looking at a very low interest rate loan.
Part of the reason I am recording this amazing journey is to help others in the adoption process. I have extensively researched many different grants and loan options to help fund aoptions. Unfortunately, we do not qualify for almost any of them (it looks like we make too much money on paper), but I want to write them down for other folks to look through. I started by just searching the internet for different sources and here are the ones that I took some time to dig through:
-Show hope: Shaohannah's hope
http://members.shaohannahshope.org/site/PageServer?pagename=Grant_Application_Landing&JServSessionIdr004=dtacd1a8l7.app214a
-Life Song for Orphans
-Parenthood for me
http://www.parenthoodforme.org/grants/faq/#Adoption
-NAFA (must make a donation before applying)
-Resources 4 adoption (chart of 60 + loans and grants for
$20)
-Abba Fund:
-Gift of Adoption $40 app fee
-International Adoption Resources
-His Kids Too!
Once a child referral is made, this organization gives money to help fund getting assistance for a international adoption specialist:
-The Sparrow Fund
Complete after referral:
-Affording Adoption Foundation
http://www.affordingadoption.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/GRANT-APPLICATION-8.18.113.pdf
-Oxford Loan (Provides loans up to $5,000 per internationally adopted
child; loans are interest-free for the first three years: has to be after the
adoption has been approved in the country)
-Sea of faces
-A Child Waits:
http://www.achildwaits.org/Pre-Qualification%20Form.htm
More loan options:
-America's Christian Credit Union
-Pathways for Little Feet (must be within 3-6 months of completing adoption process)
A few other more creative ideas:
-Fundraising (support letters, bake sales, garage sales where people donate stuff to sell....)
-Church offerings
-Refinance car (some banks will allow you to refinance and take out more money depending on how much equity you have in your vehicle)
-Home Mortgage
-Personal Loans (most rates are 10-18%)
I recently received this Word from my sister:
"To the degree of faith you have, is the same in what amount He will move in power" -Rachel
(Read from Luke 43-48 and BELIEVE that the Lord will supply the money, the means, and everything else you need to complete this amazing calling and journey He has called us tooo!!)
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