Home Study in the Works

Finished filling out our home study application yesterday, scanned and emailed it to our agency today. Our total home study will cost approx $1700-$1800. I am not sure the exact amount because some of that will be paying for gas for the social worker to come to our house.  We need at least $900 to start the home study. That much is due before/at our first meeting.  We have raised around $450 between our online donations, coffee donations, and our loose change fundraiser.  So I have asked if we can at least start with our first meeting  asap so we can get to our little girl sooner.  I haven't heard back yet.
Along with the applications are a ton of other papers to fill out. So tonight, hopefully Aaron and I will finish our "life story" and tomorrow get our papers signed and notarized at the bank and be even closer to our home study paperwork being done.   The paperwork is overwhelming, but you just have to remember to do one paper at a time and eventually it will all get done.
I am praying that with our loose change fund raiser and our yard sale at the end of the month, we will have enough money to at least cover our home study.

Importance of Encouragement

"I want you to raise as many children in this world as you can"
A friend of mine from work donated money towards our adoption online.    The above is what she wrote in her comments.  I teared up as I read it because I think it is the first time that someone has specifically encouraged us to adopt as many kids as we could.
I would wager that for every one encouraging comment that we get about our adoption, we get at least 10 discouraging ones.  And by encouraging, I mean a real, heartfelt, we are behind you 100%, WITHOUT the added discouragement of  how crazy we are, how we won't be able to communicate with a child that speaks another language, it costs so much, how will you afford 6 kids, etc.
Don't get me wrong, I don't mind talking about how much it costs.  And if you want to dig a little farther on that part, I don't think I could talk about the cost of adoption any better than this author http://jeremyhaskins.net/2010/05/03/are-we-really-considering-the-cost/
I had 2 friends Sunday night at church who really encouraged me too.  I told them about a discouraging conversation I had with someone.  They came right to my defense, told me to call them over next time and time and they would have the conversation for me.   Thank you friends for the encouragement.
Just be careful.  Adoption can be scary.  You are stepping into the unknown.  So many, many, many people tell me they have considered adoption.  Yet, they hardly ever go through with it.
If someone is on the fence about adoption and not 100% committed yet, I could see how all of these negative comments can push them over into the "aw forget it, it's too much work and risk" category. And there's a least one child who doesn't get a family.
Words affect lives people!!!!  Your discouragement can affect lives FOREVER!
Discouraging words can leave a child in an orphanage.
Please, please, please weigh your words carefully when you talk to someone about adoption.
Please only encourage!  Your encouraging words could be the push someone needs to bring a child into their home.  Your encouraging words could get a child out of an orphanage!
Please, feel free to ask me about our adoption.  Feel free to ask about the cost. I don't want to discourage anyone from talking to us.  I really really don't.  Talk all you want to us, we are committed, we won't flip to the other side of the fence.  But weigh your words carefully when you talk to others.

Clearance

Not much to report...
Emailed with our home study agency today. She will be sending us the paperwork to start filling out and getting "clearance" done before our first visit.  Which most likely means going down to the jail and having our fingerprints done.  We are planning to schedule our first visit at the end of April.  At the latest.  Sooner, if we raise about $900.  That will pay the up front fee of the home study, then we will pay the other half or so once the home study is finished.  It will be hard to wait that long, since that will be 2 more months that our daughter will be in the orphanage.
We are praying that our fund raising goes well and we can start ASAP!
Right now we have 4 ways to help us raise money.
#1 direct donation email me at pirklekaren@gmail.com
#2 if you live nearby, donate items to our yard sale March 28
#3 go to our Just Love Coffee page and order some coffee
#4 if you live close, collect your loose change and Aaron and I and the kids will count and roll the money to use for our adoption.

Most of all, please pray for our daughter and our family!

We're Adding to the Pirkles again. This time China.

I want to outline our adoption process, in hopes to encourage others to adopt also, to see the blessing in it!

Around 2 years ago, Aaron and I decided to adopt again from Ethiopia.  We went ahead and got our home study updated.  We went ahead and got USCIS approved.  We had just bought a house and got a great deal, we were on our way to getting our debt paid off from the last adoption.  (we were debt free except our other house when we started the boys' adoptions).  

