Fundraising

So, we are faced with a huge bill for this adoption upwards of 40 grand...um, yeah...that number is a little scary for a lot of people. It's a really nice new car, or down payment on a house, even a year's tuition to college. There are so many fees and checks to write in order for this to go through, not to mention the regular expenses that come with raising a child! So, we are looking into ways of fundraising and making this work. Dave's parents are going to help us out as much as they can and we need to raise a chunk of money on our own to supplement the rest. Thankfully Dave's job offers adoption assistance in the form of reimbursement which will help out tremendously, but it's just coming up with the initial money. So, we are looking into doing a silent auction type thing in the next few months. We will need to hit up everyone we know to help out and donate. As much as I hate asking my friends to help and donate, it's a necessary evil. So, if you have anything you'd like to donate, time, a service, something material, let me know!

I know we are not alone in this quest, and in these difficult economic times, it makes this plan a little crazy, but we have to try. I want to try to make this big event as fun as possible, lots of food, friends and family, maybe some music...basically a big party that people will bid on things. It's a strange idea, but aside from hawking candy bars at the local grocery store (believe me, I've thought about it) at least it would be fun and people would hopefully have a good time while donating their money to this cause. If you dear reader can think of any other ways to raise money, I would love to field ideas! Let me have 'em! Oh, just so you all know, each one of you will be invited to this shindig! It's a good thing I love planning parties like this and I think it'll be a lot of fun!

As if the home study, paperwork and waiting weren't bad enough, we need to throw in the added stress of financing this whole process...I know we will get through this, it's just a small hurdle in this long race.

I just wish it was a little easier on the wallet.

Thanks for reading, keep an eye out for dates and times!

-D

Guardianship

Part of this whole process is choosing a guardian(s) for the adopted child if, god forbid, something were to happen to us. Dave and I had a discussion about this the other night and felt that my sister and her husband were the best candidates. They are not likely to have their own children, so this seemed like the obvious choice. I spoke with my sister last night and asked her if she would consider it and to talk to Brian about it. She seemed very excited about it and assured me that she would talk to him and they would let us know. According to my mom, when she spoke to Brenda last night, she was giddy that we had asked. So, I don't think it will be a problem, plus this will keep our child in the family and my sister gets along with Dave's parents so they would be willing to keep that connection, which is important to us.

Paperwork, paperwork and more paperwork...

My task for today was to go through all of the Home study application paperwork...um, holy hell is it a lot! There is a ton to be notarized and initialed. We also have to ask 5 people to write letters of recommendation for us and have those notarized as well. So far we have 3 out of the 5 all set, I sent out two of them yesterday and my good friend J I can give her the form in person. So, I went through and initialed where I needed, crossed the T's and dotted the I's. I really want to get all of this done within the next few weeks to get the ball rolling with the home study and get a SW all set for February and March. Now, I just have to kick Dave in the butt to get him going on his Autobiography and sign on the dotted line. In his defense, he's been working crazy hours and I think I may be more tweaked over this stuff than he is. I have our I-600A form filled out (for immigration) and we will have to get fingerprinted at some point by the FBI. There are several background checks by the state police and DSS to make sure that we are not criminals...(this makes me laugh). It's a necessary evil, and I don't mind filling it all out, I know the Dossier paperwork will only be double what we are doing right now so it's good practice!

Hope you all have a wonderful long weekend!

Adoption Education class

We need 10 hours of adoption education and there happened to be a class offered in Portsmouth on the 10th. So I jumped at the chance to go and fulfill the majority of the time needed. Dave and I went in with open minds and ready to learn! We were running a little late, and me doing 80 along 101 (knock on wood I didn't get pulled over), finally got to the library and found our way to the room. The SW Kate, was so nice and there were 4 other families there in different stages of adoption. There was talk about expectations of the child and when they got home, attachement issues that may arise from institutionalized children, and lots of other factors to consider. We met a couple that adopted from Khazaktan and were looking to adopt again. They brought a book, kind of a scrapbook, of their child's journey home which was facinating. We also met a mom who adopted from India, she brought her daughter in so that we may ask questions about her experience (she also used MAPS) and her daughter was adorable and very shy.

It was a long day and with our certificate in hand, we are feeling a little bit more prepared than when we first stepped into this process. I only wish Kate was our SW, she was great and also adopted from MAPS a few years ago. We can do the other 2 hours on our own and shouldn't be a problem. All in all, it was a very whirlwind day with tons of information to process. We are slowly reading the binder of articles and feel slighly more prepared.

only slightly...

Autobiography

So, Dave and I have to each write an Autobiography for the homestudy. I spent all of last Sunday writing this darn thing and you know it's going to be long when the questions themselves are 3 pages long! I managed to finish about 95% of it and it will need another look over before I submit it. I wrote almost 5 pages about myself, and as most of you know, I'm a pretty private person and talking about myself in the narrative form is a little awkward...

They want to know where you came from, your parent's parenting style and if you want to follow that. They get really indepth and want to know almost everything (except sock color). In a way it's great that they are being this thorough, and I am finding out in this process that you need to open your life for prying eyes (the agency and the Russian government) and be comfortable with that...so as much as it's an inconvience, it's a necessity in order to be sucessful.

I think at this point the biggest chunk of homestudy application is the autobiography and the rest is just gathering paperwork. So I feel pretty good about that accomplishment...now onto ordering birth certificates!

Target baby clearance

I couldn't resist going to see what they had available on clearance...I didn't find a whole lot, but what I did get was babyproofing stuff for the homestudy. I also got a sling, but it didn't fit, so that's going back one of these days. There wasn't too much that we needed right away, but the babyproofing will begin soon.

Welcome!

Hey there and welcome to our blog! We are very excited to start our adoption journey. We are currently working on our paper work for our home study. We are working with Maine Adoption Placement Services, or MAPS out of Portland Maine. So far we are really impressed with their Russia program since they were the 1st Russian recognized US agency for adoptions. We are going to try to chronical our journey, all of the ups and downs and pitfalls that is adoption. So, hold on folks, it's gonna be a bumpy ride!