Steps to Sofi- Asya's story Part 3

When we contacted Children's House International to inquire about adoption, we were so amazed by the reception we got.  I emailed Nina Thompson, a caseworker at CHI, asking about little girls with Spina Bifida.  Within a few minutes I received an answer, and a couple of files.  Emails started flying back and forth as we fell in love with Asya immediately.  

One of the obstacles was the cost of adoption.
We were floored at the cost and we didn't have $35,000 laying around in a bank account.  We didn't think that should stop this journey, and when Nina told us we could fundraise for the adoption, we blindly started doing so.  We never thought twice, we knew we were supposed to be Asya's parents, and we knew somehow we would get the money. 

We had many fundraisers, many from our local businesses.  But by far the most successful fundraiser we had was our shoe drive.  One night, I was on google, searching for fundraising ideas when I saw the ANGEL BINS website.  I filled out a contact form, and the next day received a phone call from one of the account managers.  She told me we could collect shoes of all sorts as long as they were matching and without holes in the soles....and she said we needed to collect 5000 pairs to raise approximately $3500.  I thought that was a great idea, so we decided to do it.  We started the shoe drive on Januray 3, 2013.  We appealed to everyone on every form of social media.  We had drop off spots in every county we had friends in.  Our Spina Bifida community rallied and collected shoes.  And all of a sudden our little shoe drive took off.  You can read the blog post thanking everyone HERE.  It tells how many counties, states, and the grand total!  Once that shoe drive was completed, we knew that this adoption was being helped along my a divine hand.  

As we shared Asya's story, she became Sofi to us.  Sofi Rose. And in October of 2013, my dear friend and I traveled around the world to meet the beautiful girl with the soft brown eyes.

 Our lives would never be the same.

Stay tuned for Part 4

"Are you my mom?"

Dear Life,

I have been introduced to a beautiful little girl.  
Well only in pictures.
She has a sweet little smile.
She has beautiful blue eyes.
She has no mommy or daddy.

Her life is in danger.  
Her health is at risk.
All she needs is a family to bring her home.
She needs love, she needs care.


She has Spina Bifida like Kumaka.
When you have the type of Spina Bifida that Kumaka and "Susanna" has, you need surgery immediately at birth.
You need your head checked continually for hydrocephalus.

Kumaka had surgery six hours after birth to close the hole in his back...and a shunt for his hydrocephalus placed at the same time.
He has not had issues with his back after that and his shunt has been great for years.

"Susanna" has not.
Her back lesion is open.
It leaks CSF fluid.
She has never had a shunt placed.
Her head looks like it is getting bigger and bigger...which means her brain is being squeezed like a vice.
I'm sure her head hurts all the time.
The doctors in her country have deemed her "inoperable". 
THIS IS NOT THE CASE


And yet she still finds a way to smile.  
She helps the boy in the crib next to her.
She scoots around in her crib.


SHE IS A FIGHTER.
SHE CAN BE OK.
SHE JUST NEEDS SOMEONE TO FIGHT FOR HER NOW.

Are you her mother?
Are you her father?

If you have any questions about what it is like to care for a child with Spina Bifida, please contact me.
If you are interested in getting more information about beautiful "Susanna" please contact me.

Please please please share this blog post.  You could save her life. You could create a new life for her.  

Shoes for Sofi...a miracle

Dear Life,

In December, when we announced our Shoe's for Sofi shoe drive, I somehow knew we could reach our goal.  I don't know how I knew this, but I had faith that it would not be a problem.  In December, we got to 1000 pretty easy, but then we went on Kumaka's wish trip, Christmas and New Years happened, and we pretty much began anew on January 1st.  We started talking alot about it in January, a few of our friends started sharing our posts about the shoe drive and all of a sudden the shoe drive took on a life of it's own.  People kept asking me what I would do if we didn't get the whole 5000 pairs.  I knew that somehow they would come in.

Boy did they.  Every day I looked out my window.  And this is the craziness that started showing up:

This is Arizona >>>>

There is a dining room under all of those shoes.

Last week, every day the mailman, FedEx, and UPS drivers all brought shoes.  There were bags at my doorstep every day.  I had friends at my house every single day helping me to match and count shoes.  It was like manna from heaven...only shoes.

We went from 5000 on Monday to 12508 on Thursday. If I didn't witness it, I wouldn't have believed it.  It was truly inspiring to see how many people love us, and want to help bring Sofi home to our family.  