We bought a large van, thinking we would pay it off quickly. This was before we went into major budget mode. Then  our house required some major mandatory repairs.  New hot water heater, repaired upstairs AC, and a hole in the ceiling where it leaked the day after we moved in, completely new AC downstairs, septic tank fixed, pipe leading to septic tank from house with tree roots in it replaced, new pipes  in basement because old ones were leaking.  Just a large large mess. And our debt seemed to skyrocket overnight. And my wise Aaron realized that we would not be able to afford new adoption payments in addition to all the house repairs, old adoption loans, etc, without me working fulltime or more.

We decided to get out of debt again before starting. Which means that our home study expired, our USCIS expired and we worked like crazy the last 1.5+ yrs.  (and still are)

Due to the extreme slow down and uncertainty of Ethiopian adoptions, while paying off the debt, we decided to start looking at other countries which we qualified for. Let me tell you, it was not an easy decision to leave Ethiopia. You tend to fall in love with  your children's birth country.

We have been following waiting children in China through our new adoption agency. A few little girls caught our eyes, but they weren't "officially" available yet.  The agency hadn't received the children's updated full file. 

Fast forward to last Wed. The agency worker posted that one of the little girl's file was ready. I emailed her and told her I wanted to look at it.  She said she had already sent it to another family, so it might be too late. I told her to send it to me anyway, and I could be praying she gets a family, whether or not it was us..  So she did.  What a doll baby this little girl is.

I was under the impression that we would have 3 weeks to decide, so let the praying start. Such a hard decision to select your child.  Or not to select another, which is even harder.  

Then came the even more stressful part, the agency worker let me know that they actually should have already sent her file back to China, but because of Chinese New Year, they had it a few extra days.  So, we only had about 36 hrs to make a decision.  

Long story short, and a lot of details left out, we decided to turn in a Letter Of Intent for this little 4 year old girl. We both have had peace since making the decision to go forward with this little girl. Thankfully, our home school coop was cancelled Friday due to weather, and I had all morning to fill out paperwork and meet the insane deadline.

Once we get "preapproval" from China, which should be the first week in March, I will post a picture of this sweet little girl.

We had the $250 agency application fee in the bank, but we are not planning on moving forward with our new home study until we get our debt paid off. That is a commitment we made so long ago that we want to honor.  We are praying that with grants and fundraising and Aaron and I working as many hours as our jobs will let us, we will go through this adoption without accumulating any debt.  The total adoption will most likely cost around $30,000.

Our agency estimates that once we get our home study done and dossier turned in, we should be able to travel to China within 6 months to pick her up.  We have 6 months to complete our home study and dossier.  So the longest this should take is 12 months!  Hopefully sooner than that, but that requires lots of fundraising and fast. I am going to post little goals as money is due, so watch our blog to see our progress and watch how God provides!

Debt Update

Quick debt payoff update since it has been so long, then I will post even more exciting news.
We are down to a mere $5100 in debt! (excluding our house)
That means that since August 2013 when we started our debt snowball and fierce budgeting, we have paid off $37,000!  Whew!
Just this last week, I sent in the last payment for our van. Aaron counted it up and I think he said we paid it off 26 payments early.  All we have left is to pay is the AC we bought last summer.
I am a budget nerd now.  We do 2 week budgets instead of monthly budgets since my paycheck varies so much depending on how much I work and I only know my schedule a month ahead of time.
Anyway, right now we are on track to get rid of the AC debt by the end of April.
Possibly sooner if Aaron gets some overtime AND if they stop cancelling me.  What is up with the census dropping in winter. I am glad that people aren't so sick, but I really need to work!

Paying down the debt.

