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
Yesterday, I was sent 1 Samuel 12:16 and today we have LOTS of good news to share! 🤩
First, wonderful news about Andrii!
He saw a physiologist for 3 days and is feeling much better. He’s also eating “normal food in pieces” and likes the hospital cafe and enjoys “cheesecake fries” (I have no idea what that is but can’t wait to eat it with him!)
“His girls” (nurses) report that he is more relaxed.
He had an MRI on Friday, so we are waiting on those results.
But the best news is for a few days he got to go back to the center where he and Anastasia live!
(The picture is from today!)
To date, all of his uncovered medical needs have been covered by donations! 😍
Second, we had a great call with our adoption agency guy, Dan, yesterday evening. He is started on our dossier and we should have something dossier related to work on by Wednesday.
He also mentioned another place we can request the process be expedited! Which is great!
But that also means we need these funds ASAP!
Which brings me to the third and fourth pieces of good news.
3. To date we have applied for 6 grants. Two more to go out Monday and one more ready but waiting on a letter from our social worker (homestudy gal).
And number 4, if you know us on Facebook you may remember the beautiful birds on hymns fundraiser our friends the Cogan family was doing. Yes? No? Well, as of this morning that is being set up and we should have it ready to go soon. It’s really beautiful! And with Valentines, Easter and Mother’s Day coming up will hopefully do very well.
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):
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!
GOOD NEWS!!!! After MONTHS and MONTHS of waiting the HOMESTUDY is FINALLY DONE!!!! APPROVED. SIGNED. NOTARIZED. It's being FedEx'd to us tonight. The agency is supposed to sent us an approval letter, then we can send a bundle of forms (that I've already filled out in expectation) and evidence to USCIS (immigration/Dept of Homeland Security). Ideally we can overnight it on Friday, but Monday by the latest. It will take them about 10 days to official receive it - then we can ask for it to be expedited. While we wait we can work on lots of other fun (not fun) things. Like a pile of papers to send to Ukraine and all the running around and redoing that will be. And applying for grants. We will be BUSY! And that is good. Because I need to feel like we are doing something to get us closer to bringing them home. I'll leave you with this encouragement I got this morning - not my normal worship song. God is the Way maker, Miracle worker, Promise keeper, Light in the darkness.... He is making a way, He can work a Miracle, He always keeps His promise, and He is leading the way in His time. It's His plan. We just get to be part of helping to carry it out.
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.
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).
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.
How many times have I said to myself just in the past few
days, “It’s all in God’s perfect timing. He has all the details in order. You
are NOT in control”?
A LOT!
We are still waiting on the septic to be fixed so we can pass
that portion of the homestudy.
I am not in control of that man who dig’s holes and lays pipes’
schedule.
I must get some fingerprinting redone.
I am not in control of how any of that works.
The Young Love Birds
Ava’s medical report was totally messed up at the doctor’s
office.
I am not in control of those people and their lack of
understanding.
We are in full-blow wedding planning crazy! And the budget
is…. There isn’t one. It’s a week by week adventure.
That is beyond my control. We only have so much. We can only plan and pay for what we are able
to week by week.
What am I in control of?
My attitude. I can enjoy the ever-changing journey. I can
decide this is an exciting adventure and love every minute (it’s only a season).
I can be patient. I can treat people with kindness (even when
they make me wait more).
I can be a good steward of all we are given. I can keep
moving forward (with adoption fundraising, and paper collecting, and wedding
planning).
I can do my best at what I can and not sweat the rest.
I can KISS it all (Keep It Simple Stupid).
I can choose each day (multiple times) to trust God’s
perfect plan. (this one is the most important).
I can take care of me. Then I can take care of others (and
all the rest). I can stop in the middle of all the crazy and give myself a
pedicure or read a book or write a blog post (your welcome) or take a nap (or
all these as needed).
I can try to control me and my words and actions.
I’m out of control. But not really.
“The Lord isn’t really being slow about his promise, as some
people think. No, he is being patient for your sake. He does not want anyone to
be destroyed, but wants everyone to repent.”
2 Peter 3:9
Have
patience, have patience
Don't be in
such a hurry
When you get
impatient, you only start to worry
Remember,
remember that God is patient, too
And think of all the times when others have to wait for you
There’s only a few more (maybe 4?) more things to check off
our list to get done for this homestudy!
This week we finished the 10 hour Hague Adoption Training
(don’t tell anyone that it was mostly boring, somewhat outdated, and didn’t
take a whole 10 hours – BUT some of it was good and thought provoking and helpful
– I suppose that’s balance), we’ve gathered more documents, we’ve ordered more
trigger locks, that last old child is finally getting her medical report filled
out today!
A quite few minutes writing notes earlier this week which still need to be mailed
All that’s left is one more reference letter, the septic
letter (septic being repaired next week), the TB test, and one more certificate.
Next week we’ll be continuing writing thank you notes, finishing school lessons, getting a new transmission for the van, visiting a new baby
cousin (Lord willing!!!), putting together more fundraisers, and planning a wedding.
