MONEY - garage sale, necklaces, candy bars

Our recent fundraisers have been surprising in many ways.  Since our dossier paperwork was creating a lot of... waiting... we decided to work on fundraising some more.  We can't be left with nothing to do!!!  :) just kidding.
   First, our town has an Antique Festival every fall, and we were excited about the opportunity to have a little garage sale and bake sale.  I say that a little sarcastically, because we weren't terribly excited about it.  We felt the need to take the opportunity, but the thought of having another garage sale so quickly was a little, um, overwhelming.  And what was going to be a small bake sale with a few garage sale items quickly turned into another full-fledged legit garage sale.  Lots of donations is a GOOD PROBLEM.  *keeps reminding self*  Bake sale items were made, items were priced, we were open for business.  Then it sleeted.  Not kidding.  Somehow despite the unsavory weather and the meager turnout, we made $141!  We were surprised by that.

   The next surprise came when we set out some candy bars to sell for our adoption.  We put them at our respective places of work.  I went to pick up the money in my envelope the same day our biggest bills came from our agency (translation is NOT CHEAP!).  I was shocked to find a WAD... not a few or singular.. but a WAD OF 20'S.  They didn't even take a candy bar!  I'm not sure why I'm fixating on that, it's my way of not being overwhelmed by the graciousness of unidentified people.  Talk about surprise!  Seriously the grace of people astounds me. 
   Next to report is our sale of necklaces.  Compelled Designs (www.compelleddesigns.com) sells the most beautiful necklaces and gives them dirt cheap to adoptive families to sell for fundraisers.  They are breathtakingly beautiful.  Check them out on my facebook page.  We have sold about half of them now, so pick them up quick for the holidays!!!

   Dossier update: paperwork is being sent in the mail today or tomorrow!  We are DONE with our portion!  (I'll let you in on a secret - that's a REALLY GOOD FEELING!  I'M TALKING IN CAPS A LOT IN THIS POST).  From here on out it's the waiting game!  Waiting for the dossier to be submitted by our agency to Ukraine.  Waiting for the invitation to travel.  Waiting to travel.  Waiting to meet our new children!  Pray for us in this critical preparation time.  Thanks to everyone!

PAPERWORK - Dossier update

Sorry another boring post!  We're having a fundraiser this weekend and so then we may have some pictures to provide.  Until then, let the snores begin.  We are working through our dossier.  We have noticed that the dossier is less paperwork and paperchasing than the home study, but it's so METICULOUS!  Everything has to be dotted and crossed just perfectly!  The wording in some cases has to be just so, and things like that.  We are trudging through, in spite.  Here's a a list of the major items and what we've accomplished so far in the dossier world:

renew Rachel passport and get passports for boys - done
employment verification letters - almost done (need one from 61 Surplus yet)
marriage certificate papers - done
apostille marriage papers and home study - need to send to Columbus
medical certificates including bloodwork - done
criminal background checks - needed to be redone - got fingerprints and papers, need to send it away
proof of home ownership - had to get a lawyer to write this one since we don't have mortgage, we are working on it

Fun list, huh?  That's where we're at, as you can see a lot of things are coming together, shouldn't be long until we can send it!

Rachel

PAPERWORK - Dossier

Update on our paperwork situation.  I mentioned in my last post that we were told to wait until our move was done to start the dossier.  Everything is time sensitive regarding the dossier.  You can't do it and then wait to send it.  You have to do it all in one small time-frame.  It all basically hinged on the processing of our I-600A (our application to be approved as adopters of orphans).  We were told this takes a couple months, but the approval letter (I-171H) showed up at our door only a few weeks after our biometrics appointment up in Cleveland.  That changed the game a bit.  Now that we would have to process the address change with the federal government anyway, our social worker said, let's get to dossier-ing!  (That's not what she said, I made that word up.)  But that's how it felt!  Zack and I breathed a big fat sigh of relief and said "LET'S DO THIS!!!"  There was high fiving and grinning, and, well, you had to be there.  It was small scale torture to wait for my parent's house to be done and to get this move on.  Plus I felt like it was pressuring my parents which isn't fair.  So this really changed the game for my parents, too.  They can be a little more relaxed with the building.
The biggest change is that we will have to prepare this tiny, less-than-ideal home for potentially 2 more children!  Zack is up to the challenge and is at his best doing things like this.  We shifted stuff around and hauled some stuff off to storage.  We have been approved to house this many children in this house, so we'll make it work to the best of our ability, with loads of God's help!  Thanks everyone for praying and asking how we are doing even though we have such boring things to share!  Someday we will be posting milestones of our new child, and we will remember this paperwork stage as "the wilderness", but important nonetheless.

