Several individuals have asked if there is a place to donate funds for our adoption needs to a nonprofit organization where their donation will be tax deductible. We now have a place to do that. Shepherd's Crook has gone out of their way to make this available due to their relationship with Richard and Cheryl Graham of IAAP {these are the original people who advocated for LuShi and were also the ones we adopted Nathan through}. If you desire to donate in a tax deductible fashion Shepherd's Crook has set up a beneficiary account in the name of LuShi Kamberger. Please just direct anyone interested in helping to send their tax-deductible donations to
The Shepherd's Crook Ministries
P.O. Box 773
West Chester,OH 45071
and make sure to indicate that the donation is for "LuShi Kamberger."
Thank you all so very much for your help in our time of need!
Mary and John
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
10:30pm GOOD NEWS last night
Okay, last night as I was literally exhausted emotionally and mentally, I read an email from Anne Little (sweet southern belle that she is) that said "I have a secret, but I want to call you ... what's you number?" I responded with my # and waited ... and waited .... and finally decided I better get these littles in bed if she is not gonna call me! I bedded down 3 of them and then had my "snuggle night" with Nathan - each evening one of them gets Mommy all to themselves after the others go to bed. After Nate went to bed, I came downstairs and was wondering why Anne STILL hadn't called but then saw another email saying "get off the phone!! I want to talk with you and your phone is busy!" So I quick checked all the phones and sure enough one was acting funky. I started my email back to Anne when she called and said, "are you sitting down?" Then told me that Love Without Boundaries has granted us $3000!!!!!! WOW, oh, WOW! AND then I opened another email from Holly Brooke saying that Grant Me a Chance is giving us $1000!! Praise GOD!
Blessings!
Mary
Blessings!
Mary
Fingerprints are DONE
One more step in the right direction. We were fingerprinted today down in Des Moines. Now we wait for the prints to clear and be sent to the Hague unit in Missouri - then we will receive approval for our I800A and on to the next step. We will be waiting for China to review our dossier and issue us an LOA/LOC which basicly asks us "do you STILL want to adopt these children?" ..... hmmmm, let me think .....YES!! Then it the LOA along with MORE paperwork which I will begin to fill out TODAY will be sent back to the Hague unit in Missouri where we HOPE it will move along at the same incredible speed with which it has already!! I have two more WONDERFUL things to share .... well actually three, but they deserve their own personal "titles".
In HIS strength and mercy alone,
Mary
In HIS strength and mercy alone,
Mary
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
The adoption community is FANTASTIC!!
WOW - that's all I can say is WOW and I'll even say it backwards ... WOW! You guys are so great! God is good ... all the time, but when He works a miracle through the hands of His people He is fantabulous!! Ya know Jesus could of whipped up food to feed the 5000 in thin air, but He chose to use the offerings of a young boy - his little loaves and fishes and THEN He worked the miracle! Well He's doing it again!
Let me tell you what else God is doing. I emailed our Senator's office over the weekend in hopes they could help move CIS who said on Friday that our paperwork would have to be done in the order it was received. Now to all you adoptive families out there ... I KNOW you because I am one of you and if there is a family behind you in line that honestly HAS to move up and take "cutsies" you all would step graciously out of the way knowing that THIS is the only chance for this particular child to have a family!! Well, I rec'd a call at 8:40 this morning from a different CIS caseworker who said she was reviewing my file. I said, but I thought so and so was doing it ..... she said not since Sen Grassley's office advocated for you! Praise you, LORD!! She has reviewed our file completely, faxed us our fingerprint appt papers and we will be fingerprinted tomorrow in Des Moines!! She also said she did not think that this would ever be able to go through by the middle of December. I sweetly thanked her for trying her best non-the-less and that we appreciated her efforts!! Cause if God is moving everyone better just get out of the way!
A woman I didn't even know emailed me and then we chatted on the phone - she was a huge encouragement to me. She relayed how this same situation just happened over a month ago and the family is still in China bringing home another dear 14 year old boy who NOW has a family to call his own. Can I get a whoop, whoop!!??!! This lovely woman said she had no doubt this would be going through and to advocate for help on another yahoo group I used to be on .... well, I went to that group and guess what!? There are folks over there already advocating for me, my family and dear LuShi - folks that don't know me from Eve (thought I was gonna say Adam didnt't ya?). Blessed my socks off!
