4/29 - Garage Sale Success!

Well, today's garage & bake sale was a resounding success!! We raised a significant amount of money that will go a long way towards our hosting expenses. The more we shared about the Simple Obedience Orphan Hosting program and the children we'll be hosting, the more people wanted to help. So many people told us to "keep the change'' and gave donations in addition to their purchases. One sweet lady emptied all of the change from her purse and placed a huge handful of coins in my hand. Others wanted to know more about the hosting program which we hope will result in more hosting families down the road.

When the day began, we were faced with a dark sky full of menacing rain clouds that tried their hardest to dump rain on us. As the morning progressed, however, the sun overtook the clouds and it turned out to be the most perfect day. There were a couple of times that Rob had to leave so I was left manning the fort all by my lonesome. It seemed like as soon as he'd leave, a caravan of cars would pull up. Each car would be packed to the gills with kids and they all just had to run wild around our tables and rearrange everything [sigh]. It was a little nervewracking but I survived. For the most part, I let it slide but there was one little brat who thought she'd amuse herself by squishing her dirty little fingers into my cake slices!!! Let's just say she won't be doing that again. Of course, when Rob showed back up they were long gone.

My bake sale portion of this fundraiser was more of an experiment. I had no idea whether anyone would buy my baked goods. I figured if no one bought them, we'd just have to eat them ourselves, which I must admit a small part of me actually preferred. We were totally surprised when we kept having to refill the table with more muffins, brownies and cake slices and eventually sold out of brownies.

Today was an exhausting day and Rob and I both survived it on about 4 1/2 hours sleep. It will be an early to bed night for us and I just pray I can move when I get out of bed in the morning. I already feel like every muscle in my body has been stretched, pulled and twisted in every possible direction. My poor delicate and rarely used muscles aren't too pleased with me right now for making them lift and move stuff for the entire day. Oh the joys of getting old.

I can't close out this post without thanking all of you who helped us make today's sale a success by donating items for us to sell, loaning us tables, donating your time to help price things, make signs, etc. and keeping us in your prayers. We couldn't have done this without you!

4/18 - From Home Study to Dossier

Even though we're only hosting children at this point, we decided to go ahead and get our "full" home study started since we know we'll be adopting soon. We will also be having a "mini" home study done for the hosting. A home study is basically a study of the prospective adoptive family and their home, life experiences, health, lifestyle, extended family, attitudes, support system, values, beliefs, and other factors relating to the prospective adoption. This information is then summarized in what is called a home study report.

We received our initial packet from the home study agency, so we're currently filling out the preliminary paperwork they require to get the home study process started. The hardest form so far, at least for me, is the autobiographical form. Those questions dig deep and require a lot of introspection to answer. We're trying to answer everything as honestly as possible but of course, in the back of our minds we're wondering what the agency wants to hear. Some of the questions are a little frustrating because it seems like they ask the same things over and over.

A caseworker will have to visit our house and check out our living space. I'm told that this is nothing to worry about, that they WANT to approve people and help get these children into loving homes. Still, I have nightmares of our cat coughing up a hairball in front of the caseworker or Winston jumping up and knocking her over. You know that kind of stuff always happens when you have company!!! We also have a crazed possum that comes out of our woods at odd times and roots around our backyard. What if he shows up??!!!

Rob and I have pretty much decided that we're gonna be as open and honest as possible in all of our answers to interview questions. As much of a pain as the paperwork and interviews are, we realize that it's important to go through this process because these people need to make sure we're a good family. We also need to work through the issues of how we'll raise the children, how we'll keep them connected to their Latvian culture, etc. The bottom line is that we all want what's best for the children. This whole matter is in God's hands anyway so He will have to work out the details.

The home study will become part of the dossier, which is the packet of documents a foreign government (Latvia in our case) requires in order to process the adoption of a child in that country's legal system. Foreign governments are very particular about the format of these documents and require that all documents submitted be notarized and apostilled. An apostille is a special seal applied by an authority (in our case, Georgia Secretary of State) to certify that a document is a true copy of an original. It's their way of protecting against forgeries.

Part of the paperwork portion involves gathering documents such as birth/marriage certificates. These documents are required for both the home study and dossier. However, the ones for the dossier must be apostilled before submitting them to Latvia. In our case, we can order apostilled certificates directly from Florida's Department of Health (we were born/married in Florida so those docs have to be apostilled there). This will save us that extra step of getting certified copies apostilled later.