"24000 pairs of feet marching to help bring Sofi home."   

by Nina Thompson

Children's House International 

(the amazing case worker who introduced us to our angel) 

When our goal was 5000, we were expecting to get a check for $3500.  We surpassed that goal and then some.  Our agency will receive a check for $9422 next week.  THATS HUGE.  It's a miracle.  That will cover ALL of our agency fees, and some of our fees to the other country's agency.  That is truly miraculous.  This is what it looked like on Friday when they came to pick up the shoes:

Haulaway kindly donated TWO 21 foot bins to put our shoes in (which was a Godsend because our garage was way too full)

This is how it went:  We helped throw bags of shoes in the boxes...that yellow thing in front was a scale.  It weighed the box when it was full.  We did that 25 times. 

These ladies were at our house EVERY day last week...counting...banding....and watching miracles happen.  We could not have finished everything without them.

This is the Angel Bins Truck....we FILLED it to the brim!

This is the big truck that brought those bins to our house.

And this is the truck that took our shoes away.  

This is where we send our thanks to all of you...even if you donated just one pair...or if you shared the story with someone....or if you just prayed for our princess.  God heard...and through all of you He delivered big time.  

From California:

Azusa

Bakersfield

Buena Park

Burbank

Calabasas

Camarillo

Canoga Park

Cardiff

Carlsbad

Cerritos

Chino

Chino Hills

Corona

Cypress

Fallbrook

Fountain Valley

Huntington Beach

Irvine

La Mirada

Ladera Ranch

Lake Forest

Lakewood

Lancaster

Long Beach

Newport Beach

Norco

Northridge

Oceanside

Orange

Palmdale

Phelan

Placentia

Porter Ranch

Reseda

San Diego

San Marcos

Santa Ana

Seal Beach

Signal Hill

Simi Valley

Tustin

Valencia

Vista

West Covina Tulare

West Hills,

Westiminster

Whittier

Woodland Hills

Shoe Drives:

Sowers Middle School

Vista View Middle School

Walker Junior High

Avio Anaheim Club

Ada Harris Elementary School

Montessori of Malibu Canyon

The Way of No Way Academy of Martial Arts,

Pi Kappa Phi's at CSUN

All Over the United States:

Winston Salem, NC
Denver, CO

Delta, CO
Fort Worth TX
Meridian, ID

Limerick, PA

Philadelphia, PA
Westminster MD

Atlanta, GA
Woodstock, GA
Marrietta, GA
Vestavia Hills, AL
Hoover, AL
Glendale, AZ
Fort Wayne, IN
Berne, IN
Indianapolis IN
Huntertown, IN
Lewis Center, OH
Hillard, OH

St. Clairsville, OH

Canal Winchester, OH
Ridgeland, WI
Clayton, WI
Hillsdale, WI

Louisville, KY

Wheeling IL

Forest Lake, MN

Gila Valley, AZ

Provo, UT

Meridian, ID

Buffalo, NY

THANK YOU!

An unfiinished story

Dear Life,

I want to tell you the story of a beautiful little girl.

Her name is Susanna.

She lives in Eastern Europe in the same country as Sofi.

She is six years old.

She has Spina Bifida.

Unlike Kumaka and all of his friends (including Sofi's), Susanna's Spina Bifida Story is different.

Susanna's back lesion has NEVER been closed.

Susanna has hydrocephalus yet has NEVER had a shunt.

Yet the  orphanage staff speaks of how amazed

they are with the girl moving around her bed

as she is the first child with spina bifida they

have seen do that.
Unfortunately Susanna NEVER LEAVES HER CRIB. 
She has never played with the other children outside of the crib.

Susanna not only interacts with the other child in her room but she has formed a significant relationship of friendship with him.

Their beds are one next to the other and they

exchange toys and “talk” to each other.

The caregivers explained whenever the girl

starts vocalizing, the boy joins her.

They have seen her reach out through the bars of his bed and try to “fix” his clothes the way the caregivers do.

Kumaka has a voice because of his parents.

Sofi has a voice because she will have parents.

Susanna has no voice.

She has no one to fight her battles.

We are praying that SOMEONE will read this, will see her picture, will ask for more information.

Susanna  desperately NEEDS parents who will step in, fight for Susanna to receive the correct medical care and bring her home!

Susanna deserves a chance at life.  A chance with a family.  She needs a miracle.

Susanna is a miracle.

Hopefully she's your miracle.

Sofi update

Dear Life,

We are so thankful to our friends, family and supporters. 

Our main desire for Sofi is to get her 

home so we can provide a loving

 family, with the medical care she 

needs and deserves, and the nurturing

 every child should have.  She  very 

much deserves to have the love and 

care of a family.  Sofi has Spina Bifida, 

and the sooner she receives the care 

we can provide for her the better. I beg

 of you to consider helping us- pray for 

us, consider donating, and spread the 

word.  Please read all of the ways you 

can help at the end of this post. 

