Form I-797C, Notice of Action

We received this preliminary document from USCIS!!!!
Our home study was completed on February 6th and now we're rolling!

Now we wait for an invitation for fingerprinting. 

We are waiting on an update on the kids. Please pray that they stay healthy and safe while we all await our uniting.

Exciting News!

We are going back to China! We feel led to adopt 2 more children a girl and a boy. They both have the same diagnosis as Jade. By the time our little girl comes home she will be 5 and our little boy will be seven. As it was the first time, we need to raise quite a bit of funds to pull this off. We are so grateful for all of our friends, family and complete strangers with such big hearts help in rescuing Jade. She was worth every ounce of effort and we know that these 2 will also be such a blessing to everyone.

Please keep us in your prayers.
Thank you in advance for all that you do!

Our New Journey Begins

We learned of a number of travesties as we walked through our adoption journey. Two of them, I feel God has called me to do something about.

All children "age out" of the orphanage between the ages of 12 and 14 depending on the country. Happy Birthday, there's the door. Imagine your child put out on the streets with the shirt on their back at such a vulnerable age! They are trafficked, enter gangs or simply starve.

The other heart breaking (besides life in an orphanage) fact that we encountered was that many special needs orphans start out with the healthy babies but at the age of 4 or 5 transition to mental institutions. The conditions are so harsh that over 80% die the first year. They are tied to their beds, underfed, hosed down once a week, etc. Matter of fact our daughter had rope marks around her ankles just from the regular orphanage.

Once a child enters the institution there is no turning back. They are not available for adoption and stay there until they pass from this world.

Many families are opening their hearts and homes and receiving blessing beyond their wildest dreams but not enough are being saved. Still millions languish in these conditions.

We are in the process of putting together a project that will create group homes, in country, for these children. We hope to throw the birthday party and welcome these children into a safe/Godly home and working/sustainable farm environment. After our fundraising experiences, we've learned that self-sustaining is critical. Then the money that we continue to raise can be used to open more homes. Our goal is to multiply these homes all over the world.

If we are to accomplish this, we need a community to support us; in prayer, in financial support, in leg work, IT and eventually mission teams to build the homes on each property. There's so much to do and pay for!

But, as one of my good adoption friends shared with me, God pays for what He wants. It will be done in His time. God is in the business of saving the precious orphans. His heart is even more broken than ours.

Our inspiration!

 

Website name change

Sorry for posting so little. We've been having a great time with our precious little Jade.

Our web name will be changing. If you are using www.bringdarlahome.com that won't work any more.
You can find this page through http://jadesjourneyakadarla.blogspot.com/

Jade is starting to repeat some words!

:)

She's Home!!!

We've been home a week and doing super well. We are all adjusted back to Pacific time and it only took a few nights for Jade to start sleeping through the night. She has acclimated to her new home faster than we expected. It's as if she's known us her whole life.

 

China is crazy. I can't believe how huge it is. We never left enormous city- even though we traveled to 3 different Provinces; it was like a cement jungle. The drivers are incredibly talented. People, bicycles, motorcycles and other cars come out of no where every few seconds. Watching traffic is like watching fish. They actually don't have as many accidents as you would think. The drivers are very alert and expect the unexpected. Believe it or not we felt quite safe through it all.

The air quality is incredibly poor. Ninety percent of the population smokes. It was very hard to get away from it. Even on our non smoking floor in the hotel the hallway was rank with smoke.

We didn't get to do much site seeing. We hiked on the Great Wall for a short distance, that was all our hearts could handle. It's incredibly steep and uneven. We also walked around a lake near where Jade is from one day. Most of our days were spent doing the necessary paperwork to get Jade her visa, passport, etc. We had a guide at all times which was vital. There is no "winging it" in China. We had absolutely no idea what anyone was saying or have any understanding of food on a menu, let a lone government documents. There was no possible way of completing the mission correctly or at all without our wonderful guides.

