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Monday, April 30, 2012

We need YOUR help!

As many of you may know the federal adoption tax credit is due to expire at the end of this year.  Families that adopt children from foster care, through domestic infant adoption, or through intercountry adoption are eligible for this tax credit! President Obama has proposed that it becomes permanent starting in 2013 but your help is needed to encourage Congress to pass the act

"Congress must act NOW to pass legislation that will protect and extend the adoption tax credit and encourage the right of every child to grow up SAFE and LOVED in a FAMILY for their OWN" - Adoption Tax Credit Working Group

 To help I URGE you to go to http://adoptiontaxcredit.org/advocate/. On this site your will see step by step instructions of what YOU can do to HELP save this much needed tax credit for adoptive families. Today I emailed 2 of our state's Representatives and 2 of our states Senators. I just copied and pasted the sample email that http://adoptiontaxcredit.org/advocate/ has so graciously written for us to use and customize. Here is is the sample letter that YOU may use.  Please remember to customize it


Dear Senator/Representative (NAME):

I am writing to ask you to support the adoption tax credit, which is set to expire on December 31, 2012. Since 1997, the adoption tax credit has helped tens of thousands of parents offset the high cost of adoption, making it possible for them to provide children with loving, permanent families.

The adoption tax credit is especially important to me and my family because… (Tell Congress why you care. Your Members of Congress value your voice!)

If Congress does not take action, the current adoption tax credit will expire at the end of 2012. The credit will be reduced to $6,000, and will only benefit the few families that adopt children with special needs and have qualified adoption expenses. Most families adopting children from foster care, intercountry adoption, and domestic infant adoption will not receive any benefit. Without the adoption tax credit, many parents hoping to adopt will be unable to do so, and others will face great financial hardship. The adoption tax credit is essential to ensuring that as many children as possible find the forever families they deserve and ensuring that those families are in a more stable financial position to provide an environment where children can thrive.

The adoption tax credit must be extended to help as many children as possible find the permanent, loving family they need and deserve. And for 2012 it should be made refundable again so that most adoptive families will benefit from it. The best adoption tax credit would be permanent, refundable, inclusive of all types of adoption, and remain a “flat” tax for children with special needs. Enclosed, for your reference, is a factsheet with more information about the adoption tax credit.

On behalf of the countless children waiting to be adopted, and the many thousands of families that stand to benefit from the adoption tax credit, thank you for your attention to this important issue.

Sincerely,

NAME
CITY, STATE
EMAIL ADDRESS / PHONE NUMBER

Again, all you have to do it copy and paste this letter, customize it and email it to your state Senator's and Representatives. Encourage your family and friends to do the same!
To find out who your state Senators are click on THIS link : http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm
To find out who your state Representatives are click on THIS link:

Thank you for helping!  Everyone has a voice and everyone needs to be heard.  Every child deserves to be loved, feel safe and have a family of their own.  Together we can save this much needed tax credit for adoptive families.  Think about all of the children that this tax credit will help!  

Sunday, April 22, 2012

She is stunning!



Got this today....

And I must say.....

She takes our breath away.....

We love her! 

We love her foster mama who is taking such wonderful care of her.  She looks so happy and healthy.

  We can tell that she is loved.

Thank you Lord for blessing our baby girl with such a loving foster family!

Meiya Lin, we are trying our hardest to get things moving so we can bring you home sweet girl!




Friday, April 20, 2012

Baby be Blessed... FREE Friday!!!

I LOVE Baby be Blessed dolls!
These dolls are not only adorable but they spread the Word of God.  Each handmade doll has scripture stitched onto their cute, little tummies.
Cute right?  

Well the amazing people at Baby be Blessed are having a FREE GIVEAWAY!
Follow the directions and you are automatically entered!  Yes, it is THAT easy!

Thursday, April 19, 2012

They are not so bad after all!

Yesterday I sent SAFRAN MorphoTrust a complaint email because it took them so long to let us know that my prints were rejected. In my earlier post I mentioned that my prints have been rejected twice and I disliked them for taking so long. Well this morning I got a phone call from them responding to my email. The nice, young lady on the other end told me that she was sorry for it taking so long and they were going to do all they could to make things right with me. They are going to skip making me do another fingerprinting session (YAY!) and instead they are going to do the Name Based Search. This is awesome news because we were told I would have to be rejected 3 times before that could be done but their policy says 2 times. I will go with THEIR policy. ;)
So now I want to say that I recant my statement saying that I dislike SAFRAN MorphoTrust. They seen to be not so bad after all!
Now I just have to send them copies of the TWO rejection letters, my full name, DOB and SSN and then my check will be done. YAY!

