One last trip

One more trip.  Just one more and this time we get to bring them home.

I'm excited and nervous all at the same time.  I know God's got this but I've never traveled with one of your children.  This time Gavin will got with me and Jode will stay home.

Gavin is our nine year old who is the size of a medium adult. That's what size clothing he wears.  His feet are bigger than mine.  He's strong and kind and loves to play with his little siblings, especially Leza and Nico.  It will be adorable to watch him and his new siblings bond while in country.  Especially Hunter who, although he is four, is about the size of an 18-24 month child.  Gavin is going to carry Hunter in an Ergo during our travels. 

In our family we have a tradition of not putting a child down, like in a stroller or carrier, until they have been home for at least five months, thus the Ergo and not a stroller.  Although we do get down in the floor with them to play, and we encourage them to play a lot, we do not leave them alone.  We find that this helps with security, building trust and therefore bonding.  I've done this with pretty much every child. Gavin's going to help me do it this time.  I'm good, but carrying two at once is not my forte!  =)  Besides, Hunter is pretty excited to have a big брат (pronounced brat and means brother) and been expressing that since he first saw Gavin's picture. I'm so excited to see their relationship unfold!

We leave Dec 4th in the evening. Please pray us through on this one last trip!

Second trip in the books!

We flew into Kiev after flying for abut 18 hours. We immediately ran to the grocery and then to our train for Hunter's region. We had to have groceries, cheese, hard salami and bread, along with water and juice to carry us through the nine hour overnight, very hot, train ride. Time was so short that by the time we got there they had already retracted the stairs to our train car, but we made it.

We settle in, put on our Georgia summer clothes (did I mention the trains are HOT), made our bunks into beds, ate a bite and tried to sleep. I'm not sure how many times that train stopped during our trip to his region, but it felt like every 15 minutes. There were times when the train made such horrific noises that I was sure our car was coming off its wheels. After a very long, restless night, the porter woke us up prior to our stop and in broken English told us that our stop was coming up.

We got up, washed up, ate a bite, changed back into our street clothes and waited for the call "Krivoy Rog." Bags in hand we departed the train and immediately realized something was not right.

As we walked down the ramp, the train station did not look at all familiar. We also notice our driver, Igor, who is always prompt was not there. We had no way of contacting the team since in our haste the night before we had failed to obtain an in-country phone - our fault for not asking and our drivers for not offering. We also had no wifi or mobile data in this region. We're talking country side. So, being resourceful, we contacted our friends back in Idaho, who then contacted the team in Ukraine. We found out that they had already spoken with the porter from the train who told them where we had gotten off. She also told them she tried to stop us . . . not true. I don't blame them though. If you knew our facilitator, Irina, you'd know she is one formidable, albeit little, individual. We call her the little bull dog. I can understand why they would try to lie their way out of loosing her family! 😱

We were actually in Krivoy Rog; however, there are four stop in Krivoy Rog and we had gotten off at the first one when we should have gotten off at the last one. By the time the team heard from our friends in the US, they were already on their way to.

Meantime, a precious woman who worked at the train station tried her best to figure out how she could help us. Between her broken English, Jode's broken Russian and the help of his Duo-lingo translator we realized we all needed to study the other's language much more! She did try . . . she was precious.

We made it to our hotel with enough time to eat quickly, shower and get to court which of course was successful! We then visited with Hunter for about 2 hours while our facilitator ran around doing what facilitators do. We ate dinner and then jumped another very long (12 hour), very HOT train ride to Katie's region.

I'm truly glad it was us and not a new, first time adopting family. We were calm. Experience has taught us we can trust our facilitation team to find us and rectify the situation. We also trust God to work all things together for our good. We are thankful to both of them.

Adoption isn't glamorous. It's exhausting, it's rewarding and it's worth it.

Whirlwind trip and Amazing babies!

Hi all, we are back from our whirlwind trip to Eastern Europe and met our two babies!  Oh wow, they are amazing, funny, adorable and we are so excited to make them a part of our family. We will return to their country in early Nov for court and then again in early Dec to bring them home.

