Anya Has A Family and Rob Has His Passport!

Two awesome pieces of news today:

1. Sweet Anya has a committed family!! (And it's not us, lol). I'm so happy for this and can't wait to see who her new mommy and daddy are! Her orphanage is very good about "holding" kids who have committed families, so she shouldn't be in danger of being transferred anymore, PRAISE GOD!

2. Just a little over one week ago Rob went to the post office to renew his passport. We paid for it to be expedited and wrote a little note saying it was for an international adoption. We expected it to take about 3 weeks, with the holidays. Well, this morning the doorbell rings and it's FedEx...with his new passport!! That is RECORD time, people! Now we can get going on the paperwork that was on hold until we got his new passport number! PRAISE GOD!

Are you sensing a theme, here?? :)

IVAN is ALIVE!

UPDATE: In the past 24 hours Ivan and Timmy have received grants of $11,250...EACH! I am in SHOCK! Someone go get these boys...if adopted together their combined grants pays for almost the entire adoption! And Anya's grant pays for all the additional expenses if adopted with Timmy and Ivan! WOW!

Oh what great news I have today! It was previously thought that Ivan was deceased (and I even posted about it here). However, we just got word that he is still ALIVE! Praise God!

Ivan, Timmy and Anya all REALLY need families. Please pray for them and consider donating to their grant funds.  I'll be honest and say that Riley having an $1100 grant fund BEFORE we committed to him was a factor in our decision. Money is the only thing keeping these beautiful children from finding their forever families.

Anya's Page

 Timmy's Page

 

Donate for Ivan or Timmy here

We Are Over 25%!

Do you see what I see??

Look at that vine! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------>>

Last week we had a very generous donor step forward who wishes to remain anonymous. We have never met, but have mutual friends and he used to go to our church. He emailed me last week just before Christmas to tell me he was sending $2000 to Riley's fund! I was astounded and am just blown away by God right now. His generous gift, plus some others that came in this week, have put us over 25% of our goal!!

I am actually starting to believe that God will fully fund our adoption. I certainly know that He is able to do so, but I tend to struggle with if he will. Oh, what a blessing it would be to have our adoption fully funded! We are prepared to take out a loan if we need to, but what if we don't!?!

Praise God from whom ALL blessings flow!

"A generous person will prosper; whoever refreshes others will be refreshed."         Proverbs 11:25

Thank you all, from the bottom of our hearts. Your gifts mean more than words can express.

Paperwork Delays and Setbacks

Well, the inevitable has happened: we've hit our first "speedbumps" on our paper chase. Not big ones, thank goodness, but manageable.

First of all, Rob's passport expires at the end of August. I noticed it months ago, but didn't think it was a big deal. I remember thinking, "Oh, we'll just renew it before we leave". Well, I found out last week from our WONDERFUL dossier prep buddy that renewing a passport means a new passport number. In fact, it's basically reapplying for a passport: new picture, full fees, etc. What that means is that EVERY document that has Rob's passport number on it will have to be redone...AFTER he gets it renewed! Needless to say, Rob went to the post office yesterday, got his new picture taken, and sent it overnight to the passport processing office and we payed for expedited processing (about $200). We hope to get it back in 2-3 weeks.

The good news is that the documents that need to be sent to Riley's country ASAP don't need our passport numbers. One of the documents had it on there, so we have to remove that and get it re-notarized, then send them all for apostilles (I'll explain those in another post). Another good thing is that our homestudy doesn't mention our passport numbers.

The bad news is that our application to US Immigration needs the passport number, plus a photocopy of the new passport. AND the fees JUST got raised, so the cashier's check I got ready in October will have to be voided and get a new one with the updated fees. PLUS I found out that I filled out the main form incorrectly. Thank GOODNESS we haven't mailed that thing yet! Lots of work to do on it still.

At least our homestudy is done :). We're now listed under "Compiling Dossier" on the RR website, hooray!

UPDATE on Timmy: Leanne has started a blog to fundraise for Timmy and Ivan (now deceased), so here is the url: http://www.lifefortimmyandivan.blogspot.com

Please, please check it out and consider donating to Timmy's fund. And please pray for Timmy and Anya's families to come forward soon. Anya's grant fund is now over $7000!!

Good News on the Vote!

