One of the hardest things about being in Asen's orphanage was seeing all of the other precious children and knowing that they would still be waiting for their forever families. We have been thinking about ways that we could help these 75 children who continue to wait. We contacted the orphanage director and she told us that their greatest needs were for "basic necessities" such as diapers, food and clothing; as well as an industrial dryer. Right now the orphanage is hanging all of the laundry outside to dry! Can you imaging doing laundry for 75 children from newborn to 4 years old without a dryer?!? I can't even imagine doing laundry for my family of 7 without a dryer!
We would love to be able to bless the children left behind with some of these necessities. Our main goal is to be able to fund the dryer (about $700) and then provide as many necessities as we can. Because the cost of things like diapers is so much lower there, the best way to do this is to take cash with us and then purchase the items in country to take to the orphanage. The donations will stretch much further this way. The funds for the dryer will be given directly to the orphanage director.
If you have been looking for a way to directly impact the lives of orphans this is your chance! We will be collecting money to take with us when we travel at the end of March. The first $700 will be used to purchase an industrial dryer for the orphanage and we will use any extra funds to purchase diapers, food, and clothing for them while we are there. We will post pictures so y'all can see exactly what we were able to purchase to benefit these beautiful children. If you would like your contribution to be tax deductible you can send a check to Hays Hills Baptist Church and put "Love the Least Ministry - Orphanage Donation" in the memo. Otherwise, you can send your donation to us via mail or PayPal and let us know what it is for.
If you have a connection and are able to obtain items such as toothbrushes, small toys, etc. at a low cost we would be glad to take these along with us as well! As soon as we know which airlines we will be flying I plan to contact them to see if we can get the baggage fees waived so that we can take some donations with us.
The poverty was obvious to me when I travelled to A.J.'s country over the summer, but I was shocked to learn that the average monthly income there is only about $500. As the poorest country in the EU they have really struggled with their economy over the past 10 years. These children really do need us!
Monday, February 25, 2013
Friday, February 22, 2013
Introducing...
Asen James Jakubauskas!!
Our court date was today and our adoption has been granted! So what comes next? We wait some more. :-) The adoption decree will be signed by the judge in seven days (February 29). Then our facilitator will pick up the decree and take it to get the new birth certificate issued. That will take a week as well (March 1). At that point Elena will take both documents to be translated and make arrangements for our pick up trip. We should be able to travel to pick him up sometime after March 15, providing that there are no more delays. But honestly, after all of the delays we have experienced another delay at this stage would not surprise me at all. But just knowing he will be home before his 5th birthday is so exciting!
Curious about his name? We chose to keep his Bulgarian given name (Asen) to give him a connection to his birth country and his life before he became a part of our family. The staff at the orphanage is very fond of our little guy and they call him Sennie (Take the "A" off of Asen and add a long "e") and also Asencho (Asen plus "cho" like the beginning of "chosen"). Asencho is a diminutive form of his given name, sort of like when we call our Eve "Evie". Our family usually calls him Sennie when we talk about him, but we also call him Asen and A.J. His middle name is from James 1:27 - "Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world."
Join us in praising God for this blessing!
We also ask that you join us in praying that we will have no more delays and Asen will be home as soon as possible.
If you are able, you can still donate toward our travel expenses and enter to win some amazing prizes at Forty to Forever.
Friday, February 8, 2013
To Scream or Not to Scream, That is the Question
Last week we got the wonderful news that our court date had been scheduled for February 8th. Obviously, we were very excited and started looking ahead to see when we would most likely travel and making plans for our kiddos who would be staying behind.
At about 3:30 am today I was suddenly wide awake and had an unshakable feeling that something was not right. With all of the delays and problems we have already had in this adoption process I was fearful that something had not gone well with our court hearing. About an hour ago I got confirmation of that. The judge that was assigned our case requested some additional documentation from our agency. Usually the judges will accept a scanned copy of the apostilled documents as long as the original is provided to the court before the adoption decree is picked up. Our judge refused to accept anything other than the original and will not hear our case until February 22nd.
Our wonderful stateside facilitator said "Your family has had every delay imaginable and then some." and that just sums it up perfectly. If there is an issue or problem that has ever been seen in an adoption process we have seen it. And we have seen a few that have never been seen before.
Please keep praying for our family and for A.J.
At about 3:30 am today I was suddenly wide awake and had an unshakable feeling that something was not right. With all of the delays and problems we have already had in this adoption process I was fearful that something had not gone well with our court hearing. About an hour ago I got confirmation of that. The judge that was assigned our case requested some additional documentation from our agency. Usually the judges will accept a scanned copy of the apostilled documents as long as the original is provided to the court before the adoption decree is picked up. Our judge refused to accept anything other than the original and will not hear our case until February 22nd.
