C.I.S. paperwork complete!

Great news! Our CIS paperwork was processed months earlier than anticipated and there is nothing more for us to do except wait for that referral. I'm expecting it any day now. We still have a lot of money to raise, so I'm making as much soap as I can and telling everyone about my etsy shop (www.topazbathgems.etsy.com). We're also have a scrapbooking fundraiser next month. I can't believe how far we've come!

Moving on up

We're now up to #4 for a boy and #17 for a girl on the waiting list. We just had our fingerprints taken on Sept. 30 and expect it to take almost 3 months for our CIS paperwork to be processed. We won't receive a referral until our paperwork comes in, so we're hoping for a referral by the end of this year.

I plan on opening up my soap shop next month and will have some old favorites, such as Oatmeal, Milk and Honey, along with a variety of Christmas soaps.

On the waiting list at last!!

It's been a long time since I've posted anything. I figured it would get redundant to read "we're still filling out paperwork." Well, the paperwork is all complete and we are officially on the waiting list for a referral of a boy or girl infant from Ethiopia. Woo hoo!! As of this week, we are number 10 on the waiting list for an infant boy and number 31 on the waiting list for an infant girl. The appx. time frame is 3-4 months for a boy referral and 8-9 months for a girl. We are happy to have either one! After we accept a referral, it would be 2-4 months to travel. We are hoping to bring home our son or daughter (most likely a son) by next spring!

Thank you for all of your prayers and support. We plan to have more fundraisers between now and spring, so we'll keep you posted.

So, so close...

Our home study is complete with the exception of three background checks that have not come in from several states. Surprise, surprise that two of them are VA and MD. I called VA and they claim to have never received my form and when I called MD, they acknowledged that they had received my form on March 16th, but haven't processed it, yet. They're getting to it right away...now. See what a little squeaky-wheelin' can do. ;)
We have everything else ready for our dossier...just waiting for our home study to finish being reviewed by our adoption agency and for these states to get off their you-know-whats and get our information sent.
Then...it's more "hurry up and wait". At least our part will be done for a while. :)

First Home Study Visit

We had our first home study visit this week and, for not knowing what to expect, I think it went pretty well. We have a really nice and helpful social worker. We have a lot of paperwork to complete and forms to fill out, sign and notarize, but hopefully we'll have our dossier completed within the next couple of months. It's becoming more of a reality as we move forward.

Home Study soon and financial matters

We submitted our contracts to AGCI and are currently filling out the paperwork to begin our home study. The Home Study will take a couple of months and will involve at least four visits with the social worker; one of which needs to be at our home with the whole family. As I understand it, this process is so a dossier can be completed on our family.

We've already paid close to half of the total cost of our adoption and so battle the worry of finances. We know that everything is God's, including our money, and that He will take care of all of our needs as we go through this process. Still, the worry sometimes creeps in and we just have to go to Him in prayer when it does.

Oriented and on our way...

We had our orientation call yesterday and now need to submit our signed contract along with over $9000 before December 8th. I thought we had 90 days after our application was approved before we had to dish out the first chunk of change. Evidently, I was wrong. We need to send the money within 90 days of submitting our application. Since we submitted our application Sept. 8th, we have until Dec. 8th to send in the contract and money. Needless to say, we're feeling the pressure but still know that God will finish what He started here.