Last Friday Raleigh and I received our notification to be fingerprinted by the USCIS office in Atlanta. This is part of our I-600a application. The I-600a is the Advance Processing of an Orphan Petition. It is one of the important pieces of paperwork that must be completed and approved in order for us to adopt internationally.
Our scheduled time is Monday, November 3rd at 10am. Say your prayers that our fingerprinting will go smoothly and that we will receive approval quickly. Although we know that we will not be matched with a child for many months, a quick approval means that once we do have a referral and we are working with the Atlanta USCIS again, hopefully they will process our paperwork quickly. Each local USCIS office seems to have different time lines for processing various types of paperwork, so hopefully the Atlanta office is fast and efficient!
WooHoo for fingerprints!!!
Thursday, October 29, 2009
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Orphan Sunday
Did you know that Sunday, November 8 is Orphan Sunday? Orphan Sunday is an opportunity for individuals and churches to speak up on behalf of the millions of orphans around the world. There are over 140 million little treasures without a forever family.
Visit this site if you want to learn more about Orphan Sunday!
God's heart is for adoption.
Just think, we are all born spiritual orphans until we know our one true Father. He so graciously adopts us as His children. While we are yet sinners, God chooses us and pursues us because He wants us to be part of his family. As God's adopted children, we receive the full rights of being a child of God.
God's heart is for adoption. His heart breaks for the millions of children without a family.
But, there is hope. We can all do our part to change the life of an orphan. If you do not know where to start, simply start by praying. Ask God to open your heart to the needs of the orphans and show you how you can be part of His story.
In view of the love God has lavished on us by adopting us as His children, let us go and Show Hope to the world. (www.showhope.org)
Visit this site if you want to learn more about Orphan Sunday!
God's heart is for adoption.
Just think, we are all born spiritual orphans until we know our one true Father. He so graciously adopts us as His children. While we are yet sinners, God chooses us and pursues us because He wants us to be part of his family. As God's adopted children, we receive the full rights of being a child of God.
God's heart is for adoption. His heart breaks for the millions of children without a family.
But, there is hope. We can all do our part to change the life of an orphan. If you do not know where to start, simply start by praying. Ask God to open your heart to the needs of the orphans and show you how you can be part of His story.
In view of the love God has lavished on us by adopting us as His children, let us go and Show Hope to the world. (www.showhope.org)
Sunday, October 11, 2009
2 Posts in one day...Broccoli and Potato Soup
Tonight was my first attempt at Soup Sunday. Starting today I am attempting to make a new soup or crock-pot recipe each Sunday in October. This recipe for broccoli and potato soup was super easy and fun to make. It came out of the November 2009 issue of Everyday with Rachael Ray.
The best part? There were only 5 ingredients:
1 bunch broccoli
1 onion
1 large red potato (or 2 medium)
2 cups milk
shredded cheese for topping
Luckily, it made enough for leftovers tomorrow!
The best part? There were only 5 ingredients:
1 bunch broccoli
1 onion
1 large red potato (or 2 medium)
2 cups milk
shredded cheese for topping
Luckily, it made enough for leftovers tomorrow!
Pumpkin, Meal Planning, and Organization
I have been searching for pumpkin pie mix and pumpkin puree for several months, but apparently there was a pumpkin shortage this year. This weekend I finally found pumpkin puree at Publix and was able to make pumpkin cupcakes. As the cupcakes baked, they filled the kitchen with the delicious smell of fall.
I found a neat food blog that gave me an idea for meal planning for the rest of the month. I have tried meal planning a variety of ways. The most economical way I've tried is to spend the week clipping coupons and finding coupons online. Then plan all meals for the following week based on the coupons and grocery store sales. Even though this way saves the most money, it also takes the most time. For the remainder of October I have decided to try cooking certain "genres" of food on certain nights. Then since I have planned all my meals for the month, I can look for coupons and sales that match my needs.
