Aloha Family and Friends!
We have some very exciting news to share about multiple wonderful opportunities that God has provided us with as we continue our adoption journey!
As you may already know, my friend Ku'ulei has organized a fundraiser for us through her in-laws' very generous business, Sage Harvest. From now until December 15th, 100% of the profits from their "Steadfast + Immovable" line of shirts will go to help fund our adoption. I got one of their tank tops myself, and it is the MOST comfortable shirt I own! In addition, for the next week, if you enter the Promo Code: KAWAI, 100% of the profits on gourmet jerky purchases will also go to us to help bring our little girl home. You can check it out at www.sageharvestjerky.com
But that's not all! This past week we received a matching grant from Chosen and Dearly Loved and Lifesong For Orphans up to $3,000! There are two ways that they will match funds. One is through Gobena Coffee. 50% of profits from purchases made through our link will go to us AND be matched by Chosen and Dearly Loved. Our special link is: https://my.gobena.org/stories/kawai-adoption-fund/?id=124
In addition, we now have an account set up through MyStory. All donations are tax deductible and will be matched (up to $3,000) by Chosen and Dearly Loved. You can view our "MyStory" at https://mystory.lifesongfororphans.org/stories/kawai-ohana-adoption/
For those of you who have been following our blog updates know that financial provision has always been on our prayer request list. Thank you for all of your prayers! We truly feel like the flood gates of heaven have opened up upon us in our time of need!
Some of the ways that your donations and purchases will help us bring our little girl home is by helping to cover expanses such as immigration and visa fees, travel expenses, and medical reviews by an International pediatrician, just to name of few. LifeSong also sets aside $1,000 of the funds to help us with post-adoption expenses.
Thank you again to everyone who has joined us in this incredibly journey. We cannot wait to get our little one home, and we could not do it without all of your prayers and support!
Tuesday, November 22, 2016
Monday, November 14, 2016
Steadfast and Immovable - by: Ku'ulei Steinke
In the famous words of Disney’s Lilo and Stitch, “ ʻOhana means family,” and for Crystal and Kory Kawai of Kona, Hawaiʻi, ʻohana means a precious little girl from China who is waiting to be adopted.
Crystal and Kory Kawai first met at Kealakehe Elementary School, where they both work as teachers. “We were initially attracted to each other because of our similar sense of humor,” Crystal said. “We both act silly and goofy. We both grew to realize that we have the same values and interests.” Their similarities don't end there. They are both Christians who enjoy playing music in their worship band; Crystal plays the bass guitar, while Kory excels in playing guitar. The duo also shares a passion for playing the drums and ukulele. So, it was no surprise to friends, family, and colleagues when the two started dating the day before Thanksgiving of 2013. It didn’t take long for the musical duo to realize they were meant for one other. “One night Kory told me he was done with dating and knew that I was it for him,” Crystal said. Kory proposed to Crystal during spring break in March 2014 and the couple tied the knot four months later, on July 7.
Soon after they were married, Crystal and Kory began discussing the idea of adoption and made the ultimate decision to begin the process in February of 2016. “We both believed that this was the way that God was calling us to grow our family,” Crystal shared. What began as talk of adoption bloomed into the desire to adopt children with special needs. “We believe that the work God has placed in us as teachers, especially with Kory being a special education teacher, has prepared our hearts and minds for this.” Crystal said. “We believe that God has our children planned out for us. We just need to find them.”
While the desire to grow their family was simple, the process to make their dream come true has been much more complicated. The Kawais describe the process as a roller coaster ride. “It definitely has been a struggle trying to adopt while living in Hawaiʻi, especially living on a neighbor island, because our resources feel limited,” Crystal said. “It’s character building,” Kory added. In spite of the stress and mountain of paperwork, the couple has remained steadfast in continuing on the journey that God planned for them. “Overall, it has been a wonderful journey that we continue to pursue each day,” Crystal said. “At times, it is like watching a lifelong dream slowly unfold before our eyes.”
