Chip In

Apparently ChipIn is no longer.....I found out because a friend wanted to donate.  ChipIn did not send an email or anything.  WOW!  Luckily, the money that we raised sits in a PayPal account.  It would be nice if they could warn a girl!  Holy smokes!!  I started to panic!! 

If you would like to contribute to our travel fund, please click on the Help Bring Home Addison Grace tab.  We appreciate anything that you can give. 

Both Ends Burning

First and foremost, I need to apologize for falling off the edge of the earth, or so it seemed.  Life is busy!  I wish that we had been busy with preparing to bring our Addi home, but it was mostly spent waiting on documents on that front.  We did receive the translated documents last week.  Hooray!  But, are still waiting on the originals so that we can file the I-600.  The 600 is ready and raring to go once those arrive.

We did receive word that Addi was ill and that she had to be taken to the hospital for test.  We were waiting on pins and needles!  The doctor told us that she had malaria, typhoid fever and a respiratory infection.  We were beside ourselves with worry!  We so desperately wanted to hop a plane and be there to care for her.  We have heard word that she is now better and back at her deplorable orphanage.  It has been a hard few months.  We have come to learn of what her living conditions are like, what her orphanage director is like and we just pray hard that Addi is home with us ASAP!!

If you have the opportunity to go see the documentary Stuck, DO!  It is amazing!!  Go to www.stuckdocumentary.com and see if the movie is coming to a town near you and PLEASE sign the petition!!  If you are in the D.C. area, on May 17th, there will be an orphan march.  Check out the website for details.  If you have not read the book that started the movie, it is called Both Ends Burning by Craig Juntenen.  Craig is from this area...he attended the University of Idaho.  He and his wife adopted three children from Haiti.  Good read and was the springboard for the movie.

Our daughter is in the picture above.  She is STUCK in the DRC due to embassy/government bureauacracy!  We first saw her photo one year ago this month and sometimes it does not feel that we are any closer to bringing her home.  She lives in poverty.  She gets two meals a day, if that, and if you want to call them meals. She does not have clean drinking water, hence the typhoid fever.  Help us bring our daughter home!  We truly feel that God has called us to bring Addi home.  We are doing everything we can to get her home.  Every child deserves a FOREVER family.  We cannot wait to add Addi to ours. 

Click on this link:  Kings and Queens

Have a great week!!

Over another hurdle

Well, today we are through the 30-day appeal process!  Praise the Lord!!  It feels so good to be checking off another milestone in this crazy process we call adoption.  Our daughter is now OURS!  Now we wait some more for our agency to translate the documents (adoption decree, abandonment report, etc...) so that we can include them with the I-600.  So maybe in about 2-3 weeks we can mail that in.  Once it's approved, then the investigation begins, and the longest wait of all.  At this point she is ours.  OURS!  So close, yet so far is how I feel.  Ugh!!

We consulted an Adoptive Medicine Pediatrician at the University of Washington as we want to know the way ahead with our daughter's ttuberculosis.  We discovered this service through the Sparrow Fund.  If you have your child's medical report and would like it looked over, consider doing this.  Maybe you already have.  When we received Addison's, my awesome cousin who is a PA read it for us.  The Tb thing really scared us and we wanted to know what would be the course once she returned home.  Could there be something that we could take to her when we travelled?  She is very thin!  That now seems to be a bigger concern that the Tb.  They will be sending us with vitamins, antibiotics, scabies treatment, pink eye treatment, and antibiotic cream so that we can address those issues if they exist for Addison.  They also provided a list of over-the-counter meds that we should take with us.  The staff will be on call for us when we travel and will provide help by phone if Addi is ill when we arrive.  It's a cool service!


I guess I will end it here.  Have a great week!!

One Giant Step For Addison

I'm sorry it has been a while since our last entry.  Life keeps us busy.  We did however, receive Addi's adoption decree!!  BIG NEWS!!  We were expecting a court date to arrive any day.  Then on Tuesday of last week, I opened my email and there was Addi's adoption decree which was signed on January 25th!  So, now we are in the 30 day appeal process, then the documents will be translated and then we can file the I600!!  Whoop!!  Whoop!!  Then the 3-6month investigation process begins!

