Adoption "Pregnant"

Done.
Finished!

We received the last of our paperwork, got everything apostilled, sent it to our agency, and we are completely done!

Not only that, but our dossier (paperwork) is actually on it's way to Azerbaijan!!

Whew!

We are thrilled, but nervous.  Well...I don't know if Kyle is nervous...might just be me ;)

According to our agency's website, most families can expect to receive a referral within 9 months!!  Who knows what that means?!?!!  We could receive a referral in 3,6,9 months...longer?  You know how good I am at the unknown...right?

What happens now? We wait.  We fill out grant and loan applications.  We wait.  We pray.  We do fundraisers. We wait.

And one day we will receive the referral!  Oh what a day that will be!

Please continue to pray for us!  Pray that God would provide the funds we need.  Pray that God would give us patience as we wait!  Pray that He would begin to prepare Matthew to have a brother or sister!  And pray for our little one!

Now THAT'S what I call a YARD SALE!

In our last post we asked you to bring us stuff...and to say that you came through is an understatement! 

I mean, the pile above is a tiny FRACTION of what you donated to our family!  By the night before the yard sale our dining room, living room, and garage were completely full of allllll your stuff!  I won't lie...I was a little overwhelmed.  I mean, let's all be honest for a minute...Kyle and I aren't the cleanest people in the world, but that much clutter was almost my undoing!  Fortunately, I have many people in my life who were quick to remind me the purpose behind the piles and piles of donations.  A child.

So we set to work.  Many people came by to help sort and price items.  The night before the sale we put clothes on hangers and set up the clothing racks we borrowed from our church.  We hung signs around town and picked up last minute donations.  And we slept...a little.

The day of the sale we started SUPER early.  Kyle and I set our alarm for 4:15am.  Friends joined us as early as 5:15.  We pulled everything out of the house and set up in the darkness.  "Yard Salers"started showing up at 5:45 WITH FLASHLIGHTS to go shopping.  By about 7:30 we had a constant stream of about 30 people in the yard at a time!  9:30 rolled around, and there were still 30 people in the yard at a time!  The sail boat sold.  The rugs sold.  Books.  Clothes.  Kitchen items.  Decor.  Furniture.

There were even baked goods for sale!

And middle schoolers, too!

Just kidding...they were there to help ;)

Matthew's best buddy came over to play while his parents worked alongside us.  Our fantastic babysitter worked for free and kept the boys *mostly* out of trouble!

At the end of the first day, we still had tons of stuff, although our total had already surpassed our dream goal.  The flow on Sunday was significantly slower, but still worth the time.  We did about $400 worth of sales on the second day.   And the grand total??

$4,555.73

I can't even.  I don't know what to say.  Except thank you.

Thank you to the people who donated.  No matter how big or small, it made a huge difference.

Thank you to the people who encouraged me when I was overwhelmed.

Thank you to the people who helped to sort and price.  I never would have finished without you.

Thank you to the people who made signs and posted ads.

Thank you to the people who lifted furniture and let us use their trucks.

Thank you to the people who woke up well before the sun and helped set up before the caffeine had fully entered your blood stream...

Thank you to the people who showed up to barter and bargain on our behalf.

Thank you to the people who cooked goodies for us to sale.

Thank you to the middle schoolers who woke up WAY before you usually do, knowing you wouldn't get anything in return.

Thank you to those who donated way more money than what you purchased.

Thank you to those who stuck it out till the end and helped us clean up after it was all over.

Thank you to those who prayed.  All across the country you prayed for success in our sale.  And God answered.

I want to be clear on this.  Every single one of you has taken a part of giving a child a family.  No matter how big or small you feel your part was, it makes all the difference in the world to us and to a child.  Thank you so very much.

Update and Yard Sale Fundraiser

Hello everyone!

We are in the midst of putting together our dossier...the final step in the paperwork for adoption.  Since people are always asking, here's what we have to gather:

New original copies of Marriage Certificate and Birth Certificates
Home Study
Child Abuse Clearances
Autobiography
FBI Criminal Check
Medical Letter (From Family Doctor)
Employment Verification Letters
Photos of Home
Copy of Lease/Deed
Copy of Passports
Approval from USCIS (This is immigration...it involves setting an appointment to be fingerprinted and then waiting for the approval)
Letter of Intent (literally writing a letter to Azerbaijan stating why we want to adopt and gender/age requests)
Photo Collage of our family with labels
Power of Attorney (giving our representative in Azerbaijan permission to act on our behalf)
Agency Hague License (proof that our agency is legit)

Everything has to be notarized.  We have everything so far except for the letter from the doctor and the Child Abuse and FBI clearances...and the USCIS approval.  Once we have everything, we have to send them back to the state they originated in (Alabama, Georgia, Oklahoma, and Virginia-depending on the document) to be Apostilled by the Secretary of State...basically double checking the notary.