Crystal said that while their primary goal is “to bring our girl home,” she and her husband also hope that their adoption story will inspire and encourage others to embark on the journey of adoption.
Saturday, October 15, 2016
Our Amazing Gift
Have you ever asked God for a birthday gift? After all, He is our Father who loves to give us good gifts, so why not!?! Last month was my birthday and there was only one thing I really wanted, and it was something that only He could give me: a referral for a child, our child. After months of paperwork, appointments, financial struggles, answered prayers, all I wanted was a face and a name. To know who I was doing all this for. So the week of my birthday Kory and I both prayed that we would be able to get a referral for my birthday.That Friday, towards the end of the school day, I got a phone message from the China Director at All God's Children, International to call her back. I thought she was calling to follow up on our paper work. I called right when school got out because I knew she would be leaving her office soon since she is three hours ahead of us. When she answered she asked for Kory to be on the phone call too. So I went across the courtyard to Kory's classroom and told him I needed him to join me on this phone call. Our Director proceeded to tell us about a beautiful little girl who she thought was perfect for us. I couldn't believe it! God had answered our request, and given us a referral as a birthday present to me!
Usually, parents are given at most 24 hours to decide yes or no if they want to accept a referral. By calling us at the end of the day Friday she was essentially giving us the whole weekend to pray about. However, we didn't need a whole weekend. By Saturday we said "YES!" which catalyst us into a two week, fast paced timeline to complete everything to make our yes official. Within the next 24-48 hours we needed an international pediatrician to look over our prospective daughter's medical file and give us a report on anything we needed to know about her condition. We also had to complete a 20 page transition plan that we had to go over with AGCI's social worker on how we were going to help take care of this little girl and help her transition into her new life. Because of this little girl's special needs we were also able to apply for a special grant, so we had application paperwork to fill out for that too! We got approval just in time for our two week deadline, so we didn't have to pay any of the referral fees out of pocket, praise Jesus!
We are so in love with this little girl, but the road ahead of us is still long. Although we have said, "yes", it isn't official until China gives us a Letter of Approval. This can take a few more months. Your prayers during this process are so appreciated! Last week we completed our biometric fingerprinting with immigration, so once we get our immigration paper work completed then we can move forward and get our approval from China. Please pray that our immigration process goes quickly and smoothly. I have heard of other families where their fingerprints "expired"because the process took to long. They then have to get them "refreshed" which takes a while. People have said that it is faster to then just go back and do the biometric fingerprinting again. However, since the immigration office is on Oahu it is neither convenient nor financially practical to do them again.
Thank you for all of your prayers, encouragements and supports during these past several months. I can't believe how far God has brought us already. We are just so excited at the possibility of bringing this little one home with us. Here is how you can be praying for us over the next several months...
* Immigration is "supposed" to take 60-90 days. Please pray it can actually gets completed in this timeframe, and we don't have to "refresh" or "redo" our biometric fingerprinting!
*Once all our paperwork in completed that there will be no delay in getting approval from China
*We applied for another grant, which we should hopefully hear back from in the next 4-6 weeks
*Pray for our little one in however the Lord leads you :)
Sunday, September 18, 2016
Getting There...
Aloha family and friends!
Our adoption process has been progressing the last couple of months, so we wanted to give you an update on what has been happening and how you can continue to pray for us. Your prayers have been so appreciated and abundantly felt over these last several months.
Our home study was finally approved by our adoption agency, yay! We were able to quickly get it state certified and sent on its way to be authenticated and translated. That process can take 3 to 4 weeks. But once it is done, then our agency can finally send all of our paper work over to China.
Once we received official copies of our home study we were also able to file for immigration! We had to complete a form called I800A. It is for parents who are adopting from a Hague Convention country so that our child can become a U.S. citizen. We are not sure about all that is involved with this process. We know that hopefully sometime soon we will fly to Oahu to get fingerprinted. The expected timeline for immigration to be completed is 60-90 days. Please pray that this process will be completed in a timely manner. Government hold ups are always a possibility, and can make the process take way longer than was originally anticipated. In the end it will all be worth it though because our child will then be able to be a U.S. citizen once they get here.
