How are the Cows?

As I was contemplating this post I was reminded of two things:

1) I can find no evidence of our Father speaking to people in cow (although He did "open the mouth of the donkey" - Numbers 22:28 - I wonder who was more surprised, Balaam, or that pitiful donkey. Bless her heart.)

2) A fun song. "The Worship Song Song," which pokes fun at modern "church music." One lyric is "here's another out of context verse about hope!" It makes me laugh. 

And number 3 (cause I just thought of one more), some of you may just be joining this long blogerific adoption journey and have no idea we had cows. 

You're like, "what cows?" 

So to clarify, we do NOT have cows. (yet) 
Cows have been rather.... symbolic...in this and other financially daunting ventures in my life. You can read all about that in another post here. And what cows and God and money have to do with each other - at least in my mind. Simple as it is. 

So here's the story, then the breakdown.

Along with all the normal mama things I think about all the time, all things adoption are constantly on my mind as well. And I've been noticing cow, goat, and sheep pastures for many months. MANY months. I find them peaceful, enchanting, and greatly encouraging. And "the cattle on a thousand hills," and God's promises and faithfulness are brought quickly to mind. 

Last weekend a majority of the children joined me for our annual Mother's Day outing. And of course we passed many pastures. But the one that most stood out as we drove was a huge pasture of beautiful green, rolling hills, some big shade tress and miles of fancy fence. But where were all the livestock?

These are not the actual cows we saw, just some world wide
web cows from an online English news paper I know nothing
about. They're just cute.

We went around curves and over hills. The pasture was huge! 
The grass wasn't very tall. There had to be some animal somewhere. 

Then, just before the pretty fence ended all the cows were gathered near a gate. 
And my little heart said, "Oh, He's gathering them together." 

As much as I'd like to know exactly (everything) how all this adoption stuff will pan out, it is enough to know Who does. And that He hasn't forgotten. He's just out gathering cows.

So as we wait we trust. 

And blog. 

And transfer records to google sheets so we can share all the nitty gritty boring bits with the curious, nosy, concerned, or math snobs. Plus, we've asked on repeat for HELP! So we should be clear about what we need help with. (Total transparency) And this will be a good place to send folks.

As I mentioned in the last post these helpful spread sheets are posted on the right hand side of the blog home screen (of your on a PC) under the heading "Pages." 
On a phone you'll find a drop down search bar under the header. 
Gosh! That's clear as mud! (Took my mother several minutes on the phone with me to find it on her computer - sigh) So I'll just leave them linked below as well.

So, to sum up, the cows are coming. We don't know how they'll get here. But we don't own them anyway. 

Love ya!

PS - no word from the far off kids this week. Keep praying for good health and opened borders.

Google Sheets
Expected Ukrainian Adoptions Fees - this is the simplified version of the estimated need. Where there is a variable or range (like travel or mailing cost) we estimated in the middle. 
Adoption Expenses - this is everything that has actually been paid to date. All the things (minus fundraisers - those are shared as we go)
Adoption Grants - this is my personal spreed sheet of where we have applied or plan to apply soon. (I have no idea why it's green or how to fix it - I'm very new to all the google doc things). This has already proven helpful to some adopting friends.

Goals (or What now?)

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 /ˈdôsēˌā,ˈdäsēˌā/ (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):

https://www.adoptfamilyconnections.org/

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-$27680 Estimated 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!

So now what?

Since the "big facebook fundraiser" in December I've had several people ask if we can just go get the kids now, why aren't we over there already, what are we waiting for? So I thought we should clarify a few things (plus a few pictures at the bottom of what we were doing 1 year ago today).

First, a $5000 fundraiser is HUGE and so very helpful, and we are so grateful to all who gave to meet that goal so quickly! The total expected cost of the adoption is about $47,000. With what we've raised (and paid out so far) we still have a long way to go.  
So... look for upcoming fundraisers - we've got ideas and willing to hear any others and always happy for helpers! Or give here or here or directly to our agency here - be sure to specify on each that it is for the HE Brown family adoption.

Second, we have the added expense of in-country medical bills. Part of that $5000 is for that. And we aren't counting our eggs till they are in the basket. Facebook takes about a month-ish to pay out. And we aren't sure how it will be split. 

Third, there's LOTS of red tape. And all the tape has fees attached.

So here are the next steps. That red tape. Our prayer is for favor with government officials and speed. (This next part is pretty boring... and clear as mud. Sorry. You can totally stop reading now and do something fun.)

Homestudy Agency Approval
Now that the homestudy is finished our adoption agency, working with our homestudy provider and a facilitator in Ukraine, attempt to make it as near perfect as they can. Wording matters.  This normally takes 4 weeks - but they know the situation and are working to make it happen somewhat faster (however the Christmas holidays slow things down). 

USCIS
Next we get the homestudy and some other official things and send it all to US immigration (INS/USCIS) to get approval to make two Ukrainians American citizens. We, all adults in the home, will have to get FBI fingerprinting done at an FBI office. USCIS approval is averaging about an 8 week wait. We hope that our case will miraculously move FAST - but we've got the down-low on moving this along too. 

