Update

I know it has been a while since I updated but honestly we have just been waiting and waiting. On Monday November 7th, we got word that we finally got our official letter of Approval. We got the actual copy in the mail yesterday along with all of our papers to mail to uscis to get approval to bring Sarah Jane to the U.S. The i800a asks for approval to bring a child and the 1800 asks for approval to bring a specific child. We hurried and got all of that in the mail to Fed Ex to arrive today. Approval is usually around 2 weeks but we have several holidays approaching. If we stay on track, it looks like we could meet Sarah Jane on JaN.16th. If not, it will be Feb due to Chinese New Year. Please pray that the process will finish smoothly, for us as we prepare our home, our children's hearts as we wait, and for us to raise the remainder of the funds we need. We are so close! Thanks for following us on our journey! Brandi

It has been a long time!! Adoption update!!

It has been a long time since I last blogged. I decided to blog again to keep people informed about our adoption. We are adopting a little girl who we are naming Sarah Jane, who has down syndrome, from China. She was 3 in Feb. She is spunky, beautiful and just wonderful!!! Can't wait for everyone to see her. Our homestudy should be proofed and approved in the next few days!!! YAY!! After that we mail off our 1800A to get approval from the U.S. to bring Sarah here from China. That process is taking two months, right now. Our house is on the market. Lots of big decisions to be made as far as what area we will be moving in for school. We want a very good special needs program. Please keep our family in your prayers. I will try to keep this updated!! Brandi

Update!!:)

Well.. its been a while since I have written. The last post I believe we were just denied. A lot has happened. We were called about a situation of a newborn in May, the same day that we heard we were denied from Peru to adopt. The baby was due in a month. We said yes a few days later, after praying about it. Found out very soon after, that it was a boy. The baby was born 3 weeks later. He is doing great!! He was born on August 10th. He is so sweet!!:) Our kids LOVE him!! We are going to try to get some pics with all of the kids tomorrow and in their sibling shirts so hopefully I will have a pic to post soon!!:) We are still sad about Star but I believe that God has big plans for her. We learned recently that she is very sick and was in the hospital. She was moved to Lima to get better care. She is now listed on Reece's Rainbow, so I am hoping her family fines her soon!! Please pray with us, that they see her soon!!!

