Wow! I feel important now. I just witnessed democracy first hand! Jesse and I called our representative and both senators and asked them to please co-sponsor the FACE Act. They actually listened (well, their office listened). We told them why it hit home for us and gave them the bill number and they told us that they would inform our congressmen!! It's such a shame that our generation doesn't utilize our rights to change government - The United States is a democracy, so please for our son's sake, CALL! Look at my FACE post below for all the info.
xoxo,
b
Thursday, July 30, 2009
FACE
There is this new act, the FACE Act, that if passed will immediately grant US citizenship to our little guy in Ghana when we pass court. This would be HUGE for him, and for us, and for the others who are adopting internationally. The children wouldn't have to have visas to come home. I know in our little town we're adopting from, the visa man who runs the paperwork through, happens to misplace or lose all together the paperwork of children being adopted internationally. What is supposed to take no longer than 30 days is taking 90 days, and even longer. And right now, even though these kids have new homes, they can't go to them until they have their visas. And, if this act passes, then these kids will have all of the same rights as US citizens - we can tell our little guy he can become President one day if he wants to.
I got this email yesterday, and I would really encourage you, to take 5 minutes to respond. Think of it as your little way to help adoptive families bring their children home sooner. Think of it as helping bring our little guy home sooner. So... take a look below!
Thank you for signing the FACE Act Petition. Since the petition was launched on June 30th it has received over 1600 signatures! Please take a moment and continue to support the FACE Act legislation (S.1359 and H.R. 3110) by calling your Senators and Representative on Tuesday (today), Wednesday and Thursday. It is imperative that they hear that this legislation is important to you, their constituents.
Read below for how to make your voice be heard.
FACE Act - Call to Action On Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday call your three Members of Congress (two in the Senate and one in the House of Representatives).You can find your Representative at http://www.house.gov/You can find you Senators' at http://www.senate.gov/Ask to speak with the Legislative Director or Chief of Staff For maximum effect, we are asking you to make these calls within this 72-hour window!
What should you say or write to your Members of Congress? This is an issue that is critical to our internationally adopted children, so speak from your heart. Tell them why internationally adopted children of American citizens need automatic U.S. citizenship from the time their adoption is final and why this is so important to you!
Ask your Senators and Representatives to become a Co-Sponsor of the FACE Act. If you are speaking to a Senate office, provide them with the bill number S.1359.
If you are speaking to a House member, provide them with the bill number H.R. 3110.
Please feel free to use the following text as a guideline when speaking with your Members of Congress.
"As a constituent ofwe are requesting that you support the Foreign Adopted Children Equality Act (FACE Act) by becoming a Co-Sponsor of the legislation. For information on becoming a Co-Sponsor, please contact Senator Mary Landrieu, Senator James Inhofe, Representative Diane Watson or Representative John Boozman. Thank you for representing your constituents by becoming a Co-Sponsor of the FACE Act."
I got this email yesterday, and I would really encourage you, to take 5 minutes to respond. Think of it as your little way to help adoptive families bring their children home sooner. Think of it as helping bring our little guy home sooner. So... take a look below!
Thank you for signing the FACE Act Petition. Since the petition was launched on June 30th it has received over 1600 signatures! Please take a moment and continue to support the FACE Act legislation (S.1359 and H.R. 3110) by calling your Senators and Representative on Tuesday (today), Wednesday and Thursday. It is imperative that they hear that this legislation is important to you, their constituents.
Read below for how to make your voice be heard.
FACE Act - Call to Action On Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday call your three Members of Congress (two in the Senate and one in the House of Representatives).You can find your Representative at http://www.house.gov/You can find you Senators' at http://www.senate.gov/Ask to speak with the Legislative Director or Chief of Staff For maximum effect, we are asking you to make these calls within this 72-hour window!
What should you say or write to your Members of Congress? This is an issue that is critical to our internationally adopted children, so speak from your heart. Tell them why internationally adopted children of American citizens need automatic U.S. citizenship from the time their adoption is final and why this is so important to you!
