It's Almost Time!!!

Brian arrived safely in Laird-Michael's home country on Friday evening. He has spent two days in the capital city and will be traveling by bus tomorrow to Laird-Michael's hometown. He has enjoyed his time in the city and took a walk today to check it out. He enjoyed some corn and turkey pizza on his walk for lunch. Weird, huh? He stopped by a convenience store to check it out and bought some chips (sour cream and dill) and a beer ("because it had a soccer ball on the can!")

Today, another Reece's Rainbow landed and arrived at the hotel. Brian was glad to have some American company. They had dinner together at the hotel restaurant. Will you pray that Scott gets his luggage?? It was lost on the way over. Air France has promised it to be delivered tomorrow, but both Brian and Scott leave tomorrow - for the same region and the same hotel! We are hoping they can get Scott's luggage to him before he goes.

Brian meets his translator tomorrow at noon and they will walk to the bus station. The trip is about 6 hours long and puts him in town around 18-19:00. Please pray for a safe bus trip through the mountains for Brian and a safe car trip for Scott. They will meet back up in region and, I think, be heading to the same orphanage each day. I'm glad they both have someone there for a few days.

Also tomorrow, my good friend is flying in to town to help me with Sterling this week. I am so grateful and so blessed to have help. Sterling will be getting a ride to and from school. He's been really sick with croup and a sinus infection so we have been trying to lay low. He is on all kinds of meds and hopefully will feel much better tomorrow!

I would post pics and add so much more detail, but I'm running on 4 hours of sleep from a croupy boy and my energy level is shot after dealing with his emotional little self today. The pediatrician prescribed steroids (our first time with them) and I didn't realize they would turn him into an emotional wreck. As soon as I get more information from Brian, I will update! I don't expect to hear anything until tomorrow afternoon or evening.

On Monday morning, Brian will get up and will meet his translator in the hotel lobby. Together they will walk to the orphanage to meet with the orphanage director at 09:30. (That's 02:30 EST - I'll be asleep dreaming of this meeting.) That means that when I wake up on Monday, we should have NEW PICTURES of my newest little love. I CANNOT WAIT!!! I am so excited.

And he's off!!!

Brian's flight left tonight at 20:00. It is currently 21:00 so he's been in the air for an hour. I'm assuming they will begin wheeling dinner and/or snacks and drinks around very soon.

For those not in the know, I am a very anxious traveler. I'm just not cut out for planes. I find them intriguing. I enjoy watching planes take off and land. I enjoy airports. I hate flying. Phobically hate flying... So today was very rough on me - even though I'm not the one on the plane. Putting my other half on a plane was just as hard as if it were me onboard.

Brian, however, is very excited to be headed back to Europe and he's excited to be getting a new passport stamp. He will have one up on me. He is also excited to meet up with a fellow adopting dad who will be in region with him. He should be able to do some fantastic sightseeing (the Black Sea!) as well. Hopefully we get fantastic pictures of the area that Laird-Michael calls home and also fabulous pictures of our little lovey.

Brian's flight lands between 05:00-06:00 my time (EST) so by the time I wake up he will be in Europe. He will have a five hour layover in Germany and then he will continue on his way landing in the beautiful city of S______ around mid-day my time tomorrow.

I have prayed. We prayed through text before take-off.  Sterling and I prayed at bedtime. When I wake up my husband will be delivered safely to Germany. And then, on Monday I will have new pictures of our littlest son. How exciting!!

Also today, I began to get the stage 2 part of our dossier started. I mailed off our i800 and i864w forms. I got my fingerprint cards done (we already have one for Brian - everyone is saying we need two but I am going to call courier services and see if any of them will accept one since he isn't here,) and I got the ball rolling on our medical forms. That is everything for dossier stage 2. Of course, it all needs to be apostilled and then sent over to Europe. Hopefully these things get turned around quickly so we have some sort of movement before the Holiday shutdowns on both continents. I would be ECSTATIC if our little one was home before Easter.

I promise to try to be diligent with the blog while Brian is away to keep everyone up to date. He has promised to send pictures and daily synopses and information for me to write blog material with. I know that a lot of you are just as excited as we are!

