New Timeline Posted

New! Check out the new addition to the website. On the right, below our pictures is a new timeline feature that we added so that we, and you as well, could look at the progress we are making in the adoption. :)

Roadtrip!

This morning Ray and I set out for Charleston, West Virginia to be fingerprinted for a third time in the course of our adoption process. We left by 7:30 and arrived around 11:30. The place was small, and though potentially quaint, was very sterile and cold. We dropped off our cell phones, camera, and pocketknife with the police guard and waited in a couple of plastic chairs. When they finally took us in to be fingerprinted (one at a time), I noted that the process was the same as the Salem police -- only our equipment was much newer (Go Salem!). They stamped our papers and Ray mentioned to the woman who helped us that he had heard Charleston moved paperwork through much faster than other places. She confirmed this by saying they were a smaller location and didn't get bogged down in paperwork like other places. Hurray! Good news for the day. :)

Third Times the Charm!

The mail:
Saturday's mail was loads of fun (except for the two personal property tax bills). We received one baby magazine called BabyTalk, which just has fun stories and projects. We also got some pictures in the mail that I had printed to add in with the dossier. And last, but not least, we received a letter from Immigration.



Immigration's approval of us is the next major hurdle after our homestudy. It's the pre-approval for the children and what gives us the ability to go see the boys in Guatemala. They sent us a letter saying they were processing our paperwork, but they needed a few documents (which should be on their way from the homestudy agency, I think) and our fingerprints.



This will be our THIRD time being fingerprinted, but this time no local police department will do. We're being sent to Charleston, WV and have an appointment set for Friday. So, we're going to arrange time off from work Friday afternoon and head to West Virginia for (hopefully) our last time getting fingerprinted, and taking one more step towards pre-approval.



Reason for excitement:
Right now, our agency is planning another trip to Guatemala for some time in May. We can't go because we're waiting for Immigration to give us the thumb's up. However, the agency has already told us they would be happy to get some new pictures of the boys for us! YAY!



1) A friend of ours said that for China, they were encouraged to send disposable cameras to the foster parents so that they could take pictures of the children and mail the cameras back. I don't know if we can do this or not, but I want to find out!



2) This may be too imposing, but I want to see if our agency would be willing to take our video camera when they go visit Guatemala and take a bit of video of the boys. What a priceless gift that would be.


The Turtle
So the other BIG EXCITMENT (it just doesn't take too much for me these days) that I have to share is this turtle that Ray and I discovered at Countryside Classics, a store in downtown Salem. We bought this super-fun turtle for the boys that acts as a nightlight, but makes real constellations on the walls in three different colors. Below is a picture of the turtle and what the room looks like at night with it on. We tried it out. It really works. :) VERY FUN!

A Great Sigh of Relief

The homestudy is finished. (YAY!) We've spent all of spring break just frantically trying to get the house together, finish up our paperwork for the dossier, and be ready for this homestudy (which is essentially a social worker talking to us about everything in our lives to make sure we're stable and will be good parents, and checking out the house to make sure it's safe and child-ready). It's been exhausting.

In addition to the earlier scare where we thought the homestudy was going to be cancelled at the last minute, we found out 20 minutes before our social worker arrived that we were supposed to have each written an autobiography and had tons of paperwork completed and compiled. Why no one told us, I have no idea. Somehow it was just a communication oversight. So after we had our first encounter with the social worker, we spent the evening typing out out autobiographies and just finishing them up in time for our second meeting today.

It's been just emotionally exhausting. Yesterday, following first visit, I was just ready to either collapse or cry. I think we're so emotionally invested and worried that any wrong move or wrong word would mean we would not be able to get our boys. It's so hard feeling committed to them, knowing that any wrong move could lose them.

We're definitely worn out. I think we both were looking at each other today thinking that we need a vacation instead of work tomorrow morning. I don't know how we would have coped had we not had spring break to get ready.

The good news:
-- We've got a start on the boys bedroom. (Please check out pictures from a few days ago).
-- Our social worker said she was going to give us her strong recommendation believing we'll be "great parents!"
-- This first major hurdle is completed.
-- Our dossier is pretty much taken care of (it just needs some last details) and will be finished within the next week. The dossier is the portfolio of us that goes to Guatemala.
-- Our house is super clean and organized, which at least helps us both breath a little easier.

A big thanks to D --, a Guatemalan parent who has been a big support for us as the emotional anxiety of everything is just simply hard to explain to anyone unless you've been there. She's going on her first visit to see her son in only a few short weeks! Hurray!

Thank you all who were thinking of us or praying for us. We deeply appreciate your love and support.

Pictures of the boys' room! At last!

