Update Fundraiser & Homestudy

Today is the official day of Summer and I'm so happy for summer break.  I ended up having a long term sub job and I haven't had anytime to post.  A few weeks ago we had our first fundraiser.  We received a lot of donations for a huge yard sale.  We were so thankful for all the families that donated.  Our garage was looking like a scene from 'Hoarders'.  Larry and I woke up at 5am to start putting everything out.  Jayden and Keeyan also woke up early and didn't complain.  We had people start coming at 6:30am and they didn't stop until 12:30.  We were surprised because we live a little ways out and didn't think we would have so much traffic.  We made enough to cover the cost of our I600 and fingerprints!!  It was definitely worth all the work.  We had a lot of clothes left over so I'm going to sort through them and put them in a consignment sale in July.  I'm hoping to make a few more hundred there.  I'm still trying to think of other ways to raise some more money.  I think the cost of adoption is what keeps so many people away.  It is so expensive and a big sacrifice.  Another way to think of it though is how much do we spend on a car loan?  It is easy to spend a lot and what do we have to show for it.  It doesn't last forever and will depreciate in value.  Whereas bringing our child or children to our family will increase our family in ways we don't realize and it will last forever!!
HOMESTUDY
We are on our last interview for our homestudy!!  Saturday will complete the interviews.  We have 3 total and I've been trying to get the paperwork ready.  The kids medical checkups are done.  Larry and I have ours next week.  We are waiting for our background checks.  The Homestudy should be all ready by mid July.  Once we have our homestudy we can apply for the I600a from the government.  I'm hoping we have everything ready by then to send in our Dossier to our Agency.  FYI the Dossier is all the documents required by D.R. of Congo to adopt.  Once they receive it they translate it and we are waiting for a referral!!  It will be nice to have all the paperwork done for the first part and then we start the waiting game.

Congo

When we first started thinking about adoption we wanted to adopt from Ethiopia.  I did a lot of research and had friends that adopted from there.  I fell in love with the country and the people.  There are a lot of families who've adopted from there.  We signed up with an agency.  We were waiting to save more money before we started more of the process.  Now I'm thinking we might have been waiting for a different reason.  Just recently Ethiopia changed their international adoption.  They are saying they will cut adoption by 90%.  Many don't believe they will cut it that much but no one really knows yet.  The things I read still say plan on significant delays.  We were already looking at 2yrs or more before.  A country can stop adoption at any time. 
I asked my friend, who I ask all my adoption questions to, if she knew of other programs.  She told me her friend is just completing an adoption from the Democratic Republic of Congo.  I started looking more into Congo.  International adoption is still fairly new there.  There are an estimated 5 million orphans there.  So we have decided to go with Congo for our adoption.  We have to apply with a new agency.  We just mailed our first application in. 

Deciding to Adopt

The title of my blog says it all.  I really thought we were done having kids.  Sometimes in life something comes along that we never expected.  I debated whether to start a blog or not.  After reading so many other blogs of people who adopted, I thought it will be a good way to keep a journal of our journey.  Hopefully I'll do better than I do on my facebook.

Deciding to adopt has been a huge decision for us.  We've been talking about it and praying for a year.  What started it all??  There was a family I met during soccer season last year.  Their son played on my oldest son's soccer team.  They adopted a beautiful girl from Ethiopia.  They are a wonderful  family.   Throughout the season I got to know them and they told me about adopting their daughter.  I didn't feel inspired at first, but as time went on I started thinking about it.  Maybe we are suppose to adopt.  I thought there was no way Larry was going to agree to this.  I needed to make sure this was something I really wanted to do. 

I thought and prayed about it for a few months before I mentioned anything to Larry.  His reaction was what I expected. "I thought we were done"  Amaya just started school and now I wanted to start all over.  Our kids are all at the easier stages right now.  Things are good.  We decided not to rush into anything and think about it. 

6 months later I still felt really strong about it.  I started talking more about it to Larry.  He started to warm up to the idea.  It is very expensive to adopt, so that was a major issue.  We know this is what we are suppose to do.  We have been saving and also thinking of fundraisers we could do.    We were going to adopt from Ethiopia, but things have been changing with their adoption process.  We are now considering Democratic Republic of Congo.  I know where ever we are led will be the place we are supppose to adopt.  We hope to adopt a girl 0-3years old.  Amaya is very excited to have a sister!