November and December

It's been just over 7 weeks since Mia and I got home. I am way behind on blogging, but we have done a lot of the same things over and over so you haven't missed much. :) We have a mix of good and bad days, but are doing well overall. Please pray for our bonding, transition and adjustments to our new life and family. Here are some highlights.

We got new family pictures taken!!

A new family photo!

 

 We spent Thanksgiving up in Michigan and got to see my new nephew, Landon. Mia got to meet my side of the family. It was a short and busy weekend! We will see Tim's side in Atlanta, close to Christmas. We also have a new nephew on his side of the family that we will meet, Charles. :) Mia hasn't celebrated Thanksgiving before. She liked the turkey and sides, but she did not like pumpkin pie.

The cousins on Thanksgiving

I think Mia is caught up with her doctor appointment and immunizations. She made it through her first teeth cleaning here. We had a wonderful friend come with us to help translate for Mia so she would feel more at ease. As we guessed, she needs more dental work done. She will have four teeth pulled in January with sedation with an oral surgeon. Then the dentist will put in spacers and a crown. I think that will get the dental work caught up. The teeth she needs pulled are baby teeth and her adult teeth that have come in look good so far, so that's good news. She is getting better at school and is learning the routines and rules. She is learning a lot of English. :)


Lizzie is doing great in school and has a busy social schedule. :) She has had lots of birthday parties and sleepovers to go to. She enjoys the break from her new sister sometimes. She isn't used to all of this yet, but is doing s great job and has learned some Spanish. :) Lizzie also got a guitar for her birthday and is learning how to play in music class at school. She is doing well and loves it. She will play with her music teacher and other students tomorrow at a Holiday Lunch.


Ben is doing well in school too! He is very good and patient with Mia. It doesn't surprise me, he has always been good with kids we babysat in the past. He has a sweet side. He has also learned Spanish. :) He has been playing lots of basketball outside lately and his usual Lego's and Wii.


Josh is doing well too. He and Mia will chase each other and they like to ride scooters outside. He knows some Spanish too. Is very cute. :) He has been playing basketball, Lego's and the Wii, like Ben.


We have had a busy December. Tim has had extra church rehearsals and some Bobcats basketball games to work on the weekends. And of course getting ready for Christmas and a weekend trip to Atlanta to visit Tim's family. Hopefully over Christmas break we will make some gingerbread houses and decorate Christmas cookies. We did have a craft day at our neighborhood clubhouse last week and went to make crafts and visit Santa. Mia was the only one who went to talk to Santa. Our older 3 kids have never been interested in Santa. It's scary to them, apparently they take after me, I was the same way. :)

Mia's first ever visit to Santa.  She asked for a Barbie. :)

I found this ornament at Hallmark!

We are grateful for your prayers and support as we navigate our new life. :)

Cindy

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Update from Home

Wow, I am so glad to be back at home!! My how Lizzie, Ben and Josh have grown! It has been a whirlwind of activity since we returned last Saturday. It hasn't even been a week yet and we have had doctor appointments for Mia and we have a dentist visit scheduled. Lizzie's birthday is coming up soon and I can't even think about Thanksgiving and Christmas without having a nervous breakdown. :) haha A bit of overload for me. Thank you to those who have brought us meals, it is a huge help!!! I have been SO tired since we got back. I think I'm still recovering from being gone for 6 weeks!

FBCFM Trunk and Treats!

Here is a brief run down on what we have done and learned so far. In no particular order. :)

*Mia Loves her brothers and sister!!!
*Mia has learned to ride a scooter and has training wheels on her bike.
*Laundry, dishes
*We went to Trunk and Treats at our church and even Trick or Treating on Halloween. I had a costume that Lizzie wore several years ago and it fit Mia perfectly. Princess Aurora.
*She has been to the school and even had her First Day Today!! She was so ready and excited!! She did really well and loved it!! We have a few things to work on of course. :) She has a couple spanish-speaking friends in her class. She will go with the ESL teacher once or twice a day to learn English and about school routines...
*The kids are getting along well the majority of the time. We are learning how to work together.
*We are learning new languages.
*Laundry, dishes
*Mia thinks the US is beautiful and she wants to go to Disney World.
*We have had to get pants and jackets and mittens for almost everybody. Most things we had from last year were way too short when the cold weather hit this week. :)
*I made my first trip to Target. :) And had a couple foods I had missed while I was gone, too.

