FINGERPRINTING

WE got our fingerprinting appointment!!! I'm so excited we are 1 step closer to bringing our babies home!!!

The BEST present!!!

This morning we received an email with Christmas Pictures of our babies from a missionary working at the orphanage. We also got word that 'Marlena' has gained some weight and is doing better than humanly expected (she has gained 1.5 lbs in a month now 8 pounds). They have even said she will get surgery when she gains a few more pounds. Praise God from whom ALL blessings flow!

Kelly and Ezra

Today we had our first fund raising effort. It has been an immensely humbling experience. While cooking and cleaning in preparation for the fundraiser, I was praying - "Lord, the outcomes of all our preparations are in Your hands. We are pursuing this course of adoption because of the tugging you have placed on our hearts, but we can't do this by our own might."

We had a good turnout and sold a decent amount. We sold things that we had not expected to sell. We had enough food for everyone and the party went well.

The coup de grâce, however, were the gifts of the people who didn't buy the things from the fundraiser but who took the party as an excuse to donate directly to the adoption fund. I understand the story of the widow's mite more clearly. Several dear people gave us far more than they could afford. There is a part of me that wants to refuse to take their money - but that would be epitome of thoughtlessness. They are putting their trust in us. They are saying "we believe that you should do this. We support you." It is utterly humbling to have all these people helping us. We carry their dreams and their hopes and their labors with us. It is staggering that God answered my prayers of this morning far over what I had dared to hope.

And in that line of thought - we have gotten emails from people who have been to the orphanage and seen the babies we are hoping to adopt. One thing that is consistent in these emails is that they had prayed that these children would find a home. It is disconcerting to think that we may be being prepared to be the answer to these prayers offered up thousands of miles away. For a brief second we catch a glimpse of the workings of the machine, but it is too big to understand, and we are very little after all.

--Ezra

Top Questions

The top 2 questions I have gotten most so far are 1. How much will this cost and 2. How long until you get them?
So to answer I have created a running total of what we have spent and what we still need to raise.  I will work on adding a timeline some time today.  So the short answer is not soon enough :)  But we hope to be submitted when Eastern Europe accepts dossiers again in early February.  And from all accounts that could possibly (very optimistically) put us traveling in March :)

I can not believe the amount of paperwork.   Teenagers can make a baby without any paperwork whatsoever.  It takes very few sheets of paper to have a baby murdered in the womb.  Adoption, on the other hand, requires roughly 45,294 pieces of paper - each of which must be filled correctly (blue ink on lines 1,3,12, and 17, black ink everywhere else, except for line 14, which must be in chartreuse), signed, notarized, stamped by a government employee who only works between 1:45p and 2:00p every other Tuesday, sealed, approved, apostilled, blessed by his eminence, and touched by the right rear foot of the Peruvian lesser-spotted weasel (currently highly endangered).  And we are *still* collecting paperwork with no end in sight.

We have decided to go for a second child at the same time.  If we got home with the first and then decided to adopt again,  we have to go through all the administrative overhead (flights, translations expenses, etc) and paperwork (see above) again.  It helps deal with the problem I had from the beginning.  How do we go into an orphanage and say "that one" and ignore all the others?

There is a story about an old man and a boy walking along the beach.  The tide had gone out and the beach was littered with starfish.  As they walked, the boy often stooped to pick up starfish and throw them back into the ocean.  "Why do you do that?" the old man asked.  "You can't possibly save enough to make a difference."  The boy bent and scooped another starfish up and hurled it back into the sea. "Made a difference to that one" he said.

--Ezra

Fundraising

Fundraising

We have officially begun fundraising. We have 3 fundraisers right now planned or in the works just in time for your holiday shopping needs.
1. www.justlovecoffee.com/reynolds
You can either order online and it will be shipped to you (a little more expensive because of increased shipping cost to individual addresses) OR you can check out the site and email me your order ( I will place an order on December 3, it will all be mailed to me and I will get it to you)

2. Discovery Toys (http://www.discoverytoyslink.com/esuite/control/ecommerceMain)
You can check out the products online and email me your order ( I will order on December4)

3. Premier Jewelry
Email me and I will get you a catalog

My email address is kellyreynolds(at)live(dot)com

Update

Update

I promise I will try to update more regularly. I have been so busy that it is difficult to stop and report. But here is what is happening right now. We had our home study yesterday. It went well. The report should be mailed out a week from this Wednesday. We have been gathering paperwork for our Dossier. Once we receive our homestudy report we will submit a form to the USCIS along with the homestudy. They will then give us a date to be fingerprinted. Once that is finished (and can take a while), we will send our dossier to Eastern Europe for translation. The next step would be to be submitted and wait on a travel date.

Please pray for us as we prepare to bring a child home. Please also pray that God will provide the finances needed for the adoption.

Beginning the Journey

After much prayer, Ezra and I have begun the adoption process.  Last week we officially committed to a little girl from Eastern Europe, Marlena.  She is 3 months old and cute as a button. Also last week we started compiling paperwork for our home study, and we will have a visit on the 21st.  Please pray for us as we navigate our way on this journey.  We are not sure how we will get from here to there, but are confident in that God will provide and supply us all of our needs. Stay tuned to learn about our progress in bringing Marlena home, as well as, how you can help make that happen.