Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world. James 1:27
It's finally happening! We are finally going to Ukraine!!! We have a date for our SDA/DAP - the appointment in Kiev where they match us with two particular children. We've booked flights and made lodging reservations. It's all a little surreal. But we are so excited to finally see the kids!!! In order to protect our family's privacy our blog will not be updated with travel information until we get home. If your our friend on Facebook you may ask to join our secret Becoming Twelve Facebook group to follow our journey. We just ask that nothing posted there is shared publicly. In other news: We have another teen driver. Our Lora passed her written exam on her first try. However, driving on the road - not just in the yard, proved more difficult than she expected. But practice makes better. We will wrap up our CHANGE DRIVE soon - I will post here about that. Donations may still be made to our matching grant with Promise686 (which is doing very well), or to ABBA Fund, directly to our agency, or to us. Links and addresses below.
Facetiming siblings
Promise686 grant virtually here or via snail mail by noting for the 342Brown Family Promise686 19 Holcomb Bridge Rd. Norcross, GA 30071 ABBA Fund virtually here via snail mail by noting for the HEBrown Family ABBA Fund PO BOX 868049 Plano, TX 75086-8049 Our Agency: Family Connections, Inc. Note: to the Harold Brown family P.O. Box 5555 Cortland New York 13045 Our mailing address: The Brown Family PO Box 854 Franklin Springs, GA 30639
Our next big goal - the biggest goal yet! - is to raise $12,000!!!* This will cover the Ukrainian fees. For next 12 days (Jan 28-Feb 8), in honor of π World Cancer Day (Feb. 4), to help raise funds to bring home a new son, who is now a brain cancer patient, and his sweet sister through adoption we will send you a very cool gold and gray #becoming12 silicone bracelet for every $12 or more donated. π
Wouldn’t it be awesome if we actually did raise that much in 12 days!?!?! #highhopes
π Gold represents childhood cancer
π€ Gray represents brain cancer
#becoming12 - that’s us (blog, intstagram, Facebook)
Better picture coming soon! The bracelets have been ordered and are being created.**
To give via the Abba Fund click HERE be sure to comment “for the HE Brown Family”
Or via PayPal click HERE comment “adoption fund” and include your mailing address
Math dork moment: If 1000 people each gave $12... If 500 people each gave $24... If 250 people each gave $48... If 125 people each gave $96...
If 100 people each gave $120...
If 50 people each gave $240...
If 25 people each gave $480...
If 12 people each gave $1000... well that would totally blow my mind!
*funds raised will be used for any adoption expenses ** yes $12 is a lot for a silicone bracelet- but the point is not the bracelet. The point is to make 2 less orphans! π₯°
This particular post may be boring for many of you. Sorry. Just skip it. For other's it will be an answer to many questions. Many thanks to Google for the images. Several sweet and interested folks have asked "Now what?" or "Isn't it paid for yet?" (sometimes it's us asking those questions) and some have sweetly suggested that we list each goal - we'll try to be more forthcoming.
Currently, the USCIS* and FBI is $1115 and is met. And as of this writing they have been mailed off! WOOHOO! Now we wait on USCIS to respond.
While we wait we aren't going to be sitting still (except for the parts we literally have to sit still for). We have lots to do! Here's whats to come (followed by a glossary of weird words and an expected cost list): 1) Grant* writing. I've already researched many grants that we may qualify for and now that we have the homestudy* we can actively pursue those. If your looking for me, I'll be in the basement writing grants.
2) Building the dossier*. Which includes new medical exams and test and other fun things, having it all apostilled*, and mailing it to Ukraine.
3) Continue Fundraising for Agency Fees, Ukraine Fees, Expected In-country fees , and travel expenses. 4) Continue to update you pretty people. 5) Stay the course! And continue to scrimp and save while we pray.
Glossary
Apostille (pronounced “ah-po-steel”) is a French word meaning certification. ... The Apostille is attached to your original document to verify it is legitimate and authentic so it will be accepted in one of the other countries who are members of the Hague Apostille Convention. In GA it's $3 per document. dossier/ΛdΓ΄sΔΛΔ,ΛdΓ€sΔΛΔ/ (pronounced "dos-see-A") noun; a collection of documents about a particular person, event, or subject.
grant noun; a sum of money given by a government or other organization for a particular purpose. homestudy noun; an assessment of prospective adoptive parents to see if they are suitable for adopting a child. USCIS noun; U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) is a component of the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
Expenses to come
(this is not exhaustive, and does NOT include things already covered):
These are also our next goals. $3,250 Agency Fees, Family Connections (most of this has been paid, update to come) *$12,000 Ukraine Fees (2 siblings) (this covers facilitators, translations, and legal fees) - this is our current fundraising goal - and the biggest one yet! $1000-1500+Dossier preparation(this would include updated and in-depth medical exams, fees for other documents we may need to create, getting EVERYTHING apostilled, and mailing the whole thing to Ukraine) $4680 In-Country Fees (this includes an orphanage gift, birth certificates, passports, & US embassy fees like Visas and medical exams. We may also have the added expense of any required medical for Andrii while we are there) $15,480-$27680Estimated Travel Expenses depending on how many times we must travel to Ukraine, and the cost of transportation, room and board at the time of travel) We are trusting that whatever is provided will be exactly the right amount. God is a great provider.
