Jesus said “Whoever welcomes one of these little children in my name welcomes me; and whoever welcomes me does not welcome me but the one who sent me.” - Mark 9:37

Friday, June 29, 2012

Adoption Bug & Show Hope t-shirts!

We're so honored to fundraise along side Steven Curtis Chapman's ministry Show Hope with Adoption Bug t-shirts.

Here's the link to our store front: AdoptionBug.com :: Adventure 4 Eli

These t-shirts are awesome! And each purchase helps bring Eli home.

Here's a new pic of Eli to persuade you...  ;)


 Summer time is a great time to share your faith & spport of orphans.
So go check out the t-shirts!

God bless,
Sherry & family

Thursday, June 21, 2012

We are DTC!!!!!!!

It's official!!!  I just received the following email from our adoption agency:

"Congratulations, your dossier was sent to the CCCWA (China) today. The tracking # is....
We will be contacting you soon when we have your LID date."



Praise the Lord!

The last nearly 8 months of work and prayers have finally come to this. This is one of the biggest milestones in the adoption process.

Next we wait for LID (Log in Date), the date our Dossier arrives in China & is logged into the system at CCCWA. I have seen as quick as a week and as long as 45 days. Praying for quick LID.

Now, for those non-adoptive folfs: Our Dossier is PAGES of official, original, notarized, certified & authenticated information about Steve and I, our marriage, our jobs, our children, our family, everything about us...

It is now on it's way to the officials at China Center for Children's Welfare and Adoption (CCCWA). They will translate it into Chinese and review it and review it, and compare it to Eli's file to make sure we are the right parents for him, before sending a letter of approval (LOA) for us to adopt Eli. We have been told LOA can take anywhere from 30 days to 120 days. So again praying ours is quick.

But as soon as we get LOA, we need to send China a "Donation" for Eli's Orphanage in the approx amount of $5,600... Yes, you read correct - 5 thousand and 6 hundred US dollars.

So since God moved & Steve got his back pay so that we were able to pay the remaining adoption agency fees, we have decided that our Puzzle Fundraiser will all go towards the Orphanage Donation.



It is a 1,000 piece puzzle and at $5 per piece, if we get all 1,000 pieces sponsored we'll have $5,000.

More good news: After all the many expenses to date (between $11-12,000), we still have about $1,000 saved up in our adoption account. So we will have the last $600 to pay the Orphanage Donation, and be able to pay the $300 needed to wire China to get Eli's Visa. Praise God!

Update on Puzzle: We have 35 pieces sponsored to date... which equals $175 towards that goal.


So only 965 pieces to go...

We NEED to raise this $5000. We have to pay the Orphanage Donation fee to move forward in our adoption process. The orphans need that money too. So please consider sponsoring a piece of Eli's puzzle. For every piece sponsored, we write your name on back and Eli will be able to see all the names of those who helped bring him home. Please share this fundraiser with others you know.

Next prayer request: We applied for a Show Hope (Steven Curtis Chapman) adoption aid grant. This application cycle ends June 30th. Show Hope takes 90 days to review all the applications. Please pray for favor for us to be one of their receipitants. This will help us pay anything still needed and to travel to China to bring Eli home. Something that is very expensive, but is required for us to go & be there for 12-14 days.

Reminder: We do have a Brittany's Hope "Seedling Grant". Which means we need to raise $1,000 in donations directly to Brittany's Hope and tax deductible, but can't be from us (per rules); then they will match it and donate $2,000 towards our travel expenses directly to our adoption agency. Check it ont eh right side of our blog.

And last but not least, we are still accepting donations towards our Video Camera Give Away. See info on the right.

Well that was a lot to update. But we SOOOO appreciate all our prayer warriors and supporters. Please please pray for our puzzle fundraiser and consider sponsoring a piece or two so your name will be there for Eli to see and help us pay the orphanage donation fee needed to bring Eli home.



Thank you all & Praise be to God who called us to add this wonderful boy to our family.

With a heart of praise,
Sherry


Friday, June 8, 2012

This has been a GREAT week!

