It's finally on the move again.

Departed Koeln (Cologne), DE at 4:27am on 05-07-2010. Whoo hoo!!

Where in the world is the Becker Dossier??

Well, it made it over the ocean and is in Koeln (Cologne), DE...to be exact. Arrived at 7:23pm on 05-06-2010. And if you are like me and didn't know where DE is...that would be Germany. Getting closer.

Our traveling Dossier update

It departed from Sioux Falls, SD, US on 05-05-2010 at 9:44pm. It arrived in Louisville, KY, US on 05-06-2010 at 12:18am and it departed at 4:52am. It is currently "In Transit" to who knows where??

"Where There Is Faith"

Another favorite "adoption" song of mine. It gives me extra strength to keep moving on when life tries throwing curve balls my way...thoughts of doubt...extra paperwork...redoing paperwork...lack of support...nasty comments, etc.

I DO believe in giving of myself for someone else. I DO believe in peace and love...in honesty and trust. It comes from the faith that Jesus truly does live in us and through us.

I believe there was and still is a voice calling me to Isaiah and I will keep walking. The times I feel alone in this world...by adopting a child with special needs...Jesus is right there to bear my burden and heal my hurts. It is not always easy but then I keep reminding myself that He had it so much worse than I do and He continued on His path doing His Father's will and so will I. Jesus did it to save us and I'm doing it to save one of His...to give back for all the gifts and blessings I've (we've) been given...to teach my kids that sometimes God calls us to do big things even if it goes against what society thinks we should or should not do...to love and to serve.

Knowing that a boy from across the sea will soon have the freedom from living his life in an orphanage and a mental institution brings me so much peace. Knowing that same boy, who has never known the love of a mommy or daddy, will soon be given the gift of a whole family brings me so much peace. It IS a wonderful, powerful place...where there if faith.

Our Dossier is on its waaaaaaaay!!!

Our Dossier was actually "suppose" to go out yesterday but 3 documents from our social worker did not pass inspection at the Secretary of State's apostille department. It was actually an error on the notary public part. So our social worker had them redone and had them overnighted via FedEx straight to the state capitol. Today was full of lots of downs in the adoption world of "ups and downs". I'm told it is so normal for things to not always go smoothly. For the first time I had a strong thought of quitting but it didn't last long as I know there is a little innocent boy who is waiting for us to come bring him home. I knew it would all pass because God is on our side even if there are more bumps in the road...down the road. It's those "bumps" that make us who we are if we are open to "listening" to what we are trying to be taught. Most times I find the lesson to be how to persevere...to keep trusting...to keep your faith...or even better yet...strengthen your faith. It's OK to feel weak and fall at times but don't remain down in the "ditch" too long...get back up on that "road" and keep moving on.

My experience today and the thoughts going through my head reminded me so much of how my pregnancy with Joey went. All the trips to the capitol...all the home study meetings...the Fargo trip for fingerprints...all the trips to the notary...are so much like all the doctor appointments with a typical pregnancy. But I had to make extra trips to the capitol and extra trips to the notary as I had to make extra trips to the doctor when I was pregnant with Joey. Things weren't going smoothly with all the tests for him and things weren't going smoothly with the "pregnancy" for Isaiah. But just like I couldn't give up on Joey I can't and won't give up on Isaiah. No one said adoption was easy...at least I haven't heard of a story where it went smoothly from start to finish.

Here are some of our "doctor appointments".

Our fingerprint appointment forms we needed to take to Fargo for the USCIS office. Darrell, Steph, and Josh (because he is 18 yrs. old).


After all 30 of our fingerprints were cleared by the FBI we received this...the I-171H which is the approval by USCIS for us to proceed with our adoption. When we sent in our application (I-600A) to the USCIS we were requesting to adopt ONE child and the home study that accompanied the application also stated ONE child. MUCH to our surprise and to those in the "adoption world" we were approved for TWO. Not sure what God has planned for us in the future but it is kind of exciting.

These are from the 6 visits to the Secretary of State's office at the capitol.

The MUCH awaited visit to this place finally happened today.

Here it is...the whole 1st and 2nd trimester for Isaiah...preparing and finishing the Dossier...all 37 documents...notarized...and apostilled.

37 documents minus these 2 because these travel with us to Ukraine...

...equals this stack...

...weighing in at 1.10 pounds...

...for a total of $159.59 to travel and make it to Kyiv, Ukraine in 2 days.


The status on the Traveling Dossier...

Billing Information Received 05-05-2010 6:26pm US
Origin Scan 05-05-2010 6:39pm
Departure Scan 05-05-2010 7:24pm Bismarck, ND, US
Arrival Scan 05-05-2010 8:10pm
Departure Scan 05-05-2010 9:44pm Sioux Falls, SD, US

It won't be long now Isaiah...but until then...our daily thoughts and prayers go out to you for your safety and good health to continue.

(((hugs))) and ***kisses***

Dad, Mom, Josh, Ryan, Austin, Noah & Joey
ps...Oy, Oy, what are you going to do with all those brothers??

Fundraiser.

Scroll down to see details for the prize giveaway. Less than one month to go.

Fingerprints....DONE!

It has been a loooooong month of waiting. We got our final copies of our homestudy in the mail on March 22nd. We mailed the I600A (Application for Advance Processing of Orphan Petition) to USCIS (U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services) on March 23rd. The application was for Darrell, myself, and Josh. Anyone 18 and older living in the household needs to be FBI fingerprinted. A week later we got a letter stating the application was received and forwarded for further processing...which would be in St. Paul, MN. A few days after that we got our fingerprint appointments...but not all of us...Josh's was missing. So I spent lots of time on the phone trying to get to the right person. I was given an email address...wrong one. I was given another email address...PERFECT. The gal I was in contact with was soooo very helpful. The reason Josh did not have an appointment was b/c in the homestudy it stated he is a college student. I explained how he comes home some weekends and will be living here for the summer. This gal got him an appointment but it was for a week after ours. That seemed like forever. She suggested we take Josh with to our appointment and explain what happened and ask if they would do him also. THEY DID! Thank You God!!! Getting up at 3am to make it in PLENTY of time for our 8am appointment in Fargo was so worth it. Oh, and satan was really trying to cause trouble like he always tries to do when something good is happening. He would love more than anything for Isaiah to remain an orphan but he lost...again. All the "little" things he tried throwing our way were thrown right back at him. When we got home I sent an email to the gal who was helping me earlier and told her Josh was able to get fingerprinted and I told her my concern about our file getting "lost" on someone's desk. She reassured me that SHE has our file and she had been checking the system for our prints to come through. So I pray this part of the process goes fast as that means there still is a chance we can travel mid to late June.

There is only ONE more little document we are waiting for...the I-171H which is the USCIS' approval for us to proceed with our international adoption. Now it is time to "hurry up and wait" again.