What's Next?

Now that we have PASSED our home study we have a lot of paper work to do. The country we are adopting from is now requiring a psychologist evaluation to be included in the home study which our social worker found out about the day before our home study. We went ahead and did the home study knowing it couldn't be completed until we had our evaluations done. Our social worker is almost finished with the draft for our home study but she wont be able to finish our home study until we get our evaluations. I am trying to get that scheduled asap!

After our home study is complete then we will send that and our USCIS (immigration) paperwork to... well the place you send the USCIS paper :) That takes about 3 months to get back. I will be calling them often trying to get that part going as fast as we can. While we are waiting for that to be done we will be working on our Dossier. The Dossier is tons and tons of paperwork that will need to be filled out. Once that's done and we get our USCIS approval then our adoption agency sends our home study, dossier, and USCIS over to Eastern Europe and we wait for and invitation to travel to the country and meet ANTON! We will be there for about ten days that trip and that is when we will get to officially commit to his adoption (we are officially committed in America). Then we have to come back home for two or three months and wait for our final court date. When we go back the second time we will go for about two and a half weeks. We will go to court and officially adopt him then bring him home 10 days later. It is going to be so hard to go meet him on that first trip and spend time with him then come home without him but I know this is all part of the process. We love Anton and can't wait to bring him home no matter how long that take.

A few people were asking if we were covered as far as bandages go once we bring him home and I am so excited to say we are. There is an organization that will be providing us with everything we need until our insurance adds him to our policy. Praise God for this!

Anton is doing really well. He is gaining weight and he loves his baths which is amazing because it can be very painful for some people with EB. There is a new update on his Help Anton FB page if you want to read more about how he is doing. That is also where I get the pictures of Anton from.

We love this baby soooooo much and we can't wait to bring him home. The whole process could take anywhere from six months to a year but we are praying if it is the Lord's will that we can bring him home as soon as possible.

Don't forget to check out The Hope For Anton Blog to see what's up for bid or if you were wanting to make a donation with out biding on something you can click on his picture on the right side of this blog and donate directly through his Reece's Rainbow page but I will say the bidding is fun and you can get your Christmas shopping done early. Reece's Rainbow's server is having a hard time with all the traffic it's been getting lately so if the link is not working you can try back later.

Thank you guys so much for the support and donations we are so thankful for the work God is doing in our lives!

How cute is Anton with baby food on his face!?! He is getting so big!

Katie and Ms. Ella

A few weeks ago Katie contacted me on Facebook and let me know that her and her daughter Ella were going to be in town and wanted to know if we wanted to spend a few hours with them. We of course said YES! Ella is three and a half and has RDEB just like Anton and it was so great to met her and she a glimpse of life with RDEB.

When Jason, Kenya and I walked in the door Ella was eating Mc Donalds and I can not tell you what joy it brought to my heart to see her eating french fries. While Ella finished up her lunch Katie, Jason, Kenya and I got a chance to talk and we asked her a ton of question.

Ella finished up her lunch and joined us in the living room. She is so cute and so smart. It was such a joy to be around her. I left our meeting more excited than ever to hopefully get to be Anton's family one day.

Ella calls her bandages her covers. This is her showing us how to wrap her stomach.

Katie brought out all of her "covers" and explained to us what each thing was.

Ella getting ready to wrap my arm.

Here she is putting "covers" on me.

Kenya's turn. Kenya still has this piece of transfer and she calls it her squishy. When we have friends over and we are talking about Anton she runs and gets it and shows them how she can wrap her arm.

We didn't end up getting any pictures of Jason but he was there just behind the camera :)

Ella is a beautiful, smart and super cute three year old and I'm so glad we got to meet her. My favorite thing that Ella's Mom told us about her is she was one of the very few kids in her class that was able to cut out her project by herself. I don't know why but I LOVED that! Here is the blog Katie posted about it!

Katie and Ella thank you so much for taking time to meet with us even though y'all weren't in town for very long. I LOVED getting to know y'all!