Our wonderful stateside facilitator said "Your family has had every delay imaginable and then some." and that just sums it up perfectly. If there is an issue or problem that has ever been seen in an adoption process we have seen it. And we have seen a few that have never been seen before.
Please keep praying for our family and for A.J.
Tuesday, January 22, 2013
Forty Days to Forever + An Update
Wow! I just went to make some changes to the template on the blog and realized that I have not posted anything since October! We had a surgery and several illnesses in November and December and that coupled with the usual business of the Christmas season put me way behind. And to be honest, there has not been much news to report on the adoption front. We had our Article 5 appointment and everything was approved; then our dossier was signed by the MOJ and submitted to the court. Right now we are waiting on news about our court date. As soon as I hear something I will update here so you can all join us in praying that everything goes smoothly and the judge will not request any additional information. One more delay might send me over the edge! ;-)
I also wanted to let you know about a wonderful opportunity to support orphans. Our family has been invited to participate in this effort to raise $20,000 for 40 orphans over the 40 days of Lent. We have the opportunity to raise $400 to put toward our final travel expenses (which will be about $4,000). Every little bit helps! Our family will be featured on February 21.
We hope that you will support our family, as well as the other families and waiting children by visiting Forty Days to Forever to find out more. There will be 40 different prizes as well as a grand prize given away, so you may win something cool while caring for the least of these!
I also wanted to let you know about a wonderful opportunity to support orphans. Our family has been invited to participate in this effort to raise $20,000 for 40 orphans over the 40 days of Lent. We have the opportunity to raise $400 to put toward our final travel expenses (which will be about $4,000). Every little bit helps! Our family will be featured on February 21.
We hope that you will support our family, as well as the other families and waiting children by visiting Forty Days to Forever to find out more. There will be 40 different prizes as well as a grand prize given away, so you may win something cool while caring for the least of these!
Sunday, October 21, 2012
Little Ways to Help
Sometimes when I think about the number of orphans in the world and the scope of their needs I get completely overwhelmed. It seems as if the problem is so big that the small things that I am able to do could not possibly make a difference. But I have learned that small things being done by many people add up quickly! If each of us does one small thing to help an orphan, the end result will be BIG.
Here are a couple of small ways that you can help....
The orphanage that A.J. lives in now has many needs. After talking to the director, we discovered that one of their greatest needs is for a commercial dryer to allow them to keep up with the huge amounts of laundry created by 70+ children. This will cost approximately $700. Our hope is to be able to raise enough money to be able to purchase the dryer when we travel to pick up A.J. If you would like to help us meet this need, you can leave a comment here or contact me on Facebook or e-mail.
We are involved with the Love the Least Orphan Care Ministry at our church. This ministry currently supports several orphan care initiatives locally and internationally. We are involved with building homes for displaced children in Haiti to prevent them from becoming victims of trafficking, supporting the Village of Hope Uganda through sponsorships and mission trips, assisting the Central Texas Children's Home in several ways, and also helping adopting families afford the cost of adoption. Unfortunately, all of this takes money.
As part of our fundraising we are sponsoring a "Christmas Shopping Party" on Saturday, December 1st. You've all heard of Tupperware parties or Mary Kay parties right? We this is the same thing, only much bigger. We will have tons of vendors for you to chose from and part of each sale will benefit the ministry. And we will have refreshments too. You can get all of your Christmas shopping done in one stop, avoid the mall and Target, and get chocolate too!! Plan to join us! If you, or someone you know owns a home business and would be interested in participating in the event please let me know.
How do you reach 147 million orphans? One at a time!
Here are a couple of small ways that you can help....
The orphanage that A.J. lives in now has many needs. After talking to the director, we discovered that one of their greatest needs is for a commercial dryer to allow them to keep up with the huge amounts of laundry created by 70+ children. This will cost approximately $700. Our hope is to be able to raise enough money to be able to purchase the dryer when we travel to pick up A.J. If you would like to help us meet this need, you can leave a comment here or contact me on Facebook or e-mail.
We are involved with the Love the Least Orphan Care Ministry at our church. This ministry currently supports several orphan care initiatives locally and internationally. We are involved with building homes for displaced children in Haiti to prevent them from becoming victims of trafficking, supporting the Village of Hope Uganda through sponsorships and mission trips, assisting the Central Texas Children's Home in several ways, and also helping adopting families afford the cost of adoption. Unfortunately, all of this takes money.
As part of our fundraising we are sponsoring a "Christmas Shopping Party" on Saturday, December 1st. You've all heard of Tupperware parties or Mary Kay parties right? We this is the same thing, only much bigger. We will have tons of vendors for you to chose from and part of each sale will benefit the ministry. And we will have refreshments too. You can get all of your Christmas shopping done in one stop, avoid the mall and Target, and get chocolate too!! Plan to join us! If you, or someone you know owns a home business and would be interested in participating in the event please let me know.
