Approval Notice!

Look what was in the mailbox when I got home!  We received our I-800A Notice of Approval
from USCIS today. This means we've met the eligibility and suitability requirements as adoptive parents of a child that is being adopted under the Hague Convention and are approved to proceed with the adoption process with the Hague Convention country we have requested.
This letter is the last of the paper work necessary to complete our dossier file. We are now ready to send it off to China as soon as we raise $3,500... our deadline is April 1, 2010.

We will be fine...we have to be right? The Lord has brought us this far....He is faithful!

  "In all these things we are more than conquerers through him who loves us".

Romans 8:37

Accepting Community Donations for Adoption Yard Sale Fundriser!

Hi all!

David and I are planning a Yard Sale / Adoption Fundraiser this Spring and we are asking for help from our community by way of  donations of  your unwanted items! This is to help raise funds for Eva's adoption!

It is only January but in a effort to maximize the results we are   accepting donations now and we will continue to do so up to the day before the sale this spring ( date to be announced). Feel free to contact us for more information. We will also gladly come pick up your bagged or boxed donated yard sale items...we have a truck for larger items:

David 's cell 509-953-7557 or Laura's cell 509-953-7570 or at pinkertoncricket@msn.com

 Items needed:

Toys, clothing, shoes, kitchen items, books, home decor, wall art, sports gear, textiles, collectible items, camping / sportswear supplies, pet supplies, home office items, old tools ~ garage stuff,  movies, music, games, yard and garden items, furniture, small appliances....

you name it, if its is decent condition, we'll sell it!

Thank you so much for your prayers and your donations!

Eva's Christmas ~ 2009

Eva got a band new retro red radio flyer tricycle for Christmas. David picked out this gift and kept it a suprise from me till Christmas morning. David ( Dad- OMG!) put it together for her Christmas morning!  It has a cool retro bell and red and white tassels! It will wait in her room with all the rest of her things. We can't wait to teach her how to ride it!

Eva also got a handmade crib quilt from Aunt Tisha - LOVE the owl, bridies and trees made of courduroy! Her name is even sewn onto it...top left. Isn't this precious? We are taking this one with us to China!

Eva also got a cute little china girl ornament.....she has a little pony tail sticking straight up on the top of her head. So cute!

Happy New Year!

Well, we are just about ready to complete our Dossier. David and I just completed our CIS fingerprinting appointment on 12-31 and we now await our Notice of Favorable Determination ( 6-12 weeks).

We completed our 10 hours of required Hague Training this last week too. Now we need to compile the lifestyle photographs we need to have to accompany our dossier to China. Then, our Dossier is complete.

To get our dossier to China we need to raise $3,500 . $2,500 is for our 2nd Great Wall China Adoptions agency fee and $ 900  for the CCAA log in fee ( CCAA ~ Chinese Center for Adoption Affairs).

Then we wait the 36-42 month timeframe for processing. 
During the 36-42 month processing time, we need to raise approximately $18,630.00 to complete the process of bringing Eva home. The breakdown of the $ 18,630.00 is as follows: Required orphanage donation $5,100.00, Visas for David and I $230.00, our international flights $5,000.00, Intra China Fees $5,000.00 (ground transportation, inter~country flights, hotel, meals, cultural tourism) , Legal fees in China $700.00,  Eva's passport $200.00, Eva's visa $400.00, Incidentals $2,000.00. The stay in China is about two weeks.

We still have a ways to go but from where David and I stand, the past 11 months have been transforming in our lives and in the lives of our friends and family. During times of eceonomic townturn, we have been able earn / raise the money needed to get us to this point in Eva's adoption process and it has been a wonderful journey. We have tuly been blessed. We do wish we were further along financially which would help move the process along faster but we are moving as the Lord provides and we trust Him fully to complete what He has started.

We hope to hear back soon about another grant we have applied for.

We can also accept dontations in the form of 'frequent flyer miles' ....we can use those toward the cost of the international flights!  So...If anyone has any frequent flyer miles they would like to donate...please let us know!

Have a Blessed 2010!

Unexpected Opportunity!

My friend Heather introduced me to a friend of hers named Teri. Teri makes lovely hand crafted jewelry. Teri recently began having "trunk" shows from her home and inviting other crafters to display thier items too. Items like clothing, scrapbook supplies, fabulous paper crafts, Scentsy Candles, lotions and cosmetics, etc. So, my friend Tish and I met Teri on Sunday, December 6th. We knew we were at the right house becuase it was the only one in the enire neighborhood with over a dozen cars parked out front with people coming a going. We made our way into this lovely home and mingled around checking everything out, ( awesome stuff!) meeting several ladies before making our way to the room where Teri was. I showed her several Eva's Bags ( already sold ) and she really liked them. I left her an Eva Tag and that evening an e-mail from Terri invited me to sell Eva's Bags at her next boutique on December 20th! Whoa! AWESOME, right?!

