12 days of Christmas by the Petrosky Kids

One of our projects this month has been to change the 12 days of Christmas song.  So, here is the condensed version.  Enjoy!

On the twelfth day of Christmas

My family gave to me,

Twelve reasons to celebrate Christ’s birth,

Eleven plus holiday greetings,

Ten presents under the tree,

  

Nine merry carols,

Eight snowmen standing,

Seven elves a workin’,

Six members of our family,

FIVE Christmas stockings,

Four anxious children,

Three Santa Claus movies,

Two Christmas pillows,

And a 9 foot Christmas tree.

Reason’s to celebrate Christ’s birth:

1.      Because Jesus was born in a manger.

2.      Because he died on the cross for us.

3.      Because he rose again.

4.      Because he wants to save us from the devil.

5.      Because he wants us to go to heaven.

6.      Because he loves us.

7.      Because we love him.

8.      Because Jesus listens to our prayers.

9.      Because Jesus answers our prayers.

10.  Because God gave us his ONLY son that came to Earth.

11.  Because we are sinners.

12.  Because he keeps us safe.

Thankful

In light of the darkness that has come upon us this Christmas season, I realize more today than last Thursday of how lucky I am.  How lucky I am to have a Savior sent to our little dot called Earth.  This babe born in a manger was brought to give me hope, give me light, and give me salvation I'll never deserve.  No amount of human darkness can cover HIS light and I'm thankful that he lives in me.

This Christmas looks and feels different for us this year and it has been great so far.  We've decided to cut back as much as possible on Christmas gifts so that we can use as much of our funds as possible towards bringing Jordy home.  While I LOVE shopping and giving to the people in our lives that we love and appreciate so much, I have to admit that slowing down this year has been a breath of fresh air.  We completed our Christmas shopping the weekend of black Friday and purchased only for the little people in our lives, and it seems like this simple act of cutting back has freed up a whole month for us to spend doing other fun things. 

My husband and I were able to attend for the second year, our Parkview Emergency Physicians yearly party.  We had fun eating, learning to gamble someone else's money, and dancing with co-workers and spouses.  A BIG thank you to our friends (aka family at this point), Tim, Karoline, Emily Davis for giving mom and dad a date night. 

Because we are cutting back, I decided not to buy wrapping paper this year but instead, I decided to use free newspaper end rolls to wrap gifts.  While our kiddos were still with the Davis family (they got to spend the night), mom wrapped up gifts.  When they came home, they got free reign to color the gifts under the tree.  It was a big hit!

 

We've used the rest of our weekend playing games, watching movies, going to church, watching football, and being HOME.  It feels great!!!!

 

I'm going to dedicate more time to football now . . . GO PACK beat the bears!!! ;)

I-800A

Most of you won't even begin to know or care but we're ready.  We are so ready to mail out our I-800A.  Basically, this is an application to the US Immigration office asking if they see it fit for us to adopt a child abroad and bring them to the US.  We need this application to be approved in order to get a finger printing appointment and in order to submit the I-800 form.  Doesn't sound much different does it?  In order to submit this application, we have to have several pieces:

- Money . . . check
- Birth Certificate copies . . . check
- Marriage Certificate copy . . . check
- Letter to USCIS (United States Citizenship and Immigration Services) . . . check
- Home Study . . . anxiously awaiting!!!!!!!!!!

We have completed all our Home Study visits and so we are waiting for this to be put into writing.  Once everyone is satisfied with our life story on paper, they give us certified copies which we will promptly place in the mail.  I'm praying.  I'm hoping we can do this before the end of the month.  What a good way to start off the Christmas season by getting our I-800A paperwork in the mail.  Merry Christmas to us and most importantly, Merry Christmas Jordy.  We are coming, don't know when, but we are coming!!

For those that haven't watched our little man "walking" on his knees pre-surgery, this is a picture of the way he crosses his legs before getting to his knees and walking.

