Packing and such

I am almost finished packing, but NOTHING is lite!!!!   I'd hoped for just 3 checked bags and 1 carrying......but it's quickly turned into 4 checked with 2 carryon.   I am very nervous about how all this will work out tomorrow, but know it will work out.  :)

I am super excited to travel and this is my trial run with blogger on the iPad!!!


Off to set up the VPNs now!!!!   :):):):)

TRAVEL PREP TIME!!!!

Life is CRAZY here!!!

Yes, we are still about $5000 short (and $2000 of it pretty much due right now), but I am moving on --- I can't worry about that anymore..........too stressful when I know God's got it!

I spent several hours today in the van getting our oldest and myself to the dr for pre trip med's.   Got the other dr to call in ones for the new girls...........and then drove around to 3 different pharmacy's to try and get all the med's!!!   That was after I had PT, got the lawn mowed, picked up ds after pk, drove to another town to get a travel wisk for my shakes/puddings in C..........then rushed back to pick up the littles and the oldest from their schools before getting it all done!!!!

Flat Stanley will be going with us as well now, to help with a class project for Mrs. Peterson!!!  :)

And I got 2 large boxes of orphanage donations to take with us!!!!!   What a BUSY day!!!!!

God's got all of this!!!!!

We leave in 3 days!!!!!!   We have really packed the girls stuff, except clothes and med's............but need to repack and cull down!

Tomorrow, there is lots more to do, but fortunately dh is ALSO OFF!!!!  :):):)

Saturday I have a chiro apt, the bug man is coming, and all morning we'll be egg hunting!!!!!   Plus I need to have my van DETAILED!!!!!!  I may just get the detailing tomorrow --- I mean a thorough detail, scrubbing the seats that are usually under the kids car seats and the insides of the windows kind of detail............I don't want my new kids to come into FILTH!!!!!   The rest of the house looks pretty good, but I also want the fridge done too.............OMGOSH  I have SO MUCH to FINISH!!!!

Please pray!   LOL   I'm not that great a house wife type person..............but I'm kinda OCD about how I want our dd's 1st impressions to be at least..............and the person that is going to be here during the days taking care of the kids that are staying with daddy at home, so he can keep working.

So much to do, so little time!!!!  But I promise that I will be posting via C............pretty much every day as long as the internet allows!!!!  :):):)

If you feel lead, you can help give to the $2000 still needed by clinking on the Reece's Rainbow link to the right!  :)

T for the C's!

NEW FUNDRAISERS and more!!!!

NEW ONES plus some Continuing On!!!!

   We are 11 days today from travel and still just under $7000 from being fully funded.

So, our friends have stepped up to help us out with some fundraisers!!!

Please pray and help where you can.  :)  Lots of ways to show our family some love and help us bring them home!   :)    THANK YOU SO SO SO MUCH!!!!!   :):):)

Enter any of these by donating at http://reecesrainbow.org/72894/sponsorcasebier

1.  Jamberry Nails Party --- It's going on RIGHT NOW until we travel!!!  :):):)
https://www.facebook.com/groups/casebier/721829607848053/?notif_t=group_activity

2.  Young Living Essential Oils Party --- It too is going on right now until we travel!
https://www.facebook.com/events/219875841540309/

3.  A $500 MATCHING GRANT!!!!!   Our FSP at Reece's Rainbow needs to read $5303 in order for us to receive this grant.       http://reecesrainbow.org/72894/sponsorcasebier

4.  Another friend offered these pens to the 1st 10 people to donate $10 to our FSP........:) the next 10 people who donate $10 or more to Terri Casebier 's fsp and messages Dawn Patrick their receipt she will mail you one of these ink pens with a beautiful scripture on it.

