Wednesday, October 23, 2013

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/

Friday, October 18, 2013

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!

Monday, September 9, 2013

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.

Tuesday, September 3, 2013

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!

Monday, September 2, 2013

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!

Wednesday, August 21, 2013

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!


Thursday, August 15, 2013

Application Received by Agency #2!

Today we received confirmation from our second adoption agency that they have received our application!  The first agency we signed up with at the end of July accepted our application and we are on the wait list (1st in line for a boy in our age group and 2nd in line for a girl.)  I'm not sure yet where we will be on the wait list with this new agency.  But, all in God's time, all in God's time.

We are busy now getting ready for our first adoption benefit yard sale to be held in September.  Chris and I have taken this week to go through our home 1-2 rooms at a time each night to search top to bottom for things we really could do without.  :)  It's been a fun exercise!

For this child we prayed...

Monday, August 5, 2013

Our First Fundraiser: Just Love Coffee

The Coffee:  "We source only the finest Fair Trade, Direct Trade, organic, and shade-grown coffee beans from the best growing regions around the world. We research the co-ops we work with and are diligent about sustainability. That’s all before the coffee even arrives on the Just Love Coffee doorstep. From there, we inspect the beans and do sample cuppings. Then our master roaster Jason works his magic, taking an artisan approach to create smooth, flavorful, specialty coffees of the highest quality."

How You Can Help:   Enjoy some great coffee; proceeds from your purchases come back to us in helping to fund our adoption!  

Website to Purchase:
https://justlovecoffee.com/shortfamilyadoption/

Lake Cumberland to Lake Victoria

Many of you know of my heart for adoption.  It was something God placed on my heart many years ago, back before I ever met my husband Chris.  As I was entering graduate school, I knew I had two passions for areas of social work concentration:  adoption or geriatrics.  To make a long story short, I decided to become a geriatric social worker and later, Lord willing, adopt!  When I met Chris, I learned that he also had a similar heart for adoption and was right on board with my desire to adopt!

Many know that I love to be organized and have everything go exactly as I've planned.  :)  So, my "plan" was to have two naturally born children and then adopt our precious third.  In 2009, I gave birth to my beautiful, amazing, joyous daughter Amelia.  We "planned" to wait a couple of years and have another child.  In the meantime, Chris kept saying "I don't know why we don't just start the adoption process."  But, you see, that wasn't in my "perfect plan."  So, we (I) kept putting it off.  Finally, in March of 2013, I had a visitor to my office who I knew had adopted two children.  I started talking to him and I believe he must've noticed my desire for adoption, and yet hesitancy.  He wrote down a phone number for me of a home study agency in KY and told me that I just needed to go ahead and make the call to get started.  He then told me he would be calling me in ONE WEEK to see if I had done it.  (Do you think God knew I needed this interjection?)  So, not to be caught not on the ball, I came home excited and talked with Chris and we immediately got in contact with the home study agency.

We spent a lot of time getting all of our paperwork together in perfect order, but then we were able to complete our home visit in July 2013.  We had originally planned on an Ethiopian adoption, but learned the wait time was becoming incredible.  I was so disappointed.  However, a friend of mine opened my eyes (and heart) to Uganda.  So, we are now in, head over heels, to this incredible adoption journey.  We ask for your prayers of support as we continue on this journey.

Every night we pray for the little girl or boy who is waiting for us.  Amelia can't wait to meet her baby "blother" or sister.

Wondering what the Lake Cumberland to Lake Victoria means?  We live on Lake Cumberland in Kentucky.  Lake Victoria is located in Uganda and is Africa's largest lake.