I think that is the major points for now.
This feels similar to bringing a new baby home. It's great and difficult and wonderful. Everything is different and a little bit the same all at once. We have to figure out how to adjust and change as needed. We need extra Grace, Understanding and Patience with ourselves and each other.

Keep us in your prayers!

Cindy

Here are a few pictures!

The first meeting at the airport!

Our airport welcome crew!!

Getting ready to eat our first dinner together! Yummy pizza!!

Our pumpkins. Left to right- Lizzie, Ben, Josh/mom, Mia/dad

Day 37

We had success today getting Mia's new ID and passport! Yay!!!! We have tickets to fly to Guayaquil tomorrow to go to the US Consulate. It's just a day trip so we leave in the morning and return tomorrow night.

We should be getting our last paper tomorrow that gives us permission to leave the country. We currently have tickets to fly from Quito to Miami on Friday. Then from Miami to Charlotte on Saturday. I'm excited about getting back home and seeing my other kiddos!

I don't know exactly what to expect when we get home. I don't know how everyone will get along and interact. I don't know how Mia will act or behave. She will have siblings, a new home, new school, new church, new friends, new language... and for Lizzie, Ben and Josh it will be different for them to have Mia physically at our house... We would appreciate your prayers still after we get home! Everything isn't over then, it's just a new chapter.

Thank you for your love and support!

Cindy

Day 34

So glad the sun has come back! It was chilly and cloudy for a few days. Today we took a small walk in the morning. After lunch here at the apartment, we went to the park and then to the play place Mia loves, Sanbomba. Now we are back at the apartment.

While we were out we had one of the nicest cab drivers ever! He was asking me lots of questions, vague questions no details, he was trying to speak English... He was shocked at my eye color, since most people here have dark brown eyes. It was funny. I felt the need to take his picture and he said I could. I may try to add it later.

Our in-country rep and attorney went to Ambato on Thursday and came back Friday afternoon. They were mostly successful. They had to go get Mia's new birth certificate and do some other paperwork. Since they were back a little early, we met our rep to get Mia's new ID. When we were at the Civil Registry, we found out that someone in Ambato didn't enter the correct information in the computer for Mia's ID. Our rep ran around trying to make it happen, but it ended up not happening. The office was closing for the weekend. So it should be fixed Monday. We will meet there again Monday morning to get Mia's ID. Then we will get her passport and take some papers to the doctor that he needs to fill out. We will go to Guayaquil to the consulate on Tuesday or Wednesday. We should be able to come home on Friday. Wow! That seems strange! I can't believe we could be that close! :)

Tomorrow we hope to go a market here in Quito with Paola sometime. Then the fun begins on Monday!

Thanks for following!
Cindy

Day 30 Cautiously Optimistic

Well, I have been in Ecuador for 30 days now. Sometimes it seems like it's been that long, sometimes longer and sometimes shorter. :) It's been going well. I know there are a lot of people praying for me and my family and that helps immensely! They still have Debie with them at home and that is so great! We got to Skype with the kids tonight, and the good thing is they still remember me. Haha

Mia and I haven't done much for the past few days. We have gone on walks, worked on puzzles, watched movies and had lunch with friends on Sunday. We may start getting busy next week. (more about that below). Here are a couple of pictures from when Tim was here.

Reading at the bookstore

Sliding!!

We found out that our Adoption Decree will be ready tomorrow evening, the 17th. This is great news! This means we can start more paperwork on Thursday. An attorney needs to go to Ambato to get Mia's new birth certificate on Thursday. She may get back on Friday. If so, on Monday, we can get Mia's new ID and passport here in Quito. We will likely fly to Guayaquil to go to the US Consulate sometime next week too. Our in-country rep said she may have an idea of our return date this Friday. That's where the cautiously optimistic part comes in. :)

Thank you all for praying and following our journey!

 

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A Day at the Park, Day 26

 

Yesterday, Mia and I went to Parque Metropolitano with Paola, her son, her brother and sister-in-law, and their dog Miles. We are staying at Paola's apartment, while we are here in Quito. It was a nice and big park. We walked quite a while on paths and the kids played and played! :) We saw a nice view of Quito along the way too.

Mia climbed the net

Some llamas walked by

They loved every toy surrounded by water. Amazingly they didn't fall in!

