The Hardest Part...

When we bagan this process, I knew there would be a lot of "hard parts". Some hard parts were obvious.

 

The fundraising...

 

The endless piles of paperwork....

 

The seperation from our children...

 

The various hoops we have had to jump through....

 

Some were not so obvious.

 

The door closing in Russia....

 

All of these things have been tough. So often I find my brain and heart literally hurting from the emotional piece that comes from this process. I am so thankful for each step closer we get to our little one but this mama's heart is ready to hold her son. To look into his eyes and stare at his perfection. To make him finally feel like he is wanted. He is prayed for. He is a missing piece to our family.

 

He is loved...

 

Our paperwork is finished, translated and submitted. Now the wait becomes the only hurdle we have left before he is in our arms.

 





 Looking forward to our next post sharing the news of travel dates!

 



Submitted!!!

We got word that our dossier was submitted today!

(I have been doing a happy dance all morning!)

Now we are one step closer to our boy!

Our next step is to wait some more. We should be getting travel dates within the next month or so. Then we will be off to meet our son!

So excited!!!

Ukraine's Forgotten Children

I wanted to share this documentary so that some of our followers can understand why we are choosing to adopt a child internationally versus domestically. No matter where you go, children are not always treated as the kings and queens that they are. But this particular area seems to really not value a child with special needs. Some desperately try to advocate for change; however, sometimes their cries fall on deaf ears. 

*There are a few children in this video that have either found their forever families or their families are working towards them currently!!)

(Be prepared, this video is about an hour and a half in length.)

With A Kiss And A Prayer!

OUR PAPERWORK IS OFFICIALLY OFF!!!

Below you will see a long line of papers that were sent off. Keep in mind this is about 1/3 of the papers, the other 2/3s has already been sent on ahead!

 Tessa wasn't quite sure what to make of all these papers. She did ask to color on them....which I promptly proceeded to say....NO!

 Nate is very excited about "baby brother". He went with me to mail off our final envelope.

 He gave it one final kiss before we sent it off!

We are praying that it gets there quickly and that we can have a quick submittal. Now that we are in the home stretch, I think the waiting is going to become even more unbearable. 

Hold on little one!! We are coming!

Yippee!!!!!!

I am speechless.....

We are ecstatic to report.....that we are FULLY FUNDED!!

Praise God! 

There really are no words in which I can truly express my gratitude towards all that helped us get there. You have all made an imprint on our family and in the life of a little boy waiting for us. 

Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!

You are all such a blessing to us!

With Pain, Comes Joy!

I have been wanting to update you all on where we are in the process. Recently we received the two pieces of paperwork that we had been waiting for. One of the documents needs to be sent on to Washington DC to get authenticated. Once we have received that paper.....(drum roll please) our paperwork will be complete and we will be ready to submit. Once our in-country facilitators have received our documents and had them translated, we will be submitted and receive a our travel dates shortly after. Once you are submitted, the average currently is about 8-9 weeks before you are traveling. So we are looking at traveling hopefully in September!!

Now on to the financial update....

As many of you know, we are currently doing a puzzle fundraiser. We have about 25 pieces sold currently out of 500. So we still have a ways to go. However, we are not feeling too discouraged yet. We are not sure how much our flights will be so our "fully funded number" is uncertain. But we have received an AMAZING gift. 

Our heart continues to break daily for our little girl waiting in an orphanage in Russia. This is not our only heartbreak. So many of our friends are also in a place where they are stuck, worried about their little one. Many, like us, have chosen to use this time to push through an alternate adoption.....continuing to pray and wait for the day that Russia reopens. Many, however are choosing to just wait it out. 

One special family has chosen to do something different. 

The Kelley family are our angels....They have chosen to bless us with an amazing gift....the gift of being fully funded. As many adoptive families know, this is a HUGE weight lifted from our shoulders. The hard part for me is accepting this gift with such a heavy heart. 

The Kelley family is committed to adopt a little boy in Russia named Isaac. They have held him, smelled him, giggled with him, and wept when they had to leave him. Ever since I first learned of their adoption, I have prayed for this family and for their little boy across the sea. Little did I know that he would have such a integral part in our own adoption. 

Thank you Jason and Jaime (and Isaac) for this amazing gift! I can't wait to return the favor someday and help you bring your sweet Isaac home. (Nigel and Isaac are going to be BFFs someday!) 

We are eternally grateful for your gift! You are such a special family! Thank you from the bottom of our hearts!

Our Puzzle Fundraiser!

So, our summer has officially began. So far we are enjoying lots of family time which has been wonderful. Paperwork for the adoption has not stopped. We are currently completing some application for adoption grants as well as finishing up the final steps of our dossier. The problem is that most of the "adoption" stuff is out of our hands. We are waiting on two pieces.

 Piece one....our FBI fingerprint clearance. Piece two....our USCIS approval. We have our USCIS appointment this Thursday and once we have that finished, we are pretty much done. The problem is the waiting to process these pieces will end up taking longer then expected. We had planned on traveling to meet our boy in June/July. Now with all the paperwork delays, we are looking at most likely September or October. 

This is frustrating, because as a parent you want to swoop in and save our little one as quickly as possible. However, we have had to hold on to a lot of "patience" these last few months, so this is just a hiccup. One bonus is the extra time allows us to do a little more fundraising. 

So on to our next fundraiser :-)

We have decided to do a puzzle fundraiser. If you are unfamiliar with how this works, let me explain. We have purchased a 500 piece puzzle. How this fundraiser works is that each puzzle piece is “sold” for $5 each, and the person who buys it gets their name put on the piece.  When all the pieces are sold, we will put the puzzles together, frame it and hang it on our wall, so we can see how many people care about him!!!! Just make a $5 TAX DEDUCTIBLE donation for each puzzle piece by using the yellow donate button or click HERE. I will get a donor list, so no need to let me know, just DO NOT donate anonymous if you want your name on a piece!  

Because this "Donate button" is thru Paypal, there are fees that come out of the donation. If you would like your full donation to go to us, please consider the option of mailing a check to:

Reece's Rainbow

 PO Box 4024

Gaithersburg, MD 20885

Place our name(Turley) of Nigel's name in the subject line and it will be added to our fundraising account, and it will still be tax deductible. 

Many families who do this fundraiser choose a puzzle to go on the child's room wall. We have chosen to use a world puzzle because we want it to mean something to our entire family, not just our little one coming from afar. This puzzle will be something that we will cherish for years to come as we are frequently reminded of the generosity of so many! 

Please consider being a “piece of the puzzle” in bringing our son home!!!! I know that this is a lot of puzzle pieces, but if you will share our story, maybe others would be willing to spare $5 to be piece of the puzzle too! God bless you all and thank you!!!!