We are excited to announce that we have officially accepted a referral for a precious 6 year old girl form China! She is a healthy, beautiful girl who attends kindergarten. Our timeline is actually moving fairly quickly, so travel is likely within the next couple months. We cannot post pictures because of a social media privacy policy, but when you see me, be sure to ask and I would love to show you her picture!
There are still many things that need to be accomplished before we travel, your prayers are so greatly appreciated. For travel safety, health, financial provision, and most of all for the Lord to prepare the way for us to be all together as a family.
Also, we still have a matching grant going on, please check out the previous post for details about that if you are interested.
We would not be at this place without all of your prayers and support and generosity! We love you and thank you! Looking forward to our little princess meeting all the people that already love her so much.
Love,
The Geurink's
Monday, October 20, 2014
Saturday, August 23, 2014
Exciting Opportunity!
Just a brief update to say... we are still waiting! It is HARD, but we absolutely trust God's perfect timing. We love our girl already, but need to persevere in patience and prayer until we know just who she will be. Please continue to uphold us and her in prayer, that we would be ready for each other.
In the meantime... we could use your help! We have several super exciting opportunities to help continue to raise all the pennies needed for our sweet princess!
We have been awarded a matching grant from Lifesong for Orphans! They will match up to $2500, which would give us a total of $5000 when that is met. Anything given beyond that will still go into our Lifesong account for us to use whenever we are in need of the funds. The great thing is- the donation goes to Lifesong, a non-profit 501c3, so your donation will be tax deductible! Please consider giving during this time, and know that your gift will be a double blessing!!
Here are the simple instructions for giving. There are two options:
1. Please make checks payable to Lifesong for Orphans.
**In the memo please note your gift preference with GEURINK FAMILY #4457
Please mail checks to:
Lifesong for Orphans
PO Box 40
Gridley, IL 61744
Lifesong has been blessed with a partner that underwrites all US administrative and fund-raising
costs (TMG Foundation and other partners). That means 100% of your donation will go directly to
the need…helping orphans.
2. Give Online
a) Go to www.lifesongfororphans.org/give/donate
b) Select Give to an Adoptive Family
c) Complete online form and fill in Family Account Number & Family Name Fields
*Please note that PayPal will charge an administrative fee (2.9% + $.30 USD per transaction). Your
donation will be decreased by the amount of this fee.
(In following IRS guidelines, your donation is to the named non-profit organization. This organization retains full discretion over its use, but intends to honor the donor’s suggested use. Individual donations $250 or more and yearly donations totaling $250 or more will receive a tax-deductible receipt. Receipts for donations under $250 will gladly be sent upon request. Lifesong is a 501(c)3 tax exempt organization.)
Let's see how quickly we can match this grant!
Love,
the Geurink's
In the meantime... we could use your help! We have several super exciting opportunities to help continue to raise all the pennies needed for our sweet princess!
We have been awarded a matching grant from Lifesong for Orphans! They will match up to $2500, which would give us a total of $5000 when that is met. Anything given beyond that will still go into our Lifesong account for us to use whenever we are in need of the funds. The great thing is- the donation goes to Lifesong, a non-profit 501c3, so your donation will be tax deductible! Please consider giving during this time, and know that your gift will be a double blessing!!
Here are the simple instructions for giving. There are two options:
1. Please make checks payable to Lifesong for Orphans.
**In the memo please note your gift preference with GEURINK FAMILY #4457
Please mail checks to:
Lifesong for Orphans
PO Box 40
Gridley, IL 61744
Lifesong has been blessed with a partner that underwrites all US administrative and fund-raising
costs (TMG Foundation and other partners). That means 100% of your donation will go directly to
the need…helping orphans.
2. Give Online
a) Go to www.lifesongfororphans.org/give/donate
b) Select Give to an Adoptive Family
c) Complete online form and fill in Family Account Number & Family Name Fields
*Please note that PayPal will charge an administrative fee (2.9% + $.30 USD per transaction). Your
donation will be decreased by the amount of this fee.
