Why International Adoption?

So I know this blog is all about our current adoption journey, but I'm going to backtrack for this post and take you back to where it all began...

Since we've announced we're adopting again, and about the staggering amount of money we need to raise, we've had a few people wonder why we're choosing to go this route if it's so expensive. This is a good question! Cassidy's adoption cost us just over $5000 and we didn't need to fundraise. So why this way? To explain, I need to back to the start.

John and I started looking into adoption as soon as we were married, since we knew the process was lengthy and likely wouldn't happen right away. This was about ALL I knew on adoption, so the first place we went to for information was the Adoption Support Centre in Saskatoon. We met with a lady who explained to us all about adoption and it's different facets. We learned about 3 different kinds of adoption: private, domestic and international. Here's a rough definition of each of them.

Private: adopting through a private agency or having someone approach you and give you their baby. 

Domestic: adopting through the government of the province you live in. 

International: adopting from another country.

Saskatchewan is the only province (sadly) that has no private adoption agency. All other private agencies in Canada require you to be a resident of their province to adopt with them, meaning we would have to move. We seriously considered this for a time. We had friends that moved to Alberta to adopt but found out they were pregnant so moved back home. We prayed about this but really felt this wasn't where God was leading us. We had just bought a house that we loved and didn't want to leave our family and church behind. We were told the chances of meeting someone that wanted to give us their baby was slim. It happened, but not often (and as you already know, that's exactly how we found Cassidy! God's plan is perfect!)

We decided to fill out the application to be put on the list for domestic adoption in SK. Because this is all done through the government, there are absolutely no costs. Also because of this, the list is LONG. We specified we wanted a child from 0-1 year of age. This is what most people want and we were told we could be waiting for 10+ years or it could never happen. We've been on the list for over 2 years now. We decided to be more proactive and pursue an adoption that could happen in the next few years.

This left us with international adoption. We researched lots of different countries and found that although each country had different rules and regulations, the costs seemed to be the same all across the board, ranging from $30,000-close to $60,000! We decided to look into adopting from the United States. We knew flights wouldn't be as much as to other countries and we wanted a newborn. The States was the only country that adopted out babies this young. We had the form and had begun to fill it out when Cassidy popped into the picture! 

So that brings us to now. We waited until Cassidy's adoption was finalized (which took a lot longer then expected) and picked up where we left off with pursuing an adoption from the States. We are still on the list with domestic adoption in SK and of course, another private adoption like Cassidy's is always a possibility, but it's not something we can actively seek out. I hope this explains why we're choosing this route, even though it's so expensive. I've asked our central authority why agencies charge so much and the sad news is, they don't need to but they know people will pay for it. It's all a money grab scheme. 

We've been saving since we've been married and that, along with what we've been given and have raised so far, puts us at $15,700 right now. We still need another $20,000 to reach our goal, but we are off to a good start. We aren't able to take out a loan since we're maxed out on our mortgage so we are relying on friends and family and of course, our great big God, to help us raise the rest! It's a big amount of money, but God is bigger and He's teaching me to trust Him! 

Please, if you have any other questions about our adoption or adoption in general, don't hesitate to ask. I am by no means an expert on all things adoption but I would love to share more of what I've learned! 

More Fundraising...

I feel like I can breathe again...

The 2 weeks previous to this one were absolute madness. We had event after event. Praise in the Park was first on a Saturday, then that Monday started the week of DVBS that I directed, then the next week I started teaching piano again so I had prep to do for that, then that weekend was our massive garage sale. Whew! All very good things, and I was super SUPER blessed by all of them, but still. Busy. And now I'm fighting what I am scared may be strep throat. But at least life has slowed down a bit.

A bit..but not a lot. All our adoption paperwork got put on hold due to the madness and this week I have started at that again. We are THIS close to being done our homestudy! We have our medicals booked for next week (yay?) and after we get those forms signed, we can have our second and final meeting to hand in all the documents, then our wonderful home study practitioner does her thing and off it goes to Regina, then Nevada! Yahoo!! I have also started looking at how to make our picture book. I am super excited about this part, but also very nervous. Because some lady is going to look at our book and what is written and pictured in that book will help her decide if she wants us to raise her baby. That is no small decision! Prayers would be appreciated as we put the book together that we will say and show the right things. Most of all, I want this book to reflect how much we love Jesus. I want the woman giving us her baby to know that it will be raised in a home where Jesus is taught, loved and worshipped. 

