Vibram Five Fingers

For those who have been hiding under a rock... just kidding

Here is a link for Men's VFF Bikila

http://www.vibramfivefingers.com/products/Five-Fingers-Bikila-Mens.htm

Here is a link for Women's VFF Bikila

http://www.vibramfivefingers.com/products/Five-Fingers-Bikila-Womens.htm

Balance In All Things

I must apologize for my long absence and complete lack of updates over the past 1 1/2 months. My focus has been on supporting my husband in Ranger School, caring for our busy boys, and getting myself and my son ready for school to start. I know the importance of maintaining balance in all areas of my life and I admit, I have done far from that!

We have officially been on the waiting list for almost 2 months now and we have not as of yet heard anything. Our agency case worker, Patty, estimated our wait to receive a referral for a child could be anywhere from 3 to 9 months. While that sounds like a reasonable amount of time, it feels like years to me! We have been working on our adoption since January 2010 so we have already been over 1 1/2 years in the process. That being said, I firmly believe that God will bring us to our precious daughter when the time is right. He guided us to search for her in Ethiopia and now we must wait with faith and patience.

In the mean time, we must endeavor to raise the remaining money we need to fund our adoption to bring our daughter home! Remember, it costs almost $30,000 and we are $12,000 short. Hopefully by now most of our friends and family know, I am running in the Rock 'n' Roll Savannah marathon in November. As uncomfortable as it is for me to do this, I am asking friends and family to pledge a set dollar amount (or cents - whatever you can afford in this fantastic economy) for every mile that I complete of the marathon.

As a little incentive, for every $20 that you pledge and eventually donate when I dominate the Rock 'n' Roll Marathon, I will enter your name into the raffle for a brand new pair of Vibram Five Finger Bikilas! The only question now is... can I pledge money and enter myself to win the shoes?? No? Are you sure?? ... Oh shucks, those are some awesome shoes! Guess you had better make a pledge if you want a shot at them for yourself!

As Time Passes...

Hours melt into days ... days puddle into weeks ... weeks turn into blurry months. Now I have a small glimpse of how my husband must have felt while I was gone for a year on deployment. Has it really been a year that I have been back now? Yet I find myself without my husband again as he conquers school after school of good 'ole Army training. First it was Infantry Basic Officer Leader Course or IBOLC. Now, he drudges through the swamps of Florida in the third and final phase of Ranger School.

He began Ranger School on June 26th and he successfully passed both the Darby Phase and Mountain Phase the first go-around. I am infinitely proud of him as he has endured the unimaginable strain of Ranger training with little to no sleep and the delicious feel of MREs in his stomach. After tearing something in his shoulder during Darby phase he decided to keep it hidden and drive on so that he would not be kicked out. He also had a massive abscess on his arm which he poked with a needle to drain the festering cream-cheesy puss while he was on an Field Training Exercise in the mountains of northern Georgia. I consider myself to be pretty tough as a Non Commissioned Officer in the Army and a certified Modern Army Combatives Instructor, but there is no way I would ever be able to do the things he is doing in Ranger School. I salute you, 1LT Kohler, not because I have to but because you deserve it, you have earned it.

If he continues to do well and be blessed by God in his efforts to pass Swamp Phase the first time he will be graduating on August 26th. Hooah!!

Adoption T-Shirts

For anyone looking for the adoption t-shirts... they are cataloged under the month of May in a post entitled: Fundraiser T-Shirts. I will try and make it easier to find tomorrow, but right now it is midnight and my bed is calling me. Have a great night!

Little Updates

Our dossier has officially arrived to its destination in Ethiopia. It will now undergo the process of translation to Amharic, which my case worker tells me can take up to 3 weeks. This is not a big deal because she does not suspect that we will receive a referral for at least 3 months. I have seen some wait periods of other families from other agencies as long as 13 months! We have been assured that a wait period of that length for our agency would be unusual because they don't have the massive numbers of waiting families that larger agencies do. I sincerely hope and pray that our waiting period will be nowhere near that long as we have already been working on this for 16 1/2 months. For those who are willing, we would love if you would keep our family and our future Ethiopian children in your prayers as we wait to be united with them.

On a bright note, some of the amazing and wonderful women of the Army FRG (Family Readiness Group) for Alpha Co. IBOLC have been so kind and supportive of us and our adoption. They purchased a number of adoption fundraiser shirts today, which more than doubled our t-shirt sales. Thank you, Ladies!!

