We are thrilled to be able to tell you that we recently received approval from the Immigration Department to adopt from Ukraine! We are very thankful. This came after our application was rejected twice because they couldn't get a readable set of fingerprints from Beth. (She could have a great career as a bank robber.) Finally she had to get an affidavit signed by the local police stating that she has no criminal record and that satisfied immigration. So, over the last several months we have been filling out paperwork, getting it notarized and apostilled (official government stamps.) Today we Fed-Ex'd all that paperwork off the Ukraine to be translated and submitted to the government there. We're reaching the home stretch now. Irina, our advisor from Love Cradle tells us we could receive an invitation to come to Ukraine as early as the end of May. Yikes!
On the financial front we have continued to see miracles. There were two big unexpected contributions recently. One was a large grant from a local Christian ministry. We had expected a grant from them of about $1,500 and were floored when they told us they would give us over $6,000! Then we received a gift of $1,500 from some dear friends. This is after they had already contributed to our concert fundraiser. That means we are just a few thousand dollars short of our goal at this point. We are pursuing more grants and loans to fill the gap. So, God is really making this thing happen. Thank you all so much for your prayers and gifts.
We've had a couple letters from V Every time we get one we rush across the street to our Russian neighbors to have them translate it. We were really choked up when we read his last letter. He said, "Thank you for letting me stay with you and treating me like a son." He went on to say, "Please forgive me if I did any thing wrong when I was with you."The kid knows how to get the tears flowing.
We'll keep you posted.
Love,
Beth and Bill
Monday, April 23, 2012
Sunday, February 5, 2012
Fundraiser Results. Thank You!!!
Praise God from whom all blessings flow!
Thank you, thank you, thank you!!! Vlad's Benefit Concert was a great success thanks to you and your commitment to the Lord and his command to "look after orphans and widows in their distress." (James 1:27)
We had a great turn out, saw many old friends, new friends and family members, had a great time of fellowship, encouragement and challenge. Beth and I were amazed by your outpouring of love and support. We look forward to telling Vlad how many friends he has supporting him and praying for him in America.
Last night alone we raised $4,065.80. Add to this donations sent in advance from people who couldn't attend...$2,060 and you get a grande total of $6,125.80. You knocked our socks off!!!
We want to thank our house church from Renew along with Michael Moffatt, Amber Phelps, Jon Hoover and Walt Coyle for their incredible service in putting this event together. Thanks to Doug Moister our Pastor at Renew (That was him doing the MC'ing although he was too humble to introduce himself.) Thank you to everyone who made wonderful desserts. Thank you to Chip Mergott and Annie Bauerlein for giving their time and incredible talents. If you're looking to plan a music event for your church etc or host a house concert, contact them! You can purchase their CD's at I-Tunes or CD Baby. Thanks to Immanuel Leidy's Church for use of their facilities. Thanks to Steve and Irina. Thank you to Mary Lynn Moffatt for raffling off her wonderful sculpture (won by Shane and Holly Cooper-congratulations!) You can see more of Mary Lynn's work at Clay Rat Studios. Thank you all!
Together with the fundrasier and generous gifts from family members, we now have $14,128.80. We are more than halfway to our goal of $25,000. Our next step will to apply for adoption grants and loans and perhaps plan another fundraiser (someone mentioned a possible walk-a-thon.)
If you know of other who want to contribute to V's Adoption Fund, please send them to our website.
The best way to stay in touch with us about our adoption journey is to click on the "join this site" link to the right. You'll get an email every time we post a new message.
Thank you, thank you, thank you!!! Vlad's Benefit Concert was a great success thanks to you and your commitment to the Lord and his command to "look after orphans and widows in their distress." (James 1:27)
We had a great turn out, saw many old friends, new friends and family members, had a great time of fellowship, encouragement and challenge. Beth and I were amazed by your outpouring of love and support. We look forward to telling Vlad how many friends he has supporting him and praying for him in America.
Last night alone we raised $4,065.80. Add to this donations sent in advance from people who couldn't attend...$2,060 and you get a grande total of $6,125.80. You knocked our socks off!!!
