Miracles

Dear Victoria,

Let me just tell you that miracles are happening in your's and our behalves. I do not use that word lightly, they truly ARE miracles. I can't give all the details yet, but just know that you are so loved and that Heavenly Father is watching out for you and your new family like we could have never imagined. We are in His hands and he is taking care of EVERYTHING, from the simple to the massive details of this journey. The prayers of many are being answered every day. So many people were praying that your family would find you, I truly believe the promptings we have received to go forward with this are answers to those prayers. Strangers to both you and I, prayers that we would find each other were answered.

Today was a very productive day on the adoption front! We completed the interview portion of our home study. Daddy and I both had individual interviews with the social worker, they both went well. Also Dad's social security card came so we were able to send off the background check. We just finished up the last course of our adoption education course. We pretty much have all our homestudy work documentation ready, just waiting on a few things. The goal is to get it all in the mail Monday. Our social worker said he could get the home study written up in a couple weeks from the time we got all the paperwork in, so we are well on our way to you.

We love you and pray that you will be kept safe until we are able to bring you home.

Love Mommy

P.S. Victoria's button is on the side of the blog. Please feel free to add it to your blogs to help raise awareness for her and other children in similar circumstances. We need all the prayers and faith we can get to bring this little one home quickly.

Meet Megan

Dear Victoria,

I want to help a little girl in your country find her forever family. She was just transfered to an institution and it is so important that her family finds her NOW! Miracles have been happening in the past few months for Megan. There is $23,630.50 in her account to go towards her adoption. THAT IS HUGE! One of the biggest obstacles for families wanting to adopt these little ones is the financial burden. This grant will almost completely wipe out that burden! Especially when combined with the adoption tax credit. Its not stated on the IRS page right now but from what we have heard, it has been extended into 2012, with some differences, but still available.

If there is a family out there reading this that are feeling that nudge to adopt a little one with Down syndrome I encourage you to consider Megan

MEET MEGAN

Megan 2H

Girl, born December 2005
Eyes: Blue
Hair: light brown
Temperament: Active, assertive, social

UPDATE, January 2012: Sadly, we will not be able to get anymore photos of Megan. She has already been transferred to the institution, not a good one However, we were able to get more thorough medical information about her, and she REALLY needs a family.

From her medical records: Down Syndrome, mental defficiency, deformation of musculoskeletal system, day and night enuresis (incontinence), strabismus, farsightedness, Atrial septal defect, anomaly of aortal mitral valve, delay in physiologic development.

PLEASE HELP US FIND A FAMILY FOR MEGAN. She has nearly a full grant for her adoption. Single moms welcome, families should be home study approved to commit for her now that she has been transferred

Victoria,

As your Daddy and I read the information above about her medical records we both feel like they sound a lot scarier than they are. Just about everyone of the conditions listed are very common with children with Down syndrome, and in our minds and those of our friends, not a huge deal. I like to refer to them as the price to pay to be blessed with a child with Ds. Totally worth it! Of course we are not medical professionals, but we have been around the block with your little sister Kaelyn and are quite familiar with many of the terms. So here is our play by play of what each of the things listed are. (**Of course this is in our words/experience and we are not medical professionals)

-Down syndrome & mental deficiency - Learns at her own pace. We have learned with Kaelyn that she has her own time frame for reaching milestones and that is just fine with us. We are so proud of everything she is doing, regardless of when she gets there.

-deformation of musculoskeletal system - Not exactly sure what they mean here it is very common with children with Ds to have loose joints, thats why they are so flexible. Her's may be more complicated than that, not sure, but that is just what we have experienced with Kaelyn and her friends. She makes the Chinese splits look like a walk in the park :)

-day and night enuresis (incontinence)-Not potty trained. Very common, and something that can be worked on I'm sure, when the time is right.

-strabismus- Lazy Eye

-farsightedness- Needs glasses. Kaelyn is also farsighted, just not too interested in wearing her glasses yet. The eye doctor assured us that her vision is not worsening because she is not wearing glasses. She will just be able to see better at distances when she wears them. Until she realizes that, she will not leave them on for longer than 2 secs.

-Atrial septal defect & anomaly of aortal mitral valve- I'm guessing that she would need heart surgery for these, but not really sure. If she does it IS NOT as scary as it sounds. Yes open heart surgery is a big deal, but there are amazing surgeons out there that do these surgery's EVERY SINGLE day. Kaelyn's heart defects were even more complicated than this and she was home from the hospital 2 weeks after surgery. Her heart is doing great now and we just go into see the cardiologist every 6 months or so. Yes surgery and hospitalization are expensive, but they are covered through insurance.