In the meantime we are still about $12,000 short of that which we need to raise in order to be fully funded.  While we were there, a precious friend of mine and the ministry she and her husband founded, The Shepherd's Crook, decided to come along side of us and began fund raising on our behalf.  In less than a week, over $8,000 was donated to the children's account!  We were overwhelmed with God's goodness and everyone with us that night was in tears. 

We had the blessing of being with another couple who could have been nothing less than a God ordained appointment.  Their lifestyle, beliefs and plans for the future are very much like ours.  It was wonderful to spend time with them and talk about the mighty hand of God and the amazing journeys we call life!

The children are in two different regions/orphanages about 6 hours apart and we could only pick up one referral at a time.  We when to Katie's orphanage first, visited her, heard all about her medical needs and how she is delayed.  (She is, but mostly because of her being in an orphanage.  She'll catch up quickly once home.)  She's about the right size for a one year old which is good. Now we just need to get her some cute little girly clothes!

We then went back to the countries capital, picked up Dalton's referral, who we are going to name Hunter, and then took the over night train to his regions.  Nine sweaty hours later with very little sleep we arrived, went to our hotel to freshen up and then off to the social workers office and then to the orphanage.  We heard all about his medical needs, visited with him and then ran around doing his paperwork.  His needs are nothing that we hadn't already figured out from pictures we had received.  He's doing well though.  Wears about a size 2T.  We'll have to buy a few things for him, but with lots of good food and lovin' he should be in the size 3t things we've been saving for him.  After filing for a court date and doing some more paper running around, we had dinner at the hotel restaurant. A short night's rest later we were up very early and back on the train to the capital.  One last night there and then we flew home.

It was one fast, exhausting but productive trip!  The food was great, the team was exception, the kids are beyond words and our God reigns! I'm glad we're home with our little ones here, but we sure miss our little ones there. Soon, soon we will all be together.

Here are a couple picture from our first meetings. 

 

They are amazing and we are very blessed!

TRAVEL DATES!

We received travel dates this past Tuesday.  We are to be in country on the 30th for our appointment which means we leave Saturday morning.  It's not much time to prepare, but thankfully this isn't our first adoption and we know how to prepare.

Once we have our appointment, we will board a train for Katarina's region.  We will meet her, accept her referral, visit with her and then head back to the capital.  At that point we will receive Dalton's referral and then travel to his region, meet him, accept his referral, visit with him, head back to the capital and then fly home.

After the "meet and greet", there is a committee which must review our children's file to insure that our home study and our children's files agree i.e. the ages, gender and special needs for which we are approved.  This process can take about 30 days.  Once we receive their approval a court date will be scheduled and I will return to go to court and spend some time with the kids.  Usually there is a 30 day waiting period after court; HOWEVER, that 30 days can be waived for medical reasons.  We are hoping that will be the case.  If so, I will stay until I can bring them home.  If not waived, I will come home again and wait for the 30 day period then return to bring them home.

We've not talked much about our children's special needs because we are a family which emphasizes our capabilities rather than disabilities.  But it's true that they both have significant needs and we're praying that we can get them home ASAP.  We've already spoken with our specialists and they are aware and ready to begin treatments in whatever manner that presents.

Pray for us while we are away.  Pray for those who have come along side us and are supporting us with their time and efforts.  It's been wonderful to once again see the Hand of God work miracles on our behalf.  And please pray for the financial support we need.  Adoption is very expensive.  You'd be gobsmacked if you know how much we had spent on adoption in the past 9 years.  Really though, it's not our money any more than they are our kids!  It's His money and these are His precious babies.  He entrusts us with both to do His good pleasure.  We just get to come along for the ride!

COLOR STREET Nails!

We have a fun Color Street Nails adoption fundraising going on right now! 

 

 Friends and family, if you love getting your nails done, and love to have fun with color, or just your basics, this is an amazing, fun way to do it!

 

You can find the link to shop HERE

 

 

Christmas in August UPDATED!

By now you know that we have completed our paperwork, are waiting on submission in Ukraine and an invitation to travel.  In the meantime we are doing our best to amass the funds needed to complete our first trip which should be within the next few weeks.

