Next stop China

Next stop China
Next Stop China!

Monday, June 15, 2015

Home Study in Our Hands!!!!

FINALLY!!!!!!
We have our home study.  I am so happy.  Our social worker had sent us some papers to sign, an addendum, to our home study, that is what delayed it a few weeks.  She sent them a week and a half ago Thur.  Which is 11 days ago.  We were supposed to sign them and then mail them back to her, then she was going to get the home study notarized and then mail it to us.
Well, the Monday after she sent them, we still did not have them and she only sent them from Birmingham.  So, long story short, I realized that waiting for papers, mailing papers and her waiting for them, then waiting for her to notarized, then waiting for the home study to actually get to me might take another few weeks.  So, I bit the bullet and drove the hour to Birmingham 6 days ago, last Tuesday and met her in a parking lot, where I got the 4 copies of our home study.
I mailed our paperwork to USCIS last Wednesday morning!
USCIS normally takes 6-10 weeks for approval. So my goal is to have all of our dossier paperwork gathered and ready for when the USCSI is approved.
We applied for 2 adoption grants and an adoption loan last week.  Now that we have the home study in hand, we can do that.  Unfortunately, it takes about 4-10 weeks for these grant/loan agencies to let you know if you are getting a grant or loan.  So, I am praying that  by the time our USCIS is back and we owe another $10,000+ we will have more money.
So far for our adoption we have paid:
$1506 to Agape for the Home Study
$97 Home Study Fingerprints
$890 USCIS
$179 for mandatory education
$164 for birth/marriage certificates, criminal background checks
Totalling:  $2836

From our donations and fundraisers, we have around $1900 left.
Unfortunately, we owe our agency $3750, so I had to go get a line of credit from our bank.  It was really, really depressing, since we have spent the last 2 years paying off $39,000.

I guess I am disappointed.  I was hoping to do this adoption debt free. Perhaps we will get more donations and enough grants by the end to pay off any loans we might have to get.

Hard to put how I feel into words.

This child is worth all of this. Every bit of money we spend to help her get home.  I am not saying this to remind myself, because I know her worth. I am saying this to remind any one reading this that wonders why we would embark on this journey.


1 comment: