If you didn't know, they purchased the vacation that is being given away! When Steve and I were still in the discussion phase of this adoption, Mandy and Marty already loved our boy and promised they would help us bring him home. I knew then that it wasn't an empty promise, but, I had no idea how much of a blessing they would be to us!
Mandy helped me get my first facebook auction going. Then we were blessed with so many donor and bidders that it was overwhelming I literally felt like I couldn't say 'Thank you' enough. So, if you're reading this and you participated in our auction at all, even if it was just to share the event and invite your friends, from the bottom of our hearts, THANK YOU!
By the way this is the precious face we're working so hard for!
And, the cutie that can't wait for his brother to come home! How awesome is this 'I'm going to be the LITTLE brother shirt ~Adoption in progress' Shirt that a fellow adopting Mama made for us?
So it's been a busy few days. Steve had the afternoon off yesterday so we went and had our fingerprints done for FBI background checks and pictures made for our passport applications. Today I applied for my passport, got our VA CPS background forms notarized, got money orders to send off to the FBI and VA CPS background checks, got life insurance for myself, and put up our latest fundraiser (more on that later). I came home and attempted schoolwork with Nicholas, looked at the dishes in the sink and the laundry that needs to be folded and decided they'd still be there tomorrow.
All of the above paperwork (except for the passports) are things required as part of our homestudy. For anyone that missed it we had our 1st intake interview and paid the first half of the homestudy fees ($850). We are working on getting all the forms filled out, working on our autobiographies (much harder than it sounds), getting vital records together, and trying to clean and organize our house so that we don't look like hoarders. I have boxes everywhere of stuff for the yardsale coming up in April, stuff for our Quarter Auction coming up in April and random stacks of stuff that I'm going to 'organize' once we have our new shelves finished and in place.
Add all of that onto homeschooling Nicholas and going to school myself, fundraising (which I now realize is pretty much a full time job) and some days I feel like I would only have enough hours in my day if I was actually able to give up sleep altogether. But, on those days all I can do is admit that its too much and give to Jesus, go to sleep and start over the next day. And God is faithful, on days where I'm overwhelmed it never fails that Steve calls and says he's bringing dinner home, or a friend calls just to chat and lets me complain or makes me laugh.
I want to go get our boy yesterday so its hard for me that so much is still not done, but, I'm trying my best to trust in God's perfect timing for every thing.
I keep promising a breakdown of our adoption costs. I promise its not a big secret its just that it kind of keeps changing as I find more and more things that we have to pay for :) But, here is my attempt. A lot of things are best estimates provided by our agency and families that have walked this path.
UPFRONT COSTS
Commitment Fees $3500 DUE ASAP
*Include fees paid to our domestic placement agency AAC
and our foreign placement agency (In our son's country)
Homestudy Fees
$850 2nd 1/2 of homestudy
$750 Postplacement Supervision
(3 @ $250 each)
$350 training classes
$35 online required class
$500 Hague Oversight
~$200 mileage for Social Worker
Total: $3785 LEFT TO PAY: $2685
Miscellaneous Apostilles for all notarized documents going to foreign country:
I included our passport costs in this breakdown because we know we'll need them for our dossier and they can take up to 6 weeks to come back right now.
The good new is that between the cash/check/ChipIn donations we've received, our facebook auction ($2098 final total), donut sales, and the spaghetti lunch and dessert auction we've raised $3908! That is amazing for 7 weeks of fundraising! Out of that we've paid every thing that is crossed out above for a total of $1651 (not including the Keurig for the giveaway, quarter auction prizes, gas, etc.). So we have about $2257 left from what we've fundraised so far.
We have about $6185 left in commitment fees (Did I mention we need to send those ASAP) and the rest of our homestudy. The next $850 will be due at our second interview which we're hoping will be in less than a month followed quickly by the remainder of the fees. Our goal is to have our homestudy done by our last class on April 8th which leaves us less than 6 weeks to raise the remaining $3,928 needed. We need ~$1250 to send our commitment fees in.
((I will break down the next $20,000+ we'll need in a different blog, I prefer to concentrate on small chunks at a time))
The giveaway posted at the top of this post ends Saturday and a winner will be drawn on Sunday! Click the link above for more details on the Vacation, the Keurig and how to enter.
I also just got our Rada fundraiser going today. We've done these through our church before and their stuff is pretty awesome! They have high quality knives, kitchen tools, and some bakeware that is usually much less than Pampered Chef. But, my favorite part is that they have really neat cookbooks starting at just $7 and lots of fun dips and mixes starting at just $2.50. We make 40% off of all sales. If you would like to check it out click HERE It will ask for an internet order number and a password. They are: Internet ordering number is 504287 the password is brooke9212
We have a vendor event/craft show that my sweet friend Stacy is hosting at her home for us on March 16th if you're local and would like to know more this is the facebook event Vendor Event
The first weekend in April, Saturday 6th we have a huge yardsale planned that we are taking donations for. We can store your items for you and help with pickup if needed. A really fun event is scheduled for April 20th but I'm going to do a separate blog about it.
Please continue to pray for our family, for God to show favor over our process, and for Him to open our boy's heart to us!
Thank you all again for every thing you are doing to help us bring our boy home <3
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