Dossier is Off!!!

Woke up early this am to make sure we made it to the OSBI office (State Background check) first thing when they opened.  We had to get our background checks redone because when we had them done back in February they weren't certified & we had to have certified copies in order to get them apostilled.   So we had those redone ($38.)  Then wen't downtown to the State Capitol to drop all 28 documents off for apostilling ($280.)  They were finished in an hour and I picked them back up and went by Fedex to find out info on shipping.   Fedex said it would get there next Tuesday or could possibly get there Friday for $160 but the guy didn't sound so sure.  I thought maybe I'll have better like with UPS so I found a UPS Store, and they said the estimated delivery date would be Wednesday, June 9th (just 2 days away)!!  So in the hands of UPS our dossier goes ($135.)  So $500 later and  it is off~ headed to Mina's country!!!

I must say it was a little nerve racking handing over 3 1/2 months worth of paperwork gathering and lots of $ spent in documents.... but at the same time so exciting!!  Please pray it gets there quickly & without any problems.  Pray that it will be translated and submitted to the SDA extremely fast and that we will soon get our travel date!!

YAY!!!

I-171H in hand!!

It's arrived!! We have that last final document now in hand!!  Now it's time for a happy dance!!

Monday morning we will go downtown and get everything apostilled and then mailed overseas!  Yay!! We are that much closer! Can't wait to find out our travel date! Pray it won't be long

Jumping for Joy!!!!

I am so extremely excited. I am jumping up and down with joy!!!!  Praising the Lord!!! Yippy!!  Mina we are getting closer & closer.  We will be coming for you so soon precious girl! 

So I called up the USCIS dept to try to get an idea of when our i-171h form will be headed our way to find out that our caseworker has been out of the office all week and won't be back till Monday.  In my mind I thought oh great... that's just going to delay the process even more.  Then I asked more questions and the lady did some more research to find out where our paper was in process.

She said the case worker already approved it on May 27th & it's already gone through supervisor approval and is now in the file room waiting to be sent out.  So what that means is we should have our final document- the last one needed- the one we've been waiting on to finally get our paperwork sent over- the one that's been holding us up... we should have it in the mail by next week!!!!!!

That means once we get that our dossier will be mailed over to Eastern Europe & we will then just have to wait on it being submitted to the SDA (pray that every bit of everything they need is there & no further documents are requested) and wait on our travel date!

Thank you Lord so much!! What great joy and blessing! We are so ready to go meet our little girl & bring her home & the exciting news makes me feel like we are that much closer!!

Now with that said... that also means we don't have very much time left for fundraising.  We are still needing to raise close to $15,000.  We will be doing another sale here in the next couple weeks and are planning a banquet dinner & possibly a car wash.  Please pray for God's provision financially for us!  We have faith and trust in the Lord that He has called us to adopting Mina and He will help us get there and get her home! Thank you Lord for the finances you have already provided! We are truly grateful!!

First Family Sponsorship Donation!!

Praise the Lord!! What great Joy!! For some reason I thought I'll get on and check my family sponsorship page to see if we have had any donations. Time & time again I've checked it and its consistently remained at 0 but I got on and to my surprise we now have $100 in our fund through Reeces Rainbow. What a huge blessing!!! I have no idea who donated but we are so extremely grateful!! Thank you so much to everyone for your support and help bringing Miss Mina home! We truly couldn't do it by ourselves. Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!!

Thank you to all!!

We had a wonderfully crazy, busy, exhausting weekend but Praise the Lord for it above all!! We raised around $3,600 in all over the weekend.  So all in all with other fundraisers, donations and the JBF sale we've raised approximately $4,800.  The adoption costs around $25,000 so we are going to do our best and raise as much as we possibly can to bring this precious girl home!! 

We still have a ton of stuff, bedding, decor, picture frames, dishes, furniture, antiques, baby stuff galore, purses, clothes, shoes, electronics, etc, etc, etc.   It's hard to believe we raised that much over the weekend & we still have so much left.  So our plan is to have another sale at our house here very soon. 