Monday, 6/4/12, one of our Boston Terriers had puppies… one boy & one girl, which is exactly what our kids wanted to be able to raise and show themselves.


This is Zoe’s own girl that she trained, showed and finished her championship herself. So this is the kids first very own litter. Momma and babies are doing well!



Tuesday, 6/5/12, was a once in a lifetime opportunity… Steve and the kids went to the planetarium and saw Venus dance by the Sun on its transit trip that won’t happen again until 2117.

Wednesday, 6/6/12, we received our I-797 Approval Notice from USCIS!!!

It came by mail in the afternoon and the approval date on the notice is 6/4/12… That means our officer whom I spoke to on Fri and was told it was on his desk and he expected to get to it next week, got to it Monday! That is so awesome!

Thursday, 6/7/12, Steve was scheduled to work the day shift, but thankfully was able to switch his work schedule around and get up early and drive our I-797 & our home study to Austin, TX to be certified by the Secretary of State. And he made it back in time to still work the eve shift. J


Friday, 6/8/12, today… we overnighted the last 5 documents needed to be authenticated by the Chinese Embassy in Washington DC to Assistant Stork.


It will arrive tomorrow, Saturday. Then Monday the 5 documents (our birth certificates, marriage license, home study & certified copy of I-797) will be authenticated by the US Department of State and dropped off at the Chinese Embassy in Washington DC. After the embassy authenticates them , they’ll be picked up on Friday and shipped our adoption agency.

Then hopefully soon we will be

Dossier to China

Today, still Friday 6/8/12, Steve received $ money $ from the US Department Of Defense that he was owed for back pay 9 months ago…

Enough that we were able to pay the $4,000 agency fees due in order to submit our Dossier to China!!!

God is ALWAYS right on time!


Now we had kicked fundraising into overdrive… a car wash tomorrow and plate lunch sale on Sun and next Friday. We also still have Puzzle pieces and the Video Camera Give Away. Plus we have bracelets for sale which I haven’t even posted yet. We were prepared to work hard to get what we needed to submit our Dossier.  But Steve’s money came at just the right time because we still needed $2800 to submit our Dossier, plus over $300 we paid today to get the documents authenticated. Of course we are still going to do the fundraisers, because there will still be lots more money due to bring Eli home.

Oh, and one last little cool thing…

Levi & Zoe both have a collection of Build A Bears. Well we want Eli to get to have the Build A Bear experience and so we ordered him & Levi each a limited edition Year of the Dragon- Dragon…

Well they arrived today, Friday. What an awesome Friday today has been!

The Dragons are not stuffed yet, because we will take the kids to Build A Bear after Eli comes home, so they can build their Dragons and name them together.

Well, June is sure shaping up to be an amazing month. Cannot wait to be DTC & I will sure keep everyone posted as soon as we are. Until next time, Praise God for the blessings in your life.

Smiling momma,

Sherry

Wednesday, June 6, 2012

We're approved by USCIS!

Yes!

Hallelujah!

Thank you Jesus!

Our USCIS I-797 Approval Noticed arrived today, dated... 6/4/12!


I can't believe how excited I was to open that envelope...

This is a HUGE step towards bringing Eli home!

3/4 of our Dossier is already at our agency waiting. Steve is running I-797 to be certified by TX Secretary of State tomorrow am. Then we will FedEx it to Assistant Stork to be authenticated by Chinese Embassy. Then onto our agency will go the last few Dossier documents...

Which means we NEED that other $2,800 FAST!!!

Puzzle pieces are $5 to sponsor & Eli will see your name as one who helped bring him home.



Or we still have our Video Camera Give Away going on...

Ativa Mini HD Digital Video Camera. $5 Donation = 1 chance or $20 Donation = 5 chances


Please consider helping with any donation you feel led to give or can spare. It's crunch time now!

Thank you to all our supporters & prayer warriors. I know that God has used you all to help us get this far, and we pray the Lord blesses you tenfold.

Can not wait to be DTC (Dossier to China), won't you help us please? Eli is waiting...

One excited and hurridly working momma,
Sherry
Lilypie Waiting to Adopt tickers
Lilypie Waiting to Adopt tickers