The other side of Quito and towards Cumbaya

Mia liked this statue

After the park, we had lunch at Paola's mom's house. The kids played a little more and then we went to her dad's to visit. He lives outside of Quito in the valley. We had a good snack there, empañadas. We had a great day and were worn out when we got back to the apartment!

We got to talk to Tim and the boys. Lizzie was at a sleepover for a friend's birthday. We had some great friends bring dinner to Tim, Debie and the kids. That is so great to me. Thank You!!

No updates on the process here yet. Still waiting.

Cindy

 

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Tim Made it Home! Day 24 and more!

Just got finished talking to Tim and the kids via Skype. :) His flights went well and they are glad to have him home. So is the dog, Sophie. Maybe since he is home, she has hope that I will come back someday. :) haha

Let's see, it's been a while since I've been able to blog. Sorry if some of this is repetitive. We did have court on Tuesday afternoon. It went really well. Our new daughter's name is Amelia Valentina Gale, we will call her Mia. The judge was pleased with how well Mia interacted with us. He said he would try to get the Adoption Decree done this week instead of next week. That would be great! At this point Mia and I are scheduled to return October 25-26. As long as all the remaining steps go smoothly, and if it's in Gods plans. I will update the In-country tab after this post. We are waiting for the Adoption Decree right now. Next is birth certificate, ID and passport, I believe.

After Court on 10/9

I found out today that an attorney needs to go to Ambato, where Mia was born, for her new birth certificate, with her new last name on it. I don't have a date for this yet.

Today Mia and I went to a mall to walk around and get out of the house. We ate lunch there at KFC and then went to get some groceries at Mega Maxi, a grocery store down here. After groceries, we took a taxi back to the house and have been hanging out here. We have watched cartoons, attempted to make rice krispie treats- that didn't go very well. They are kind of hard. Must be the altitude. :). We ate left over pizza for dinner and watched a good ole Barbie movie. After the movie, we Skyped with Tim and the kids.

Going back in time to day 20, this past Saturday, we did some tourist type things. The three of us went to a botanical garden at Carolina Park. It was really nice. There were paddle boats nearby, so we went on those too. I wasn't thrilled because the water looked really nasty, but Mia and Tim had fun so that's good. :). That evening we went over to Denise and Oswaldo's and ate some really good gourmet pizza from Alforno.

Botanical Gardens

Mia and I at the botanical gardens

Mia watching the fish

The view from our paddle boat

On Sunday, October 7, day 21, we went to a church near our apartment called English Fellowship Church. It was a good service and God was speaking very clearly through the music and sermon! After church we ate at the apartment. I tried to make chili. Only problem was there wasn't any chili powder at the grocery store and the other is that most tomato products here taste much sweeter than at home. It still tasted good, but more like a tomato based soup than chili. After lunch, we took Mia to a local play place where she plays for an hour and we go get coffee/hot chocolate. She Loves it there! I'm sure we will go back. She can play on inflatables, get her hair curled and nails done... She always comes out very glittery. I find it in the cuffs of her jeans when I do the laundry. :)

These pictures are from last week when we went with Denise, Oswaldo and their two kids to Teleferqo. You can ride a cable car from an elevation of around 10,000 ft up to about 13,000 ft. I was not looking forward to it. I have enough trouble at 9,000 ft! I just knew I would be really dizzy up at the top, but I was willing to suck it up and go. Thankfully, Denise and Oswaldo's youngest Josh wasn't old enough to go up so she and waited for the dads and daughters to go up. :) This was October 4, day 18.

Tim, Sara Emma and Mia at Teleferiqo. Around 13,000 ft elevation!

A view of part of Quito from Teleferiqo

You may or may not know that for some reason on Monday and Tuesday this week I woke up not feeling well from the altitude. I have some medicine I brought that helped a little while after I took it. I am now going to take it everyday, especially with Tim gone.

On Monday, October 8, Tim took Mia to her doctor appointment that is required to become a US citizen. I wasn't feeling well, so he went with her. Praise God! She did well. She only had to get 2 shots! Tim said she cried pretty hard, but then got some chocolates. :) I will have to go back to the office after we get the decree for the doctor to fill out a few papers. Tim said he was really nice and he does speak English!

