Next stop China

Next stop China
Next Stop China!

Thursday, August 26, 2010

Signing Paperwork

Katrina said she would bring her notary stamp to church with her Wednesday. I keep having this crazy thought in the back of my head, that there is no reason for God to send us money if we don't even have our first two papers to go to the agency signed and notarized. Silly I know. I sat down at our computer after everyone went to bed Tuesday night to print off those papers, plus a bunch more that go with our dossier. After printing out 2-3, I got them off the printer and realized that half the writing was barely visible. Our printer was not printing correctly at all and we weren't out of ink. UGH!
Unfortunately all of our papers have to be opened and printed while on the internet. For some reason, Mom's computer wouldn't let me open most of them.
I was not going to let the opportunity of getting our paperwork signed last night, so I called our youth minister and friend to see if I could use his computer and printer at church. We went a little early and got all the papers printed. Now they are notarized. I still have work to do on the dossier and some things to send off and get back, however, we are now ready to send our adoption and fee agreement paperwork to our agency, we are just waiting on about 5800.
I have been extremely stressed about it this last weekend. Finally, by the time Aaron got home Monday, I was a mess. they were calling me wanting me to go to work, I was trying to get school done, I was thinking about the money we needed, vs. having enough time to give the girls 100% at school, it was too much.
Like always, the smart sensible one (I am so grateful for that) Aaron broke it down and said reminded me that my job right now is to homeschool. He pretty much told me to work what I have scheduled meaning 1-2 days a week and not any more, no matter how much they bug me. (they have already left 4 messages this week asking me to work. It is soooo hard to say no, but I know that God will bless me for obeying Aaron on this...He always does) Instead of putting this first 5000-6000 on a credit card and paying hundreds in fees and interest, that he wants us just to save and then pay it. When we come to the referrals and we owe a huge chunk at the end, we can pay for it with credit then. What a burden was lifted off my shoulders. I know it sounds nuts, but that was just what I wanted to hear. (not that we would be waiting even longer, but that it wasn't all on me, there was a solution) I was going round and round in my head and wasn't able to give 100% to anything.
Ever obsessed with my work calendar and how much I will make at a given payperiod, I looked at it yesterday and it looks like with working one day a week starting in September, then working fulltime the week of Thanksgiving, we may have the money saved by December. sigh. Another 4 months of waiting. Another 4 months of knowing that money stands in the way of getting our children home. I know that God can come through for us if we need to move faster. How I hope that we need to move faster and that God will prompt someone to help us. My goal however is to have our dossier ready ASAP so we can send it in when we do get the money.

Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Struggling

I go back and forth on how honest I want to be on this blog. Do I just post the good feelings or the bad also?
I guess I will be a little forthcoming.
Yesterday, Aaron took off work because he had a doctor's appt for his worsening poisen ivy. It was almost to the point of hospitalization for IV steroids and the doctor told him that it would probably be in his future someday, but was able to just give him a shot and a prednisone pack. It was already starting to dry up last night and I did change the sheets after he told me that every time he moved in bed the night before, the ooze from his arms would make his arms stuck to the bed. UGH! All that to say that Aaron was home yesterday morning for the "how are we going to pay for this adoption" meltdown.
I have this meltdown every so often. I guess my faith waivered and I am embarassed to say that God had given us so much and helped us throughout our whole marriage, that I hate to say I wonder what to do next.
See, we lost around $15, 000 on our last failed adoptions when countries closed. Then we spent the last 1 1/2 year -2 years paying off that money. We finally got out of debt last month. Then I was able to make myself wait until the next time we got paid and pay the $250 application fee. Now we are ready for our next step.
We need 3 or 4 pages notarized, something easily done, plus our agency fee $5200, humanitarian fee $500, homestudy review fee $100, USCIS $670, and fingerprints $180. All of these will be our next step, along with collecting our dossier paperwork, of which I already have half done to send in to our agency to be put on the waiting list. Then we wait for our referrals. When we get our referrals, another $17,000 will be due, plus travel. But that is not a bridge I need to cross right now.
However, we don't have all the fees. I guess yesterday was me saying to Aaron who is such a good listener...
On one hand I know that God wants me to stay home as much as possible and homeschool the girls, however, on the other hand, I know that God has called us to adopt 2 more children. Ok, these two hands cannot go together. I am already working a lot and the stress is bad, trying to fit work around homeschooling and family. I have been working every Friday and Saturday, 12 hours each day, however when coop starts Sept 10 and I am teaching two classes there, that will be more on my plate and one less day I can work. I will probably only work 12 hours every Saturday, maybe a few 4 hour evenings during the week.
Then I go to the other arguement in my head constantly. .,. We need help with this adoption. On one hand, I would LOVE to be able to have the $30,000 in my hand that WE have earned ourselves and not have to ask anyone for help. It is definately a pride thing. I HATE even thinking of needing someone elses help. And I think, why should anyone help us. I don't blame them, they earned their money, dont expect them to help you with it.
Then I think on the other hand it would be helping 2 children without hope, find a family, who will love them as their own, so it wouldn't be a bad investment. The Bible tells us to help orphans, many times over. Many people are unable or unwilling to adopt, but they can still obey God by helping the orphan get in a permanent home.
So there is the constant craziness going on in my head.
Take it as you will.

Sunday, August 8, 2010

Working on the Dossier

I made an error in the last post, Madelyn and Natalie came home yesterday, not today. They had a great time at camp, and I am glad to have them home. We missed them. Last Sunday through Sat was a busy week, with driving to camp Sunday, Wednesday, and Saturday. Plus working 36 hours Tues, Wed, Thur, and Fri. So I didn't get much done on the dossier.
I have printed out a lot of paperwork that I hope to either have notarized tonight at church or Wednesday night at the latest.
Still waiting for our marriage and birth certificates to come in. Once our homestudy is looked over by our agency and deemed worthy, the we will be able to apply for USCIS. This alone will cost $670, plus $80 each for Aaron and I for another set of fingerprints. Our agency should be calling our references this week and sending us our adoption agreement and fee schedule.
We will owe them approx. $5200-$5500 at that point. Praying that God will step in and prompt someone to help us out with that.

Monday, August 2, 2010

Application is There!

I heard back on Sunday that our application made it to our agency and we are ready to start working on the dossier. I am dreading it, but now at least I have something to work on.
We took Madelyn and Natalie to Camp Maywood yesterday. They will be there until Sunday. So it is just Hannah at home. I am working Tue - Fri this week, so today is my only day off to work on the adoption paperwork. I already have a list of errands to run today and stuff to get done. I will probably work 2 12 hour shifts and 2 eight hours to get 40 hours in this week and after 12 hours, I am so tired when I get home, I just sit.
Today I am planning on ordering original birth certificates for Aaron and I and our original marriage certificate, and sending out 3 more reference letter requests, and going by our bank to get a statement from them.