MONEY - Grants

We talked to our placing agency social worker this week about all that is needed for the dossier.  It is very similar to the home study, only a little less laborious.  The paperwork is a bit more streamlined and less tedious.  The best part is... fewer essay questions!  Just a few letters and things.  The dossier seems to be more "doing".  That doesn't make much sense.  It's more going to appointments and updating things (like fingerprints and renewing passports and getting another physical and blood tests and stuff like that).  All in all, totally doable and I'm excited to get started!  However, we need to move first.  In our conversation, we talked about our life changes coming up.  The move to the bigger house looming nearer, and Zack's opportunity for a new job (it came to find him!).  She suggested we move first, then do the dossier paperwork.  That way everything reflects the new address.  Another however, we will have to move before our USCIS application is processed. That's the approval from the US government to adopt someone of orphan status abroad.  It's currently being processed, our biometrics appointment is this week up in Cleveland.  So we have to do it by the end of September at the latest.  We are going to be laserbeam focused on moving for a little while.  Ok, enough boring update stuff.  Here's a picture.

Ok, sorry, that picture is totally boring, too.  It wasn't boring to do, though.  Those are our grant applications.  It shows how I'm getting used to doing these papers, because it really didn't seem that bad to do 7 of them.  Each one is a similar size to each of the 2 applications I sweated about a year ago.  I've done so much of this that I have all the information in a folder I call "Marriage Papers and Life History" (literally, that's what's written on the folder).  I just get that out and it has all the jobs we've ever had and addresses of them, every old address, our financial items in great detail, family info, you name it.  I wish everyone had to compile something like that because it's so very handy.  What's the value of your vehicles based on condition and mileage?  What's your net worth?  How much gets taken out of your paychecks for taxes monthly?  Annually?  What's your gross income?  Hmm?  Just kidding.  But seriously.

So out of all of those grant applications, 5 are for adoption expenses, 1 is for medical referral expenses, and 1 is for after you get a referral.  We already got turned down for the medical referral expenses, but we were not expecting to get them all.  So we're only a tiny bit bummed. :)  Here's hoping for the rest of them.  It's just another way we are trying to be good stewards of our resources and utilizing all the opportunities and gifts that God leads us to - or drops in our laps!  Praise be to God, the path has been laid out for us and we are following it.  Though we get scared sometimes, we thank God that we have this gift of a purpose and calling!  I know paperwork doesn't sound like so fun a gift, but when put in this perspective, it is somewhat exciting.

MONEY - competitive fundraiser

With the large and scary costs of the dossier and travel in front of us, I can get a little panicky if I think of it too long.  This sort of thing usually occurs at night.  When I need my sleep.  Figures.  Our homestudy has been forwarded to us and to our placing agency.  We are still waiting on word regarding when to start our dossier.  Shall we wait until after we move to our new home (could be happening in the next couple months) or shall we proceed?  Ukraine is supposedly particular about the housing paperwork.  This has actually been a chance for us to think about fundraising again and two things have been happening in that world recently.  First, we started filling out grant applications.  Zack and I are pretty convinced that we are doomed to never-ending essay questions for the rest of our lives.  I feel like we're in school.  We consider ourselves grateful that we even have the opportunity to apply for these, though, so it keeps things in perspective.
Secondly, my sister and brother-in-law have proved to us that they are unending awesome ONCE AGAIN when they posted a fundraiser opportunity to their travel website.  Just read it for yourself - they paralleled a fundraiser another gentleman was doing, in which he was raising funds to travel on the world's most expensive business class seat.  Carrie and Drew thought that, in good fun, and as an opportunity for those wishing for something "more worthwhile" to contribute to, they would post our family's story and accept donations for our adoption.  Like I said, unending awesome.  They raised over $2,000 this way and we are just over the moon.
Here's the link to the original post: http://travelisfree.com/2014/05/09/who-wants-to-pay-for-adopting-kids-no-really/
And here's the second one with a video of us in it: http://travelisfree.com/2014/05/28/adoption-update-video-interview/
And here's the one they were spoofing: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1486582757/one-mile-at-a-time-the-etihad-residences

So thanks, again to anyone and everyone who has helped us in this journey, those I know and those I don't.  Onward we go!

