Taking a look back!

    What a difference 6 years makes. Six years ago today we were waiting in a line with many other people. Standing and waiting for what seemed like hours. My heart was racing and I remember trying not to cry. I was tired and yet energized at the same time..... It was a day that changed our lives forever.

   January 29th, 2006 I was sitting in my office trying to finish up for the day when I received a phone call that changed everything. That phone call informed us that someone had forgot to call and they just found out that we had an appointment at the US embassy in Guatemala City Guatemala the morning of Jan. 31st! 

   I don't think we had time to be in shock... I remember hanging up the phone and walking to Pastor Mike's office and informing him that I would need to be gone for the next week. Then we scrambled to purchase plane tickets and pack. Fifteen hours later we were on our way to Guatemala. We landed in Guatemala City at around 8:30 pm. Being our third trip there, at least we did not feel like we were in a strange place with no idea where to go. After picking up our luggage we were off to meet Israel our hired driver. Israel took us to our hotel and told us that Fifo would meet us in the lobby at 6:30 the next morning.  Fifo is the son of our lawyer in Guatemala city, and our liaison for all of our Government appointments.

   We were able to get a decent nights sleep, but we anxiously were awaiting the next morning when we would get to hold Karter again. This time was even more anxious because we knew we would not have to leave Karter in Guatemala when we returned home!

   6:30 am came quickly and we raced to the lobby to get Karter. When we got to the lobby, we found Fifo, but no Karter. Fifo told us that Veronica, Karter's foster mom, was running late and would meet us at the embassy. We left for the embassy and met up with Veronica. It was a very emotional moment as she handed Karter to us. Veronica had taken care of Karter for the first year of his life and loved him like he was her child. She realized that this meant saying good bye for ever... As much as that broke my heart, I could not hide my excitement to take him out of her arms and to hold this child that in a matter of a few moments would officially be our son.

   By 11:30 am, everything was official and Karter was ours! All that remained was a name change when we got home. See, his name at that moment became Abner Josue Vanosdol. We spent the rest of our time in Guatemala loving on our son and beginning to establish the bonds of a forever family! It was a long journey from holding him when he was just three weeks old to waiting another year to get to bring him home, but it was an amazing journey!

   Six years later... Karter just celebrated his 7th birthday a couple weeks ago, and I am always amazed to see what he has learned and how he is growing up. Our journey as a family has had its ups and downs like any family does, but I would not trade the journey for anything in the world!

   So today we will celebrate Family Day with Karter and remember this journey together. Only this year we get to include his baby sister... Something that Karter had been praying for months before we started her adoption. He is such an awesome son who has a huge heart and an unconditional love for his family. 

   As I look back, I often wish that some day Veronica could see who Karter has become. You see, without someone like Veronica, I'm not sure Karter would have had a chance, but I believe God put her in the right place to welcome a 3 week old boy into her home not knowing she would be caring for him for an entire year. Her love for him that we saw each of our three trips to Guatemala is what made it easier for us to come home and know he was being well taken care of.

   As the journey continues, I can't wait to see what God has in store for our family! But, on this day... I just want to say... 

   

   WELCOME HOME KARTER! WE LOVE YOU WITH ALL OUR HEART'S! I AM SO PROUD TO HAVE YOU AS A SON!!!!!! WELCOME TO YOUR FOREVER FAMILY!!! 

Now that 2012 is here I'm starting to get more excited, and anxious about our adoption. we still have not been matched with a child, but we are confident that God has that perfect little girl for our family just waiting to join us.
  It is amazing to see how God provides when we follow His will for our lives. I say this because when we we started this process, we had no idea how we were going to come up with the money that it would cost. In case you did not know, adoption is very expensive. You can see the estimated cost and the amount we have raised so far on the thermometer to the right of this post. The amazing thing is that we knew God was leading us into another adoption, and even though we did not have the money, We knew He would provide. As you can see we have raised over $16,000 so far! Over $500 of that has been in the last week by selling things we don't need on the Perryton Pickers group I started. It is amazing, and sad, to see how much stuff we have laying around that we do not even use.
So in a nutshell, although our adoption may not be happening as fast as we would like... We know that God is still in control and His plan is far better than ours. To anyone who has help us out, i want to say a huge thank you! You will never know what it means to us to have friends and family who are so supportive!
Hopefully the next time I blog, i will be able to share some more exciting ways God has provided.