Inasmuch we are holding some sales which will also allow you, our wonderful journey mates, to start your Christmas shopping.  We have two sales going on right now.  They are Norwex and Loving Cup Tea and now COFFEE!!

I'm a coffee lover so I'm so excited to add that we have a fund raiser for coffee with 100%, yes that 100% of the purchase price going toward our matching grant!  You can find the sale HERE

Norwex is committed to providing educational resources and supporting charitable projects that address growing concerns about harmful chemicals, plastic pollution and environmental issues. Their environmentally friendly products are microfiber cleaning, household, personal care, pet and auto products. You can find a link to the sale HERE, and 35% of each sale goes toward our adoption.  We all use these products in some form on a daily basis.  Stocking up on them through our party allows you to replenish that which you need and support our adoption.  Now if you are a tea lover, like me, you'll enjoy stocking up on this next sale.  

Loving Cup Tea sells loose leaf tea that is created from the highest quality leaves, ingredients and natural flavorings. As a mother I know what it's like to be pulled in all directions and everything seems to need your immediate attention.  I know what it's like to need just a few minutes of time to regroup one's thoughts and refresh one's soul.  Tea does that for me.  If you don't find tea soothing as I do, perhaps your loved one does.  This would make a lovely gift during the holidays for yourself or someone else.  You can find a link to this sale HERE and 30% of each sale will go toward our adoption. 

Thank you once again for supporting us during this journey to bring home our little ones.  Your prayers and financial support are invaluable.  We could not do this without you.

With love,
Kelley

And just like that . . .

. . . we are Done!  With the paper work that is. 

All of our remaining documents are winging their way over the Atlantic via UPS to arrive in Eastern Europe this coming Wed. 

Next step is to be submitted to their equivalent of social services.  Once submitted, we will be invited over to meet the children.  We're really looking forward to that day!

APPROVED!

We received our last piece of paperwork today - our I171h - which is our approval from USCIS/immigrations. 

It has been notarized and is on it's way to Atlanta to be apostilled.  Once apostilled, it will be sent to the next family traveling to our children's country and then handed over to the team.

THIS IS OUR LAST DOSSIER DOCUMENT!

 

 

Being Still Isn't Always Easy

It's not always easy to "Be still and know . . . ", but at times that's what God asks us to do. It's a matter trust.  So when my Facebook account got hacked and then "temporarily locked" (it's still locked) right after my last post about our matching grant, I reminded myself that God's got this.  So far I'm doing okay.  I guess because this is not our first international adoption, and we've been through this before, we've learned to trust God and His timing.  It's not always how we would do it, but He's never late.  So here we sit, not able to advocate for ourselves through social media. 

I find it most difficult to sit still because I don't want anyone to think that I'm not doing my part to raise the funds we need to adopt our children.  It's a hard one because it contradicts everything that this world tell us to do.  However, that not how God works, is it.

He says He uses the foolish things of this world to confound the wise.  Things like, give and it will be given unto you, and bless those who curse you.  That goes against the worlds thinking doesn't it.  I know from experience that His ways are higher than mine and if He says it, He will make it happen.  

So here I sit, trusting that He is faithful and is able to do exceedingly more than I can think or ask. 

Thank you, Lord! 

Matching Grant!

We received some exciting new this past Friday.

Lifesong for Orphans in conjunction with our home church, Warren Baptist, has given us a grant in the amount of $3,500!

This is a matching grant. Which means we need you to make this possible!

For every dollar our friends and family donate, Lifesong/Warren Baptist will contribute a dollar up to $3,500 which will give us grand total of $7,000!

We are so thankful for this opportunity!

Our story page is below.

https://mystory.lifesongfororphans.org/stories/robinson-party-eleven/

We CANNOT do this without YOU!

Only One More Document!

Only one more document!

We only have one more document  and then our dossier will be complete. It is our I171H from USCIS which is our immigration approval. 

We're making another road trip to USCIS in Atlanta tomorrow evening, after Jode gets off work, to get our fingerprints done since our appointment is Thursday morning at 8am.  We don't want to drive in Atlanta rush hour traffic. Once those are complete, we will get our approval. 

