Saturday afternoon at the library...

HOPING AND PRAYING

Our dossier should be heading to our agency in the next couple of days. I am now praying for yet another miracle as the time approaches to travel. We need to raise a very lot of money in a really short time. I am having the faith that the way will come and exploring all possibilities. Anyone who has gone before me, please "comment" with ideas for fundraising, grants, any inspiration. It is a daunting thought. I want to be sure I am doing all I can.

Self-training but...

My little man is using his potty chair all on his own very consistently during the day! BUT he refuses to wear anything on his bottom. No undies, no pull-ups. Has a major tantrum if I try to put some on. How do I get him to wear bottoms?

That infamous piece of paper

All the rushing around this past week has paid off. Yesterday we were a little shaken when we found out we would have to submit a new I-600A, that they would be unable to change the country on our "half-used" I-171H, because the visa had already been issued in Guatemala. I thought we would have another 6 week wait. But... the USCIS adoptions officer in Albuquerque has a heart for international adoption. New I-600A submitted 8/29/2008, new I-171H received 8/29/2008!!!!!!!! I am amazed. As soon as our paperwork has been proofread by our agency, and I have the word, we are heading to Santa Fe for apostille. The following day our completed dossier will be in the hands of our agency! I am SO GRATEFUL to our social worker Cindi Rose for whipping out an awesome homestudy for us in record time, and to our fantastic USCIS adoption officer for expediting our paperwork...

Look at the dates...

Potty Training part 2

As soon as I took Estuardo's diaper off this morning, he ran in and sat down on his potty and went! Wow! I let him choose between diaper, pants, pull-up or nothing and he chose nothing. THEN, about an hour later, he ran in and went AGAIN! Mom is happy! Even SITTING on the potty is progress. Yay!!! GO BUBS!!!

Potty Training?

Well, for the first time, BOTH Estuardo and Onnolee sat on their potty chairs for a good 5 minutes together and looked at books after they had their baths. Yay!!! Up until now Estuardo has loudly refused to sit on his. He has been using his bowl as a cowboy hat! But finally, success.

On the FAST TRACK

Wow, things seem to be coming together amazingly fast! Our USCIS adoption officer is working with us to expedite our country change, and gave us an on the spot fingerprint appointment today, so our fingerprints are updated. And she is doing what she can to process our paperwork with the possibility of having our new I-171H this coming week!

September 1st is starting to look like a do-able goal for our dossier completion!!

I guess we need to step up our fundraising efforts a notch. Yikes.

I am working on a quilt to raffle, so stay tuned...

Hang in there little girl. We will be there soon.

The important things...

Kory got to meet his new teacher last night, and also to see his classroom and who he would be sitting by. Later on, at home, he headed to the bathroom, got his anti-perspirant and packed it in a pocket in his backpack. He said, "Mom, if I am going to be sitting in between 2 girls, I don't want to stink..."

Home Visit

We had our homestudy home visit this morning for several hours. Our social worker is the same one who has worked with us for our Guatemalan adoptions and our stepparent adoptions so she is very familiar with our family. I think it went well. We are still waiting for police clearances and have a few more final docs to get to her, but hope to have our homestudy in 2 weeks.
I hope to hear about fingerprint appointments this week for USCIS. Tomorrow is our appointment for re-doing our physicals.
I am eagerly looking forward to the day we take our packet down to the Fedex office and send it on its way. Finishing paperwork is an occasion to celebrate.

Books on eBay

I posted some books on eBay to raise money for Mattea's adoption. My eBay name is stews_lou if anyone wants to take a look!
Also please check out our magazine fundraiser to the right...almost 1000 magazines to choose from at great prices!

STANDING!!!

I am not sure Onnolee realizes she is not holding on! Other than a few seconds, this is a first for her!
And big brother Estuardo is proud of her, too!

Making Progress

Look at those eyes!!! They are amazing!!!
We are a little further in completing our dossier this week. We have all necessary documents for our homestudy, except the state background/child abuse clearance which should be here in the next couple of weeks. And our final home visit is on Monday, so we are still hoping to have our homestudy by the end of the month.
We are also hoping that USCIS will help expedite our paperwork. We have notified them of Mattea Olena's medical needs. We filed our I-824 a week ago but we need to update expired fingerprints.
Completed dossier goal is still Sept. 1...
Now we are full speed ahead with our fundraising. Over to the right side of our blog is a link to our magazine fund raiser that has some pretty good deals, I thought. And there is also Mattea's "button" at the top. If you click on that one it will take you to our Reece's Rainbow sponsorship page, where anyone can make a tax-deductible donation to her grant fund. Locally, I am carrying around a treat basket with candy bars, beef jerky, and little bags of pistachio nuts that I am selling for $1.00 each. It is a pretty popular basket on night shift at the hospital! (Chocolate!!!)

