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
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Showing posts with label older child adoption. Show all posts
Showing posts with label older child adoption. Show all posts
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
This means that in Ukraine we are "registered as candidates for adoptive parents" - WOOHOO! This is a HUGE step in the right directions! Travel between our two nations is aaaaahhhhh.... possibly opening back up soon.... perhaps VERY soon.... In other news: We parents had a wonderful anniversary - ALONE!
Love Birds
And then celebrated our Familversay with a cookout with our brood and some grand-folks.
this is a BAD recreation of my favorite picture - I still love my little weirdos -
A majority of us went to visit the Alabama relations and celebrate Baby Erin's First Birthday! She is the sweetest! And a total ham for a camera...
Baby Erin & Aunt Erin
My minions with their GREAT Uncle John
me w/my Aunt Carolyn and my Mama
Continue to pray for Andrii. He was supposed to be done with his radiation treatment but didn't pass all his blood test and had to put off several treatments. Hopefully he will finish soon and get a break. He seems to be in good spirits and messages us often.
Anastasia seems to be doing well and having fun hanging out with her friends. We don't get as many messages from her. Makes them all the more precious!
And I'm wearing myself out doing my own little happy dance over our approval!
So here's a Happy Dance song so you can celebrate this adoption milestone with us.
Mother’s Day May 10th! That’s only 3 weeks away! We’ve got a limited stock of birds left and for TODAY ONLY* we are cutting prices in half!!!! Regularly they are $20 each or 2 for $30 But today only you can get them for $10 each or 2 for $20 AND if you purchase 2 or more (shipped to the same address) you get FREE SHIPPING!!!! We are still working to Fly Home a new son and daughter from Ukraine! Help us get that much closer. There are plenty of both Hummingbirds and the little Jay on Praise Him! Praise Him! but very limited stock of Cardinals and Blue Jays. Get them quick! Order now at this link and pay via PayPal and we will get them in the mail tomorrow (Monday 4/20/2020). We'll ship directly to you or your mother! Let us know in the Mailing address spot on the order form.
Our friend far away visited with the children today and sent the following message and pictures - the sign thanks World Children’s Hosting for raising the funds for important parts of Andrii’s medical care and testing.
Hello everyone, how are you? I hope you and your families are in order? I inform you that today I managed to visit Andrei, the other day he completed the fourth course of chemotherapy, he was very weak lately and felt weak, a few days ago Andrei began to eat a little better and go out for a walk, since now Ukraine was quarantined to visit medical, child care facilities and nursing homes, I was forced to buy a protective suit from biochemical protection and only in a suit I was allowed to visit Andrey, for about one hour we walked slowly around the territory Denia with Andrei and his sister Anastasia, we talked a lot about life, talked a lot about the future adoption process, I answered them all the questions, we also discussed the school, their grandmother, friends, they also remembered the Browns family and the USA, we also talked about politics, about coronavirus, in a word Andrei talked a lot and Anastasia also got a little involved in our conversation! We had a wonderful time together, they miss you very much, and they are waiting for you to come to adopt them, they just were very shy and it was not easy to talk to them. I brought them presents - a lot of various healthy fruits, as well as some delicious sweets. Now the main task for Andrey is to eat well and gain some weight, and it is also important that his blood tests improve, since from March 25 his attending oncologist plans to start radiation therapy, which is designed for 50 days. Therefore, I ask you to continue to pray for Andrew! Andrei and Anastasia really hope that this nightmare with coronavirus will end soon and you will be able to come to them as soon as possible.
Great generosity has covered the expenses of MRI's, nursing care, daily markers (testing), which are not covered by the state medical funds. There will probably be another fundraiser to cover Andrii’s care and tests for his upcoming radiation treatment. I'll update and share on Facebook when it's set up.
EDIT: Here's the fundraising set up by Sabrina of WCH on Facebook for his medical care
I LOVE Hymns! I LOVE birds! So this beautiful opportunity we have been given is right up my alley!
An amazing artist and adoptive mother, Cady Driver, is allowing us the opportunity to fund raise with her gorgeous artwork to help us "Fly Home" our new children. These are high quality professional prints made from original art that she painted on antique hymnal pages. They will fit an 8x10 frame or opening. We can deliver these locally, or ship them!
We chose five of our favorites to offer as a fundraiser to help us get these two new kids home from Ukraine, and we hope that you love them! We are currently taking pre-orders to help us figure out the number of prints that we will need to order. We are asking $20 (or $15 if you buy 2 or more), plus shipping if needed, per print.
These would make great gifts for Easter, Mother's Day, Anniversaries, and Birthdays coming up this Spring. Or perhaps you could get a big jump start on your Christmas shopping! We will also be drawing the names of a few people who SHARE this post via social media or email or to your own blog (leave a link!), to receive a free print of your choice! So, please share and comment how you shared so that we can keep track! EDIT: Our first winner was chosen on March 6th - Congratulations Grace A. We'll draw again at the beginning of April so keep sharing! And don't forget to comment!
We are so thankful to Cady for this incredible blessing! You can find out more about Cady on her website here and Instagram page here or Facebook here. Click Here for the Link to PreOrder - or copy and paste the link below https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScthKqTeuaMlIT8HxCGk9WNmgAH6tSnzGUEo4rz7ukwHx15Jw/viewform?usp=sf_link
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! π
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.
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!
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).
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).
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."
Update: We had a great time at the bazaar and artisan market this past weekend! Its always fun to meet your neighbors (some are more interesting than others) ;)
Jorja is a natural sales lady! I was so glad to have her help me at the Artisan Market. And Kelly, who hosted the event at The Old Corner Hardware Store, was a wonderful hostess! Thank you Janna McCollum of Ruby Jewel Designs for generously allowing us this opportunity.
Gene had a great time with Ava, Autumn, & Lora. Thanks so much to Tammy at Hart Life for allowing us a space. (Did you notice that the tablecloths are the colors of the Ukrainian flag?)
The FUNdraising continues in the upcoming post! Stay tuned!
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 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. 