I will be posting the current bid amounts for each item under the Auction tab tomorrow so check it out and place a bid. We have lots of great items to bid on!!

Thank you all so much!! Thank you to all the people who donated things for us to sell and make this event as big as it was. Thank you for all the wonderful family & friends that came out to help us set up and run the event. Thank you to my Mom & Dad, my Grandma, and her good friend Charmaine for being there most of the event & helping us in every way possible. Thank you to my sister for baking delicious treats to sale & to my other sister for watching Myla during the event. We truly could have not done it without you all. Thank you to Mayfair Baptist Church for being such a wonderful blessing and opening up their facilities to us when we attend a different church. That is a true blessing & we are so very grateful for that! 

Thank you to all those who came out to the event & helped support us bringing this precious baby girl home!! We are getting closer & closer each day and more and more anxious. Can't wait till we finally get the travel date to go meet our precious girl! Please continue to be in prayer with us for her!

Thank you!

Sale Event & Fingerprints!!

We had an awesome day at the sale Event 4 Mina!! After being up till 3:30am getting everything ready for the event & waking up by 6 we had a line of people at the door waiting to enter at 7am!

We raised $1,750 today!! Praise the Lord!!

Tomorrow 5/22 at 7am at Mayfair Baptist Church in NW OKC (Just South of May & 50th) come join us!! The treats are amazingly delicious & we have many great auction items! See the items!  Also lots of antiques, washer & dryer, King size bed, Creative Memories, children's stuff galore, clothes.... etc, etc, etc. Still everything you can possibly imagine! More stuff donated keeps coming in as well! Hope to see you there!!

Also exciting news 4 today is that our fingerprint appointment finally arrived & is now complete!! Yay!! Last document wait begins. :)

Here's some pictures from today!

HUGE BENEFIT! GARAGE SALE~ SILENT AUCTION ~ BAKE SALE!!

                                   Click image to view Larger:

The Garage Sale is finally here!!! May 21st & 22nd come out and join us at Mayfair Baptist Church!! Rain or shine! It's indoors!  Please help us get the word out there and pass the information on to all your family and friends!!  Thank you so much for helping us bring Mina home!!

More Details on the Event Click Here!

View Auction Items & Place your Bid Click Here!

Yay!!! Fingerprint Appt arrived in the Mail today!!

I was jumping up and down with sheer excitement and joy when I saw two letters in the mail today. One for me, one for Jim from the USCIS department. I knew exactly what it was and got this rush of excitement that made me grow wings where I started to fly all over the living room. I burst through the ceiling and was soaring through the clouds. (Before the thunderstorm hit of course) Myla looked at me like I had lost my mind. Then I realized that was the Red Bull talking. LOL Okay so I’m exaggerating just a bit. After spending what seemed like several minutes filled with joy bouncing off the walls, feeling one huge step closer… I opened the envelopes to find our appt scheduled for May 21st… the date of our Sale event. I thought to myself now what are the odds in that. LOL Well regardless we’ll be going to that appointment. We certainly don’t want any delays, and the sale will continue because I am sure the Lord will provide wonderful workers to help while we are gone for a short time. It’s not supposed to take but 30 minutes or so.


We also heard that we could possibly call and find out if they have a walk in day where we could go another day before the 21st and possibly get them done. So we are going to pray for that. That would be even better. The quicker we can get our fingerprints done, the quicker we get our last doc (i-171h) and off our dossier will be headed thousands of miles away!! Yay!!!! Yippy!! Hip-Hip- Horray!!!


Mina~ our precious little angel. Mommy and daddy are coming for you! We are getting closer and closer and are anxiously awaiting the day we can wrap our arms around you, kiss you, hold you, and tell you how much you truly are loved, cared for and thought of each day! Every night I tuck Myla in bed and sing her lullabies I imagine you being in the other bed and singing lullabies to the both of you! We love you so much sweet girl!