But I already told myself I could not do it ...10 days to prepare and with 10 orders pending. I wasn't sure.... but after talking it over with mom, she thought I should go for it...even if I only have two bags to sell, go and get the word out, hand out cards, flyers, etc. So all of the orders I have do not have a Christmas deadline / rush and the women have been very gracious....God bless all of you!

So I took a vacation day today to work on some prep for what I hope to be 10 medium bags. What doesn't get done, doesn't get done. But if I sew a bag a day....we might pull it off! I am excitied to see what the Lord will do!
Please keep Evas Bag's in prayer...all the glory to the Most High for all the success this fundraiser has had and the opportunities to come!

We're workin' on it Eva!

First Grant Request~ Denied

We received notice today that our grant request could not be considered at this time. They had received and reviewed over 278 applications which added up to over 3 million dollars in requests.  Funds available depend largely on donations. We were not informed as to any other details...which was kind of hard. You know, wanting to know the reasons why so we feel better?...."NO" always hurts.

Anyway, we have applied for another grant in the mean time so please keep that in prayer. The Lord is faithful...if He wills us to proceed He will keep the doors open and do so in His timing.

Ecclesiates 3:1

To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven

Hague Training Underway!

Yay! We are enrolled in our parental training courses and already finished our first class ~ TRAVEL TO CHINA...it was very interesting and super informative. I was also a reality check on just how expensive the travel portion is alone! Anyway...that is something that the Lord will help us through...like everything else...an opoortunity for a miracle! 

• Isaiah 41:10    "Don't be afraid, for I am with you. Don't be discouraged, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you. I will hold you up with my victorious right hand."
• 
  
  Isaiah 41:13    "For I the LORD your God will hold your right hand, saying to you, Fear not; I will help you."
  
• Isaiah 30:21    "And when you turn to the right or when ye turn to the left,  your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, This is the way, walk in it."
  
• Isaiah 42:16   "I will lead the blind by a way they do not know, In paths they do not know I will guide them. I will make darkness into light before them And rugged places into plains. These are the things I will do, And I will not leave them undone."
  
• Matthew 6:11 "...Give us this day our daily bread."
  
• Philippians 4:13  "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me."
  
• 
  
  Philippians 4:19  "And my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus."
  

The Lord NEVER fails!


We are in the process of applying for another grant so please keep that in prayer. We are meanwhile, praying we hear some good news in the next couple of weeks about our first grant.

Good things are coming....

i-797c Notice of Action

We received the i-797c Notice of Action. Its not a rally big deal but every step and every piece of paper we receive is very exciting to us! Eeeeek!!!    The i-797c is simply a notification that payment has been taken, which indicates our i-800 application was successfully submitted. Next we will receive notice that our biometrics appointment has been scheduled at a local USCIS support center. Not sure exactly what the timeline is on that but I am thinking another 60-70 days.
Mean while we are getting our Hague training underway!

Hague Training

Thanks to Eva's Bags we are just about at our fundraising goal for the on-line Hauge training. We waited for this training because we wanted to take the training through Great Wall vs. another provider and the program through Great Wall was just recently launched. David and I are required to take at least 10 hours of  "parental training" which is  geared toward educating us on: becoming a mutlicultural family, healthy attachments,  life inside the orphanage, health and development of orphaned children, travel to China, etc. We are looking forward to the training while we await the response to our i-800 application. If you are interested in learining more about the courses, click this link....http://www.adoptionmomentsonline.org/main.php

Vital document authentications are back but not for long!

Our marriage license and my birth certificates arrived back from the California Secretarty of State on Friday and David's birth certificate came back from Minnesota Secretary of State today so they are officially authenticated by thier respective heads of State. The same documents are now being prepared for yet another journey...to the Chinese Consulates for authentication.

The two California documents go to the Chinese Consulate in San Francisco and the Minnesota one goes to the Chinese Consulate in Chicago.  Bye bye...see you in a few weeks!