We want to thank our house church from Renew along with Michael Moffatt, Amber Phelps, Jon Hoover and Walt Coyle for their incredible service in putting this event together. Thanks to Doug Moister our Pastor at Renew (That was him doing the MC'ing although he was too humble to introduce himself.) Thank you to everyone who made wonderful desserts. Thank you to Chip Mergott and Annie Bauerlein for giving their time and incredible talents. If you're looking to plan a music event for your church etc or host a house concert, contact them! You can purchase their CD's at I-Tunes or CD Baby. Thanks to Immanuel Leidy's Church for use of their facilities. Thanks to Steve and Irina. Thank you to Mary Lynn Moffatt for raffling off her wonderful sculpture (won by Shane and Holly Cooper-congratulations!) You can see more of Mary Lynn's work at Clay Rat Studios. Thank you all!
Together with the fundrasier and generous gifts from family members, we now have $14,128.80. We are more than halfway to our goal of $25,000. Our next step will to apply for adoption grants and loans and perhaps plan another fundraiser (someone mentioned a possible walk-a-thon.)
If you know of other who want to contribute to V's Adoption Fund, please send them to our website.
The best way to stay in touch with us about our adoption journey is to click on the "join this site" link to the right. You'll get an email every time we post a new message.
Friday, January 20, 2012
Get great coffee and support our adoption fund!
We love good coffee so, we were very excited to find out about Just Love Coffee Roasters. Just Love is an organization that not only sells great, fairly traded coffee which helps support the economies of emerging nations, but they also help support local causes, like our adoption effort. Here's how it works: Click here to visit our Just Love storefront, aptly named, V's Cafe and make a purchase of any of their fine products and Just Love will donate $5.00 or more to our adoption fund! What a fantastic way to use your purchasing power to do good.
Friday, January 13, 2012
Fundraiser Details
We have thankfully found a venue for our fundraising event. Vlad's Benefit Concert will take place on Saturday, February 4th from 7-10 PM at Immanuel Leidy's Church in Souderton. See details our website for details. A big thank you to Denise and all the folks at Leidy's for approving our request so quickly after our original plan didn't work out. Big thanks to Doug Moister our pastor at Renew for trying so hard to make that original plan work! Oh well. We owe thanks to so many. Our house church has been a huge help in planning this event. Sometimes we think our house church is more enthusiastic about the adoption than we are! Thanks to Chip and Annie Mergott for being willing to play for us. Looking forward to seeing many of you there.
Monday, November 14, 2011
Welcome to V's Blog: The Journey Begins!
In July 2011 we were blessed to host a then 12 year old boy ("V") in our home for four weeks. V is from Crimea in south-eastern Ukraine on the border with Russia. He is an orphan living in an institution with dozens of other boys.
In 2011 we were pursuing the possibility of adopting an an older (3-8 year old) American child through Bethanna Adoption Agency. We had completed our home study and were ready to move on to the matching process when my older brother, Kevin, who had been struggling with cancer for 3 years, went into rapid decline. As Kevin entered hospice for what we thought would be a period of months, we put the adoption process on hold. Then Kevin died just days after he entered hospice. We were devastated and consumed with the task of cleaning out Kevin's apartment, dealing with his bills etc.
Some time before my brother's death, my employer at Vision Video suggested that we take part in an orphan hosting program. He knew of our interest in adoption and suggested that hosting an orphan might give us some insights into what it would be like to adopt. We were all set to do this but when Kevin got very ill we backed out. After Kevin's death we couldn't think of anything but dealing with the aftershock. A few weeks later we were contacted by the hosting ministry, "Would we still be interested in hosting?" Though still in grief we decided maybe we could...maybe it would help take our minds off our loss to some degree.
We met V on a July evening at a small church in Souderton. He and about a dozen other Ukranian kids gathered there to meet their host families after a very long flight from Kiev via London. We had seen a photo of him but still had trouble picking him out of the crowd. We were introduced to him, a lanky boy with a short hair cut and handsome face. We sat and tried to communicate with him. Of course he only spoke Russian. We tried hand gestures and drawing pictures. When that wore thin we sat awkwardly staring into the distance before a translator spotted our desperate expressions and came over to help. Through her translation we were able to communicate some basic info and V seemed to relax. When we got home we headed straight for the computer and logged on to Google Translate. This was a huge help throughout V's visit.