PAPERWORK - Home Study complete!

Welllll.... the day has come that I can say... Our home study is DONE!!!!!
After we update our expired medicals... BUT... nonetheless...
The whole ginormous thing has been forwarded to our placing agency in Alabama who compiles the documents for Ukraine (our dossier).  Our medical papers really seem like no big deal at this point.  It's like, oh, you need me to print out the forms to update and call the office to fax us the originals and take all the above to two different physician offices and make sure that every line is filled in and follow up on the faxing and mailing of the resulting documents and provide addresses and ultimately send the originals and keep copies?  Noooooooo problem!  Got it.  Check.  Done.

So now we will wait on word from our placing agency on starting the dossier documents.  I'm excited to get it rolling!  I'll keep you updated!  This is a big step in a long road - it feels good!!!

Goodbye Smartphone Day 7

One week in and I'm feelin' good.  The transition away from my smartphone  has made it's full realization and while it's been pretty anticlimactic, there are a few things that I noticed that have been a surprise.

First of all, I humbly realized just how hooked I was on this device.  Think about it.  Our basic phones were already our phones, watches, calendars, notepads, calculators, alarm clocks, cameras and stopwatches.  Then we added data to them and they became our phonebooks, weathermen, teachers, babysitters, maps, portable televisions, dictionaries, encyclopedias, gaming devices, magazines, radios, video cameras, tiny freaking portable computers oh my gosh you name it the list goes on.  All with the simple download of an app.  Every question answered immediately.  Every miniscule need for entertainment fulfilled instantly.  Never in my life has this simultaneously blown my mind and terrified me quite like it does now.

I also realized how little I really need a phone at all.  The first couple days my new old phone sat there doing next to nothing and I got a little creeped out at its silence.  I kept wanting to make sure it was still on.  It was.  I get very little calls.  Boo hoo.  No but really, I realized just how few direct contacts I get in a day.  All that "feeling in the loop with people" was really me looking at group messages.  Remember when we used to get those mass texts, saying "I appreciate all my friends and just wanted to tell you all that I love you" and you were like, "aww, that's nice" but were secretly slightly annoyed because it just simply wasn't as personal?  Now we base the bulk of our contact with people we consider our good friends on these mass messages.  Now, I'm not saying that group messages are bad or that those mass texts were not... somewhat meaningful. I love facebook.  I love following people's baby bumps and keeping in the loop with people I love who are far away.  It's not a bad thing per se, but it made me want to call some of these friends I haven't seen in a while... to actually talk to them...

The next bit of business is that I moved my phone charger from the bedside stand to the couch.  I know, I should have warned you about the earth shattering news that that was.  Whyyyy did I need my phone attached to my hip even at night????  When I should be sleeping???  Whyyyy did I not realize how silly that was?  If someone were to call me - I can hear it from across the room.  If I just don't feel like shutting my eyes yet or I wake up in the middle of the night and can't sleep (as happens often), I don't turn on my phone, I think.  It's somewhat scary and yet I like the familiar territory and the whole processing life in my brain thing.  Like, nice to see you again thoughts, it's been a while.  And after a little while I take a melatonin.  And then go back to sleep.  I'm kindof in love with this turn of events.  I'm not going to lie pinterest in the middle of the night was a necessity while nursing but it's just not anymore.

Thursday night I felt a little deficient as my last bit of facebook newsfeed addiction left my body and Zack and I looked at facebook together.  It was so much fun.  I highly recommend the activity.  We were not on separate devices looking at it "together", we were actually looking at the video that someone posted of the national anthem in minor key and flipping through that person's baby pictures and commenting on where that person ate supper together.  I'm sure a lot of you do this but I never did and that makes me a bit sad.

Hey, enough of me rambling, I have a book to read.  Here are some videos to inspire you further.  They've  been circulating so I know you've seen them.