 At this time we have had enough donations to cover our homestudy, our inital fees to our adoption agency, and our passports.  This week I sent in our application to the homestudy agency, and am awaiting an appointment date.

I want to answer the biggest question we have heard from everyone..."WHY SO MUCH MONEY?  If the child is an orphan, why aren't they just handing her to you?"  

I know it helps for people to see our needs and what the funds are being used for. We have an agency payment of $3000 due ASAP, (thankful to the unknown donator in Florida who sent 100 dollars to our agency, and to my sister who donated 50 dollars to our agency) and now that we have the money for the Home Study, there are various documents that we need to have taken care of, fingerprints done and sent to the FBI, medical reports, etc that all cost money.

I realize not everyone is familiar with adoption or international adoption, so I figured I would share a bit more detailed explanation. Our US agency prepares our paperwork to send to the country we are adopting Sofi from- which includes a list of about 20 documents from our marriage certificate to passports to documents agreeing not to use our adopted children for body parts (for real...it's in there) to our home study to our financial information.  All of these documents must be prepared and completed in a very specific manner. The US agency also provides support to us, makes sure everything is done to the letter of the law, they maintain a support group, a web site, they maintain files of available children, they oversee the home study (if done by a separate agency),etc. 

The home study is basically a report on our family done by a licensed social worker in our state. She interviews you- in the case of married couples you are interviewed separately and together. This usually takes more than one visit. She inspects the home. She also runs background checks- in the case of a Hague home study, as we are doing, there will be background checks done in every state we have lived in since turning 18. (Thankfully we have only lived in California) She visits with our children a bit and observes our interaction with our children to see us in action. In the end, she either recommends or doesn't recommend us to adopt and this will go to court and be signed off by a judge.

The foundation in the other country consists of attorneys and facilitators who do everything in country for us- they translate the documents, submit them to the government in country, go to court for us- they also visit the children and do individual reports on them and take pictures and video. Their work is extensive and requires them to travel, possibly across the country, to do all of the work. Once we are in country they will be our travel companions and tour guides, accompanying us to the orphanages to meet the children and translate for us, to take us for visa pictures (for the children), etc. The child we have requested to adopt are either orphans or social orphans- in which their parents gave up their parental rights (in order for a child to be available for adoption, this had to happen prior to the agencies ever receiving info about them, so there is no concern that the parents were forced to give up their children). 

Whew, that was a lot!  

If you have any questions, please feel free to ask us.

HOW YOU CAN HELP:

If you are local....SHOES FOR SOFI

Consider going through your closets, finding shoes you no longer wear, shoes your children have grown out of, cleats, dance shoes, any kind of shoes.  As long as the sole is intact, there are no holes, and they match, we'll take them.  When we get at least 5000 pairs of shoes, Angel Bins will come over, weigh our shoes and give us a $3500 dollar check written out to our agency.  

Diamond Necklace Raffle....sponsered by Mimi's Jewelry

(it is enlarged in this picture...it looks big...but it is PERFECTLY sized)

This beautiful necklace was designed by David Truong of Mimi's Jewelry in Fountain Valley, California.  It is a one of a kind piece that David designed with Sofi's story in mind.  At this time, he is allowing me to wear it until the drawing.  It is GORGEOUS..... 

All you need is ten dollars for one ticket.  Here is the website you can go on to buy tickets!  You do NOT have to be present to win.

Lamppost Pizza fundraiser

Will you be in my area on January 17th?  Consider buying your lunch or dinner at Lamppost Pizza and a percentage will go directly to our adoption fund.  Tickets for the raffle will also be available for purchase.   

YouCaring Page

You can send money directly to Sofi's YouCaring page HERE

Direct to Agency

You can also send a tax deductible check to Children's House International.  On the notes please put Jensen Family adoption and they will send you a receipt. (Please let me know if you want their address)

SPREAD THE WORD

Please feel free to share any and all of our fundraisers, our story, etc with anyone that you feel may be interested.  

PRAY  

Of course all prayers are needed and desired.  We know that God hears our prayers, and is definitely in us with this process.  We know that because of the challenges and gifts we have been given, we have been directed towards the path of adoption.  

Spina Bifida Awareness Day 20 - Yordanka's Story....no longer lost

Dear Life,

The next story is very close to my heart.  It's the story of a mama and her sweet girl....Shannon is a new friend to me. She has recently adopted her little girl. Yordanka is new to our country...and to Shannon.  Shannon is new to being a mommy, and new to being a mommy of a little with extras.  This sweet angel girl will melt your heart...and this story will make you cry.  Keep your tissues handy...

this story is not just another Spina Bifida Awareness story...

Fairy Tales do come true…..

Our Spina Bifida story is not the typical story.