We hope you will join us on this 10 day trip!

*Please forgive typos and grammar errors. I am beyond ready for sleep!*

TRAVEL DATES

WOO HOO!!!!

Today we got our travel dates! The agency asked us if we could travel this weekend. Ummm...no. That is definitely not enough time for us. So, we agreed on October 18th through 25th. Brian will take this first trip and he is actually leaving October 16th. He will fly to Frankfurt and then onto our boy's home country. He will be heading back stateside on October 27th. We built in an added day on each end because the flights were cheaper (MUCH) on the weekdays instead of the weekends even with the cost of hotel factored in.

This news came so fast! We just got our written yesterday and have been over the moon excited about that. I honestly did not expect to hear dates until later this week or early next week. And, we didn't expect to travel until around Halloween. This means we are moving with some serious speed. We have already booked Brian's ticket and luckily, I have an amazing friend who is going to help me out while Brian is gone.

This means we have NINE days to get Brian prepped and packed. I cannot wait to have new pictures of our little love!!! This is very real now. We would appreciate prayers for safe travel for Brian and for peace here at home while he is gone. I've never been without him that long and I know we both with miss him. :(

If you feel led to donate you can donate to our Reece's Rainbow FSP here:  http://reecesrainbow.org/75904/sponsorhinz-3

As soon as we get any additional information - I will post it!

Exciting News, Big Decisions, and Frustrating Situations

Interesting blog title, yes?

Exciting news: We got our written referral today!!! This is very exciting. I suspect we will have our travel dates here within the next week. Typically, with our NGO (non-governmental organization) families travel 3-4 weeks from the written referral. This means we will likely be travelling the last week of October or the first week of November. Which is kind of what we have been thinking all along. It could happen sooner though! We just have to wait and see. The crazy thing is - when you hit the point of nearly time to travel - it all becomes so real. The nerves, the stress, and the anticipation just hit you like a brick. We've been waiting for the "Written Referral" email excitedly. But, now that it is here, I've been an anxious mess all day. All the what ifs and the what nows start creeping into your mind and you start to wonder if you're really ready. All normal. Having done this once - I know that. But it doesn't stop the range of emotions from tackling you like 300 pound defensive lineman. Adoption is hard work and it is not for the faint of heart. On another note, we have decided on a middle name. Our Little Man's name will be Laird-Michael Dimitrov Hinz. We love his current middle name and we love the tie to his home country - so we are keeping it. We think it sounds fantastic with his name as well.

Big decisions: The million dollar question is, "Who is making the trip to Europe?" In the beginning it was Brian. Then, recently, it was going to be me. But we had some news in the form of an offer from a very close friend today that may have pushed the envelope back to Brian. So, as of tonight, we think Brian is going. There are so many factors that play into this decision that we did not have to worry about with Sterling's adoption. Things like getting Sterling to school and swim practice. The fact that his school is on the complete opposite town from my (Erin's) school and the same side of town as Brian's school increases our challenges. FMLA and paid time off are also playing huge roles as well as possible dates for his coming home trip and availability of help. It really isn't an easy decision. It's a HUGE decision. In some ways we both want to go. We both want to experience his home country. We both want to meet him. We both want to hold him. But for other reasons, neither of us want to go. Report card time is coming up, I (Erin) hate flying (PHOBIC,) Brian teaches college two nights a week as well. So, this decision has not come easily and there are still some factors floating out there that are important to this decision making process and we need to get those ironed out before we have a definitive. As soon as we know, for sure, we will keep you posted. Regardless of who goes, expect lots of pictures.

