Orphanage Donations Part 2

As Craig and I prepare to meet our daughter in Bulgaria, we have been purchasing donations for her orphanage with some of the money we have raised over the last year. In the spirit of accountability, especially to those who have contributed, I wanted to let all of you know how the funds have been spent, so here’s what we bought for our daughter’s orphanage:

12 new diaper covers $1.20

13 bottles of children’s vitamins $55.51

3 board books $3.00

Baby Einstein Lullabies CD $4.00

20 pairs of socks $9.50

10 tubes of children’s toothpaste $10.00

2 boxes of Q-tips (500 ct) $3.40

3 tubes of Neosporin $11.58

6 tubes of diaper ointment $13.44

2 boxes of Band Aids $4.40

192 Crayons $7.92

Sand toys $1.50 (not pictured)

20 pieces of clothing $14.50 (not pictured)

All of these donations are packed, along with half of the children’s clothes that were collected by our friends last fall.

In total, we have raised $560 thus far. $150.86 was spent on our son’s orphanage, $139.97 on our daughter’s. An additional $150 will be used to buy diapers in Bulgaria. This leaves $119.17 for our son’s orphanage when we return to pick him up.

We are going to have one last orphanage fundraiser in May, so please stay tuned.

Happy 50th Birthday, Pampers!

As some of you may know, Craig works for Procter & Gamble in their Baby Care Division and today he and I got to be a part of Pampers' 50th birthday celebration and Little Miracles campaign kick-off. We were able to share the story of our son's adoption in progress with an audience of co-workers and their families as well as local media. If we make the news, I will post a link later.

Pampers is asking all parents to talk about their own little miracles on their Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/#!/pampers. Please go there and let everyone know about your miraculous international adoptions and share what you have seen and heard while visiting your children's orphanages. Most importantly, ask Pampers to get involved in helping orphans worldwide. What a difference P&G could make to the health and comfort of these beautiful little ones with diaper donations to orphanages everywhere. Please, please, please, spread the word about the Little Miracles campaign and use it as an opportunity to encourage Pampers to get involved with orphan care worldwide!

It's A Girl

A few hours after I posted this entry to our blog, I received an email from our agency to give them a call. I didn’t exactly expect it, but figured that the call would have something to do with the request we had made during the preceding weekend for a waiting child we’d seen on the MOJ site. I was right… sort of… as we got word that MOJ could not grant our request because we had just been matched with another little girl through the main procedure. In other words, we got a huge Valentine’s Day surprise by receiving news of a referral from Bulgaria. And yes, it came exactly two years to the day after we’d mailed our initial adoption application.

After a long month of anticipation and some other adoption craziness that I don’t care to share, we finally were sent the file of our little girl. I cannot reveal too much about her yet, but I can tell you that when we initially read her report, the prognosis for her health and development seemed grim and we were not sure we could proceed with her adoption. It took another three weeks to get clarification on her medical history (which, by the way, included many inaccuracies) and the results of some medical testing she’d undergone. We are so glad we requested updated photos, videos, additional testing as well as asked a lot of questions and consulted with a local IA doctor because without this information we might have missed out on our child.

Our daughter is lovely, very small for her age with orphanage delays and a medical condition that will need to be monitored and maybe treated/corrected in the future. She’s a toddler just as we requested and we are so excited to meet her later this month.

And now we’ll have to get ready for virtual twin toddlers from two different Eastern European countries to join our family before this year is over.

Dollars For Diapers Bake Sale Success

Today’s fundraiser bake sale was a great success. In four hours, we sold most of our baked goods and at the end of the day, a gentleman came up and bought everything that was still left on the table for his church. We raised nearly $212, half of which will go to the Martini Coalition for Muscular Dystrophy Research and Development and the other half of which Craig and I will use to purchase diapers and supplies for our children’s orphanages. I also got a $20 donation, so today we raised $126. I couldn’t be more pleased.

Here’s a picture of my baking contributions (banana nut bread, chocolate chip cookies, blueberry-peach cobblers):

And here we are all set up at the start of the sale:

I had a wonderful time meeting the members of the Martini Coalition and their families. My sincerest thanks go out to them for allowing us to be a part of this event. I also want to express my gratitude to everyone who came and supported our fundraiser. You guys rock!

Dollars For Diapers Bake Sale

Tomorrow, April 9, 2011 from 1:00 - 5:00 pm, I will be participating in a fundraiser bakesale at Harrison Bowling Center. I am teaming up with the Martini Coalition for Muscular Dystrophy Research & Development. A number of children in the Martini family are affected by the disease. The proceeds of the bakesale will be split 50/50 between the Martini Coalition and my efforts to raise money for our children's orphanages.

Along with the bakesale, the Martini Coalition has also organized for many other vendors, such as Pampered Chef, to be there and sell their products. A percentage of vendor sales will also go to the Martini Coalition.

There will be no leagues on Saturday afternoon, so plenty of lanes should be open if you’d like to do some bowling as well.

If you’re local, please come and support this fundraiser (I promise the goodies will be yummy) and please spread the word about it via social media outlets and email. Any money Craig and I raise will be used to purchase supplies (primarily diapers) for our children’s orphanages.

IAC 175 Results

The following referrals were issued in IAC Session 175 which was held on 03/02/11:

1) French dossier from 2007 referred a child 3 years and 1 month, male

2) Greek dossier from 2008 referred a child 5 years and 10 months, female, with specifics in health - data on family history and suspected chronic lung disease

3) Italian dossier from 2009 referred a child 5 years and 3 months, female

4) Italian dossier from 2009 referred a child 6 years and 2 months, male

5) Italian dossier from 2009 referred a child 7 years and 7 months, male

6) Italian dossier from 2010 referred a child 10 years and 3 months, female

[In February 2011, a total of 31 referrals were issued by the IAC.]

March 31, 2010

One year ago today, I first laid eyes on our son’s sweet face. I still remember opening that attachment and seeing him: his curly brown hair which is no longer curly, his big brown eyes that continue to be stunning, his little smirk despite the fact that he’d just had surgery. My heart was pounding so fast and I wanted him in my arms right then and there. At the same time a million thoughts raced through my head, everything from how can we start over in a country other than Bulgaria and how can we pay for a second, separate adoption to the bottom line: I want this little boy.

A year has passed since that day and I surely never thought that our son still wouldn’t be home with us. We spent eight months out of the last twelve just waiting because of bureaucratic red tape: eight weeks waiting for our state child abuse clearances to be issued, twelve weeks waiting for our USCIS I-800A approval, and twelve weeks waiting for random extra checks to be performed on our paperwork by our son’s government. And after all of this, a few more months still have to pass before we think this adoption will be final.

When I first saw our son’s photo, he was a baby, tiny and adorable and so helpless. Now he is a toddler who has grown and learned so much. He’s almost walking, he’s stomping his foot when he doesn’t like something, he’s potty-trained. His confidence has increased and he has favorite toys. He eats well and he sleeps well and, like us, he is waiting for our family to be together. I am so thankful that we got to follow his development from afar over the last year with frequent updates, photos and videos from our agency, but I am also incredibly sad we are missing so much time together.

My mother-in-law recently put it very well when she said, “I can tell how much you are pining for him.” Yes, we are, he is our son and we need him home.