5.  Yet another friend offered this beautiful painting!!!!   For it, you just need to donate or share about it.  You can also be entered to win Rachel Biddlesome's painting at the same time.. if you want! Those that donate just need to let her know they want to be entered.. $5 for one ticket, $20 for 5, $40 for 15! it is (16"x20")! RV $500   Sharing also gets you 1 ticket.  :)

Then there are those fundraisers that have never ended.  :)

1. Envelope Fundraiser --- Pick an envelope that is not colored (as they are chosen, they will be colored in)............and contribute that much to either of our accounts to the right (reece's rainbow or youcaring) and let us know so we can color in your envelope.  :)   When it's totally filled, we will be fully funded.  :)

2.  Puzzle Piece Fundraiser for $5 each piece have your name permanently written for our girls to see who loved them enough to help them get home.  :)

3.  Greatest of These is Love  necklaces that my friend makes!   She is profitting NOTHING on them and I get $10 from the sale.  :)

http://jubileesjewels.com/greatest-of-these-is-love-hand-stamped-necklace

4.  If you purchase off of the ginger on a mission site and mention our name at checkout, we will get 50% of the purchase as well!!   :)  http://www.etsy.com/shop/GINGERONAMISSION 

CA and Tickets --- MOMMY IS TRAVELING 4/20-5/10!!!!!

We finally have received our requested CA for May 8th...................AFTER we got the 13th like we'd wanted, but found out that our 1st province is closed the last week of April!  UGH

I shopped around and finally found our tickets, just to have my niece tell me she can no longer go because her college professors that at one point were ok, were no longer ok with it.

So, thankfully I hadn't purchased the tickets yet..................   And I'm still holding out hope for finding another travel partner.

I've seen others do it, and it's possible................but having both or all 3 girls melt down at once in public will be my undoing.  :(      And though I'll have the little one in a stroller when we go places, the older one MIGHT be one that runs when she gets upset, esp with grief going on...............and how in the world would I deal with that while the baby and my oldest are just standing there by me?   At least with babies you can contain them in a stroller............lol

Anyway, so in doing all this planning we also now have our final costs.  I used the plane ticket monies to pay the orphanage donations due to the agency, still over 800 short for that................hehehehe.............and the rest...........well, I'm just trying to figure it all out.............but God's got this.

In total, our new FSP total needs to read $11500.  Which is a little less than 7000 more from now.............

We travel in 15 days (EASTER DAY 4/20)!!!!!   Please pray for funding, for a trip partner, and just sanity in general as I start the final phase before travel!  :)

Still waiting...............but maybe not! :)

Just a quick update to remind/let you know that we are still waiting on our TA, but we may just be waiting until our agency comes back on Monday (today is Thursday).  They are in China, so if we already have TA, we don't know it simply because there is no one there to check.  :)

I am SO SO SO excited about the possibilities for Monday and then for a quick turn around for our Consulate Appointment since we want it for the 13th of May!!!!   :):):)   Praying they still have CA's for the 13th!!!!

Then we get our final bill from the agency with all of our orphanage donations, etc!   THE BIG BILL!!!!!

I am TOTALLY nervous about this one!  We also get to purchase our plane tickets.   As it stands we are WELL BEHIND where we need to be to be able to pay this bill and purchase the tickets!!!   Please pray that we will be able to do so!  We have credit cards (Discover), but no visa/MC to put things on if they don't take the discover.  :(

Thanks for praying!  :)

Terri for the Casebier's

3/17 Article V Received!

Monday (3/17) we received our Article V and began the wait for travel approval (TA)!!!

This is the 2nd to last step we take before getting on that plane!   Times for getting it vary a lot, but it can go anywhere from 1 day to 4 weeks.................right now it's averaging a little over a week.  :)

That would be terrific news, the best I could hope for............but our agency has decided to ALL go to China for the next week and a half.  :)   It's great news for them and the other babies there.  What it translates out for our adoption though is that they won't be there to receive our TA when it comes in if it comes in before the 31st.  Well, that's not so horrible for me because that's exactly 2 weeks from the start of this wait.............:)   So, we definitely are waiting until AT LEAST the 31st to finish this step.  :)   It's like I have a specific timeline and know that until then I don't have to expect anything.

