Stage 2 documents/ Julius & Paul

This morning we got up and I sorted thru 13 documents that needed to be notorized at the bank. We got to the bank at 9 a.m. Two of the docs were for the next 3 luv bugs. The rest are stage 2 Hague documents for Julius & Paul. We even sent out our fingerprints to the FBI on Tuesday for the next three boys!!

Now Tom is on his way (75 mile drive) to our Secretary of State to get them ALL apostilled. He'll be home by 5 p.m.

As soon as I got home from the bank, I was busy sorting and checking off what we've done and what we can continue to do for the next three boys. Also checking and re-checking forms for Julius & Paul.

When Tom gets home we will copy everything and send the originals to Bulgaria. We are still waiting on our I800 approval. After that approval ALL paperwork needed from us is done and we wait for court. And then a date to get them!!

We are chomping at the bit to get a "coming home" date for Julius and Paul. Because the day after they are home we can start our home study!! Woooo-Hooo! How EXCITING!!!

Please pray we don't "miss" anything! My brain feels fizzled! :o)

Taxes done!! Fund raising

On Tuesday we got our taxes done................finally!! We will get back $5,000. This will pay for part of our Home Study for the last 3 boys.~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Our agency charges $7,000 for a HS. Plus we pay the fees for fingerprints/back ground checks etc! So I had wished for a bigger refund. But precious Lord I will make this work! Some can't believe we pay this much, but it is a private agency that we've used over 30 years, it's always been expensive, but they get the job done for us!~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Next year we would get a refund, for Paul & Julius, Lord willing. That would re-pay most of their adoption loan. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~We still have to borrow for the last 3. We have put adoptions on our charge cards, our Home Equity etc. As long as we can afford the payments I think this is o.k.; because we have no auto loans and our house payment is only $700 a month. The only big debt we have is real estate. We have properties we were going to sell to pay off debt and then the market crashed!! That is why I personally don't think there is a wrong or a right way to fund an adoption (within reason!). We had thought we had "planned" our future finances to help us, but nothing on earth is guaranteed. Things that were assets 10 years ago are no longer assets!~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ So now we try to raise $4,000 to $5,000 for airfare to bring the boys home. It depends on if the plane is summer rates- which are $500 more than Tom's first fare of $899.99 in winter. Tom & Hope fly over to pick both boys up. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~We have the money for the hotel.~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Then we need $2,000 for the rest of the next home study. $13,000 for their program fees. Around $1,200 for the I800A. Then $1,440 for the I800. Plus airfare two trips $6,000 to $7,500. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~We have the money for hotel both trips.~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Please keep us in your prayers! With God all things are possible! Right now they look insurmountable. But we can do it one dollar at a time! :o)~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ God Bless you all for your love and prayers!! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~And to those who have donated already- Words cannot express our thankfulness! (((HUGS))) We LOVE you too! p.s. blogger won't let me make pragraphs!!! UGH!!

A funny!

I just realized that when all of our boys from Bulgaria get home we'll have Julius & Paul both 4 yrs, Kitty (home now) and Noah both 8 years, Moses & Jacob both 6 yrs. ~~~~~~~~~~~ Of the 15 children we have now, we only had Angel & Andy the same age (35 yrs) and Samson and Gabriel the same age (16 yrs). ~~~~~~~~~~~ So soon 1/2 of our children will share the same age with another sibling and half will not. And we'll have 9 children ages 4-10! :o) ~~~~~~~~~~~ The only thing I hate is then people ask- Are they twins??? NO!! LOL!!

a post about my boys

I posted this here-
http://godsgiftsinmylife.blogspot.com/2011/03/three-special-boys.html

I guess I jumped the gun

Our I800 was signed for and received on 3/17 in TX. Then last night 3/25 I got an e-mail that said "USCIS Acceptance Conformation" and that in 7-10 days I'd get written conformation. It also said it was being sent for processing."

This was confusing because for our I800A we only received one e-mail for approval-nothing else.

So I know our USCIS worker promised to approve it as soon as it hit her desk. Hopefully that will be soon.

I'm kinda sad. I know it will be soon but I thought it had already happened.

YES!! I800 APPROVAL!! YES!!

We just got an e-mail at 12 a.m. that we have verbal approval for our son's Visas and written approval will arrive in our mail box 7-10 days!!
That was fast!!