Wednesday, April 18, 2012

Fingerprinting Nightmare

Sadly, there is not any news on our adoption. We are STILL waiting and praying for our home study to be written up. It is suppose to be finished this week. I hope it is! Time is ticking away quickly and we are anxious to get our DTC.
My State Fingerprints were rejected yet AGAIN (2nd time). This is getting OLD! I dislike SAFRAN Morpho Trust(formerly L-1) Fingerprinting Services. There I said it and I don't care if it offends anyone! It took them 4 weeks to let our SW know that my prints were rejected again. 4 WEEKS! That is too long! Precious time was wasted away. I wish we could go to the State Police and get them done like we used to be able to do but NO, WV decided to hire this 3rd party to do their non-criminal fingerprinting. I seriously do not want to wait another 4 weeks for my prints to be rejected again. We do not have that kind of time. I need HELP! I wish someone would step up and say that we could just do the SSN and name check but NO I have to be rejected 3 stinkin times in order to have that done. It would be so much quicker and save a lot of time and money but NO! We can not send our DTC until those prints are accepted and in hand. I know I will have to go and get them redone this week even though I do not want to. I have NOT been using any harsh chemicals on my hands. I have faithfully been using hand lotion trying to plump up my prints. I will go one more stinkin time and if they are rejected AGAIN they better let me know within a couple of days NOT weeks or I will report their crappy company to the BBB and whoever else I can report them to. Sorry for my negativity. It is just a frustrating time right now.

Sunday, March 25, 2012

Grace & Hope For Children

Friday morning I woke up feeling down because our home-study is STILL not complete. Yes, we are finished with all of our visits from our SW but we are still waiting on a good bit of documents that our SW requires. My fingerprints have not came back yet so we are still waiting to see if they get accepted the second time around. Our tax forms from 2011 have not came back yet but that is Jeff's fault because he keeps forgetting to call our accountant and give him his mileage from last year so our accountant can finish them. Jeff promises to call first him first thing in the morning.
I WILL remind him! :)

Friday, March 30 is my Birthday and the only thing I want more than anything is for EVERYTHING to be turned in to our Social Worker so that she can write up our home-study!

PLEASE

Anyway like I said I was feeling down Friday morning. We REALLY want Meiya home THIS year! The Summer would actually be ideal for us to travel to Ch*na because Jeff wouldn't miss any work from School Bus driving. We will take whatever date we are given though. The sooner the better in our eyes because we REALLY want our baby girl home!
Friday evening I got an email from a coordinator from Grace & Hope For Children. She told me that Meiya is in their foster care program! Grace & Hope For Children is a Christian Foster Care program that recruits and trains foster families in Ch*na while supporting them. The children are supported by faithful sponsors who pledge a certain amount each month to keep them in the program. From what we've heard from other families who's own children were in this program it is AWESOME!!! The children are placed in loving, Christian foster homes where they are taught, nurtured and loved. Each year they send their staff to Ch*na to visit the various orphanages and foster families that they work with. This year they happen to be going to Meiya's city and province. YAY God! See I know He has His hands in ALL of this! Here is a video explaining a little bit about them. One of the American women in this video is the woman who contacted me!
This video explains the importance of foster care through Grace & Hope For Children.
Needless to say hearing this great news about Meiya lifted my spirits! I am so excited that she is in this program getting the love and care she deserves, the love and care we long to give her. We are so VERY thankful for her faithful sponsor who pays to keep her in this program. Whoever you are please know that we feel that YOU are a part of our family now! God bless you!!! Words can not express how thankful we are for you. We were told that when we come to Ch*na to get Meiya we will be given her foster care reports as well as pictures which will be hand delivered to our hotel room. Knowing that Meiya is in such excellent care really means a lot to us. But knowing she is in a Christian home where she is learning about Christ and His love for her is priceless to us! I know we still have a good wait ahead of us but knowing all of this makes the waiting a little bit easier!

Sunday, March 18, 2012

Sunday Fun!

Sunday's are normally busy days for the us! We start off going to Sunday school then church. After church we go to Cracker Barrel for lunch then serve communion to Mrs. B, who is in one of the assisted living facilities in town. We usually get home by 3:30 pm to rest a while before we run back out to Youth Group and evening services at 6.
Today was a break from our normal, Sunday routine because the girls got to go to a puppet show with their American Heritage Girls group at Wonderment Puppet Theater, downtown Martinsburg. We had a blast! Mr. Santoro performed "Peter Cottontail" and I must say the adults loved it as much as the kids did!!! Michael T did the voice for mother rabbit and Peter. He also did a fantastic job!
This is Michael T with Hannah and Hailee at Chick fil a.



Mr. Santoro did the voices for Flopsy, Mopsy, Cottontail and Mr. McGregor. He actually designs and makes ALL of his puppets!
Here he is with mother Rabbit

After the show the girls got to go behind the scenes to see how he does it all.
Of course Hailee wasn't paying much attention because of the Oobie eyes that we got her. She is a stinker! Most of the girls got Oobie eyes. My kids were so excited to see those because they LOVED that show when they were babies. *SNIFF, SNIFF I need a moment. I am verklempt.... Talk amongst yourselves... They are growing up so fast! *

Mr. Santoro showed the girls how to use their Oobie eyes and even did a little skit with some of them and Mr. McGregor.
(Hannah's are the pink ones and Hailee's are the brown ones)
We had such a wonderful time and it was so refreshing to do something different for a change. We are definitely going back to see another show.
Here is the link to Wonderment Puppet Theater's website: http://wondermentpuppets.com/default.aspx