Saturday, September 24, 2011

Time & Money

As we share the awesome news about where we are in this whole journey.. the news of our girls waiting for us in Haiti... I find that two questions I get asked the most are, "how much more time?" and "How much more money?"...two very tough questions to answer!
As far as the timeline we are looking at.. there are so many unknowns and so much that is out of our hands. BUT- we know who's hands things lay in! Our Dossier is current still in our agency's office getting translated. On June 24th we mailed our Dossier to Children of All Nations. Our Dossier has gone through the certification process and is now in translation- upon completion of translation, it will go to the Haitian Consulate (state side) for authentication- back to CAN's for them to organize it and forward it to the IBESR in Haiti (social services). On August 3rd we received the referral call/email and were given two weeks to make our decision. We actually knew in our hearts that who ever was on the other side of that email- well, they were our kids! August 16th- referral acceptance and referral payment sent to Children of All Nations. It is hard not to be frustrated by the length of time it's taken our Dossier to even leave the states... we still do not know how much longer it will take for this to happen. After our Dossier get's to the IBESR... we are unsure of how long it takes at that point for us to be cleared and invited to travel to meet our girls. There is so much of his journey that we "walk by faith & not by sight"... actually... ALL of this journey is by faith... We have photo's of our girls... videos we have seen... and here we are... miles and miles and miles away from them.... longing to be with them... This is HARD!
For the financial side of the adoption... we still have a long ways to go! Our next payment will be due in November - $1800.00 - that is just the living expense of the girls that we agree to pay. We will pay $1800 every three months until we bring them home. This money goes directly to the orphanage for our girls! There are document fees coming up that we have no idea when they will become due- and those are going to total roughly $5000.00. (court documents and their passports).... Plus travel expenses for at least two trips to Haiti. We have to stay in a hotel that will run us $150 per night... pay for food, airfare, immunizations before we go..etc... Again, this walk has been fully by faith and not by sight. If I go with what I can see... we won't make it.... when I look back at how far we have come in this last year... I'm amazed !!! Every deadline for payment sake-- we have had in our adoption account exactly what we needed... When we mailed our referral acceptance payment... we were back to about $110 in our account... we are doing fund-raisers galore to help this account grow. We have been so blessed! It's amazing how our friends, family, church and communtity have come around us in support... emotional support, financial support and covering us in prayer! We are humbled and eternally grateful!
Fund-Raising!
Currently we are doing the bottle drive. We have an account at the PI Redemption Center- "Condon Adoption".
October 7th - Scentsy Party @ my sisters house in Fort Fairfield- Consultant Ashley Dyer is donating part of her commission off this party directly to our adoption fund! THANKS Ashley
Thirty-one Gifts- On August 1st - I took on a second job selling for the company Thirty-one Gifts. I a doing this as a way to generate a second income to help aid our adoption. If you are intested in placing an order, you can go to my website www.mythirtyone.com/scondon or if you want to host a party... give me a call! 554-7399
And if you feel in your heart to just simply give- we have linked a paypal donate button right at the top of our blog page!
With so many unknown day's ahead in this journey... we look to Him daily to give us the strength, patience and endurance we need to just make it to the next day! What a gift this journe is... even in the trying times... the emotional times... the sad and heartbreaking times.... it's still a joy and a blessing... on the other side... our forever family !!!

Tuesday, September 20, 2011

Our girls in action!!!

I LOVE FACEBOOK!!!!

Just over the last few day's, we have been linked up with a bunch of families that are in the process of adopting from the same Creche (orphanage) that we are adopting our girls from. This has been such a HUGE blessing to us!!! We have "met" people that know... have seen...and have been praying for our girls!!! Just last night we were directed to a youtube video titled "Toddler Crackers" and were able to see both our girls on video. I can not even describe the feelings and emotions we both had. The desire to meet and hug and love on our girls is getting stronger every second of the day! To see them moving and talking (even if we couldn't understand a word they said) eating and smiling... what a joy... blessed our hearts!

Wednesday, September 14, 2011

Nephtalie turns 4

Last wed. one of our little girls turned 4 years old. It still amazes me how we can miss and love someone that we have not met. For this "mom to be", last wed. was a very difficult day.
My husband in all his wisdom suggested we ask if sending her a "Happy Birthday" email was ok. I thought it to be a long shot, but asked our adoption agency anyway. THEY SAID YES.
I quickly typed up an email... trying to express our hearts for her... trying to express our anxious desire to have her home with us... and hoping/praying that my words would break the language barrier of creole vs. english. Signing the email... with tears in my eyes... " all our hugs & kisses, Daddy & Mommy"
Waiting with breath held and anxious hearts... to find out if the email was actually delivered to her... read to her... expressed to her...
God is an amazing God... Thursday afternoon- email forwarded via our agency, from the orphanage... with four beautiful pictures of our little Talie- reading her birthday email and SMILING!
Love is the universal language!
Now we are praying and hoping and asking for pictures of Sheldine... and hoping/praying and asking for pictures of our girls together!

Sunday, September 4, 2011

Our family begins to take shape!

Two small wallet sized photo's are sitting on my desk... framed and in a place where I can see them mutiple times a day... the faces of our daughters.... YES.... our two little girls....waiting for us in Haiti.
About 2 weeks ago, we accepted the referral from Haiti of two little 4 year old girls...(non-related)... Sheldine turned four in July and Nephtalie turns four next week. I can not tell you the emotions that go along with this step in our journey. We love them so much, and miss them terribly... yet we have not met them face to face. We do not know if they have been told about us yet... we do not know when we'll be flying to Haiti to meet them. What we do know is that God is in control and we are focusing on trusting Him more and more every day.
Upon acceptance of our referral we again drained our adoption fund. It is never-wracking and amazing all at the same time that for each step of the way, we have had exactly what we needed... when we needed it!
Our next payments are for some in-counrty fee's- the passports for the girls- at least two trips to Haiti and we now pay their living expenses every three months in the amount of $300 a month per child. We know that God is faithful!
I have added a paypal "donate" button to our blog.... we would not have been able to get this far without the abundant generosity of our friends, family, communtity and neighbors... we give God all the glory and praise for how this has unfolded before our eyes! We have much funds yet to raise and it's hard to ask for help- and thank you for your love and support. This has been a journey that far exceeds what we first expected... a journey that far exceeds just involving Darren and myself... a journey that is emotionally draining- physically exhausting... and simply amazing...
stay tuned our faithful blog followers..... we can't wait to share more with you....