How do you reach 147 million orphans? One at a time!
Saturday, October 13, 2012
Final Paperwork - Take 2
I should have known that nothing would go as planned with this final set of paperwork! Nothing has been easy so far, so why would it start now? ;-)
We sent in our I-800 to get the final approval for A.J.'s visa and within a week of it being received we got a phone call from our officer telling us that she needed the wording on our home study to be changed... again. I called our social worker that same day to ask her to make the needed changes and found out she was out of town. Of course! Every other piece of paperwork has been delayed, why not this one too? I was so incredibly frustrated that I wanted to cry. So it took us two weeks to get the home study updated and the new request for our USCIS paperwork is on its way. And the best part of all of that? It cost us $360 to file the supplemental paperwork to make the changes that were requested. Grrrr....
As we were waiting for the USCIS paperwork we were also working on getting our medical clearances updated by our physician. He is a very good doctor, but he and his office staff apparently flunked "Paperwork 101" because we had to go back to his office three separate times to get them to re-do the paperwork because they had filled it out incorrectly. Apparently I do not have anything else to do except drive to the doctor's office repeatedly. Grrr....
The good news is that our officer at USCIS is very kind and obviously wants to get us our approval as quickly as possible. She could have just waited for the written request to make its way to us in a week or so, but she took the time to call us, let us know what was needed, and give us specific information about making the updated home study meet the requirements. I really believe that she will be calling us as soon as she receives our updated paperwork to let us know that we have been approved and that our Article 5 letter is on its way to the embassy.
Praying that there will not need to be a Final Paperwork Take 3! :-)
Hang in there little man. Momma and Daddy will be there soon.
We sent in our I-800 to get the final approval for A.J.'s visa and within a week of it being received we got a phone call from our officer telling us that she needed the wording on our home study to be changed... again. I called our social worker that same day to ask her to make the needed changes and found out she was out of town. Of course! Every other piece of paperwork has been delayed, why not this one too? I was so incredibly frustrated that I wanted to cry. So it took us two weeks to get the home study updated and the new request for our USCIS paperwork is on its way. And the best part of all of that? It cost us $360 to file the supplemental paperwork to make the changes that were requested. Grrrr....
As we were waiting for the USCIS paperwork we were also working on getting our medical clearances updated by our physician. He is a very good doctor, but he and his office staff apparently flunked "Paperwork 101" because we had to go back to his office three separate times to get them to re-do the paperwork because they had filled it out incorrectly. Apparently I do not have anything else to do except drive to the doctor's office repeatedly. Grrr....
The good news is that our officer at USCIS is very kind and obviously wants to get us our approval as quickly as possible. She could have just waited for the written request to make its way to us in a week or so, but she took the time to call us, let us know what was needed, and give us specific information about making the updated home study meet the requirements. I really believe that she will be calling us as soon as she receives our updated paperwork to let us know that we have been approved and that our Article 5 letter is on its way to the embassy.
Praying that there will not need to be a Final Paperwork Take 3! :-)
Hang in there little man. Momma and Daddy will be there soon.
Monday, October 8, 2012
Birthday Benefit for Chrissie
Those of you who have been following our adoption story from the beginning might remember that Chrissie Patterson and her family were a big part of God's plan to lead us to adopting a special needs child.
Today would have been Chrissie's 7th birthday and her parents are hosting a virtual benefit in her memory. Village of Hope Guatemala will be opening in Spring of 2013 to give special needs orphans in Guatemala family, faith, and a future. Guatemala is currently closed to international adoption, and special needs orphans are almost never adopted within the country. Village of Hope Guatemala gives these children a chance at life in a family setting, education, medical treatment, the childhood they deserve, and a more secure future.
I know that many families (ours included) are on tight budgets. I have found myself thinking sometimes that the $5 or $10 that I have to give is so little that it won't make a difference. But I am realizing that when all of these small gifts are added together they become something BIG!
Check out Chrissie's benefit and be part of caring for children who are often overlooked. Your small gift will multiply!
Today would have been Chrissie's 7th birthday and her parents are hosting a virtual benefit in her memory. Village of Hope Guatemala will be opening in Spring of 2013 to give special needs orphans in Guatemala family, faith, and a future. Guatemala is currently closed to international adoption, and special needs orphans are almost never adopted within the country. Village of Hope Guatemala gives these children a chance at life in a family setting, education, medical treatment, the childhood they deserve, and a more secure future.
I know that many families (ours included) are on tight budgets. I have found myself thinking sometimes that the $5 or $10 that I have to give is so little that it won't make a difference. But I am realizing that when all of these small gifts are added together they become something BIG!
Check out Chrissie's benefit and be part of caring for children who are often overlooked. Your small gift will multiply!
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