Happy Birthday Nana!

Happy 94th Birthday to Nana...!

Big Necklace Day

Tonight, we were cranking out the Warrior Necklaces.  Our dining room has been turned into a necklace factory.  Our hands are sore from working with plyers.  The Quality Control department is in full swing making sure the little elves aren't doing rush jobs!  Tomorrow is our weekly homeschool coop meeting/classes.  The girls are prepared to deliver the pre-paid necklaces that were ordered last week.  Additionally, they have many new designs that they intend to display.  So praying for a big selling day Thursday.  The girls even have a sign that reads:

"THANK YOU FOR HELPING US BRING OUR BROTHER HOME FROM LAT>IA"

Thanks to eBay where we found some good quality, very affordable supplies.  I'm even toying with the idea of selling Warrior Necklaces on eBay.  I have my first eBay listing ready to go.  Stay tuned to this blog, because I'll be posting some new designs that they've been creating.

Found out today that the Lat>ian Ministry takes an extended holiday during July.  So, I know which month we won't be travelling...!

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The Big Pond

Five months ago, we applied to An Open Door Adoption Agency to adopt Warrior.  Even though we didn't have our mind made up at the time, we went ahead with the application anyway.  God confirmed to us that we should adopt Warrior this past January.

Today, our dossier document is officially crossing the Big Pond, on its way to Lat>ia to begin the translation process.  Once we get USCIS approval, a confirmation letter will be sent over to complete the dossier document.

The Muddy Mississippi

As far as our financial progress: we've paid almost one-third of the total cost of the adoption.  Two-thirds to go - which is approximately $23,000.  So far, we have paid the majority of this out of pocket.  We are continuing to fund-raise.  We are working on several grant applications, and we've created several online resources to help get the word out about our need (https://adopttogether.org/warrior/, Shop on Amazon using this link).  The grant applications are tough, because many of them require all or more of the same information we divulged for our homestudy.  Many of these grants are extremely specialized, and we don't qualify for them for various reasons.

Today, I had a quick trip to Kansas City, Missouri, for a one hour meeting for work.  I left the house for the airport at 6:15 this morning, had a two hour flight, boarded my return flight at 4:30, and I was home eating dinner by 7:30.  This seemed like the longest day of my life!  Snapped this cool picture of the Mighty Mississippi!

Adopttogether.com/warrior

Please help get the word about our profile at adopttogether.com.   This is another great way that people can support us (tax deductible).

https://adopttogether.org/warrior/

Support Us With Your Amazon.com Purchases!

I've added an Amazon.com link to our blog. If you use this link for your Amazon purchases, we will get 4% of the purchase price deposited directly into our Warrior fund!  http://www.amazon.com/?&tag=briourwarhom-20&linkCode=wsw&

Fundraising News...

Here is an update on our fundraising...

Rebekah and Rachel have now sold 26 necklaces!  I've added a necklace counter on the right side of the blog.

For the entire week of April 22, our family will be featured on the fundraising blog Give1Save1-Europe.  Each week a family is profiled.  Readers are encouraged to donate funds during that week.

Also, Warrior will turn 6 during the month of April.  Too bad we can't be with him to celebrate.  We're asking all of our readers to donate $6 in honor of Warrior's 6th birthday.

Today, I added a new blog to the Blog List.  Prestonpartyofsix.blogspot.com.  Jason are Kelly Preston are friends from our First Baptist days.  They are adopting a girl from China.  

Dossier Complete

Our dossier is ready to go.  I'll be over-nighting it to our agency on Wednesday.  The agency will handle the apostilling for us.  This is the process where the State of Georgia certifies that the county notary on each document is authentic.  After that, it will be sent to Lat>ia for translation while we await the approval from USCIS.  

Progress

If you haven't ordered your Warrior Necklaces, you're missing the boat.  Rebekah and Rachel have been getting orders left and right.  So many orders that Kristie had to go and get some more supplies today.  For a small donation, the girls will mail you the necklace of your choice.  Email me your orders, and you'll be impressed with how soon your necklaces arrive.

A little side note about Seth.  He has always been a curious child.  But recently, he's been asking a ton of questions:  "How do dogs wag their tails?", "Where do shadows come from?", "Does the moon move?".  I love having a boy.  I can't wait until his Latvi@n counter-part joins our family.

A quick update on our adoption.  USCIS is officially reviewing our I-800A application.  In about one week, we'll be getting our appointment information for our final round of fingerprinting.  Once the fingerprints are complete, USCIS should approve us.  We know one family who received I-800A approval 29 days after their application was received just a few weeks ago!  Once we get USCIS approval (and pay our agency $5,696), our dossier will be given to the Latvi@n Ministry.  Once approved by the Latvi@n Ministry, we will get the official invitation to travel to Latvi@.  If USCIS is actually taking 29 days, then we may be travelling as early as early June!

