Home Study and Dossier

I'm excited to report that our first home study visit is scheduled for Oct 13th!! After the initial visit to our home we will then meet with her at her office for our second visit and then she will finalize the report. The list we had to get together was pretty lengthy and I felt so accomplished after I had it all together. I literally carried the bag around with me with all the paperwork in it, ha ha.

But today I received all the dossier paperwork. A dossier is sort of similiar to the home study in that you have to gather all this paperwork, get it notarized and put it together in a packet. Although I'm excited to start working on the dossier I feel a bit defeated that I have to start gathering more paperwork again.

Not to mention the next two weeks are full of football games, craft fairs and general up keep. You should see my house right now, things have definitely fallen to the way side.

I've been preparing for the past two weeks for the Autumn Street Fair. I'm selling t-shirts, bracelets, lion pillows, bows, African coffee and wreaths that I have made. Next Saturday is Applefest which is another craft fair that I'll be participating in. These will be great ways to sell the crafts and earn money but I'm just plain tired!

Fundraiser Spotlight

An extremely pleasant suprise that I have experienced is that there is a HUGE adoption community out there. People who understand your frustrations and what we are going through in this process. They are willing to listen and actually understand what you mean when you talk about home study's, state clearances and all the paperwork!

I have met several "virtual friends" who I have emailed with or talked with over the phone and Amy is one of those great people. She features families on her blog every Monday to spotlight their fundraising efforts and today is our day!!

An Update

I know, I know, it's been quite awhile since I've posted anything.  To be honest, we have been super busy with a few upcoming events.

I received our adoption contract from CCI a few weeks ago and was finally able to go through it and read it.  We had to sign, initial and notarize about 30 pages in the contract.  Along with that we sent in our adoption fees, a home study review fee and a mandatory humanitarian donation.  As Tommy and I were signing the pages he said "That check makes this very real."  It was the first BIG check I have written since this adoption started and I was flooded with excitement and fear at the same time.  The check wiped out about half of our adoption fund!  Ekkk

In the mean time I have been gathering all the paper work I need for the home study agency. Just to give you an idea of the things we have to get,  here's a small list of items:

-Copies of all our birth certificates
-Copy of marriage license
-Copies of drivers licenses
-Medical forms for each person in the family filled out by a physician
-Financial information form
-Letters from employers
-Copy of front page of tax return for the past 3 years
-Statement from bank
-Letters of recommendation
-Criminal background checks from TN Bureau of Investigation
-Background check from local police department
-Residentail history from the last 10 years

Needless to say I've been on a paper hunt!!
 

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...

More Supporters

When I think about how we've sold 389 t-shirts it's REALLY hard to believe.  When I think about how we've raised almost $10,000 in just 4 short months it's even harder to believe!!  I received a few more pictures that I thought I would post too.

I've got a few events coming up that I'm super excited about.  My sister-in-law, Jessica, is having a jewelry party at my mom's house so I've invited all my Iowa friends to the party.  Even though I'm not able to go, I'm hoping a lot of people show up because Jess has offered to donate half the proceeds from the show to our adoption.

I was also contacted by a lady here in town who has recently moved and has a shed full of really great stuff to sell.  She told me that I can have a yard sale there and keep all the money that I'm able to raise.  The great part is that everything is inside so I don't have to worry about rain, I can go price things and organize things indoors.  And we aren't talking about small things, we're talking about a blowflex, exercise equipment, furniture, tv's, etc!!  She has already sold a couch for $100 and said she'd just give me the money for it since the sold couch is still in the shed. LOL

And just so everyone knows, I'll be doing the HAPPY DANCE when we hit $10,000!!!!  Don't worry, I'm sure it will be fully documented.  ha ha

Our friend Adam

This might be the best pic ever!  Thanks Carol :)

My Mom's co-worker, Connie

My Dad and Mom!!!!

Mom and her co-workers at the post office in Iowa

T-Shirts anyone??

Once again I'd like to recognize our awesome friends, The Paz's.  I can't say enough about this family in the support they have given us!  Their oldest daughter, Jesse, is away at college in Chicago and has been selling t-shirts like crazy for me.  The picture shown here is one of the first orders that I mailed to her - I hope she's majoring in sales at school because she's working it for me! ha ha

Needless to say, I got another order from her for 6 more shirts.  The only problem is that I can only order 24 shirts at a time.  So I'm  putting it out there that if there is anyone who was thinking about getting a shirt NOW is your time! 

I plan to order some extra shirts but am hoping I won't have to order the whole 18 on my own.  The shirts are only $10 each ($12 for a 2XL, $13 for a 3XL, $14 for a 4XL) plus $3 if the shirt needs to be shipped.  They come in multiple colors and are a great quality shirt!!  They also come in  youth size in small, medium and large. (The youth small is approx equivalent to a 5T shirt).

If you are interested you can order by sending me a message on facebook, emailing me at monica452@hotmail.com or by making a donation through my paypal acct for the correct amount of the shirt and put the size and color that you want in the comment line.