Still waiting. Still raising. And Still collecting .

We had expected to get dates around the beginning of this week. However, on Monday our agency informed us that the embassy was getting an upgrade in security which delayed everything by a few days. Our in country team says we should have dates by Friday or Monday at the latest. We are still expecting about a 10 day notice, maybe a little longer. Please continue praying for us because this part has been harder than any other so far in this process. There is absolutely nothing we can do to speed things up, short of calling them every single day. And that wouldn't speed anything up, it would just annoy them :)

We have Little Mans suitcase packed and ready to go ! We are so ready to get travel dates and bring him home. And  I am praying with everything in me that we can leave soon. He has waited so very long, and I am sure that by now he thinks we have forgotten to go back for him. While part of me feels like the months have flown by since we came home, it also feels like they have drug on and on. I am sure in his little mind that it feels like forever has passed. The thought that keeps creeping up is that he will feel abandoned, again. Before we found him and before we started the process of bringing him home, he was so sure that he was too old for a family. That he wouldn't get a mommy and daddy. He asked everyone that came if they knew his mom and dad and if they knew when they were coming. Today it has been exactly 15 months since we made the call to our agency asking for his file. It has been a long and trying 15 months.

These past 15 months have stretched and strengthened me in ways I didn't know I needed. It is really hard to put into words the ways this process has affected us. But it has made us closer as a family. I have seen my sweet little Ethan show compassion in ways that most 4 year old wouldn't. His little heart doesn't understand why brother isn't home, or why its taking so long. He truly believes we should just get on that big plane again and go get him. He prays over his brother every single night, and asks if Owen is ready to come home yet. He is so sweet.

We still have our Visa board going. And we still have our puzzle piece fundraiser. Would you consider purchasing a number or piece to help us bring Owen home ? We would greatly appreciate it!

We are also collecting items for Owens orphanage. We would like to donate tooth brushes, tooth pastes, hand sanitizer, body wash/ shampoo. diapers and wipes. And possibly children's medicines (Tylenol etc.), but this may be an after thought depending on how well the other things go. We have contacted almost every dentist office locally and asked for donations of tooth pastes and tooth brushes. Two have given us a few samples, so I think we are good on those items. We are still collecting the other items. If you would like to help us with any of those items please message me on Facebook- or email me at ashtonymcbride@yahoo.com We would love the help of our friends to give his orphanage things they can use. His orphanage is run entirely on donations and they really depend on the graciousness of others to keep it running. If you can help, please do.

We are coming sweet boy, slowly but surely. Like little turtles. Slow and steady....Even when we just want to sprint as fast as possible it isnt always what we can do.

So, until we get dates we are Still Waiting, Still Raising, and Still Collecting Donations <3

Happy Birthday to my Husband :)

This morning we were expecting a check from our matching grant to hit out FSP account. This was in the amount of $250, so our FSP should have read somewhere around $6030ish. Well I just checked and get this ! It is at $6789!!!!! Talk about Miracles !! And while it may be coincidence or not, today is also my husbands birthday :) It would have been super awesome to spend his birthday with our newest little guy, but that isnt how it worked out. We are still waiting for our travel dates....and truthfully we are growing anxious. I want to travel now. Like now now . Patience has never been a strong suit of mine, and while this adoption process has helped me in that area, I am who I am ;)

To help us celebrate the amazing life that is my husband (I'm biased.) Would you consider making a birthday donation to our FSP? :D

These are the fees we have left :
$850 Round trip airfare for Tony
$850 Round trip airfare for Ashton
$400 One way trip HOME for Owen !! (covered!)
$100 Owens Medical Visit required by the embassy  (covered)
$1050 = $50/day for food
$500 for Orphanage donations of wipes and diapers to be bought in country (because they would be too heavy for suitcases)

Total $3750, But this is an estimate.

All we need to be fully funded is $2,886

Will you buy a number on our board ? We are giving away two visa gift cards in the amount of $75 & $125 when the numbers are covered.
 



Thank you friends !!

Collecting Donations for Little Mans orphanage ! And a fundraiser to help !!!

