Where to start? First of all, our home study is done! Our USCIS application went into the mail today (basically, that form is asking the US government for permission to bring Kellin into the country). Now we wait for our appointment to get our fingerprints done (again), and then once those are done, we wait for our approval. Hopefully within a couple months.
Our daughter has now handed out about 20 of her "Koins 4 Kellin" containers and has received three of them back so far. She counted the coins from those three containers today (including a 10-dollar bill someone stuck into the container also) and got $49.81! From THREE little containers! That's an average of $13 dollars per container (not including that extra $10). Wow!
We put our first T-shirt order in today for 40 shirts! 40 people who have donated at least $20 (and many people donated more than that) to our adoption fund. I am blown away by the generosity of people! We will put in another order if anyone out there still wants one, so just let us know.
We also received a donation for $1000 yesterday! What a huge boost to our fund!
Friday, May 30, 2014
Tuesday, May 27, 2014
Family Life
I thought I would share a little bit about what we have been up to recently.
Our son and daughter's school have a word parade each year. This year our son decided to use the word "protector" and our daughter, "brilliant". Here are some images of their costumes.
They each came up with their own ideas of what they wanted their costumes to be and I helped them with the construction.
With the weather finally being spring-like, or maybe it just skipped right on into summer, we have been out and about much more frequently. Whether it is taking the dog for a walk, playing in the backyard or going to the neighborhood park, it is nice getting out into the fresh air. Our youngest really enjoys being outside. Much more than the other two ever have been, it is really hard to get him to come in when it is time.
With each activity we do, we are left wondering, what will this be like with Kellin around? When we were at the state park we all closed our eyes and asked, what would Kellin experience? What would he hear? What would he feel? It is so hard to wait to have him join the family!
Our son and daughter's school have a word parade each year. This year our son decided to use the word "protector" and our daughter, "brilliant". Here are some images of their costumes. They each came up with their own ideas of what they wanted their costumes to be and I helped them with the construction.
With the weather finally being spring-like, or maybe it just skipped right on into summer, we have been out and about much more frequently. Whether it is taking the dog for a walk, playing in the backyard or going to the neighborhood park, it is nice getting out into the fresh air. Our youngest really enjoys being outside. Much more than the other two ever have been, it is really hard to get him to come in when it is time.
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| Over the "bottomless pit" |
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| At the park with Grandma |
Monday, May 26, 2014
SO CLOSE to Finished Home Study
We received the home study draft from our social worker today! We reviewed it for accuracy, so now our adoption agency needs to check it, and then it should be done!
Fundraiser Update: Our daughter is calling her fundraiser "Koins 4 Kellin" and she has collected and decorated many small containers for people to fill with spare change. She took 12 of them to church yesterday, and even though there weren't too many people there (Memorial Day weekend), all 12 of them were taken within a few minutes. She is working on making a bunch more. We are hopeful that we will get at least the majority of them back, hopefully filled with coins!
Also, remember we are selling T-shirts! Yes, they are running T-shirts, but you DON'T have to be a runner to buy one. They were designed by Eric and are specific to our adoption.
Fundraiser Update: Our daughter is calling her fundraiser "Koins 4 Kellin" and she has collected and decorated many small containers for people to fill with spare change. She took 12 of them to church yesterday, and even though there weren't too many people there (Memorial Day weekend), all 12 of them were taken within a few minutes. She is working on making a bunch more. We are hopeful that we will get at least the majority of them back, hopefully filled with coins!
Also, remember we are selling T-shirts! Yes, they are running T-shirts, but you DON'T have to be a runner to buy one. They were designed by Eric and are specific to our adoption.
Saturday, May 24, 2014
Update and a Little About Us
Update on our adoption - We have all of our forms in for the home study, our background checks came back, and so the only thing left is for our social worker to write up the final report. So close! Once that is done, we will send in the USCIS form and wait for our approval from the US government.
Fundraising - Our nine-year-old daughter has started her own fundraiser. She is collecting and decorating a variety of different containers and asking people to take them home and fill them with spare change. If anyone wants one, let us know! Or just grab any container you have and throw some coins in. It all helps! We are still selling T-shirts (check out the link at the top of the page) and are planning a couple other events. Our Reece's Rainbow family sponsorship page is now active (see that link at the top also), and $116 has been donated just since yesterday. Wow! We are still looking for other fundraising suggestions, so please share if you have any ideas.
For those of you out there that may not know us personally - a little about our family. Eric and I are both teachers - Eric teaches high school science and I am an early childhood special education teacher. We have three children - a nine-year-old daughter, a six-year-old son, and a two-year-old son. Our youngest son and Kellin are just two months apart in age, so we hope they will be playmates! None of our children have special needs, but our daughter was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes last summer, so we have a little experience dealing with medical issues and learning to change our lifestyle to accommodate her needs. We know that Kellin's needs will be greater and we are looking forward to loving him and helping him to reach his potential!!
