Another Application mailed today!

I haven't written in awhile because I've just been super busy, so here it goes.  We received our paper work for our home study agency and after doing some investigating and talking with the Director at the adoption agency we have chosen, I decided to go ahead and put in our adoption application to the agency we decided to go with.  The adoption agency and home study agency are completely independent from each other.

Drum roll please...Celebrate Children International!!  (http://www.celebratechildren.org/) Let me tell you, this was a super stressful decision. I literally toiled over this for the past 3 months.  There are a lot of agencies but ultimately I kept coming back to this one.  Mostly because they have two options (Ethiopia and Congo).  A lot of the other agencies, although bigger or more reputable, didn't have a back up plan.  Adoption can be unpredictable and scary and if for whatever reason Ethiopia were to suddenly have problems or stop their programs all together I wanted another program to transfer to within my agency.  A lot of other agencies only had one other program that we would be eligible for and that is China, which has a SUUUUPER long wait.

The home study paperwork and the adoption paper work (also known as a dossier) is very similiar so it's commonly recommended that you do the pape work for  both at the same time because it saves a lot of effort.  We are talking about getting copies of our birth certificates, marriage certificate, back ground checks, finger prints, doctors evaluations, etc.

So that's where we are right now.  Our adoption application went in the mail today along with our application fee, a family photo (the new photo I just posted to the right!) and 5 reference letters.  I will wait to hear back from the agency on whether we were accepted as clients and they will then send me the paper work to complete.  It could take anywhere from 2-4 months to complete all of this so stay tuned folks...

Home Study App mailed

Well, as you can see we've exceeded the $10,000 mark!  I had plans of posting a video of us doing a happy dance but we have been so busy lately now that football camp is in full swing.  Tommy has been sleeping at the school this whole last week with all the boys for their "lock in" football camp.  They've got a scrimmage tonight and tomorrow and all day events on Saturday.

I had a yard sale last weekend at a friend's house.  They donated a BUNCH of stuff for me to sell because they have moved.  I made about $600 but it got rained out around 11am so I'm going to try my luck again this next Saturday.  I've still got a really nice Bowflex, a couch and several tv's for sale.

But I'm SOOO excited to report that I mailed off our home study application on Monday to Adoption Assistance Inc.  They were recommended by an aquaintance and were several hundred dollars cheaper than other places I called.  It takes approximately 2-4 months to complete based on how long it takes you to complete the paper work and gather all the documents that you need to gather for the report.

Sometimes I feel like it's such a "taboo" subject to talk about money but I feel like most people aren't even open to the idea of adoption because they feel like they can't afford it.  When we decided we wanted to adopt we had several people say that it's so expensive and how could we ever afford it.  And honestly I can't believe we are sitting here with over $10,000 in the bank after 4 short months of fundraising.  The only way to really explain it is that God has opened so many doors for us and presented us with opportunities to raise this money and for others to give to us freely. 

I saw a blog the other day that broke down where they were able to raise their money (i.e. $2000 from yard sales, $3500 from donations, $500 from tshirt sales, etc.) so that people can really see.  Then I'd like to keep a log of where the money is spent.  I asked so many adoptive families how they raised the money because that was always our biggest concern and they couldn't give me specifics - and I'm a specifics kind of gal! 

So look for that in a post to come...