Amazing Friends!

   Normally, Monday morning would not be a good time for me to sit down and write anything that would make much sense, so I hope this day will be different.

  

 The adoption is moving along, and all of our paper work has been sent to China. Now we are waiting for China to log all of our information and then the agency will be able to begin matching us up with a child. Every step puts us one step closer! Although the waiting can be a challenge, we have been blessed with a peace that I could not explain any other way than to say it is God's peace. We have faith that God has the perfect child picked out to be part of our family.

   In the waiting, we have been blessed with some great friends and family who have helped support us. We have been trying to sell anything we can to raise money, and we are doing well. We have a friend who started a Scentsy fundraiser for us, and friends who have handed us money. Yesterday was a day that blew us away as a good friend handed us a check for $5000 for our adoption! It is amazing and fun to watch how people have blessed by blessing us!!

   We have now started selling Tupperware again to help out. We sold it when we were raising money to adopt Karter and had some success at it. This time I really hope we will be able to have a consistent client base that we can sell far beyond this adoption and begin raising money for KartersDream.com which we started to help children around the world find forever families, and we also use it to support our local toys for tots. We have a lot of fun blessing children and families with what God has provided for us. We also use all the profits from my Coke machines, candy machines, and snake machine at Blades and the courthouse to support these efforts, so if you are in Perryton at Blades, Capital Farm Credit, or the Courthouse, get a snack and help a child!

   As we are waiting, we are also have fun getting things ready! The past week, this has included build a giant 80 sq ft playhouse for Karter and Kayman to enjoy. Karter has been very excited to help out, and can't wait to have it finished and show it to his sister. It has been a fun project and has been build mostly out of recycled (FREE) lumber, so it has also been fun for me to design with and reuse materials instead of them going to the landfill.

   Thank you everyone who has been part of this journey! If you would like to donate, you can at the right side of this blog. If you would like to host an online or catalog Tupperware party, just send me an email at jason.vanosdol@gmail.com and I would love to help you out with that!

The papers are in the mail - Part 2

Ok, so it's the same title on a new post... but it's true. It's not quite like the saying "the check's in the mail" but sometimes it can feel that way. Now all of our paperwork is being sent for authentication by the various US agencies with a final destination to the Chinese Consulate's office in Houston. There are so many steps involved, but we are quickly arriving at the end of the paper trail! Once the documents are approved by the Consulate, all we have to do is wait!!

Since we are adopting through China's waiting child program, Heather and I got to spend a couple hours looking through their list of waiting children a few days ago. (If you don't know, this program is primarily for kids with special needs.) After looking through about 75 kids, my heart was very heavy. It was very sad to me to see little kids with some very major problems and to think they may not ever find a family to love them. I wish we had the means to help all of them, but we can't.

We did find one little girl who stole our hearts, but when we tried to lock her file (basically reserve her for us), she had already been scooped up by another family. That was sad news for us, but at the same time, I know God already has a little girl in China just waiting to become Kayman. I keep thinking back to our process in adopting Karter and realizing that if we hadn't run into delays in that process... we would not have our Karter!

God has a plan for our family, and I really have no place to question that. We just can't wait to see how it all works out and when our family will include one more!

If you would like to help us meet our goal, please take a moment to click on the donate button to the right of this page. All gifts will be greatly appreciated and will go directly to our adoption. If you do donate, you will see that it shows you gave to KartersDream.com. This is a site we started with the hope of someday being able to turn it into a foundation to help other children find their forever home!

If you have help us out, thank you so much! It has been amazing to see how much our friends and family help out. We could never express how much each and every one of you mean to us!

The papers are in the mail

Our paperwork has been mailed to Homeland Security and we are not waiting on a fingerprint appointment.

With every step the anticipation continues to grow in our family. Heather and I cannot wait to be able to put a picture with the name for our little girl, and Karter is so excited that everyday he comes up with something else he will teach, show, tell, or buy for his sister. It's so exciting to see his excitement throughout this process.