Getting the word out there!

I've been working on getting the info out about our big sale event coming up in 2 weeks.  Here's some info!!


Introducing Mina. A precious little girl that now sits in an orphanage waiting for a family to rescue her from a life spent in a crib. Mina has most likely been there since birth without a mother or father to love her or care for her each day. No one to rock her, kiss her gently or be told she is loved.

Mina is blessed to have an extra chromosome known as Down syndrome. Which for her that means a life of being viewed as worthless in the country she was born into. Around the age of 4-5 children with special needs are transferred into institutions where they will most likely never again enjoy sunlight and 50-80% will die within the 1st year of being transferred due to lack of care.

We are the Gower family residing in OKC currently in the process of adopting this little angel. She is waiting for us to come bring her home to have a forever family that loves and cares for her! A family that will help her have the best life she can and help her to fulfill the purpose for which God created her.

We are ready and able to meet the financial needs of this precious child once she is home. Unfortunately the cost to rescue her from the life she’s currently living in is around $25,000.

We are doing numerous fundraisers to help raise funds to bring her home. We are selling Krispy Kreme cards, have an online coffee shop fundraiser, and selling Scentsy products to name a few.

Also upcoming May 21st & 22nd is an extremely HUGE sale, Auction, and Baked Goods Event at Mayfair Baptist Church gymnasium located at 2715 Northwest 50th Street Oklahoma City, OK 73112. Major cross streets are 50th & May.


There is everything and anything you can possibly imagine from furniture, washer & dryers, TVs, electronics, paintings, books, house ware, dishes sets, décor, clothing, shoes, tons of children’s toys, clothing, accessories, beautiful paintings, lots of antiques, etc. Many brand new items as well. There will also be a silent auction with many pricey items and bake sale. It will be a very big event no one will want to miss. 100% of proceeds is going towards bringing Mina home.

Silent auction contains many pricey items to name a few: Williams-Sonoma items, paintings, Carrie Underwood Concert tickets, restaurant gift certificates, gift baskets, etc.

Bake sale- all kinds of tasty treats


Please come out and support the life of this precious child as well as get the word out there for the injustice so many orphans face.

You can help us in this journey through Prayer, spreading the word, financial support, attend our sale event or check out our fundraisers on our blog!

www.thegowerjourney.blogspot.com

All children deserve to be loved and cared for. Thank you all in advance for your help saving the life of this child as well as for all the many that have so graciously donated items and helped us this far. We are truly grateful!

Waiting Waiting Waiting...

Well we are still awaiting our fingerprint appointment.  A few days ago I finally got sick of waiting and checking the mail so I picked up the phone and called the USCIS department.  I was transfered to our case worker who said she has everything (which she's had for 2 1/2 weeks already) but she hadn't even looked at it yet.  Grrrr.... So much for rush delivery.  Anyway she said she would get us a fingerprint appointment scheduled and that if we don't get it in the mail within a week call her to remind her.  Really.... what's that supposed to mean. So incase she forgets to get it in the mail remind her?  Wasn't I just reminding her then when I was on the phone with her.  Needless to say I am waiting as patiently as I possibly can all the while thinking our precious girl is over there possibly crying needing to be held and loved and all this is just slowing up the process.

I know God's timing is perfect and he has a reason and plan for all things.  So I will trust in knowing that and try to be as patient and proactive at the same time.

So hopefully here in the next few days our fingerprint appointment will arrive in the mail. I pray it will be a quick turn around in getting in to get them done and that the process of the USCIS getting us our i-171h form so our dossier can be headed overseas.

Please pray for patience, and for there to be an extremely quick turnaround so that we can be headed to Eastern Europe as soon as possible!!

Thank you all!!

Our Coffee Shop Fundraiser!