We have been given the opportunity to apply for a special grant that is offered through our adoption agency. Please pray that we are accepted to receive it, and that we are able to receive it this week. Our next round of paper work and fees are due this Saturday, September 24th. We need $3,500 by the end of this week, which this grant would hopefully cover. Please be praying for us in this.
Finally, please join us in praying for China as they were hit by a typhoon this last week. One of the orphanages that our agency is partnered with was hit by the typhoon. Praise God that all the children are safe. We don't know what damage was caused to the facilities, so please be joining us in lifting them up in prayer.
Here is a list of how you can specifically be joining us in prayer...
*We can get our fingerprint appointment from immigration
*Immigration process goes smoothly
*We get approval of the grant money before Sept 24th
*God's continued financial provision
*Safety and recovery for those in China affected by the typhoon
Our adoption process has been progressing the last couple of months, so we wanted to give you an update on what has been happening and how you can continue to pray for us. Your prayers have been so appreciated and abundantly felt over these last several months.
Our home study was finally approved by our adoption agency, yay! We were able to quickly get it state certified and sent on its way to be authenticated and translated. That process can take 3 to 4 weeks. But once it is done, then our agency can finally send all of our paper work over to China.
Once we received official copies of our home study we were also able to file for immigration! We had to complete a form called I800A. It is for parents who are adopting from a Hague Convention country so that our child can become a U.S. citizen. We are not sure about all that is involved with this process. We know that hopefully sometime soon we will fly to Oahu to get fingerprinted. The expected timeline for immigration to be completed is 60-90 days. Please pray that this process will be completed in a timely manner. Government hold ups are always a possibility, and can make the process take way longer than was originally anticipated. In the end it will all be worth it though because our child will then be able to be a U.S. citizen once they get here.
We have been given the opportunity to apply for a special grant that is offered through our adoption agency. Please pray that we are accepted to receive it, and that we are able to receive it this week. Our next round of paper work and fees are due this Saturday, September 24th. We need $3,500 by the end of this week, which this grant would hopefully cover. Please be praying for us in this.
Finally, please join us in praying for China as they were hit by a typhoon this last week. One of the orphanages that our agency is partnered with was hit by the typhoon. Praise God that all the children are safe. We don't know what damage was caused to the facilities, so please be joining us in lifting them up in prayer.
Here is a list of how you can specifically be joining us in prayer...
*We can get our fingerprint appointment from immigration
*Immigration process goes smoothly
*We get approval of the grant money before Sept 24th
*God's continued financial provision
*Safety and recovery for those in China affected by the typhoon
Sunday, July 31, 2016
Yay! Now Let's Get To Work...
Our dossier (14 different documents, all state certified) along with our passport photos, family photos and other assorted paper work are finally out of our hands and on their way! We mailed a box containing everything and should hopefully reach our adoption agency on Monday, August 1st! We are so thankful to have this portion of our adoption process completed by the end of July. Praise God! Another praise is that we had EXACTLY what we needed to pay our dossier fees. (We actually had $8 left over!) Between savings, working summer school, a little baby-sitting, and my (Crystal's) mom craigslisting items from her garage we had just what we needed.
(We still need to fund our immigration process and our referral process, so if you need a babysitter let us know!)
Thank you for all of your prayers over these past 4 months. We have definitely felt it and know that it makes all the difference. Here is a list of ways that you can continue to be praying for us...
*School starts tomorrow (August 1st) which means we need to go back to juggling work and our adoption.
*August 1st also marks the date that we can start receiving referrals! This can take 0-18 months. We are praying that this waiting time is on the shorter end of this. Our prayer is to be completely done with the adoption process and home from China before the end of the school year.
*That our paper work will make it safely and timely to Washington state where our agency is, and that everything will be in order so we don't have to redo anything.
* We are still waiting for All God's Children International to approve our home study. Praying that happens soon so we can file for immigration!