Now that the garage sale is finished, it's time to start thinking about our next fundraiser. Thinking about it? I've already got details for you! Every year Warman puts on a Craft and Bake Sale. I bought a spot and we are going to be selling Christmas baking at the sale this year. It is on Nov. 16 at the Legends Centre (new location). Here's where you can help! I am looking for people wiling to do some baking for us for this event. It can be whatever you want to make, but preferably something Christmassy! If you would like to do some baking for us, please contact me by Facebook, email (john.mandiletkeman@hotmail.com) or phone (306-292-9427). I am aiming for LOTS of goodies to sell, so the more the merrier! And of course, all proceeds made will go to our adoption! 

Thanks again for all your support and just for reading my blog! I have really enjoyed blogging and I may have to keep it up once baby is here! 

Count Your Many Blessings, Name Them One by One!

We sang the song "Count Your Blessings" in church this morning, and the words really struck me. We really are truly blessed. We live in a beautiful country where we have the freedom to worship without fear of persecution, we have a roof over our heads, food in abundance, clean drinking water, I could go on and on. It's so easy for us to look at what someone else has and feel envious and I admit it happens to me a lot, so this song was a good reminder that I am truly, richly blessed and I need not take it for granted. One way I am feeling especially blessed today is with the success of our garage sale!

I never realized how much work a garage sale is! I suppose this is because I've never put one on myself, but just "helped" my parents when they had them (Helped being used very loosely!) We asked for donations and boy did people respond! We had more then we knew what to do with (a very good problem!) We spent a lot of prep time in the garage sorting, organizing and pricing before the big day. Then of course there was the work of hauling all the tables and boxes out Friday afternoon, back in for the night, back out Saturday morning and then taking all the stuff away once it was over.

Before you think "Wow, I can't believe they did all that themselves!", we didn't!! There is a multitude of people I need to thank for their time and help to us! Thanks to my friends Kirsten and Amanda who came to hang out with me and help price stuff ahead of time, thanks to Janie who came over Friday after lunch and helped me haul out the tables (the book table was HEAVY!) Thanks to my sister in law Alicia and her wonderful boys who made cookies and iced tea to sell. The boys were so generous and gave all the money they made to help us get a new cousin for them :) And a big thanks to both our sets of parents and my grandparents. Both our moms and my grandma did a lot of baking, which sold extremely well and fast, and they all came to help us set up, John's parents helped us put everything away Friday night and my parents and grandma came and helped us clean up everything on Saturday. Your help did not go unappreciated! You were a huge blessing to us! 

Of course, the sale would not have been successful without stuff to sell and people to buy it! Thank you to EVERYONE who donated to us! We were overwhelmed with how generous people gave (although I'm sure they didn't mind us helping them get rid of their stuff!) And thank thank thank you to everyone who came and bought something (shout out especially to Lynnette Klassen!) Something happened again and again during the sale and it never failed to amaze me. People who we didn't know, but who saw our sign and what we were fundraising for, stopped to talk to us about our adoption. I of course do not get tired of telling people all about it, but what amazed me was their excitement for us. Complete strangers who did not know us were genuinely excited for us and wished us well. This blew me away! With all the evil and depravity in this world, it was wonderful to see the kindness shown to us by strangers. I hope we were able to be a little piece of Jesus to them.

So, when all was said and done, we made just over $1200!!! My goal was to reach $1000 so I was super pleased with what we raised. God is good and gave us great weather and a great turnout of people. A good fundraising kick start! A few people have messaged me wanting to support us financially and asked me for our address. If you feel led to give to us and would like to do that, our address is Box 1801
                                                    Warman, SK   S0K 4S0
Also, if you would like to send us an email money transfer (I just discovered this, it is so cool!), our email is john.mandiletkeman@hotmail.com.
I always get uncomfortable asking for money, but we really do need financial help with this adoption. Please pray about it and if you feel led, we really do appreciate your support! You are leaving a wonderful legacy for our child!

I'm going to end this long post (I know, I ramble) and leave you with some pictures from our sale! Thanks for reading!

Everything set up and ready to sell sell sell!

Two of my handy helpers

Cousins at their iced tea/cookie stand!

GARAGE SALE!!!

ADOPTION FUNDRAISER GARAGE & BAKE SALE!