We are selling Coffee for all those coffee lovers out there. Also sold in the shop is t-shirts, hats, coffee mugs and other accessories.

Check it out at:  www.justlovecoffee.com/TheGowerJourney


Here's the amount of Proceeds that goes towards Mina's adoption from your purchase:

•Coffee: $5 each bag
•T-Shirt: $5 each
•Travel Mug: $3 each
•Tote Bag: $3 each
•Hat: $3 each
•Coffee Scoop: $1 each
 

Thank you so much!!! Please pass the word along to all your friends and family who drink coffee!!

Blessings!!

Joel needs a family!!

Here is a little boy I have absolutely loved and have been praying for God to send a family for him. If he was in the same orphanage with Mina or close~ I'd be bringing him home too :) unfortunately he lives no where near so please pray with me that a family finds precious Joel. 

Joel (31)


BOY, born February 9, 2009

Joel is one of our youngest children waiting, with seemingly only physical challenges. Joel was born with a cleft palate. At 1 he is able to stand on his own and is close to walking. He is at a great age to blend into a loving family setting.

Click the link below and scroll down to find him:



Grab This!

LIKE SCENTSY? 25% of your purchase goes towards Mina's adoption!

If you like Scentsy products or know anyone that does we are selling Scentsy products for a fundraiser and 25% of the sales will be going towards Mina's adoption!!


Here's a few pics of some of the products (lots to choose from:)

Go check it out & scroll through my open parties on the left side below consultant information on the home page & select Melissa Gower's party.


http://www.doitwickless.com/



You can place your order on line & have it shipped directly to your house & know that 25% of your purchase went towards us bringing Mina home!! The consultant said that shipping is really reasonable. I believe she said it was like 10% of the purchase price so if you spend $30 the shipping will be around $3.


Please pass the word on for us to anyone you know!!!!
Thank you all so much!!

Homestudy OFF to USCIS!!! YAY!!

We are so excited!! Finally it feels like we are really actually getting somewhere!!

Yesterday I met our social worker to get our homestudy notarized and was handed over this joyous packet of paperwork that is our first big step towards bringing Mina home!!

We took it by the Post office and mailed it to USCIS and they should have it by Wednesday!

Please pray we get a quick fingerprint date so that our approval letter (i-171h form) can be processing so we can get that and get our dossier sent out quickly!!

Mina~ We are getting closer to coming for you! Your big sister asks about you everyday and wants you home so badly! We are constantly thinking about you and pray for you each day! Oh precious girl we can't wait to meet you!!

A little story...............

Dazed and confused, Sarah and Mike of Eastern Europe, took one look at their newborn baby with a special need and immediately asked to place the baby up for adoption. Don't get me wrong, they loved this baby they so desperately wanted. However, this baby with the special need of Down Syndrome, will be viewed as worthless and dumb in their country. This baby will now sit in an orphanage waiting for a family to rescue them from a life in a crib. They will not experience being rocked, loved, kissed gently, having their teeth brushed daily, boasted upon, a decorated nursery, family holidays, the outdoors, and most importantly Jesus. No one will care when they first roll over, their first tooth, or first babble. This child will sit in a dirty diaper with a rash developing, will develop sensory issues due to lack of stimulation, will hunger, will learn crying will get them nothing, and silence will eerily become a part of their life amongst the rails of their crib due to the ratio of workers verses orphans.

Not all children come from hard places like the one described above. There are orphanages with great support and theraputic services for orphans in some countries. However, adoptive families must be prepared for the emotional/behavioral scarring that comes along with this beautiful child you have adopted. We have a heart for the hurt child. We understand the risk factors and outcomes of adopting an orphan. We have adjusted our expectations and are prepared for this child. Everyone has a passion about something and this is our passion. God has lead us to this point. Please consider supporting us with our efforts. We hope you enjoy following our journey. Thank you.

Update on our progress towards Mina!!

Sorry it’s been a while since I last posted.


