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Author: LS
It’s Official!
Happy Easter everyone! We pray you experienced a glorious celebration of resurrection Sunday!
This past week was a big one on the adoption front. On Thursday we spoke with Lifeline and found out that Brazil not only approved our application, but also officially matched us with a sibling group of 4 children ages 8, 9, 11, and 14. We are very excited to have hit this major milestone and rejoice in the Lord’s provision! This response came back much faster than what we were expecting!
So what is next?
Now we officially have to accept the match, which should happen early this week. After that we begin to work on our I-800 form which is a USA government application for approval to adopt the specific children we have been matched with. Currently the projected wait time for this approval is 3-4 months. Please join us in praying that the Lord continues to gracious allow things to speed along faster than projected timelines!
After I-800 approval, the next step is getting travel approval which should happen fairly quickly and roughly 1 month from the I-800 approval we could expect to be flying to Brazil.
Please be praying for us as there are a number of things that are about to ramp up for us over the next month – finishing of final education talks with Lifeline, filling out and sending in the I-800 application, filling out plans for caring for the children after returning home, putting together a care package for each child that will be given to them when they are told about us, filling out a questionnaire for the children to get to know us, creating a welcome video introducing ourselves and our house to our kids, and then eventually scheduling a video call with the kids.
Please also be praying for the things we need to finish off around the house for everything to be ready – cleaning out areas, getting furniture built, getting sufficient clothes, etc. Pray also for the production of the car to go faster than projected (and the US dollar to regain strength…the recent events make it even more expensive for us to purchase things). And please be praying for the Lord to prepare us and those around us for after we return home. In many ways, the hardest part about adoption begins when you arrive back home…the journey to get the children, though tiring, time consuming, and expensive, is actually far easier than learning to attach and bond well.
We are so very grateful for you, your prayers, and drawing alongside us in this journey!
A Little Closer
We are so grateful for your prayers and tremendous encouragement in the adoption journey! Thank you for joining us as we follow God’s lead and witness Him moving.
We recently spoke with our adoption agency (Lifeline) who indicated that all of our paperwork should be with the Brazilian government by this week. They suggested that within 1-2 months we should hear back not only about the acceptance of the application, but also about officially getting matched. Once we are officially matched, things move back to the USA government. Our I-800a application that was approved is, in some senses, a provisional approval which is based on our request. However, once we are officially matched, we then fill out an I-800 form which is specific to the children we are matched with. The USA government side is currently where things are slowing down a bit and could take 2-4 months.
This all means that we could likely be traveling sometime between July and October, depending on how quickly things move which each respective government.
In the meantime, we were very blessed to receive an $11,000 grant from Show Hope. This is an incredible blessing as it completes all our financial needs and provides a large buffer. The biggest blessing of Show Hope, is that these funds are sent directly to our adoption agency who will release whatever funding remains after our adoption is complete without requiring any reimbursements forms. This means that we should be able to use these funds for non-reimbursable items (car, furniture, clothing, etc.) which is an enormous help for us! Praise the Lord for His wonderful provision!
Stannard Snapshots Hot off the Press!
Before the month ends, we wanted to get you a video update! Check out the latest happenings through our March Stannard Snapshots!
Financial Update
Our minimal goal needed for our adoption is $68,000.
Currently we have raised: $59,344.07 through donations and matching funds with Lifesong.
We have also raised $9,000 through donations and matching funds with Promise686.
We have been awarded an $800 grant through The National Adoption Fund.
We have recently been awarded a $3,000 grant through Katelyn’s Fund.
The overall amount is: $72,144.07
The additional amount we have raised beyond our minimum goal can help us meet unexpected additional expenses (changes in plane tickets beyond what was estimated, etc.) along with being used to pay for the costs of travel to the USA for the citizenship hearing after the adoption is completed (estimated additional costs: $6,000 for a total of $74,000). We rejoice that the Lord has graciously provided for our needs in this way and we are so thankful to you for your kind generosity!
Giving Information:
Enter either our last name or our account number: 11196
To give by check:
You can make the check payable to Lifesong for Orphans. On the check memo line you should write: Preference: 11196 Stannard. The checks should be mailed to: Lifesong for Orphans, P.O. Box 9, Gridley, IL 61744.
One Step Closer!
We are excited to announce that our I-800a US government application was just recently approved! This happened much faster than we expected and without any additional requests for further explanations. Lifeline told us that lately they have been getting a lot of requests for additional information and so it was a surprise to them that ours went through without any.
Thank you for your prayers! We are excited to see how the Lord is graciously answering them!
What is next?
We have to wait until we receive the official letter and then this will be combined with all our other documents to complete our dossier which will then be sent to Brazil for review and approval.
More Good News
We are so thankful to be closing in on our minimum support goal! What an enormous blessing this is and we are so thankful to you for your help in getting us there! We never imagined so much would come in so quickly.
As we are closing in on this goal, we reached out to Lifesong to see if they would allow us to raise money to offset the costs of plane tickets needed to finalize USA Citizenship. Because we live overseas, after the adoption is completed we will return to Germany (not the USA like families residing in the USA normally do). We will then immediately file for U.S. Citizenship. The process is that once the file has been reviewed and accepted, we would need to travel to the U.S. to be present at the Citizenship hearing, need to apply for U.S. Passports, and then return to Germany. However, the application process can take 3-9 months before the hearing date is granted. For this reason we weren’t sure if we could use monies raised toward those plane tickets (minimally 5 international tickets).
Thankfully, Lifesong was very gracious to see this as part of the adoption process which means that we can used monies raised through them to cover the travel for the Citizenship hearing. We estimate this could cost minimally $6,000. We are thankful that there are a few more grants we are still hoping to hear back from and a few more fundraising efforts which, presuming we cross the $68,000 hurdle, we can then apply toward this additional $6,000 expense.
We rejoice that the Lord is providing for our immediate needs and also paving the way for the those needs a bit further in the distance!
Financial Update
Our minimal goal needed for our adoption is $68,000.
Currently we have raised: $57,594.07 through donations and matching funds with Lifesong.
We have been awarded an $800 grant through The National Adoption Fund
We have been awarded a $4,000 matching grant through Promise 686
We have $5,384.53 raised through our church fundraiser.
The overall amount is: $67,778.60
Giving Information:
Enter either our last name or our account number: 11196
To give by check:
You can make the check payable to Lifesong for Orphans. On the check memo line you should write: Preference: 11196 Stannard. The checks should be mailed to: Lifesong for Orphans, P.O. Box 9, Gridley, IL 61744.
New Grants!
We are excited to announce that over the last few weeks we have received two grants! This is a huge blessing and a great answer to prayer!
The National Adoption Foundation awarded us a grant of $800 and Promise 686 awarded us a matching grant of $4,000. We are thankful to apply the funds raised through MICC toward the matching grant. This allows us to double those gifts.
Join us in praising God for His gracious provision!
February Snapshot
A new month means a new snapshot! We are thankful to bring you a glimpse of what God is doing around the globe!
Halfway Around the Globe 