Please help us pray for safety, success, good fingerprints and an expedited process.

Thank you!

MORE GREAT NEWS!

GREAT NEWS!

 

Our home study and all the pertinent documents that go with it, like social worker and adoption agency license, are now on their way to the state capital to be authenticated. Next step will be to send the authenticated documents over to Eastern Europe for inclusion with our dossier. 

 

The only document yet to be received is the I171-H which is our approval from immigrations. That will happen after we have the fingerprint appointment.

 

And that folks, will be the LAST piece of our dossier!

 

Almost There!

 

Time for an UPDATE!

 

USCIS, which is Immigrations, now has a copy of our home study so we are only waiting on an appointment for biometrics which is a fancy word for more fingerprints!
 
Our final home study and all the licenses that go with them will be sent to the state capitals (FL and GA) to be authenticated/apostilled hopefully by week's end.

Once returned, all of those documents will be then sent to Eastern Europe and included with our dossier.

 

We have requested that everything be expedited due to the children's special needs, so hopefully our dossier will be submitted no later than mid July. After that, we will receive travel dates to come meet the kids!

 

We are almost there!

This amazing journey

We have final, signed and notarized, home studies in hand. That's very exciting. It's taken us 3 months, and tons of paperwork and patience, to get to this day!

Three originals will be mailed to the state office in Atlanta to be apostilled. That's the verification of the notaries signature which is required when sending documents internationally. Once we get them back, they will be mailed to Ukraine for translation as part of our dossier.

One final original was mailed this morning to USCIS/Immigrations in Kansas to be married up with our application. Once they receive it, which should be Monday, they will arrange for Jode and I to have another set of fingerprints. These prints will be somewhere in the State but we will not know until we get our appointment letter. Once that's complete, they will send us an approval letter and it too will be notarized, apostilled and then mailed to Ukraine as the final piece of our dossier. 
 

We're almost there!

 

Thanks for supporting us through this amazing journey!

 

 

 

GREAT NEWS!

 

What a wonderful day!

 

We were blessed with this precious picture of our soon to be future son

 

AND

 

We were given the news that our social worker has completed our home study approving us to adopt two children from Eastern Europe!

 

That's FABULOUS NEWS!

 

Our home study is now with our facilitation team and our primary provider agency for final review, editing if needs be, and then final approval! 

 

Once approved we will receive 4 signed and notarized originals of the home study. One originally will go to USCIS to be matched up with our immigrations application.  One will be retained for our records and then two, once apostilled, will be sent to Eastern Europe for translation along with everything we have already submitted.  Once we have USCIS approval, the approval document will also be sent over to be compiled with the rest of our dossier and then . . .

 

It will be submitted to the ministry which oversees international adoptions! 

 

WOW

 

We are almost there!

 

Thank you for following along on this amazing journey!

In the waiting, we can find peace and rest

In the waiting, we can find peace and rest

Although we have done all we can do to expedite this home study, we are now in a waiting period. Every person living in the home over the age of 18 must have background checks in every state which they've lived from the age of 18. Although Jode and I had all of these from previous home studies, my mother, who lives with us, has not. We are still waiting on two states. Once those are received, a final draft can be written.

Thank you again for helping us pray this through!

Update

UPDATE

For those of you that don't already know, Dalton's family is finally able to go get him!  We've been praying for, donating to, and advocating for him for 3 years now.  We always knew God laid him on our hearts for some reason.  Now we can share that story with him someday.  Inasmuch, and because this is not our first rodeo, we've made short work of the paperwork. 

All our home study (HS) paperwork and social worker visits are complete and our home study only waits to be written in a final draft and approved by our facilitation team and primary provider. 

All of our dossier docs, sans the HS ad I171h (USCIS approval which is contingent on receipt of our final HS) are completed, apostilled and headed to the next traveling family to be handed to the team in U.  So, now we get down to some serious fund raising.
 
Right now we have a t-shirt fund raiser created especially for those of us who sometimes feel like we're herding cats.  You can find it here.
 