My husband’s sister passed away and things have been a little crazy and emotional. Our home study will hopefully be done this week so then we’ll be waiting on getting our fingerprints. I’m praying the wait won’t be to terribly long. Ready to get that out of the way so we’ll just be waiting on our final document i-171h and off our dossier will be. Yippy!

Myla is getting more and more anxious to meet Mina. She asks about her everyday and continues to say Mina home. Still don’t know where she got that from…. But she seems to be fully aware that she will have a sister and she will be here with us soon. Myla prays for her every night before bed~ it’s so precious! We bought Myla a toddler “big girl” bed so she is now sleeping there so the crib can be converted back to a crib for Mina. We’ve decided for now that we are going to have them in the same room and we’ll see how it goes. We thought for Mina she would probably feel more comfortable being in a room with someone since she sleeps in a room full of other kids. Who knows, she may even be in our room for a little bit. We’ll just have to see when that time comes.

Some exciting news is that we received our check in the mail from the JBF Sale and we made $1,003 in sales so that is awesome. So far we’ve raised about $1,213 so we still have a long ways to go, but are so thankful for what the Lord has already provided. We have also had several people donate things that we will be having a garage sale for in the middle of May (date should be officially announced soon.)

More exciting news is that we actually got to talk to a few people who adopted from the same orphanage Mina is in. It was so wonderful to hear stories and read blogs from people who have been in the exact same orphanage we will be going to. They said that the orphanage caregivers are wonderful there and that they really do seem to love and care for the children~ so that was wonderful news. Of course it’s nothing like having your own family but I am thankful that she seems to be in a good orphanage.

Can’t wait till the day we get to bring our little girl home!!!

Our Poem To Mina!!

This was found on a blog I follow that I believe one of her friends may have written~ not quite sure.  It was such a precious poem and touched my heart and I wanted to share it with you all!

God's Little Girl

Oh, little girl, your life was planned.
Right from the start from the Father's hand.
He fashioned your frame in ways so grand,
And loves you in ways you don't understand.

And though we've yet to hold your tiny frame,
You've captured our hearts, and we long to call your name.
We thanked God for you, a gift so sweet and pure,
And pray for you, to know His Son for sure.

And as you grow, may you always know
The Lord is there wherever you go.
We promise to love you through all your days and hours,
But never forget, His love is far greater than ours.

 Our Father's Son, He freely gave
And all who believe, He surely will save.
Oh, little girl, we're all adopted at so great a price,
But as God's little girl, you're adopted twice.

Myla talking about Mina!

So for some reason Myla has been talking about Mina a lot lately. The other day I asked Myla who her best friend was thinking she'd say Annaliese~ who she plays with all the time.... but she kept saying Mina.  I said, "No Silly, who's your best friend that we go play with?"  "Mina" 

Then yesterday we were playing around the house and she kept saying, "Mina Home... Mina Home." probably 10 times throughout the day.  So I asked her, "Do you want Mina to come home?" and she looked at me with a smile and said, "Yes."

It's crazy to me because she's not even 2 yet and we've talked about Mina and told her that she was going to be her little sister but didn't fully think she quite understood completely.  Although she would say "Mina sister."

I wonder if God is preparing her heart for her baby sister.  She keeps asking about her and wants her here now.  I just keep telling her, "Mommy and daddy are working hard to get her home... but it still might be a little bit."

I pray that God does prepare Myla's heart for the day she will get to meet her sister and that she would have the patience and understanding till that day comes.  I pray that the process would go as quickly as possible.

Q&A

Why do we want to adopt a child with down-syndrome?

• Because we feel the Lord created all children to be loved… regardless of the situation they were born into. Every child deserves the love of family.

Do we plan to have more biological children?

• We believe we will have however many children the Lord wants to bless us with and feels we can handle. Therefore, we won’t be trying… and won’t be preventing :)

What will we do if I get pregnant in the meantime during this adoption process?