Look at that chip in folks - it's from folks like you who have given 10, 20, 50, 100 and some even more for LuShi to come home!! Thank you - thank you - thank you!!
In HIS strength and mercy ALONE,
Mary
Let me tell you what else God is doing. I emailed our Senator's office over the weekend in hopes they could help move CIS who said on Friday that our paperwork would have to be done in the order it was received. Now to all you adoptive families out there ... I KNOW you because I am one of you and if there is a family behind you in line that honestly HAS to move up and take "cutsies" you all would step graciously out of the way knowing that THIS is the only chance for this particular child to have a family!! Well, I rec'd a call at 8:40 this morning from a different CIS caseworker who said she was reviewing my file. I said, but I thought so and so was doing it ..... she said not since Sen Grassley's office advocated for you! Praise you, LORD!! She has reviewed our file completely, faxed us our fingerprint appt papers and we will be fingerprinted tomorrow in Des Moines!! She also said she did not think that this would ever be able to go through by the middle of December. I sweetly thanked her for trying her best non-the-less and that we appreciated her efforts!! Cause if God is moving everyone better just get out of the way!
A woman I didn't even know emailed me and then we chatted on the phone - she was a huge encouragement to me. She relayed how this same situation just happened over a month ago and the family is still in China bringing home another dear 14 year old boy who NOW has a family to call his own. Can I get a whoop, whoop!!??!! This lovely woman said she had no doubt this would be going through and to advocate for help on another yahoo group I used to be on .... well, I went to that group and guess what!? There are folks over there already advocating for me, my family and dear LuShi - folks that don't know me from Eve (thought I was gonna say Adam didnt't ya?). Blessed my socks off!
Look at that chip in folks - it's from folks like you who have given 10, 20, 50, 100 and some even more for LuShi to come home!! Thank you - thank you - thank you!!
In HIS strength and mercy ALONE,
Mary
Saturday, November 14, 2009
We desire to give LuShi a home! SECOND PA!
Two weeks ago, on October 30, Dick and Cheryl Graham with Bringing Hope to Children advocated for a boy rapidly approaching his 14th birthday. We have been in process to adopt Christina DuJie since August and had just recently sent in our I800A after an extended wait for our Home Study. I don't usually open these emails, but was moved to see what the situation was. The moving has not stopped.
We are now PreApproved to adopt Zhang LuShi in addition to DuJie and are trying desperately to give this child a home. His 14th birthday is December 12th .... just 4 short weeks away!! China is willing to do whatever it takes to get this child a family. Our agency, CAWLI, is doing everything THEY can to expedite this process. And we see days flying by with little to no time to raise the money needed to bring these children home or give USCIS the time to process our case.
I am asking for TWO things from this fantastic adoptive community:
First - PRAY for God's will to be accomplished - if He is pleased to place LuShi in our home, then He can pave the way through this seemingly IMPOSSIBLE short time period to do so. Pray for USCIS to be moved by compassion or whatever it takes to truly push this file through. China is willing to have everything else in fax only and even to let us travel without TA in hand.
Second - help us is ANY way feasible and within your power to get to China and give this boy a chance. There is a chipin right here on this blog and a purse fundraiser (done by the lovely Kelly R!) at http://www.hopeandhealingfororphans.blogspot.com/ . We could use frequent fly miles to help get us there and back or help with our stay at the hotel. Spread the word to any groups you belong to!
LuShi is from Linfen, Shanxi and has urinary incontinence and was diagnosed to have a tethered spinal cord 2 years ago (tho he has no history of spina bifada). He has only been allowed to go to school the last few years after LWB stepped in to support the cost of adult incontinence pads. There is no surgeon in China that feels skilled enough to do his surgery. He is nearly 14 and I am sure growing like any other 13 year old boy!! That cord could snap at any time, leaving him in a worse place than he is already in.
John and I are willing to do whatever the Lord desires regarding LuShi - we want to give him the opportunity for family, support, love, expert medical care and the chance to be told there is a God who loves him very much. Could you or your coworkers be looking for a great compassionate giving idea for the Christmas season? What a gift this would be for LuShi who has been overlooked for far too long. And what a story to tell him in future days of the support and love of a huge adoption community who KNOW what a true miracle this would be!!