Once we receive the paperwork back from being Apostilled we will send it to Azerbaijan!!!

...and then we wait.

We will be paying quite a large sum of money as we send off the paperwork.  This money mostly goes for "translation and documentation" fees in Azerbaijan.  We are thrilled that God has provided that money already through our own savings as well as generous donations from many people.

Once we pay everything for this first half of the process, our savings will be quite empty, so we are preparing to do a few fundraisers over the next several months.  The first one is a YARD SALE!!!  A dear friend and her sweet mom approached me with the idea in the spring.  The plan is to get all of you wonderful people to donate whatever you want to get rid of, sell it at the yard sale, and put all of the proceeds toward our adoption.  My dining room is already filling up with rugs and dishes, stuffed animals and clothes.  The yard sale is planned for the weekend of August 24th.  If you are interested in donating, just comment here on the blog, on facebook, or send me an email...or stop me at church...or call me...Just let me know :)  The more stuff, the better!!!

Spread the word and come shopping on the 24th (and maybe the 25th as well).  I will keep you posted! Please pray for us!

Approved

"It is recommended that the international adoption home study for Kyle Dean Kelley and Rebecca Faye Piedra Kelley be approved."

Doesn't that sound FABULOUS?!?  Now don't get too excited.  It isn't official yet.  We still have to finish some paperwork for our placing agency and the home study agency and placing agency have to pass the home study back and forth to make sure everything is perfect.  But I must say, it feels fantastic to be one step closer to our little one!

What next?  Once the home study is officially approved and complete, we will have another mountain of paperwork to complete.  It will involve things such as ordering original copies of our birth certificates and marriage license.  We will also have to fill our immigration paperwork.  Once all of that is complete, we send all of the paperwork, along with our home study (this is called the dossier) and thousands of dollars, to Azerbaijan.

And then we wait.

And wait...

And (you guessed it) wait.

In the meantime, we are keeping busy as usual with work and family.  While coming back from Matthew's birthday fun with Thomas the train last weekend, we stopped at the Azerbaijani Embassy in DC.  They were having an open house as a part of the Tour of Embassies on Saturday.  We were able to taste traditional Azeri food, see and learn about their clothing, and hear music from Azerbaijan.  It was a great experience!

And of course on the financial front:  We are so thankful to people who continue to surprise us with incredibly generous gifts.  Each time we receive a donation for our adoption we are amazed and humbled by God's goodness.  People who have real needs of their own are choosing to help us bring our little one home.  It's amazing.  And when we say thank you, they remind us that it was God's money to do with as He pleases.

Please continue to pray for us as we move day by day through this process.  We will keep you updated as we finish the dossier and begin to plan fundraisers for the second half of this adoption!

Update: Home Study in Progress!

Hellooo,

We have had an exciting few months on the adoption front.  In January we filled out all of our paper work to get the Home Study Started.  In the midst of that, we realized that a document was missing from our placement agency (the one that facilitates the entire adoption).  So I sent an email to our contact at the placement agency...no answer.  And again....no answer.  So I called them.  No answer.  No return call.

Then I received an email from the agency with some shocking news.  Remember how Russia closed its doors to American adoption? (You are thinking, "But you guys are adopting from Azerbaijan!")  Well, the majority of our placement agency's clients were adopting from Russia.  When Russia closed it's doors, our agency lost most of it's income.  The email we received announced that they were closing...as in, no more agency...no more adoption?!!

We didn't panic...but we were certainly concerned.  We prayed and waited on the Lord.

Of course He came through right away.  Within a few days we were in touch with Children's House International.  They have a fairly new Azerbaijan program and were willing to take us on.  Here's the best part:  Our original agency was unable to refund any of our money.  We figured we would have to pay another $3,000 to our new agency to get the process started.  Nope!  Children's House is not getting any money from our old agency, but they are not asking us to pay any of the fees from the beginning of the process!!  We are picking up with them exactly where we left off with the other agency!

We are now preparing our house for the 4 home study interviews which will take place during the month of April.  We will be doing one interview each week.  Three take place in our home and one will be in our Social Worker's office.  After that is over, it will take another month for our social worker to write up the home study and get it approved by our new placement agency.

In the meantime, we are beginning to think about more fundraisers.  A friend of mine and her mom want to do a yard sale at the end of the summer...around August.  Lots of people could chip in stuff you don't need anymore, and all proceeds would go to the adoption fund.

What other fundraisers have you heard of in the past?  Do you have any words of wisdom for us?!

Thanks for the prayers!