We also have a shoe drive.  If you're so inclined, you can always mail your good used, or new shoes to us. 
 
And of course, we have our family sponsorship page!

Once we have the final HS in hand, we can apply for grants from other foundations.

To date, in less than 2 months, we have spent approx. $10k and are allotting close to $800 a month from our family budget, but we still need help.  If you're able, can you please help by contributing, sharing and praying.  We really appreciate it. 

Fundraising

Fundraising can be quite daunting

In the past we've never been very successful at it, but God always comes through. That doesn't mean we still don't do all we can in an effort to do our part. So in that vain, below are several ways one can help our family bring these two home. Both of them have neurological diagnosis, so we're doing out best to get them home and to our neurologist ASAP. The paper trail is zooming by, now we need to raise the remaining funds. 
 
  

We now have five fundraising efforts going.

The first is our SHOE DRIVE- for every pound of good, gently used or new shoes we collect, we will receive forty cents. This is contingent upon our collecting 100 bags containing 25 pairs of shoes each.

The second is our T-SHIRT SALE. A portion of the proceeds for every shirt sold will be given to us. It's a t-shirt I designed myself. I often tell my kids they remind me a herding cats. Thus the shirt Chief Kitten Herder! It would make a fabulous Mother's Day present and comes in sizes XS to 3XL, and in five lovely colors. Here's a link to the sale

The third is via our GOFUNDME page which can be found here:https://www.gofundme.com/the-robinson-family-adoption
 
The forth is our REECES RAINBOW FAMILY SPONSORSHIP PAGE. This is a grant which is held in trust until we have completed everything and are ready to travel. You can find it here: https://reecesrainbow.org/129762/sponsorrobinson-7

The fifth is our family page through HAND OF HELP IN ADOPTION which can be found here: http://www.handofhelpinadoption.org/2019/03/robinson3.html

We have set up an account through paypal under which we will deposit all funds for our adoption. This will keep all monies raised and/or donated separate from our everyday operating funds.
We also plan to write for grants, but we're not able to do that until our home study is done. That will happen very soon.
 
Thank you again for helping us bring our little ones home!

Addition

Adding another cutie!

This little love has been on my heart for over three years, and we are finally in a place where we feel we can bring him home too!

He and Katarina are from two different regions of their country, so costs will be a bit higher.  However, it's not the first time we have adopted from two different regions.  In fact, Katarina is from the same region as Leza, Nico and Emily, and this little fellow, whose pseudonym is Dalton, is from the exact same orphanage as Mikhail.  Go figure!  =)

We're looking forward to bringing them both home and watching them grow into the amazing people God created them to be!  The rest of our children are very excited about their new brother and sister as well!  This is gonna be fun!

Here's our updated family page.

God Bless!
Kelley

Adoption Update

I wanted to give y'all an adoption update.

As of today, our home study is as complete as we can get it. Everything required from us is in the hands of the agency and we are just waiting on our final visit, which is May 3. Once that is complete it will go to our facilitation team and then to our primary provider for final approval.

Our dossier encountered a hiccup which will be easily rectified. We should have it complete, sans the home study and USCIS approval within the next week. We will be sending everything we have to Ukraine for translation by the end of next week.

Once we have the final approved home study and USCIS approval, they will be sent to Ukraine for translation and then submission to Ukraine for approval. At that point, we wait for an appointment to come review the children's files and visit them.

It's a very quick program. We hope to be there by summer's end, but we have learned to be patient in the waiting.

Thank you so much for helping us pray this through. 

Your prayers are invaluable!

Cooking with Gas

I love cooking on a gas stove. It's instantly hot, not waiting for things to warm up.  Food gets cooked quicker, more efficient.  Just like our paper chase for this adoption!

Folks, this thing is going a lot faster than I thought it would.  I'm totally flabbergasted that everything for our home study has been turned in, and that we already have 29 documents for our dossier.

In order to finalize our home study, which will then be included in our dossier, we have one more visit with our social worker.  It is scheduled for May 3.  Once that's done and the final draft is written, it will be submitted to Hand of Help in Adoption (our facilitation team) for review and then to Joshua Tree ( our primary provider that provides Hague oversight) for final approval.  That's the next step in this journey, finalizing the home study and getting it approved. 