I must say, that I was absolutely floored when I opened the email.  It was not what we were expecting.  Of course, the document was all in French, so I have a soccer-mom friend who is an attorney and fluent in French to decipher if for us.  In a nutshell it says that "it is the judgement of the court that Addi be awarded to us, dated 25 January 2013."  So exciting!!

I also forgot to do a post about Created For Care - January 2013!  Holy cow!!  IT WAS AMAZING!  If you have an opportunity to go next year, I highly recommend it!  I will be there for sure!  Us Congo Mommas need to meet up!

We also received six more pics today.  I have asked a doctor to go in and check in on Addi.  To our knowledge, it has been over a year since her last exam.  I am anxious to get her measurements to know her size, among other things.

Have a great week! 

Bureacracy

Some or all of you may have discovered a carefully worded email today from your agency about Embassy investigations going on in the DRC.  Ours read:

Dear Clients in our Democratic Republic of Congo program,

The US Embassy Deputy Chief of Missions, in honor of a team from Washington led by the chief of the Office of children's issues on Intercountry adoptions, held a meeting with adoption professionals in DRC a few days ago. 

From this meeting it was shared that for the year 2012 - 200 Congolese children were adopted to families in the USA. This is up from a little over 10 children in 2010.  For the team, this increase raises a number of questions. They said their mission is to garner an  understanding on how the adoption process works in the DRC.

As part of these discussions they stated that to avoid any issues of fraud, the Embassy will have to be more thorough in their investigations; which they suspect are on the rise.  As a result, we heard yesterday that adoptive families should anticipate a 3 to 6 month lag time from the I-600 submission until the visa is issued.  We are still waiting on the official notification of the embassy.

Additionally, the United States just passed what is referred to as the “universal law”.  This law now requires anyone providing international adoption services to be Hague Accredited (even in non-Hague convention countries).  It is believed that the passage of the universal law will also help lessen the risk of adoption fraud.

While this is extremely frustrating as it will mean the children will have to remain in the orphanages longer, we all want to see adoptions completed properly.

We are hopeful that these more thorough investigations will show little or no fraud and that we can see the length of time taken to complete the investigations reduced in the near future.  In the meantime, we do want to support every effort to eliminate any/all adoption fraud.

This totally and utterly stinks!!  I have a few other choice words that I think would be more appropriate, but I will hold myself back!!  I get it, but it doesn't mean that I have to like it!!  And why aren't these things being investigated prior to the I600 being approved!?!?  Some families have already waited 12+ months to bring their child home.  It just doesn't seem fair. . . . . .

I know the road of adoption is difficult.  I GET IT!  But, like I said earlier, it doesn't mean that I have to like it.

Retreat! Retreat!

My military background just couldn't resist calling this post "Retreat!"  Tomorrow I am headed to Buford, Georgia (just north of Atlanta) to an amazing retreat for all of us adoptive mommas.  The retreat is put on by Created for Care and they are heaven-sent.  I am looking forward to some time with like minded ladies who have walked or who are walking the same path as me. . . down the road of adoption.  Lord knows I also need sometime to rest and regroup.  And get my faith recharged. . . . . Adoption is a tough road with so many ups and downs.  I am just grateful to have the opportunity to make some new friends and learn so much.

Thanks for reading.  I hope you all have a great weekend!  Attached is an amazing video from two orphanages in the Congo.  Our Addison is at one of them and is actually in the video.  Movie star already!  :0)

All's quiet on the Congolese front. . . . .

Well, according to our adoption timeline, we have not had an update on the progress of bringing Addison home since 09 November 2012. . . .   Does no news mean good news or does it mean no movement?  I think the latter and it is excruciating!  Lots of people have asked the million dollar question, "What's the hold up?"  I wish I knew because then I would be shouting it from the rooftops so "we" (adoptive families) could come up with a solution.

We are no strangers to waiting.  Early in our marriage, Darin and I suffered two miscarriages.  It was extremely difficult!  We wondered what happened, what did we do wrong and would we ever become parents.  So, God's Plan has been hard for me to handle.  After our second miscarriage I was furious to my core.  I questioned my relationship with God.  How could He?  Why would He?  Where was He?  When would He?  Tough questions to wrestle with daily.  Then I came across this book by one of my favorite people, Dr. James Dobson; When God Doesn't Make Sense.  By the end of the book, I was renewed.  I felt restored.  Even though I did not fully understand why, I knew that I had to let go and TRUST HIM.  He knew what was in our future a very long time ago.  I just needed to LET IT GO!  Those of you that know me know how difficult that is for me.  I'm like a dog with it's bone. . . . I'm NOT letting go!  I also discovered that in the end, I would know the why and be reunited with my angels.  That gave me great peace.  He let me know that in His time, we would be parents.  A little over a year after we lost our second baby, we were pregnant with our oldest son. 