Home Study Begins

This week was our very first home study visit.  We are required to complete four visits with our caseworker where she learns everything she can about our family.  She then types out our life story, talks about our kids, speaks on our capabilities as parents, etc.  Our first visit went very well!  Of course, for me it's sort of fun sitting down with a complete stranger and sharing my life story.  I may be weird in that way but I have a very complex life that God has guided me through and which has molded me into the person I am today.  It's cool to share God's work in me and my husband!  Kids loved it too because we dropped them off at Aunt Lauren's apartment and they got to hang out with her for a couple of hours. :)

Also, this week, I've been working with a friend to do a garage sale.  This is one way we're trying to raise funds for our adoption.  I'm so incredibly blessed because one friend contributed a LARGE amount of stuff for us to sell.  Another friend stopped by just today and said she'd bring over more stuff tomorrow!  How exciting!!!  I keep praying that God will GROW the money we make.  I know we won't make $25,000 in a single garage sale but whatever we get will get us closer than before!  God has a hand in this and shows himself daily to me.  God's math is perfect and we know he'll provide.

Food for thought:  If 200 of my Facebook friends donated just $125.00, we would have all the funds required to bring him home.  200 is a guest list for a wedding.  There are so many ways to think about it; but for me, it just doesn't seem so bad when I break it down like this.

I leave you with this verse that has uplifted me:

Don't worry about anything; instead, pray about everything.  Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done.  Then you will experience God's peace, which exceeds anything we can understand.  His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.  

~Philippians 4:6-7 NLT

Paperwork & Stuff

Now that we have pre-approval, we are in the thick of paperwork.  While I'm not surprised by the amount of paperwork, I am surprised at some of the silly rules China has about dates.  We are required to submit an original of our marriage and birth certificates and they cannot be older than six months old.  We've been married for 11 years.  So, obviously that's out of date.  We are only slightly older than six months.  So, those are "expired."  Basically, what that means is we have to send a request off to the State of Indiana for new certificates which will have a new issue date.  That issue date has to be less than six months from when China receives our paperwork in order for China to consider it valid.  Make sense?  I didn't think so!  But it is a formality.

In other news, an online adoptive mother provided us with links upon links upon links to pictures and videos that include our little Jordy.  The sheer amount was actually overwhelming.  What a blessing to see, through pictures, our Jordy growing and living a "normal" life in China.  It's also sort of heartbreaking because so many adoptive families do not get many pictures at all.  We have over fifty!  These kids are clearly special to their caretakers.

This little guy on the right has a family coming for him as well.  So exciting.

I have so much to share but I will do it in small bits mostly because of my time constraints.  Like right now, I have one screaming child because I won't let her have Halloween candy.  However, this said child also has not eaten her lunch.  Life is rough at two especially with this mom and dad.  :)

Pre-approval is here

It's a cool and crisp Sunday morning.  The sun is rising giving way to some beautiful colors across the clouds and sky.  It's a good time to sit and eat oatmeal and reflect on all the blessings of this week while preparing for church.

We received a phone call on Tuesday morning from our adoption agency.  China approved our request to adopt Jordy.  I'll be honest, there was a part of me that was like, "Oh, no! This is for real."  Once I was over the initial shock, my heart started to celebrate.  Thank you God; we are going to bring this little guy home!!  Wa-hoo!

We decided to collectively tell our families on Thursday about our new and different journey.  While I was worried about the response, our family has been very supportive and we are thankful for that.  We decided to tell our own children that day and they are over-the-top excited!  They have been praying for Jordy to find a family and were a bit surprised when we said he was going to be part of ours.  Our son instantly began making plans in his room for his new brother.  He would have packed his bags if I would have let him.  But I informed him that we are a looooong way from the part where mom and dad fly to China.  No need to pack yet little buddy!  He's all too ready for us to go. :(

Friday, my husband called to inform me that we had been nominated for a matching grant.  We didn't even know that we were eligible to apply yet but our agency did that for us and we received an email about it.  Very cool and uplifting.  Now we need to come up with a creative way to raise $1,500 dollars which they will then match.

It's been a wonderful week of family, pumpkin carving, and good news!

Big Leap of Faith

One week isn't a long time to make any important decision and especially when it involves an actual human being halfway around the world.  However, that's how much time God gave us.  We had one week . . . well not really even that . . . to decide whether we wanted to notify China of our interest in this little boy.  We had to have initial paperwork turned in by Friday last week in order to prevent "Jordy's" file from being sent back to China.  Knowing how our God works, we took a very big leap of faith and filled out pre-approval paperwork requesting that China allow us to proceed with the adoption of this boy.  Our thought is that if God has placed him on our hearts, the least we can do is try.  If it isn't meant to be, we have faith that God will intervene in some way.  So, last week, we were figuring out our financial self worth, filling out blanks on paperwork, visiting our physicians for physicals, and visiting the lab to be absolutely certain we don't have Hepatitis, AIDS, or any other random illness that would be unacceptable to China.  Pre-approval paperwork done!  And now?  We wait.  We should know in ten business days what China's response is to our request.

