Okay... so I haven't been so good about blogging. I meant to write a blog at least every 2 weeks to keep everyone updated, but we have been so busy with paperwork and that is not much fun to write about. We have been working on our home study. The home study, like I mentioned, consists of a lot of paperwork. It is also about our background information. We have to get clearances from every state that we have lived in since we were 18. We also had to do three interviews with our social worker. For the first, she came to our house for a walk-through to be sure that it is a safe environment to bring children into. Then she interviewed us together. We basically went over what we expect, what we should expect, and how we plan to parent. The second and third interviews were individual, we drove 3 hours to meet with her and then had to answer tons of questions about ourselves (a timeline of everything we have done since we graduated high school), how we met, and what we love about each other. We really thought that the home study would be scary, that they would ask us hard questions that we don't know the answers to. But it was all just about getting to know us, who we are and where we came from. Our social worker will be writing a report that will go to Bulgaria, they will then choose which child/ren is best for us based on this report. So, it is important that this report truly reflects who we are.
Where we are now:
With the interviews over, we are pretty much just waiting. We have some online learning that we have to do in the meantime. It will take 3-4 weeks for them to get all of our clearances back and finish the report. Once it is written, we get to read the first draft. That way, we can make sure that all of the information is correct and we are comfortable with everything written in it. Once that is finalized, things should really start moving. We will be able to start applying for grants and fundraisers at that point. Then we will be finishing up our "dossier", this seems to be a fancy word for "more paperwork". It is just a lot of forms and notarizing and verifying. We have to be finished with that by the end of May, which will then bring us to the referral process. This is a long, intense waiting game. We will basically be waiting for them to send us information about and pictures of our children. I can not wait for this, it is what we have been waiting years for, to finally see our child/ren's face(s). :)
Finances:
We have a few agency fees that will be due when we finish our dossier (by May), which will total $6,000. Then once we get our referral, we will need to pay international fees which will be about $10,000. That's the big one! Of course, if we do get siblings, we will have extra fees due, since we have been paying fees based on only one child so far. We have plans for several more fundraisers and are still saving, saving, saving!
There is one fundraiser that we are really excited about. It is called Both Hands and it is basically embracing the command found in James 1:27 "Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world." The point of the fundraiser is to help out a widow. We would get 10-20 people to volunteer to help us. Every volunteer (including us) would send out letters to family and friends to sponsor them (just like you would for a 5K or something similar). We would all spend an entire Saturday helping out at the widow's home, doing anything and everything that she needed done: landscaping, cleaning, fixing things, etc. Then 100% of the funds raised (which will be tax deductible) would go directly towards our adoption. We would be helping a widow with one hand and an orphan with the other, and fulfilling God's command with "Both Hands". We still have to be approved to do this fundraiser, we would love to do this, so please pray that it works out. Also, if you are interested in helping us out, please let us know. Obviously, we don't have any dates yet, but we expect that it would be sometime in May. We would love to have all of the volunteers lined up and we can keep you posted. Here is the link to the website if you would like more information: http://www.lifesongfororphans.org/bothHands.html
There are also other grants that we plan to apply for, but there are no guarantees that we will be approved.
Please continue to pray for us as we go through this process. It seems that patience is going to be badly needed during these next several months. Also, please pray that the finances would come in. We know that God will provide, we just don't know which avenue He will use. We have leaned SO much so far and wouldn't trade the experience of going through this process for anything. It is a true eye-opener to God's provision, grace, mercy and love (amoung many many other things). And has taught us so much about faith and trust in our wonderful Saviour!