For those of you who don't know, for the past few months Riley's country has been considering a bill that would put a moratorium on international adoptions with any country that does not already have a bilateral agreement with them (that includes the U.S.). This vote has been postponed many times and was scheduled to finally happen yesterday. We've received the official word that, not only did the vote get postponed again, but when it does happen it will ONLY be a vote about whether or not to join the Hague convention agreements, no moratorium!

HOORAYYY!!!

This is the best possible news. And just in time for Christmas!

Riley, we're coming for you!

OH!...My Heart is Breaking...

I just received some very sad news. A little boy named "Ivan" from the same orphanage as Anya has passed away. He had untreated hydrocephalus and was denied life-saving surgery. I have met this boy. Twice. He was as sweet as can be.

 

Ivan, 2010

At least now he is in Heaven and no longer in pain.

This hits so close to home for me. The need is real. The danger of these children dying is real. Their only hope is an international adoption.

Here's another little boy in the same group as Ivan, "Timmy":

Timmy, 2010

I have also met Timmy twice. This past summer when I visited him he was in a "laying room", just in a crib left to do Nothing. He is almost 5 and about the size of a one-year-old. When we went into the room he was clutching his head and moaning, "Mama..mama...". We didn't need our translators to understand that one. We started gently touching his arms and legs and he responded instantly by giggling and laughing. Then he told us that his head hurt. Oh, my heart.

Timmy has also been denied life-saving surgery for his hydrocephalus. He is currently blind because the pressure is affecting his eyes. He will not live much longer without surgery. It is not too late for Timmy, not yet.

Anya and Timmy could be adopted together for a very low additional cost. They need families NOW! They don't have time to wait. Their lives depend on us.

Please, please pray for Timmy and Anya. Check out Timmy's page on Reece's Rainbow and consider donating to his grant fund.

A Beautiful Princess To Rescue

Meet Anya:

 

Anya, August 2010

Isn't she beautiful??

Anya just turned four years old. She lives at an orphanage I've been to twice, although I've never met her personally. She desperately needs a family.

God has really laid Anya on my heart the past few weeks, and Rob and I have been praying hard about whether or not we are her family. Just as He made it clear to pursue Riley, He has also made it clear not to pursue Anya. But my heart is still breaking for her.

She is not in a good situation.

The room she is in is not a good one. She is ignored by the caretakers and other children. At the age of four she still cannot walk, mostly because nobody has made the time to teach her. She is more than capable of walking. The fact that she just turned four puts her at high risk of being transferred to an institution, like the one I wrote about here.

The problem is, from what I understand, the institution where children from this orphanage are sent is a "closed" institution. That means once she is transferred she cannot be adopted. She will die. That is the painful truth.

This beautiful princess needs a family to rescue her from DEATH and bring her LIFE!

She already has a $6000 grant from Reece's Rainbow. That's about 25% of the total cost of an adoption, twice the money we have currently raised for Riley's adoption. That is a huge grant!

The travel for her adoption would be relatively easy. Her orphanage is located just an hour's drive from the capital city, so you could stay in the capital the whole time. This cuts down on travel time (no trains!) and expenses.

Please take a look at her page on Reece's Rainbow. They have a lot of information about Anya available, much more so than we have about Riley. Please pray that her family steps forward soon, before it's too late for this sweet princess.

All I Want For Christmas...

...is to come HOME!

Want to help?? Here is my Christmas Wish List:

1. Two plane tickets for my daddy to come get me (he has to go home once to work): $3000
2. One plane ticket for my mommy to come get me: $1500
3. MY plane ticket HOME! $750
4. My visa medical exam: $150
5. My visa application so they let me into the U.S.! $404
6. My passport so they let me out of my country! $600
7. Gifts for the people who have been taking care of me until my mommy and daddy get here: $100
8. Transportation for my mommy and daddy to come get me! $2000
9. A place for mommy and daddy to stay while they get me: $3800 (6-7 weeks is a long time!)
10. This last one is a lot, but I KNOW someone out there will be able to help: $9000 to pay for the lawers and translators to make it all official, plus a donation to the orphanage that has been taking care of me for FREE!

Being home with my family next year for Christmas...PRICELESS! Won't you help me come home?