Dossier
Then we compile a dossier (a pile of all the things plus some). This will require us to update things like our medical evaluations and a few other things. This is then gone over with a fine tooth comb, we have it all apostilled (which is fancier and more official than having them notarized) then send the whole shebang to Ukraine.

SDA
Ukraine facilitators have the dossier translated and submitted to those who decide to accept or deny us or ask for more information (though I can't imagine what we haven't divulged already). "They" decide if they want to let us have their young citizens and invite us to come to an appointment (SDA) to "pick out" some children. At this point we travel. (Ukraine is really a "blind adoption state" which means there's a slim chance we won't get them because you can't pick them til this appointment - though normally you get who you want. That's also why I must be careful to say publicly "hope to adopt them" rather than "will adopt them"). This timing will depend much on Ukraine holidays and the whim of whoever receives our dossier. But facilitators are in country to help the process along.

Court and Custody
Then they (Ukraine) set a court date (often at minimum 2 week after SDA), then after court and the release of the decree you wait 30 days to take custody. However, because of the situation we can ask for waivers so that we may possibly take custody immediately.

Coming Home
Once in our custody we assume all legal and medical in country and have to take the kids to medical and VISA appointments with the US embassy to get to bring them home. It may take several days or several weeks before we can come home. 

Fees 
And each step has fees. Lots of fees. And those fees and travel expenses are the cost of the adoption.
I've said before and I'm sure I'll keep saying it because I continue to be amazed, though the financial expense is overwhelming to our finite minds God is providing for each step. We currently have just enough for the USCIS and FBI set aside and see the funds for the parts slowing gathering. 
We felt very strongly at the beginning of this process to not use loans but try our best to fund raise and see what God would do through His people (and a few who don't claim Him but love what we are doing and feel lead to give). HE gets all the glory! 

Come and see what God has done:

he is awesome in his deeds toward the children of man.

Psalm 66:5

We love talking about our children, those here and those to come... please feel free to comment any questions you might have, we'll try our best to answer them. Plus it gives us something to do while we wait. 

Love ya!

P.S.
This day last year was a fun adventure to Babyland General Hospital, Home of the Cabbage Patch Kids - which was really hard to translate. But the magic of seeing mother cabbage "give birth" explained everything. (we were missing Elijah). 

Cattle Sales

Another sweet cousin is trying to plan an adoption fundraiser for us and asked for information and a breakdown of the cost of the adoption to present to her church and local businesses. 

The total funds needed is an overwhelming amount. 

But we determined at the beginning, with God's help, to eat this big elephant one little bite at a time. And thus far, God has been faithful to supply. He is always faithful.

The first week of December we needed to send the agency $1300, we were a little short, so we sent what we could. And we were pretty spent, totally out of ideas for quickly raising more. Then the phone rang. By the weekend we had two more small fundraisers to do. The difference was made up. The $1300 was covered, with change left for the ongoing fundraisers (headbands, wreaths, and such).

Cow painting by Mary Beadles - given to Jorja last week at a fundraiser

I've said for a long time (at least 14 years), and through many financial hard spots (ours and others), "God owns the cattle on a thousand hills. Surely He can keep the lights on." (As a single mom HE kept the lights on - miracle money in the mail box - that's another story).***

Earlier this year, driving to some adoption/trauma training, I passed some peaceful rolling farmland. Hills full cows to my right, a multitude of sheep to my left. And I was reminded of how God could keep the lights on. It reassured me to keep moving forward and pursuing these kids. 

This week, I passed a pasture with just a few cows and immediately thought, "Oh look, He sold some cows." 

I woke up Friday, to the official diagnosis for Andrii, "stage four malignant brain tumor with metastasis in the spinal cord." (Talk about adding wood to the fire!)

We had about $200 in the Abba Fund and $136 in the bag (my fancy way of keeping adoption funds separate is a big ziplock bag - don't be jealous of my organizational skills). And I shared publically about Andrii. 

Within hours we were overwhelmed with love and support and the way people who don't know him or us are being God's hands and feet. 

Enabling our desire to bring them home. 

Helping the orphans.

Being used to set the lonely in family.

Gathering those cow auction profits. 

Oh how He loves us! All of us. All 12. 

(And Stephen too - which makes 13, but I'm not changing the name of the blog). 

I'll stop typing now. 

*curtsy*

*** This is NOT a plug for the prosperity gospel. It is our little finite minds and hearts attempt to remember to trust a totally trustworthy, infinite, eternal, creative, doer of the impossible, God and Kimg of the entire universe to care for us. We are but sinful dust. We are totally undeserving of any good. Yet He cares for us. He carries us. He loves lavishly. 
All glory and praise and honor belong to Him. 

Desire

If desire were dollars or wings we'd be in Ukraine.

We desperately need prayer. Support - of all kinds.

Last week we found out that "our boy" had a brain tumor. Today we have been told that he has been in the children's hospital for 4 days, today he was officially diagnosed with "stage four malignant brain tumor with metastasis in the spinal cord." He has begun chemo. They believe it is inoperable.

