If you are following along you will notice that our thermometer has jumped up substantially! Most of that is from extra money I earned this summer. The other part of it is from Kathleen diligently working to sell off some of the donated items left over from our large garage sale at the church.
We are very close to our goal of $35,000 now! We have 2 fund raisers left:
October 11th at Tropics in Janesville starting at 1:00pm. They are having an auction including many autographed items. Also Karaoke for a Cause!
October 20th at Pizza Ranch in Mankato. We will be busing tables all evening, we get all the tips for the night and a portion of the profits.
Hopefully you can come out for one or both to help put us up over the top!
Sunday, September 28, 2014
Monday, September 22, 2014
Olen!
Anybody remember this little guy?
Olen! He was our family's Angel Tree child last year! Angel Tree is a fundraiser that Reece's Rainbow puts together each Christmas season. Anyone can sign up to be a "Christmas Warrior" for a child listed on the Reece's Rainbow photolisting; when you do that, you are committing to advocating and fundraising for your child through the months of November and December. Last year, our family chose Olen. Olen turned a year old in May and has Down Syndrome. He lives in an orphanage in Eastern Europe. Last spring, a family committed to adopting him, and then when they arrived in his country, they discovered his paperwork was not ready and they were not able to complete his adoption. :( So he waited some more. However, another family has just committed to him and are now working to bring him home. Hooray!! I was also excited to see that his family lives in North Dakota - the state where I grew up and where we visit a few times a year to see family. It's amazing to think that Olen will be so close to us (relatively speaking, of course). It gives me hope that maybe, just maybe, someday, there's a chance we could actually meet him. Hey, I can dream, right?
His family's information is here: http://reecesrainbow.org/79929/sponsorstewart-2
Angel Tree sign-ups are going on now! If you are interested in signing up to advocate/fundraise for one of these children yourself this year, check out this link: http://reecesrainbow.org/christmaswarriorprogram
As far as our own adoption, there's really nothing new. We are on day 42 of our LOA wait, which means in about two weeks we can realistically start hoping, just a little, to receive our LOA. Not that it will necessarily come in two weeks, but by then it will be possible that it COULD come.
Fundraising continues to move ahead. We have another garage sale this weekend, another benefit on October 11th, and Pizza Ranch night on October 20th. As we are only about $5000 from our goal, we are hoping to be there after all these events are over. When you look at how far we have come, $5000 really doesn't seem like much, but it's still $5000!
On Sunday, I randomly decided I wanted to watch our video of Kellin. We have just the one video, about 30 seconds long, taken over a year and half ago. It shows Kellin laying on the floor making some noises, and then rolling to his side and starting to cry. That's it. I ended up watching it several times, and then Pooh (our two-year-old) came over and wanted to watch it too, so we watched three more times. Sigh. I SO long for the day that we will KNOW Kellin, not just as a handful of pictures, a 30-second video, and a few pages of medical/developmental information, but as a PERSON. What does he like? What doesn't he like? What does his voice sound like? How big is he now? What will it feel like to finally hold him?
Olen! He was our family's Angel Tree child last year! Angel Tree is a fundraiser that Reece's Rainbow puts together each Christmas season. Anyone can sign up to be a "Christmas Warrior" for a child listed on the Reece's Rainbow photolisting; when you do that, you are committing to advocating and fundraising for your child through the months of November and December. Last year, our family chose Olen. Olen turned a year old in May and has Down Syndrome. He lives in an orphanage in Eastern Europe. Last spring, a family committed to adopting him, and then when they arrived in his country, they discovered his paperwork was not ready and they were not able to complete his adoption. :( So he waited some more. However, another family has just committed to him and are now working to bring him home. Hooray!! I was also excited to see that his family lives in North Dakota - the state where I grew up and where we visit a few times a year to see family. It's amazing to think that Olen will be so close to us (relatively speaking, of course). It gives me hope that maybe, just maybe, someday, there's a chance we could actually meet him. Hey, I can dream, right?
His family's information is here: http://reecesrainbow.org/79929/sponsorstewart-2
Angel Tree sign-ups are going on now! If you are interested in signing up to advocate/fundraise for one of these children yourself this year, check out this link: http://reecesrainbow.org/christmaswarriorprogram
As far as our own adoption, there's really nothing new. We are on day 42 of our LOA wait, which means in about two weeks we can realistically start hoping, just a little, to receive our LOA. Not that it will necessarily come in two weeks, but by then it will be possible that it COULD come.
Fundraising continues to move ahead. We have another garage sale this weekend, another benefit on October 11th, and Pizza Ranch night on October 20th. As we are only about $5000 from our goal, we are hoping to be there after all these events are over. When you look at how far we have come, $5000 really doesn't seem like much, but it's still $5000!