Frustrating situations: So, when we started on this journey we KNEW we would have to fundraise some. We had the money for the first agency payment and we knew we could get the last agency payment. We weren't overly concerned about travel, but that might be a factor down the road. What we knew we would need help with was the middle agency payment. We set up a GoFundMe account to help with that. Well, we went to withdraw that money tonight and we discovered that there is an 8% fee associated that we didn't know about. I swear we researched it. But their advertising is a little tricky. We read it again tonight and we still think it's worded in a rather tricky fashion. In short, it's our fault. We are losing almost $500 of fundraised money due to the fees. We can still make the agency fee. But losing that money really is a punch in the gut that we were not expecting. It's infuriating actually. So, if you are a family in process, stay away from GoFundMe. Lesson learned. Like I said, it is totally our fault, and it did give us the option we needed to have access to that money NOW (when the second payment is due), but beware. We would have figured something else out. For now, the GoFundMe Page is going to be shut down and all further donations can go straight to Reece's Rainbow: http://reecesrainbow.org/75904/sponsorhinz-3

All in all, things are moving really quickly. I really cannot complain. This process has been SO DIFFERENT from the Ukrainian process. Not harder. Not easier. Just different. It's LONGER. That is for sure. But, we are actually moving at a REALLY fast pace. Just so I have record somewhere, this is what our timeline has looked like so far. This will be Greek to some of you, but some of you will appreciate seeing this all typed out.

May 1: Officially Matched
June 16: USCIS Lockbox Date
July 11: USCIS Biometrics Done
July 25: USCIS Approval
August 13: Apostilled USCIS Approval Shipped
September 19: IAC Meeting
September 23: Verbal Referral
October 7: Written Referral

We are super excited to get to meet/see/photograph our littlest man. We cannot wait to share his information with you as we get it. We are not allowed to publicly disclose his country of origin but we will post pictures as we can so that you can see the gorgeous city that he lives in. Whoever goes will work on disseminating information to the other so that we can have a blog up and running while the trip is in progress. We might run on a one day delay, but we will try our best to keep you informed. Keep in mind that this is the FIRST trip. Laird-Michael is NOT coming home yet. He likely won't be home until March or April. This trip is very hard because after meeting your little, you have to leave them there. Then, in the months between all of the legal stuff occurs and you go back for your second, or 'pick up', trip.

Thanks for all of the support and well-wishes, the pixie dust and prayers, and the listening ears and loving hearts. We really do appreciate it.

Things Are Starting to Come Together

OK! The ball has finally begun to roll.

Last Tuesday, September 23rd, we were informed that our dossier was accepted and that we were given a verbal referral by the governmental adoption committee. This is very exciting news. But, what does it mean?

Well, now that we have our verbal referral we should receive our written referral, our legal document allowing us to come meet our littlest, within about three weeks time. Once we receive the written referral, we will be given travel dates. These travel dates are a little flexible - but hopefully they will work fine.

Brian and I are trying to decide who will go to Europe and who will stay behind. The funny thing is neither of us really wants to go. But, we have very different reasons. For me, it is because of the plane. I am horrified of flying. I will fly when I have to. I have flown to London, Germany, Ukraine, and California in the past three years; I just don't enjoy it one bit. Even medicated, it's not something I like (or that I am particularly 'good' at.) I am a ridiculously anxious flyer. Brian, on the other hand, doesn't hate flying. His desire to stay has more to do with the day to day logistics of our family life. He takes the Peanut Butter to school and picks him up because their schools are close to each other. He also takes him to swim lessons because those are on the same side of town. That is all on the East side. I, inconveniently enough, work on the West side. And we live in the middle. This means if I stay and Brian goes, we have to figure out how to get PB to school the entire time he's gone. We can skip swim for a few weeks. There are so many other factors that will impact the decision, including FMLA time, hours of paid vs. unpaid leave, etc. But for now, who is travelling is up in the air. I don't mean to sound so negative. We would both love to see a new part of Europe. It's just very scary for me to get on a plane and Brian loves analyzing what is best for all involved. I would be very excited to see our littlest's home. So, right now we are just trying to work out what is best for our little family and how to make it happen.

Another thing Brian and I have been trying to narrow down is this little guy's name. We know his first name. His name is Laird-Michael. With a hyphen. I keep getting asked, "What will you call him?" We will call him by his name. Laird-Michael is what we will call him. His whole first name has significance. We cannot say that we won't ever call him Laird by itself. However, that is not currently the plan. The middle name, however, has been the toss up. I think we've finally decided that we are going to keep his current middle name for a couple of reasons. First, it sounds great with his first name. And second, we really want to keep that tie to his home country. We were going to keep PB's name as his middle name; but, we decided to name him in honor of someone before we left for Ukraine. This time, we feel pretty strongly about keeping LM's culture intact. So, this little guy's name will be Laird-Michael Dimitrov Hinz. Pretty cool name!

