A June update

We are currently in between phases of getting things done. We are sending our I-800A off to get State Certified tomorrow (after it gets notarized). Then we need to wait for that to come back and then get it Authenticated with a few other papers that are sitting here waiting for that paper to come back so these papers can have a "lets get Authenticated party". Once that is done we send everything off to our agency and then they check it all over and get it out of here and off to China and then we can hopefully start to see some progress on our journey to bring this handsome little boy home. The first time we saw Elias's photo he was 6 years old and we were in the process of adopting Luke. Does it break my heart to know that soon he will be 3 years older then the first time we saw his sweet face and still does not have his family.. YES it does. But his wait shall soon be over. Not soon enough for this momma but God has this situation firmly in place and He has a plan. God has ordained the time down to the second that Elias will come home long ago. We just have to rest and know that God is in control. This weekend after our garage sale we were wiped out... but I am also energized in a different way. We are ready to make a run for this boy and get him home and do what we need to do.

The adoption process is a process like no other. People either think you are amazing for what you are doing ( trust me when I tell you I dont think I am amazing) I am just a momma that loves being a momma and whose heart has bled for the Orphan cause and continues to bleed. OR people think you are crazy and do not understand WHY you would want to bring home a child that is "not your own" "not your blood" "from a country other then our own when we have children in need here" "you can have children why didnt you have a few more of your own" "how much did you pay for your children" and the list goes on and on.... It is hard to hear these questions and hard to answer them to be honest. I KNOW MY ANSWER.. but many do not understand it. My answer is.... When God calls.. You answer.. it is that easy. (for me and my family it is anyway) but many do not understand that answer. So I say take a look at my family, take a look at my miracle named Luke and see how much he has changed and grown and is full of love and joy. Does Luke have issues still 1 and a half years after being home.. you bet.. but to be honest, I do not know to many people that dont have issues and there was only one person ever to walk this planet that was perfect and He died on a cross for our sins! So issues need to be placed in perspective. Luke is a happy happy happy boy with a heart as big as the sea.  Many people tell us how blessed Luke is to be with us, I can tell you without a doubt that we are the ones who are blessed, we are the ones who are forever changed by one little boy that was laid on our hearts to be brought home by the Lord our God and we chose to say YES and our lives are forever changed for the better. We are no longer the same family we were a few years ago and we have never been happier. I am head over heels in love with my children in a way like never before, we have all become better people for obeying the Lord and we have shown our children what it means to sacrifice for others and to give and then receive a blessing.

We have again stepped out in faith and are bringing Elias home and we pray for him and the 146 million orphans in the world daily. We pray for Gods protection over our precious son and that he will soon be home here learning about a new country, a new language,  a new Everything!  This weekend our Pastor preached about how we are supposed to obey the Lord and open our hearts and minds and see those in need we are supposed to:

 James 1:27
Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.

We are told to take care of the widows and orphans. Now that doesnt mean you must adopt every orphan (great thought but not possible) but you can pray for them, see where God leads you. Maybe it is to support an organization that supports orphans, maybe it is to sponsor an orphan, maybe just maybe God is calling you to adopt. I know that I would never have thought I would have adopted a child years ago if you said I was going to adopt children I would have told you that you were nuts. But here I am. So see what your role in this is. Pray about it, think about it and then do what He leads you to do. Just thinking about something and doing something are two different things. Whatever it is he leads you to do....Do it! If God leads you then he will make a way. 

Elias almost 3 years ago

Elias just a few months ago (he needs his momma)

Good News and We are BUSY!!!!!

A massively quick update! We FINALLY got I-800A approval. IT took 73 days to get it. First an RFE (request for Evidence) that was a ridiculous request and held us up  about 3 weeks. Then we finally got an approval and it came with my husbands last name wrong. So add on 2 more weeks to send the corrected paper... Altogether 73 days for a step that is usually pretty quick.

We are now in the throws of a MASSIVE adoption yard sale fundraiser for Elias. We have had about 9 families donate to our fundraiser. We have TONS of items for sale. I cant believe all the items that were donated. Let me tell you having a Multi-family yard sale with pretty much my husband and I doing all the gathering, sorting, cleaning and pricing has been a massive undertaking. WOW. We have been blessed and are praying for a great turn out tomorrow. We are ready to move on to DTC but with the IRS still holding our adoption refund and our regular refund for investigation we have no funds to move on. (apparently the IRS has no one better to investigate then families that adopt orphans...)

Alright I am back to cleaning and pricing. We are starting to get ready at 4:00 am tomorrow as it is going to take hours to get it all out of our house and basement and garage and onto our yard. Praying for the masses to come! Will update how it goes!

Praying for Elias daily and that he soon will be home here with his family where he belongs. It has been 8 months since we were matched and that is a long paper pregnancy folks and we are not even close yet...Praying

Nothing positive for awhile now.....