I think that gets you caught up. I hope to be more regular with posts, it's a little harder to do on my iPad. I am figuring out a new app that allows me to use photos... While we were out yesterday after court, I bought a puzzle to have something to do in the evenings now that Tim is gone. I haven't sorted the pieces yet.

Hope you are all doing well! Please let me know how you are and if you have any prayer requests.

Cindy

 

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New Court Date

We did not have our court date today. Instead we had our Recognition of Signatures appointment this morning. Our new court date will be on Tuesday. I'll (Tim) have to stay a little bit longer. I'll be head back to the States on Wednesday now and back to work on Thursday. Cindy and Vale will hopefully only be here around a couple more weeks after that.

Thanks everyone for your prayers. Please keep them coming. We're very grateful to everyone who has been apart of our adoption journey in every way possible. Cindy and I are very humbled.

Court Date

We have a court date now, Friday, October 5th. Yay!!!! We don't know what time yet, but should soon.

Today we went to Carolina Park to walk around a bit, we hadn't been there yet. Tim and Vale tried a kite, but there wasn't enough wind. We needed to get more shampoo for Vale. Apparently she was using way too much in her shower, and I didn't know until last night. :) Oh well.
We also bought an umbrella for the afternoon rains we get often. We had some lunch at a food court in the mall. We walked some more, much to Vale's dismay, and got some ice cream. Then we got a taxi back to the apartment.

We should be here the rest of the night. We will likely watch a movie later after or with dinner.

Tim will be leaving this weekend so we'll have to get his things packed in a couple days. :( Vale and I will be here another 2 weeks, maybe 3. I will ask our in-country rep what her best guess is for a return date for us after court.

That's it for now. Thanks for following!

Vale loves to dance!

Here's the last couple of videos that I've got ready for you. You may remember Cindy made her a tutu that you saw on Meeting Vale Pt 1. She wants to do ballet.

This first video is from our time in Ambato as we were spending time with her in the hotel.



Vale loves Barbie movies as well. We've watched many a Barbie video in Spanish (With English Subtitles on). She really enjoys "Barbie in a Mermaid Tale" and "12 Dancing Princesses".

Here's Vale doing a little dance along with Barbie from "12 Dancing Princesses".



Enjoy!

Meeting Vale Pt. 2

Here's just a small look back at our time meeting Kayla Valentina in Ambato. It's short and has a few pictures sprinkled throughout. I hope you enjoy.

Day 12

Today we went to Mitad del Mundo with our friends Denise and Oswaldo and their son Josh. On the way there we also stopped at a crater called Pululahua. It was once an active volcano and has eroded down to a crater that looks like a valley. We had a good time!

We are hanging out at the apartment for the evening. No court date yet. We heard from MJ this evening that the judge has all the papers and we should have court next week. Keep praying! Tim is scheduled to leave next weekend and he has to be here for court.

Lizzie, Ben and Josh are all sleeping over at friend's houses tonight. Fun for them!

The view from our apartment!

Kayla Vakentina all dressed and ready. She takes her morning prep time seriously. Sparkles, perfume and all! :)

The crater place, Pululahua

The crater/valley. The cone of a volcano used to be here, I believe. It was a great day to see this. Denise said normally this area is covered by clouds. It's around 8000-9000 feet above sea level.

Mitad del Mundo, "Center of the World". Latitude Longitude 0.0, almost ;)

The monument, equator and us!

That's it for now. I will work on an in-country timeline next. I'll make a new tab for the top of the blog.

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Meeting Vale (Part 1)

Here's a small look into our journey to Ambato and meeting Valentina.

I was trying to be discreet in my video taking so it may be a little jerky. :-)

Day 11

Today was a pretty calm day. We hung out at the apartment for the morning. After lunch Tim and Kayla Vale went to see a movie, Tinker Bell and the Secret of the Fairies. I had some time by myself. Ahhhh, that was just what this introvert needed. :)  It looks like eventually Vale will be Kayla. We talked a bit about names this morning and she said she likes Kayla. We will have a friend help us out with all that translation. :) I'll keep you posted on that.

We got to Skype with Tim's mom late in the afternoon. She and the kids are going out to dinner with friends tonight. We are so grateful and thankful for how our friends are loving on our kids while we are gone! Lizzie is sleeping at a friend's tomorrow and so are the boys.