Vanessa

Answers about fundraising

Hi again! Today has been a really fun day! I spent the day taking step by step pictures of all things Jonah :) diaper changes, getting dressed and undressed, bath, dressing change, before bed routine. I am feeling more and more prepared to care of Anton's EB. I know a lot of it we will have to wait until he is home to see exactly what his skin can and can not handle but I think we have a GREAT starting point thanks to the William's Family!

A few people have asked me if we are still raising support for the adoption and the answer is YES! You can still donate directly on Anton's Reece's Rainbow page when you click on the link you will notice he has two profiles on Reece's Rainbow one has our family information beside it the other has his story beside it. One of them has more money than the other but I wanted y'all to know that all of the money from both of those places will go toward the costs associated with Anton's adoption. So don't worry if you gave and it is not on the new page it is still on the old one and we for sure be able to use it. Reece's Rainbow also made us a Pay Pal button for our blog and that will go directly to his account through Reece's Rainbow. I just haven't had a chance to put that up yet.

There is another really cool way to donate and that is on the Hope for Anton Blog. Patrice Williams (my friend I am staying with) found out about Anton through the EB community around the end of 2010. She has a HUGE heart for Anton and wasn't sure if God was calling their family to adopt him. They soon realized that God was not calling them to adopt Anton but she knew she wanted to help this sweet baby find a home. It was at that time Patrice decided to start doing fundraising for Anton's adoption it was around the same time that Recce's Rainbow added him to their page. Patrice wrote a VERY detailed blog about how she found Anton and how I then found him through a mutual friend Kristy. You can check out that post HERE! If you want to give towards Anton's adoption make sure you check out the Hope for Anton Blog and see if there anything on there you want to bid on or buy.

It is my desire to update this blog as often as possible because I truly want you guys to know where we are in this process. I know there are so many people that love Anton and are praying for him and I want you all to know we appreciate it so much!

Sweet little Anton I just wanted you to know that we love you very much and we are working as hard and as fast as we can to bring you home!

Vanessa

3/8/11 Staying with the William's Family

I didn't help with dressing changes today because Jonah's grandmother was still here so she helped and I took video. I am going to get to help tomorrow though and I am excited about that! Patrice's friend (she is now my friend too more about that later) Muffy is going to come over and take pictures of me doing dressing changes on Thursday.

Back to Muffy she is hosting a women's Bible study at her house and they are going through the book Radical. Patrice and I went last night and it was a great time of fellowship and challenging each other. All the ladies were so sweet and so nice. If you haven't read the book Radical you must order it right away. It is so convicting to see how much the world has influenced my walk with the Lord but such a neat time for repentance.

Here is a picture of the ladies at the study.

Patrice posted a blog about our last few days go check it out here.


We took Jonah to the doctor today for his two year check up today. He was really upset when we first got there just because he knew where he was. He was crying so hard at one point it made me cry. I was just so sad that he was sad. Patrice is such an AMAZING mother. She sang to Jonah and just loved on him until he calmed down. He snuggled with her for awhile then got down and played happily for the rest of the time we were there.

We went and got hot fudge sundays after we left the doctors office and I have to say eating hot fudge sundays before lunch is the only way to go :)

I had so much fun playing with Jonah today. He LOVES bubbles and playing outside! I had fun pushing him in his car.

Sorry I'm not posting many pictures I am using Matt's computer and I don't want to upload them all on here. Once I get home I will post more blogs with pictures.

Patrice and Matt have such a great routine. It is so neat to watch them work together everything they looks like it takes no effort at all but they are working hard most of the day. They work great together as a team and know exactly what to do to help each other and Jonah. I pray if we are able to adopt Baby A we will also be able to work together like this.

I'm headed off to bed but hopefully I will post all about helping with dressing changes tomorrow.

Vanessa

Staying with the Williams family

Jason and I left our house at 4:30 yesterday morning to head to the airport. I had only gotten about 2 hours of sleep the night before because I was packing and getting everything ready to leave. I thought I would be tired but I was wide awake. Jason dropped my off and my journey officially started!