I  am the adoptive Mama of a 4 year old, dazzling  little 

brown eyed sprite, that captures the heart of everyone she 

meets.

I made the decision to adopt 8 years ago. I carefully 

planned, saved and prepared. In that time, I worked with 

handicapped children, knew the child I would someday

adopt would have a “special need” ( I deplore that term),

 and I had a list of what I was willing to take on.

Spina Bifida was Not on that list.

When the time came, and I started poring over files of 

children, every time I received a new one, I felt the same 

feelings of excitement, apprehension, fear and enthusiasm

 to be a Mama…..

On a warm sunny afternoon I received a call from my case

worker. She told me she had a file of a little girl with Spina

 Bifida that she thought I would want to look at. At that

 moment in time, even though SB was not on my “list”, 

something told me I needed to see this child.

Nothing anybody said could of prepared me for what I felt,

 when I opened her file and saw her…..

My heart stopped, I had this breathless feeling, , as I took 

in every little detail of her face, hair, eyes, little nose and I

 reached out to touch the screen-I realized I was sobbing.

 (Oh even now, that memory invoke a whirlwind of tears 

all over again)

I knew without a doubt, she was my daughter. I did not

  choose Spina Bifida, an intelligent, playful, creative, 

beautiful, loving little girl chose me to be her Mama.

On September 14, 2012, I met Yordanka for the first time. 

She was even more vivacious in person!

When I look at 

Yordanka, I do not

 see a child that has

 Spina Bifida. There

 is no mourning the 

loss of what she 

might have been! She

 already is! To me she

 does not have a 

handicap, she was given a gift that will enable her to

 achieve and appreciate life & goals few people 

understand. I can say that, because I myself am also 

handicapped. 

 I see a child that has the

 potential even at 4, to do what ever

 she sets her mind too.

I love watching her, as she 

concentrates, she sticks out her

 little tongue.

That’s when Mama knows shes 

really set her mind to it!

As she sits next to me at the 

table coloring with colored 

pencils, she accidentally colors outside the lines. She picks 

up the eraser and ereases the color. I chuckle to myself, her

 OCD is a little unnerving to Mama. I have a sign that 

hangs on the front door that reads “color outside the

 lines”…LOL!  As she looks over at me, she says Mama,

 points to one of the flowers and says “ one”…time to 

practice counting…

She absolutely loves music and 

art, loves to dress all Girly-

Girl, hates her hands being 

dirty, but will crawl thru a 

mud puddle, and splash 

around in it!

 I LOVE THAT ABOUT

 HER!

Yordanka is well aware of the fact that her legs do not 

work like everyone around her. 

The first time I put her on her trike, and stretched her legs 

out to see if her feet would touch the pedals, she shook her

 finger at me and said “Ne Mama”.

When there is  something she wants and it is not within

 grabbing reach, she will pull herself up to reach for it. 

I encourage her to TRY first in everything she does. Yes it 

would be easy to pick her up and carry her everywhere, but 

what will she learn from that?

Putting her in a wheelchair, is something this Mama 

struggles with. She hates to be confined. When we go

 outside, no matter if its sunny or raining, she wants to be

 down and moving.

Our first appointment with the Children's Hospital for 

assessments is in 2 weeks. Whatever I can do, to encourage 

and help her to be mobile without a wheelchair, I will do. I am not naive at all to the fact, that she may opt for one, due to the ease of the mobility. I as  the Mama, have the gift  of encouragement to share with her!  I,  who watches and encourages this little Bug, to TRY first.

Yordanka

-wakes up every morning happy &

 mischievous

-wakes Mama by squeezing her nose, and 

kissing her cheek while giggling

-throws herself on top of me, and squeezes

 her arms around me

-yells “I wuv u Mama”

-is outrageously funny

-cracks herself up, as much as her Mama

-her favorite color is blue

-hates coloring outside the lines

-LOVES bananas

-loves to go everywhere “ready Mama”…

-loves to dance with Mama

-sings at breakfast

-loves to feed her pygmy goat

-not so pumped about the dogs “kissing” her

-loves the cats purring on her lap

-isn't “dressed”  until she has her shoes on & something in her hair-

-loves to swing

-isn't real pumped about her doll cart being used for PT

-giggles until she hiccups when Mama

blows raspberries on her belly

-loves PT when it’s a game, and doesn't know its PT

-smiles and melts hearts

-shy and social all at the same time…

As for being this child's Mama…I AM BLESSED!

If I had to sum up in one word who Yordanka is, it’s 

STRENGTH!

The depth of her personality  and  willingness to push 

herself, and keep trying is overwhelming.

It’s my duty to be true to her,  to encourage, nurture and

enrich her environment and life to help her fulfill her 

dreams and goals.