Men's Shirts and a View of Amharic

This is a picture of the receipt we received from the Embassy of Ethiopia. I just thought it was neat because it has both English and Amharic - the most commonly used language in Ethiopia.

I made this shirt for my brother, Austin.

This shirt belongs to Matt. He preferred the white over the gold spray. The shirts I have access to for men are either white, gray, or black with either white, gold, or blue spray. I realize there isn't a huge demand for men's shirts but I thought I would post these in the event that someone wants one. Just let me know! Thanks again to all those who have shown us support by purchasing one of our adoption t-shirts.

Dossier Arrived - sort of

Well, friends and family, our dossier has arrived to the FedEx location at Addis Ababa, Ethiopia but it says that there is a "delivery exception" with details stating a future delivery date was requested. I have no idea what that means but I am hoping it won't effect the safe arrival of our dossier at its destination. It does say that it has an estimated delivery date of tomorrow by 6pm. I suppose I will just have to wait until tomorrow to see how things turned out.

Dossier on the move

After checking the FedEx website using the provided tracking number, I can see that our dossier is now in Paris, France!! Hopefully it will be arriving in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia in the next few days.

If anyone is wanting adoption t-shirts they are still available. I am making some for Matt, my brother Austin, and my Dad right now so men's versions are available as well. Pictures to come soon. Colors of shirts still available are: navy blue, ocean blue, cruise blue, lime green, yellow, light pink, pink, lotus pink, plum purple (a pinkish purple), and white. These vary across the three styles which are slub (a low scooping neckline), v-neck, and crew neck which has a small pocket on the chest. I know that sounds incredibly complicated, but I buy what is on sale from Aeropostale and then make them up as people order them. That way, I am not stuck with a bunch of shirts that I can't sell. More tedious, but less money to be lost. Anyway, let me know what you want, they are great shirts!

Dossier en route to Ethiopia!!

To our absolute delight, our case worker from Children's House International shipped our dossier to Ethiopia today! She provided us with the FedEx tracking number so that we can follow its progress. For those who are interested, the tracking number is #7971-8975-7096. Now we just need to wait for a referral for a child or children. Our case worker gave us an estimated time table of 3-9 months. Based on what I have seen from reading families blogs working with other agencies, this is actually a pretty good wait time. Some families wait an average of 13 months. I can't believe we started this process in January 2010 and we are finally getting our dossier to Ethiopia. But I must say.... HOOORAYYYY!!!!!!

I finally totaled up our adoption expenses thus far and we hit just over $14,000 with at least $22,800 left to go (if we get a referral for two children). We are still moving forward with adoption t-shirt sales and sewing-craft sales from my Etsy site: www.myladybyrd.etsy.com. So far (thanks to friends and family) we have raised $188. I know that may not look like a lot, but it is better than zero!! That is enough to cover the medical visits for two children required for them to obtain visas. Thank you!!

All of our adoption fundraising money goes into our Zion's Bank adoption account. That means that all proceeds from t-shirt sales, etsy, and donations are deposited there so that adoption funds do not mix with our normal checking account with USAA.

Notarized Dossier Copies

Notarize Dossier copies...1 1/2 inches thick

Pictured above are the two notarized dossier copies and the one regular copy. I mailed these off today to our agency, Children's House International, along with a $6000 check to cover the rest of the Ehthiopia program fees. Once we receive and accept a child referral, we will pay the $7000 Children's House agency fee (or more if we are referred two children). Our agency worker, Patty, will take these copies and the original that will soon be authenticated by the U.S. Department of State and FedEx all of them to the Embassy of Ethiopia.

I know it is silly that I am always the only one in the picture but Matthew is frequently gone doing training for the Army. Consequently, I typically set the camera to take a timed picture. I have attempted in the past to have my 4-year-old boy, Michael, assist me but thus far we have not acheived too many successful pictures that way.

For those who would still like to purchase one of our adoption t-shirts, they are still available for $20 each plus $4 if shipping is necessary. All you have to do is tell me a size and color and pay by clicking the "Donate" button to the right of this post. The new shirts are similar colors but they have a v-neck or a crew neckline instead of the slub. Pictures to come soon!

Dossier Authentication: Step 3 of 4

Here I am, standing at the FedEx counter paying $68.43 for our original dossier and associated checks and money order to arrive at the Assistant Stork in Virginia by Saturday. I know that sounds crazy. Why would I pay to have it arrive at a business on a Saturday, you ask? Well, I spoke to Steve Morrison who runs the business with his wife and he informed me that if they receive it Saturday they will take it first thing Monday morning to the U.S. Department of State for authentication. He said they usually get it completed and returned the next day. Meaning, our completely authenticated dossier will be on its way to Children's House International by Tuesday or Wednesday at the latest.