On Sunday, I randomly decided I wanted to watch our video of Kellin. We have just the one video, about 30 seconds long, taken over a year and half ago. It shows Kellin laying on the floor making some noises, and then rolling to his side and starting to cry. That's it. I ended up watching it several times, and then Pooh (our two-year-old) came over and wanted to watch it too, so we watched three more times. Sigh. I SO long for the day that we will KNOW Kellin, not just as a handful of pictures, a 30-second video, and a few pages of medical/developmental information, but as a PERSON. What does he like? What doesn't he like? What does his voice sound like? How big is he now? What will it feel like to finally hold him?
Sunday, September 14, 2014
A Seed Is Only the Beginning
A the beginning of the summer our pastor handed out sunflower seeds to each of our children during a sermon. The message was about how amazing things start so small. Traditionally I think an acorn is used in the parable, but our pastor is wise and realized children don't have the patience to wait for an oak.As two of the sunflowers are now taller than me (one didn't get enough sun) it got me reflecting on the message. And yes, amazing things do start small. But I think part of that message is missing. Not everything that is the sunflower came from the seed. Only the idea of the sunflower comes from the seed. The rest comes from the soil, the rain, the sunlight.
This got me reflecting further. The idea to bring Kellin home was a small thing. And reach its fruition we need a lot of help. And just like a seed does not get all its help from just one place, neither have we. All the diverse help we have received, big and small, all go into making that one big accomplishment getting Kellin home!
From there, we can consider him an acorn, and wait patiently for the mighty oak that he will someday become!
Monday, September 8, 2014
Finances
Day 28 of LOA wait! That means we could be as much as halfway through our wait for the BIG approval from China! I am anxiously waiting for this for several reasons - one, because it means we are that much closer to our son; two, because it means we can more accurately predict our travel dates and start to make plans; and three, because we are going to try and get an update on our son and I can't WAIT for new pictures and information!!
I wanted to share an update on our finances for funding this adoption. If you look at the right side of our blog, you see our fundraising thermometer. The money "raised" includes both the amount of our own savings we have put into our fund (more than half of the money has come directly from us) and the amount that has been raised through fundraisers and donations. You'll see that we are almost at $30,000, meaning we are only a little more than $5000 away from our goal! This is amazing! The family sponsorship program box that is above our thermometer shows the amount of money that is currently in our Reece's Rainbow account. That $2000 is already counted in the thermometer, so it is not an "extra" $2000.
We still have some plans for raising the rest of the money needed. We have one more main fundraiser coming up on October 11th - a local restaurant that saw our story in the paper and called us to say they wanted to do a benefit, and they are even doing all the planning! Wow! The generosity and big hearts of people continue to overwhelm us. We are also planning one more garage sale the weekend of September 26th (our town is having citywide garage sales that weekend - this sale will be at our home) to try to sell the leftover things from our big garage sale in August. We have LOTS of infant/toddler clothes, books, toys, and kids' games, as well as a few miscellaneous items, if you live locally and want to stop by. Koins 4 Kellin is slowing down but our daughter is still receiving containers full of coins back occasionally. This fundraiser takes the award (so far) for the most money raised in a single fundraiser - over $2100! I never would have anticipated that this simple idea carried out by a nine-year-old would turn out to be the most successful - but it has! I am so proud of my daughter. We are hopefully doing a Pizza Ranch night in October (where we supply workers to help clear tables, and then we get a portion of sales/tips for the evening). And I am still exploring ways to use the origami birds, bracelets, and intricate pictures made and generously given to us by a friend from church.
Overall, our fundraising is in good shape, and we feel confident that by continuing to work hard, we will be able to come up with the remaining money needed. As always, donations are truly, sincerely appreciated! We are coming as fast as we can, Kellin!
I wanted to share an update on our finances for funding this adoption. If you look at the right side of our blog, you see our fundraising thermometer. The money "raised" includes both the amount of our own savings we have put into our fund (more than half of the money has come directly from us) and the amount that has been raised through fundraisers and donations. You'll see that we are almost at $30,000, meaning we are only a little more than $5000 away from our goal! This is amazing! The family sponsorship program box that is above our thermometer shows the amount of money that is currently in our Reece's Rainbow account. That $2000 is already counted in the thermometer, so it is not an "extra" $2000.