So, here we sit waiting for a written referral. Hopefully it will come towards the end of next week. We could be travelling as early as the last week in October. It might be the first week in November. But, we expect it to be somewhere in there. This means that if I go, I will get to meet our little man before his and my birthday. When we received his old medical file, we found out that Laird-Michael shares my birthday. That was a pretty awesome sign. :)

We have started to look at pricing for airfare and hotel/food/travel in country. Let me tell you, it is not pretty. Brian and I are trying to problem solve through that one. A lot of our larger donations have been through Reece's Rainbow and we are so blessed to have had that number go up. Thanks to all of you who have made it happen. The catch is, we won't have access to that money until AFTER the first trip. So, now we are on a hunt and a brainstorming session to pay for first trip travel expenses. If you'd like to help with immediate travel expenses you can donate to our Go Fund Me page here: http://www.gofundme.com/8127c8

That is a Hinz57 Ketchup post. I know there is a lot of random information in there but that is exactly what the adoption process is like right now! Hope you stick around to meet our littlest love.

(On a side note, comments for the blog are turned off. It is here for your reading pleasure only.)

Fall Update

Well, summer was a mad rush of paperwork hunting and waiting for government forms and apostilles. We finished up our dossier and sent the majority of it to the agency in mid-July. Then, all we had to do was wait for our USCIS approval. As soon as that came in the beginning of August we shipped that off to Tallahassee and awaited for the golden apostille to return so that we could call our dossier done.

As far as I know, our entire dossier is complete and waiting in country to be submitted. I really thought we would be submitted this week, but we were not. As soon as we get submitted the real waiting begins. Once we are submitted, the government will review our documents and issue us a travel date. I am guessing travel will take place in late October or Early November. This will be the first trip. During this trip, Brian will go to B and meet Laird-Michael. He will accept the referral formally and get to spend time with our little man. This trip lasts about 2 weeks. The hardest part of the trip will be leaving our boy there until it is time for the pick-up trip.

Unfortunately, there is not much to share. Hague adoptions are a long and slow process. As soon as we are submitted we will let you know! So exciting to be getting so close.

A BIG Update!

Wow it has been busy around here!

Brian, Sterling, and I are all winding down the school year. We made it through our state testing weeks and things are starting to wrap up and wind down. We have 11 days of school remaining and they are BUSY!
On top of that, Sterling and Brian were both sick with sinus infections and between all of that and Mother's Day - I am just getting around to updating the blog. Hopefully, I will have a lot more time to update over the summer.

We have BIG NEWS! We have a name picked out. Our newest little man's name will be Laird-Michael. We have had a lot of inquiries about the name choice. First, we both love the name Laird. We had a short list with 4 names on it: Anson, Archer, Laird, and Lincoln. Brian and I both crossed one off the list. Brian nixed Lincoln. I removed Archer. That left us Anson and Laird. In the end, we went with Laird. Our original intention was to use Michael as a middle name. However, Laird felt too short when coupled with Sterling so we decided to go for the hyphenated first name. Thus, Laird-Michael was the final decision. Michael has been a long standing middle name and was supposed to be Sterling's middle name before we changed it to Patrick. Michael comes from a long list of Michaels that are very special to us. Mike Shewchuck, Mike Hill, Mike Wiles, and Saint Michael. We are still working on a middle name - although we have it narrowed down - we are not ready to share it just yet.

We have MORE BIG NEWS! We were officially matched with our littlest man through the EE government through which we are adopting. This means that he is officially on hold for us and no one else can adopt him. It also means we have a mere 6 months to get our act together and get our dossier overseas. This should be no problem. We have nearly EVERY piece of our dossier except the BIG 3. The homestudy is NEARLY finished, I think our SW is just putting the finishing touches on it and then she should be mailing us our copies. Once we have that we can apply for our i800A from USCIS (I'd REALLY like to get that in the mail ASAP.) And I still need to send off our fingerprints to the FBI Channeling service so we can get those back too. Our HOPE and PRAYER is that our dossier is COMPLETE and ready to be shipped to EE by August. IF this happens, Brian should be able to make first trip Oct/Nov and then pick up trip would be Feb/March.
We are REALLY hoping to get this ball rolling. There is nothing (besides FBI stuff) that is left in our court. Everything else is waiting on the homestudy to get into our hands. So please pray she gets that done THIS WEEK!