Now we just have to wait for those darn Dr visits. UGH!! The last one is 4/8. After that Dr visit we can drive to Mpls. to apostille everything on 4/11!! And send to Bulgaria!! Woo-Hooo!!

O.K. Paula and all you prayer warriors- those were some strong prayers you all prayed! Thank You!!

Praise God!!!

The sloooooooow down

When Tom came home on 3/12 we hit the ground running. We mailed in our I800. We printed off paperwork to notarize 4 documents. We set up Dr appts. We got police clearances.

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My Dr appt was right away. But she is a PAC so I ask my old Dr to sign off for her. (He didn't take it very well when I left him for a female provider....UGH!) This time I left the forms with the previous copies to show how he did it for me before. He sent them back right away with only one form signed. :o( He did not sign the psych. Now I cannot get in until 4/8 to ask him why.

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Tom could not get in to see his Dr until 3/30 because he is so booked. He doesn't even have 5 minutes to sign a form until then.

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Wait,wait,wait. We could have had all of this signed, apostilled and sent off to Bulgaria over a week ago.................................

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Please pray that it was just an oversight that the Dr forgot to sign the psych. I am hoping that he does not think I need to see a psych.!! He signed it last time. The Drs are all confused as to why these forms expire. By the time we get to the last 3 boy's adoption the Drs will probably think we've adopted 4 times instead of twice!

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(((HUGS))) to all my dear bloggy friends! :o)

Samson says Hello!

Samson wants "his" picture on the blog today!!

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He is not happy, we are having a snow/rain/sleet storm!

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He wants to go to Target. He wants a hair cut. He says it's bath time!!

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O.K. Samson, we will do all of those things, just not all of them today! :o)

I Love You Samson!!

Julius& Paul/Noah-Moses-Jacob our boys

We are adopting FIVE boys from Bulgaria!!

Two will come home hopefully in June, July or August. Their names are Paul and Julius. They are 3 years old. This is daddy Tom loving on Paul, Julius is behind. Paul never laughed before. The staff was amazed at how happy he was to have a Daddy! Please help us fund raise to bring them home! :o)

After the first 2 come home we start our next adoption for our last 3 love bugs-Noah,Moses and Jacob. Please look at our older posts to learn more about them. And my profile tells about our children.

Thank you for visiting!! God Bless you! We love you! (((HUGS)))

This post is a link to a post on- aplacecalledsimplicity.blogspot.com

That link is here- http://aplacecalledsimplicity.blogspot.com/2011/03/lending-hand-to-help-some-precious.html

Linny has a great blog!! :o)

Answered prayers

Sorry to keep everyone hanging. We were incredibly busy this week catching up since Tom was gone the week before.

When Tom walked in the door last Saturday I had two I800s filled out, two I864Ws filled out and 2 releases of info filled out. He had the corresponding paperwork to send with from Bulgaria. We mailed that to USCIS on Monday. And then I realized I'd spelled one of the boy's name wrong!

Tom straightened it out! The USCIS worker said if the name was correct on the Bulgarian papers she'd switch the incorrect TV in the name to the correct VT. Phew! She was very nice and thanked us for giving her a heads up on this.

However she won't see our papers for another 2 weeks. But she promised to approve as soon as they hit her desk! Woo-Hoo!

I saw my Dr on Thurs. to re-do medicals, Tom can't get in to see his until the 30th. :o( We need to get new police clearances too and sign and notarize three forms.

On the 31rst Tom will drive all of that to St. Paul to be apostilled. Then we mail them to Bulgaria on April 1rst.

Oh how we wish it was faster. But the Lord's timing!! The lord's perfect timing!

I'm still working on our taxes. Please pray that on the 29th we find out that we are getting a good refund. We may not because we spent alot on adoption and not on the business. I have state and county licensing audits this year in June.............paperwork! UGH! I have an annual review of client services in June too! The good thing is I love my new person I hired to help me with my files. I haven't had a good helper for over 7 years! Very few people like this type of work or are qualified to help me! So it's crazy here. But the Lord is keeping me stay on top of everything to get our boys home!

Thank you Lord!! And Thank You to all of you who are praying!!

Please keep praying! Noah & Moses new photo

These are updated photos of Noah and Moses, taken by missionaries. They did not get a photo of Jacob. Noah (top photo) turns 8 in June and Moses (bottom photo) just turned 6. Noah has a beautiful smile and an angelic laugh. We saw a 10 second video of Noah.