Step 4: Children's House International sends the original authenticated dossier along with two notarized copies and one regular copy off to the Embassy of Ethiopia for final authentication and translation. Then we wait. And wait. And probably wait some more.

So....we will be waiting for what is called a "referral". We have to wait for all of the families ahead of us who have the same age and sex specifications for a child to receive a referral first. For example, our specifications are for a baby girl age range newborn to 18 months of age. She can also have a sibling boy or girl up to age 3 1/2. If a child like that enters the orphanage, then we receive a referral for her/them. A lot more happens once we receive and accept a referral but I will wait to get into that part.

As we wait for a referral, we hope to proceed with fundraising so that we can afford to accept a referral for two children. (Remember with two children, it is an additional $8000 - $9000). Total costs for one child range from approximately $29,000 - $32,000. While we have gone into this adoption planned and prepared, we just don't have that much money laying around. Also, as I noted in a previous post, the costs have risen since we started in January of 2010.

Keep a watch out, I will be doing more posts on our progress as well as some interesting posts about Ethiopia and its people.

Matt Graduated IBOLC!!

More great news...Yesterday Matthew, or should I say, Second Lieutenant Kohler graduated from the 16 week Infantry Basic Officer's Leader Course. Congratulations, honey, I am so proud of you! The course was very strenuous and required 10 of those 16 weeks to be spent in the field, ie. mud, rain, poison ivy, sweat, filthiness, etc. Guess who did the laundry resulting from all that field time - that's right, me. But I digress, the point is that Matt is incredible and he looks so handsome in his dress blue uniform.

Now he will be preparing for Ranger School which he will commence on June 26th.

Document Authenticated Step 2 - Done!

Wahoo!!! We received the Affidavit of Dossier and Power of Attorney back in the mail today!! They have officially been authenticated by the office of the Georgia Secretary of State. It was definitely worth the cost of having them shipped FedEx next day.

NOW...for Document Authentication Step 3 of the 4 steps. I need to take all of the dossier documents (about 35), make three copies, have each page of two of the sets notarized (about 70 pages), and send them off in two different directions. One original dossier (I have two originals) will be sent to the Assistant Stork in Virgina who will take them to the U.S. Secretary of State to be Authenticated for a nominal fee of $80 plus the U.S. fee of $16. Not bad, not bad at all. Two notarized copies of the dossier and one normal copy are also mailed to our international adoption agency who holds them until they receive the authenticated dossier back from the Assistant Stork.

Step 4...The final step!! Once all of the documents are received by Children's House International, they ship it off to the Embassy of Ethiopia with our $189.60 money order to be authenticed by them. Then we play the waiting game until we receive a referral for children matching our profile. Oh what a happy day that will be! We are getting so close now it is starting to feel real again. We started this process in January 2010 and at times it has felt as if we would never see the end of the tunnel. At last, we see a glimmer of light!

Making Progress

Good morning, famiy and friends!!

We have finally made progress with our adoption paperwork. We were at a stalemate for months due to the Army's unwillingness to provide Matt with a notarized letter of employment verification. To my utter delight, Matt was able to finally convince his commander to go down to JAG to sign the letters (which Matt composed himself) in front of a notary. HOORAY!!! To make things even better, Matt had Friday off of work so we were able to take the 15 other documents in that we have been waiting to notarize. The LAST two things to be notarized were the Power of Attorney and the Affidavit of Dossier. After notarizing them we took them to the Muscogee County Clerk's office to be authenticated. Thankfully, that was a quick and painless trip (besides running to the ATM to grab cash to pay for the authentication). Once that was completed, Matt took the boys home (that's right, we did all of this with our busy boys in tow) and I went to FedEx to ship the two documents to the Georgia Secretary of State to be authenticated at the state level. I shipped them next day even though they won't arrive until today at 10 am. I also enclosed a pre-paid return envelope for next-day shipping. That was $50 well spent. It is my hope that I will receive them back before the week is out and we will get to move on to the next step!

The Next Step.....

Once we receive the authenticated documents back, I will take both original sets of dossiers to Kinko's where I will make 3 complete copied sets. Each page of the two dossier copy sets will be notarized as original copies. The two originals and the two notarized copies will then be mailed to our adoption agency. Our agency worker will look them over to make sure we did everything correct and then she will ship them to Ethiopia. At this point, we will send in a check for $6000 which is for the remaining two installments of the total $9000 Ethiopia program fee. Money, money, money.