Once we have that, we will request our CA (consulate appointment) and within 48 hours we should have that locked into place.  Then we will TRAVEL!!!!!    This is pretty anticlimatic for me right now though as once we receive TA, we will wait 2 weeks to save $ on airlines (which is standard for us), but since the 2 weeks ends right BEFORE Easter, we will wait until after Easter to travel --- so that means about 3 weeks after TA.  The awesome thing about that is leaving then puts us in Guangzhou (GZ) for our CA right after the Spring trade fair has ended.............which is perfect timing because the trade fair drives up the costs all over GZ.
Obviously, God's got this all planned out!   I was hoping to leave the 15th, but that is before Easter.........that bummed me.  Now I'm finding out that the better time to go is right after Easter anyway to avoid that tradefair................it all works out!!!!  :)  

But that also translates into more wait after TA.   More time to get everything done here we need to, before I leave.  :)   This wait though (since starting the article V wait) has seemed to take a lot longer emotionally for me this time.  I am SO SO SO excited to begin the flights and that part of the journey that it's harder to just sit and wait.  :)   And right now, that wait is about 4 more weeks.................ugh in the happiest sense.  :)

Yes, I could fill my time better with fundraisers, but I realized yesterday just how much other stuff I needed to do before leaving (in about 4 weeks) besides fundraising that I know I need to focus more on it for the moment.   Things I have put off to try and raise funds --- which I DEFINITELY still need to do ---- but are just as important, like getting my power of attorneys and the post placement reports taken care of.

So please pray that I can take care of a bunch of things in the next few days, to get them off my plate........and that I can go to the chiropractor and physical therapist to get all the kinks out (so to speak) before getting on that long plane ride.  :)   I don't feel horrible and am mobile, but I already have stiffness and aches that could just get a lot worse with the sitting for 18 hours on a plane in 1 day.  :)    Just need to make sure I'm prepared better for it.  :)

Thank you for your prayers, and any help you can or have given.  :)  We appreciate it ALL.

You must be adopting

There is a saying in the adoption realm

"you must be adopting if"............. add what ever costly expense you can think of.

Well, in Feb '12 we were contemplating going back for a little girl.  And then our house flooded.  We were out of it for almost 2 months...............it was horrible.  And in the mean time, we didn't pursue the adoption........stressful was putting it mildly.

Tonight, when Gary went to put the boys in bed, we found their room's floor filled with water!   We have a broken pipe somewhere or somehow.  :(

Back to square one!

SO, we're not only 9100 short for the adoption still, but we also now have a flood to deal with AGAIN!!!!

Please pray!

Terri for the Casebier's

Taxes..................God will make a way

Well,

Yesterday we found out our tax refund was going to be $5000 less than anticipated because of cashing in what little Gary had in stocks last year.  :(

All of the tax money is going to the adoption and had been planned as such.  For the last few weeks or so I was getting more excited as our adoption "grant" at RR had grown to the point that we were less than $5000 away from being fully funded.   Though our MANY fundraisers were pretty much all flops ---- I HATE fundraising for myself!!!!

But God is FAITHFUL and GOOD!!!!  He WILL show His provision for our needs!!!!!   I just don't know how yet.

We will probably wait until after Easter to go, so that our current kids get to do their Easter stuff, and it will give us more time to raise funds AND hopefully will mean that our costs will be cheaper booking so far out.

Please pray with us for funds to come in and for my heart to stay at peace.

Terri for the Casebier's

21 Days of Hope with Reece's Rainbow!

I want to make sure everyone knows about the 21 Day of Hope that Reece's Rainbow is doing.  Basically we are focusing on 1 child each day to get the word out about them.  To help find their forever family.

But this year is even more special.  Because an anonymous donor has said that if we as Reece's Rainbow raise $1000.00 for each of the 21 days, then each of the 21 kids will receive $2100.00!!!!!   for their grant accounts!!!

It's an incredible 10000% increase of a donation of just $21!   That is AMAZING!!!!   $1 for each of the 21 days for 1000 people will result in a $44,100 donation for the 21 kids!!!  And most of these kids have really low grants of less than $100 each.  These grants go to help a family adopt them!

Please consider giving.  It's such a small amount for a big reward --- the biggest is that they might find their family.   There is a picture of our child of the day in the right hand column of this blog.