Well things have been VERY frustrating this adoption. I know just the process of adoption itself is quite a journey and surely gives one grey hair.  This time around is no exception. We are over 7 months into our journey to bring Elias home and 6 months matched with him and we still do not have our paperwork in China. It was due May 22nd.. Nope it is not there. Where is our paperwork you may ask? Hmm well it took 5 1/2 months for our very lazy homestudy agency (NOT our adoption agency we love them) to get off their butts and get us our homestudy "update". yes it was just an update and it took almost 6 months. Which is absurd as they had all of our info 5-6 weeks into the process.... Just absurd.

Since then almost nothing has gone right either. We have had our homestudy back for almost 2 months now and we still are not I-800A approved. I mailed it out April 5th and it came back 2 weeks later unprocessed as I sent the wrong amount (off by $60) somehow I used the amount from when I filled out Luke's paperwork, even though I knew the price had gone up...) That was so depressing and upset to me as I am meticulous about my paperwork and check and re-check and re-check 10 more times. Then we sent it all back with the right amount of money April 20th... Took quite awhile to get a fingerprint appointment but we got the paper and then headed in to get our prints early.  We walked in May 18th. That went well and I called our officer to tell her we walked in early and she actually knew that and had our file open when we called. She told me all looked good and we should be approved on the 18th.. Yahooooo. Umm nope.  Just this Friday we got an envelope from USCIS and Tom was SO excited to give it to me to open. The problem being the second I saw the envelope I KNEW it wasnt right. It was a pink paper inside.. It should be a very official looking blueish green paper..... We received an RFE (request for Evidence)... GRRRRR They are saying that our Child abuse clearances that we need for every adult in the house for every state they have lived in since they were 18 were not included in the homestudy.. UMMM YES THEY ARE. There is a chart on one page listing all of our clearances and then the next page explains everything in the chart item for item.. WOW how can they say it isnt included. So I called on Friday but they were apparently on vacation for the Memorial day weekend, so tomorrow that journey continues. My adoption agency is also trying to get to the bottom of this for us and quickly as we need to get things moving. Elias will be 9 in September and when we first started this process I thought for sure he would be home before he was 9. Now I know that wont happen. He will definitely not be here until late late late fall, early winter if we are lucky. Quite possibly not until next year. :(((((

So this is our story so far. Trying to be strong and just keep on keeping on. It isnt always easy when you are paper pregnant with no possible due date in sight. At least when I was pregnant with my kids I knew that they would be born NO later then 42 max weeks. With adoption our pregnancy due date is ???????????  So technically I am 7 months pregnant and soon to be 8 months in this paper pregnancy.. We started in Oct and were matched with Elias in Nov... I am thinking I am going to be pregnant for quite a bit longer.. Praying he is home before 2013........

Look at this little face.. he needs his family!

Add caption

A short Update

Well guys, we have our updated homestudy (took 5 1/2 months.. arrggg) but we have it! We mailed out our I-800A and got our receipt that they have received it. We are now 20 days into waiting for our "coveted" fingerprint appointment paper to come in the mail... praying for any day now, but this whole second adoption is moving at snails if not sloths pace. We are trying to just let it roll and go with the non-movement of the adoption and not stress beyond words.. BUT that is WAY easier said then done. SO for now we wait and wait and wait. Praying to see that fingerprint appointment paper soon as Aaron is heading off to Italy and he needs to be fingerprinted too.. So we really would like to get that done before he goes and not have to wait for him to come  back. We shall see what happens.  We are hoping to send for an update on Elias after we submit part of our dossier (we are re-using Luke's dossier, so we only have to send off about 7 things as compared to the 19 things you would send if we were doing it from scratch.) to catch up with the rest of our dossier and then wait some more... If you are a person that likes things done quickly then adoption might not be for you.. There is nothing fast about this process and patience is a highly valued quality while we wait and wait.... So for now that is our update. We will write more when we know more. Praying Elias is doing well and unaware of how long he needs to wait for us to come get him. Cant imagine waiting on his end.

Fundraiser Blitz. Our Secret Sale starts TODAY! Ready set shop!

SHOPPING FOR THIS SHORT FAST FUNDRAISER STARTS at 9:00 am Today (wed April 18th) SO 1,2,3 start Shopping! We are starting a brief, fast and furious fundraiser!          We have been blessed by an amazing opportunity! 

Our Fundraiser is the Famous Thirty One Blowout Closeout Outlet sale! This sale is HUGELY discounted prices and the items go FASTTT! We have a unique opportunity to scoop up the Commission from our Thirty One reps closeout sale! The sale includes retired prints and styles from past catalogs at DEEPLY discounted prices!!

The sale is Wednesday, April 18, through Friday, April 20 - or WHILE SUPPLIES LAST. This sale is EXTREMELY popular so you must shop early and get everything you want then. Shipping costs play in your favor to buy as much as you can in one shot! :) Read below shipping is CHEAP! The more you buy the cheaper it is, down to FREE shipping for orders over $100! :))))))

I have a hostess exclusive Double Zip Cosmetic Bag that we will be giving away to one of our shoppers! YOU MUST LET ME KNOW YOU BOUGHT SOMETHING FROM THE SALE! The last sale I was notified every time someone bought something, I WILL not be this time. If you want your name entered in the drawing for the cosmetic bag you MUST LET ME KNOW YOU BOUGHT SOMETHING!!!!