Fundraising - Our nine-year-old daughter has started her own fundraiser. She is collecting and decorating a variety of different containers and asking people to take them home and fill them with spare change. If anyone wants one, let us know! Or just grab any container you have and throw some coins in. It all helps! We are still selling T-shirts (check out the link at the top of the page) and are planning a couple other events. Our Reece's Rainbow family sponsorship page is now active (see that link at the top also), and $116 has been donated just since yesterday. Wow! We are still looking for other fundraising suggestions, so please share if you have any ideas.
For those of you out there that may not know us personally - a little about our family. Eric and I are both teachers - Eric teaches high school science and I am an early childhood special education teacher. We have three children - a nine-year-old daughter, a six-year-old son, and a two-year-old son. Our youngest son and Kellin are just two months apart in age, so we hope they will be playmates! None of our children have special needs, but our daughter was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes last summer, so we have a little experience dealing with medical issues and learning to change our lifestyle to accommodate her needs. We know that Kellin's needs will be greater and we are looking forward to loving him and helping him to reach his potential!!
Wednesday, May 21, 2014
Funds and Expenses
Kathleen and I feel that it is important if we are doing fundraising for our adoption of Kellin that we are very transparent with where the money is going to. We will do our best to keep those of you helping out, and following along with where we are at.
To that end over on the side of the blog you will find two things:
The first is a thermometer of where we are at compared to the estimated $30,000 in costs. This dollar amount is a total of how much we have spent out of pocket so far, how much we have in our adoption checking account and how much Kellin's account on Reece's Rainbow is up to.
The second is a current total of what we have spent, and then a scrolling list of all the different expense that have accrued so far. The only thing I've left off is really minor things like postage and the gas to say go into town to get something notarized.
So far the bulk of the funds has come from our own bank accounts (as it should). We also have about $250 in the total from the garage sale and a little over $400 for what is in Kellin's account at Reece's Rainbow so far. Some other fundraisers we have planned for the future:
To that end over on the side of the blog you will find two things:
The first is a thermometer of where we are at compared to the estimated $30,000 in costs. This dollar amount is a total of how much we have spent out of pocket so far, how much we have in our adoption checking account and how much Kellin's account on Reece's Rainbow is up to.
The second is a current total of what we have spent, and then a scrolling list of all the different expense that have accrued so far. The only thing I've left off is really minor things like postage and the gas to say go into town to get something notarized.
So far the bulk of the funds has come from our own bank accounts (as it should). We also have about $250 in the total from the garage sale and a little over $400 for what is in Kellin's account at Reece's Rainbow so far. Some other fundraisers we have planned for the future:
- The Racing 2 Kellin Challenge - Participants get a t-shirt and a reason to get out and exercise. We encourage everyone to get pledges from others as well, but you don't have to.
- A couple of Pizza Ranch nights - dates TBD
- Another garage sale - a few people had mentioned they wanted to help with donations of items to our garage sale, and we didn't give people enough notice.
Saturday, May 17, 2014
The Beginning
Welcome to our Adoption Journey!
About 1 month ago we came across Kellin on Reece's Rainbow and immediately knew that this was our son! We have jumped into the paperwork and are working as quickly as possible to get it all done. This along with keeping up with the family, work and of course the adoption training.
A little about Kellin that we have learned so far:
Kellin was born blind. He was found abandoned by the side of the road when he was about 3 days old. At that time he was taken to an orphanage. At about 9 months of he was fortunate enough to be moved into a foster home that specializes in caring for blind and visually impaired children. He made amazing progress while there.
When Kellin was about 17 months old, he was suddenly recalled to the orphanage. Since being back in the orphanage, he has lost weight and regressed in skills. According to the most recent update, he can sit on his own, and he is working on standing. He seems to understand when spoken to, but does not speak. He does not seem to like to be touched. We are not sure if that is meant to be by other children or by the caregivers.
Along with the paperwork, we have also begun to look at how we will be financing bringing Kellin home. We feel that we can save enough to cover half of the adoption expenses. We are looking to get some fundraisers put together to help offset those costs. Stay tuned for more details on those!
We already feel that we have received a lot of moral support from not only our family and friends, but Kellin also seems to have many supporters of his own out on the web.
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| This is the only recent picture we have. |
A little about Kellin that we have learned so far:
Kellin was born blind. He was found abandoned by the side of the road when he was about 3 days old. At that time he was taken to an orphanage. At about 9 months of he was fortunate enough to be moved into a foster home that specializes in caring for blind and visually impaired children. He made amazing progress while there.
When Kellin was about 17 months old, he was suddenly recalled to the orphanage. Since being back in the orphanage, he has lost weight and regressed in skills. According to the most recent update, he can sit on his own, and he is working on standing. He seems to understand when spoken to, but does not speak. He does not seem to like to be touched. We are not sure if that is meant to be by other children or by the caregivers.
Along with the paperwork, we have also begun to look at how we will be financing bringing Kellin home. We feel that we can save enough to cover half of the adoption expenses. We are looking to get some fundraisers put together to help offset those costs. Stay tuned for more details on those!
We already feel that we have received a lot of moral support from not only our family and friends, but Kellin also seems to have many supporters of his own out on the web.
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