In the meantime, I'm doing my best to be proactive about the next steps.  I've been in search of a Hague accredited home study agency in Indiana.  Turns out this is a very rare accreditation in Indiana.  I am getting discouraged because I called the agency a friend used and their accreditation had lapsed.  I called another agency in Indy and they no longer do China adoptions because of the strict requirements.  I called agencies in Fort Wayne and Leo with no luck.  I started calling Michigan but couldn't find an agency willing to do just the home study without the whole adoption process.  Finally, with much reluctance, I called Evansville, Indiana.  My reluctance comes from the thought of having to drive almost 6 hours one way multiple times both for the home study portion and for the post adoption reports.  But, I ran out of options.  Turns out, God had a hand in it.  I called Evansville and find out that they are Hague accredited and . . . this is the best part . . . they have someone in Fort Wayne able to do our home study.  Whoo hoo!  Thank you God for providing a solution that was better than I could have hoped for.  If we use them all the way through to the post adoption, they are actually cheaper than all the other options that weren't even options.  :)

I feel incredibly accomplished.  We have the PA paperwork turned in, we found an agency to do our home study, and we have an adoption agency to see us through that has been so very helpful so far.  

God is good!

No Need to Panic

By the time you read this post, you will have already been made aware that we have decided to pursue adoption of a very "special" boy in China.  (No need to panic!)  Did I really just say that?  Yep.  (And now, I need to take a big deep breath.)

Excited?  Definitely!

Scared?  More than you even know!

Let me back up . . . before Dustin and I became the proud parents of one very healthy bouncy baby boy named Gerik, we began the process of looking into international adoption.  We attend a meeting and loved the idea.  However, the cost was intimidating to say the least and the country we desired most, China, had such strict guidelines that we couldn't qualify.  We decided to pursue foster parenting instead and became licensed and while waiting for our first placement to arrive we decided to have one of our own.  And enters Gerik!  Best day of my life but I'll save that for another post.

Let me back up again.  In the earliest years of our marriage before children, we had the rare blessing to meet two incredible missionaries while attending Winona Grace Brethren Church.  These two made a big impact on our lives.  Coming from Canada to finish seminary, they brought their two boys to live for a year.  While here, they found out that they were expecting number three, not planned.  Ultrasounds revealed possible problems, and when their baby girl was born, there was a "problem."  However, let me tell you that watching this mom and dad with their baby girl was absolutely amazing.  She was born with a cleft palate and was going to need surgery but I will never forget how stunningly beautiful she was and how incredibly calm her mother and father were in spite of the hurdles they were going to have to face.  Their unwavering faith in Jesus Christ carried them through and left a HUGE footprint on my heart.  How amazing it was to watch this girl with a "special" problem be so incredibly loved and adored.  It was then that the idea of adopting a child with a special need planted itself in my heart.

Now, we can fast forward to now.  We are the proud parents of four, two biological and two adopted from foster care.  Our last biological child was born September 7, 2010 and we couldn't have been happier.  Now, our family is complete!  Or is it?  God has a funny way of stirring my heart.  I knew he was talking to me about children but I wasn't sure exactly what he wanted.  Foster parenting again?  Domestic adoption?  Foreign adoption?

I hope this link works to because he is adorable!

http://youtu.be/5dAccZfGtwU

**WHACK**  This is where GOD slaps me in the face with an adorable picture and video of a "special" boy from China in need of a forever family.  And there you have it!  After review of his file, my husband says, "I am starting to think we can do this.  We already have four.  What's one more?"  I couldn't agree with him more.

Blogging . . . almost sounds painful!

I have read many blogs.  I've heard of blogs but I've not yet ventured into the blogging realm.  So, here it is.  My first attempt.  This is a test and only a test.  In the case of a real true blog, I would ask you to read on.  However, this is just my first test.