Fundraising Update

We recently received an amazing donation toward the adoption from a friend. The Husband is also planning on working extra hours over the summer and between those two things we will now be at our halfway mark!! The wreath orders have slowed down a bit but we are still getting orders in each week. This has been a HUGE blessing as it has brought in about $1500. This pays for our adoption application fee three times over! The clutch purse fundraiser has brought in a couple hundred dollars as well and is still going strong! We have already paid our first two fees and we are now at a point where we have money to pay for our home study fee in full and after all the orders are filled, we should have enough to make our first BIG payment in full when we are officially listed with the agency. This happens as soon as our home study is finished but we can also be called upon before our home study is completed in extenuating circumstances.

Our coffee fundraiser has been a bust! lol! Well you can't win 'em all! We are keeping it open throughout the adoption just in case though :)

I thought I'd kind of write out all of our steps in the adoption for those who have been asking. It can be quite confusing to understand where we are in our process and what each step entails. Also, it's nice to know where your money is going when you're donating to a cause! There are a lot of steps so I'm just going to cover where we are at now...So...here goes:

1) Open House: We went to the agency and talked to them about, well, THEM! This was just to get to know them and solidify if this was the agency we wanted to use.

2) Initial Consultation ($350): This was a three-hour meeting where we laid out the basics of what we are looking for in a child as an adoptive couple (age, ethnicity, birthmother drug use, special needs, domestic or international, etc). We gave the agency information about our family and received information about our home study and the next steps in the adoption. We got lots of our questions answered but came away with lots more!

3) Adoption Application ($375): We filled out the physical application complete with family info and references

4) The Gathering of the Data (as I so lovingly call it): We are in this step now. We have lots of doctors appointments for ourselves and the kids to have them verify certain things about our health. We also need to get fingerprinted, have our references answer questions about us as a couple, family, and our experience with children. We need to fill out lots of applications for DCFS and forms that are completely redundant but necessary. We have all of these appointment set for this week. We need to get copies of our birth certificates, marriage certificate etc. as well to send in. THEN....

5) The Home Study ($2,550): This will consist of three meetings with our social worker. At least one will be in our home. This process includes lots of education we have to complete on our own about adoption, adoptees, inter-racial adoption, open adoption, etc. We also will be meeting with our social worker to make sure that our family and home will be able to meet all of the needs of the child and will have lots of questions asked of us and have all our questions answered. We will become a foster home through DCFS but with the understanding that we just want to adopt at this point. So we will not have any foster children. We also need to write a "Dear Birthmother" letter. This will tell any prospective birthmother about our family, us individually, our beliefs, why we want to adopt, and what we have to offer this child.

That was a lot of info so here are some cute pics of the kids from last week. They are currently sick and we have doctor appointments for them today. Prayers for their healing and mine and The Husband's SANITY amidst the whining and crying are appreciated!!