The link to donate to this campaign is --- http://reecesrainbow.org/21daysofhope

If you donate, you will also be put into a drawing for a beautiful dress too!  :)
You can see the dressmakers work at http://networkedblogs.com/UHocS.

Thank you!  :)

Today We Will Celebrate

Today I celebrate.

I celebrate that we are 1/2 way through our 2 week Article V wait.  That this coming week is Spring Break and after it is over, so will be my wait.

I celebrate that this week I get to travel to the Secretary of State in Austin again so that I can get the last of my documents (power of attorney's) certified, and then send them to Houston (ya I'm not going there again!  :) ) to the Consulate.

I celebrate that there have been a lot of funds raised so far in Reece's Rainbow to help give $2100 to each of the 21 children nominated this year.  There are many to go, but many have received their grants.

I celebrate because I have 4 beautiful and healthy children at home, along with a wonderful husband too.

I celebrate because I choose to.

This week has been HARD on me and on the family.  Lots of frustrations along the road to adoption, lots of ups and downs.  I still don't feel totally well.

But I choose to celebrate.  I choose Joy..................Joy over anything else that may come along.

We have about 5 weeks left until travel (by my hopeful estimates) and I would leave in a minute if we could..........but until then, I will choose to find Joy............sickness, trials, stress, dieting (ya, I threw that in there), I will choose Joy.

Please pray for us as we get close to travel.  We are still waiting on a check from a friends fundraiser, but when that comes, we should be at just less than $5000 to being fully funded.............that doesn't sound like alot, but with only 5 weeks............still intimidating.  :)

Please pray that my health improves and that the girls a

National Down Syndrome Day

Ok everyone!  Since I was one of the SUPER BLESSED last night, I have given another 25 beyond my original 21 (only 1% of what I was given and we won't starve giving up 1 take out meals cost, right?).

These are just SOME of the faces of children on Reece's Rainbow -- an organization that helps find families for children in orphanages overseas. It also provides grants for these children as people give to one specific child when one touches their heart.

A GENEROUS donor has offered to give EACH of these 21 children a $2100 GRANT (MANY OF THESE KIDS, esp the ones from C, have less than 1000 in their grants) IF we can raise $21000 in the 1st 21 days of March (it's National Down Syndrome Day and DS is what RR started out for). Our fb group has people, but I'm calling for your help as well. We've already raised $3000 and I know we'll raise more.
Every time we hit another 1000, the child at the top of the list gets their 2100.

Some of these children, like Don Michael are aging out soon and if they don't find a forever family (which is why we do the grants, to help them) these children can be put out on the street. In China, that age is 14. The day they turn 14 they have very few options.

1. Put out on street where people prey on them to turn them into the sex slave trade or to beg
2. Be moved into institutionalization if they have mental type issues
3. The lucky ones may stay on at the institution as workers in the orphanage -- but it is NOT common.

The boy in the blue jacket, in the last row below, is Don Micheal (RR name). He is aging out. He needs people to SHOUT for him. If you know of anyone willing/able to adopt him before he ages out, AWESOME..............if not, can you at least help someone else bring him home?

I'm not asking for a lot of $. Prayers DEFINITELY...............but ANY AMOUNT helps and in the 1st 21 days of March right now, giving to the voice of hope fund helps ALL of these children get a HUGE boost in their grant.

Please look below, see their faces. They are NOT NAMELESS............they ARE IMPORTANT and WORTH loving!!! Just like the tale of the starfish.............we can't save them all, but look we saved this one.

ok, now I sound like a save the children commercial and I didn't start out to. But please pray for them and give as you feel GOD lead you to. I never want to be that salesperson type person.....................but I wanted to bring your attention to a way you CAN impact an orphans life (and their future family's adoptions) without bringing one into your home.

