I find myself a little less organized during this adoption, a little less worried, and a little less scatterbrained...LOL. I do not have my large 3 inch think adoption binder for Tynsleigh as pretty and perfect and put together and as organized as Brennan's was but his adoption was my first and I know a little more about what I am doing and what to expect this time. I was actually the one sharing all of my cheat sheets (if you know me you know I have spreadsheets and documents for EVERYTHING) with the other friends that are traveling around the same time as I am. I am less worried about money. I had a yard sale in Oct that brought in the funds I needed at that time but it was not a great amount. I had a large adoption fundraiser event (Royal Winter Ball) in December that was a HUGE FLOP and I ended up $200 in the whole from... I have been selling items on my Treasures for Tynsleigh facebook group during the whole process, I have been saving money from my budget, my income tax this week and so much more. I have also had a very sweet, beautiful friend who has donated $10,000 to our adoption and bought my sweet Tynsleigh beautiful brand new pink arm crutches. I will forever be grateful to this sweet friend and she will never know just how much I appreciate her gifts. I hope some day she will get to meet my sweet girl and my sweet girl will know how important she was to bringing her home. I know that I still have money to raise before I am fully funded but for some reason up until now I have not been stressing over it as much as I did with Brennan's adoption. I am able to focus on my every day life and remember things and do things that need done. With Brennan's adoption I had my daughter home every day (she worked evenings) so whenever I needed to remember things, needed to call someone or anything I just told her to remind me because I new I would forget. My overall stress is so much better this adoption BUT this adoption has taken so much longer than it should have. We started with Agency A and got PA for Tynsleigh. Then they said we could submit LOI for a second daughter. I submitted my LOI and then we went into the holidays (Christmas 2014). Once the holiday was over my agency was placed on a suspension for several weeks. Once the suspension was lifted I asked them to check on my LOI I had submitted (it had already been over 2 months) and they found out that another agency pulled her file for their winter camp. They would not let her file go. Then Agency A began so many lies and were delaying paperwork I switched placing agencies. All of this time I was waiting for my homestudy update. I had my visit in November and it was promised by the beginning of December. I did not get it until MARCH!!! On Jan 2015 the rules changed for single women and we could no longer adopt two children at once. It broke my heart to watch this little girl that I thought would be my second daughter go through winter camp with this agency, no one committed to adopt her. Then once the camp was over the agency advocated for her daily and it broke my heart. No one would step forward for this precious girl. Finally someone stepped forward and then two weeks ago the family backed out. This girl is STILL waiting. She has been waiting since before 2013 and bounced between so many agencies. Her advocacy name has been Dottie, Chloe, Camille, and a few others. This girl is beautiful and I wish she could have been mine. Please share her story and photos. She has Cerebral Palsy (like my Tynsleigh) but she can walk, run, and is pure sunshine. Ask me about her PLEASE. Her birthday is the day before mine so she will be 10 years old on the 28th of February!!!
Now, where was I? Yes, waiting on my homestudy agency to send me my update, working on my dossier, and so much other stress. What no one knows is that after those changes on Jan 1st and I switched agencies we had to resubmit my LOI for Tynsleigh with the new agency. It was DENIED! The new law states single women had to have their youngest child over the age of 6 years old. I cried for days while my agency petitioned and fought to grandfather me in since I had already had PA. A few weeks later (and many tears for fear of losing my girl) it was approved. I knew this adoption would not be easy but I did not know it would be this hard. I know God wants her to come home to this family but the devil does not and I will fight for my girl. I should have been DTC by Feb and traveling late summer but with all of the slowdowns of the homestudy, switching agencies, and then the newest bump (my new agency wanted a CPA to certify my income and I couldn't get the local CPA firm to get it done right after 8 tries and four months I finally switched firms and had it two days later). I was finally sending my dossier to China in November! I received my Letter of Acceptance to adopt my daughter on Dec 28th. I was hoping before Christmas but before the New Year was just as sweet. I quickly sent everything to the next step in the process, counted the days and started bugging USCIS for my approval via email. My agency submitted all of my paperwork to China on Feb 1st for Article 5 drop off. Article 5 pick up is always 10 China business days later but because Chinese New Year was last week (and every business, agency, company and orphanage shuts down for the entire week) we will have Article 5 pick up this Thursday, Feb 18th. After that I am officially waiting for Travel Approval. That is when China has said, you can come whenever you want...we approve! Proper procedures are you have to officially submit request for a Consulate appointment with China and then you meet your child the week before your approved Consulate appointment. I hope to have my Travel Approval before my birthday and I could travel as early as the first week in March but I have two beautiful girls in my family that have birthdays in March that I do not want to miss (my oldest granddaughter, Ameliya, will be 5 on March 6th and my second oldest daughter, Chelsea, will be 21 on March 12th). Yes, I will miss Easter at home with my younger children but they will get the best Easter present later that week, a new sister! My plan is to leave on March 18th and return April 1st (no joke...lol). And please don't anyone play an April fools joke on me as I will NOT be in the mood. Last trip to pick up Brennan my daughter, Chelsea, went with me. This time she can not as she is almost 6 months pregnant and has already had some issues and I do not want her traveling that far from her doctor. I have searched and asked all of my family and friends if anyone would want to travel with me. Most have either medical issues or work issues (can't get the time off of work) or family issues (unable to leave their own littles home for that amount of time) so.... I am traveling ALONE! I am so nervous, my older children are nervous, but I know God will watch over us and protect us. Please say an extra prayer for Tynsleigh while I am gone. What worries me most about traveling alone is the cab/taxi rides. If I take her out of her wheelchair and put her in the cab/taxi and then disappear behind the car to put the wheelchair in the trunk I'm afraid she will think I was leaving her. She will not understand and I do not want there to be stress for her. I will be trying to learn to say "I'll be right back" or something similar in Mandarin to be able to explain to her that I am not leaving her.
So, where am I now? I'm waiting on step 13 & 14! Then I travel...yes, I am that close....Tynsleigh is all packed and I am partially packed...
BUT...I still have $6,400 left to raise and only 3 weeks to do it. Please help us any way you can... I have listed some ways that would greatly help us out!
1. Pray for our process
2. Pray for Tynsleigh
3. Donate to our adoption
1. http://reecesrainbow.org/88964/sponsorbarrett-2
2. https://www.youcaring.com/adoption-fundraiser/barrett-family-adoption-/269042
3. paypal (barrettbabes4@yahoo.com)
4. Buy something from our facebook fundraising page
https://www.facebook.com/groups/790715917640575/
5. Share our story
6. Ask others to help
7. Ask me about adoption (I would LOVE to see more children adopted)
8. Pray for everything to go smoothly and beautifully!!!!
Thank you to those that have prayed with me, prayed for me, supported me, donated to us and helped us out in ways that you will always be a part of Tynsleigh's story!
I know that I mentioned in the beginning of this blog that I was not as stressed about money during this whole process but just this past weekend it hit me...I have so much to raise and such a short, short amount of time to do it. I will be using my income tax check this weekend to pay for airfare tickets this weekend for myself and Tynsleigh, getting my Visa (I couldn't get it early because I work for a church), and using the rest for the orphanage donation of $5,600. I am so worried that I will not be able to come up with the funds and I keep reminding myself that God will provide and bring home this beautiful child but I still can not help but to stress over where the remaining $6,400 will come from. Please pray for peace and that we will get a final update with measurements and photos of my girl before I travel!
Thank you ALL!!!! <3
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