A Much Needed Update :))))

Wow, just saw that my last post was May 8, 2012.  Um, yes much has changed within the year and the majority of people who will read this, will already know the changes that have occurred since.  We'll start with the referral :).

September 7, 2012 -  Hannah Kisakye was referred to us.  She was 15 months old at time of referral.
January 2013 -  No new progress had been made on our case and we were still waiting for our case to be brought to court so that we could come travel.
April 6, 2013 - God decided it was time to send Mommy to Uganda even though we had not been submitted to court yet.  I booked my ticket to leave May 6, 2013.
May 8, 2013 -  Arrived at the Good Samaritan Children's Home in Uganda and met our sweet baby girl whose name we gave as Renee.
May 14, 2013 - Renee turns 2 years old and I'm here at the orphanage to be with her.
May 26th - Daddy arrives at orphanage to join Mommy and Renee as we wait for our court date.
Currently - Hoping to receive court date this week.

So there it is in a nutshell, a small one albeit too.  I will try to update on the blog a bit more as we wait.  There is so much to say and be thankful for here.  I've been here officially now for 4 weeks and feel almost Ugandan, a little bit more each day.  God is good, and God is able and God has blessed us with this experience in so many ways.  We can't wait to introduce our daughter to everyone.  She is truly a Klinchuch and so belongs in our crazy family.  We love this girl and know you will love her too!

Race Results and Racing through our Thoughts

What great news to post today on our blog!  Bryan and I raced the 5k and half marathon trail race for the Owls Roost Rumble on April 28th.  We raised a total of $1600 for the Good Samaritans Childrens Home.  Our goal was $2500, but we are so proud of what you all chipped in with your hearts, prayers and wallets to get us this much!  $1600 will feed and clothe a lot of children for months in Uganda.  I was very excited to send this money through our agency to the orphanage.  Thank you to the following families and people who donated:
The Brays, Newcombs, Hobbs, Comptons, Dudas, Barnes, Smiths, Hills, Klinchuchs, Lowders, JT, Dad, Curtis, Cocks, Wells, Munsons, Tippets, Leppos, Beckers, Goliszeks, LeVerings, Phares and Caseys. 

We are still waiting for our referral and to know who God reveals to us who our daughter is and we continue to pray for her safety, love and comfort as we wait.  The boys asked us if we felt excited and stressed when we waited for their referrals too?  Of course!  They are excited and anxious to know who their sister is too.  This is not the hardest part of an adoption, but definitely an anxious part.  Every time my phone rings or I hear the 'ding' of an email coming in, I wonder "Is this it?  Maybe it's our agency!" Then it's not and I say "Okay, it always happens when you are not thinking it's going to happen."  Which is true, very true.  When both of our boys referrals came in, I had no idea in that moment and was not expecting it.  Brayan's came at the end of a very long work day in the office and I almost didn't take the call from my desk because I just wanted to go home.  What a wonderful surprise when I answered it and my oldest child was "born" on April 4th 2005. By "born" I mean not physically being born from their mothers womb, but God's revealing of who He chose our child to be. Joey's came after a long day of traveling from Mobile, AL back to Caldwell, ID on planes with a 20 month old.  We got home and I was so exhausted and Brayan was so grumpy.  I turned on my computer and there was the email at 6:00 that night, my second child was "born" on October 4th 2006.  Both of those days are so clearly ingrained in my head that I can recall the smallest of little things from that day, like even what I was wearing. 

Our daughters referral cannot come soon enough some days, but Bryan and I continue to remind ourselves that she will come at God's timing which is always the perfect time. 

Peace and Love to you all!! 

Bryan and Bridgette

Pictures of the Good Samaritans Childrens Home

The agency sent us pictures of the children's home yesterday.  I am sharing a couple with all of you.  The pictures are of the new front of the home and the children who already reside in it.  We were told also that currently, they are almost ready to receive smaller children from 1-4 and are still in need of supplies as they finish the nursery and update the other living spaces in the home.  Thank you so much so far to all of you who have donated and sponsored us in our race for this home.  We are greatful and excited to run our butts off for this cause and celebrate you all for helping change the lives of children! 

Dossier On it's Way!

Our dossier left Greensboro for Kampala, Uganda on Monday afternoon and will be received in Kampala, Uganda tomorrow.  This is very exciting because now we wait for a referral from the orphanage. We are ready of course and very excited to find out who this new daughter is. 
Our rummage sale did so well and we were able to raise $2000 dollars that we have decided to do one more!  It would be great to raise another $1500 before we have to travel.  We have lowered the cost of the shirts to $10 a shirt now so if anyone is interested we really would love to and need to sell more of these. 
Updates about the Good Samaritan's Children's Home: Godfrey the director of the home is preparing the facilities for toddlers now.  The government has 8 children between the ages of 1-3 they are holding until Godfrey gets the facility ready for toddlers.  He is expected to be able to take these children in within the next 2 weeks.  Help us help these children.  We have committed to raise an additional $2500 that will go straight to support the existing children at The Good Samaritan's Children's Home and help allow them to care for more.  We are looking for sponsors for an upcoming trail run "Owls Roost Rumble" in Greensboro, to help raise this $2500.  Anything we raise in excess of this $2500 going straight to the orphanage will go to help defer travel costs for some missionaries that want to for part of our trip.  They will be of great assistance to the Orphanage as will this $2500....so dig deep and help us help them.  For those that want to make a sizeable donation please go to http://www.carolinaadoption.org/donate/ and you can donate there online and get a receipt to donors for tax deductible charitable contributions.  I have also attached a website for the home, but it is still a work in progress it looks like, but it gives you an idea of where it is and what they do there for kids. 
I can't wait to post on here our daughter's referral!  For those of you who might be wondering what's next after the referral, this is not a 'cookie cutter' program so anything is possible. 
Please keep us in your prayers and thoughts for a smooth or at least semi smooth ride here.  Thank you so much everyone for all your continuing love, prayers, support and time with us in this journey!