Current Ongoing Fundraisers
Click on colored words for links. Abba Fund - tax deductible gift, Abba Fund pays directly to service provider. Please specify "for the HE Brown family" in the comments online, or in a note with your check. Bonfire T-shirts PayPal - paid directly to us. Please specify "adoption" Family Connections, Inc. - this is our agency. Any money received over their fees will go toward Ukraine fees or travel expenses. Kathy's Kreations on Facebook (just made up that name) - the "Morgan cousins" supplied us with lovely things they crafted to help us raise funds - Hair scrunchies, headbands, lanyards, & dog bandannas More to come!
If you have come into our foyer in the last year you might have noticed this large Folgers canister which was lovingly decorated by Lora when we’re raising funds to host Andrii & Anastasia. We just kept adding to it when we said yes to adoption.
We drop change in it as we clean out pockets and purses, and it holds all the “in-between cash” (that money waiting to go to the bank or to the post office to become a money order to pay some fee).
We need to send in fees to the new agency (Family Connections) ASAP and we’re $38 short. So we got out our closet jars - we’ve been collecting in those a LONG time!
(That penny jar was nearly full, the shorter jar... not so much since we started collecting for fees.)(there was also one dead stink bug - unfortunately we can’t get much for bugs)
So we rolled coins. We ran out of penny rollers and still have half a big pickle jar of pennies - and wound up rolling a few dollars extra worth. (They will now be the in-between cash).
We do have a small fundraiser this weekend - I'm helping a dear friend and fellow homeschool mom sale her jewelry for a percent of the profits. She over booked herself to be at two Christmas bazaars.
We are also trying to think QUICKLY of one more to hold at a Christmas Bazaar we could join last minute. Several others are already doing baked good and hot chocolate... I wasn't as crafty as I'd hoped and my imagination isn't running at full capacity lately... so I need ideas. * Update: we’ve been donated some lovely handcrafted items!!! Woohoo!
If your church or group would like to do a change drive for us in the new year to help with raising adoption funds and/or travel expenses that would be FANTASTIC!!! Just send a message or leave a comment and we'll talk! Funds can be donated directly to our agency or to the Abba Fund. (if you do donate please specify that the funds are for the HE Brown family).
When we are waiting on something good it seems to take forever!
But when we have something to do (or that we should be doing) the time flies by!
Blogging will be an easy way to keep everyone up to date. (If you actually do it).
I'll be good at blogging. (Nope - sorry).
Here's the possibly lengthy catch-you-up post. (not totally in chronological order).
Since my last post was about a patriotic quilt (seriously thought I'd updated LOTS since then), I'll start with:
The quilt sold via eBay. But not for as much as we had hoped. We are very grateful to Aunt Carolyn for her donation of the beautiful quilt and to the eBay-er who was delighted to use it in redecorating.
We have since been posting lots of little things on eBay (member erbr_2337) to help raise funds and in the process have gotten to know our sweet postal worker better. They are the most helpful people for shipping anything as cheaply inexpensively as possible. And they are just super sweet.
Photos and college by Jacob
We did have one more yard sale that had shoppers waiting on us when we arrived at the crack of dawn. The unsold treasures lived in the basement until I couldn't stand it anymore and "organized." Some things went on Facebook Marketplace, some on eBay, some to the thrift store. (And, for the sake of total honesty, a few treasures we are using).
Currently, there's a box in the dining room and two in the basement of posted and waiting to be posted items. I got my house back and an extra job.
A sweet friend, Elena, did a Tupperware fundraiser. It was delicious.
Tomorrow we are having a Krispy Kreme sale before (and possible after) church.
100 dozen doughnuts = 1200 doughnuts
Pray for hungry folks with $7 and a sweet tooth to drive by.
We did this last year to help raise funds for hosting fees and more than doubled our investment. So all those eBay sales have been invested in doughnuts.
Of course we still take donations any time in person, snail mail (message us for the address), via PayPal, or for tax deductible gifts through the Abba Fund.
Fundraising is FUN. But exhausting. And I'm running out of creative ideas. Matter of fact, I'm not feeling very creative at all. In any area.
But we have been encouraged this month. We can finally see the light at the end of this homestudy tunnel. We had been waiting (for over 6 months) for one piece of paper, a certain background check, to be sent to our homestudy agency. They had requested it several times. Finally, after several phone calls it arrived. So now we make sure all our boxes are checked and get our original documents together and wait again.
