Looking forward to our new addition
SO VERY GRATEFUL
We are truly so grateful for everyone's love and support helping get Henry home. It has only been one week and we already raised $900.00. Thank you all so very very much! We will be posting pictures soon of the updated puzzle being pieced together. In addition to the puzzle piece fundraising we are selling movie/dinner cards for $10.00 to help us get Henry home. Our goal is to sell 100 cards. It is a card you carry around (like a coupon book) to be used at numerous different stores to save money! We are hoping we can reach our goal! We hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving! Happy National Adoption Month!!
Piecing Together Our Adoption Fund
Help bust Henry out of the orphanage! The sooner we can get Henry out of an environment consisting of neglect and malnourishment, the better!
Tim and I are starting a jigsaw puzzle fundraiser. The picture above shows the puzzle we bought of Saint Basil’s Cathedral, Moscow and with your help we would like to piece together Henry’s Russian culture. We will keep a journal with the puzzle and write down each and every name/family that sponsors Henry. Once the puzzle is pieced together, we would like to display it in Henry's room. This way we will always be reminded of the love and support we received in trying to bring Henry home. We will keep the journal for Henry, so he knows how many people loved him and helped bring him home.
Tim and I are starting a jigsaw puzzle fundraiser. The picture above shows the puzzle we bought of Saint Basil’s Cathedral, Moscow and with your help we would like to piece together Henry’s Russian culture. We will keep a journal with the puzzle and write down each and every name/family that sponsors Henry. Once the puzzle is pieced together, we would like to display it in Henry's room. This way we will always be reminded of the love and support we received in trying to bring Henry home. We will keep the journal for Henry, so he knows how many people loved him and helped bring him home.
After we have all the pieces sponsored, we will randomly select one sponsor to win a $200 gift card to merchant of their choice (Target, Home Depot, Pottery Barn... you name it!).
So, please... go ahead and use the donate button under the thermometer to sponsor. The donate feature uses Paypal, but you do not need a Paypal account. $5 sponsors one piece of the puzzle, and multiples of $5 leads to multiple puzzle piece sponsoring/entries into the gift card raffle.
Also, we don't know 1,000 people... so we will need all our facebook and blog friends to help get the word out about this fundraiser. If you post a link to our blog post on your blog or your facebook page... we'll give you an extra entry into the raffle for the $200 gift card. Please, leave me a comment (or send me an email) if you post the link somewhere.
We (including Henry) appreciate your support in bringing Henry home!
Time Flies
November 22, 2011
Time is really flying by. It has been two months since our decision to adopt and we have accomplished so many things. I have read 8 books and Tim and I have taken about 16 hours of classes about learning to adopt an orphan. We learned that for every 3-4 months Henry is in the orphanage he will be developmentally delayed by a month. We also learned about medical issues, attachment issues, and the effects of institutionalization resulting from orphanage life. We are currently in the process of looking for an international adoption doctor to help us with our match when the time comes.
The home study process started with a 2 hour meeting with the home study agency and getting all of our paperwork complete. We had to get fingerprints, backgrounds checks, physicals, marriage license, Mia's immunization records, birth certificates, make up a fire evacuation plan, draw a blueprint of our house, and find 6 references (which they have already contacted). I can go on and on but you get the drift. It was a lot of work. We just had our in home study visit last week. Our social worker came to our house for about 4 hours. We really like her. She will be the one to follow us for Henry's post adoption placement visits also. So now we are in the waiting process which could take 8-12 weeks for the approval of the home study. Once we receive approval, we'll file an I-600 with Immigration and start our dossier. In the meantime, I'm going to shop around and have some fun! :)
Time is really flying by. It has been two months since our decision to adopt and we have accomplished so many things. I have read 8 books and Tim and I have taken about 16 hours of classes about learning to adopt an orphan. We learned that for every 3-4 months Henry is in the orphanage he will be developmentally delayed by a month. We also learned about medical issues, attachment issues, and the effects of institutionalization resulting from orphanage life. We are currently in the process of looking for an international adoption doctor to help us with our match when the time comes.
The home study process started with a 2 hour meeting with the home study agency and getting all of our paperwork complete. We had to get fingerprints, backgrounds checks, physicals, marriage license, Mia's immunization records, birth certificates, make up a fire evacuation plan, draw a blueprint of our house, and find 6 references (which they have already contacted). I can go on and on but you get the drift. It was a lot of work. We just had our in home study visit last week. Our social worker came to our house for about 4 hours. We really like her. She will be the one to follow us for Henry's post adoption placement visits also. So now we are in the waiting process which could take 8-12 weeks for the approval of the home study. Once we receive approval, we'll file an I-600 with Immigration and start our dossier. In the meantime, I'm going to shop around and have some fun! :)
Drum Roll Please
October 2, 2011
We are naming our son Henry!!! We are going to use his Russian name as his middle name to keep part of his culture with him. We are going to get some Russian cookbooks and other Russian books to keep his culture part of our family too. Wish me luck on the cooking part!
