Recent Events and Our Non-Profit is Coming Soon!!!

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!!!

   

Our holidays have been so packed full and are packed until New Years as well but we are so excited about everything that is going on and can't wait to share it all with you.  First of all, where are we in our adoption process???

Our Home Study has been completed and written up, reviewed by us for corrections and returned to our social worker today for final touches.  We have our list of all that is included in our Dossier (aka Paper Chase).  Most we have already done for application part 2 and a lot of it is just transferring info over and getting it re-notarized and some stuff state certified but our goal is to get this done this week!  This may be a lofty goal as we have a lot going on this week with our church and work but we'll do it.

For those of you reading who are not familiar with the process, this is what we will be doing to get our dossier complete to be sent to ETHIOPIA!!!

1.  Notarized power of attorney letter

2.  Notarized Letter of intent

3.  Certified copy of Jason and my birth certificates

4.  Certified copy of our marriage license

5.  Notarized letter of criminal clearances

6.  Notarized medical letters for Jason, myself and Jalen

7.  Notarized financial statement

8.  Notarized letters of employment

9.  Notarized letter from bank

10.  Notarized proof of life and health insurance

11.  3 Notarized letters of reference

12.  2 passport sized photographs for both Jason and myself

13.  Notarized copies of each of our passports

14.  Notarized USCIS I-171h approval

15.  Notarized Home Study

16.  Notarized agency license

17.  4 copies of our picture book (pictures of our immediate family, home, and extended family)

...and That's ALL!  Whoa, I'm actually exhausted just from writing that!  So if we are not as available as usual over the next week or two, you understand why :)                                                                       

Now for other things going on this week that I want to share.  Above is a picture of some of the stuff we have bought so far for the 4 kids we have "adopted" this year to buy Christmas gifts for.  We do this every year and get "our" kids from a friend's friend who is a social worker in a very small and poor community here in OK.  I went out at 4am on Black Friday to get as much as I could for them and still find myself buying things every time I go to the store because I keep thinking of how this may be the only time they get nice clothes, toys or anything for a while and it just breaks my heart!  I really recommend finding someone in your area that knows of some families and children in need and doing this.  It is such a nice thing to do and you can really get a lot for your money this time of year.  Our Church is also doing something similar and this Tuesday and Thursday evening we are going shopping at Walmart, at Walmart's cost and without taxes for about 35 families and over 100 children to fill boxes with clothes and toys and such for each child in need.

Lastly and very IMPORTANTLY!!!  Our non-profit organization has begun and we are so excited that we will soon be registered and have our website up and running.  Jason and I have wanted to do this once we got started in our own adoption process and knew we would do this after the adoption was over but because of our amazing friends and supportive church family we, along with 3 other families from our church are starting this up NOW!  We are a diverse group that all has a heart to help those that don't have a voice, in some way or another.  Whether through adoption, foster care, or orphan care (sponsorship, mentoring, etc), we want to be the "go-to" people to help out in our community and hopefully expand further out as well.  Our pastor is meeting with other local church pastors this week and will be announcing our group and after the holidays we will have our first official meeting .  We are still working on all the details but I will reveal our name.  After lots of creative thinking from everyone included and looking up what names already exists we have decided to name our organization.... It's A Child's Life.  Whenever we are asked questions about why we do what we do and how we are able to be comfortable stepping out of the comfort zone, really it just all comes down to the fact that it's a child's life!  Stay tuned for our website, facebook page, etc.