What I'm trying to get at is, our path to parenthood has not been easy.  Neither will our path to bring home Addi.    In HIS time, we will get news.  In HIS time, we will bring her home.  It's tough. . . . . but, it will be RIGHT.

Why blog?

It was a busy weekend full of soccer.  Our oldest son plays with a premier club and travels statewide to play in league games.  So, this means lots of trips to the Seattle area.  However, yesterday we were in Olympia.  They did great; won 4-1!  GO SHADOW!! 

Lots of people, including myself, have asked, "Why do a blog?"  At first I wasn't sure I wanted to.  I wasn't sure that I wanted to have our life on blast with whoever reads it.  Then after some careful consideration, I thought, I want to get in touch with other families who are in the exact same spot as us.  I want to help, learn, educate, talk with, cry with, support these families.  By no stretch of the imagination am I an expert on adoption.  This is our first!  I just saw this as a means to get our story out there and to possibly talk with others who knew what we were going through.  Besides, to me writing is cathartic.  This may keep my mind a little occupied as we wait. . . . . painfully wait to bring our baby girl home.

I would like to set up a few more tabs.  Once I figure out how to do it, I will.  :0)  I want to set up a tab for other adoptive families to leave their info, one for some great resources, and one to highlight the crisis in the Congo.  Not many people are aware of how desperate things are there.  So, be looking for that!  If anyone knows how to make a "Chipin" meter, let me know.  I would like to show our fundraising progress on here too!  :0)

Some have asked to see pictures of Addison.  I'm sorry, but I cannot do that.  We signed a confidentiality agreement in May that we would protect her identity until she is legally ours.  I can assure you that she is a beauty!!  :0)

I hope everyone has a great week.  I will be working on these tabs.

It's only just begun. . . sort of

Today I thought, gee, wouldn't be nice to set up a blog about our adoption.  I wonder how you do that?  And them, wham!  Here we are.  To say that I am a novice to blogs is an understatement.  I have read a couple of them and marveled at how "techie" the author was and thinking, "I wonder if I can do that?"  And so it begins. . .

I guess I should begin by introducing ourselves. . . .   We are the Spangler family and we live in a small town just outside of Spokane, Washington.  We have two bio sons, ages 16 (Holy cow!!) and 9.  We have been married for 19 years.  Darin works as a civilian government employee on a nearby military installation and I (April) am a substitute elementary school teacher.  We have lived in Spokane for approximately six years. We have talked about adoption since early in our marriage, but just never felt the calling.  We would place it on the back burner as we moved about with the Air Force and when we had our sons.  It was always in the back of our minds, though.  Once we moved to Spokane, adoption really kept calling me.  I wondered where our child would come from (domestic, foster-care, or international).  I wondered what we would be able to afford when it came to the adoption costs.  I also wondered when it would be the right time.  Somewhere, somehow, I came across the Rainbow Kids website and began to "look".  One day, I came across this picture of a beautiful child in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and I knew as sure as the sun rises, that I had seen this child before.  I didn't know where, but I knew I had seen her and I knew that she was meant to be ours.   I showed my husband and told him how I had seen her before.  He was skeptical at first and wanted me to make some calls to see if it was even possible for us to adopt her.  I called the number that was listed and was told that, yes, it was possible.  I did a google search on agencies in our state that could do our home study and was called the following day to set up our first home visit.  The ball was rolling!  After that, everything else just kind of fell into place.  And now, here we are, nine months in to our adoption process.  We are currently awaiting a court date.

Now a little about our girl . . .  She was abandoned at a public market and was taken in by an orphanage in November 2011.  She is approximately three years old now.  Since there is no information (no birth certificate) we do not know her real age or her birthdate.  She became ill with a fever not long after she arrived at the orphanage and was taken to hospital where she was diagnosed with a ganglion cyst under her jaw which tested positive for tuberculosis.  She was and is being treated for Tb.  Her medical report says that she is otherwise healthy. 

I guess this where I will leave off for now. . . . .