We don't even understand all those words. We are researching each one. We have more questions than we can give voice to.

Oh to be by his bedside, holding his hand.... calling him "mine."

We cannot play the "what if?" game.
Only the "right now."
And right now... he should have a Mama and Daddy and family with him, comforting him, encouraging him...

And "our girl"... what must she be thinking? She's not as fluent in English as he is and communication is limited. She needs a Mama and Daddy and family with her, lots of hugs, encouragement, comfort, understanding....

They need love. And we want so badly to lavish them with so much love...

We are so close. We have "official" people there now advocating for him. For them. For us.

Funding continues to be a seemingly insurmountable hurdle. But God....

He who has call you is faithful, 
HE WILL SURELY DO IT.

1 Thessalonians 5:24

In the spirit of total transparency, thus far we have paid in over $5000 in adoption fees, the total estimated expenses is at least $43,000. So we just need $38,000 more (and we laugh and pray and fund raise and strategize and pray and trust God who loves them even more - because that number seems ridiculous - and more than many people make in a year).

So we ask, HELP! Help us go get them quickly!

We've got fundraisers in the works. See this post. 
We've got a tax deductible place to give through the Abba Fund.
We've got direct giving via PayPal.
We are preparing for change drives in churches and groups and available to speak anytime in person or online.
We've got ideas and need help getting it all to work.

Update: The agency we hosted through is hosting a fundraiser and it’s amazing! See it here.

Thoughts swirl and hearts hurt.

Give justice to the weak and the fatherless; 
maintain the right of the afflicted and the destitute.

Psalm 82:3

As I'm writing our younger 4 children came in just now and offered to give up any Christmas presents - we just all want them HOME. Help us bring them home. Help us call them son and daughter.

This is the picture of those beautiful children we hosted. Those children we hope to make our own.
When we told them we wanted to adopt them, he said, "Both? or just her?"
"Both child. We want you both."

Fear not, for I have redeemed you;

I have called you by name, you are mine.

Isaiah 43:1

We be rolling (coins)

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).

All the things I haven't said

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. 

Love ya!

"Is anything to hard for the Lord?" 

Genesis 18:14a

 

Pretty Shirts!

Our shirts are awesome!

They came in the mail earlier this week from Bonfire and we had the opportunity to wear them to meet up with another couple from church who poured into us and encouraged us in our walk with God and our parenting.

The question was asked, “With all that’s going on in your life and home and family, is now really a good time to adopt and bring more children?”

The honest answer is, “No.”

It will never be a good time to adopt. There will always be life issues to deal with. There will never be enough money. There will always be doubts.

I’ve always giggled when I hear young couples say that they are waiting till they are ready (whatever their version of “ready” means) to have a baby. At that rate, they will NEVER be ready.

You can’t expect the unexpected.

But you can know the God of the impossible.

One of my "yes" verses.

We had a small group of prayer warriors fighting with us before we announced to the world our intention to adopt these big babies. We were warned several times, verbally and through things we read, that Satan hates families. He will be looking for every way possible to attack. If we didn’t see evidence of spiritual warfare before we will now. And we have repeatedly seen evidence in that he’s trying to “get to us.” Through our finances, through medical issues (minor), through attitudes, through doubts…. But God (my favorite words!)

But God has been bigger. Bigger than our doubts. Bigger than our finances. Bigger than these misbehaviors and childish and teenish and tired adultish attitudes. He proves Himself over and over.

He continues to move this along.

You know what the biggest hindrance is?

Me.

I forget. I overlook. I say to much or to little. (and that’s just this week)

But God is long-suffering (LLLOOONNNNGGGGGG-suffering!) towards me. This is a thing He is doing despite my imperfections. 

Maybe because of my imperfections. (I can be pretty impossible).

Cause it’s not about me.

It’s about Him.

A picture share on facebook by a certain place
that happens to have some certain beautiful children in it.

Current Fundraisers

Hold on to your seat!

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 4^th, 9am-4pm

Carnesville Festival – Saturday, May 11^th, 10am-3pm

Hosted by the 4 younger siblings

Car Wash

At Carter’s Kitchen & Barry Hose and Hydraulics, Lavonia

Saturday, May 4^th, 11am-3pm

Hosted by the 4 oldest siblings

Adoption T-shirts                                     

www.bonfire.com/ukrainian-adoption/

Current campaign runs through May 12

Looking to get your own shirts made? Use this link and we get a bonus!

Antiquities Portraits

Purchase a $10 certificated for an 8x10 portrait of your child(ren).

Portrait Sitting Date: Saturday, June 22, 10am-8pm

Location TBA (somewhere in Franklin County, Ga)

 You and also earn extra photos by helping to sale the portrait coupons - AND whoever sales the most wins a prize from us!!!

Email edbrown77@yahoo.com 

if your interested.

Abba Fund

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!

PayPal

paypal.me/edbrown77

GoFundMe

www.gofundme.com/Becoming12

Illustration by William Warren

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.