I made spaghetti for dinner. Turned out ok. We picked up some fresh bread to have with it. We are watching a movie tonight before bed, as usual. Tonight it's Tarzan. Don't know that I've ever seen this whole movie.

I talked briefly to MJ, the in-country rep, and she said all is well. She didn't give me a court date yet. Pray for that date! And for the rest of our process to move quickly. We did Power of Attorney yesterday and she picked up the report from INFA that court needs. :)

That's it for now. May get to Skype with the kids before bed. :)

Cindy

Adoption Video #1

If you haven't seen it on Facebook here's a video of the start of our journey last week.

Enjoy!

The First Week Done

Since I last wrote, we haven't done much that is different. :) We went to a mall to window shop and eat lunch on Friday. We met up with local friends that we met on previous mission trips to Quito, on Thursday. It was great to see them and it's so nice to have friends down here to help us figure out how to live in Quito. Saturday we hung out at the apartment most of the day. We took a walk around the neighborhood and went to the park across the street to try to fly the kite. Not much wind so that didn't last long. :)

Today we met our friends again for lunch. Then we headed back to the apartment for more movies, coloring and playing. We got to Skype with the kids and with my mom.

We have a meeting Tuesday with our in-country rep to do power of attorney, I believe. Maybe we will find out about a court date, we don't have one yet.

We have had a couple funny adventures this week. The first was on Wednesday when we ordered pizza for delivery. We had instructions to help, but it was still hard to understand the person on the phone. I took a deep breath and dialed the phone. When I hung up, I told Tim "I think I ordered a cheese pizza it cost $11 and it will be here in ?5 minutes." It did come to us right and it was 25 minutes. :)

The other was when we were trying to catch a cab. Up to that day we hadn't had any trouble. This time it was very busy and just starting to rain. We had 3 or 4 taxi's come to us and none of them knew where we needed to go. We have an address written down. We called our friends to ask for cross streets to give a driver. We crossed the street where it seemed less busy and hailed another taxi. (I'm getting better at it, by the way.) I told him the streets and he asked me something and I told him a landmark nearby and he seemed to know where we needed to go. We got in the taxi and I told Tim that "I think he knows where we need to go." After we started to drive I recognized a few billboards and knew we were ok. We then managed to tell him a few more directions when we were near the apartment. Phew! We made it. We can laugh about it now. :)

I have just a couple pictures of Tim and Vale from the past couple days. I need to do a better job taking pictures!

The kids are doing well with Grandma. Lizzie had a birthday party to go to and had a sleep over with a friend. They had a book fair at school this week and it sounds like they bought some great things.! They had lunch out today at Sonic!

Tim and Vale sleeping on the way from Ambato to Quito

Tim and Vale watching a live stream of Rock The Lakes, that Tim usually goes to for work.

 

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Our First Few Days....

Ok, I finally have a few minutes and have my iPad working! Yay!!
We arrived in Quito Sunday night. Monday Tim and I had time in Quito and a meeting with INFA about Valentina. We got lots of information about her personality, likes and dislikes...
Tuesday morning we went to Ambato and met Vale around noon at a park. She had flowers and cards for us and we took a gift for her, a tutu and ballet slippers. We were told that she was wishing for these things.
We spent time in the park and back at the hotel. The next day, Wednesday, we went to another park for a few minutes and then left Ambato. That was hard for Vale, but she did well.
We are in Quito now for the rest of the stay here. We have watched movies, played games, puzzles, tried out grocery shopping and flew a kite.
We may find out when our court date will be sometime next week. We'll see. Here are some pictures.
Blogger isn't working well and we have to try something new so we will see how this turns out.

2 more sleeps

Grandma arrived yesterday and we were all glad to see her! I can't tell you how much peace it gives me knowing she will be here with the kids while I am gone!!  Thank You God for your provision.

Sophie, our dog, knows something is going on now because Grandma is here and there are suitcases laying around.

