Here is the update on where we are in the process:
We have completed our home study! The next step is to complete our dossier. The dossier is a mixture of birth certificates, marriage certificates, financial worksheets, background checks, employment verification, medical certificates, etc. It is basically just proving that we are who we say we are, and that we are in a position to be able to bring more children into our home. Our dossier is complete, other than we are just waiting on permission from our government to adopt three children from Poland. We have to get FBI fingerprints for this, and we should have our approval around the middle of May. Once we get this approval, our dossier gets sent to Poland and we can officially accept the referral for the boys. We then have to wait for another approval and a court date. If everything goes smoothly and quickly, we could be in Poland around August or September of this year! We will have to be in Poland between 6-8 weeks, but we will be with the boys the whole time, and then we bring them home with us. Everything seems to be moving very fast.
Here is the update on where we are financially in the process:
We have been able to pay all of the fees that we have encountered so far! Don't get me wrong, there are fees due NOW that our agency wants us to pay. But none of these fees are holding us back at this point. We have been able to continue doing all of our paperwork and moving forward with the process. However, we will get to a point where the fees have to be paid before they will let us go further. For example, once our dossier is complete (around the middle to end of May), they will not send it to Poland unless we have paid some of the fees that are due. At that point, it will be another $18,500 that we will have to pay. Then before we can travel, there will be another $17,000 that will need to be paid. Beyond that, it is just travelling expenses, which will still be a lot since we will have to pay for airfare and staying in a foreign country for 6-8 weeks. These are staggering numbers! It seems so overwhelming and impossible to think of these whole amounts. It's very easy to get discouraged. However, we worship an amazing God, and nothing is impossible for Him. We have applied for every adoption grant that we qualify for, and we are praying to start hearing positive answers soon. We also are planning a big Kentucky Derby party fundraiser for May 7. We did this fundraiser when we were adopting the girls and it was very successful! We are hoping for this one to go just as well, if not better.
Here is the update on where we are mentally and emotionally in the process:
We go back and forth from being excited and hopeful, to down and discouraged on a daily basis. Going through an adoption is very hard and often times very lonely. On top of that, we don't have the money to complete the adoption, so we have to humble ourselves and ask for it. We have tried to do a few fundraisers already, and some have completely bombed, literally raising no money at all! And with some fundraisers, we have raised some money, but it was only a fraction of what we started out to raise. However, each time it was just what we needed to be able to move forward with each small step. We were able to watch God work in amazing ways when we adopted the girls. Like, when we were short by $350 for a fee, and then got a check in the mail for $360. Or when we were counting on a grant for $4,000, that we found out couldn't be used until later. So we counted on a fundraiser to cover that $4,000, but we only made a little over $3,000, just to go home and have a $1,000 check waiting in the mailbox for us! We had seen this kind of thing happen so many times that by the end of that adoption, we had our tickets bought to go get the girls and we were leaving in just 2 weeks, but we were still short by almost $4,000. But we weren't even worried about it! We KNEW that God was going to provide, we had no doubts. And he did, we had had several interviews with a grant agency, and they awarded us a $4,000 grant just under 2 weeks before we were planning to fly out. You can't make this stuff up. God is truly amazing! But we have so easily forgotten all of this. Sure, God was able to do it that time, but surely He won't do it again, right? It is so hard to just trust God! We are struggling with it everyday! I can't even tell you how much it means to hear people say positive things about this adoption! It is so encouraging to get little notes and comments from people. And it can be very discouraging when we get silence from others. I still feel like we are a little crazy for doing this, so it is very easy to assume that other people feel that way too. But however crazy I feel, I know that we have drowned this decision in prayer and we still do. There is no doubt in my mind that we are on the path that God has lead us to and we will continue to go down it until we reach the end or God tells us to stop. This does not mean that we are not scared. I am terrified to become a mother to 5 children! I know that I don't have the strength or the wisdom to do it. I have to depend on God through this! Please pray for us to have confidence in our God and His ability to supply our needs!
Please pray for these precious boys, that they would be taken care of until we can go get them. Pray that we will all be ready for this transition into a family of 7. This is ALL for His glory! Please pray that we will always make this about Christ and not about us. That we will get our hope and encouragement through Him and not through the approval of others.
Thank you to everyone who has supported us in any way. It has not been taken for granted, and it has all been appreciated more than you know!
If you do feel led to help these boys financially, we have a few options:
You can donate through You Caring by clicking the "Donate Now" button at the right or click here:
You Caring
For a tax-deductible donation, you can donate through Pure Charity at:
Hansen Family Adoption
Or you can send a check, just ask for our address.
Again, thank you to everyone! Thank you for taking the time to read about our family and this adoption! We are so grateful for the part that everyone is playing in our children's lives and the impact that we are all making for orphans!
