Donations

We have been receiving a ton of donations from family and friends. Yet we are still sooo far away from totaly funding this adoption. We fund the first $10,000 on our own, but the second half which is roughly $15,000 we are raising funds for. We thought we'd try to make it a little easier for anyone wanting to donate. We have posted a paypal donations button at the top of the blog. Anyone wanting to donate is more than welcome. Thank you for all the support and please continue to pray!

Biometrics Date

Yesterday we received our letter for our biometrics date. It's not scheduled until March 28th. Dustin and I had considered trying to go as a walk-in but since it's a nearly 6 hour round trip we've decided not to risk it and just wait until the 28th. Everything continues to go smoothly and we are just continuously praying for guidance and peace!

APPROVED!!!

Well lets get the bad news out of the way...Today is March 1st, my original goal for having our dossier in bulgaria. Well obviously it's not there. Ok that's over!

NOW THE GOOD NEWS! Only two weeks after we sent off our USCIS application. We got our letter in the mail today that it has been sent on to the next step which means they are not requiring any more information and our Homestudy looks good! This is great considering we were told by our Placing agency they really weren't sure if they would accept our homestudy. They almost expected it to get rejected. Well we had a lot of prayer, and not only did God get it through smoothely, He did it in record speed! We will be waiting about 2 weeks for our fingerprinting (biometrics) date, then we will get our official approval letter. After that, our Dossier is COMPLETE! About time. Maybe we can have it in Bulgaria by April 1st instead...that would be no joke!!!We ask everyone to just continue to pray!

We also had our first major fundraiser this past weekend with dinner and a movie and silent auction. Thanks to incredible family and friends, we raised $2,000 dollars and had some incredible fellowship! We are preparing for a puzzle fundraiser next. If anyone knows of some great adoption themed puzzle sites through it out there!!

And it's off!

I mailed our USCIS application off this morning, and will be anxiously awaiting our fingerprinting date for the next 2 months I'm sure. This is the last major form for our Dossier and we are super pumped to be getting it. I think when we can finally get registered with the MOJ in Bulgaria it will seem a little bit more real and in reach. Dustin and I both still have to go have our dr.'s sign off on our medical forms but besides that we are ready to go.

We've started going around to local business to get donations for our Silent auction and benefit next weekend. I am pretty excited about it! Not only to raise the money but to allow so many family and friends to sortof be a huge part of this adoption. We are already being blessed by people who barely know us just writing checks to help fund this whole process. When Dustin and I first started this journey the one thing that I didn't worry about, and still don't, is how we were going to fund this. This is totally in God's hands and we are just fortunate that he chose us to ride along with him in this incredible ministry. He has taken care of us so far, and I'm standing on the promise that the work He started in us He is faithful to complete!

Back on Track

Well, if it hadn't been long enough, we FINALLY got our completed homestudy in the mail. Now to send off our USCIS application and wait for a fingerprinting date. My guess at this point is we definitely won't be making our March 1st goal, but at this point I'm just thankful to have our homestudy finished.

On another exciting note, Dustin and I was able to work with Show Hope yesterday at a Steven Curtis Chapman concert, and met some amazing people. We feel so blessed to be getting sweeped into this adoption community. Everyone seems so encouraging and just wonderful to be around. We were able to get around 45 more sponsors for the Show Hope grant program and enjoy some great worship.

We will now be working on applying for several grants to fund the second half of our adoption. Along with our fundraisers we are expecting about 12-18 months to raise enough money for the second part of expenses. I have also ordered some more stuff to make the map adoption neclaces for a fundraisers. As soon as I get the stuff in, I'll post some pictures, and start taking orders! Until then, here' s a pic of us last night at the event!

Papaw's Passport!

I'm not sure if I've shared this before, but Dustins dad will be traveling with us to bulgaria. He will be our babysitter once dustin and I return to work full time, and he is so anxious to meet his granddaughter! We are so thankful to have him coming along. A third set of hands I'm sure will be helpful. The good news is, he finally got his passport in. Now dustin can't bug him about getting on the ball! We are sooo fortunate to have such amazing family and support through this process. It's so awesome to hear them talk about how excited they are for our baby girl to get here!

A lot of progress is being made in her room also..(pictures to come). I'm working on some more possible fundraisers that I will be taking orders for. We are crossing our fingers to get our Homestudy in the mail this week, and our USCIS request sent off by friday!!! Then it will be time to apply for grants, grants, and more grants!!!! If anybody knows of some awesome grants available send them our way! Stay tuned!

FBI Clearance and Fundraising

Well Its been a while, only because it feels like we've been waiting forever. We should have had our homestudy almost a month ago, however we are yet to see it. On the bright side, we got our FBI clearance which was the last american document we need besides our USCIS approval. Unfortunately that requires our Homestudy to be back and completed first. I will continue to update as we get updates, but the next few steps and are going to be a looong waiting game.

We have had awesome support with fundraisers! We gave several family and friends bottles to fill with spare change and it's been wonderful! We also have an upcoming fundraiser with our church where we will be serving food and showing the movie Courageous. We are so excited to have the support of our church family, friends, and family.

There is also a Steven Curtis Chapman concert coming up Feb 7th that Dustin and I have volunteered to work being put on by Shohannas hope in Lexington, KY. While we are only a small way into the adoption we are hoping to be able to share with anybody even considering. We continue to be blessed daily. And hope to share a little piece of our blessing with those around us!