We ordered some t-shirts last week for our trip. One of those last minute thoughts that came to me. A friend on Facebook, who adopted a daughter from Ecuador earlier this year, has a new t-shirt business and worked with me to make them. They are great!! I will attach a photo here of a proof, but hope to get a picture with us all in them tonight and I'll post that if it happens. :)  Her website is www.teeswithapurpose.com

We have some running around to do today and hopefully pizza and a movie tonight! Oh, and just a little more packing.  :)

Cindy

4 More Sleeps

We are definitely in the final countdown! Backs are being packed, lists are being checked, grandma comes tomorrow...! Time together seems more valuable. :)

Tim and I fly out Sunday morning to Quito, Ecuador. We will head to the apartment that we will stay at and meet with our in-coutry rep. Monday morning we have another meeting and then head south to Ambato, where Kayla lives and is from. We will meet her and have a few days of bonding time, then the 3 of us head back up to Quito for the duration of our stay and process.

We should have internet access in Quito. I am not sure about in Ambato. I plan to update via blog and email and some on Facebook. Feel free to send emails... It will be fun to get "mail". :)

We are SO appreciative to everyone who has had a part in this process with us. We could not have done it alone. We are very blessed. Thank you for your love and support!!

Cindy

We Got It!

Just heard from the adoption agency this afternoon. The Article 5 was issued today!

ALSO, we found out last night that God has provided ALL the funds needed for the adoption!!

We have tickets booked to leave on September 16th.

Nothing stopping us now!!

Wow, that's scary!!!

Just over 6 months ago this part of the journey began. We will now start on the next part, meeting our daughter and the in-country process. Keep the prayers coming!!

We should have internet access while in Ecuador, so we can update Facebook and the blog and check email.

Thank you for your prayers and support so far. Please continue to pray for us.

All praise to God!

Cindy

"Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us, to Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen"
Ephesians 3:20-21

Waiting

Hello all!! Hope you are well.

I heard from the adoption agency and the Article 5 meeting is scheduled for tomorrow, not yesterday. Oh well. She has assured me all will be fine for travel on Sept. 16th!  :)
I am praying for that last bit of paperwork before we go. Then once we are in Ecuador there will be a whole new process to pray for! :)

We are down to needing $1,100!! So great! We have to take cash with us, so I'll be visiting the back next week, to figure all of that out.

The Quilt Raffle Drawing happened on Sunday and Bethany Moore from Atlanta, GA won! Yay, Beth!! Thanks to all who participated. $980 was raised.

Pray for Tim. He has had a great opportunity to work for the DNC last week and this week. He has been working very long days and is pretty tired. This week he has very early hours, like 2am-3pm! Pray for his strength and to stay healthy. He has met some new contacts within his profession and is learning lots of new things too.

I think that is all the highlights for today. Thank you for your prayers and support!!

Cindy

Getting closer...

I think I am starting to lose my mind! I am not able to make very simple decisions lately. I think everything is catching up with me. Since I am having trouble forming complete sentences, I will write today's update in bullet point form. :)

*Today at 10am central time, the attorney has her appointment to get our Article 5. We should hear about it later today. Yay!

*We are only in need of $1,500 now. GOD IS SO GOOD!!!

*Tim's mom, Debie/Grandma G., is getting ready to book her flight. She is looking at coming on September 13th.

*We should meet Kayla on Monday September 17th! We fly to Quito on the 16th and then Monday morning head to Ambato for our mandatory 3-4 days of bonding time.

*Quilt Raffle drawing is coming up this weekend!

In the meantime, I will be working on spending time with the kids, getting supplies and snacks to take, packing and getting things ready for when Debie is here. 

Tim is working the DNC this week and next. He has some long days. Pray for us both to have strength and stamina to make it through. After the DNC Tim will be busy getting his 2 jobs, Billy Graham and the church, ready for him to be gone.

Have a great day!!

Cindy

September 16th!

A lot has happened in the last 24 hours.

Yesterday after dinner I got an email from the adoption agency that Ecuador has our I800 approval and the attorney has an appointment to take the visa application on Wednesday or Thursday this week! She also said they will likely issue the Article 5, aka permission to travel, right away. Then she said we could travel right away or not long after that. Phew!! I read the email a couple times to make sure I understood what it really said. :)

After calling Tim's mom, who is coming to stay with the kids, we called the airline and have tickets to leave on Sept. 16th! (We can change them if we need to since our friend donated frequent flyer miles to book them.) I was originally thinking we'd leave a week after that. My heart and mind are racing a bit fast this morning. Surprisingly, I was able to sleep last night.

So we have a little more money to raise, just $2,500. I know it will happen. :)

Also, the QUILT raffle was post-poned to this weekend. Tim's mom was waiting on a couple of checks to get to her from people who said they are sending them. So I'll update that when it happens.

