We feel very blessed that our caseworker was willing and able to set-up our home visits so quickly following the past months of us plugging through our paperwork. Both visits will be this Tuesday and Thursday. Please pray that everything will go smoothly. Last time, I was very nervous about having someone come to my home and determine whether our home and family would be fit for a new child. I think I may have driven a few of the kids crazy in my cleaning frenzy! This time, I am a bit older and wiser and recognize the importance of Janis seeing how life really is in our home. Don't worry! I will clean a bit more than usual, but not enough to derail our semi-relaxed summer pace.
Following our visits this week, our caseworker will need time to compile everything into a neat and tidy packet that our consultants (Dawn & Jason) with Christian Adoption Consultants. This part of the process can take up to a month or so depending on our caseworker's work load. So, we need to get our financial support together so we are ready to start "matching" with potential adoption situation by the beginning of September. Having just typed that, I am fairly confident that this timeline is MINE and may not be God's...so, as I move forward in faith, here's what we know:
1) We are pursuing a "Special Needs Adoption." This means that the we will be looking at situation that have children special needs (E would have fallen in this category), children over the age of 3 and sibling groups. We will be prayerfully considering any and every option that Dawn & Jason share with us. However, we will patiently wait until we feel God's hand saying it's time to move.
2) We cannot begin to look at potential adoption situations until our funds are raised. Most situations will require the money right away and the cost of adoption can range anywhere from $20,000 - $34,000. It feels overwhelming when I just look at the total amount. However, a good friend helped me break it down into goals that feel more manageable.
Each of the boxes in the two graphs represent a dollar amount that we need to raise. Once all the boxes are colored in, we will have the amount needed to ensure that we can afford to adopt any child(ren).
Now, as my recent blog re-post shared, it is NOT our intention to make you uncomfortable:
What we covet first and foremost is your focused prayers for our family and this entire process.
God has called us this far, and we know that He will see us through each stage. Your support, encouragement and prayers as week seek to fulfill His will is such a blessing to our family!
We have been amazingly blessed by so many friends and family who have donated financially to bring us to this point already. Each time I mark off a box, I am reminded how amazing it is to be partnering with so many people to make this calling a reality.
One of those amazing blessings was the garage sale fundraiser this weekend. I am blown away by the gift of time and energy that our friend, Anne, put into this act of love for our family's adoption. It was even more amazing the number of people (both that we knew and those we didn't) who gave generously so we could have so many treasures to sell! Our garage sale fundraiser this past weekend earned $1000.35!! What a wonderful, amazing blessing!!
There is obviously more fundraisers in the works...including a silent auction starting on July 7th. More information will be coming soon. In the meanwhile, please continue to be in prayer for our family and the funds that need to be raised.
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