No word yet on the spelling error of documents. Please pray! All documents must match up. :o(

PLEASE PRAY!!

Our 2nd stage documents were sent to us. I noticed that our youngest son's name had 2 letters switched. Instead of the TV that I had put on every form, including our Dossier apostilled documents; it was now VT. UGH!!

Tom mailed our I800 to TX this morning. It has TV on every form because that was what I had from our original forms. Tom did not overnight the forms so they won't get there for one week. :o(

This could set us back. We need approval and court before EE takes off the month of July. :o( We need these boys home fast so we can get the last 3 boys home fast!! Please pray that this will not be a big deal!

I will update photos of two of the Noah and Moses to post later!!

PLEASE PRAY!!!

Tired old happy people!

This is Paul on Thursday. The staff at the orphanage said that he was a sad, unhappy, quiet boy.........................Until!!! His Daddy from America came to see him!! Thursday he laughed and laughed!! He loves having a Daddy!

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Now Dad has to leave him in 24 hours. We pray that he will not forget Dad. We pray that he will forgive Dad for leaving and rejoice when Dad comes back to pick him up and bring him home.

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I'll try to get more pictures up tomorrow. I'm tired. Tom's tired. It's hard to catch up on your sleep when you are old AND tired! Just laying down to sleep doesn't always work. You wake up because you can't sleep much and then you speak gibberish to your teens out of your fatigue and they roll their eyes at you because they will never get old!! LOL!!

(((HUGS))) everybody!

THANK YOU!!!!!

Someone donated to our donation page- THANK YOU!! and God Bless You!! from all of us!!

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The top picture is Julius, the bottom picture is Paul. So precious!!

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(((HUGS))) to all!! :o)

Ta-Da!!! Introducing Julius and Paul!

Here they are!! Wow!! Aren't they big!! On the left is Paul Follower Archer and the right is Julius Believer Archer. (Follower as in follower of Christ, and Believer as in believer in Christ) Their names are taken from Acts:27 where Julius a Centurion took care of Paul on his travels and when the ship wrecked they wanted to kill the prisoners, Paul included, Julius saved Paul's life. reading several translations of this chapter adds to the story!
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They are both 3 yrs old. Julius turns 4 in June. Paul turns 4 in September. How do you think they'll look with their Army issued crew cuts when they get home? LOL!! That's the standard haircut here. Except my boys of color, they get the smooth look. Love those brown skinned heads!! In a post below you can see Isaiah's hair cut- yup-crew cut!

Compared to their big brothers Noah, Moses and Jacob, these guys are huge! LOL!! I don't think they are on bottles like the older boys either. Tom said they didn't say what they eat.

I think Paul has blue eyes and Julius has brown eyes. Tom is veeeeery tired.(translation= crabby) UGH! That is my only complaint about growing old. HEY! Where'd my energy go??!!

I walked Tom through skyping the photos! More to come, stay tuned. :o)

A bad night, my mistake

We are on our own with Tom gone in Eastern Europe. So it's me and the still at home kids (the other 8 are grown up) ages 7,7,8,10,15 1/2, 16,and almost 18 yr old. Two group home gals. The dogs, shoveling the 5" of snow we got the day after Tom left. Homeschool. Etc.
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Another substantial snow fall is predicted to start tonight. With more snow possible on Friday. I had to park the 15 passenger van in the driveway because with my vision loss, I do not drive in snow until it is snow plowed off the streets. Now we'll need to shovel the van out of the driveway to pick up Tom on Saturday! The plow has plowed the van in through the alley.

Did I also tell you that I received jury summons on Monday ?? No! I didn't need that! So I called the court house and a woman named "Lucky" answered? Is that a professional name? She was not lucky for me and talked to me like I was an idiot when she told me my options as a self employed sole family support person who cannot leave her business to be a juror. UGH. I still don't know exactly what she meant.