Keep praying!

Cindy

Grant Update

We found out today that we didn't get a grant from Show Hope. There is still one more possibility that we haven't heard from yet.
We did find out that we had funds donated to Lifesong in the past week. We only need about $2,500 now! We found out from Lifesong that donations can be made up until we return from Ecuador.

Our I800 approval should get to Ecuador soon. I am praying for the paperwork still. :) I pray that it will get to it's destination and get to a person who will complete it accurately and quickly. And that it will get to it's next destination... That's been my prayer all along so I will continue.

Thanks for following. I will keep you all posted!
:)
Cindy

We are nearing the Final Countdown

If you didn't see it on Facebook yesterday, we got our I800 approval in the mail yesterday!!! That means there is one more step before we get permission to travel to Ecuador! We should be leaving in about a month. Unbelievable. It has only been about 6 months since this all started!!
When we got the approval yesterday, Tim and I both said that now we are getting scared and nervous. I had butterflies in my stomach a few times thinking about how close we are and what has to happen between now and when we leave.

The quilt raffle is nearing it's end. So far over $900 has been raised!!! God is amazing! The drawing will be sometime this weekend, I believe. Good luck to all who participated!  :)

I hope you all have a great weekend!!

Cindy

First Day of School

Everyone was up bright and early this morning for the first day of school. If only that would last past this week. :) Lizzie is in 5th grade, Ben is in 4th grade and Josh is in 2nd grade. We walked the kids up to the school and to their classes. Well, the boys anyway. Lizzie didn't want us to walk to her room with her. We went to peek on her before we left though. I couldn't resist. Everyone did well. No tears that I know of, except mine. Can't wait to hear all about it this afternoon!

We have exciting news about adoption fundraising....We only need $3,000 more!!! That is SO Amazing and Awesome to me! I've marked things as "Funded" on the expense page and partially funded for one big expense. THANK YOU to all who have helped us with this. You are all a special part of the journey to bring Kayla home!

Oh, and in case you are wondering, the blog template keeps having troubles so I went back to something basic for a while. Hopefully things will get fixed soon. 

Cindy

Small Update

I have updated the Adoption Timeline page. I have most of the info in there. It was hard to remember some things that we have done already.
We think we are ready for school to start this week. We go to meet the kids teachers this afternoon. Hopefully Tim will be back from his business trip to meet us there. It will be hectic. :)

On the adoption front, we are waiting for our I800 approval still. Maybe it will come this week. After the I800 is approved it is sent to Ecuador for some processing and then they will give us permission to travel. I am guessing we will leave for Ecuador around mid September. It will depend on how long the paper process takes.

We did find out that after we fly to Quito, one or two days later we will travel to Ambato to meet and bond with Kayla. We will be there 3 or 4 days and then head back to Quito, with Kayla, for the remainder of the process. We are excited to see Ambato, since that is where she is from and where she has lived for her whole life. We plan to take lots of pictures so she can have them to remember where she was born.

The quilt raffle drawing date is coming up! There are a few more days to buy tickets if you are interested. So far around $750 had been raised!! God is so good!

Also, you can still make tax deductible donations to our Lifesong account. There isn't a deadline at this time for making donations. (Originally there was) Let us know if you need or want information about that.

Thank you all!!

We have had some excitement in the past few days. We got a dvd in the mail from our adoption agency that had some video of Kayla on it! Tim took this picture from it. It was so great to see her and hear her talk and talk and talk.... She is quite a talker. We understood some of it. :)  We all agreed that she is even more adorable. Tomorrow, August 13, is her 7th birthday!! I hope she gets to do something fun. I will be thinking of her and praying for her even more than normal tomorrow.

Other things to update:

Someone has told us they have a twin bed frame, mattress and box springs that they are donating for Kayla. That is great news!! 

Also, we have been told by Lifesong that people can still donate to our Lifesong account past the previous August 14 deadline! Donations can be received up until we leave, and maybe after. I will let you know if they give me a new deadline. Our account number is "Preference Gale Adoption #2913". You would write that on the memo line of a check or in the purpose section online. There are full details at the bottom of the "Adoption Expenses" page, on the Lifesong Link to the right, or you can let us know if you need more info. :)

We also do have a place to stay in Quito. What a relief! It is near a park and a church we can attend. It will be quite the adventure since we will be shopping for our own groceries and making meals and getting used to new foods and ingredients... I will definitely have to follow high altitude directions. Quito is around 9,000 ft above sea level in the Andes Mountains. More to come on that when we are there, I am sure. :) 

That's it for now. Thank you for keeping up with us!!