*Continued financial provision (God has been so faithful to us these past 4 months, and we know He will continue to do so!!) :D
Mahalo for all of your support!
(We still need to fund our immigration process and our referral process, so if you need a babysitter let us know!)
Thank you for all of your prayers over these past 4 months. We have definitely felt it and know that it makes all the difference. Here is a list of ways that you can continue to be praying for us...
*School starts tomorrow (August 1st) which means we need to go back to juggling work and our adoption.
*August 1st also marks the date that we can start receiving referrals! This can take 0-18 months. We are praying that this waiting time is on the shorter end of this. Our prayer is to be completely done with the adoption process and home from China before the end of the school year.
*That our paper work will make it safely and timely to Washington state where our agency is, and that everything will be in order so we don't have to redo anything.
* We are still waiting for All God's Children International to approve our home study. Praying that happens soon so we can file for immigration!
*Continued financial provision (God has been so faithful to us these past 4 months, and we know He will continue to do so!!) :D
Mahalo for all of your support!
Previous Postings...
Roadblocks
| Posted by crystal.b.kawai@gmail.com on July 15, 2016 at 2:30 PM |  comments (1) |
Aloha friends and family!
We are SO close to being able to turn in all our paperwork for our dossier, however it seems all we keep hitting are roadblocks. We can definitely use your prayers! We submitted the bulk of our paperwork to the State Capitol so that it could be state certified, only to have it returned back to us. Two of our documents weren't notarized correctly. Fortunately, we don't have to redo it, we just need to get the notary to add a statement to them. However, the notary we used is out of town until next week, which delays us even more. We are also waiting to get our state certified marriage license, and haven't received any confirmation from the deptarment of health yet where that is. Finally, our homestudy hasn't been approved yet. Our adoption agency required some extra information that wasn't included. We were able to answer all the necessary questions , but just pushes everything back more. We also can't file for immigration until we have our completed homestudy as well. Right now it feels like pushing a boulder to the top of a hill, and we just can't get it up and over! We can see the finish line, but we just can't seem to break through. Our agency would like to have everything submitted by the end of the month (July 30th). Not sure if we can make this deadline, but with God all things are possible!
On a more positive note, we can start getting referrals as early as August 1st! A referral can take between 0-18 months. We are praying that ours will come sooner rather than later. And more specifically, we are praying to be able to complete the whole process and bring our child home by the end of the school year.
Thank you everyone for all of your prayers. I know it helps and we have seen God do some pretty incredible things the fast few months! Can't wait to see what else He has instore for us 
Our First
FUNdraiser
| Posted by crystal.b.kawai@gmail.com on July 2, 2016 at 3:20 PM | comments (0) |
Our dossier is almost complete and ready to be turned in! Our paperwork is being sent out today to be state certified, and once we get it back we will be able to submit it to our agency! With it we will need to make our next payment for our adoption fees. We currently have $2,000 and need another $4,000 before we can send in our completed paper work.
Another family who is adopting from China from the same agency as us has offered to help families with fundraising. She sells coloring pages on Etsy to help fund her own adoption. She has offered to dedicate a coloring page to adopting families for a 2 month span. How could we pass this up! From now until September 2nd 100% of the profits from the "Hummingbird" coloring page will go to us. (etsy just takes out 20cents per purchase)
The best part is that it is DOWNLOADABLE and you can MAKE AS MANY COPIES as your heart desires! If you are a teacher like us, this could be fun for your classes next year! And you can even tell them that it has helped to bring an orphaned Chinese child home to their FOREVER FAMILY!
If you know anyone who is in the current adult coloring page phase, please feel free to pass it on, or even buy it for them as a gift!
Copy and paste the link below to see our coloring page and to order or share
https://www.etsy.com/listing/285695983/kory-and-crystals-adoption-coloring-page?ref=shop_home_feat_2
Hurry Up and Wait!
| Posted by crystal.b.kawai@gmail.com on June 18, 2016 at 3:45 PM | comments (1) |
Over the past 4 months we have been told several times by different people that the adoption process is a lot of hurry , hurry, hurry, wait. Things move really fast and need to get done in a timely manner, and then there is nothing for you to do and you just wait. Then you hurry, hurry, hurry, and then wait some more.
