Mailed Off!

Melanie Writes:

We are officially done with the "Paper Chase" portion of the adoption! Wow! Looking back I never thought it would've taken us this long! But it has and the real "wait time" is about to start. We mailed our dossier this morning to our agency and sometime this week they will check over it and send it off to Poland. We will let you know when it gets there because you'll probably hear us cheer from all over Galesburg! Once it arrives in Poland, it will take them a few weeks to translate then we will send in a "translation fee" and the wait to be matched officially begins.

Thus far our wait time ranges anywhere from 4-12 months, with much uncertainty attached. I plan to talk with Lina (our agencies founder, also our coordinator) this week to see if she has any idea how long this will take. Following along with others who are adopting from Poland (and our agency) they are on their 10 month. It is a bit hard for me to swallow, but I know it is "all in God's timing!" Being a teacher it would be ideal if we could travel in spring and then I would have the whole summer to be with our children. I suppose I'll just have to wait and find out!

Also, I want to thank everyone who has committed to praying for us and our children. We believe in the power of prayer and can already see them working. Please continue to remember us. Another huge THANK YOU to those of you who have been able to support us financially. We have raised enough to not only pay the dossier fee of $5,500 but also to pay most of the $1000 translation fee! I can't even begin to tell you what a blessing this has been! God bless you and to let you know a very special thank you will be in the mail very soon!


On another note, the last step of the paper gathering was to add photos of us and our house. Below are some of my favorite poses that our good friend Melissa Willis took for us. She is starting her own photography business and if your looking for someone good, she's the one! (That is if you live near Galesburg, IL!) (business card below)













O.K. I know, enough pictures of us, but James says I have to include one of him with our dog Maui. (since I put one of Maui and I on last time) So here's Maui and James! (Sorry, she's not cooperating, but that's fairly normal! Hehe!)

Yeah! Praise God!

Sorry it has taken us so long to update! Time has just been flying and we haven't found time to do much of anything, but keep busy!

Praise God! Thanks to friends and family we have raised enough money to turn our dossier in! With the $2,500 matching grant we received from Lifesong we raised a total of $5,895! Our dossier fee is $5,600 + $1,000 translation fee. We are so excited that through you, God has provided almost all of the dossier fees! We are confident that if God has brought us this far he will be faithful to the end!

We have had several friends ask us if they can still donate. Yes! Our account is open for as long as we like.

Tomorrow is another big day for us! We are driving to Springfield, IL to get the rest of our documents Apostilled. Hopefully we can turn our documents in before the end of the month! "Hold on little Kochersperger's! Mommy and Daddy are coming to get you!"

One reason for our hectic life is due to putting up a new privacy fence. Trying to get this down before the ground freezes is proving to be difficult! Here is a picture of James and friend (Chris) hard at work drilling holes.

Chris' wife Melissa (a good friend of Melanie's) also took a picture of Melanie and the family dog Maui! (Maui is slightly spoiled! She just got done playing frisbee and is a little out of breath!)

How To Thank You?!

Once again God has overwhelmed us with such love and support from our friends and family! We do not have words that will express just how deeply blessed and thankful we are to know you and have you in our lives. Thank you for your kind words, prayer and support! We are praying that God will richly bless you for the kindness you have shown us!


If you have questions regarding the support letter, please read the previous post. If you still have questions, please feel free to contact us. We're more than willing to clear up any confusion.


Melanie Writes:
As promised, here is a picture of my precious students. They are a handful and exceptionally chatty, but I won't complain. They're very bright and I am excited about what we will get to do this year!

MRS. K'S ANGELS!

Questions?

Well, we have finally sent out some support letters and it looks like several of you have some questions. Please understand that this is perfectly fine with us and we invite you to ask as many questions as you want! To begin with, here are a few pieces of information that may help with your understanding of our fundraiser and adoption process.

• -Our adoption agency is Saint Mary International not Lifesong for Orphans. Lifesong for Orphans is strictly a non-profit organization, started by Christians, to help support adopting families in financial need. We had to apply to Lifesong and were thankfully accepted to receive help.
• -Our adoption agency and Lifesong for orphans are both non-profit 501c organizations and have both been cleared by the IRS. We have checked them out thoroughly and know without a fraction of a doubt that we are not being scammed. We invite you to check out their websites listed on the sidebar of this site.
• -Lifesong for Orphans has set up an account for us, so we are able to keep track of what is going on.
• -Please send your donation to Lifesong for Orphans. The matching grant will only be matched if they receive your donation.
• -Yes! All the money donated will be applied to our adoption expenses.
• -Questions? Please call us or e-mail us!

Thank you to all of you who are willing to help us out with your prayers and/or financially. We know how confusing this all sounds, but please trust us when we say that this is where God wants us to be. We have complete faith that God will take care of us. And from what we hear, He is using his gracious and tender hearted followers to help take care of us too!

Also, while reading my Adoptive Families magazine, I found some neat adoption "lingo" that I thought some of you might be interested in.

• -"Birthparent" or "biological parent" rather than "real parent"
• -"Parent" rather than "adoptive parent"
• -"International or Intercountry adoption" rather than "foreign adoption"
• -"Make an adoption plan" rather than "give up a child" or "put up for adoption"
• -"Was adopted" rather than "is adopted"

Back To School!

Melanie Writes:

Wow! I can't believe it's that time of the year again! Summers go by way to fast! Here I am sitting here updating our blog when I should be getting ready for my class tomorrow. I had an opportunity to meet my students on Friday and I'm really looking forward to this year! I have a lot of nice families and the children seem sweet and energetic! After I take a class picture I'll post it so you can all see!

On the adoption front, we still are working on getting everything apostilled. We have just sent in James' birth certificates to California to get them official at $20 a document. I'm so thankful we live in Illinois! It's only $2 here! Thank Goodness! The rest of our documents are all Illinois issued. We plan to apostille the rest in September and will hopefully be able to turn in our dossier in October!

OUR FUNDRAISER!
The Lord is good! After receiving our matching grant from Lifesong For Orphans we are a little more at ease. We know things will come together, but sometimes it's just hard to trust without anything tangible to hold onto. We have currently finished up our support letter and hope to have those mailed out sometime this week with the help from my precious and hard working mother! Thanks Mom! Deciding who to send the letters to is becoming another hard thing to do. We don't want anyone to feel left out if they didn't receive one and we don't want anyone to think that we're being pushy if they did receive one and feel that they shouldn't have. Does this make sense? Any ideas for us? I suppose that if you don't receive one and want one, please let us know and we'll gladly send one to you and if you receive one and don't want it then just toss it. (No hard feelings here!) I hope this reasoning works!

Thanks again and God's Blessings to all of you! We Love You!
(O.K. now I suppose I better get to work for tomorrow!)