As soon as we know more - or make some progress - I will update! Thank you for your continued love and support!!!

The Paperwork Pregnancy

I forgot, when we started this adoption, the torture that is known as "the paperwork pregnancy." You see, birth mothers have the 9 month pregnancy and labor. Adoptive parents have "the paperwork pregnancy." I cannot compare the two - I've never been pregnant. But, I can tell you that the PWP is so draining.

We have been in an all out effort to complete our dossier paperwork. We have faithfully scheduled every appointment we can, planned for every item to be done for both the homestudy update and the dossier checklist, and also managed to fit in family time. But things don't always go as planned.

I went for my PPD test last Wednesday. It was read on Friday after school. It was negative - yay - I don't have TB! On Thursday after school, I went for my Field Print fingerprinting. This will clear us through FDLE and the FBI.

Saturday and yesterday, we focused on Easter. Saturday morning we went for our adoption bloodwork (HIV testing and CBC.) Then we spent 2 hours at church with Sterling as he participated in the youth ministry's Shine Kids Easter Party. We are so grateful to be in a church that welcomes our son openly. About two weeks ago I got an email from our new children's minister telling me that they really wanted to have Sterling participate, but that we would need to stay to help (which we have no problem with.) Actually, we were thrilled they reached out to us to include him. We made some fun Easter crafts and read the Resurrection Story with Resurrection Eggs, had lunch, and then Sterling asked to leave. We all went home and napped; then, that evening, I went and packed food boxes as part of a ministry called Bread of Life that delivers food boxes to families in need on holidays. I worked from 5:15 pm-1:30 am. We managed to pack over 1000 boxes of food items and almost 600 boxes of breads, desserts, and paper products. When I came home - I was so wound, I couldn't sleep. I think I fell asleep around 3 am. We were up and at church by 9:15 the next morning and Easter day was a whirlwind of activity. I did get about 90 minutes of quality time with my little man while Brian went to pick his mom up.

Today, we were back into adoption mode. After school, Brian went to have his medical done and I went to have our background checks pulled. We are both still needing to have ink prints done on tens cards to send the FBI office in Washington, D.C. I will try to get my prints done tomorrow. Brian has his Field Print scans done on Wednesday and I have my medical on Thursday. Brian will attempt his ink prints some time this week.

Friday night will be a much needed date night! We are off to watch a few of Brian's students (and former students of mine) at the Night on Broadway event at his school. I cannot wait to see those kiddos! I haven't seen them since they were 8-9 years old. They are now 14-15!!! Friday night I will be volunteering at my school's Relay for Life team at the local Relay for Life walk-a-thon. I signed up for the midnight to two a.m. shift so I hope I am not dragging the next day.

In other BIG and EXCITING news, we hit our mini-goal of $2000 and I have released Jelly's picture! Here are some CRAZY-ADORABLE pictures of our newest little man.

Our next mini-goal is $3000. When we hit the $3000 mark we will share this Little Man's name. You can donate either to http://reecesrainbow.org/75904/sponsorhinz-3 (which is tax deductible) or to http://www.gofundme.com/8127c8 (which is not tax deductible.)

We were so thrilled to hit that mini-goal and share this handsome little face with you! We are so over the moon smitten with him!

Thanks to everyone who has donated! Including complete strangers sent to us by a lovely friend Jessica R. who mentioned us on her angel doggy's FB page. I am also pleased to announce that Laura G. won our Animal Kingdom lodge stay! BIG THANKS to Nichole T. whom is working her own behind the scenes magic on fundraising for our adoption as well. Can't wait to see what she has planned! We are so grateful for all of the donations, kind words, prayers, and love we have received since announcing our newest addition. We hope you stick this out with us the whole way! 

Happy Monday!

Working hard!

Today I went for my PPD (TB) test. I will go back and have that read on Friday. It's so gross! Seriously with the little bubble under your skin. ACK!