After only a couple day's V became more comfortable with us and we started to see his personality emerge. He was bright, funny and easy going. As time passed we quickly fell in love with him and began to dread the day his visit ended. It seemed God had brought us the boy that was meant for us. We had never considered international adoption...much too expensive and we were very aware of the huge needs or orphaned children right here in our own back yard. But God has a way of upending our preconceived notions. After a very difficult goodbye, we decided to file paperwork with the Ukranian government to see if V was available for adoption. A few weeks later we were delighted to find out that he is available.
Recently we completed another home study. This one for international adoption and we are awaiting the social worker's report. The next step will be to file paperwork with the U.S. Immigration Department.
Sometimes we think we are crazy. An adoption from Ukraine will cost about $20-$25,000, money we certainly don't have. And it entails spending 45 day's in Ukraine to finalize the adoption! But we have been encouraged by our church and our friends that if God wants this to happen he will make a way. In the near future we will be applying for grants and loans, planning fund-raisers and sending out support letters.
We are very thankful to all those who have already been tremendously supportive and we ask for your onging prayers as we continue this journey.
In 2011 we were pursuing the possibility of adopting an an older (3-8 year old) American child through Bethanna Adoption Agency. We had completed our home study and were ready to move on to the matching process when my older brother, Kevin, who had been struggling with cancer for 3 years, went into rapid decline. As Kevin entered hospice for what we thought would be a period of months, we put the adoption process on hold. Then Kevin died just days after he entered hospice. We were devastated and consumed with the task of cleaning out Kevin's apartment, dealing with his bills etc.
Some time before my brother's death, my employer at Vision Video suggested that we take part in an orphan hosting program. He knew of our interest in adoption and suggested that hosting an orphan might give us some insights into what it would be like to adopt. We were all set to do this but when Kevin got very ill we backed out. After Kevin's death we couldn't think of anything but dealing with the aftershock. A few weeks later we were contacted by the hosting ministry, "Would we still be interested in hosting?" Though still in grief we decided maybe we could...maybe it would help take our minds off our loss to some degree.
We met V on a July evening at a small church in Souderton. He and about a dozen other Ukranian kids gathered there to meet their host families after a very long flight from Kiev via London. We had seen a photo of him but still had trouble picking him out of the crowd. We were introduced to him, a lanky boy with a short hair cut and handsome face. We sat and tried to communicate with him. Of course he only spoke Russian. We tried hand gestures and drawing pictures. When that wore thin we sat awkwardly staring into the distance before a translator spotted our desperate expressions and came over to help. Through her translation we were able to communicate some basic info and V seemed to relax. When we got home we headed straight for the computer and logged on to Google Translate. This was a huge help throughout V's visit.
After only a couple day's V became more comfortable with us and we started to see his personality emerge. He was bright, funny and easy going. As time passed we quickly fell in love with him and began to dread the day his visit ended. It seemed God had brought us the boy that was meant for us. We had never considered international adoption...much too expensive and we were very aware of the huge needs or orphaned children right here in our own back yard. But God has a way of upending our preconceived notions. After a very difficult goodbye, we decided to file paperwork with the Ukranian government to see if V was available for adoption. A few weeks later we were delighted to find out that he is available.
Recently we completed another home study. This one for international adoption and we are awaiting the social worker's report. The next step will be to file paperwork with the U.S. Immigration Department.
Sometimes we think we are crazy. An adoption from Ukraine will cost about $20-$25,000, money we certainly don't have. And it entails spending 45 day's in Ukraine to finalize the adoption! But we have been encouraged by our church and our friends that if God wants this to happen he will make a way. In the near future we will be applying for grants and loans, planning fund-raisers and sending out support letters.
We are very thankful to all those who have already been tremendously supportive and we ask for your onging prayers as we continue this journey.
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