Cindy

Thursday's Update

I am running out of ideas for titles, can you tell?? :)  There are a couple of updates today.

We may have a place to stay while in Quito! This is a relief. I will give more info when I am sure about the arrangements.

Also, we heard from one grant that they will not be providing any money to us. I was really bummed when I found out, but I know it will be ok anyway. There are still 2 more that we are waiting to hear from.

The last thing is that we found out about more things we will have to pay for while in Ecuador. Some translation fees and for "other paperwork". Like getting an extra copy of her birth certificate or her complete history on paper and translated. And transportation from/to the airport in Quito. (I wasn't sure how much that would be) So the expense page has been updated again. :)
We figured there would be expenses that would pop up when we are there, but it's good to know some of them in advance. :)

Thank you to those who have gone to Ecuador for adoptions ahead of us! The information you give is SO helpful!!

Cindy

Adoption Update

Hope everyone is having a great week! We are doing well and trying to get ready for school to start. I also seem to be in some type of nesting mode, if that exists for adoptions. I am trying to clean out and sort everything and prepare things for when I'm gone for so long in Ecuador... Making sure the kids have pants that will fit, since it will likely get cool while I'm gone. Things like that. Lots of random thoughts come to mind in the middle of the night that get added to my list. :)

We are very excited that we get to mark "Funded" next to some expenses for our adoption. God provided more donations through Lifesong!!
I feel like a broken record, but we are just so in awe of the generosity of friends and family and the provision of God.

The quilt raffle is going great! Since we met our $300 goal already, Tim's mom has raised it to $600!

Also, the I800 was sent to USCIS so let the countdown begin for that to get back approved. :) I think it could take around 30 days. The I800 is the approval of the U.S. to allow Kayla to be a citizen because we are adopting her. When I come back to the U.S. with her, she will be a citizen when we land in Miami!
After the I800 is approved there are a couple more steps and then we will get permission to travel.

We have a special prayer request- The adoption agency said the government in Ecuador is going to try to keep our in-country stay as short as possible, maybe less than 7 weeks for me! Pray that it may happen. We won't know before we leave, so we still have to book flights and housing for the whole time and change dates later, if needed. This hasn't happened yet for any families we know, but maybe....

Thank you for your prayers and support!!!

Cindy

Thankful

I don't have a lot to say today. Just that we are so thankful to all who have helped with our adoption process so far! We were able to send payment for the second half of the Adoption Agency fees from money raised through Lifesong!! One more thing that can be marked PAID on the expense page!

Hope you all are having a blessed week!!
Cindy
:)

Yay!!

I'm still amazed at how God works in and through our adoption process. Today has been filled with all kind of emotions already.

Our adoption agency needs money to send to Ecuador. She emailed me last week and again this morning. I have tried to contact the grants we applied to and tell them our urgency and they say we won't hear from them until end of August or September. That's how long it will take to review all the applications. I have tried to contact another grant agency and they haven't returned my emails for a week. That was lovely stress for 9 o'clock this morning.

But God...

Shortly after that news, I found out that a friend is donating frequent flyer miles to purchase 2 round trip tickets to Ecaudor!! Praise God!! That's another expense marked PAID on the list. (There is a list of expenses on the 'adoption expenses' page).

God still was not finished blowing my mind... Tim's mom called me to say that she has already raised more than $300 for the quilt raffle!!

I'm on overload, but that's ok. God is definitely working here!

As far as an update on the process, I am not sure if the paperwork, I800, has been sent to USCIS or not.  If not, it should be soon. Last I heard, which was Friday, the adoption agency was waiting on a document from Ecuador. Once mailed, I believe it takes around 30 days to process. Then there's one or two things after that.

We shall see...

Cindy

Here's some pictures just for fun.

Ben geared up for Laser Tag!

Josh geared up too!!

Lizzie enjoying a S'more in Michigan!

While in Michigan we got to visit Michigan International Speedway. Here we
are at the top of the track!! Thanks Uncle Joe!