I got through security with no problems and didn't have a whole lot of down town before they started boarding the plane. The flight was great and I slept for a little while.

Then I landed in Atlanta and thought B comes after A and C comes after B so I decided to walk all the way to the end of the A terminals thinking B would come next then C.... Well I got to the end of my 37 terminal walk and realized it dead ended ha.

I had to walk all the way back and get on an elevator to the next level then ride a train to the correct terminal. It took an hour from the time I landed until I got to the right terminal. It's a good thing I had a 2 hour lay over.

The other hour went by fast talking to people in the waiting area about our sweet babies and the child we hope to adopt.

The next plane ride went by fast and then we landed and I realized it was really happening. I was really here and going to get to learn how to care for our baby if we got to adopt him. I was soooo excited. I had to make a quick stop to buy some gum before I went to meet Patrice because my breath was kicking it haha.

Patrice was there waiting for me and were so excited to see each other. We grabbed some lunch on the way back to their house and ate lunch with Matt once we got there. Jonah was asleep.

He started making nose on his baby monitor while we were eating and he sounded so much like Judah. I think I told them that 100 times :)

Matt went up to get him and as soon as I saw Jonah I fell in love. He is so cute and his voice is adorable! HE was shy at first but I think he just need time to warm up and wake up.

After awhile I got on the floor with him and we played and played. He is all boy and it cracks me up! He loves his trucks and loves playing with balls.


Jonah and Matt were wrestling on the floor and it made me so happy to watch him play. He is totally a normal 2 year old. He talks all the time and loves playing. Oh and he say my name so cute he says "Nessa."

Jonah wanted to watch his Mom make is food so I asked her if I could hold him and asked how how to pick him up. She said just like a normal 2 year old just more careful. I picked him up and I can't tell you how amazing that was. I don't know why but it was so neat to get to love on him and it made me long to hold Baby A but kinda satisfied that urge also?!?

I can not tell you how much I love this family. Patrice and I have talked about everything from our babies who had passed away to Bible studies to raising kids.

I got to watch diaper changes, feedings (Jonah has a G Tube), making food for the G Tube and draining blisters.

I am going to run and hang with Jonah and Patrice but I will post again soon. Here is a blog Patrice posted about my first day here.

Vanessa

Are you sure you want to do this, you know it's a life long commitment right?

I have had a few people ask me if I was sure we wanted to do this so I thought I would address that question. I had been thinking about this for a while but never got around to posting it. I saw my friend Kristy's blog post a few days ago and it was along these same lines. Her and her husband are becoming foster to adopt parents and have really had a lot of opposition as they have moved forward. If you think about it could you please pray for their family. Here is the blog she posted answering the question "Why would you do that?"

So now to answer the question "are we sure we want to do this???" The easy answer to that question is yes with out a doubt we are sure we want to do this. Now for the long answer. When I was about 8 weeks pregnant with Melody and Madison before we even knew we were having twins and before we knew they were conjoined I had a feeling that something was wrong with my baby. I remember telling Jason I really think something is wrong with our baby I think our baby has Down Syndrome. Jason and I talked a little bit about it but we just prayed and trusted the Lord for His will not ours. During the next few weeks I started having a HUGE heart for special needs kids.

A few weeks before we found out that we were having conjoined twins we went to a discernment conference put on by Justin Peters. I was so blessed by his ministry. Justin Peters was born with Cerebral Palsy and he has such a neat testimony. Justin travels the world preaching the truth of God's word and exposing the Word of Faith Movement. If you have never heard of his ministry please check out his website. Justin has a hard time walking and is often in a wheel chair but his parents loved him enough to teach him the truth of God's word and he has never let his Cerebral Palsy slow him down. I remember praying after the conference and I prayed something like this "Lord if you ever choose to give us a child with special needs I pray that we will teach our child the hard truths of God's word and I pray that you would use our child for your glory." It was just a few weeks later that we found out that we were having twins and that they were conjoined.