Once we know for sure who we'll be adopting from Latvia, we will make contact with a Latvian attorney and begin compiling the documents required by Latvia. Of course, they'll require background checks on all the inhabitants of our house, which includes my 97-year old (no that's not a typo) Grandmother who lives with us. Yeah, like she's a criminal!! She actually thinks it's funny that she has to be fingerprinted and go through the background check just like us. She's one tough cookie and can take you out with her walker if she has to, but luckily she's no criminal.

4/17 - Fundraising and More Fundraising

Right now we're focusing on raising funds to cover the hosting fee ($3,120.00) and home study fee ($1,200.00). Once the children have come and gone, we'll know more about whether we'll be able to adopt them. What's awesome about the Simple Obedience Orphan Hosting program is that they don't profit at all from the hostings. Their fees are comprised of the airfare costs for the children and the cost of a small insurance policy to cover medical emergencies. The only additional funds we'll need to raise in connection with the hosting will be for food, clothing and medical exams for the children.

Here's a brief overview of some of the fundraising projects we have going on right now. You may find these helpful in your adoption fundraising. We're open to new creative fundraising ideas, so let us know if you have any you wish to share:

• Mary Kay Sales - I started using Mary Kay products myself recently and liked them so much I decided to become a consultant. I'm not doing parties and classes though, at least not right now. Most people I know (myself included) are extremely busy and don't have time for that stuff. I've had success by loaning out my testers for people to try in the comfort of their homes and by passing out books and taking orders through my Mary Kay website. All profits from my sales are going towards our hosting/adoption expenses.
• Garage Sales/Bake Sales - Our first garage/bake sale will take place on 4/29 so I'll report back to let you know how that goes. We've been spending the last few weekends sorting and pricing items. Thanks SO much to all of you who donated items for us to sell and offered to loan us tables. It's so sweet to see the children who want to help with this too. Many have gone through their rooms looking for items to donate and brought us clothes and toys. So far the bake sale items will consist of various muffins, brownies and cake slices. I'll be baking my little heart out next week.
• Selling items on eBay - We've gone through every inch of our house to pull items we can sell on eBay. There are some items that are a little too nice to sell at the garage sale so eBay is a good alternative. It's amazing what people will buy!! I'm learning a lot and may venture out to locate cheap items at neighborhood yard sales so I can turn around and sell them for a profit. It sounds good in theory, but I'll keep you posted on how successful it really turns out to be.

We can't thank our friends and family enough for their support. Whether you've donated items for our garage sale, made a cash/gift card donation, bought Mary Kay or just kept us in your prayers, we are so blessed to have you in our lives and can't wait for you to meet these children who will benefit most from your kindness and generosity.

4/11 - Our Little Winston

Just look at that innocent little face. Excuse me while I veer off topic for a moment to introduce our newest baby, Winston (affectionately known as "pup pups"). We adopted Winston a couple of months ago and he is the sweetest dog on the planet and also a complete spaz! He's gradually learning how he's supposed to act in public but it seems we can't go anywhere without having an incident. First of all, he's 4 1/2 months old and almost 50 lbs. so our "walks" mostly consist of him dragging me wherever he wants to go. He does the typical embarrassing puppy stuff. Last week we had to leave the park in shame after he took it upon himself to do his business right smack in the middle of the jogging track. That was after he tried to kiss a couple of young children, bopped them in the face with his nose, and sent them running to their parents in tears. Needless to say we couldn't leave fast enough. We got him a new collar and have been taking him on frequent walks in the neighborhood so he is actually getting better. Winston has four feline brothers (Maverick, Midnight, Mickey and Mario) who love to gang up on him as a constant reminder that the felines rule this household. Too funny!

4/10 - Our Journey Begins

Welcome to our "blog"....(is it me, or is that a really strange word?) Anyway, we've created this site so that we can share our adoption journey and keep everyone informed of the latest news and perhaps help those of you considering adoption yourselves. We have no idea how long this journey will take, what twists and turns are ahead, but we're excited nevertheless. One thing we've learned overwhelmingly up to this point is that patience is key and our faith will guide us each step of the way.

Our journey will officially begin this summer when we host two 10-year old orphans (Olegs and Kristine) from Latvia. Unfortunately, we can't post their pictures here because posting them on the web is illegal and could jeopardize the hosting program. Just trust us when we say they are adorable. We hope to be the right forever family for these children but understand that everything is in God's hands. We're trusting that what is meant to be will happen.