We are still waiting to hear from the Prime Minister that we have travel dates. In the meantime we are working hard to come up with the airfare needed to get to Little Man. We are estimating that we need $4500 to cover airfare and in country expenses. We have a few fundraisers going on and I am waitressing on the weekends to help raise some of the funds . We have $1600 in our FSP (woo hoo) , $371 at our agency, and a little over $4000 in our personal adoption fund. Which put us at really having no funds towards airfare......
until today.
Today ! Today we got an email from a grant organization (Rollstone) and they are blessing us with a $2,000 grant !!!!!! A $2,000 GRANT!!! I am so so so happy right now. Literally, me and the littles ran around the house screaming "woo hoo, yay yay " for about 20 minutes haha. Tony called in the middle of it to join in the shenanigans :)
So now that we have the grant going to our agency, it means we have $2,393 towards airfare, so a little more than halfway to what we need !!! Will you help us get there?? We have an auction going on and a VISA gift card fundraiser going on too !!! Here is the link to our fundraiser !!!
At this point we really do not have a timeline. We can get an email next week, or 4 weeks from now. Our best estimate is sometime in October, maybe November. But we need to be ready when they invite us. The last two families literally got 4 days notice. So we will have our bags packed and keep chugging away at the adoption fees until we get to meet little man, and what a glorious day that will be ! He has waited sooooo long , over 4 years to finally have a family of his very own ! I can not wait to see his face when he realizes that the family coming through the door is HIS. can you even imagine what it must be like to not have that, something every child deserves. Oh man, you guys. We are SOOO close. Over a year ago is when we found his sweet face, almost a year ago is when we switched agencies and sent in our first agency fee which placed this sweet boy on hold for us. I can not believe it. I know I am rambling but this is what happens when I want to share our news from the roof tops and I purposely wanted it to be in the blog :) Our thermometer is updated to reflect the new grant :)
FIRST TRIP EXPENSES:
$1400 Hosting Fee (will be using FSP)
$4500 Referral Fee (will be using grant, escro at agency and some of our adoption savings account)
$4500 Airfare and in country expenses (We still need $2,393)
SECOND TRIP EXPENSES:
$3400 final agency fee
$4200 Hosting fee
$6000 Airfare and in country expenses (Hopefully a high Estimate!)
$15,993 = FULLY FUNDED
Thank you for all of the continued prayers and support as we love this sweet boy home !!!!!!!
Thursday, September 24, 2015
Friday, September 11, 2015
Updates on where we are !
Last week I let you guys know about the Prime Minister having our file , and was asking for my updated passport. I was able to get it expedited (for a fee,of course.) And we received it on Wednesday ! I was so excited I practically tackled the Fedex guy in my drive way (okay...maybe not that crazy, but close enough) haha ! The next day I drove to Raleigh and got the document apostilled, and sent it over to the agency. Our agency is going to send it to his country so they can give us travel dates !!
Everyone wants to know what this means, right? This basically means at any point from here on out we could potentially get dates. Its possible that we could leave as early as THIS MONTH. Talk about crazy fast right !!! I am trying to prepare myself for that possibility because up to now we had anticipated an October invitation. We need to have everything in place and ready to go, in case we don't get a ton of heads up. Two other families in our group got FIVE days notice, talk about a panic attack. But we are so excited for them to finally meet their littles ! We will pack the kids and the dogs suitcases (no, the dog does not have clothes silly - but she is getting some new toys and bones for while we are away). They will all be going to stay with my mother in law who is an absolute wonderful grandma who is dying to spend quality time with her grand-babies ! She hardly ever gets to see them because she lives so far away.
We are just praying that when the time comes that we have exactly what we need to travel. At this point we only have a couple hundred towards airfare, because we had to spend some of what we had sat aside to get my passport quickly. I know its a big prayer , but please specifically pray that when we get the email that we have been invited over that we will magically have just enough to cover the airfare and expenses to go.
Someone else asked if this was our "Bringing Home" trip, sadly it is not. This trip we will go for one week, and visit with Owen each day. At the end of the week we will tell his country that we want him, and they will officially put him "on hold" for us. After that we will come home, and they will finish up some paper work on their side of things and invite us back for our Bring home trip. This should theoretically be about 3-4 months from when we get back home. But his country seems to be moving FAST. We just sent our dossier about 7 weeks ago and the Prime Minister wasnt supposed to get it for another 5-10 weeks...
For trip one we have both fees needed , what we do not have is the airfare. This could be as much as $4,000 for us to go over. We are confident that God has a plan for this. He knows exactly where the money is coming from, even if we may not.
Once we get home we will need to start preparing for our second trip which like I said could be 3-4 months later, unless his government decides to move things mega fast again ;)
And for that trip we will need --
Our final agency fee- $3400
Our Hosting fee-- $4200
Airfare & expenses in country-- $6000 (We are hoping and praying this is a HIGH estimate.
Please continue praying our family through this process. We have felt the love and excitement from so many people and we appreciate the love and support everyone has shown. We are in the final stages now, almost to the finish line. If I were a runner ( hahahahaha, this is funny to anyone that knows me in real life ) I might could insert some knowledge about being at the end of a marathon but alas I am not, so I wont.
<-- My passport arrived !!
