Fingerprints Complete!

It's been a long time since we have posted.  Time and Technology are not my friends lately.  I think it has also been really difficult for us to feel that this is real.  It is easy to forget we are adopting again.  Don't get us wrong we think about our next little one and pray for him or her so often but because we do not have a child in mind it is hard  for reality to set in.

We do have another step on the process complete though! We had our immigration fingerprints done on Tuesday morning.  We were thrilled that they squeezed us in three weeks before our appointment.  Trust me they weren't as thrilled about it as we were but we decided to play the mama bear and papa bear card and didn't worry too much about upsetting a fine government employee :) 

So where are we now you may ask.  We are waiting to get our final immigration approval back, should be a week or two yet, but perhaps longer and we are supposed to be working on our Dossier.  A Dossier is a pile of official paperwork that gets sent to Hong Kong.  The point of the Dossier is to show who we are to the Hong Kong Government as well as the orphanage.  Then they have to approve us and then we will get matched with a child.  So time frame, the famous adoption question.  I'm thinking 9 months yet.

Fundraising update: it is really hard for us to write down the total amount it will cost to get our little one home but I feel that we need to let people know this time since we are fundraising.  It will be a total cost of $25,000.  We have been so blessed already and have raised $6,000!  As you can see we still have a ways to go.  The support we have received from family, friends, and other wonderful people who believe in adoption has been humbling and breathtaking. If you are still interested in joining us in our fundraising efforts you can still buy Tshirts for $15 or you can donate money to Jason as he competes in three different triathlons this summer. 

This journey is so different than our journey to get Gussers home.  Please continue to pray for us as we complete paperwork, fill out grant applications, and wait to be matched with our next child.  Thank you for all of your loving support.

T-shirts!

We officially have the T-shirt design nailed down and are ready to start taking orders. We are so excited because the T-shirts turned out wonderful and it feels like we are taking the next step in this wonderful journey. So here is the scoop on the T-shirts. Each shirt will be $15, there are three color options for children size small through adult XL. The choices are: a bright magenta pink with a white tree and words, a lime green with a bright blue tree and words or a dark grey with a white tree and words. There are also toddler and infant size shirts for $15. The onsies are size 6 month, 12 month or 24 month. The toddler T-shirts are size 2T-5T. All of the toddler and infant shirts will be bright blue with lime green tree and words. If you would like to order a shirt please respond to me by email (eperton@gmail.com), facebook or by replying to this blog post. Let me know what color and size you would like. All checks can be made out to Emily Perton. We hope that the turnaround time for getting the shirts in your hands will be about 1 week.

Thank you so much for considering supporting the adoption by purchasing
a T-shirt.

As far as the process goes we are still waiting for our completed home study. It has taken a little longer than expected but we remain patient. Once the home study is in our hands we can send out immigration paperwork and work on the Dossier.

We also have our biggest fundraiser the Mom 2 Mom sale quickly approaching on April 21. We are humbled by how much support we have been given through people renting tables, donating items to sell, and volunteering to help out on the day of the sale.

Thank you all for your prayers and support :)

Here we go again!

So this begins round two. Our home study is complete we are officially in the adoption process again! We couldn't be more excited to share this journey with you all. You prayers, support, and love through getting Gus home made all the difference in the world. Each positive comment, promise of prayer, and loving thought sent our way got us through each day of the adoption journey. So now as we begin the process to get our little one home from Hong Kong we eager to share the journey with you all again.

I have a feeling my blog posts will not be as long this time around. With young Gussy man running around at home I don't have near as much time on my hands. I am sure this journey will look much different, it already has. Some of you may know we started this process to adopt again in the domestic infant program. We were struggling with finding peace to come along that decision. In the past three weeks God has changed our minds and hearts. He has opened our eyes to the Country of Hong Kong and the desire to adopt another child with special needs. We do not have a child in mind this time. We would like a child between birth and two and if it is another child with down syndrome we would prefer a boy. We would like Gus to have a brother who always understands and for our next little one to have Gussers to help him out. Also we are thinking about the future and would like the two of them to live together. Now, as we have learned already so many times in our journey to complete our small branch of the Perton family tree, we plan and God decides. I am really starting to like this plan even better, LOOK AT GUS! God knows what he is doing :)

So I am sure you are all wondering time lines, details and how you can help :) I will do my best to answer. We are hoping to have our national bethany office signed home study by the end of this week and then we can send out immigration paperwork. Currently immigration is taking 3-4 months. Once we get our immigration work back we will have our Dossier ready to send to Hong Kong. Processing of the Dossier is also taking 3-4 months, by then we will hopefully be matched with our child. Then we should travel to Hong Kong within the next 3-4 months. So best case scenario is 9 months and worst case is around 16 months. Knowing us and our love to travel to Asia two weeks before Christmas we have that penciled in :)

How can you help? I am so glad you asked! We are two years and three months from getting Gussers home. You may not be aware of the cost of international adoption but it is quite costly to process all of that paperwork I mentioned above. We will again be applying for grants, please keep this process in your prayers. We will also be doing some fundraising this time. We are fundraising in three different ways: 1) Mark your calendars for a Mom 2 Mom Sale at Providence Church on Saturday, April 21 from 9am-12pm. If you are interested in a renting a table in order to sell used and new baby, child, tween or maternity items like your own personal garage sale the cost will be $25. If you are looking to purchase used or new baby, child, tween, or maternity items the cost to get into the sale will $2 per person. 2) We will be selling T-shirts with an amazing family tree design created by our good friend Jenna Green. The cost of the t-shirts will be $15 and you can order them through emailing me or replying to this blog post. eperton@gmail.com. 3) Finally, Jason will be competing in three different triathlons this summer, if you would like to sponsor him in this event please let us know. We are trying to create where you can give money on the blog, wait for it :)

Most importantly we are asking for your prayer support again. The journey of adopting is bumpy and having prayer support makes the bumps easier to come by. Please pray for our future child, their birth parents, little Gus and adapting to a brother and sister, and Jason as I as we prepare our home and hearts for the second Perton child. Thank you so much for caring about our family and taking the time to read about what we are up. God Bless!