By the way, for those who live locally, we are trying to put together a fundraiser 5k run. I think this will be a lot of fun and I would love to have some friends run it with me! Thank you so much everyone for being so supportive and loving during this very difficult and frustrating process.

Sizes and Shirt Styles

Click the link to view the Aeropostale V-Neck shirts and colors. http://www.aeropostale.com/product/index.jsp?productId=11051569

http://www.aeropostale.com/product/index.jsp?productId=11051560

http://www.aeropostale.com/product/index.jsp?productId=10795136

Tee Selections

Ocean Blue Tee, Gold paint

Light Heather Tee, Purple paint
Navy Blue Tee, White paint

Plum Purple Tee, Gold paint

Light Pink Tee, Purple tee

Lime Green Tee, White paint

Yellow Tee, White paint

White Tee, Gold Paint

Moon Purple Tee, White paint

Light Pink Tee, White paint

Plum Purple Tee, White paint

The Gold and White paints are stencil paints that look and feel just like a screen-printed shirt. The purple paint also looks great but it has a softer feel because it is just a fabric paint. Many other color options are available for the fabric paint such as greens, blues, reds, oranges, etc. I would be happy to do some childrens/toddler shirts and baby onsies as well just let me know so that I can purchase the clothing and sizes. I am also going to get two more styles of women's shirt from Aeropostale - a v-neck and a round neck. Please specify what you want ASAP because I need to order them before the sale ends and they become expensive again.

Fundraising T-Shirts!! Pre-Order now!

Hello, Hello Everyone! First, I apologize that it has been so long since my last post. Matthew and I had a very busy weekend but I am back now and I have some excellent news. The fundraiser t-shirts are here and they look amazing (in my not-so-humble opinion). I asked a friend to help me make these and so far they have turned out great. I am only posting pictures of one color tonight because it is after midnight and I don't have time to take pictures of all the other colors.

The T-shirts are 100% cotton Slub Scoop-Neck Tees from Aeropostale. We have used fabric paint to spray on an outline of Africa with a cute heart where Ethiopia lies. If you are interested, please let me know your color preference and size so that I know how many to buy and make up. Again, more t-shirt colors will be posted tomorrow. They are $20 each and if they require shipping (which most will for family), the shipping is $4. More to come on how I am going to take payments and also a sizing chart. Thank you and please, take a moment to let me know what you think or if you have any ideas for improvements or more ideas for fundraising!

**Variations do occur because they are all hand-painted.

Fund Raising

Just a note up front...this topic is very embarrasing for me because I don't like asking people for help, especially with something I feel like we should be able to do on our own. As I said in a previous post, we did pay off our debt and save up just over $10,000 for the adoption. Unfortunately, adoption costs for Ethiopia are around $27,000. We took out a loan to cover the rest (hopefully my husband doesn't mind me sharing this...) but I am starting to think it will be more feasible to try and raise the funds so we can pay off the loan. I hate debt!

Now, I realize it may seem like I am a walking contradiction considering we just bought a house. So I am going to lay out the details in order to bring more clarity to our financial situation. I am a veteran, so I qualify for the VA home loan which means we don't make a down payment, don't pay mortgage insurance, and we aren't paying closing costs. So basically, we are using the Basic Housing Allowance alotted to us by the Army to go towards a home instead of rent. Look at it this way...instead of paying $52,800 in rent over the next four years, we will be putting it towards our first home. That's right! We finally bought our first home after 7 years of marriage. Hooray!

Anyway, the point of this post is to let my family and friends know that we are going to start doing some fundraising to help get rid of our adoption debt. I need some help with ideas though...like I said, I get embarrassed by asking for help and I am not very good at thinking up effective fundraising ideas. I have researched what some other adopting families have done and mostly I have seen adoption t-shirt sales. What do you think...is that a good idea?? The picture above shows fabric outlines of Africa with the heart over the country of Ethiopia. I was thinking about using a cute stitch to sew then onto t-shirts or shoulder bags or something. I also thought about making a template to spray paint Africa onto shirts or allowing the boys to use fabric paint and paint Africa on. At the very least I need to make shirts for myself and my fam. Gotta represent!