Yummy Birthday Cupcakes

We had the pleasure of enjoying cupcakes made by Downtown Cupcake for Riley's birthday party! They were sooo delicious (and looked fabulous, too!).

With Riley's picture on top of the cupcake tower:

My favorite picture:

And next year, sweet Riley, you'll be blowing out these candles yourself! Although your new friends sure did enjoy helping you out this year. :)

Riley, Your New Friends Are Waiting...

...they even made you some birthday cards!

This one's from Tyler:

 

From Dawson:

From Emma:

From Will and Noah:

Ok, Guyden didn't make you a birthday card, but he still can't wait to play with you!

 With Love, from [nlcf] Kids. =)

Birthday Party Pictures!

One thing that has been a bit frustrating for me is that I just don't have many pictures to post! I think a good blog needs pictures. So I am THRILLED to finally post some pictures from Riley's birthday party last week! My dear friend Holly took these for me. I think I will space them out over the course of the week so we don't go on picture overload here. :)

To start with, during the church service I told the kids about Riley. They are so excited to meet him.

We discussed his HIV status and I was impressed that one of the kids even knew what that was. I explained what it meant and that they couldn't catch it from Riley.

Then the kids made Birthday cards for Riley.

In case you can't read that on the card, it says "I hope you learn English, love Katie".  We talked about how Riley doesn't speak English yet and so they will have to help him learn.

Here's all the kids holding the cards they made for Riley.

After church we had the potluck/party complete with cupcake tower:

And we sang "Happy Birthday" and the kids blew out the candles:

More pics to come later, stay tuned!

Win-Win

This is what I call a perfect example of a "win-win" situation.

About a week ago, a communications student here at VT contacted me after finding this blog and wanted to write her final article about us for her media class. I was thrilled.

For us, we get exposure that we didn't even solicit. For Lindsey, she gets to write an article about something she is passionate about.

Doesn't get much better than that, folks.

Below is the article she wrote about us. Would you please pray that perhaps this turns into something bigger? That local newspapers or television stations become interested? I know God can take our two fishes and 5 loaves of bread and multiply them. Please join me in praying for Him to multiply this exposure. The more people know about Riley's story, the better...not only for him but for the hundreds of other children like him.

Written By Lindsey Peters.

A Blacksburg couple is hoping to give an Eastern European orphan something of his very own: a family.

What Jessica St. Clair and her husband, Rob, are working around the clock to give to a two-year old boy named Riley.

Riley was born with mild cerebral palsy and is HIV positive.

Adoption was something they discussed before getting married in 2008, it was just something they thought would happen after children of their own and never of a child with special needs.

That all changed during a summer mission trip to an orphanage where Jessica worked with kids ages zero to five and fell in love with a little girl.

“I had a feeling before I went that I would want to bring home a kid,” St. Clair said. “I fell in love with a little girl named Vika and started working towards her adoption. When we found out we couldn’t adopt her right away, it led me to Reece’s Rainbow where I came upon Riley’s picture.”

Reece’s Rainbow is a website that promotes the adoption of children with Down syndrome and other special needs around the world and was started in 2004 by Andrea Roberts.

While looking through the website “I was instantly drawn to children who were HIV positive and felt it was something I could handle,” St. Clair said. “I saw Riley’s picture and kept coming back to him and it became an obsessive state. I told my husband about him, he freaked out about the HIV, and so we prayed about it, and then we decided to commit to Riley.”

Deciding to become Riley’s parents was the easy part but getting him to the United States is the real struggle.

“We are trying to raise $27, 000 to get Riley here,” St. Clair said. “We have already paid $5,000 of our own money but are hoping we can raise the rest.”

The St. Clair’s started http://stclairadoption.blogspot.com to help with “funding, awareness, and to document the journey for others to see.”

The website has a place for people to click and donate money through pay pal as well as through a coffee fundraiser called “Just Love Coffee” where $5 from every purchase will go to the St. Clair’s for Riley’s adoption.

“We are also asking for donations and trying to get the word out as much as possible,” St. Clair said, “As well as applying for grants from local companies.”

Riley turned two Friday and though he wasn’t with them, the St. Clair’s held a special birthday fundraising party for him at their church, New Life Christian Fellowship, in Blacksburg.

“We had a cake and blew out candles,” St. Clair said. “It was a celebration, welcoming him into the church family.”

