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!!!

Timeline... ish... (!)

We got a timeline!  It's a rudimentary one, and I'm constantly reminded that we are working in the world of adoption - in which timelines are weak at best and futile at worst.  But... suffice it to say, we are projected to be done with our home study (phew!) in April.  Maybe May.  (we really only have one more meeting which is the safety survey of our house - but.. you know... I'm just extending it a month because you never know, you know?)  K, if all that goes as planned, we could... potentially... hopefully... cross your fingers... be traveling in Sept-Nov sometime!  No really, isn't that just the funniest timeline you've ever heard?  Still, we are clinging to it because we haven't had anything like it thus far.  So... by 2017... just kidding. :)

Also, Zack has been promoted to manager at his job!  That's such an exciting thing and we really are very positive and hopeful about this change.

My parent's house is coming along nicely - potentially the move there could happen this summer.  Will that ever be a relief, because we have long outgrown this space.  Once again... making it work.  (Side note - MAN, will I miss this house!)

Lastly, this post made me cry, darn it!  We have been so ready for hard stuff that it's like, come on, let's get going with it already!  Like waiting for a shot - you know it's going to be painful so let's do this already!  For all those wondering - and for my mother - I know there is a lot to do yet and so I AM grateful for the time we have to learn even more and get even more ducks in a row, but it doesn't make the waiting easier.

Fire Inspection

I know several of my posts have said the same thing, "We're finishing up our home study", but this really feels like the home stretch.  I only fitting word I can find for this segment of our journey is "slogging."  I hear of people getting their home study done in a few weeks' time, and I look at our paperwork and our journey and I think, "How???"  We really are plugging at it at the fastest pace we are able, due to our family and work and other commitments.  Except for those times that I wrongfully go about comparing our situation, we feel very good about where we are.  We believe whole-heartedly that things are happening in the timing that they are supposed to, with God's leading.  We are trusting and chipping away at it.  A quote from Dory in Finding Nemo - "Just keep slogging".  Wait... something doesn't sound right about that... hmmm.

Several things did happen lately that suggest progression.  We went through the classes up in Kent.  That was a big check mark on our to do list.  Despite the horrible weather and slow travel and finding sitters through the flu season, we did it!!!  We were to have our 7th and final class session on Sunday, during the weekend that I work (I would have worked the night before, slept in the car on the way up and on the way back, and then gone to work that night again), but it was cancelled and we were given instructions to do it online.  I thought that was pretty cool.  Nextly, we had our fire inspection today.  They were supposed to come between 9 and 10, and then we watched the fire trucks and several ambulances drive past sirens blazing at 8am and I wondered if we would see them.  Sure enough, at almost 1pm an ambulance pulled up in our driveway and three smoky, cold firemen traipsed through our house spreading water and snow from their boots.  They explained how they had just come from the house fire that lasted all morning.  I thanked them for coming out anyway, and apologized profusely that the house was such a mess (moments before their arrival, Logan had decided to empty the bookshelf of all the books and evenly distribute them across the floor, basically spelling out "fire hazard").  They checked our smoke detectors and fire extinguishers, commented on the artistry of my evacuation plan, and chatted with Kian who described to them in detail how he was pretending to be Barney Wigglesworth from one of his bedtime stories.  They laughed about his sister coming from "My Kraine", (we tell him his sister is coming from Ukraine and he thinks we are saying "Your Kraine").  The miracle of it all?  Logan slept through the whole ordeal!!!  The blaring beeps of the smoke detectors, and even the fireman coming up into his room to check out the egress points.  I am not even kidding, this is a miracle of miracles.  I am praising God today.

Thanks all, for following along with this arduous journey of ours.  It continues, but we are seeing progress!  It gets more and more real!!!  Hang on little lady, we are coming... slowly but surely!

PAPERWORK - Home study update

A quick home study update.  We met with our social worker a few weeks ago.  She came to our house and got to know us a little bit.  More paperwork came our way, (this is a trend I'm getting used to), and we will be scheduling a few more visits and going to training in Jan and Feb.  These are the last few steps in the home study process - we are seeing the light at the end of the tunnel!  It's seemed like a long process for just our home study, but we're trying  not to compare our timeline to anyone else's and just trusting where and when God is leading us.  In other news - Zack got a new job! He will transition the end of this month to work for a local nonprofit - 61 Surplus.  Their profits all go to the aid of orphans - how appropriate!  He's excited to do something new.  The school jobs just weren't panning out.  He's working on his CDL and will take the test again mid January. He hopes to get a school bus driving job in the new school year (because the benefits at the school are just flipping awesome), but it looks like the insurance we will get on our own is pretty rad, too.  Just sayin', maybe Pat's prayer came to fruition.  (He prayed that Zack would find a job that he hadn't even thought of).  An old friend texting him randomly asking him if he'd be interested in this position sounds like just the answer to such a prayer.  We are nervous but hopeful.  Also, my parent's house is coming along - which sounds like we will be moving into our new, spacious abode sooner rather than later!  Praise the Lord!  God may have a few more surprises up his sleeve, but it seems like things are really coming together.  We spend each day ready for anything!  Buckle up, kiddo, we're comin' for ya!

Another quick update

The major components of our home study were sent off today!  Shouldn't be long now!  we have a lot of work to do, but now we can see the light at the end of the home study tunnel.  zack was just saying the other day that it really doesnt feel real.  It feels like a lot of paperwork, which, lol, it is.  When he was training and running and selling soap, that was palpable to him.  Now it's like, what's going on?  Even for me as I've been doing a majority of the paper chasing, it feels less like something exciting and more like something... I don't know... Papery?  Well in any case, we can sense progress and that is exciting!

Home Study - update

We are almost there!  First of all, we have all the money we need for the home study and the second payment to our placement agency.  BIG BIG BIG AWESOMENESS!!!  We are completing the initial paperwork part of our home study.  We got family photos taken this past week and also did our health exams.  Step by step we keep inching forward.  It's really getting exciting for us - each step makes this more and more real!  Next we will be doing our home visits with a social worker and finishing up the paperwork part.  So exciting!

Now, here's a few of my favorite photos from our family pictures.  Do you think they say, "We are fun and warm and would like you to join us"?

PAPERWORK - update

So last we talked we were not sure about our house being approved for a home study.  We think we have found an agency that will work with our house, so the process had begin with them.  Finally!   If we didn't live in such a teensy house we could have been so much further in the process by now, but I'm happy that things are still moving.

PAPERWORK - update

Thank you just does not convey the gratitude we feel at the donations that have been given for zack's race.  Receiving money from strangers and seeing an outpouring of support from family and friends is certainly humbling to say the least!
So it looks like our house is a little unorthodox to be considered for a home study.  Those of you who know us and our house are smacking your foreheads going "duh".  Apparently the presence of doors on ALL rooms matters to some and not to others.  Some fire extinguisher tagging and buying and extension cord changing and fire escape ladder buying and preliminary fire inspection walk throughs later, it is very up in the air whether this house could be approved.  We are going to keep trying to continue with our home study while living here in this house, but it is growing increasingly more evident that we will probably have to wait until we move to my parents house to complete the paperwork process.  That could well be a year from now.  The only solace in that is as long as our current house could be approved, we can do a lot of the paperwork now, and special needs adoptions are expidited.  The submission to travel should be relatively short.  We continue to follow the path we are shown, trusting God to reveal every step.  If it must be an arduous, slow process, then we would be joining the ranks of many an adoptive parent that had traveled before us!  It's probably a blessing in disguise as we will have more time to make the adjustment, learn more, and beef up our funds!