We still have some plans for raising the rest of the money needed. We have one more main fundraiser coming up on October 11th - a local restaurant that saw our story in the paper and called us to say they wanted to do a benefit, and they are even doing all the planning! Wow! The generosity and big hearts of people continue to overwhelm us. We are also planning one more garage sale the weekend of September 26th (our town is having citywide garage sales that weekend - this sale will be at our home) to try to sell the leftover things from our big garage sale in August. We have LOTS of infant/toddler clothes, books, toys, and kids' games, as well as a few miscellaneous items, if you live locally and want to stop by. Koins 4 Kellin is slowing down but our daughter is still receiving containers full of coins back occasionally. This fundraiser takes the award (so far) for the most money raised in a single fundraiser - over $2100! I never would have anticipated that this simple idea carried out by a nine-year-old would turn out to be the most successful - but it has! I am so proud of my daughter. We are hopefully doing a Pizza Ranch night in October (where we supply workers to help clear tables, and then we get a portion of sales/tips for the evening). And I am still exploring ways to use the origami birds, bracelets, and intricate pictures made and generously given to us by a friend from church.
Overall, our fundraising is in good shape, and we feel confident that by continuing to work hard, we will be able to come up with the remaining money needed. As always, donations are truly, sincerely appreciated! We are coming as fast as we can, Kellin!
Wednesday, September 3, 2014
Questions
Over the past few months, I have had the opportunity to talk with many, many, many people about our adoption. And for the most part, I truly enjoy being able to share our experiences with others and share information about the orphan situation in the world. However, I am coming to realize that there is a series of fairly predictable questions that most people ask. And even though the people are almost always wonderful, caring, well-meaning, and truly interested, the questions often feel painful.
By far the most commonly asked question:
When do you get him? Um, we don't know. Although we can try to guess when we will likely travel, we know that nothing is completely predictable in the adoption process. Every day of waiting is hard, especially without a specific "due date" to look forward to.
The question that always surprises me a little:
How did you meet him? We haven't. In fact, most families involved in an international adoption do not meet their child(ren) before committing to them. We haven't met our son, but we truly believe he is, in fact, our son.
The question that is perhaps the most painful, usually asked by someone who has discussed our adoption with us previously:
So how is he doing? We don't know. The only information we have is his file, which is 1 1/2 years old, and a very brief update provided by the orphanage in May. The update included one picture, his measurements, and one paragraph of developmental information. We have no way of getting regular updates on our son's health, well-being, likes/dislikes, and skills. We have no way of knowing if he is happy or unhappy, if he gets to get out of his crib and play, if he eats solid food or just a bottle, if anyone is working with him to learn new skills despite his blindness. It is very, very hard to have a child that you cannot see, talk to, hold, feed, comfort, or even hear about from someone else. It is even harder when you know that your child is in an orphanage, not a loving foster home, and that because he is blind, it is likely that he does not have opportunities to play and learn with other children his age, or to gain independence with things like walking, talking, and feeding himself.
And then of course there is always this comment:
It's ridiculous that it takes so long/costs so much! Yes, we agree. But there's nothing we can do about it, so we have to work with it. We will persevere no matter how long it takes. We will continue to fundraise and save until we have the funds needed to complete this adoption. At this point in time, this is just the way things are.
I understand that these are natural questions/comments that would occur to anyone who is unfamiliar with the adoption process. I understand that people's intentions are never to hurt and are generally motivated by genuine interest and support. But I miss my son. And talking about his situation is sometimes hard.
By far the most commonly asked question:
When do you get him? Um, we don't know. Although we can try to guess when we will likely travel, we know that nothing is completely predictable in the adoption process. Every day of waiting is hard, especially without a specific "due date" to look forward to.
The question that always surprises me a little:
How did you meet him? We haven't. In fact, most families involved in an international adoption do not meet their child(ren) before committing to them. We haven't met our son, but we truly believe he is, in fact, our son.
The question that is perhaps the most painful, usually asked by someone who has discussed our adoption with us previously:
So how is he doing? We don't know. The only information we have is his file, which is 1 1/2 years old, and a very brief update provided by the orphanage in May. The update included one picture, his measurements, and one paragraph of developmental information. We have no way of getting regular updates on our son's health, well-being, likes/dislikes, and skills. We have no way of knowing if he is happy or unhappy, if he gets to get out of his crib and play, if he eats solid food or just a bottle, if anyone is working with him to learn new skills despite his blindness. It is very, very hard to have a child that you cannot see, talk to, hold, feed, comfort, or even hear about from someone else. It is even harder when you know that your child is in an orphanage, not a loving foster home, and that because he is blind, it is likely that he does not have opportunities to play and learn with other children his age, or to gain independence with things like walking, talking, and feeding himself.
And then of course there is always this comment:
It's ridiculous that it takes so long/costs so much! Yes, we agree. But there's nothing we can do about it, so we have to work with it. We will persevere no matter how long it takes. We will continue to fundraise and save until we have the funds needed to complete this adoption. At this point in time, this is just the way things are.
I understand that these are natural questions/comments that would occur to anyone who is unfamiliar with the adoption process. I understand that people's intentions are never to hurt and are generally motivated by genuine interest and support. But I miss my son. And talking about his situation is sometimes hard.
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