I  was able to determine today that our DS260 (aka Owens Visa!) was processed last Friday. At this point we are waiting for his country to complete our article 5 and issue travel dates. This should all be done soon, and we should travel in just a few weeks !!!

We still need to raise the remaining fees of about $3500 to be "fully funded" and this is how they break down so that you know where your donation is going !!

$850 Round trip airfare for Tony
$850 Round trip airfare for Ashton
$400 One way trip HOME for Owen !!
$100 Owens Medical Visit required by the embassy 
$1050 = $50/day for food
$500 for Orphanage donations of wipes and diapers to be bought in country (because they would be too heavy for suitcases)

Total $3750, But this is an estimate. Flights will change. And we will only buy as many as we have the money for. And we are going to try to fit some food into our suitcases to save on that expense as well.

Some of the other items we would like to donate are tooth brushes/ paste, hand sanitizer, children's body wash/shampoo, and children's medicines (Tylenol etc)

If you are local to Wilmington,NC I will be more than happy to meet you or If you are not local and wish to send stuff through the mail please contact me for an address to send it to.You can email me directly at ashtonymcbride@yahoo.com

Also ! A friend of mine offered to do a Norwex fundraiser for us. She will be donating her commissions to help with the diapers and wipes donations in country. Please check out the link --
http://www.norwex.biz/PublicStore/event/1087473/default.aspx

Thank you so much for helping provide the necessities for these children that so often we take for granted ! 

Just waiting for travel dates ! :)

Wow! Where do I even begin? January 1 we needed $11,500 to be fully funded. We have received donations and grants all month long. We have worked over time and donated plasma a few times. Last night I was told someone wanted to bless us with the remaining agency fees ($250). She is sending the check to Reece's rainbow tomorrow and by the end of this week our agency should receive it. Our agency fees are completely paid !

We are still waiting to hear from little man's country as to when our court date is. We expect to hear from them by next week, and court is usually scheduled about 10 days later -sometimes a little longer out. We still need to raise the remaining $3500 to be fully funded. This amount with cover our airfare, food, and orphanage donation while we are there. We have a goal to donate 25 bottles of hand sanitizer, 30 wipes and to purchase some diapers while in country. If you would like to help with this donation please donate to our FSP or our PayPal donation link.

We have contemplated our orphanage donation for awhile, I mean how do we say thank you for raising our child for 5 years u til we could get there ? Nothing seems adequate enough but I believe these items will be beneficial for them. His orphanage is run on nothing but donations so they appreciate all the help they get !

This month is going to be so exciting, and stressful. We are still getting everything ready for our trip. And I decided that I wanted to make 45 freezer meals to have for when we return. Having them ready and justing having to throw dinner in the crock pot each morning will be such a blessing. It will be one less thing to worry about and give us more time to bond with Owen. So don't mind me, I'll just be slaving away in my kitchen until we leave :)

$3500. Just a few weeks. And at the end, we get to welcome the newest little Mcbride and we are so excited! Ethan is so excited to have his brother home. He keeps reminding me that "Owen should be home" "why is it taking so long" "I just want my Owen to be home already". He has the sweetest little heart and I know that he will be the best big brother to Owen. <3

Thank you,friends!!!! We have come so far and we couldn't have done it without your help!!! Officially racing to the finish line!!!

We have our NVC numbers !!!

By now anyone that knows me knows that patience is not a virtue I possess. So when we got our provisional approval and it was sent to the National Benefits Center for processing we were told that we needed to wait 10-12 days before calling to get our numbers. I waited 7. I called and they let me know that they had received it and gave me some numbers, I asked if those were the numbers I needed to send to our agency and was told no. They said to call back he next day or Friday and I should have the right numbers. So I called the next day as soon as they opened. I was given the same information and asked the question, but this time I was told those were the numbers our agency needed. Yay !!!!!!!

I quickly sent an email to our agency, and waited for 9am to call them. I gave them our numbers and they will be filing our DS260 form (aka Little Mans VISA!!). The National Benefits Center has sent our file over to the embassy for processing. They will issue our article 5, and that is when we will get travel dates !!! Travel dates are generally about 10 days out from the time they issue it. This process should take about 4 weeks, but based on other families timelines usually only takes about 2.