Since this seems to be the major goal in our lives right now, I figured I would post about it.  Aaron left on July 26 to go to a forest fire in Oregon.  He ended up in Washington state though and was gone 20 days.  He just got home last Thursday night.
It was a long 20 days, but we were so blessed that he was able to go.  We have been praying that he would get to go on a fire because he gets paid a lot more than usual.  Even better, normally with a fire you get about 12 hrs a day of work  for 14 days straight. That adds up to lots of overtime.  Plus, on the days you are on a fire you get hazard pay.  Well, this time it took 4 days for him to get to Washington and while he gets paid for travel time, those days don't count as work days, so his 14 days doesn't start until he is actually on the fire.  They ended up only having 13 work days, but once he was on the fire, he got 16 hour days in every one of those 13 days!   Awesome! 
So we got a HUGE check on Saturday and will get a Larger than normal check next payday.  God always seems to take care of us this way...
Up until this weekend, I hadn't worked for the past 3 weeks.  One week, I couldn't work and the other two weeks, they kept cancelling me every day I had signed up for because of low census.  I got a very low paycheck two payperiods ago, and I got a big ole NOTHING last week. So if Aaron had not gone on this fire, we would have been in a world of hurt. 
I was able to work this weekend and will work 2 more days this week ...hopefully.
However, when I do get cancelled, all is not lost, I normally prepare for a school day and we get another one in the books. We are already on day 31 for this year.
The dad of my best friend growing up passed away and we went to his funeral last Thursday. Let me tell you, the last thing you should do on day 20 of your husband being out of town is spend 7 hours in the car with 5 kids...
Whew!  was I ready for a break.    We knew Aaron was probably going to get to Montgomery in time Thursday afternoon to be able to drive back to the work center.  I had dropped him off, so I was going to have to pick him up too.
We left at 7:30 Thursday morning.  Got to the church building for the funeral around 10:30.  The funeral lasted from 11-12:15.  Then we drove about 10 min. towards home for the burial.  Then another 20 min. towards home to eat lunch with the family at a different church.  We left the church between 2-3, I can't remember. 
I had a blessed, blessed 1 hour in the car on the way home where all 5 kids slept.  Wonderful time.  Then they woke up.  We stopped for a very quick potty break for 2 of them.  Then drove the other 1hr 15 min. home. Got gas in our town because we were fixing to be running on fumes.  Stopped by our house for a 5 min. potty break and immediately left to drive 30 min. to Aaron's work to pick him up.
Ethan said "I'm Angry!"  when I told him to go back to the car.  He didn't NOT want to drive anymore and I don't blame him.  Aaron drove the way home and I was so excited to see him again. I love him so much. 
Since I worked Sat and Sun. I wasn't able to sit down with the budget to write checks.  However, I did yesterday and am excited to say that since last July 2013, we have paid off approx. $20,000 in debt.  That is 14 months I guess, since you count 2 Julys and 2 Augusts.  Approx. $18,000 to go. 
So this month of August, we paid off 2 small credit cards and our last adoption loan.  All we have left is one credit card, our van loan, and our  Air Conditioner loan. 

DEBT PAYDOWN AFTER A YEAR

We have always been trying to pay down our debt, however, last July we got serious.  Before, we didn't budget and if I was able to work more and got paid more, I would throw that to debt, but then I didn't plan ahead and I would be short in other areas. In other words, I felt like I was trying to pay down the debt, but never seemed to go anywhere.
We made the decision to not start adopting again until we had the debt paid off. Yes, we are hoping to fundraise and get grants for our adoption, however, if we don't get it paid for, we did not want our debt climbing.  We had a car loan, a home repair loan, 2 adoption loans, and some money on 5 credit cards.  Minimum payments on all of these were around $1000 a month.  I have to work quite a bit for us to pay just minimum payments. 
Now, Aaron and I are together on this, so if I say "I" a lot it is only because I am telling this from my perspective, not because I am making all the decisions.
I have always been the one to keep up with the bills, which has worked well for us.  July 2013, we made a budget and have been living with it and tweaking it as we go along. Aaron and I both get paid every 2 weeks and we get paid on the same weekend.  So instead of a 1 month budget which was overwhelming to me, we do 2 week budgets.  We have made some mistakes over the year. 
We have spent when we should not have.  I go over the grocery budget almost every 2 weeks and have to dip into miscellaneous.  (Dave Ramsey would say to just budget more for groceries, but I am not ready to admit defeat yet)
All in all we have done sooooo much better on this budget. 
So, in looking back over the last year, I am really proud of us.
We have paid off approx. $15,7000 in the last 12 months!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
We still have a ways to go.  that is not even half of what we owe, we have about $22,000+ left, but I am excited to see that gone!
Of course these next bills I list are smaller than a year ago, but we still owe on the home repair loan, car loan, 1 adoption loan, and 2 credit cards. One of the credit cards should be paid off in the next month.
That means we paid off our 3 smallest credit cards, and  one adoption loan, and a little bit more on all the loans we still have. 
We have set some short term goals, like pay down the debt to 17,000 or less by Thanksgiving.  It is doable, if they don't keep cancelling me at work.  It is definitely doable if Aaron gets to go on a fire this summer. We are hopeful he will, since he is on call right now, and packed and ready to leave any day.
I am disappointed to have put the adoption off for longer.  And I am not getting any younger.  I just turned 39.  I have made a goal in my mind to have the debt paid off by my next birthday, which is next June.  That would require me getting in quite a few days at work AND Aaron getting lots of OT or fires.  So it is not a crazy goal, just a lofty one.