The St. Clair’s do have a few back-up plans for the money situation. “We can probably get a loan or dip into our savings,” St. Clair said. “Neither option is very desirable but we could do it if need be.  The hope is that there won’t be a need.”

Financial issues aside there is still the issue of physically getting Riley to Blacksburg.

“Riley’s country's government stops accepting Dossier’s, official translated applications, in November and won’t start accepting it again until at least February,” St. Clair said. “Once it is submitted it can take one to three months before it is approved and you can travel.”

Luckily for 27-year-old Jessica she is finishing up her PhD in math at Virginia Tech this spring and can’t travel until that’s done in May which is about the time they should be approved.

Once they are in the country the couple has to stay there for six weeks.

“The first ten days both parents have to go to court, meet the child, do paperwork and go through a three-week waiting period,” St. Clair said. “The waiting period gives the family time to spend with the child and bond or change their mind. It is also a chance for relatives to come out of the wood work and protest the adoption.”

“After the waiting period there is another court date  to finalize the adoption and then the next two weeks are spent getting the child ready to come to the United States,” St. Clair said.

Besides spending time and money to adopt there is also tons of paperwork, home studies, and online coursework that must be completed.

Jessica said this process is “like a part-time job” spending up to twenty hours a week on it.

“A lot of adoptive families refer to the process as a paper pregnancy because the whole thing can take up to ninth months and unfortunately nothing is definite until the adoption is final in court,” St. Clair said.

Adopting is a long and expensive process and “not for the faint of heart.”

“We just feel that he is meant to be our son and we will do what we have to do. Without adoption he has no future. In Riley's country there is no place in society for these kids,” St. Clair said. “When kids with disabilities are born Dr’s tell the parents they’re going to die and to put them in orphanages.”

Once Riley is with the St. Clair’s in Blacksburg Jessica will stay home with him for the first year to help him adjust.

“He will need physical therapy for his cerebral palsy and daily medications for his HIV,” St. Clair said.

Though the St. Clair’s have really good insurance to cover most of Riley’s needs, they will “keep the coffee fundraiser open indefinitely for those who want to continue their financial help.”

The St. Clair’s are aware that their adoption journey is far from over and that they are a long way off from their financial goal but they continue to keep their faith and trust that God will provide for all their needs.

Luckily the St. Clair’s have not experienced direct negativity about their choice to adopt an HIV positive child and that “when people and family members do have concerns its more about educating them.”

“You stop seeing the disability and start seeing the person,” St. Clair said.

Jessica and Rob hope to be traveling back to Blacksburg in July with Riley as their son.

For additional information about the St. Clair’s, Riley, Vika, Reece’s Rainbow or to make a donation go to http://stclairadoption.blogspot.com or http://reecesrainbow.org.

This Was Too Good Not To RePost...

I have a link on this blog to the Reece's Rainbow blog already, but I thought this post was so good it just needed to be copied and pasted on here. I'm not trying to be a downer, but this is reality. So many people just aren't aware of what happens to these precious children if they are not adopted. Here is their future.

NOTHING

Why do we scream and yell and holler for the children listed on Reece's Rainbow?  Why do we raise money for them, lose sleep over them and sacrifice every waking hour advocating for them?  Why we do work so hard to get them adopted from the baby houses before they reach the age of transfer?  Why do we grieve and mourn when they are transferred to the special needs mental institutes in Eastern Europe?

Read on.  This is ONE of the reasons why.  There are HUNDREDS more. 

    We live a harried life.  Running here, there and everywhere.  We work, take our kids to this activity, then that activity, rush to meetings, juggle schedules and cook, clean and work side-jobs in our spare time.  We rarely have time to do Nothing.

     We love doing Nothing.  A day where we have no appointments, no meetings and no places where our children have to be.  An evening where we can stay at home, curl up as a family with a bowl of popcorn and watch a movie.  An afternoon where we can take a walk or play in the yard.  Nothing.  Nothing so that we can do what we find pleasurable.  Reading a book, building a puzzle, playing a game.  Nothing has warm connotations, happy thoughts.  Nothing is what we live for as a family. 

For us, in America, Nothing means Everything.

For the Lost Boys and Girls across Eastern Europe, for the ones who have been transferred -  Nothing means NOTHING.