So...for the remainder of October our menu looks like this:
Sundays (soup/crock-pot meals): broccoli and potato soup, spicy chili con chile, butternut squash soup
Tuesdays (Mexican night): bean and cheese quesadillas, sopes, tacos
Thursdays (Italian night): two tomato pesto pasta, cheese ravioli with pumpkin sage sauce, vegetable lasagna
Saturdays (sandwich day): brie and vegetable panini, inside out English muffin grilled cheese, roasted red pepper sandwich
On nights when I have not planned a meal, we will have leftovers or a meal from pantry staples. I will give this meal planning technique a try for the month of October and then decide if it works well for us.
Finally, I also decided to try something new to help make weekday lunches easier. Raleigh and I are both packing our lunches, but some nights we both get home late and get too lazy to pack our lunches for the next morning. I don't know why I didn't think of this sooner, but today I decided to pack lunch "snacks" such as pretzel sticks, almonds, and grapes into 5 baggies. Then I do not have to pack these items each night because they are ready for the entire week. The only thing we will have to pack daily is the "main course" which is usually a sandwich, a lean cuisine, or leftovers. Hopefully this new system will help with packing lunches!!
What do you do to make meal planning and lunch making easier?
I found a neat food blog that gave me an idea for meal planning for the rest of the month. I have tried meal planning a variety of ways. The most economical way I've tried is to spend the week clipping coupons and finding coupons online. Then plan all meals for the following week based on the coupons and grocery store sales. Even though this way saves the most money, it also takes the most time. For the remainder of October I have decided to try cooking certain "genres" of food on certain nights. Then since I have planned all my meals for the month, I can look for coupons and sales that match my needs.
So...for the remainder of October our menu looks like this:
Sundays (soup/crock-pot meals): broccoli and potato soup, spicy chili con chile, butternut squash soup
Tuesdays (Mexican night): bean and cheese quesadillas, sopes, tacos
Thursdays (Italian night): two tomato pesto pasta, cheese ravioli with pumpkin sage sauce, vegetable lasagna
Saturdays (sandwich day): brie and vegetable panini, inside out English muffin grilled cheese, roasted red pepper sandwich
On nights when I have not planned a meal, we will have leftovers or a meal from pantry staples. I will give this meal planning technique a try for the month of October and then decide if it works well for us.
Finally, I also decided to try something new to help make weekday lunches easier. Raleigh and I are both packing our lunches, but some nights we both get home late and get too lazy to pack our lunches for the next morning. I don't know why I didn't think of this sooner, but today I decided to pack lunch "snacks" such as pretzel sticks, almonds, and grapes into 5 baggies. Then I do not have to pack these items each night because they are ready for the entire week. The only thing we will have to pack daily is the "main course" which is usually a sandwich, a lean cuisine, or leftovers. Hopefully this new system will help with packing lunches!!
What do you do to make meal planning and lunch making easier?
Friday, October 2, 2009
Packed and Ready.....
We are packed and ready to go to Nashville for the weekend for the Together for Adoption conference. The conference is from 7:00pm-9:30pm Friday and 8:00am-5:00pm Saturday. I am glad that Raleigh and I decided to take the day off instead of trying to rush to Nashville after work because I don't think we would have been able to make it on time.
We also received an exciting piece of mail yesterday. We got a receipt for our
I-600a application from the office of Homeland Security. The I-600a is our petition to bring an orphan into the US. In 1-3 more weeks we should get another piece of mail. This time it will be our appointment day and time to be fingerprinted by the USCIS in Atlanta. WooHoo!!
Also, our agency emailed us this week that they are still predicting a 12 month wait from home study approval to referral. If this holds true, we are 2 months into our waiting and have 10 more to go until the first time we see the picture of our sweet, sweet baby.
We also received an exciting piece of mail yesterday. We got a receipt for our
I-600a application from the office of Homeland Security. The I-600a is our petition to bring an orphan into the US. In 1-3 more weeks we should get another piece of mail. This time it will be our appointment day and time to be fingerprinted by the USCIS in Atlanta. WooHoo!!
Also, our agency emailed us this week that they are still predicting a 12 month wait from home study approval to referral. If this holds true, we are 2 months into our waiting and have 10 more to go until the first time we see the picture of our sweet, sweet baby.