This is the bag you will be entered to win!!!!!

A very nice bag. Just email me that you shopped and you will be entered to win this bag!

 http://www.mythirtyone.com/AnneLittle/ on April 18, and you will see an OUTLET SALE link. Click on that to shop!


For this Outlet Sale, there will be a tiered pricing strategy for shipping charges for the Continental U.S.:

$8 shipping charge for orders up to $49

$4 shipping charge for orders between $50-$99

FREE shipping for orders over $100

The only exception to this tiered pricing strategy will be for Alaska, Hawaii, Guam and Puerto Rico, which will have a flat shipping charge of $25.

Orders will arrive in-home within 2-4 weeks of purchase.

This is an amazing opportunity for some crazy blow out Outlet prices on great quality items and a HUGE blessing for us as all commission will go straight to bring Elias home! We just got our Thirty One items a few weeks ago and are BEYOND thrilled with the quality of the items we received. We cant wait to see what the Outlet sale will have, I know I am excited and hope you are too!!! 

So 1,2,3  GO ON GET OUT OF HERE AND GET SHOPPING!!!!

http://www.mythirtyone.com/AnneLittle/

Remember while you are shopping you are helping this beautiful little face come home to his family:

                         

Fundraiser Blitz! 1, 2, 3 hurry and GO!

We are starting a brief, fast and furious fundraiser!          We have been blessed by an amazing opportunity! 

Our Fundraiser is the Famous Thirty One Blowout Closeout Outlet sale! This sale is HUGELY discounted prices and the items go FASTTT! We have a unique opportunity to scoop up the Commission from our Thirty One reps closeout sale! The sale includes retired prints and styles from past catalogs at DEEPLY discounted prices!!

The sale is Wednesday, April 18, through Friday, April 20 - or WHILE SUPPLIES LAST. This sale is EXTREMELY popular so you must shop early and get everything you want then. Shipping costs play in your favor to buy as much as you can in one shot! :) Read below shipping is CHEAP! The more you buy the cheaper it is, down to FREE shipping for orders over $100! :))))))

I have a hostess exclusive Double Zip Cosmetic Bag that we will be giving away to one of our shoppers! YOU MUST LET ME KNOW YOU BOUGHT SOMETHING FROM THE SALE! The last sale I was notified every time someone bought something, I WILL not be this time. If you want your name entered in the drawing for the cosmetic bag you MUST LET ME KNOW YOU BOUGHT SOMETHING!!!!

This is the bag you will be entered to win!!!!!

A very nice bag. Just email me that you shopped and you will be entered to win this bag!

 http://www.mythirtyone.com/AnneLittle/ on April 18, and you will see an OUTLET SALE link. Click on that to shop!


For this Outlet Sale, there will be a tiered pricing strategy for shipping charges for the Continental U.S.:

$8 shipping charge for orders up to $49

$4 shipping charge for orders between $50-$99

FREE shipping for orders over $100

The only exception to this tiered pricing strategy will be for Alaska, Hawaii, Guam and Puerto Rico, which will have a flat shipping charge of $25.

Orders will arrive in-home within 2-4 weeks of purchase.

This is an amazing opportunity for some crazy blow out Outlet prices on great quality items and a HUGE blessing for us as all commission will go straight to bring Elias home! We just got our Thirty One items a few weeks ago and are BEYOND thrilled with the quality of the items we received. We cant wait to see what the Outlet sale will have, I know I am excited and hope you are too!!! 

So 1,2,3  GO ON GET OUT OF HERE AND GET SHOPPING!!!!

http://www.mythirtyone.com/AnneLittle/

Remember while you are shopping you are helping this beautiful little face come home to his family:

                           

The waiting

Yesterday Luke and I spent the day watching 2 short videos of Elias over and over and over again. They were taken by my Adoption agency over 2 years ago when they met him. He has been waiting for a family for years and we cant believe how long it is taking us to get to him. Luke says "I could watch his video all day" Ohhh trust me Luke so could I.  It is so hard to wait to bring him home. We only have a few pictures and 2 short videos of him and that is what is keeping is going until we get to fly to China and see his precious little face in person. Luke must ask me many many times a day "when is Elias coming home mom?" He just doesn't understand all the paperwork and waiting that is involved in bringing his new brother home. It took us 16 months to bring Luke home....... We have been 5 1/2 months so far of waiting for Elias............ Luke has already made about 20 posters welcoming Elias home when that day finally comes!

As the time ticks on our family is trying so hard to be patient but MAN IT IS HARD!!!! Elias, we look at your little face with those gorgeous cheeks daily and we just imagine what you are all about..... We pray for you daily and we pray that you are safe and that you will soon be home here with your family that already loves you despite the thousands and thousands of miles that separate us!

Hang in there baby we are working hard to bring you home!

LOVE YOU ELIAS,
LOVE,
Mommy, Daddy, Big brothers, Aaron, Luke and Tommy and Little sis, Paige!