The Song and Dance Festival will be going on June 30th - July 7th, 2013.  This is a huge Lat>ian cultural event that's held every five years.

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I cannot get this song out of my head today...  This is one of my favorite Christian worship songs of all time.

Kiddo Passports

Today, I finalized the kids' passports applications.  We plan to make a visit to the post office on Friday to apply in person.  I am sure that I'll get photos of this experience.  I got my first passport when I was 23 years old, one month before my wedding.  My kids are getting theirs at the age of 11, 10, 7 and 5.  They're extremely excited and can't wait to get them stamped.

Also, the girls received an order for 10 Warrior Necklaces from a very generous donor!

Yesterday, I added the "How You Can Help" link on the right side of this blog. Another way that you can help is to donate your Delta Skymiles to me.  Since we will most likely fly Delta Airlines for our three trips, I'll greatly need to increase the number of Skymiles in my account.  I will pay the transfer fees for those that would be willing to donate miles.  Please email me, and I'll provide you with my account info.  Click here for more information on how you can transfer miles to me.

Orphan Justice

I got a new read today.  A new book released March 1st.  Watch the trailer here...



I have also added a description of ways that people can help us.  Click the link on the right side of this blog.  I'll be updating this link periodically.

If you had asked me one year ago about adoption, I would have given you the same answer I would have almost fourteen years ago when I married Kristie, "yeah, we'll adopt one day, maybe when our kids are older".  Adoption was always something that we might check off of the list, way in the future sometime.  And of course, it would probably happen from China.  Honestly, when I used to think of adoption, it was the stereotypical Uganda or China.  I mean, that's where you're supposed to adopt from if you're going "international". Right?

So, when Kristie showed me the picture of three little Ukranian kids last May that were on the "available" list for New Horizons, I was like, "Really GOD?  Is this what we are supposed to do?".  So we prayed hard, and finally said, "GOD, your will be done.  If it's your will for us to host these siblings from Ukraine, then we'll do it."  So we went to place them on 'hold', only to find out that a family from Virginia put them on hold first.

So, we went on with life through the summer.  My wife kept checking the New Horizons "kids available" page for Winter 2012 Hosting.  She found an adorable five year from Latvi@ with a special medical condition.  She was drawn right to him, no one else.  Something about his little smirk and the little teddy bear he was holding in the picture drew him to me also.  So, we inquired about his medical condition with a few folks.  It didn't take long for us to put this little guy on hold.

So, here we are with a completed homestudy in hand, I-800A ready to mail, kids' passport applications filled out planning the most cost-effective way to travel from Atlanta to Riga (layover in Frankfurt or Amsterdam?).   Who would have thought we'd be adopting a five year old from Latvi@.  Although we have a long way to go, we can't believe that in just a few weeks, the paperwork will be 100% complete and in the hands of others.

Here is a trailer for the adoption documentary titled "Stuck". Kristie got to see this film at the Created for Care Conference:

Latvi@ Mamas Club

Tonight, Kristie's at the Created For Care Conference at Lake Lanier Island, GA.  She's the one with the nice Warrior necklace ($5 plus $1 for shipping).  Here she is with several Lat Moms that she met.

We still need to get the kids' passports.  We're going to ho ahead and get Sarah and Seth's applications in as well.  Going out on faith that we'll be able to take all four of our kids with us on the first trip.   Time is running out to get the kids' passports, so we're going to try and apply this week.  With kiddos, they must apply in person with both parents.   

Today, Seth told Kristie that we should just adopt all the children in the Latvi@n orphanages!  Unfortunately, for him, we have only been approved for two!

Seth and Sarah waiting for their brother...

Random Stuff...

This is (will be) me...

Sarah "Bean".  My trooper.  The only one who wanted to freeze with me at the soccer games last Saturday.

Date Night with Sarah "Bean"

Seth on the slide in January.  Warrior was on the top of the slide at the time..

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I can't think of a caption for this one.

Care Package

We received an email from Warrior's orphanage today saying that he had finally received the care package we had sent via New Horizons back in January. It finally arrived! It was hand delivered to his orphanage. We received two pictures of a smiling Warrior opening his care package. I wish we could post the pictures here, but we aren't allowed to. He looks happy and healthy in the pictures, though he majorly needs a haircut...

We received an electronic copy of our home study document - 8 pages, single spaced. I didn't think we could fill up that many pages. In a few days, we'll get hard copies in the mail.

We're sending the I-800A document to USCIS this week. We also received a draft of the dossier documents. We'll work with the agency over the next couple of weeks to get the dossier completed.