Fall Birthday People
Next steps (hopefully), apostillizing the documents (they get stamped as "fo'real" legal papers), USA approval, and extreme grant writing. (Plus holidays).
In more personal news:
Over half the family had birthdays - Jorja, Autumn, Gene, Erin, Jacob, and Elijah.
And the biggest news (drum roll) after a blur of preparations and bridal showers,
Ava and Stephen tied the knot!
It was beautiful. They are beautiful.
The only thing we wish was different (okay, they only big thing) was that the two new children could have already been here.
Here is a video of just a few of the pictures from the wedding events:
So that's the short version of the last some-odd months.
Today it has been one year, one month and ten days since we first opened out hearts and homes to two wonderful, beautiful, smart, sweet, funny, energetic young teens. Orphans who want a family.
Pray things hurry along from here and provision is made for all expenses with the least amount of stress.
Pray for Gene and I. God is refining us, our household, our finances, and our marriage.
And pray for our two "heart children" who are also waiting - they are ready to come home! Pray God would protect them and redeem this time and place people in their lives to shine His love to them.
We came across this article (linked here) stating that, as
PERSONHOOD Alliance said, “GoFundMe has just independently launched its own megafund to
support the National Network of Abortion Funds, Planned Parenthood Federation
of America, Planned Parenthood Action Fund, the American Civil Liberties Union,
and the ACLU Foundation. Donor money will be split among the 5 organizations to
pay for legal challenges to abortion laws, lobbying for abortion-on-demand in
Congress, and the actual killing of pre-born children.”
This us such sad news. We are extremely pro-life (I lead a
local pro-life group). So, we have chosen to delete our GoFundMe account
completely and remove all links.
Thankfully we have already been approved to have an AbbaFund page and PayPal for online giving.
All our current adoption fundraisers are linked on the side
(in web view, I don’t know where to find them in mobile view, but if you scroll
down on your mobile device you can change views).
We’ve also launched a NEW t-shirt campaign with pretty
summer colors and TANK TOPS to help keep folks cool on the long hot summer
days! You can find these trendy little pretties https://www.bonfire.com/becoming-twelve/
It may not be to late to book a trip using our Airbnb link. We aren't sure if that link still works to save you $$$ and earn us funds we can use towards our stay in Kiev.
We were approved for the Abba Fund last week! This is very
exciting!
Those lovely folks who wish to give a tax-deductible
donation can do that through the Abba Fund.
AND – I love that I don’t have to touch the money – I just
tell the Abba Fund people where to send it. This can help pay for any adoption
related expense. They will send funds directly to our agency or a travel agent…
or wherever to cover the cost.
They even take donations of cars, assets, gift cards, or
other (whatever that is).
We also love their statement of beliefs and faith. They are “grounded
in helping orphans – often referred to as the “fatherless” in Scripture. [They]
believe the best environment for an orphaned child is to be cared for in a
loving, nurturing Christ-centered family environment where they will not only
experience the love of Jesus Christ, but be introduced to the person of Jesus
Christ … and hopefully trust in Him so that they will be adopted into Abba,
Father’s family through salvation.”
No!!! Don’t do that! Especially if your local! Let go! See
where you can help!
You can help by simply liking and sharing a Facebook or Instagram
post, committing to pray, give, or get really wild and jump in with both feet
and walk (run, skip, hop, roll, drag along) beside us (literally)!
It all helps!
Here’s the big list of what we are working on right now to help fund this adoption.
Candy
& Lemonade Stand
Lavonia
Festival – Saturday, May 4th, 9am-4pm
Carnesville
Festival – Saturday, May 11th, 10am-3pm
Hosted
by the 4 younger siblings
Car
Wash
At
Carter’s Kitchen & Barry Hose and Hydraulics, Lavonia
A link is being set to give via the Abba Fund grant. This
would allow donors to give a tax-deductible donation of money, vehicle, assets,
gift card, and other contributions. These funds create a grant which is paid
out to our agency, attorney, travel agent, or others who assist in the adoption
process.
As soon as it’s up and going we’ll let you know! Edit: The Abba Fund is live! Linked Here.
Change
Drive
We are in the process of collecting peanut butter jars
or similar containers to use for a change collection drive later this year
(perhaps late summer). Every cent counts!
Got questions? So do we! But we're happy to answer any we can in the comments below. Perhaps you'll spawn an entire post!
Our goal for the adoption is between $35,000-$40,000. That's seems pretty overwhelming. But we are reminded everyday that the best way to eat an elephant is one bite at a time. And chew.
We have another teen driver. Our Lora passed her written exam on her first try. However, driving on the road - not just in the yard, proved more difficult than she expected. But practice makes better. 
