Progress!

I'm excited for tomorrow! Our homestudy will be notarized and sent off to our placing agency. Also, Jeremy and I are going to go notarize all our our registration documents and send them off to the agency, so they should receive everything at about the same time. Once they receive everything, they will send them off to be apostilled at our State Lieutenant Governor's office.  As soon as the agency receives all the authenticated documents, they will send them to Eastern Europe! 

From there, this is what will happen: The agency's coordinator there translates everything, then submits it to the Department of Education. At that point, they will give us our official referral. Then when we accept it, we'll have our first travel date!  So a lot will happen in the next month. It's exciting that things are moving forward. Every week will bring us a little closer to Hazel. It's hard to be patient..wish we could fast-forward everything!

I'm Speechless!

I opened the mail this morning to find a check for $1000 to help with Hazel's adoption fund!  What touches me so much is that this sweet couple is also adopting. They have had so much help with their fundraising efforts that they wanted to pay the blessing forward. I'm just in awe at their faith.  We can't even express our love and gratitude. This will help greatly with our agency fee that will be due this week. This was the best Valentines Day gift ever!! Thank you, THANK YOU!!!

Dollars and Sense

A lot of people think that adopting from a foreign country is like "buying" a child. I don't know how anyone who knows the facts can think that way, though. People just don't understand where all the money goes.

First off, the only money that goes to the country itself is what you spend staying in their hotels, eating at their restaurants and riding on their trains. The rest of the money is a combination of agency fees, paperwork authenticating fees (paid to your state) background check fees, U.S. government approval fees, medical exams, airfare, visas, etc etc. The reason that Hazel's country is one of the most expensive countries from which to adopt is because their requirements are stiff, and one of those requirements is that you have to travel there three times. If you happen to have your waiting period waived after court, you would only have two trips, but that's very rare.

$30,000 to $40,000 is a lot of money for the average person to come up with. That's the main reason why adoptions from this country have dwindled more and more, as the requirements have increased. It doesn't make sense that all of these children sit in orphanages and institutions because of it. But it is what it is.

We feel like there's no better way to spend our money than to provide a stable, happy family for a child who would in no other way have it.  Therefore, we are digging in every way we can dig to do as much of this on our own as possible.  Unfortunately, there's only so much digging we can do, so we're going to have to raise at least $15,000.  We're putting our heads together to come up with some good fundraisers we can do to help with that.

Every time I think of how our friends (some we have never met) came together for Anya, I feel so humbled.  But it helps me to realize that it's not all about us. It's about these kids, and they are so worth it! Anya is absolutely thriving. I can't even bear to think of her back in that orphanage. She would be headed to the institution this year.  It's truly amazing what love can do for a child. Please know that your money is sacred to us and that we will do our very best to make sure that Hazel's life in our family is happy and fulfilling.  Thank you!

Beautiful “Wednesday”

This little treasure was recently added to Reece’s Rainbow. 

She lives in the same country that Hazel lives in.

Can you believe she’s nine years old and is still hidden away?
She is sooo sweet. Look at that face.

It’s so sad that the older kids have so little hope for a family.
I just have to share her picture. Maybe someone will give her a chance.