-delay in physiologic development- Also very common with Ds and like stated above doing things at her own pace. Children with Down syndrome are most often smaller than children with out, and even have their own growth charts.

So what we are saying is that Megan needs a family and we don't want them to be scared off by the medical information on her profile. Kaelyn's medical history is far more extensive than this and we wouldn't change a thing if it meant we could not have her here today. Having her as our daughter and the joy and happiness she has brought into our lives, far outweighs the 140 days/nights she has spent in the hospital. We mean that with all our hearts and hope that someone will open their hearts and home to this sweet little girl Megan. Please help us spread the word about this little angel and pray that her family will find her SOON!

Love Mommy & Daddy

Adoption Friends & Why?

Dear Victoria,

This is a picture of you when you were younger. It is the first picture I saw of you on Reece's Rainbow. The picture that touched my heart and prompted me to ask about you. When I first showed this picture to your daddy his response was, "Wow, she looks like Kaelyn". He was right, you look a lot like your younger sister.

Last night we were able to meet some other families that are also adopting little girls from your country through Reece's Rainbow. We had a great time sharing our experiences and what led us to do this. Two of the families already have experience in adopting internationally, so they had some great advice and experience to share with us. We all look forward to the day we have our girls home and we can have a play date with you all!

The Grove Family are adopting two little girls with Down syndrome and the Fillmore family adopted Anya last year and are now going back to adopt little Hazel. They are both very inspiring families and wonderful examples of going forward with faith.

Sister Grove shared something that I really resonated with, as to how to explain to someone WHY we would do this. Why we would go through so much work and expense to bring you home. We are fully aware that this will not be an easy process, and that your country is one of the hardest and most expensive places to adopt children from. I probably won't say it as beautifully as she did, but I will try my best.

"Imagine someone taking one of your children and sending them an orphanage halfway across the world and they were next in line to be institutionalized. What would stop you from going and getting them and bringing them back home as quickly as possible? Money? Paperwork? Fear? What others might think? Long flights? Going to an unfamiliar foreign land? Leaving your other children while traveling? No, none of those reasons would stop you, that is your child we are talking about. All the reasons for not doing this seem very insignificant when you look at it this way, right?

Victoria, that is how we feel about you. You are OUR daughter, you were born halfway around the world and we are coming to get you, because that is what any parent would do for their child. You belong in our family and our love for you grows each day.

In the last couple days we have been able to get documentation from our insurance agent that proves you will be covered in our health insurance plan, ordered Daddy a new passport and contacted a few people that are willing to help us out with some fundraising ideas we have. **A call out to anyone reading this that would be willing to share of their talents to help us by donating something for an auction/raffle of some sort. There are a lot of crafty/talented people reading this, we just know it :) **

Every day we are getting closer to you and we will not stop until you are home.

Love Mommy

P.S. Your little sister Kaelyn has been trying so hard to write you a message this morning, so I promised I would let her when I was done, so here you go.

Kaelyn says, " mnn inn6bnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn cv" (Pretty sure that means, "I love you" :)

Attachment & Fundraising

Dear Victoria,

Last night when Daddy and I were studying our adoption education course we learned about Attachment and Bonding. We learned that attachment is "the reciprocal, affectionate enduring emotional bond between individuals." and bonding is the process in which attachment is achieved. This is something that I've never though much about, because its usually something that just happen's with children and the their parents from the time they are infants. Like with your sisters, we took care of their needs and showed them love and affection from the very beginning.

We learned that this is something that is very important that we are aware of when we bring you home. That is may be really tough for you to understand what a family is all about, and that you can trust us to be there for you always. As we were studying last night I just kept having the thought that everything will be okay. I know that it will be a process and that it will take time, but I just feel like it will work out. Heavenly Father will help us through any challenges we may face, he will guide us and bring us all together. We need to trust in His plan for our family.

I spent a few hours brainstorming fundraising ideas today. I have a few things up my sleeve, but would love any ideas anyone reading this may have. Soon I will write about the costs that are involved in an international adoption like this, that is a big piece of the pie. I just have faith that it will all come together, because you know what girl, YOU ARE WORTH IT!!