Are you with me? This is less than a new pair of shoes/pants/purse you name it...........aren't they worth it????


http://reecesrainbow.org/21daysofhope

LAST DAY for the USBORNE Book Sale!!!! :)

Today is the last day for our US Borne books fundraising sale!!!   :)   Please check it out and see if there is something you'd like or need.  Lots of stuff for traveling with kids, activities, etc...........plus great books for little ones.  :)

https://v3726.myubam.com/41732

Terri for the Casebier's

Fundraiser list

Ok.............these are our current fundraisers.  :)  Please pray and help where you can.  :)  Lots of ways to show our family some love and help us bring them home!   :)

THANK YOU SO SO SO MUCH!!!!!   :):):)

1. Envelope Fundraiser --- Pick an envelope that is not colored (as they are chosen, they will be colored in)............and contribute that much to either of our accounts to the right (reece's rainbow or youcaring) and let us know so we can color in your envelope.  :)   When it's totally filled, we will be fully funded.  :)

2.  Puzzle Piece Fundraiser for $5 each piece have your name permanently written for our girls to see who loved them enough to help them get home.  :)

3.  Greatest of These is Love  necklaces that my friend makes!   She is profitting NOTHING on them and I get $10 from the sale.  :)

http://jubileesjewels.com/greatest-of-these-is-love-hand-stamped-necklace

4.  The week of 3/27 we will be having a garage sale from 8-12   Thurs-Sat.   Please contact me if you have ANYTHING you'd like to donate!   :)

5.  If you purchase off of the ginger on a mission site and mention our name at checkout, we will get 50% of the purchase as well!!   :)  http://www.etsy.com/shop/GINGERONAMISSION 




Finished Fundraisers

US Borne Books (through 2/28 only!)

A friend of Brandy's (she met her last summer!!!! And it was through her I understood and knew Brandy was for our family) is doing a BIG fundraiser project in her home state this Saturday, March 1st!

Project Charity T-shirt fundraiser!   Just go and buy a shirt!  :)  (limited sizes) and when you check out put Brandy or Casebier's in the comment section.............and they will send us $7 of it!  :)

We have an online auction that will start on 3/9 and go until 3/16.  :)  Please contact me if you have ANYTHING you'd like to donate!  :)

Origame Owl Jewelry  :)   (through 3/17)

http://amandakey.origamiowl.com/parties/terricasebier212321/how-to-build.ashx

      

HELP!!!! Others. :)

I know that we are needing help..............but there are SO MANY coming home, BEFORE US!!!!

So I am pleading for us all really...................The Blake's leave this SATURDAY!!!   They are still $159 short of receiving a matching grant for $500 and $6331 away from being fully funded.

The Lewis' leave 10-14 days after their child's visa is approved by the child's government.  They are still $2000.00 short, at the moment.


So, on the side of my blog you will see a couple buttons.  These buttons represent those families.  Once they are home, the buttons will be gone..............

Please consider donating.  Even $1 goes toward helping these families get home.

But even more, please PRAY for them as well!  :)  As always, prayer is the most important part in ANY family.  :)

Thank you,

Terri for the Casebier's

ONE WEEK FUNDRAISER!!!! :)

Ok everyone!  I have ONE WEEK!!!!! There is now a US BORNE fundraiser going on for us for the next week thanks to Kathy Morusan Wiehl!  The proceeds are going towards helping us bring home Brandy and Brielle.................and the remaining 9500. 

Please go and take a look. ALL of our children need books...........either to read themselves or to be read to them. 

Spring Break is around the corner ---- lots of "free" time for our kids.........plus I know some of you home school.

Great books at great deals...........I hope to see you there. 
.

https://v3726.myubam.com/41732


Terri for the Casebier's

I-800 RECEIVED!!!!

OUR WONDERFUL OFFICER CALLED US at 5:00 PM.............to tell us that WE HAVE APPROVAL for both girls!!!!!  :)

OH MY GOODNESS!!!!!!

I can't tell you how LONG I've waited for this!!!! GRACIOUS!!!!!

And to top it off, I've had people helping us with raising the $10,000............I mean, they are giving.   We still are WAAAAYYYY short, but we are a couple hundred closer than we were.  And that just makes me feel all the better!!!

I also got updates for the younger one!  :)   Such a FULL last few days!!!!  :)

Here are our links to help us if you'd like.  Prayer is ALWAYS appreciated as well.