I-800 Application in Process

We are submitting the I-800 aka Application for Determination of Suitability to Adopt a Child from a Convention Country. Here is a link or more information. http://www.uscis.gov/portal/site/uscis/menuitem.5af9bb95919f35e66f614176543f6d1a/?vgnextoid=af78b3dfc7c58110VgnVCM1000004718190aRCRD&vgnextchannel=847d18a1f8b73210VgnVCM100000082ca60aRCRD

The process timeframe is 60-90 days. Once we are granted approval we will receive an I-797 - Notice of Approved Action or Notice of Favorable  Determination. Then David adn I will receive instructions to go to a special location for more fingerprints. The I-797 notification of the approval will be forwarded to the National Visa Center (NVC) to be kept on file along with our fingerprints for visa processing later. Here is a link for more information:
http://www.uscis.gov/portal/site/uscis/menuitem.eb1d4c2a3e5b9ac89243c6a7543f6d1a/?vgnextoid=9fcd18a1f8b73210VgnVCM100000082ca60aRCRD&vgnextchannel=9fcd18a1f8b73210VgnVCM100000082ca60aRCRD

We now need to start saving for the the second agency fee of $2,500 so that when we get the I-797 we can send all our paperwork (Dossier) to China and get our log in date!

Consulate Certification

This is Chinese Consulate "seal of approval" and its what we need on every single one of our notarized documents. Very pretty and expensive since there are over a dozen notarized documents in our Dossier @ $20 a pop and we just got our first batch back on Friday so most all of our precious paperwork is safely locked up at home! We still need this seal on three other documents and we are waiting on that now. Please continue to pray that we can gather the funds needed to file the I-800. Thank the Lord for Eva's Bags...bags have been selling at just thr right time but the I-8oo is a sizeable chunk but we really need to get that milestone out of the way so we can get our Dossier logged in to China and get on the official "waiting list".

Vital Document Authentication

Okay, now that the birth certificates and marriage certificate are mailed off for authentication - we are totally document-less ( is that a word?) and all of our life story is floating around out there. Anyway...kinda weird. We are hoping to file our 1-800 this next week, and praying the necessary funds are available. That's another BIG step....and we certainly need to have it behind us before the Holiday's.

November is just about here and HelpUsAdopt.org will be announcing the grant award sometime in December.

Thanks for your continued prayers.

Autumn Day

Well, our marriage certificate finally arrived Saturday and now with the birth certificates, it will be sent off to their respective secretary of state offices to be authenticated before going to the Chinese Consulate. Meanwhile all our Washington documents ( home study, physicals, background checks, etc.) are due back from the Chinese Consulate in about a weeks time. We will definitely feel more comfortable when all our documents are back in our hands.

Eva's Bags are doing very well too and we hope it continues! Although things have moved much slower that we had expected since this all started in February, its been a great year and the Lord has been so faithful! We are excited about His plans and we know His timing is perfect.

Consulate Update

We got a call from Yang at the Chinese consulate on Monday. Apparently the photo copies of our passports were not legible so we had to scramble with making multiple copies in different exposures and faxing them over hoping they would be able to read one of them. Anyway, a couple of faxes and a few phone calls later they finally got a clear copy they could use and all is well. Their authentication process is underway and we should be getting our precious paperwork back soon.
We got an extra copy of our home study ( replacing the one that Simon ruined) on Monday so that is taken care of. We are still waiting for our marriage certificate...C'mon San Diego!

Our documents arrived at the Chinese Consulates office!!!
" item was delivered at 11:20 AM on October 16, 2009 in SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94115." Yay!
both of our birth certificates came ! Just need marriage certificate.
A satisfying end to a busy week.

To the Chinese Consulate

We mailed off our authenticated paper work tothe Chinese Consulate in San Francisco today and should be arriving there Friday around noon. Our birth certificates and marriage license have not arrived yet...any day now!

Washington Authentication Complete

We got our Washington documents back today!
We are now sending these off the the Chinese Consulate in San Francisco to be approved. These will be off by Thursday via overnight express delivery.
Meanwhile we await our birth certificates and marriage licenses and once we get those, they will then to to the Chinese Consulates. Davids Minnesota Birth Certificate to Chicago and my California Birth Certificate and out California Marriage Certificate will go to the Consulate in San Francisco. We are still saving to file the I-800 - goal is to have it filed the first week of November.

Our certified vital documents (Birth Certificates and marriage certificates ) are expected back any day now and the envelopes for the consulates offices are ready to go. We are expecting our packet of Washington state authenticated documents back in a couple of days!!! And....the grant paperwork was successfully re-done while Simon was locked away and is being post marked today! Yay!