Its authenticated and sent off to Little Mans Country !!! -->
Everyone wants to know what this means, right? This basically means at any point from here on out we could potentially get dates. Its possible that we could leave as early as THIS MONTH. Talk about crazy fast right !!! I am trying to prepare myself for that possibility because up to now we had anticipated an October invitation. We need to have everything in place and ready to go, in case we don't get a ton of heads up. Two other families in our group got FIVE days notice, talk about a panic attack. But we are so excited for them to finally meet their littles ! We will pack the kids and the dogs suitcases (no, the dog does not have clothes silly - but she is getting some new toys and bones for while we are away). They will all be going to stay with my mother in law who is an absolute wonderful grandma who is dying to spend quality time with her grand-babies ! She hardly ever gets to see them because she lives so far away.
We are just praying that when the time comes that we have exactly what we need to travel. At this point we only have a couple hundred towards airfare, because we had to spend some of what we had sat aside to get my passport quickly. I know its a big prayer , but please specifically pray that when we get the email that we have been invited over that we will magically have just enough to cover the airfare and expenses to go.
Someone else asked if this was our "Bringing Home" trip, sadly it is not. This trip we will go for one week, and visit with Owen each day. At the end of the week we will tell his country that we want him, and they will officially put him "on hold" for us. After that we will come home, and they will finish up some paper work on their side of things and invite us back for our Bring home trip. This should theoretically be about 3-4 months from when we get back home. But his country seems to be moving FAST. We just sent our dossier about 7 weeks ago and the Prime Minister wasnt supposed to get it for another 5-10 weeks...
For trip one we have both fees needed , what we do not have is the airfare. This could be as much as $4,000 for us to go over. We are confident that God has a plan for this. He knows exactly where the money is coming from, even if we may not.
Once we get home we will need to start preparing for our second trip which like I said could be 3-4 months later, unless his government decides to move things mega fast again ;)
And for that trip we will need --
Our final agency fee- $3400
Our Hosting fee-- $4200
Airfare & expenses in country-- $6000 (We are hoping and praying this is a HIGH estimate.
Please continue praying our family through this process. We have felt the love and excitement from so many people and we appreciate the love and support everyone has shown. We are in the final stages now, almost to the finish line. If I were a runner ( hahahahaha, this is funny to anyone that knows me in real life ) I might could insert some knowledge about being at the end of a marathon but alas I am not, so I wont.
Its authenticated and sent off to Little Mans Country !!! -->
Thursday, September 3, 2015
Full force GO MODE !!!
WOW. Words can not even describe the craziness happening right now. Our dossier arrived in Little Mans country around July 17. It has been there 6 weeks , and theroetically could have taken several months to get in the hands of the Prime Minister. We just got an email yesterday asking if my passport had arrived yet, which means the PM has our file and is reviewing it !! We will be leaving in a matter of weeks !!!! weeks !!
We are waiting for my passport still, it needed to be changed to my married name.Once it arrives I will get it authenticated and sent to our agency and they will send it off to his country. Once the PM has proof of my passport he will issue travel dates. I have been driving around and making a ton of phone calls today to see if I can expedite the passport at this point, and I am waiting on a few phone calls still.
Little Miss is not feeling well, and seems to have a really bad case of allergies. She had a doctors appointment this morning where they gave her a breathing treatment to help with her wheezing. So in between driving all over Gods creation, and making a ton of phone calls she puked in the car twice. Not fun, my friends. But we are finally home and she is resting so I figured now was as good a time as any to give everyone the updates. And plead for help. this is what we have left
Trip One Expenses--- Expected Travel Octoberish
$1400 hosting fee (paid)
$4500 airfare / in country expenses for trip 1
$4500 Referral Fee (due 14 days after we get back, and we have it !)
Trip Two Expenses
$3400 Final Agency fee
$4200 Hosting fee for trip 2, this also covers hotel/transportation/translator
$5000 airfare for trip 2 (for me, Tony, and Owen)
$1000 in country expenses trip 2
Total is about $18,000 that we still need. This is an estimate as about $9000 of that is for airfare and we are really hoping it doesnt cost that much !!!
BUT ! We have a fundraiser going on for a VISA gift card give away. How it works is you pick a number, and donate that amount to our FSP, (link on sidebar) , and send me a copy of your receipt either via email or private message me via Facebook if we are friends.
Operation: first trip is officially ON. Will you help us get there?
We are waiting for my passport still, it needed to be changed to my married name.Once it arrives I will get it authenticated and sent to our agency and they will send it off to his country. Once the PM has proof of my passport he will issue travel dates. I have been driving around and making a ton of phone calls today to see if I can expedite the passport at this point, and I am waiting on a few phone calls still.
Little Miss is not feeling well, and seems to have a really bad case of allergies. She had a doctors appointment this morning where they gave her a breathing treatment to help with her wheezing. So in between driving all over Gods creation, and making a ton of phone calls she puked in the car twice. Not fun, my friends. But we are finally home and she is resting so I figured now was as good a time as any to give everyone the updates. And plead for help. this is what we have left
Trip One Expenses--- Expected Travel Octoberish
$4500 airfare / in country expenses for trip 1
Trip Two Expenses
$3400 Final Agency fee
$4200 Hosting fee for trip 2, this also covers hotel/transportation/translator
$5000 airfare for trip 2 (for me, Tony, and Owen)
$1000 in country expenses trip 2
Total is about $18,000 that we still need. This is an estimate as about $9000 of that is for airfare and we are really hoping it doesnt cost that much !!!
BUT ! We have a fundraiser going on for a VISA gift card give away. How it works is you pick a number, and donate that amount to our FSP, (link on sidebar) , and send me a copy of your receipt either via email or private message me via Facebook if we are friends.
Operation: first trip is officially ON. Will you help us get there?
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