Once we reach 600 between BOTH accounts, I will reveal a new picture of the younger one.  :)

And then at 750 I'll reveal a new pic of the older one.  :)

Just a small incentive. :)

http://reecesrainbow.org/72894/sponsorcasebier

https://www.youcaring.com/manage-fundraiser.aspx#home

Thanks!

Terri for the Casebier's!  :)

Blessed

I am feeling really blessed today.  I just feel like we are getting so much closer to travel...........and most of the things we need done are coming together...........I have a LOT of nesting to do!  :)

I'm thinking that we'll be taking the train to the 1st province for "Brandy".  Which will be a challenge with lots of luggage to carry/drag around...........but I think it's doable.  :)   It should save us a couple hundred dollars per ticket..........sleeper car since it'll be almost a day.   But once we have her and then have to go to the next province, I HOPE it gets a little easier since I will have left 1/2 of our gifts and hopefully she can help with either a backpack or a suitcase..........just for getting to the train.  :)

THEN, once we have #2 "Brielle" I think all bets are off.  I MAY be able to have one of the older push her in the stroller while the other and me take care of ALL of the rest of the bags (but we will have gotten rid of the majority of the gifts (which means I may be able to repack down to fewer bags!) and some of the baby food stuff (cups that didn't work or snacks that are gone, etc).  so much to think about!  :)


Once we get to Guangzhou, we may even take the train back to Beijing!!!  I don't know.  I won't fully figure it out until I have looked at all the costs, but it looks like the train back to Beijing is shorter and cheaper than the other 2!!!!

I'll just need to figure out how to take up SOME of the bags at a time or something.  I'm glad that I have someone else PROBABLY traveling with me.  If Eren doesn't go with me, it'll just be plane trips...........I'm not lugging all that luggage around!  :)  lol

T-Shirt Fundraiser

You can get a really great shirt and help us! Project Charity donates $7 for each item purchased to the family/waiting child of your choice. When you purchase, simply note that you would like your donation to go to Brandy or Casebier's when you check out! Easy peasy!! Quantities are limited, though, so if you would like to do this, you should get one soon 

Please share, to spread the word! We hope to travel in April!!!!

http://www.projectcharity.org/

FUNDRAISING

Hi everyone!!!!

As you know, we just came home with S in the summer of 2012...........and started again about 6 months later.................so, we've kinda pulled a little from EVERYWHERE to get these girls home! :)

When we were just going for 1, we were fully funded...........but since adding on a child, we are still short about $10,000 which is less than the cost of both girls orphanage donations.

SO --- we'd like to ask for ANY help you can give............even a few people giving up their starbucks adds up!  :)

We have a couple fundraising efforts going on right now that you can be a part of.  :)

1.  We have 2 (1 for each girl), 1000 piece puzzles that we would like to get sponsored.  Basically we're asking if you would like to sponsor a piece for $5 each and then we will put your name on the back of that piece.  When the puzzles are completely done and glued together, we will be putting them up in the girls rooms in a double glass frame (so both sides are visible) to remind them of all the people that love them and wanted to see them home.  Just a donation of $5 will get 1 piece sponsored.  :)

2.  We also are doing an envelope fundraiser.  In this you choose an envelope #'d 1-143.  When you choose that envelope you are also saying that you want to help give that much to our adoption fund.  So if you choose envelope 50, then you will either send us $50 or put it into one of the tax deductible accounts below.  You can also choose 2 envelopes if you want...........for example, someone already had the $50 envelope, but you want to give $50, so you choose the $20 and $30 envelopes.  Only 1 person per envelope...........and we should have what we need in no time.  :)

We would be happy to even do a combination of the 2 where you choose an envelope AND we put your name on the puzzle pieces for an amount over $5.

The following accounts are up and ready to accept any donations you'd like to make to help us get them home.

http://reecesrainbow.org/72894/sponsorcasebier 

http://www.youcaring.com/adoption-fundraiser/for-the-love-of-two-sisters/122523

PICTURES!!!!!