Now we are continuing to sell what ever we can to raise money. Our goal is to go throughout this entire adoption completely debt free. We know that with the help of our friends, family, and complete strangers, we can see this goal accomplished.

Many of you who will read this have purchased a cookbook from us that we published full of recipes from family and friends. We thank each and every one of you! every dollar collected puts us one step closer to our goal. If you have not purchased a cookbook, we still have a few available for $15. You can email me, catch me on facebook, or leave a comment to this blog with your information and I will contact you.

I have also started a group on facebook called Perryton Pickers for people in our area to buy, sell, trade, or give away things in our area. Everything I list for sale on there will go directly to our adoption as well.

Another way you can help out is simple by clicking on the donate button to the right of this blog. It will take you to Paypal where you can make a donation directly to our adoption. The donation will say it was made to Karters Dream which is the beginnings of a foundation we are hoping to use to help adoptions and kids in need around the world. Right now, all of the money collected goes to help us bring home Kayman.

We thank each and everyone of you, and ask that you would continue to pray for our family. Please be sure to check back often to see what's going on. You can also see our fundraising process on the Thermometer on the right side of this blog. I can't wait to see it completely full! and hopefully even more than we need so we can bless another family.

One step closer

We finished our home study this past Friday which puts us one step closer to welcoming a little girl into our family. The Social Worker said she plans to have it all complete in two weeks. Once that is finished up, we will be able to get fingerprinted and begin looking at available children. It's strange to think that we can basically pick out our child from a catalog, but that is kind of what we will be doing. I am just trusting that God will lead us to the perfect fit for our family. He already knows who she is... Now we just have to listen to His will.

Karter is very excited to get a sister, and is now thinking he needs a sister and a brother. He really doesn't understand why we tell him for now we are just trying to get him a sister. Of coarse he promises to share all of his toys with his sister, but we'll see how that works! The one thing he told us he would not share is his puppy!

It makes me more excited to see and hear his excitement grow as we get farther along in the adoption process. Many of you may not know, but Karter has been talking about and praying for his sister for probably about two years. He always leaves a seat for her in the car when we go on trips, and often picks out toys for her to play with. He have really enjoyed getting to help decorate her room and start looking at things at the store for her. In fact, we are planning a trip to build-a-bear to make a stuffed animal for her. He can't wait!

The adoption process is long and hard, but it is very exciting to think that soon we will have a daughter! Karter has been such a blessing in our lives, and I know Kayman will just add to that blessing. I just can't wait to jump on a plane and go get her!

A New Journey...

It has been awhile since my last post, and many things have changed. For starters, a few months ago I started a company called VisionMedia Productions with the purpose of bring quality family entertainment to the Texas panhandle area. We have successfully promoted 2 concerts with a great response. I am now looking forward to heading on down this road and seeing where it leads. I have made some great contacts in the industry and get many calls and emails from agencies and performers that may come to Perryton in the future. It is exciting to be able to bring in events to an area where we drive 120 miles to go to a concert. Now we are seeing people drive 120 miles or more to come to Perryton!

The biggest change since the last post is that we have begun a second adoption process! We are now in the process of filling out all of the papers to adopt from China! Karter is very excited and pr ayes for "his sister" every night. He has even insisted on us buying a couple things for her. It is a little scary to travel down this road again, but we are ready and excited to have a new member in our family.

My goal is to be sure to keep this blog updated with any updates and progress reports along the way, so here is where we are right now.

We are now in the stage of fundraising to help cover the cost of adoption. We have complied a professional printed cookbook filled with recipes from our friends and family. The cost of these books is $15 each plus $3 shipping (if you live out of our area). You can order your book by sending an email to Heather or I at Kartersmom@centramedia.net or Kartersdad@centramedia.net . If you want to pay by paypal, just let me know and I can send you an invoice. We hope the cookbooks as well as some other homemade products for sale on www.Kartersdream.com as well. If you would like to make a donation to our adoption fund, you can visit www.Kartersdream.com and click on the donation button on the left hand side of the page. Every dollar helps, and we are very thankful for everyone who helps us out.

-Jason Vanosdol