Below is a breakdown of our adoption expenses as it was given to us by our agency:

Home Study - $1500

Home Study Update - $800

Application Fee - $600

CHI Agency Fees - $7000

Ethiopia Program Fee - $9000

Post Adoption Report - $500

Adoption Education - $120

USCIS Filing Fee/Fingerprints - $860

Passports - $194

Ethiopia Visas - $130

Document Authentication - $250

Round-trip Airfare (2 Adults, 2 trips) - $7200

Child's one-way Airfare - approx. $800

In-country transportation costs - $420

Medical for Child's visa - $80

1st Trip in Country (guide, food, lodging) - $800-2700

2nd Trip in Country (guide, food, lodging) - $1350-2700

Child's US Visa - $400

Okay, so I was waaayyyyy off. The low-end of those numbers is a grand total of $32,000. The high end is $35,250. We are looking to adopt one child but if she has a sibling we have also been approved for a second child. If we do end up adopting two children, our total expenses will be approximately $39,280 - $42,530. Annnnnnd, that is why I have decided to try and do some fundraising. Have any good ideas?? PLEASE!! Send them my way!

Beauty of God's Creations

I was feeling somewhat overwhelmed and depressed today (I'm missing my hubby, but he comes back on Thursday!) so I decided to take a walk outside in our backyard to check on our garden and our potted plants...and other things. Needless to say the walk outdoors worked miracles for y spirit. Look at all of God's beautiful creations that I discovered - He certainly does know how to make a girl smile!

Two Steps Forward, One Step Back

If we were to count from the time we starting researching an adoption agency, we have been working on the adoption for 16 months already and we still don't have our dossier submitted. Initially, I was so optimistic and even thought we would have our precious child by now. In hindsight, my naive optimism makes me laugh. I suppose the average internationally adopting family would be waiting for a referral or court date by now; however, we have experienced many setbacks due to our involvement in the U.S. Army. At first it was Lauren's deployment that was keeping us from being able to move forward. Then we finally got the home study approved and we moved so that Matt could complete his Army training at Ft. Benning, GA. Of course, we had to then complete a home study update and resubmit it to USCIS - the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services. Now we are hastily trying to finish compiling all of the required documents for the dossier which will be sent to Ethiopia. However, we are moving again in September to Ft. Stewart, GA which will be Matt's permanent duty station. At which point, we will be having a home study update conducted once again. Two steps forward, one step back.

Adoption is not for the faint of heart - nor is it meant to be done alone. As the old saying goes, "It takes a village to raise a child". Matt is frequently gone for his Army training which means Lauren basically flies this mission solo. Speaking of which, it is tiring to try and phrase everything as "we", "Matt", and/or "Lauren", so I am just going to come out and say it: "I" am writing this blog to represent our whole family regardless of whether or not I remember to say "we". So, I am Lauren...just in case that last little bit was confusing. 8-)

Anyway, the point I was trying to get to is that I can't do this alone anymore. I frequently seek the help of my Heavenly Father, especially when we pray as a family, but I need help from my family and friends now. This process is so emotionally, physically, and financially exhausting and I have finally realized that I need to reach out to the people who love me for help and support. For those who don't know me really well, I can be a very stubborn and independent person and I'm not big on accepting help. I am going to be making updates to this blog frequently so that my family and friends know what is going on and perhaps can help me with words of encouragement, ideas for coping with stress, parenting techniques, housekeeping tips, etc.

In a few weeks Matt will begin Ranger School which means we won't see or hear from him for at least two months. We are trying really hard to get all of our documents gathered before that time so that we can submit our dossier before he leaves. I must say, I am learning how to be more self-reliant and proactive. I purchased a house the last time Matt was gone on a Field Training Exercise! Okay, back to the dossier. So, we don't have much left to gather. The first thing to do when Matt gets back from the field on Thursday will be to go get yet another police background check. We are also STILL waiting on the Army to deliver the long-awaited Letter of Employment Verification. After that, we will have three copies of each document below notarized:

Parent letter to Ethiopia
I-171H Approval from USCIS to bring an orphan into the country
State Police Clearances
Family Photo sheet
Letter of Employment Verification
2008, 2009, and 2010 Tax Returns
Adoptive Parent Form
Matt's Passport

That may look like a lot, but we have already gathered and notarized a lot of the required documents. The very last two we will have notarized will be:

Power of Attorney
Affidavit of Dossier

Once we have all of that done and we are ready to submit our dossier, we will also submit the third installment of $3000.

Starting Fresh

To my family and friends, I must apologize for my prolonged absence from blogging about our adoption. I finally decided to start it up again only to discover some irreparable problems with my old layout...consequently, I decided the best thing to do was to start with a clean slate! However, it is now past midnight so I won't be posting anything of real substance until tomorrow as this has already taken several hours to re-establish. Until tomorrow then!

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