Actually, We're Downsizing

A year ago this month, Jode and I had worked six months, spent many hours and over $30,000 to prepare our home to adopt seven children we had previously fostered.  We had three kids rooms created which could sleep all ten kids comfortably, and I must say, they were adorable.  The whole house had been rearranged.  The den became our bedroom, our bedroom became the boys' nursery, the nursery became the girls' room, the future-kitchen become the dining room, the dining room become the living room and the small back-porch-kitchen gained some amazing cabinets and counter tops created from heart-of-pine barn wood, a new stove and a much larger refrigerator.  It was awesome, and we accomplished so much in a short amount of time.  However, it was not to be.

It seems that, as teens do, one of the two oldest children (ages 13 and 15) said we had too many rules.  At the age of 13 here in the great state of South Carolina, a child can make the decision as to whether they want to be adopted and by whom.  So the one teen made the decision for the whole group, and they were placed with another family.  We were devastated, but thankful we knew why it happened.  The irony is, we didn't have a list of "rules" for our foster kids until that particular group of kids moved in with us.  You know, things like "If it's not yours don't touch is unless you ask" because one of them had the tendencies of a ferret.  But life moved on, they continue to email and text us, and we pray for them and their parents. 

So keeping in mind that we planned, made preparations and put everything in place to accommodate ten children, we now find ourselves with way too many beds in the children's rooms.  So tonight we began down sizing.  The rose colored triple bunk bed is now in Gavin, Ian and Caius's room ready to be painted John Deere green.  Ian still has his crib, but will most likely be out of it by the time Cauis is home at which time Caius can use it until he no longer needs it.  The small captains bed Gavin slept in will go into the shed to be sold as soon as we're able to get our yard sale together. Flora's room now only has two twin beds in it and a nice corner set up for school and homework.  It's large enough that should Hattie still need a crib, we can pull our extra one into the girls' room and still have plenty of room to play. 

I said all that to say this, for those of you who are wondering why in the world we would adopt two more kids at once, this is nothing compared to seven at once.  Five total kids is much less than ten total.  Actually, we're downsizing.

Little Princess

In my last post we announced that we were looking to bring home a little girl along with our precious Caius.  We found her. I'll officially announce her and show her picture in a few days.  Right now we need to update our family sponsor page.  It took a bit to get everything arranged, and we finally got approved yesterday.  She's not in the same region as him, but not too far away.  Her being in a different region though, means increased costs. 

You can see from our fund raising thermometer that we're going to need about $12,000 in addition to that which we need to bring Caius home.  We talked about her, and look elsewhere, and then talked about her and tried looking elsewhere, and then researched more about her, and asked more about  little girls elsewhere, but we always came back to her.  She's a pretty little thing and about the size of Caius although she is a couple years older.  She, Ian and Caius will be triplets, but you can rest assured, she, like Flora, will be a girly, girl! 

Jode and I have always believed big!  We figure God is most pleased when we believe Him for that which others would think impossible.  We tell our giants how big our God is and not our God how big the giants are. 

All the paperwork is almost complete.  I'll be so happy when it is.  We've begun grant writing to help raise funds and are hoping to have a huge yard sale with the help of our church family.  Still, any help you can give us by donating to our account via the side button to the right of this page, would be most appreciated.  If you're international, not in the US, you can donate via paypal and it will do the currency conversion for us. 

Speaking of, a shout out for whoever it is in Croatia that's reading this blog.  That's amazing. 

Please keep the prayers coming.

With love,
Kelley

Cooking With Gas

We're cooking with gas right now.  The first half of our dossier is on its way to Eastern Europe, and the second half is being furiously gather as we speak.  I anticipate that the rest of it will be completed this week or next. 

If you look at our fund raising thermometer, you'll see that our financial goals are being met quickly AND that we've actually increased our goal by $2,000.  This $2,000 extra will allow us to bring home another child should we find one that we would like to pursue prior to our leaving or accept a "blind referral" once we get there.  A blind referral would be based on the parameters which have been spelled out in detail in our homestudy, for those of you who are not familiar with this term.  Currently we are approved for two children up to the age of 5 with specific special needs. 

You may remember that we initially wanted to adopt a two year old little girl from Colombia.  We still want to adopt another little girl, so we are leaving ourselves open for that possibility and making arrangements in advance should the opportunity arise.

Your continued prayers and support are very much appreciated as we continue this journey.

With love,
The Robinsons

Thanks! Around the world!

I pull up the stats to this blog every now and then to see who all is reading it.  I'm amazed to see that people from Russia, Iraq and Greece are actually reading.  I do have sweet friends in Australia, Serbia, Canada and the UK who follow our journey as well as several other European countries.


I wanted to thank you all for reading and following and ask that you leave me a comment saying hello, and which country you're from.  Please?  It would be fun to know.

Thanks!

Eastern Europe Bound

Meet "Caius"

Read more about our story here.

Many years ago, when researching my ancestry, I was delightfully surprised to find that I came from a long line of Eastern European roots, so when we found little "Caius" on the Reeces Rainbow Ministry website, that he was from Eastern Europe was a bonus!

 

 

This little fellow has some very special qualities which make him unique and in our eyes amazing.  I can't tell you how much we have fallen in love with him already.  And since we had already completed much of what we needed from our previous adoption attempts, we were well ahead of the game from the get-go.

We already have an agency approved home study, and much of our dossier is on its way back from the State Office having been apostilled.  Our I600a is with USCIS as of today and we now await an appointment for fingerprinting.  Next week we should have the rest of our papers sent to the State Office for apostille and then we'll send them off with the next individual headed in-country. 

If you understood any of that, because you've completed or are in the middle of an international adoption, you realize that this is going very fast.  Inasmuch our fund raising is going into overdrive now.  We have some resources as you can see from the fund raising thermometer to the right of this post, but not as much as we need to complete this process. 

If you would like to help us bring this little one home, please click here or on the link under his picture, read our story and then click the "Donate" button.  For my international friends and readers, PayPal will convert your currency to USD for us.  For those of you in the US, you can click here if you prefer to send a check and it will give you the address.  This will go to our Family Sponsorship Program and be used to bring Caius home.  Mailing, rather than using PayPal, will save the 3% PayPal fees. 

Caius had surgery on his little feet this morning.  We've not heard how that went but we are sure that he is in good hands.  He'll be in casts for a bit, but this will help his feet straighten out. 

Please pray with us for favor with all those in authority so that we can bring him home as quickly as possible, but in God's timing.  The sooner he is home, the sooner he will begin to receive the therapy he needs. 

He's a beautiful boy, and we are so excited about making him a part of our family.

It's a BOY!

Hi all, we've decided to pursue a precious pumpkin from Eastern Europe.  For now you can read a little about it here: http://reecesrainbow.org/60090/sponsorrobinson-4

And I'll do my best to update the blog very soon!