I found out that our twins were conjoined with I was 19 weeks pregnant and I delivered them at 32 weeks. We spent those 13 weeks going to the doctor all the time and learning as much as we could about them and things we could do to help them. Our girls had a zero chance of survival but we knew that God was the one forming them (Psalm 139) and He would decide when they were born and when they would die. We trusted God with our babies lives. We did everything in our power to help our daughters. I went into labor at 32 weeks and our daughters were born ALIVE! They lived for about an hour and we were so blessed to spend time after they were born.

I was saying all that so that you all would know I really feel like God has been preparing us to care for a child with special medical needs for over two years now.

When I read about the baby we want to adopt his medical condition didn't scare me at all. I had been following blogs of families whose children had EB on and off since I was pregnant with the twins. As soon as I found out about him I started doing everything I could to learn about EB and figure out how to care for him.

I know that caring for this baby is a life long commitment and Jason and I are more than willing to commit to caring for him for the rest of our lives. I don't feel any differently about him than I would if I was pregnant with him. If I was pregnant with him and I found out something was wrong with him abortion would not be and option I would do exactly what I did with the twins. I would go to doctors, talk to other families whose children had the same thing, I would contact insurance and make sure everything our child needed was covered and I would cover that sweet baby in prayer. Those are all the things I did for Melody and Madison and those are all the things I am doing for the baby we are wanting to adopt. This is not option for us we want to move forward as fast as we can to bring this sweet boy home.

The next big thing for us is the home study. I talked to our social worker today and I just love her! Our home study will be longer than normal because our social worker wants to extra time to document everything we are doing to prepare to care for Baby A. She said it would only take a week to finish and write the report which is AMAZING! Lord willing we will know by the end of this month if we passed the home study. I can not wait for the day we are able to "officially" commit to him! We of course are already committed in our hearts but if we are able to commit on paper that would be amazing! It is still early in the process and someone could get him before us but we are praying if it the Lord's will that He will allow us to keep moving forward.

Our big prayer right now is we will pass our home study and be able to officially commit to him. We will see what the Lord has in store for us.

Thanks for keeping up with us!
Vanessa

Paper Pregnancy (adoption term)

Have you ever heard the term paper pregnancy??? It is what they say about someone who is in the process of adopting a child. I always loved that saying but it came true for me today. We are trying to get all the paperwork done for our homestudy as fast as we can and part of that required a trip to the doctor. Today Jason and I had to go to the doctor to get a TB test and get a letter signed saying we are in good health. This was the first time we have done something for the adoption outside of the house and it was soooo much fun. After we left the doctors office we celebrated with a small Frappe from McDonald's and a dollar movie. So here is where the paper pregnancy part comes in. I remember being pregnant with Kenya and after our first sonogram with her we went out to eat to celebrate. I remember how excited and giddy I was all day and that is exactly how I felt today. I don't really know how to describe it but it is so neat to be moving forward.

I got to see some new pictures of the baby we want to adopt today and it overwhelmed me with joy but it also broke my heart. There is a picture where he was leaning out of his nanny's arms to see a toy and it reminded me so much of Judah. I also read that his nanny had to leave him for a little while and he cried most of the time and wouldn't eat. I got so sad thinking about him having to leave her if we get to adopt him. Of course he needs a Mommy and Daddy and if the Lord allows us to adopt him I know we will bond with him and he will bond with us but she is the only Mommy he has ever known. I know it is going to be hard for him to leave her. My heart has been heavy for that sweet boy today.

You see all these emotions today??? Remind you of being pregnant??? Happy sad happy sad...

In other news the Williams Family has invited me to come stay with them for a week. Patrice and Matt are going to teach me how to care for their son Jonah who also has EB. If you have never read their blog you HAVE to check it out. They are an amazing family and I am so blessed that they are allowing my to come stay with them! I am planning on going at the end of this week!!!

Please be praying for my family while I am gone. This is the first time I am going to leave Judah and he is a Momma's boy!

Those are all the things I can think of to update you on. Please feel free to ask us any questions that you might have.

Vanessa