Since we have hard LOA now, I can share our girls with the world!!!!  :)


We have names --- but they may still change as we are NOT very good at being decisive with names until the end!  :)

The older is 6 and from an area in C that is FULL of history --- GIANT Buddha statues, a Hanging Buddist Temple (hangs off a cliff), and other stuff.

The younger is 2 and from an area near where our son is from, though not the same province.  :)

I believe the trip will take about 3 weeks altogether and the THOUGHT of being away from our daughter S that long KILLS me and terrifies me at the same time.........we've only been apart 1 night since her birth and that was because I missed a flight.

Anyway!   Here are some pics.  I'm on Gary's computer and mine is out for now, so these are the easiest ones I can share.  I will share more later OF COURSE!!!!  :)

And I just LOVE their smiles!  :)

SOFT LOA, HARD LOA, and MORE

This week has been a WHIRLWIND!

On Monday morning I contacted the agency, knowing that this is a short week for China with the beginning of the Chinese New Year on Thursday.  Nothing.............worse that nothing.............BLEAK!!!!

A couple hours later I got a call from the agency that we had SOFT LOA!!!!  I was excited OF COURSE, but more in shock than anything else................it being day 162 and 111 of our 2 waits.

It's amazing how Erin's voice changes when she has good news to report!  :)

Then the next day, I got ANOTHER call from Erin.............saying our HARD LOA was in her hands and she needed information for our 800 paperwork, along with t-shirt sizes!

Tuesday was already a little challenge with taking B to her ortho appt.............and then I had another appt for her on Wed, and all 3 of the littler ones to the dentist on Thursday..................but my week was about to change DRAMATICALLY!!!

We received the LOA packet on Wed morning before 8 am!  There was SO MUCH paperwork to do............along with all the scheduled appts...........and much of which I needed to do WITH Gary!

Well, this is Friday and I SOMEHOW survived.  I changed a couple appointments, and next week is going to be super tough, but I'll get through that too.

Right now I MUST get our Reece's Rainbow family sponsorship page up so that I can really start fundraising that last 10,000 for their orphanage donations.  :)

Then I also need to do a LOT more grant applications IF I can find any that apply to us.  We've already done some and not qualified.

We also have a lot of fundraisers to get going online as well.  I'm going to put some things into a fbook auction...............hopefully I'll get to clear out some of the craft stuff I have, as well as get some good cash for the adoption.

I am SO overwhelmed with all the things I feel like people are pulling me towards right now.

I have about 12 weeks until we travel, I still have to get the visa applications turned in (including getting the application and passport from my niece that may get to travel with me), pack --- finding the things that Gary pulled out of the "spare" room the other day to start putting the beds together............oh my goodness!
Our anniversary (#12) is on Sunday (Super Bowl Sunday at that!) and we'd planned to go out tomorrow night, but that's now being changed to next week.............too much to do around the house to be out of it!  :)

Gotta go finish the FSP application and then the visa applications for B and I.  :)  Will update as I have a moment.  :)

Terri for the Casebier's

LOA --- And the Wait Goes On

Well, I have now watched SO MANY from my agency not only get a referral after us, but they have also RECEIVED their LOA's.  I don't know if any of them had 2 children though.   Many have the luxury of even getting to travel TOGETHER.

In the adopt 2 kids group, I've seen some also get LOA before me, to the point that I don't know ANYONE that MIGHT travel near us, and I've quit trying to figure that out.

We are at days 151 and 100 for our girls wait now.............both are now past the average.  Though I'm told it could be any day, I am beyond believing that.  I figure it may take another 100 days to get their LOA's IF C is even going to grant them to us anyway.  :(

So I have also gotten to the point that I am SAD for our girls that they have to wait more!  BUT I am happy that so many others are getting to come home.

It's not about us missing each day with them, it's about them WAITING...........and WHAT IF C says no after all this time?????   I just don't know what to think or feel anymore.  :(

So I WILL rejoice for others and I am NOT going to talk alot about it on groups anymore..............I don't want people to stop telling me just because I MIGHT get upset.  :)

I WILL be happy for others.  :)  Truly...........:)

But if C says no after all this wait and I can't bring home the girls..............I don't know what I'm going to feel honestly............or react.

Please pray for us.