This is one of the books that Emily got for the boys. Each of the pages is touchable as you can see from the cover. :) Still, it was a fitting book cover for the pictures below. We finally got the beds together, mattresses on and are able to display the cute "bear camp" quilts we got recently. We're super ready for the homestudy now. :) (Tomorrow at 3:00!) I hope you enjoy the pictures.

Bonnie and Clyde for parents

First of all, an apology. There has been so much going on lately, and we've wanted to share with you, but have felt a bit uneasy posting some of the turmoil we've gone through on the Internet. If you are interested in some of the details, please feel free to call and ask when you see us.

But we did have one recent hair-raising event that we DO feel now has a backlight of humor on it as we are looking in hindsight.

Last night we received an email from our homestudy agency saying that our homestudy was cancelled because when they pulled up their records they saw some charges from 1999 - 2002. Apparently, in some alter universe, Ray and I are a pair of Bonnie and Clydes with a series of charges on our record. They noted charges such as drug trafficking, contempt of court and others of the like. What was so frustrating is that we recieved the email late at night by mere chance -- as Ray just happened to check his work email and found it there (they had misspelld his home email address so it had never arrived). It gave us the evening and night to panic and worry.

This morning, as we talked to the director of the agency, she said that they were shocked at the charges, couldn't believe they would allow us to teach with such charges, and would look a little closer.

As it turned out, when they requested the records, the fax cover letter had our names, but hidden under a STAPLE were the names of other people!!! The agency apologized. Ray spent the day in deep thought replaying the evening. I cried out of sheer relief. And in the end, I do think God is teaching us to walk while holding his hand.

Anyway, for those of you good enough to read all of our announcements, please do keep us in your prayers. This has been an exhausting journey with last night's events being just a smidge of it all.

Also, we've put the boys' beds together and have gotten the mattress and box springs and the room is just shaping up darling. I've got a whole list accumulating of things to buy over the next 9 months! It's all been great fun and I haven't forgotten to provide pictures. They're coming. Thanks for your patience, love and support.

~ Ray and Kelli

Five Days Until HomeStudy. . .

and counting.

There's a lot to be done in a short amount of time. We're not super sure what they're going to be looking for in the house, so we're trying to get the boys room (currently a guest room) cleared out, and twin beds put in. We're trying to get out last of the documents together and get the house imaculate.

It's been a lot of running around the past 48 hours. We've got pictures coming of the fun new quilts we got for the boys and we may have enough books at this point for a whole bookshelf, including a Read and Learn Bible given to us at church this Easter in hopes of the boys arrival. :)

Package #2 for the Boys: Happy Easter

So Ray and I had so much fun tonight. We went to Walmart to pick up a few necessities and Ray and I decided to go down the "Easter aisle" -- the same one that brought me to tears the last time I walked down it, thinking it was going to be another year from now before I am able to get Easter toys for the boys. But tonight, that's what we did. We picked out Easter toys to send to our children. 5 stuffed animals (3 rabbits and 2 ducks) for Mateo and Daniel and the three children they live with at the foster home. We also got some squeezable cars (5) and a few coloring books (5). Happy Easter indeed!

Bilingual Children's Books and Adoption Credits!

Yesterday was a good day.
1) We found out that the adoption tax credit has been raised this year, which will be helpful as adoption is really expensive.
2) My friend, Emily, found us some bilingual children's books and coloring books that will be really fun for the boys. Since she lives in NM, lots of the books in general places like Walmart and Kmart are in Spanish, and it didn't take her too much trouble to find books with both. These will be so handy! Plus, they were just entirely fun. (AND as Ray noted, may help us in our Spanish class!!!)
3) We received our monthly newletter from the adoption agency and they had the following information regarding Guatemala. They are encouraged by the latest events and that is comforting to hear. The only downside appears to be that processes in Guatemala seem to be slowing, but we knew ahead of time that it would happen come summer, so we've been expecting such news.

Guatemala City Garbage Dump: A Story of Hope and Loss

Ray ran across this story and wanted to share it with you. It's heartbreaking and touching, as it shares the story of a woman who believed in redeeming the poorest of Guatemala, and the loss that her ministry Safe Passage experienced in her death. Safe Passage is an organization that focuses on the children that are found searching for food and clothes in the Guatemala City Garbage Dump. It helps to educated these children and their families.

In sum:
http://www.safepassage.org/welcome-to-safe-passage/welcome-to-safe-passage

Story of Hanley and the Children
http://www.safepassage.org/welcome-to-safe-passage/articles-about-hanley/american-was-angel-to-guatemalans

An Audio Clip about Hanley
http://www.here-now.org/shows/2007/02/20070213_17.asp