We are now PreApproved to adopt Zhang LuShi in addition to DuJie and are trying desperately to give this child a home. His 14th birthday is December 12th .... just 4 short weeks away!! China is willing to do whatever it takes to get this child a family. Our agency, CAWLI, is doing everything THEY can to expedite this process. And we see days flying by with little to no time to raise the money needed to bring these children home or give USCIS the time to process our case.
I am asking for TWO things from this fantastic adoptive community:
First - PRAY for God's will to be accomplished - if He is pleased to place LuShi in our home, then He can pave the way through this seemingly IMPOSSIBLE short time period to do so. Pray for USCIS to be moved by compassion or whatever it takes to truly push this file through. China is willing to have everything else in fax only and even to let us travel without TA in hand.
Second - help us is ANY way feasible and within your power to get to China and give this boy a chance. There is a chipin right here on this blog and a purse fundraiser (done by the lovely Kelly R!) at http://www.hopeandhealingfororphans.blogspot.com/ . We could use frequent fly miles to help get us there and back or help with our stay at the hotel. Spread the word to any groups you belong to!
LuShi is from Linfen, Shanxi and has urinary incontinence and was diagnosed to have a tethered spinal cord 2 years ago (tho he has no history of spina bifada). He has only been allowed to go to school the last few years after LWB stepped in to support the cost of adult incontinence pads. There is no surgeon in China that feels skilled enough to do his surgery. He is nearly 14 and I am sure growing like any other 13 year old boy!! That cord could snap at any time, leaving him in a worse place than he is already in.
John and I are willing to do whatever the Lord desires regarding LuShi - we want to give him the opportunity for family, support, love, expert medical care and the chance to be told there is a God who loves him very much. Could you or your coworkers be looking for a great compassionate giving idea for the Christmas season? What a gift this would be for LuShi who has been overlooked for far too long. And what a story to tell him in future days of the support and love of a huge adoption community who KNOW what a true miracle this would be!!
Saturday, October 24, 2009
Home Study DONE!
My, oh, my it took an extra 6 weeks to get this done ... waiting on Iowa DCI (dept criminal invest) to show my (Mary's) record is "clear". This is the first time in 5 adoptions that we have had to have hard copy fingerprints done for each state we have lived in since we were 18 yrs old. Thank the Lord we have only lived in Maryland and Iowa! Mary's prints for Iowa came back "unreadable" after waiting 3 wks to hear from them. Then I had them redone .... and they were "unreadable" again! Geez. So then they had to request a clearance with just my name. This alone set us back 6 weeks!!! That really makes a difference when we're wanting to tack a mission's trip to the front of the adoption trip - take our teen girls and some others doing ministry work at Philip Hayden/Shepherd's Field before officially doing the adoption of Christina. We may not be able to do that now ..... but trust God for His timing and His direction.
So yesterday I picked up the original Home Studies (3 original copies). I was going to Fedex one of them with the I800 application. {This is the first time we have had to file an I800 - a brand new system was set up about 18mths ago by the Citizenship and Immigration Dept - new form (5 times longer) and longer wait times with triple extra steps and more red tape .... joy, oh joy!} Anyway, I called our adoption agency, CAWLI, and told her I was getting ready to send in all our paperwork for dossier and their records and I was sending off the I800. Thank you, Lord, for prompting my heart to call! She said I needed to send a "letter of approval" from CAWLI along with the I800 and the Home Study ...... basically saying that they reviewed the HS and it met all requirements. So I, instead, just sent all the paperwork to CAWLI - they will attach the letter and send the I800 off on Monday. CAWLI actually does all the certification and authentication for all their dossiers - NO ADDED FEE!!! Unbelievable!! This is the first time I haven't had the chasing paperwork blues with forms coming and going and sending and receiving and waiting and waiting!! Soooooo, while we wait the extra time for the I800 to do their new clearance work, CAWLI will do the cert/auth! Sweet!
We were able to pay the initial agency fees and the home study fees with the monies that came in from insurance from that sweet attic fire we had back in May. Then we had been saving monies in our "pickle jar" after that. I had to get a cashiers check to pay Immigration with the I800 application - $830. I went to the pickle jar and there was about $30 over the needed $830!! Praise God! The next day, or perhaps that afternoon, John opened another envelope from our insurance company ..... for the remaining electrically work and new light fixture .... about $356. Our social worker emailed me yesterday morning saying to release all the paperwork, she needed for us to "prepay" the agency for the postplacement evaluations that would not be done till Christina was home 6mths and 12mths. This was a requirement of our adoption agency assuring that we would DO the postplacements .... which we have done x4 with previous adoptions. So, the amount needed? $340 .... thank you again, dear Lord. We are keeping up with expenses so far.
