Facing Reality

Today I faced reality. God does not want us to leave as soon as we want to leave. Ok that might sound like an obvious statement but really, we've been pushing through this doing everything possible to make it go faster and everywhere we go we meet a delay. First it was the homestudy. Right when our social worker was supposed to have it finished his son had to have surgery and that delayed us. Then a document from Missouri that was needed to complete the homestudy didn't get returned which delayed us more. We pushed to have it done before our social worker went on vacation and finally got it in our hands.
After mailing it we met the immigration monster. I've blogged enough about that nightmare but we finally got our approval and as soon as we get our dossier in the mail we get a volcano. Yes, a volcano. Even though most of you are well aware of this I have to say it because years from now I might try to tell Oksana that a volcano was part of our delay and it sounds so crazy and unrealistic that she may not even believe it!
Despite the volcano our dossier made it to Paris and now is moving at a snails pace through Europe. The backup from the volcano is certainly a factor but it gets better. Apparently despite the fact that we marked Priority on everything and told the lady that we wanted it shipped as fast as possible, she entered it as Economy. I was angry, but then I faced reality and moved on. I could have taken a rowboat to Europe and skipped across it to our facilitator by now, but our package is still moseying along and will "hopefully" be there Monday.
To top it all off I found out that May, the most important month for the things that we will need done in Oksana's country, is full of 4 day holidays meaning there will be a number of days when the government offices will be closed. Despite all of my efforts to make this move forward God, for some reason unknown to me, just doesn't want us moving that fast. What I do know is that while I've had plenty of moments of frustration and want more than anything to be with Oksana, "all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose" (Romans 8:28). So all of the things listed above are for our good and for Oksana's because we love Him, He loves us, and this is what we are called to do....frustrations and all...no matter how long it takes.

Bye Bye Dossier!

After one last appostille it was off to Fed Ex today to ship our dossier! Our friend Lynn met us there. Her husband works for Fed Ex and she gave us their discount making our total only $20.92! I figure I'll probably have the tracking number memorized by the time it arrives because I plan on tracking it a lot!

I171.......check!

This has been an emotionally draining day...make that week...for me but we finally have our I171 in our hands! Monday morning our request for evidence landed in Memphis. Our congressman's office contacted them and they said "it's in line for review". Sorry, not good enough. Our congressman's office contacted them again pushing them for more information. This morning Larry got a call from USCIS telling us that there is another question we didn't answer. Now let me be sure you know that it WAS NOT on the request for evidence. They missed it. She said she needed to know how many marriages we'd had. Larry is sure he filled that out but he went ahead and told her that this is our only marriage. She said that was the only thing holding us up. Larry asked when they would send the 171 and she said we should see it next week.

A little later he gets another call from her. She says she needs to send out another request for evidence. This time it seems that we put 1 child on our application but our homestudy says we can have 2 and those numbers need to match. SERIOUSLY? First of all I've never heard that. Second of all WHY WASN'T THAT CAUGHT 4 WEEKS AGO?!?!?!?! Larry just sat there. I think he was shocked and realizing how much this would set us back...again. He told her he wanted to come to Memphis to fill out the request for information. She agreed to let him do that. He then said he also wanted his I171. She was reluctant but eventually said "Fine, what number of children do you want in the box and I'll have it ready for you." Larry said 2 and he headed off to Memphis. He is on his way home now with it! Tomorrow we will get another notary and appostille and then sometime tomorrow afternoon we should be at Fed Ex mailing our dossier!

Moving Forward

On Wednesday, when I went out to the mailbox to find that I still did not have my request for more information in the mail, Larry and I decided we were done sitting around doing nothing. We sent a pleading email to USCIS explaining Oksana's situation, the fact that she should be in an institution, the surgery, and the fact that every day without therapy is a day closer to the surgery being in vain. We sent along a picture pleading with them to move forward with our paperwork. Then we called our congressman's office. Within 2 hours they had the answer that we had waited almost 2 weeks for. Our paper had been put in the mail that day....translation..."Oh the congressman's office has been called? Let's hurry up and stick that thing in the mail." Sure enough it arrived today! Upon opening it I was torn over whether to be thrilled or angry. I was thrilled because it was a SUPER easy fix that took all of 2 seconds. Angry because it was really absolutely unnecessary. We hadn't specified the city we would be in on a section of our paperwork and even though we specified it in numerous other places they decided it was worth delaying us 2 weeks for us to verify, yet again, that indeed we are going where we said we were. GRRRRR..... Anyway, it is back in the mail to them, will be on their desk Monday morning, and upon verification of its receipt our congresmann's office has promised to be breathing down their necks until our I171 is in our hands!