Brian and I both made our fingerprint appointments for Field Print. This will run both FBI and FDLE background checks on us. Then, we will STILL need fingerprinting done locally through the Orange County Sheriff's Department. Weird. You'd think FBI and FDLE would encompass a local search - but no.

Other than that - not much going on with the adoption front today. Just working hard to get paperwork in. Pretty excited to move this adoption along as fast as we can. Can't wait to get that sweet little face home and the sooner the better.

Cannot wait to share his pictures with you!

It's Almost Picture Time!!

Thank you to every person who has donated to our adoption fund either in person, online at GoFundMe, or through Reece's Rainbow. We sincerely appreciate every donation. We are closing in on our $2000 mini goal! We currently have a total of $1510.67 in donations. That is amazing! As promised, we have slowly been adding pieces of the picture as we receive more donations. Below, is our picture tonight. We are nearly to our mini-goal! When we get to the goal, we will post a few pictures of our new little man.

For now, though, let's talk about our Peanut Butter! Today, I received an email from Sterling's YAP coordinator about an upcoming Special Olympics Florida event. The SOFL group working the Leadership Reception at the Disney Golf Tournament asked for Sterling to come out and represent YAP at a SOFL Q&A! This is so exciting. So, our family will be heading out towards Disney to represent our SOFL YAP families at a guided Q&A session to discuss how the Young Athletes Program has made a difference in Sterling's life. Hooray! We love advocating for Special Olympics!

On the dossier front, we are chugging along. Both Brian and I have our blood work scheduled for Saturday morning. This is a requirement for adoption. We must both also go for a PPD/TB test. Then, on Monday, Brian will have his medical clearance appointment with his doctor and I will have mine on Thursday. This gives us medical clearance for adoption and states that we are both healthy enough to raise kids and have no terminal/chronic illness. Once we get our medical clearance, the only thing standing in our way from our completed home study is our finger prints and our DCF clearance. The DCF forms have been sent off and we just have to wait for that info to get back to our social worker. The fingerprints I am waiting to hear back from our social worker on what exactly we need. I think we have to have 3 different sets done at 3 different places - and I need to clarify before I start making appointments. Once the home study is complete, we just need our I800a - our permission to adopt and bring a child into the country - from the government. That is pricey. So we are holding off on that until the rest of our ducks are in a row. Once that comes in, we send our dossier to the state to be apostilled and then we can send it to Eastern Europe! We are working really hard to have this little guy home as soon as possible!

Hoping this blog update keeps you "in the loop!" Thanks again for all the donations, prayer, positive vibes, and kind words. They are all appreciated.

Today's Fundraising Picture and Dossier Information

Your mission - should you choose to accept it - is to help us reach our mini goal of $2000.
Your reward - a picture of Jelly will be posted for everyone to see.

Yesterday was AMAZING! We had two individual contributors donating $250 each! Those people were Nichole T. and Jonathan A. WOW! Thank you! Other contributors yesterday were Mike and Connie S, Rachel G, Samantha F, Lisa B, Nancy S, and a yet unknown person whom donated to Reece's Rainbow. I will ask for the Reece's Rainbow contributors' names weekly. We had an amazing first day - raising $773.50! That is 39% of our mini-goal! Since we earned 39% of our mini-goal, I am posting 39% of Jelly's picture! You can see his adorable hair (which looks very blonde in this picture and clearly strawberry in others...) and about a quarter of his face. He's SO adorable. I cannot wait to share the whole thing with you!

As promised, I want to outline the process a little bit for you (as best I understand right now.) A dossier is a bundle of documents sent to the government that our Little Man is in right now. This dossier contains information about our finances, our family, our home, our jobs, our health, and it contains our home study. In order to submit your dossier, you must first collect all of the documents. Then you must have them notarized. After notarization takes place, you send your entire dossier to the state and they apostille it. An apostille is more or less like a notary for the notaries. They make sure that they notary publics who notarized our documents are indeed notaries, that they are in good standing, and that everything has been filled out correctly. Once the apostilling takes place, the state will mail the dossier back to us and we will send it off to Jelly's agency in Eastern Europe. There, it will be translated and turned over to the government who will review it and send us a "referral" to come meet Little Man Hinz. The date to travel is given to us by the government. Once we go over, we get to meet Jelly, do paperwork, and start the official adoption process in country. (Unlike, Ukraine, we will not be staying for an extended period of time. This country requires two 7-10 day trips.) Once we get the ball rolling, we come home and prepare for the arrival of Jelly. The pick-up trip is typically 2-4 months after the first trip. We are really hoping to have our dossier done by August 1st. This means we have a lot of money to make and raise before then! Almost $7000. This adoption is so different from Sterling's adoption - we are learning as we go!