PLEASE HELP HER COME HOME!

<a href="http://www.reecesrainbow.org/sponsorpuderbaugh.htm "><img src="http://i107.photobucket.com/albums/m293/meredith82/olenabutton3copy.jpg" alt="Mattea Olena" width="160" height="160" /></a><br/> <a href="http://puderbaughfamily.blogspot.com/2008/08/this-is-mattea-olena.html">Grab This Button</a>
The code will produce this on your website:

Grab This Button


This is our new fundraising link to help raise funds for Mattea Olena. She is 6 years old. Mattea has Down Syndrome. She also has some serious heart problems. Mattea lives in an orphanage in Eastern Europe. We are trying to adopt her so that she can receive the medical care that she desperately needs. We are reaching out to ask for your help. When you click on this button, it leads you to Mattea's adoption fund at the Reece's Rainbow website. Any donations made there are TAX DEDUCTIBLE and all of the money will be used for Mattea's adoption. Also please consider clicking on the "Grab This Button" or using the HTML code in the little window above, and adding our link to your website or signature line. Please help us save Mattea's life!

DECISION MADE

I contacted a pediatric cardiologist over the weekend and he feels that this girl could benefit greatly from medical treatment. He thanked me for contacting him as he has a huge heart for international adoptions. Turns out he has developed cardiac programs in several Central and South American countries as well.

When I showed my husband his email, his expression melted. "Go ahead and tell them..."

So...we have decided to commit to adopt her. To step around the fear and uncertainty and love this little girl forever.

A decision

We are still waiting to hear whether or not the pieces will fall into place for us to adopt a 6-year-old little boy with Down Syndrome who is in Eastern Europe but so far it remains very unsure. Meantime, the director of Reece's Rainbow has presented us with this beautiful little girl. She is also 6 years old, and she, too has Down Syndrome and lives in Eastern Europe. However this little girl also has a life-threatening heart condition. Her future is uncertain especially without the medical care she would receive here in the United States. My heart is torn.

Homestudy update

Our homestudy update is officially underway! We met with our social worker today, and tomorrow is running around to do fingerprints and mail off clearance check paperwork. Home visit is in 2 weeks. Paperchase has begun.

We wait

Our family profile has been submitted for translation in the hope of adopting a 6-year-old little boy with Down Syndrome from Eastern Europe. Again, please pray for us and for this little boy, that if it be God's will we can provide a new home for him. More details as available...

Missing Daddy

2 weeks ago, Stew left for New York to visit his sister. Little Onnolee can't talk yet, but is definitely Daddy's Little Girl. When we were up late last week packing to leave for Utah, Onnolee disappeared. The search found her, curled asleep next to Daddy's side of the bed, wrapped in his dirty jeans. She sure did miss her Daddy!

Another gem of a stone, and hope...

Well, I've been carrying around a stuck kidney stone for almost a month now---just like they promised at the ER..."Sometimes they can take a whole month..." and wouldn't you know, it waited until I was on my week-long vacation out of state to decide to act up and jiggle around and torture me for two whole days. And finally, it came to pass! Goodness, it was huge, bigger than the one I posted about a few months ago. I am definitely going on the kidney stone diet. I can't be doing that any more. It was awful!!!
BUT, on a positive, optimistic note, I am waiting for news on the possibility of adopting a little boy from Ukraine, and may possibly have more definite word tomorrow or the next day. The last email I got sounded hopeful...

Vacation

We've been away from home for a week, and are headed back to Edgewood this morning for a ten to twelve hour drive. We've all been passing around a stomach viruse the whole time, so it hasn't been all fun, but we did get our visiting in and a trip to Idaho---more details on that later. Jesse had his eighteenth birthday party yesterday at Serena's house complete with lots of water in the backyard and twelve cans of silly string. He had a great time. I will post pics as soon as Serena sends me a copy on a CD.
The last word this week on adopting either David or one of the other two boys is a hopeful "maybe." I am expecting a more definitive answer on Monday or so, and I will post as soon as I am sure. I have gotten two emails now from USCIS passing my questions on to a higher level, so this Hague stuff is confusing even for them. I just wish we would have found David last year. Oh well, it will be interesting to see what God's plan is this time.