This is what NOTHING looks like for many of the Lost Boys and Lost Girls in Eastern Europe.  Those who are transferred to the institutes.  Those who can walk.  Those who are mobile.  This is Nothing.  This is what one family witnessed just a few months ago on their journey to their son.  This is one institute out of many. 

On warm days, 20 plus boys will be led to this shed.  20 plus boys will go inside this shed.  A bench will be placed across the door so that they will not be allowed to leave.   Then, those 20 plus boys will do nothing.  They will sit inside that shed.  They will sit.  They will rock.  They will cry out.  They will moan.  They will stare at the walls.  They will hit each other.  They will hit themselves.  They will sit.  They will sit.  They will wait.  After hours of sitting they will get to leave for another shed, to eat.  They will be forced to eat quickly so that they can be led back to this shed.  To do Nothing.  In the afternoon they will be led to their rooms.  They will be made to lay down on their beds.  For hours they will lay on those beds.  Some will sleep to escape.  Others will lay and do Nothing.  Staring at the walls, ceiling - staring at Nothing.  When it is time to get up, they will go back to their shed.  Again, to do Nothing. 

On rainy days, or cold days, they will stay in their buildings.  They will not leave those buildings.  They will not venture downstairs or get to visit the other boys in the other buildings or even in the other part of their building.  No.  They will stay in their section.  They will sit in the sitting room.  It is as empty as the shed.  Benches and carpets.  They will sit.  They will sit and they will do Nothing.  They will rock.  They will moan.  They will hit each other.  They will hit themselves.  They will sit.  They will wait.  They will stare at the four walls.  They will do Nothing.

Once in a while, on weekends, they will get to hear music.  The bigger boys will get to do jobs.  Some jobs that are heart-breaking.  The best behaved boys will get to kick a deflated ball sometimes.  Sometimes a stick can be found for drawing in the dirt.  Sometimes they will even let a child or two play in the sand pile that is often used as a toilet.  Sometimes.  On really rare days, when visitors come, they may even get out a hidden toy or two.  Rarely.  Most of the time, they do Nothing.

Nothing for the Lost Boys and Girls in Eastern Europe means Nothing.

Two worlds.  Our Nothing.  Their Nothing.  Can we just sit by and do Nothing?

Help us rescue the little ones who are still at the Baby Houses - donate to the Angel Tree.  Give a gift that means EVERYTHING to the "Least of These."  Every child rescued out of the Baby House is one less child who has to sit and do Nothing.  Please. 

Happy Birthday Riley!

Riley, it's your birthday!

We can't WAIT to have you home next year!!

And a big THANK YOU to everyone who gave Riley a birthday present! We reached our weekly goal of $2000 raised!

To be honest, I was a bit nervous to do the One-Week Challenge. I was mostly just afraid that we wouldn't make it. But I realized I can't let fear get in the way, or I'll never get anything done! Thanks to everyone who made it happen.

Only 2 Days Left...

...of our One-Week Challenge!

So far it has been going really well. We challenged you, our friends, to give Riley a birthday gift of $20. Our goal was to get 13 people to do this by TOMORROW! So far we've got 9!! That's only 4 more to go! Thank you SO MUCH to everyone who's donated so far. But we still need 4 more of you...I know you're out there! We need you, friends.

We've got a busy weekend ahead. Tomorrow, which is Riley's 2nd birthday, we'll be selling Christmas ornaments at our church's Christmas party. On Saturday we'll be setting up/decorating for Riley's birthday party on Sunday, where we'll be taking donations and hopefully have our puzzle piece fundraiser going.

Could you please pray that this weekend is extremely fruitful in fundraising for us? The amount we need to raise is so daunting. And I hate asking people for money, I really do. I've done fundraising for the four missions trips I've been on and it was always a struggle. Sometimes I can't believe I actually signed up for this, raising $20,000. BUT! God is faithful.

Also...YOU'RE OFFICIALLY INVITED to Riley's birthday party this Sunday, Dec. 5! For those of you in the Blacksburg area, the party will be held at our church's potluck lunch, immediately following our 9:30 service (starting around 11am) at 130 Jackson Street. For directions to the location you can click here.

We hope to see you there.

Truth Pandemic - Get the facts about HIV/AIDS and Adoption