Home tour complete!!

Our social worker came to our house today for our home tour and final home study visit.  We should get a list from her some time tomorrow or Wednesday of any forms that still need to be completed.  Once she has looked over the home study and all paperwork is complete, we will submit our I800-A form and wait for approval from USCIS which can take 2-3 months.  We have some required online training that we must complete as well before the home study can be complete.  Please pray that everything will continue to move quickly and we can hurry and find our daughter!   

Winner of the 4 wheeler!!

 

The lucky winner of the 4 wheeler is Michelle Taylor!! Congratulations!! We captured the drawing on video and pictures to be fair to everyone.  Thank you to all who entered.  After paying for the 4 wheeler, we were able to add $316 to our adoption fund!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Goal Thermometers

I have set up a couple of goal thermometers to keep everyone informed of the amount of money we have raised and the amount needed.  Our adoption will cost approximately $30,000.  I will update this thermometer with the total money raised, but I am also creating thermometers for individual goals as we need them.  This helps me to look at a smaller number.

American Girl Doll Giveaway!!!

 

Win an American Girl Doll of your choice!!

 

 

We are giving away one American Girl Doll of your choice!

We will be taking entries now through December 9th.  The winner will be announced on December 10th.

Our current goal is to raise $3500 for our second agency payment ($2578.75) and the Citizenship and Immigration fee ($890).  These fees are due at the completion of the home study (our home tour is 11/26/12).

To enter:

Click on the Donate button on the top right of my blog and make a donation.  If you prefer, you can give me your donation in person or mail a check.  Leave a comment on this post with your email address and I will send you my mailing address.  If paying through paypal, please be sure to include your contact information and "American Girl Doll"  in the notes section.

You will receive one entry for every $10 donation or three entries for every $25 donation.  I will send an email confirming receipt of payment.

We will have a drawing on December 10th and the winner will be contacted immediately.  To be fair, I will have someone else (not sure who just yet) present to witness the drawing.

Once we contact you to let you know you have won, you will be able to choose the doll you would like and it will be ordered and shipped directly to you.

If we are lucky enough to receive more than 150 entries, we will draw for two different winners and give away two dolls!!  As an incentive to help us make this a successful fundraiser, if you send 10 or more people to make a donation for this fundraiser and you are the winner, you will also choose $25 in accessories for the doll chosen!  Be sure and have each person you send notify me that you sent them.

Please share this fundraiser with everyone you know and don't forget to ask grandparents to enter!

If we do not have enough entries to cover the cost of the doll, we will refund all donations received and cancel the giveaway.

Overwhelmed

Today we had our third home study visit, the last one before the home tour.  This visit lasted two hours and 15 minutes.  We talked about our kids some, and mostly about the adoption and the children waiting to be adopted.  This was a very emotional visit for me.  All of the home study visits have been emotional for me, but this one even more so.  While I have researched a lot, I learned things today that I didn’t know and wasn’t prepared to hear.

This journey we are on feels a lot like being pregnant to me.  I feel like my hormones are all over the place and I am amazed at how emotional I am at times.  I daydream about what our child will be like just as I did with my boys.  I have hopes and dreams for this child just as I do for my boys.  And my thoughts are consumed with this precious child that I haven’t even seen yet.  There are so many similar feelings, but there are differences as well. 

While I carried my boys, we hoped and prayed they would be born healthy.  I knew they were being well cared for because they were with me and I was sure to do only what I thought was best for the baby we were waiting for.  While I wait for the day that Little Miss is placed in my arms, I have no control over how she is being treated.  How many hugs does she get every day or does she ever get one?  Does she get enough to eat?  Does anyone say “I love you”?  Does anyone care if she is hurt or sick?  Does she even know what love is or how to love?

I thought my eyes were open to the need for families for orphans.  After today’s meeting, my eyes have truly been opened to this need and so much more.  I am heartbroken.  I have struggled to keep it together all day.  Please pray for these sweet children.  Please pray that each child will be placed in a forever family.

Four Wheeler Giveaway

 

We have this Fisher Price Kawaski four-wheeler to give away!  It is brand new in the box.  This would make a great Christmas gift for someone.  It is for ages 3+ and up to 65lbs.  $230 value

We are currently trying to raise about $2600 for our second agency payment that is due in a couple of weeks.  We will have several giveaways and fundraisers going on.

You will get one entry for each $10 donation.  To enter please click on the donate button on the top right of my blog and make a donation.  We will draw for a winner on Wednesday, November 21st.  You must be able to pick this up in the Trussville area. 

Update

We are about halfway through our home study.  We have completed the orientation interview, the first meeting with our social worker and today I completed my individual interview with our social worker.  Tomorrow Robert will meet with the social worker for his individual interview and then we will have another meeting with her together next week.  About a week after that, we will have a final home tour to complete the home study.

We have had a little trouble with the fingerprints.  Our cards were returned to us because they were incomplete, so we completed them and resent them on 10/26.  Then, there was an error with the way the SBCN entered Robert's name into the computer and they had to correct it and resubmit his cards.  Even with these obstacles, we are still ahead of schedule as our fingerprint clearances are complete as of today and we are just waiting for them to arrive in the mail.  We were told that we should receive them in about a week.  Originally we expected to have a wait time of up to three months so if they arrive in a week, that will only be about a one month wait.  I am praying that we receive the clearance letters very quickly.  I thought this would be a painfully slow process from the beginning but so far everything seems to be moving along faster than I expected.  I am prepared for obstacles ahead, but I am thankful that everything seems to be moving along so well right now.