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And on top of all that, we also got some new pix of Christina! Is she a sweetie or what??? : ) A missions group is going to SF next week ..... lucky dogs! ..... so I sent off a package for them to take over for Christina's birthday. She will turn 10 on November 9th. We still can't tell her we are her "family" - we have to wait till time is closer to when we will travel! Shucks! But..... I did put a picture of our family in her card - just to let her know what her "sponsors" look like and tell her we love her. I told dear Dawn Choate to just whisper in her ear, "mama, baba!" I know she won't - she plays by the rules .... don't you, Dawn!?
Just wanted to let you know we are another step closer!!
The Vera Bradley purse giveaway is still in progress - there will be 15 purses given away!! Go to
http://www.hopeandhealingfororphans.blogspot.com/ for your chance to win!! and help us get this sweet, sweet child home!!
In His strength and mercy alone,
MaryK <3
So yesterday I picked up the original Home Studies (3 original copies). I was going to Fedex one of them with the I800 application. {This is the first time we have had to file an I800 - a brand new system was set up about 18mths ago by the Citizenship and Immigration Dept - new form (5 times longer) and longer wait times with triple extra steps and more red tape .... joy, oh joy!} Anyway, I called our adoption agency, CAWLI, and told her I was getting ready to send in all our paperwork for dossier and their records and I was sending off the I800. Thank you, Lord, for prompting my heart to call! She said I needed to send a "letter of approval" from CAWLI along with the I800 and the Home Study ...... basically saying that they reviewed the HS and it met all requirements. So I, instead, just sent all the paperwork to CAWLI - they will attach the letter and send the I800 off on Monday. CAWLI actually does all the certification and authentication for all their dossiers - NO ADDED FEE!!! Unbelievable!! This is the first time I haven't had the chasing paperwork blues with forms coming and going and sending and receiving and waiting and waiting!! Soooooo, while we wait the extra time for the I800 to do their new clearance work, CAWLI will do the cert/auth! Sweet!
We were able to pay the initial agency fees and the home study fees with the monies that came in from insurance from that sweet attic fire we had back in May. Then we had been saving monies in our "pickle jar" after that. I had to get a cashiers check to pay Immigration with the I800 application - $830. I went to the pickle jar and there was about $30 over the needed $830!! Praise God! The next day, or perhaps that afternoon, John opened another envelope from our insurance company ..... for the remaining electrically work and new light fixture .... about $356. Our social worker emailed me yesterday morning saying to release all the paperwork, she needed for us to "prepay" the agency for the postplacement evaluations that would not be done till Christina was home 6mths and 12mths. This was a requirement of our adoption agency assuring that we would DO the postplacements .... which we have done x4 with previous adoptions. So, the amount needed? $340 .... thank you again, dear Lord. We are keeping up with expenses so far.
And on top of all that, we also got some new pix of Christina! Is she a sweetie or what??? : ) A missions group is going to SF next week ..... lucky dogs! ..... so I sent off a package for them to take over for Christina's birthday. She will turn 10 on November 9th. We still can't tell her we are her "family" - we have to wait till time is closer to when we will travel! Shucks! But..... I did put a picture of our family in her card - just to let her know what her "sponsors" look like and tell her we love her. I told dear Dawn Choate to just whisper in her ear, "mama, baba!" I know she won't - she plays by the rules .... don't you, Dawn!?
Just wanted to let you know we are another step closer!!
The Vera Bradley purse giveaway is still in progress - there will be 15 purses given away!! Go to
http://www.hopeandhealingfororphans.blogspot.com/ for your chance to win!! and help us get this sweet, sweet child home!!
In His strength and mercy alone,
MaryK <3
Thursday, October 1, 2009
New pictures!
Christina got to hold the ribbon at the ceremoney to open the new school.
I received a few new pictures of Christina today. A family was there just a few weeks ago and snuggled our girl! We getting close to having the Home study completed - then all the papers will head to our agency for certification/authentication while we submit immigration paperwork (I800). I've done all I can do, now it's just a waiting game for clearances to come in.
Mary
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