All of this to say that we are just a few weeks away from bringing little Owen home !!! We are planning for 24 days (2 weeks for everything to process + 10 days waiting for court), but realize it "could" take about 4 weeks total before we travel. So far we have moved relatively fast through the end of this process so I am hoping we will continue moving at this speed for the remainder.

Big news !! Our FSP has gotten some love, and we are just $473.01 away from paying our agency !!! Our agency bill was due over a week ago, and while they have been patient and understanding I am sure they would like to be paid for their services ;) Will you help us get there?

I will post an updated board shortly-- we are so close to giving away a $75 Visa Gift Card !!!

We still have so many puzzle pieces ! For a donation of any amount I will put your name on the back of a piece which will hang in Owens room.

And we have TWO shirts left ! A grey and red both in size Medium ! $25 each to our fsp gets them shipped straight to your door !!!

Thank you, friends. Without your help we couldn't have made it this far ! We are so close to having him home forever !!! Our immediate need is $473.01. After that is travel expenses which we are estimating at about $3500. Which means to be FULLY FUNDED we only need $3,973.01 !!!

Can you believe that ? When we committed to making Owen our son in November 2014, we needed $30,000+ to bring him home !!! We are down to just $3,971 to bring him home !!! Gods faithfulness and timing are so perfect !!!!!

We have our provisional approval!!!

Yesterday we got our provisional approval from USCIS ! Now our article 16 is being sent to the national benefits center for approval which is when we will get our NVC numbers.  These numbers will be sent to little man's country to issue his visa , then TRAVEL DATES! This process should take about 4 weeks. But based on other families experience will probably only be about 2 weeks! This means we will be picking up Owen in about 4-6 weeks!!!! We are so so so excited ! We need to pay our final agency fee, after our matching grant is applied to our FSP we still need $825. Technically our fee is due tomorrow, but we will have to pay it a little late because we don't have it yet. After it is paid we need to come up with about $3500 for airfare/travel expenses!

This is so  amazing. We started this process with needing over $30,000 and now its down to just a few thousand ! This is so doable, God has moved so many mountains for us. I feel like so many things have gone wrong, but overall everything is falling into place. His perfect timing , even when I feel like we are moving at snails pace.

Our living room is almost finished ! We will be so happy to have our house back in order :) last week while I was driving a rock flew up and cracked our windsheild. Fantastic. Then this morning as I was getting ready to take Ethan to school I couldn't get the door to open on my van. It was completely frozen shut. My husband came out to help, and broke the handle off my van. He's either the hulk or wreck it Ralph ;) I am just going with the theory that if it CAN break or go wrong, it WILL in the next 4 weeks! Ha-ha.

Seriously friends, please pray nothing else happens. All of these "little" bumps are costing us money we can't really afford to spend at such a crucial time in the process.

And for added measure, we are all battling some icky cold or something. It's so fun having a child in school ;)

Just two more days of my fast! I will be back on Facebook Saturday!!! I can not wait. I realized that I don't "need" Facebook to keep me busy. But it was also a realization that almost all of our support system is through social media. I miss being able to talk to other families, and I miss being able to check in on our friends traveling. I also realized it was our biggest avenue if sharing fundraisers and stuff. I'll be excited to be back on:)

So in short, we expect to get travel dates in about 2 weeks and to travel about 2-3 weeks after that!!!!! The finish line is in sight!!! My heart is so happy that we are finally so close to having our sweet boy again, this time forever.

We have a $500 matching grant !!!

When it rains , it pours. Or something like that! Ha-ha! But its raining BLESSINGS! Is there a positive version of that expression? I need to Google it because we have so many blessings !!!

I was contacted a little while ago by our family warrior. She wanted to let me know that someone who wishes to remain anonymous wants to give us a $500 matching grant !!! So many blessings !!!

This means that once our FSP reads $4806.52 our anonymous donor will add her $500 and that will put us at $5306.52!!!

This is absolutely amazing. And I am so so so thankful! Please donate if you can, and share our FSP link with your friends and family .

Our anonymous donor is giving us FIVE days to meet this grant, which I think is totally doable with the amazing support from our friends and family.

Two posts in one day, both great and amazing news !!!! <3

Thank you friends!!!