Well here is our adoption timeline to Estrella. This is house it started and ended. 8/14/13 Saw "Little" One on a waiting child page 8/15/13 Called Villa Hope to talk them about their Peru program 9/3/13 Mailed Application to Villa Hope 9/3/13-10/20/13 Gathering information for homestudy 9/13/13 First homestudy visit 10/20/13 Second homestudy visit 10/31//12 Homestudy Approved 11/1/13 Started gathering dossier documents 12/2/13 Mailed I800-A to USCIS 12/9/13 Lockbox Date 1/7/14 Biometric Fingerprint apts in Birmingham 1/8/14 Ben and I psychological evalution 1/10/14 Ben and I psychological testing 1/10/14 Ben and I labowork and chest xrays to check for diseases 1/17/14 Kids labwork and chest xrays to check for diseases 1/17/14 Kids psychological Evaluation 1/20/14Ben and I check ups 1/21/14 Kids Check up visits 2/14/14 I800-A approval 3/1/14 Psychiatrist appointment 3/7/14 Everything mailed off to Montgomery to be apostilled except Psyciatrist report that we are waiting on and will need to go to Nashville to be apostilled. 3/12/14 Got back everything from Montgomery that was Apostilled. Still waiting on reports to send to Nashville! 3/15/14 We got our reports we were waiting on from the psyciatrist in TN.. 3/17/14 Took report from psychiatrist to Memphis to have the notary signature certified 3/17/14 Took reports to Nashville to be apostilled. 3/18/14 Went to pick up the kids corrected medicals. They had a mistake.Will pick up corrected ones later this week. We took everything else to Birmingham. Our agency is looking over everything to make sure there are no mistakes and waiting on the kids medicals before they send the whole dossier. They scanned and emailed a copy to Maria Elena (our lawyer)in Peru so they can start translations. 3/19//14 Went to pick up the kids medicals, Ben's chest xray results, and new birth certifcates for Anna and Nate. I think they are all correct and ok. Learned that Anna's and Noah's birth certificates are older than one year. Peru will not take them that old. I went to the Health Dept today to get them new ones. They still have to be taken to Montgomery to be apostilled. Also learned that Ben's medicals did not include his chest xray results, so I had to go go pick that up as well. 3/21/14Took Anna and Noah's new birth certificates to Montgomery to the Secretary of State to be apostilled. 3/21/14Took chest xray results, Anna and Noah's birth certificates and the kids medicals to Birmingham. Our agency agreed that they thought everything looked good. Our agency sent our dossier via Fedex to Peru. Scheduled to arrive 3/25/14 3/24/14 Our dossier is on tract to arrive to tomorrow in Peru. It is in Columbia right now. 3/25/14 Dossier arrived in Lima, Peru 4/13/14 dossier turned into the DGA of Peru. 5/15/14 Got the horrible call from our agency that Peru had denied us and we had 14 days to appeal. 5/15/14 to 5/22/14 work to get appeal together 5/28/14 Appeal turned in to the DGA. Now we wait. AGAIN! 6/25/14 We heard that we were denied again. Now the appeal goes to the Vice Minister. 7/21/14 Our adoption journey to Estrella ends here! We were denied again. Nothing else we can do. Please pray that she gets a Mommy and Daddy again soon. Thankful that God knew what he was doing and although we are very, very sad about this, he was working in our hearts and was preparing us for the answer I truly believe. Most of you know the story of how God put a situation of a newborn boy in our lives around the same time we were denied. I truly believe that was all part of God's perfect plan as well! I guess this page will not be our family blog and I will blog as I have time. I will not be able to post pics of the baby right away. We will have to wait until we are at home before we can post pics. Brandi

Update: our dossier is in Peru!!! So excited!!!! OK carry on- that is all!!:) Please pray that everything will go smoothly from here on out!:) .Brandi

UPDATE!!!

Hey guys! Ok!! A lot has happened this week for sure!! So here goes!!! On Sunday night we drove to Memphis so we would be there when the courthouses opened at 8am. We got there at 8 am, got what we needed and head to Pulaski TN at 810 am, we arrived there around 1230 and got what we needed, grabbed a bite to eat and drove to Nashville TN by 230!! Our Psyciatrist in in Pulaski TN. He works in Memphis at a hospital several days a week so he had stuff notarized in both Memphis and Pulaski. The state of Tennessee requires you to go to get a certified letter stating that the notary is true and valid and the signature is real. On Tuesday we took all of our documents to Birmingham. We found out that Ben's medicals didn't have a copy of his chest x-ray and the kids medicals needed to be rewrote with the kids full names, and Anna and Nate's birth certificate was more than a year old. On Wednesday, I went to pick up a copy of Ben's chest xray results, got Anna and Noah new birth certificates at the health dept. and picked up the kids medicals. Tonight, we will drive to Montgomery to spend the night so we will be in Montgomery when they open. We will be at the Secretary of State office to have Anna and Noah's birth certificates apostilled and then we will take everything to Birmingham to give to our agency. Our agency has received our FBI clearances back from the Secretary of State. At that point, God's will, everything should be ready to be mailed to Peru!! WHEW!! I need a nap!!:) When our dossier arrives in Peru, which should be on Monday, our lawyer there and some other folks will start pushing our dossier to be translated! My medicals expire on April 10th! If they expire before then, they will have to repeated which will mean at least two more weeks and more money. We are praying that it will be translated and turned in to the director by then!!:) God Bless, Brandi

Update

Adoption update: Well.. It has been a while since I updated last. I Am so bad at this! I have added our adoption timeline to the right side of the page. If you look at back post, we were first hoping to travel in Feb or March, then April. Obviously that is not going to happen since our dossier will not be to Peru until March. So it is looking like mid to late summer. At least we hope and pray that is the case. I have to say that adoption is the craziest, scariest, hardest, most amazing thing ever!! BRANDI