Paperwork Fun!!!

Wow! Just wow. I am amazed at the amount of paperwork. We have been trucking along trying to get everything in order in just the precise way it is required. I have a new found respect for those who have come before us to tackle this process. Thank God for the helpful people from Reece's Rainbow. Our dossier rep Chris has been awesome. Every time I bother him with another question, he gets right back with an answer. I am sure he will be sick of me before the end...

So, where we are... I have finished gathering the small truckload of documents needed by Forever Families Adoption Services for them to finish up our home study. I will be dropping those off Monday and will hopefully have a completed home study very soon. We have had our CSP's and POA's all filled out and notarized and are now in the hands of the Secretary of the Commonwealth to apostille. Then those will be sent off overseas. Our medical forms will have to wait for another week. Our doctor had the nerve to go down to Haiti and help with the cholera outbreak instead of hanging out here and seeing us :-) We have a really great doctor. We got back our criminal background checks today and unfortunately Carey's date of birth is wrong, so hers will have to be redone. They made her older than me! I ordered our certified marriage certificates this evening. We will soon have another whole pile of forms to notarize and apostille.

Tomorrow, after church, we will be introducing the church to Julia at a light lunch and fellowship we are holding. We look forward to seeing many of you there. We can't wait to meet Adeye and her beautiful family!

All in all, our process is going very, very fast. Soon, we will be done with all the paperwork and then we will just have to sit and wait until February for the courts to open back up. That is going to be a very long wait for us. Julia is on our minds day and night. We talk about her all the time. She is the beautiful prize at the end of this long process. She is so worth it. Our family and friends can hardly wait to get their hands on her to love her up!

Sweetest dreams, my little princess.


P.S. Anyone that would like to see how my oldest daughter sees Julia fitting in...

Some bad news, some GOOD news!!

Well, as much as we had hoped everything could be accomplished before Ukraine shuts down for months, it looks like it is impossible.  The dossier would have to be sent out by next week and that just can't happen.  We have done everything humanly possible.....there are just factors out of our control!  We trust God has a plan for the timing of everything : )

Some good news is that Reece's Rainbow has told us that this particular orphanage keeps the kids there until the age of 6.  So even though Julia will be 4 next month, she will stay put!  Yay!!  They have also told us that the orphanage "most certainly knows we are coming for her." 

We are also encouraged that another family adopting two boys from the same room Julia is in, will be over there before the holidays.  They will be able to see how she is doing and maybe get some more pictures for us!! 

Julia's age confirmed

So this evening we received an email that confirmed Julia's birthday is Nov. 2006, not "early 2008" as had been posted on Reece's Rainbow.  I am having mixed emotions with this news.  I am, of course, concerned that they not move her to an institution (which is what I understand they typically do at age 4) until we can get there.  I do not know at what point in our adoption process the orphanage director is told that a family is pursuing her.  I'm saddened that since she is older than we thought, it means she has spent more of her life just lying in a crib with no one to love her.  I wonder how long she has been orphaned.....since infancy or a year ago??  I am encouraged that if she is 4 years old and still surviving with Cockayne Syndrome in an orphanage setting, that she is a strong little girl!!  Just so many thoughts are going through my head with this new information.  More urgently wanting to get over there.....like yesterday!  I need to trust God's timing and plan in all of this and remember that she is His child before she is mine : )

Next Sunday....

Hello everyone!  Well, my physical is complete (I'm healthy!), Steve's will be complete by tomorrow, and are waiting for our pediatrician to fill out the 4 child health forms for our kids.  Then all we have to do is sign up for the 10 hour eduation course, and send in all the paperwork to Forever Families and our homestudy should be finished on our end.   It has been very busy, lots of work and very quick!  Hallelujah!!

We also wanted to let you all know (if you are local to us here in Fredericksburg, Virginia) that we are having a light lunch in our fellowship hall after church next Sunday, Oct. 31.  Any of you are welcomed to attend the service which begins at 10:45am or just come for the lunch around noon.  Before/during this lunch we will talk about how we came to find out about Julia, how the Lord moved us both to love and want to adopt her so much, what her circumstances/conditions are, and how the adoption process is going.  This will also be an opportunity for anyone to give a free will offering to help us cover the initial adoption costs before the funds Adeye raised are available to us through Reece's Rainbow.  The free will offering will be matched by Thrivent Financial for Lutherans up to $1600!  Any money we receive above what we need to cover the adoption will be set aside to help cover medical expenses once we bring Julia home. 

Here is the address to our church if any of you need directions:

Redeemer Lutheran Church
5120 Harrison Road
Fredericksburg, VA 22408-1803

If you would like to donate to this, but are unable to attend next Sunday, please contact me at carey.schwenzer@gmail.com.  I can let you know who to make a check out to and give you our home address. 

We praise God for all of you who are praying for us and for Julia!  The kind encouraging words are very uplifiting.  It's so amazing to hear from so many of you who have followed Julia's story for so long and from those who are just hearing of her.  You are all such a blessing to us : )

Pictures of the Princess' Bedroom

Wow, what a job Carey and her friends did on Julia and Regan's bedroom. But before I get to the pictures, I have forgotten to thank someone else for their hard work. You may have noticed the absolutely perfect header at the top of the page. I would like to say I have that sort of creativity, but alas, that is not one of the gifts God gave to me. Anthony, Adeye's husband, put that together for us. What a great job! Thanks, Anthony.

Now for the bedroom. Carey and several of her friends spent several days removing the furniture from the playroom, taking down wall-paper borders, spackling walls, taping, painting, and refurnishing with bedroom furniture. It came out great. Daddy here still needs to hang a few things like a mirror that the princesses can see themselves all dressed up in and a hook to hang their clothes on. But it's almost done!

Here's the doorway in...


Here is the view as you walk in the door...



Here's a look to the right of the bed...


A look to the right nearer the door with Regan doing I am not sure what(there is one of my jobs, hanging that mirror)...


And finally a look to the left...


Regan is very astute and realized the only thing missing in this room. She told me today, "We need to go get Julia now!" I had a tear in my eye after that one.

Sleep well and dream about your family who desperately wants to hold you in their embrace, my little princess...