• Then we will be a family of 3 very soon :) And precious Mina & Myla will have another sibling. Our hearts and minds won’t in anyway change.

How will we have the money to adopt her

• God will provide the way. We have complete faith in that. God always provides! And we will beg and plead with everyone around us… LOL J/k :)

So you haven’t even met Mina yet?

• Nope we haven’t. We just have faith and are trusting in the Lord.

What if she has already been adopted by the time we get to her?

• The chances are slim but do exist. If that’s the case our hearts will hurt because we already feel she is our little angel but we will be thankful for her that she is out of the orphanage and we will pray for the Lord to open our eyes to the child that we are to adopt. There are so many orphans in this world who need the love of family.

Where is Mina developmentally?

• All we know is that she can sit up and is working on crawling

Will we get updates on Mina or know anymore about her than we already know?

• What you see on our blog is all that we know about her. Most likely we will not find out any other information until we get to her.

When do we plan to travel?

• Hopefully if everything goes smoothly paperwork wise and financially we will be traveling to meet her in June

How long will the travel be?

• We will take two trips. The first trip will be about 3 weeks, then we will be home around 2 weeks and back for the 2nd trip (10-16 days) then home with our precious girl!

What if she is never able to develop in certain aspects and is never able to be on her own?

• We will take each thing as it comes. Our job is to help her have the best life she can and help her to fulfill the purpose and plans for which God created her. We will help her to grow into the child God intended her to be with our love and support.

Hopefully this cleared up some questions :) Blessings to all and thank you for all your love, prayers, and support!

Heavy Hearted

My heart is hurting so badly for these little ones in the world. My eyes are filled with tears. My mind and thoughts feel so jumbled. Oh how I wish I could change the life of so many more. Lord what can I do to make a bigger impact for these children?


So many little ones all over the world just wanting the love of a mommy and daddy. And I believe with all my heart everyone of them deserve it.

I read a story today of a friend who is in the process of bringing their little one home, and the stories just break my heart so much. A mom goes to the orphanage every day to see her son because they wouldn’t let her leave the hospital with him, and she doesn’t want to give him up but there is no hope for her to bring him home. She is hoping a family will come adopt him and love him. I just couldn’t imagine having to give my baby up. That is something I would Never be able to do. I couldn’t imagine my life without Myla in it. I couldn’t imagine having to put her in a place like that and the thoughts that would haunt me for the rest of this earthly life.

She also told a story about a little 3-4 yr old girl running up wrapping her arms around her leg and saying momma momma. These little ones just long to have a family. She said they feel like celebrities at the orphanage because all the children want to run up to them. It’s like they try their best to get noticed and to get picked, and children shouldn’t have to work for their parents approval. Could you imagine if we had to work for God’s approval? God loves us regardless of our screw ups, and he accepts us just as we are.

Everything that was once important doesn’t at all seem so important anymore. Jim and I have been anti-debt and always worked so hard to just buy what we had cash for, and our next goal was going to be working on getting our house paid off as quickly as we could. The debt of taking in Mina as our daughter is 100% a debt we are willing to accept. The expenses to get her, the medical bills and physical therapy once home. Whatever it may be I believe with all my heart God ALWAYS PROVIDES! He always has and always will! I will let my mind rest in peace knowing and trusting that.

Who cares, who cares if we never get a better car or bigger home. So what if we never get to buy fancy things, or eat expensive meals. Who cares if we never get to travel and see the world. Does all that really matter so much anyways? I just can’t think of the pain these babies are feeling and think that any of that is more important than the lives of these kids.

I praise God for ADOPTING us into His family! Where would we be without him? He sacrificed a great price to buy us, and we are willing to sacrifice and pay the price to have Mina as our daughter to join our family Forever! Just as I never have to wonder if the Lord is my Forever father…. She will never again have to wonder about having a mother and father. Oh how I can’t wait for that day to come! I’m so ready to bring her home. Please process go quickly!