Ask your Senators and Representatives to become a Co-Sponsor of the FACE Act. If you are speaking to a Senate office, provide them with the bill number S.1359.
If you are speaking to a House member, provide them with the bill number H.R. 3110.
Please feel free to use the following text as a guideline when speaking with your Members of Congress.
"As a constituent of
Friday, July 17, 2009
And HE DID Provide!
I just got a call from our church, and they are giving us a HUGE amount towards our adoption! Praise God!! Their donation will pay for our adoption agency processing fee, our first immigration fee, and our first installment to the Ghana government! This means that within a couple of months, God willing, we will find out who are little one is. Thank you, Jesus.
God Provides in NOT my way!
Well... We just got a call to clear up a question about our income that was on our adoption grant... Jesse had put both our our incomes down on this grant form, but for the form for his school grant, he only puts his income as it indicates on the form. So as you could imagine, they were quite surprised by the 2 different amounts. All is taken care of though - but it was sad because I had to tell them that the school I was teaching at just let me know yesterday that enrollment did not go up, so I wouldn't have a job with them next year. OKAY GOD! A LITTLE SCARY!! Well, when they minus my income from our household income - hopefully that will show more need?? Who knows.
It is a little scary that right now we are living only off of Jesse's income - which is okay, but when we were counting on mine too especially for this adoption and all the costs - it is quite overwhelming. I know that God provides, and it's easy to see Him providing when He is doing it in the way that you expect, but this isn't exactly what we expected. We actually expected that my school's enrollment would go up so that they would need me, which would then bless us in return with my income which we would put towards our adoption, etc.... YIKES! is all I can say. I'm trying to have peace about it. Trying to TRUST HIM and have NO FEAR for fear and worry is not of the Spirit. I sure hate blindly trusting. But, nonetheless, God will provide for us, for our little guy, and for his homecoming!
I pray that our church is able to help us out some with resources that will enable our little man to come home SOON. I have so many days when I just sit and long for him to be here with us. I just feel like a member of our family is missing, because he is. It will be good to have him home with us, for him and little Miss A to play together, and for us all to snuggle up together to say prayers at bedtime. My heart hurts because he's not with us, but I have to trust that God loves him even more than I do, because God does!
So Lord, KISS my little guy's knee when he falls down and hurts it, MAKE FUNNY FACES so he'll laugh, PROVIDE him the meal he needs to keep his little tummy full, HUG him when he's feeling sad, TEACH him to share with his friends, HELP him to be grateful for what he does have, READ him a bedtime story and SAY PRAYERS with him before he goes to sleep, CUDDLE him when he wakes up from a scary dream, WAKE HIM with the hope and joy of YOU, and SQUEEZE HIM TIGHT to tell him that his mommy and daddy and little sister are coming for him soon, LET HIM FEEL LOVE - because Lord, I can't do any of this, so I NEED you to, until I can.
It is a little scary that right now we are living only off of Jesse's income - which is okay, but when we were counting on mine too especially for this adoption and all the costs - it is quite overwhelming. I know that God provides, and it's easy to see Him providing when He is doing it in the way that you expect, but this isn't exactly what we expected. We actually expected that my school's enrollment would go up so that they would need me, which would then bless us in return with my income which we would put towards our adoption, etc.... YIKES! is all I can say. I'm trying to have peace about it. Trying to TRUST HIM and have NO FEAR for fear and worry is not of the Spirit. I sure hate blindly trusting. But, nonetheless, God will provide for us, for our little guy, and for his homecoming!
I pray that our church is able to help us out some with resources that will enable our little man to come home SOON. I have so many days when I just sit and long for him to be here with us. I just feel like a member of our family is missing, because he is. It will be good to have him home with us, for him and little Miss A to play together, and for us all to snuggle up together to say prayers at bedtime. My heart hurts because he's not with us, but I have to trust that God loves him even more than I do, because God does!