There are 13 documents needs in our dossier and we currently have 6 of them complete. Once our home study gets completed (we had to update it and run new background checks, child abuse checks, and fingerprint checks) we will have 8. Our Social Worker thinks this should be done by May 1st.

I hope that helps you to better understand the timeline. Thanks for joining us!

Welcome!!!

Hello blog followers!!!

I am so excited you have made your way to the Peanut Butter and Jelly Adoption blog! I will be updating this page as often as is necessary to communicate important happenings in the world of our adoption. I will be sure to update where we are in the paperwork process and any important/fun/interesting information.

Today, I'd like to thank people who have made donations! Nichole T, Lisa B, Nancy S, Rachel G, Jonathan A, and Samantha F, thank you so much for your donations! At the end of each day I will be posting a portion of a picture of Jelly. Each day, this picture will grow in accordance with how close to our $2000 goal we are. Currently, we have raised $625. That's AWESOME! That is roughly %31 of our $2000 mini goal. So, I will post a partial pic tomorrow based on what %age we earn by the end of today. So exciting!

I will take time tomorrow to fill you in on the paperwork process and the timeline so that you know how the adoption works. We are excited to get this ball rolling. We have been told the average timeline for an adoption from this specific country is about 14 months - but we hope it won't take us that long. Our home study update should be done by May 1st; then it's paper chasing until we have all of the documents we need. Hopefully, our dossier will be complete and ready to be mailed to Eastern Europe by August 1st. If that holds true, we should have our first trip scheduled for November-ish and the pick up trip 2-3 months after that. We are really hoping that all the pieces fall together this way. 14 months is a long time!!!

Thanks for joining and for your support!

Let The Great Paper Chase Begin!

The great paper chase has officially begun!

Brian and I just completed our OFFICIAL commitment papers to adopt "Jelly." We are so thrilled to be adding to our family and we cannot wait until Little Man (LM) gets home. The average adoption time from this specific country is about 14 months. Which is roughly 9 months longer than it took for us to adopt Sterling. We are up for this challenge; but, it is sad that while we will be loving on our LM now, we will not see him until he is 3! We will be doing everything in our power to stay on top of our paperwork and make this adoption go as quickly as it can from our end.

But, we will need YOUR help! If you can, we would love donations towards our adoption. You can donate either through Reece's Rainbow (which is tax deductible) or through Go Fund Me (which is NOT tax deductible.) Our goal is to raise as much as we can before our first trip, so that we do not have to worry about fundraising for our last trip.

Unlike Ukraine, this country requires TWO trips each lasting 7-10 days. The good news is, that we don't both have to travel. Which will help us to save money. So, if you feel so inclined, we would love any support you could offer. And, please feel free to share our blog and our story. We will share a picture of our Jelly as soon as we have raised $1000 and we will share his name as soon we raise $2000. So, spread the word!

We are so HAPPY to be adding our Jelly to the family!

We're At It Again

Brian and I are thrilled to announce that we are adopting again! We are **very** limited in what we can share publicly at this point, mainly because we are still finalizing initial paperwork for commitment.

What we can tell you is this. "Jelly" is 2 years old and is from Eastern Europe. He has Down syndrome and his records indicate that he is healthy. He has strawberry-blonde hair and adorably squishy, chubby cheeks. He also shares my birthday!

We are withholding his pictures and name to use as a fundraiser in a few weeks. Yes, I know, it's evil; but, I told you we were going to make you work for it. As soon as we get the go-ahead, we will slowly answer your questions.

Stay tuned for more info!