Friday September 6 from 3:00-8:00

Saturday September 7 from 9:00-3:00

401 7th Ave N

***Toys, Games, Books, DVD/VHS, Puzzles, Kitchen Items, Craft Supplies, Sports Items, Home Decor, Clothes for all ages, Shoes, Purses, Stuffed Animals, Bicycles, Office Chair, Mirror, Bookshelves, Scooters, Sandbox, Wagon, Accordian, Filing Cabinet, Lawn Decor and plenty of fresh baking!***

ALL PROCEEDS GO TOWARDS OUR ADOPTION!

*We will also be accepting donations*

Well friends, we are ready for our first big fundraiser! John and I spent our Labour Day labouring in the garage and now everything is priced, organized and set out on tables! Our garage is still stuffed to the brim but at least it's an organized mess now! The coolest thing is we've already made $140 and it hasn't even started yet! That's thanks to some friends who stopped by and "pre-ordered" :) We are very excited about this weekend and hope you can stop by and check it out! We would appreciate prayer for nice weather and for a successful sale! 

It's All Good!

Hi everyone! Sorry I've been so silent on here, but we've had a busy August! Can it really be almost over? I think I'm in denial that my front lawn is already covered in leaves. So many people are saying they love fall, but for me fall is just a glaring reminder that winter is right around the corner. Ugh. 
So like I said, we've been busy! We took a family trip to Alberta near the beginning of August for a good friend's wedding, and the week after Cassidy and I left with my parents to spend 6 days in Vernon, BC for my cousin's wedding, for which she was a flower girl! 

*BRAG ALERT*

 I have to say I was a little nervous about parenting solo, although my parents were of course a huge help, but Cassidy did AWESOME! Seriously, she completely blew me away. We were go go go the whole time, squeezing in naps when we could, and staying up late and spending MANY long hours in the car, and she was a champ! She didn't complain once, I hardly had to discipline her, she was happy and even though she had a couple of very traumatizing experiences with porta potties, it did not set back her potty training thank goodness! Traveling with her was an absolute breeze. Plus she really rocked the whole flower girl gig! She's a natural!

Here's a few pictures from our trip!

 Ready to go!

 I was actually freaking out as I took this picture and as soon as I snapped the shot, she was off of that thing!

She loved being a "fower girl" :)

 Her new friend Timmy so graciously sharing his goldfish with her!

Loving the water!

What a fun holiday, but does it ever feel good to be home! Cassidy was up at 5:30 or 6 every morning in BC but thankfully has fallen right back into her old routine and is sleeping till 8:30 again. Now that I'm home, I'm super busy putting the final details together for VBS at our church next week. Please pray that we will get lots of kids and that God will work in a mighty way for his glory!

Wait a second, the real reason I came on here was to give you an adoption update! I had last heard from our agency about 3 weeks ago.  They were still waiting to hear from our Central Authority in Regina. The agency that we are working with has never worked with anyone in SK before, so there were some things they needed to discuss. In the busyness of holidays, I kept forgetting to email to ask where things were at. Well! Today I got an email saying they had touched base with our guy in Regina and we are good to go to start officially working with them! This means we can start putting together our profile for the birth mother, as we continue to work on our home study as well. I know this is not huge huge news but to me every small step is one step closer to holding my baby in my arms, so I am rejoicing today! God is good! Our garage sale is in 2 weeks and our garage is a MESS! There is just enough space for us to park our car and the rest is full of stuff! This is a very very good thing, although it is driving my husband a bit crazy, as he likes his garage neat and orderly. People have been so generous in giving for this! The dates are September 6 in the evening and September 7 all day, so come check it out! There will also be baking for sale and I think there may be two cute boys with a lemonade stand :)

Thanks for your prayers! I know I sound like a broken record, but we really do appreciate them and you!

Quick Update

Hello all! So things are moving along nicely! I got an email from our agency the other day saying that they have received our application (YAY!) and we just had our first home study visit tonight, which was wonderful! The same lady who did our home study with Cassidy is doing this one as well and it was wonderful to visit with her again. She was quite happy to see Cassidy again and to see how well she's doing. 

I am so thankful that we already have one adoption under our belt going into this one. I am so relaxed about this and just excited, and yet I know I would be completely overwhelmed if this was our first. It's a different kind of adoption and their are different unknowns, but at the stage we're at it's nothing we haven't done before, which makes it so much easier. 