We are so close to being in the "just wait phase", and are really looking forward to it. These past few months of continuous appointments, phone calls, and paper work have been exhausting, but so worth it! We have all our paper work finally in order, and all we need to do now is get it state certified.
God has answered a lot of our prayers over the past couple of weeks. Kory and both now have passports. Yay! I sent in my birth certifcate to California to be state certified and I just got it back in the mail yesterday! Kory's birth certificate appeared to have gotten lost in transit when we were tracking it. We were definitely getting worried. But God is faithful! Yesterday morning we thought it was lost somewhere in Kansas. This morning the tracking showed that it is already on its way back to us! We are also very thankful for the opportunity to work the summer program at our school. We are still a few thousand dollars away from being able to pay our dossier fee and our summer job will definitely help!
Thank you everyone for your continued prayers and support. Here is how you can be praying for us...
*Finish state certification - we have to mail all our documents, that we have worked for three months to get, to get state certified. Please pray that nothing gets lost in the mail!
*Continued financial provision
*Rejuvination - this has definitely been our most exhausting summer so far!
Answered Prayers!
| Posted by crystal.b.kawai@gmail.com on May 28, 2016 at 10:15 PM | comments (0) |
Thank you to everyone who has been lifting us up in prayer as we are finalizing all our paper work for our adoption! God has been answering your prayers! On Thursday we were able to get our medical forms completed and notarized. On Friday we were able to get our local background clearance printed, signed, and notarized as well. Were able to get all this done during our final two days of the school year too! This week has been packed full with end of the year responsibilities and getting our adoption paperwork in order, but we have perservered and made it to the end.
Today was our Home Study visit, which was also a huge answer to prayer. We prayed this morning that we would have fun during this process and that our social worker would be someone who was kind and easy to open up to. And that's what we got. We love our social worker and it was such a fun time. The morning flew by and it was by far the most pleasant experience of this entire adoption journey. She loved us too (and Boba and Chewy of course)! She really appreaciated us being on top of our paper work, our honest answers, and she loved our home. She even said we were "perfect models" for adoptive parents! So yay!
Finally, we had another major answer to prayer yesterday. In the morning Kory and I both prayed that God's favor would be upon us and that He would financial provide for us to help pay for our home study fee. After a crazy, final day of work we came home to a check in the mail! Our homeowner's insurance company refunded us over $1300! God is good! We were completely blown away by God's immediate response and provision.
Thank you SO much to all of you who have been lifting us up in prayer. We are definitely feeling it!
The End of the Beginning... Almost
| Posted by crystal.b.kawai@gmail.com on May 20, 2016 at 6:50 PM | comments (0) |
The last three months have been filled with paperwork, appointments, paperwork, classes, and more paperwork. But the end is in sight! These last few months have been very educational and eye opening as we have begun the process of adoption. For example, I never even heard of a dossier (pronounce dos-see-ay) before, and now it pretty much consumes our lives! This is our entire lives on paper that later gets sent to the China consolant in DC, translated, and then sent to China for approval. We have only 2 more pieces to acquire from others for our dossier, and just a few more pieces to take care of ourselves. Then we just wait!
Things have been quite overwhelming, as we are simultaneously getting our adoption paper work completed in time and ending out the school year. However, God has continually poured out his favor and grace upon us during these past few months. Ephesian 3:20 says, ""Now all glory to God, who is able, through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think." This is so true! We can't imagine going through all this without the favor of God upon us.
We are also thankful for all of you for your love and support! We can't do this alone! We know that many of you have been praying for us, so here are a few specific areas where we can use your prayer support...
PRAYER REQUESTS:
*We can coordinate our final two appointments with a notary for our medical report and local background clearance,
*Home Study goes well - Saturday, May 28th
*Perserverance and peace
*Continued financial provision
Mahalo for your prayers and support!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)