(In following IRS guidelines, your donation is to the named non-profit organization. This organization retains full discretion over its use, but intends to honor the donor’s suggested use. Individual donations $250 or more and yearly donations totaling $250 or more will receive a tax-deductible receipt. Receipts for donations under $250 will gladly be sent upon request. Lifesong is a 501(c)3 tax exempt organization.)
Let's see how quickly we can match this grant!
Love,
the Geurink's
Tuesday, January 28, 2014
Happy Winter everyone! Hope everyone is surviving these crazy cold temps!
Just wanted to give an update of where we are at in the process. We have not updated in awhile, but sometimes we are just in a period of waiting out a particular stage of the process in which there isn't much to update.
In the beginning of January, we sent in all of our paperwork for USCIS. I am so thankful for the help of our agency in guiding us through this step of the process. USCIS received out paperwork, and we have been scheduled for our fingerprinting next Wednesday morning, February 5th, in Milwaukee. They fingerprint every adult in the house, and do an extensive background check. So we will all drive down to Milwaukee Tuesday night, stay with my brother (thanks, Christopher!), and go to our appointment Wednesday morning. We absolutely can NOT miss this appointment, or we will be waiting several more months to do this all again. Please pray for good travelling weather (which is definitely a concern this winter!!), safety, and that everything would go smoothly.
After our fingerprinting, we will wait a couple months for USCIS to send final approval, called a 797. This approval is the last piece of paperwork to complete our dossier (official documents). Once we have this, our dossier will be sent to China, and we will await approval from China. Once approved (Lord willing), they will work at matching us with a child. The timeline seems to be that this could happen sometime this summer (our best guess!).
Our excitement is growing. Our little girl is waiting. We covet your prayers in several ways:
Just wanted to give an update of where we are at in the process. We have not updated in awhile, but sometimes we are just in a period of waiting out a particular stage of the process in which there isn't much to update.
In the beginning of January, we sent in all of our paperwork for USCIS. I am so thankful for the help of our agency in guiding us through this step of the process. USCIS received out paperwork, and we have been scheduled for our fingerprinting next Wednesday morning, February 5th, in Milwaukee. They fingerprint every adult in the house, and do an extensive background check. So we will all drive down to Milwaukee Tuesday night, stay with my brother (thanks, Christopher!), and go to our appointment Wednesday morning. We absolutely can NOT miss this appointment, or we will be waiting several more months to do this all again. Please pray for good travelling weather (which is definitely a concern this winter!!), safety, and that everything would go smoothly.
After our fingerprinting, we will wait a couple months for USCIS to send final approval, called a 797. This approval is the last piece of paperwork to complete our dossier (official documents). Once we have this, our dossier will be sent to China, and we will await approval from China. Once approved (Lord willing), they will work at matching us with a child. The timeline seems to be that this could happen sometime this summer (our best guess!).
Our excitement is growing. Our little girl is waiting. We covet your prayers in several ways:
- Paperwork process at USCIS and in China to go quickly and smoothly.
- Our continued growth in preparing for this child. We are bringing a child home who will have many emotional and some physical difficulties. We have found the Empowered to Connect website to be of great help (http://empoweredtoconnect.org/). Please check it out if you have a moment.
- Financial provision. Our total costs will be between $30,000-$35,000. We are applying for several grants, and are planning a fundraiser in the spring with a fabulous local Christian band, silent auction, and more... we will keep you updated with details! Hope you can join us! Also, please don't forget to check out the Adoption Bug t-shirt fundraiser on this blog page.
We want to again say THANK YOU to all those who are praying for us and supporting us in one way or another. We absolutely could not get through this without the Lord's strength and without you! Thank you for asking us how it is going, and for your love for us and our waiting child. We have seen some wonderfully unexpected ways that God has answered our prayers in this journey. It has grown our faith and I wouldn't have it any other way.
Please feel free to contact us if you ever want to talk with us more.
We love you and thank Jesus for you!
John, Dawn, Esther, Anita, and ???
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