Our garage is slowly piling up with stuff to sell at our sale in September! People have been so generous in donating items and I have a lot more stuff that I know is coming yet! The tentative date for our sale is Friday Sept 6 in the evening and all day Sat, the 7th. I'm super excited about it! 

Summer feels like it's flying by, can it really be August already?? We have a busy month planned with two weddings in different provinces, Praise in the Park and DVBS at our church that I'm directing. Yikes! I like being busy though, and it'll keep my mind off of BABY because that's all I can think about most of the time. I wish we were further along in the process already, but I know that with every step we're getting there and it will all happen in God's time. Patience has never been my strong suit! 

We appreciate the prayers and support! Keep it up!

Love the Letkemans 

Praise in the Park!

Hello friends! I started this blog with the intention to write mainly about our adoption journey, but every now and then I want to write about other things I'm passionate about too. Hence, this post!

I am passionate about Jesus. I've been walking with Him since I turned 5 and it's been the most incredible journey. I can't imagine going through this life without Jesus by my side. I am thankful every single day that I was raised in a home where His name was preached and loved. I shudder to think what my life would've been like without Him. He truly is my best friend, my truest love and the ultimate Savior, and one of my most favorite things to do in the whole wide world is worship Him through music. I've been playing piano since I was 7 and I have been blessed to be a part of some amazing music opportunities. Praise in the Park tops the list!

Praise in the Park was started by my brother-in-law Mark Janzen, who wanted to do some sort of outreach to the (then town) of Warman. He came up with the idea of a giant outdoor concert in one of the parks. He put together a band (We That Breathe) and Praise in the Park was born. Both John and I are part of We That Breathe and this will be our 3rd summer playing with them. It's been such a blast! We came together from a few different churches, some of us not knowing others and having never played together before, but we just clicked and now we have such a great time every time we get together to play. It's truly a blessing.

God works in mysterious ways. In my life I find that the more I seek Him, the more He shows Himself to me, but sometimes there's those moments where you He shows you a glimpse of Himself in a BIG, HUGE way! I don't get those moments very often, but when I do I am always completely humbled and astounded. God did that with Cassidy's adoption. Throughout the whole process I felt complete peace, and while everything around me screamed "Worry! Freak out!", I didn't. I had a peace that passes all understanding. That was God. God has also done that with Praise in the Park. 
The first year, we met to practice the Saturday afternoon before the concert that evening. It was windy and despite the clips to hold down our music, they were still blowing around quite wildly. So we prayed. We prayed for God to calm the wind and for everything to be still. I admit that I doubted. I doubted that the wind would entirely go away. After all, this is Saskatchewan. That night, it was calm. Calmer then I can ever remember. There was not a single tiny breeze to be found. God did that. 
The second year, on the day of Praise in the Park, thunderstorms were in the forecast. We practised that afternoon and scary looking clouds loomed above us. Again, we prayed. People asked if it was cancelled and we said no. And we kept praying. The evening began and though the clouds never left, we never felt a single drop of rain the whole time. John and I stayed to help pack up the instruments after and then we walked home. As soon as we got in the house, the sky let loose with the most incredible light-show I have every seen in my life. The thunder crashed and lightning lit up the sky and the rain poured down. I remember sitting and watching with wide eyes, completely entranced at the wonder unfolding in the sky. I truly believe God held back the storm and then let loose, showing us that He really is all that we just sang about. That was one of the most incredible God moments of my life!

This summer Praise in the Park is on August 24 at 7:30 at the Lion's Park in Warman, same place it's always been for those of you who have been before. Last year we had  more people then the year before and we are hoping for even more this year, especially those that don't know Jesus, or are wanting to know Him. I am SO excited! God has blessed us big time already and I can't wait to see what He's going to do this year! So please, tell your friends, especially if they don't know Jesus, and let's fill the park and get loud for Jesus. He is worthy of all our praise! 
Psalm 150
"Praise the Lord! Praise God in His sanctuary; praise Him in His mighty heavens. Praise Him for His acts of power; prasie Him for His surpassing greatness. Praise Him with the sounding of the trumpet; praise Him with the harp and lyre, praise Him with tambourine and dancing, praise Him with the strings and flute, praise Him with the clash of cymbals, praise Him with resounding cymbals. Let everything that has breath praise the Lord!"