When we first met Jade, we were in a conference room with 7 other families. The nannies descended on the room with 8 kids, handed them off to their new families and departed within seconds. I can't even tell you what the person looked like that handed Jade to me, it was all so fast. And within seconds the room was like pandemonium. There was crying and tons of commotion. Jade held it together pretty well considering the boy right next to us was hysterical. She just looked around with a tear drop in her eye. By the time we got back to our hotel though, she was all smiles. She's been that way ever since.

 

She is the happiest baby I've ever known. She is also very sharp; she imitates everything. Nothing gets past her watching eyes. She's also very outgoing and ready to have fun at any time. Thankfully she is one of the easiest babies I've known. 

Thank you all for helping us rescue such an amazing child! She has great things to do in life. We feel privileged to have a part in that. Thank you!

 

Also, we raised the final amount to receive the matching grant from LifeSong! Thank you all and thank you Costa Rica! So much came from dear friends and family in C.R. Thank you, each and everyone near and far!

Donations so far

So far $449.24 have been donated towards the matching funds of $3,000
Thank you so much for helping! Please continue to forward the message.
9 days left to donate!
Thank you!

Click here!

https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=472X293AAH4AS

 Thank you again!

How it all began

       Gabriel is turning 6 this week! He was the one that turned our lives right side up. He was diagnosed with Down Syndrome at birth and although that seemed, at the time, to be a terrible thing, we've learned that it was one of the best things that could have happened to us.

      He is our pride and joy. He loves us more than we could have ever imagined. The victories have been far greater than the struggles. There have definitely been struggles but the joy he has given us has made it all worth it.

      We've been thinking about a sibling, as wonderful as he is, for him for about 5 years now. We kept waiting for life to get easier, finances to get better, etc. But Gabriel is getting older and we don't want to wait too long. The waiting list to adopt a child within the United States diagnosed with Down Syndrome is many many years long. So we knew that wasn't going to work.

      We found Jade's story and picture last year and just fell in love with her. We knew she was the one that we were supposed to rescue. She was born in China and left in a box on the street with a blanket and her birth certificate when she was 2 months old.

      Special needs orphans don't have much of a chance of survival. I can't believe what happens to them. After the age of 4-5 they are sent to mental institutions where most of them die the first year. They are so undernourished, under loved, tied to beds and never gotten up, we'd all languish and die fast too.

It's a terrible thing. We love our little boy so much, we can't bare the thought of that happening to him or any child. We wish we could save them all. So we have to start somewhere, somehow. 

     Gabriel has already saved a life. Jade will also have a legacy of saving lives. Together, they have a beautiful purpose. For us, they are here to save us, change us and make us better people too. We have so much to learn from them.

     "It's time for us to do somethin'", says Matthew West.

Please help us do something. We have been approved for a matching grant of $3,000 through LifeSong for Orphans. That means we have to raise $3,000 in the next 5-6 weeks. Please help us take advantage of every bit of that grant. Any amount will make a difference as it will be matched!

These donations will be matched by C6 Fund up to $3,000!


o Checks should be payable to “Lifesong for Orphans". In the memo, note  Solano #4464 to assure it goes to the correct account. 

Please mail to Lifesong for Orphans, PO Box 40, Gridley, IL 61744. 

You can donate online here. Unfortunately, Paypal reduces the donation with a 2.9% a fee & .30 per donation.

https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=472X293AAH4AS

Lifesong has been blessed with a partner that underwrites all U.S. administrative and fund-raising costs. That means 100% of your donation will go directly to the adoption.

Thank you!

 

o NOTE: In following IRS guidelines, your donation is to the named non-profit organization. This organization retains full discretion over its use, but intends to honor the donor’s suggested use.

o Individual donations $250 or more and yearly donations totaling $250 or more will receive a tax-deductible receipt. Receipts for donations under $250 will gladly be sent upon request. Lifesong is a 501(c)3 tax exempt organization.