Peace and Love,
The Klinchuch's

Almost Dossier Ready

We have some updates on the adoption.  My last email I detailed to you all that our agency had to pull out of The Sanyu Babies Home as the home could no longer take anymore waiting families dossiers because the wait time for a referral of a child was almost a year.  We were really nervous about where and who our agency would choose and we had a many a sleepless night waiting to hear some news. 

Last Tuesday, we heard from our agency that they had signed a contract to work with the Good Samaritans Childrens Home in Jinja, Uganda.  This home is a fairly new childrens home only been around since 2007.    Good Samaritan has never done any adoptions as they have been a home that children who are homeless on the street go to for a safe place to live and get some education before having to leave there and be on their own forever.  There are children in the home now from the ages of 4-15 years old.  We are approved by our homestudy to adopt a 1-4 year old. This home is getting ready to start taking in toddlers.  They have no cribs, formula or diapers in their current facilities to take care of toddlers so they will be ready in 2 months for that.  If there is a 4 year old who is available that is a match for us, we will receive a 4 year old possibly. 

Let me just say that this journey has been very emotional over the last couple of weeks.  We had set our hearts on Sanyu and to receive a child who had amazing and adequate care for an orphanage and we were nervous about this new orphanage as it's less well known.  We truly believe that the Lord is in charge of this and He will take us to the place where He feels the need is for us to be.  We feel now that Good Samaritan Home is that place and we are excited to finally be matched with a little girl from there. This is an opportunity to help a children's home grow and get funding to take care of more children who are homeless there.  Let me stress that Uganda has the largest number of orphans than any other country in the world.  It is overwhelming to comprehend and to think about our future experience that awaits us.  The boys are excited about their little sister and we talk as a family how much we intend to love and pray for her now and when she comes home.
RUMMAGE SALE

Okay, now onto some serious fundraising stuff.... :)
We have scheduled the Rummage Sale to take place on March 3rd at New Hope Presbyterian Church (2570 Harper Rd., Clemmons NC) and we have had many donations, but we still haven't FILLED the garage.  This is a large place to have it and we want to fill up that space.  Right now, I need tons more stuff.  I am asking all of you who know anyone around the area to send the attached flier and see if we can really get even more stuff.  I mean LOTS!  Right now I don't have enough stuff for a rummage sale and if I don't get enough, then it won't be worth the facilities.  Please, please help us with this.  Go through your stuff as this is a perfect time for spring cleaning.  If you need us to come get it, we can do that and will do it happily. :))))   Also, if you haven't bought a t-shirt and still want one, please let me know as we have lots of them to still sell. 

Peace and love,
Bryan and Bridgette

Whoo Hoo! Succesfull Yardsale!

It was a very cold 30 degrees yesterday morning at 6 a.m., but none the less Bryan, Smitty and I unloaded the garage onto the driveway and our yardsale began.  We sold until 2 p.m. and raised an awesome $600!  That is a ton for a yardsale people!  We sold about 20 shirts and and had very few items left to pack up from the inventory.  I would like to shout out to the following families for all their help and donations for this fundraising event for us: The Smith's, The Barnes', The Sherrill's, The Taylor's, The Turvavilles, The Page's, The Higgins, The Kute's, The MacMillans and The Krump's.  Thank you so much to Meredith for helping me sort, price, collect and work the sale with me and for Smitty, your husband and his labor to help us unload it all yesterday morning.  It was great fun with you all!  Thank you to the Sherrill's who donated probably at least a good $200 worth of stuff :)) and for bringing us lunch and helping us breakdown.  A big shout out to the Barnes', for taking our children yesterday morning so we could work the sale without having to worry about Joey coming outside asking for his toenails to be clipped every 5 minutes :)))).  Seriously, he was doing that. 

We have decided that we will pursue another type of selling event such as a rummage sale.  So I am now going to be collecting for items to sell in February for that.  If you have any items you want to donate, please let me know! 

Even though we still have a lot of money to raise, we are moving fast forward in this adoption anyways.  We just found out that the Adoption Tax Credit will be expiring after 2012.  That means we would normally get about $13,000 credited after our adoption is finalized, but with the expiration it will revert back to pre-Bush tax cuts which was only $5000 credited.  So with that being said, we are trying to do everything that is in our power and control to move this along a little faster so that our daughter may be home next December.  What's in our power you might ask??? Our paperwork and Dossier preparation.  We can work hard over the next 3 months to get everything collected and put together so that we are "referral" ready by March.  After that, not much is left in our control technically.  Just waiting and praying. 

Please consider purchasing a shirt please!  They are only $15 for the Adult and Childs: S, M, L, XL.  The Adults XXL is $17.  Longsleeved T's are all $20. 

If you have us ship the T-shirt to you we have to add on a shipping fee of $4.  If we can deliver them to you directly, there is no need to pay the shipping fee.  Please, please help us sell these.  They are a high quality and neat t-shirt to wear. 

Peace and Love,

Bryan and Bridgette