So Lord, KISS my little guy's knee when he falls down and hurts it, MAKE FUNNY FACES so he'll laugh, PROVIDE him the meal he needs to keep his little tummy full, HUG him when he's feeling sad, TEACH him to share with his friends, HELP him to be grateful for what he does have, READ him a bedtime story and SAY PRAYERS with him before he goes to sleep, CUDDLE him when he wakes up from a scary dream, WAKE HIM with the hope and joy of YOU, and SQUEEZE HIM TIGHT to tell him that his mommy and daddy and little sister are coming for him soon, LET HIM FEEL LOVE - because Lord, I can't do any of this, so I NEED you to, until I can.
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
Fashionalbly Late??
Well... yes, I am fashionably late in writing this blog. YIKES! I have many excuses, but all they are, are excuses.
We have a COMPLETED HOMESTUDY! Yay!! Definition of homestudy: a social worker comes into your home 4 times to get to know you to see if you're qualified to adopt a child. Well... we passed! There was much anxiety before our social worker came - both Jesse and I thought that this would be a huge invasion by this big, mean, state monster - but MUCH to our surprise, our social worker was a wonderful, warm, kind, MOM! She was great and made us feel so comfortable. We thank God for our social worker, Allyson!
With our completed homestudy, we are FINALLY able to apply for adoption grants to help us finance our adoption. We did an estimate of costs and it will be right around, $24,000. But, we have a mighty GOD who will provide in HIS ways - which are NOTHING like we imagine them to be like.
We have one grant application in the works right now, from our church. They are supposed to have a meeting this week, so we're praying and could use your prayers too, that our church will see our need and help us along.
We have 2 financial hurdles to overcome immediately so our adoption can continue. 1) $2000 for our adoption agency, which provides us a lawyer, help with our dossier, GIVES US A CHILD, etc. And 2) $800 for our I600-A, an immigration paper that grants us permission to adopt from Ghana, which includes fingerprinting for us both, again - I feel like every step of this adoption, we need fingerprints - so... now we're in the SYSTEM, better not do anything criminal, or they'll find us! =) Unless, we're really good and don't leave fingerprint... hmmmm... JUST KIDDING!
I feel like our adoption is taking some movement toward progress after being in slow-mo for a couple of months. Praise God!!
To conclude - I will do my best at keeping this updated more regularly, like once a week.
xoxo, B
We have a COMPLETED HOMESTUDY! Yay!! Definition of homestudy: a social worker comes into your home 4 times to get to know you to see if you're qualified to adopt a child. Well... we passed! There was much anxiety before our social worker came - both Jesse and I thought that this would be a huge invasion by this big, mean, state monster - but MUCH to our surprise, our social worker was a wonderful, warm, kind, MOM! She was great and made us feel so comfortable. We thank God for our social worker, Allyson!
With our completed homestudy, we are FINALLY able to apply for adoption grants to help us finance our adoption. We did an estimate of costs and it will be right around, $24,000. But, we have a mighty GOD who will provide in HIS ways - which are NOTHING like we imagine them to be like.
We have one grant application in the works right now, from our church. They are supposed to have a meeting this week, so we're praying and could use your prayers too, that our church will see our need and help us along.
We have 2 financial hurdles to overcome immediately so our adoption can continue. 1) $2000 for our adoption agency, which provides us a lawyer, help with our dossier, GIVES US A CHILD, etc. And 2) $800 for our I600-A, an immigration paper that grants us permission to adopt from Ghana, which includes fingerprinting for us both, again - I feel like every step of this adoption, we need fingerprints - so... now we're in the SYSTEM, better not do anything criminal, or they'll find us! =) Unless, we're really good and don't leave fingerprint... hmmmm... JUST KIDDING!
I feel like our adoption is taking some movement toward progress after being in slow-mo for a couple of months. Praise God!!
To conclude - I will do my best at keeping this updated more regularly, like once a week.
xoxo, B
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