Our Ugandan Adoption Process

Many people have been praying with us and wanting to know more about timelines, etc.  I thought this may help you best, from our placing agency:

http://atwakids.org/uganda/

The Fundraising Continues

We have several beautiful handmade Ugandan necklaces that we are selling as a fundraiser for our adoption.  But, it really goes so much further than even that!  50% of the proceeds go into our adoption fund, 25% to a feeding program in Ugandan, and the other 25% employs the Ugandan women who make the necklaces.  They are made of hand-rolled paper and each one is uniquely different.  $20 is all! Let us know if you are interested!

Yard Sale Complete!

Well, we officially wore ourselves out with this yard sale!  Wowsers!  A very special thanks to everyone who helped us Friday and Saturday with set up, manning the cashier table, and tear down.  It was quite a bit of work.  So, thank you to my dad, mom, sisters, brother-in-law, and niece Katelyn!  Our official grand total was $825.82.  Yay!  We still have TONS left,so we're thinking of doing another 1-day sale in October and holding it at my office.

Two Milestones Achieved Today

1) All yard sale stuff is priced, organized and ready to go!
2)  We just received the rough draft of our home study!  Yay!

Our Yard Sale is Coming Along!

I've been working on our adoption benefit yard sale for about a month.  Chris and I went through every single room of our home and got rid of a bunch of stuff (we took a room every night for a little over a week.)  Then, we've had tons and tons of donations from our family.  It has come in spurts, so I've been pricing as I go and trying to keep things organized so it'll be really fast and easy to set out on Friday morning.  (It just drives me crazy when people start showing up as soon as you have the first box out!)

Hazel and Randy brought us a truck load of stuff about a week ago.  Then, yesterday we headed to Bowling Green to spend time with them and went through their attic, discovering all of Chris's childhood toys and such.  Hazel and Randy graciously brought their truck FULL to us this afternoon of all of our discoveries.  It's been fun going down memory lane with Chris and giving some special stuff to Amelia and saving some other stuff if we have a boy.  :)  I'm thankful to his mom for saving so much; it's been neat.  And, we probably have a lot of collectors items!

Sam, Tres and Tres's mom also donated a truck load of stuff which we hauled back to Somerset this weekend.  We almost didn't have room in our vehicle for Amelia!  :)

When we got home, my parents had dropped off a truck load of stuff in our garage.  :)

Tomorrow, my sister Laurie is sending her stuff to us!  And, Christina's will be here soon as well.

Amelia and I priced literally all day today (well, she mostly played while I priced, but that was fine with me!)  We started about 10 this morning and I'm just stopping at 10:30p.  Who knew you could price yard sale stuff for 12 hours!?  But, as of this evening, everything is priced and organized except what I ran out of stickers for!  (and, I guess there really is still a lot to go.)

We have been BLESSED.  We don't take it for granted.  Next step, buy some more yard sale stickers tomorrow so I can get this finished!  The big sale is almost here!

Adoption Benefit Yard Sale Sept 6-7th

Application Accepted!

Across the World Adoptions notified us late Sunday afternoon that our application had been accepted into their program.  We will be using this agency for our placement at this time, and couldn't be happier.  They seem to be on the ball and well organized, so I am feeling much better about things.

Along with the acceptance came our first large invoice :) and also the preparation forms to begin assembling our dossier.  :)  YAY!!

Today I spoke with our social worker and it was very encouraging.  We essentially are at the top of the list for the next referral that meets our age guidelines.  (We would like to adopt from birth to two years, but we've expanded that a little with the parameters that we'd like to stick with a child at least younger than our Amelia.)

We also found out today that over the summer the judges they have worked with in the past in Uganda changed, so this is why they are unsure of the timeline for our stay in Uganda.  They have a couple of families traveling in September who will be using the new judges, so we should know more after they return.

Our home study (I think) has been completed by our social worker and sent to her supervisor for approval, so hopefully we will have that back soon.  We have finished our USCIS application, but have to wait for our home study paperwork to attach to it before we send.  (This gives us approval to travel for adoption.)

Now to start preparing our dossier as we wait for a referral!

All in God's perfect timing!