Our current two group home women are quite hands on.(that's our M.A. with DS in the picture, we're up north) There are lots of meds, supervision, schedules, behaviors (of course I have my own behaviors that they put up with too) and they leave the house daily for their Day Programs. M.A. is mainstreamed into a Retirement Center. S.P. is still "working" on piece work at a (DAC- day activity center) S.P. goes in the afternoon 1:30 to 7:30. M.A. goes in the morning 8:30- 2:30 p.m. I get them ready. Assist hair washing, bathing. They are both suffering from dementia, M.A. has Alzheimer's, S.P. has Schizophrenia (active, acting out Schizophrenia) related dementia. Long story short-Yup, it's alot of work, but these women are a blessing and a huge part of our family. I owe them. They bless my life. It is an honor to serve them.

Last night I was very tired. (Duh! LOL!) And as I was administering meds. to the women, I gave one of the women the wrong medication. They actually take the same meds before bed except for 2 pills. Unfortunately 1 of the pills causes extreme drowsiness, confusion, restlessness as possible side effects. It must be a hard med to take. Especially when given to the wrong person.

The med I accidentally gave was at 7 p.m.
By 10 p.m. I realized my error. I called the Dr immediately. Then from 10 p.m. to 2 a.m. it was rough. She was super restless and asleep. I had to protect her. At 2 a.m. I laid next to her bed on the wood floor. At 4 a.m. I moved to the living room. At 6 a.m. I got up to get the kids up. She was awake and well by 8:30 a.m. I cleaned her up put fresh bedding on her bed and she slept till 2:30 p.m. Praise God, she is doing fine, she just lost a day.

It was a night of prayer on my knees. Wrestling with an angel. Asking God for forgiveness. Alone here without Tom's help. He Skyped at 10:30 p.m.
He felt so helpless in EE when he heard the news. He was just as sick about what happened as I was. But that didn't help us. I had called the Dr and the Dr told me it would be o.k. and it was. But it was rough. Tom had made this same med error about 6 or 7 years ago. However the med re-acted different this time. It was worse. I sure didn't need this to happen during our joyful adoption time.

I'm thrilled to say all prayers were answered. But I am physically and emotionally dead and sleep deprived. Decision making is so HARD!! LOL!! I second guess myself about everything now and then take notes so I don't "forget". This has been rough to say the least. Next trip I hire a helper!

So Tom and I only connected on Tuesday a few minutes to talk about the crisis. He did get pictures of the boys, but has informed me he has no clue how to put them on the new mini-laptop! OY-VEY!! We had no time to talk about the boys because he was going to bed and I was still busy with our gal. It is almost 1 a.m. there right now and almost 5 p.m. here.
We won't Skype until 10:30 p.m. here tonight. Then he'll be off to see the boys again! :o)

God is so good!!
(((HUGS))) to all and prayers would be appreciated! :o)
Joyfully,
Elizabeth blessed servant of God

It is Monday here and Tuesday there, how confusing!!

Tom saw the boys on Monday! I know, it's still Monday here. But it's Tuesday there! He woke up early. He's so tired, he isn't eating. I KNEW IT!! LOL!! Our facilitator picked him up in the a.m. to drive to the orphanage. They couldn't find it!! They were late and Tom said the workers said that they were very under staffed so he could not visit long. He was overwhelmed with all of the people observing him during his visit. He was worried that they wouldn't like him. Our facilitator said they did like him! :o)

I thought that he would have an a.m. visit and a p.m. visit. I had heard that from another family. For Tom it will be one visit a day. It does not give him much time to be with them. :o( He's worried they won't remember him. I think they will remember something about him, if the orphanage is understaffed, how can they not remember the man who visited them and spent his time just with them. Kissing and hugging them.

Their real names are confusing. On Reeces Rainbow they are Eric & Emmett. Those are not their real names. Besides their real names they are called nick names too. So I have no clue who is who anymore!

Tom says Julius is active and very independent. When Tom wanted to help him on a horsey ride he pushed his hands away. Paul makes a throaty sound that he probably learned from imitating the other special needs children. (Kids with DS need to "copy" sounds from parents, adults and children who don't live in orphanages to learn how to pronounce correct sounds.) When Tom carried Paul, Julius showed signs of jealousy that he wanted to be held! Tom carried Paul for an hour. The whole thing was overwhelming he said. Overwhelming to see them and not get to take them home. To think about leaving them on Friday. He's keeping in prayer for his strength. I think this has been good for his faith to grow!

No, :o( Tom did not take any pictures. But in a few hours it will be time to wake up and go again, and he promised he would. He said they don't look thin and he thinks they are a good size.