There are so many people that are praying for you and for us. Many have been praying for a long time that you would find your forever family. Those prayers have been answered and many more will be throughout this process. You are a child of God and he is very aware of you and your situation. He wants more than anyone for you to have a loving family and the life you deserve, the life you were sent here to live.

Love Mommy

P.S. THANK YOU TO THOSE WHO HAVE DONATED TO VICTORIA'S FUND! We know times are tough for many of you and we appreciate every penny.

Home Study Day & Your Song

Dear Victoria,

The home study went great today! We are pushing along in getting all the documents together so we have everything turned into them on our end. Our physicals also went really well, we are both healthy and according to the doctor, "very capable of adopting a child". We meet with our Home Study Social Worker again next week to do individual interviews and then he can start writing it up while we finish getting paperwork together. The thing that will take the longest is getting the background checks done, so hopefully Dad's social security card gets here quickly so we can turn that in.

I feel such an urgency to get everything in and taken care of. I know we will have lots of waiting to do and patience to be learned, but I just want to get everything we can do, DONE! Just knowing that you are there waiting for us to come get you motivates me like crazy.

Tonight Daddy and I are going to start the adoption education courses that we have to do for the home study. We will learn lots of great things so we can be good parents to you and be more prepared for the day that we get to bring you home.

YOUR SONG

I want to play your song for you tonight. It is by one of my favorite singers, and she is actually from Utah. Her name is Mindy Gledhill. I've listened to her music for a while now, but this song never stood out to me until a couple weeks ago.

When I first started feeling like it was time to find a child on RR and adopt, I would wake up every morning wondering if I would still feel the same way. Without fail, there was always an experience each day that would confirm that what I was feeling was right and true. On one of those morning while getting your sisters their baths we were listening to our Mindy Gledhill playlist. I heard this song and thought, "did that song just say what I think it did?" I had never noticed it before, in all the times we've listened to her songs. So I looked up the lyrics and read them while I listened to it again...and again...and AGAIN. It was YOUR song. This was before we found out that we were chosen to adopt you by the agency we were working with. I didn't want to get my hopes up that you were the one, but I wanted it to be you so bad. While we were waiting to find out, I would look through the Reece's Rainbow site to see if any other little girls stood out to me, and when I would think about asking about them, I would just cry. I just had to wait until I found out if you were ours, the "Long lost child" we were searching for. The one that Heavenly Father was telling me to find.

The first verse makes me think of the pre-existence, before we came to this earth. I can't help but wonder if we all knew about this all along, that we would be a family someday.

Mindy Gledhill - Long Lost Child

Love,

Mommy

Homestudy Prep

Dear Victoria,

I want to keep a good record on your blog of everything we do to get you here. In the past few weeks I've poured over blogs of other children like you that were brought home to their families and it has been an invaluable tool for us. It helped us know everything that will be involved and showed us we can do it too. Maybe some day your blog will help do that for someone else, and another child will be rescued because of you.

Today Bryn and I drove to Ogden to turn in the application to the Home Study agency and pay for that and the post-placement reports that they will do after you come home. Your country requires 5 post-placement reports; 30 days, 6 months, 1 year, 2 years & 3 years. Bryn was very patient for the long drive, she is doing her part in bringing you home. Kaelyn got to spend the afternoon napping at daddy's work.

Tomorrow is our home study. A social worker will come to our home to meet us, ask us lots of questions and check out our house. He wants to make sure we are a good family for you and that we will take good care of you. We are also getting medical physicals done tomorrow to make sure we are healthy and strong.

In the meantime we will be sending in the documents to get our background check. We just remembered that dad needs to get a Social Security Card because his was stolen. (Scary, I know, that's why they tell you not to have them in your wallet). He is going turn in his application for that first thing Wednesday morning. The background check can take up to a month to get back, so we need to get it sent in as soon as possible.

I'll let you know how the homestudy & physicals go tomorrow.

Love Mommy

We are coming

Dear Victoria,

Well the word is out, we have started telling everyone that we are coming for you. We pray every night that you are kept safe until we get to you. That everything will work out. Every time we start to get overwhelmed with all there is to do before we get to bring you home, we just say, "she is our daughter, she is a child of God and she is worth it, no matter the cost, she is worth it". We love you and can't wait till we get to be with you.

Love Mommy, Daddy, Kaelyn and Bryn

Your Forever Family