In other news we just found out that we have received a $4000 matching grant! We are absolutely thrilled as this is a much needed help in our effot to bring Oksana home! Things are moving forward again and it feels good!

A Plea for Freddie

Meet Freddie

Freddie will turn 15 this summer and will soon meet his new family! The Shupp family has been working hard to bring Freddie home as soon as possible. Lyndi Shupp is the amazingly wonderful woman who has been our lifeline from Reece's Rainbow guiding us through our adoption. Last summer the Shupp family brought home Patrick from Oksana's orphange! Freddie has epilepsy and although normally a child with this "disability" would be sent to an instituion, he is currently still living in an orphange. Read this story from a missionary who was involved in a child hosting program through his orphanage.

"I'm hosting other kids from his orphanage and visit with him all the time. Unfortunately, this is not the first hosting we're doing from this orphanage and we were not able to find a family to host him because of his epilepsy. I went to his orphanage the other day again to take new photos and chat with the director - and Freddie took me out by the hand and asked "why do other kids go to U.S. and get adopted and me not - is it because I have epilepsy?" And tears came to his eyes.... and I thought I will kill or die but to find a family for him. I changed the subject and we talked about other things and he struck me again by being so smart and logical. He is just a great boy and I really hope you can help find a family for him. I have not given his info to anybody except my hosting partner agency, and they pretty much told me that they won't be able to host him and I need to find somebody to adopt him. Other children love him and take special care of him. "The director went on about that -- I almost cried when she said: "It's amazing how all kids in our orphanage help him. He had a seizure once and another boy put his own hand into Freddie's mouth to make sure he does not bite off his tongue!"

We are so thrilled that the Shupps have stepped forward to bring Freddie home! The one huge obstacle that they face right now is funds. They are extremely close to traveling and still have quite a bit of money to raise. Please go check out their puzzle fundraiser and help bring this boy home!

HARD

This waiting is so hard. I mentioned in a post in March that we had emailed the immigration office handling our paperwork and they had said that the next day they would be sending out a request for more information. That was a disappointment to us since we knew that would drag the process out longer. We got that email on a Thursday the 25th. The form should have been mailed Friday the 26th. That obviously didn't happen because we still have nothing. All of our attempts to reach them last week were met with no response. We finally emailed them again on Monday to find out that the woman handling our paperwork was out all week last week and they would let us know as soon as they heard from her regarding the status of our paperwork and whether or not they ever did send the request for more information. Every day we have gone to the mailbox waiting and wondering and it is so extremely frustrating. By the time we get that request we still have to gather whatever information they need and send it back just to start waiting again for our approval. We have a friend who knows a congressman. He is going to see if he can get some action over there on our behalf. Unfortunately the friend keeps reminding us that with all of this healthcare stuff right now the congressmen are up to their ears in work and he may not be able to help. I want so badly to knock on their door and say "HELLLLLOOOOO....do you not see that my girl needs her family?" But I don't, I just continue to wait and trust that God is STILL in control even when it isn't happening like I'd hoped it would!

Oksana's Birthday!

What a day today has been. It is Good Friday and Oksana's birthday! It occurred to me this morning that both are bittersweet. I am heavy hearted when I consider the suffering that Jesus endured on the cross, but joyful for the salvation that comes through His sacrifice. I am also heavy hearted as I consider Oksana's birthday in the orphanage. I wonder if anyone acknowledged it or if she felt special in any way. But I am joyful because I know that next year her birthday will be one of great celebration surrounded by family and friends!

Nearly 8 years ago, when I was very pregnant with Evan, we took Clayton to Build A Bear to stuff an animal for his new brother. He chose a cat and dressed it as a firefighter! This year for Oksana's birthday we took the boys back to Build A Bear to make Oksana a bear that will go with us when we travel.

Here we are choosing her bear


Evan is helping to stuff it


And here is Oksana's new friend! We named her Mishka. I chose the clothes because the boys wanted to dress it as a Star Wars character!


After Build A Bear we gathered with our small group as well as a couple of other friends for a small party for Oksana.

Here is her cake


Friends singing Happy Birthday!


Evan goofing off before we cut the cake!


And FINALLY some clothes hanging in the closet! I can't say I'm positive they will fit her but I'm so glad she doesn't have an empty closet anymore!