Although we have already paid an application fee to Joshua Tree, we still need to pay the rest of their fees.  They will not approve the home study until their fee is paid.  Makes sense.  This a layer of accountability established after we finalized our last international adoption and with the layer come additional fees.  As if adoption wasn't already expensive.  I understand their role in this and I get it. 

I'm glad we know Who our provider is! 

Think I'll turn the flames down for tonight and get some sleep.  The real Cook in this never sleeps or slumbers.  He's got the watch. 

How do you eat an Elephant? UPDATE

ONE BITE AT A TIME!

Yes, an international adoption is a HUGE undertaking, and since I am a goal oriented person, I love my check lists.  They give me positive reinforcement and continue to keep me focused on that which has been accomplished and that which remains.  Each entity we deal with has their own check list and to keep up with them, I have to create mine!

In this adoption we are currently dealing with 5 different entities -

1. Hand of Help in Adoption - our facilitation team
2. Option4Adoption - our home study team
3. Joshua Tree - our primary provider that provides Hague oversight
4. Funds2Orgs - a fund raising organization
5. Reece's Rainbow - Adoption Support for children with special needs.

That's a lot of check lists!

Our most recent entity, Reece's Rainbow, and the first one, Hand of Help in Adoption, has been with us through all five of our international adoptions.  We trust them and are thankful to be making this journey with them again. 

Reece's Rainbow is a 501c3 agency that has, through grants, been financially helping adoptive families bring home their adoptive children since 2006.  These grants are created through donations from people like you and are TAX DEDUCTABLE!  Inasmuch, we are creating a Family Sponsorship Page (FSP), grant page, through them so that all donations to our adoption are tax deductible.  Basically, they hold the money until all preliminary costs have been paid - things like the home study, immigration costs and dossier preparation, submission and approval - and we are ready to travel.  If for some reason we are not able to finalize the adoption, the donated funds would remain with the child's grant funds in hopes that someone is able to bring them home.  It's a great way to keep everyone honest don't ya think? =)  I'll let you know as soon as it's active!

UPDATE: OUR REECE'S RAINBOW FSP IS LIVE!

Anyway, as an update, we have completed all the documentation for our home study and are now just waiting for inquiries to return so we can finalize the home study.  Our application to USCIS, immigrations, has been submitted and we have begun compiling our dossier.  How are we eating this elephant?  One bite at a time!

Thanks for coming along!
Kelley
http://www.handofhelpinadoption.org/2019/03/robinson3.html

God's grace and favor are AMAZING

OUR HOME STUDY IS ALMOST COMPLETE!

God's grace and favor are AMAZING!

We have encountered so much favor during our home study process.  The paper work is moving along at an amazing pace, and we are so thankful! 

Now begins the process of creating our dossier and raising the funds to complete this. 

I think I have finally allowed myself to breath and accept that this is really, finally, happening again. 



Katarina for the Robinsons

 

 

For those of you who know us, you know that Jode, the children and I have felt for years that our family is not yet complete.  I know, I hear you, we have seven children at home!  However, when God lays it upon your heart, it's hard to ignore, at least not for long!  

Inasmuch, we are once again pursuing a child (or two) from an Eastern European country, one which we love and have missed.   We look forward to going back and seeing those who have become like our second family.

As you know, adoption is expensive.  Not many families have $35,000 extra laying around.  We defiantly don't, but we know our God is faithful, and experience has told us that what He leads us to, He will also supply all that we need to accomplish it.  

If you would like to come along on this journey, and support our adoption efforts, please hit that donate button.  Your help, and prayers, are greatly appreciated.  

We will be adding updated posts as we go along.  For now, we are about half way through our home study, which are the initial documents, huge bundle of documents, which have to be amassed to prove that we, our home and everything about us makes us good candidates to adopt again.  Our next step will be to send our I600a documents and fees to USCIS, the department of Immigration.  We need to do that ASAP since they seem to be taking a bit longer than usual to review and approve.  

Thank you in advance for following along!