We are naming our son Henry!!! We are going to use his Russian name as his middle name to keep part of his culture with him. We are going to get some Russian cookbooks and other Russian books to keep his culture part of our family too. Wish me luck on the cooking part!
Our International Adoption Choice
October 1, 2011
I am really bad at posting on the blog already. This is not a good thing! It is November but I am backdating so I can keep everything in order. I am still learning so just bear with me. We have found an adoption agency that we like. We have decided to pursue a Russian adoption. We have many reasons why we are going with Russia. It is a great program, thousands of Americans adopt from Russia every year. We want to adopt from Eastern Europe and bring an orphan into our loving home. There was a long wait list for most countries. The time period for adopting from Russia right now is averaging 9-13 months. Other countries would only let us adopt older children. For us, it was our decision to bring home a boy that was 8 months to two years old (Russia won’t let non-nationals adopt children less than 8 months old). There are more boys than girls in Russian orphanages so the wait time for adopting a boy is quicker. We are just in the beginning stages, so we haven’t seen pictures of Henry yet. We have a long road ahead of us but are looking forward to it!!
I am really bad at posting on the blog already. This is not a good thing! It is November but I am backdating so I can keep everything in order. I am still learning so just bear with me. We have found an adoption agency that we like. We have decided to pursue a Russian adoption. We have many reasons why we are going with Russia. It is a great program, thousands of Americans adopt from Russia every year. We want to adopt from Eastern Europe and bring an orphan into our loving home. There was a long wait list for most countries. The time period for adopting from Russia right now is averaging 9-13 months. Other countries would only let us adopt older children. For us, it was our decision to bring home a boy that was 8 months to two years old (Russia won’t let non-nationals adopt children less than 8 months old). There are more boys than girls in Russian orphanages so the wait time for adopting a boy is quicker. We are just in the beginning stages, so we haven’t seen pictures of Henry yet. We have a long road ahead of us but are looking forward to it!!
Our Adoption Journey
The Mulvihill Journey
September 20, 2011
This is the beginning of our blogging journey. Bear with me as I have no idea what I am doing. I look up to Tim for all my computer needs! I am starting this blog to keep family and friends updated on The Mulvihill Journey.
Many of you are not aware of what Tim and I have gone through the last couple of years and we are now at a place in our hearts to talk about it. It all started when we said "I DO" on November 12, 2007. We became a family. We thought after being married for one year it would be nice to add to the family. We adopted a beautiful King Charles Cavalier Spaniel most people know as Mia. Since Mia brought so much joy into our lives, we said "Let’s have a baby!"
Well, "Let’s have a baby" has not come easy to us like we thought it would. We have done the ovulation sticks, read fertility books, taken my temperature every morning, checked off all the dates in the calendar for the "right time". After all this we sought the help of fertility specialists. After a year of painful tests, 3 failed IUI's (intra-uterine-inseminations), 3 failed IVF's (in-vitro fertilizations), numerous daily blood draws and shots we found out two things. One: Tim really became a pro at giving shots. Two: We are ready to start the next chapter of our life. We are ready to become parents and have closure on all the medical treatments.
God has given us the gift to stay strong and to not give up. Tim and I have put up a strong fight and it only made our marriage even stronger with all the let downs and disappointments we have gone through together. I have shed millions of tears and he has been the best husband and supporter any wife could ask for! We are so excited and happy to announce that God has led us to a different path to being parents and we are looking forward to every step of the way. We have decided to adopt. We are going to be parents!!!
This is the beginning of our blogging journey. Bear with me as I have no idea what I am doing. I look up to Tim for all my computer needs! I am starting this blog to keep family and friends updated on The Mulvihill Journey.
Many of you are not aware of what Tim and I have gone through the last couple of years and we are now at a place in our hearts to talk about it. It all started when we said "I DO" on November 12, 2007. We became a family. We thought after being married for one year it would be nice to add to the family. We adopted a beautiful King Charles Cavalier Spaniel most people know as Mia. Since Mia brought so much joy into our lives, we said "Let’s have a baby!"
Well, "Let’s have a baby" has not come easy to us like we thought it would. We have done the ovulation sticks, read fertility books, taken my temperature every morning, checked off all the dates in the calendar for the "right time". After all this we sought the help of fertility specialists. After a year of painful tests, 3 failed IUI's (intra-uterine-inseminations), 3 failed IVF's (in-vitro fertilizations), numerous daily blood draws and shots we found out two things. One: Tim really became a pro at giving shots. Two: We are ready to start the next chapter of our life. We are ready to become parents and have closure on all the medical treatments.
God has given us the gift to stay strong and to not give up. Tim and I have put up a strong fight and it only made our marriage even stronger with all the let downs and disappointments we have gone through together. I have shed millions of tears and he has been the best husband and supporter any wife could ask for! We are so excited and happy to announce that God has led us to a different path to being parents and we are looking forward to every step of the way. We have decided to adopt. We are going to be parents!!!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)