I thank God for Skype. Without it our phone bill would be huge!!
So many blessings, so much to Thank God for!

He's still flying!! He'll be there soon!

Here's the old Dad ;o)

(who is flying to Eastern Europe to see Julius & Paul)

and the old mom; and their surprise baby Isaiah age 7 that they had when Mom was 47 and Dad was 50!! Ever since Isaiah was born people think I'm his Grandma! My oldest granddaughter will be 14 soon! LOL!

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This was us last Wed. picking up our special needs puppy! I know, like we needed another thing to do before Dad left for Eastern Europe.

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But this puppy- Babe is not only a special needs puppy, he is a very easy puppy to care for other than housebreaking- putting him out every 2 hours and after every nap and meal and play time. LOL!! Oh and 3 a.m., he can't hold it through the night yet. Other than that he's a very special dog that has captured my heart like only one other dog has in my life. God really did know I needed him! He's super smart.

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Tom is still flying to Germany as I write this at 12:44 a.m. U.S. time. Hopefully tomorrow we will Skype after church.

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Thank You Kat and Paula for your sweet comments!! (((HUGS))) to all who read here!!

God bless! :o)

He's on his way to Eastern Europe!

Now that we are older, we are wiser :o)

Tom took Executive Express from olur local Holiday Inn to the airport in Mpls. at 8:30 a.m. It is a "taxi" service that goes only to the airport from St. Cloud and surrounding areas. The airport is about 70 miles south of us. We used to drive ourselves and park at the airport. We used to drive like crazy people to get there on time. And even finding a place to park! There seems to always be construction! LOL! This will be great when he gets home too. He can just get a ride home, no driving. It is only $38.00 each way. Which is cheaper than the mileage my last employee charged me to drive up and do my group home paperwork!!

When Hope and Tom bring the boys home they can use this same service and give all of their attention to the boys!

We had thought of renting a car to just leave at the airport but even that is more $$$ and headache.

So now he flies from Mpls to Chicago and then to Germany and then our boy's country of birth.

Please keep him in your prayers. He's never been away from us in 35 years, who'se going to remind him to eat? :o)

THANK YOU!!

I posted this on my Gods Gifts in My life blog, but not here.

THANK YOU!! to whoever donated money to our account for our boys!!
It means the world to us that you are helping us bring them home!!
THANK YOU!!

((((BIG HUGS)))) and God Bless!!

Special needs puppy boy

left to right- Bouquet (Great Pyrenees), Wulif (Shiloh Shepherd) Snow (Shiloh Shepherd) they are smiling at me :o)
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Squiggy- Tri-Colored Pembroke Corgi

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This little boy below is from a litter of 10 Great Pyrenees puppies. Five of the puppies in his litter died. Even with life saving efforts provided. This boy made it! By the grace of God!

And 4 other big fat puppies in this litter made it too.

Those puppies have homes.

This boy is tiny and will be small.

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So his breeder can't sell him. She prayed to God for what to do. My name came to her from God as she prayed. He told her to bless us with the puppy! Then she sent me an e-mail with his photo and I was very surprised! I did not know the story behind him and as I was e-mailing her to say No! My e-mail shut down and wouldn't come back up! So I tried to save the draft, but it deleted it even after it said -save!! I did this several times until finally it sent. And then the phone rang and she explained to me his story. Wow!

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After she told me the puppy boy's story. I told her we were adopting 5 boys from Bulgaria, two soon and three next year. It just was not possible to take a puppy. She understood.

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After we hung up I prayed for him to find a home. Tom came up and said "maybe one of the adult kids would like him?" It then hit me how my adult kids always beg for one of my dogs because they are good, well trained dogs. I always tell them "No they are my dogs!" Then they say "Mom you have too many!" So this puppy could be trained by me and live with one of them! How fun! What a blessing!

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He is a special needs puppy, he is tiny. He will not be a full size boy Pyr. We named him Babe from our favorite movie "Babe". In the movie the farmer was reluctant to take his (pig) Babe too. But Babe blessed his life. We think our boy Babe will bless our life too!

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p.s.

Bouquet in the picture on top is our girl from the same breeder. She is 20 months old, her AKC name is "Princess Hyacinth Bouquet of the Milky Way" We call her Bou or Bouquet for short. Bou and this little boy have the same mother. Bou was small too but not this small!!