We are moving right along in this next adoption (3-4 mths ahead of our last adoption timeline) and are praying daily that God will guide every step and open all the doors needed. With the holidays it seems like the paperwork and fund-raising has been put on the back burner although it is on my mind daily and honesty, hourly. We don't know who she is yet or if there are 1 or 2 girls that God has in mind for our family but we are just doing the steps we can do to be available for the child or children that need a home and a family and the rest is in His timing. We have our dossier basically finished with 2 small things left to do and it can be sent off but I guess I have been putting it off because until we have the next fee to submit, there really is no rush on getting it turned in.
As it stands right now we need $3,308 more to go before we can submit our dossier and we have 2 great fundraisers going on right now but I have been slacking on getting the word out about them so I guess better late than never :)
Through an amazing organization called Ordinary Hero (OH), people are able to make donations to them on behalf of our family and they are TAX DEDUCTIBLE!!! This will last beyond the end of this year but with Jan 1st being 6 DAYS AWAY, I wanted to make sure I got it out there in case someone is praying about the perfect place to make their "end of the year" donation. There is a small percentage taken out of the overall donation to go to OH but they do such wonderful things all over the world and need all the help they can get to keep doing what they do.
To make a tax deductible donation on behalf of our adoption you can go here: http://grouprev.com/expectingfromethiopia
Also through OH, we are an affiliate adopting family which means we can sell their t-shirts, hats, ornaments, travel mugs, etc and get 40% of the proceeds. This also is AMAZING because most organizations and opportunities to sell items only allow for 20% or less so 40% is HUGE! The money gets sent right to our agency every month in our name. Many have asked if we were selling t-shirts soon and have even requested shirts but right now we really have a lot on our plates and instead of making our own shirts again, we are just going to be selling Ordinary Hero's. They really are great quality, cute prints and are good for anyone, adopting or not....do you know anyone you would consider to be a hero to you or someone else? Or anyone making a difference in this world for any reason? If so they make the perfect gifts, teachers, pastors, babysitters, family, friends, or of course other adopting families.
To check out the OH store go here: http://www.ordinaryherostore.org/ when you check out click on "o'neal, joely" as the affiliate name to make sure it goes to our adoption.
Our time-frame at this time is looking like this:
May 2013: announced our adoption
Sept 2013: home-study visits completed
Oct 2013: officially approved to adopt through Adoption Advocates International (AAI)
Nov 2013: USCIS fingerprints done
Nov 2013: USCIS approval to adopt a child 0-5 yrs old
The Next Steps: Save/raise $3,308 to send our dossier to our agency, then we wait for "the call" saying they have a daughter or daughters for us.
I'm not gonna lie, I am already anxious for that day, the day we see the face of our daughter! Even just saying those words "our daughter", makes me so anxious in such a wonderful way. Although only God knows how long this wait will be, because our we are able to adopt older and because our agency doesn't have an extreme number of families waiting, likely the wait will not be as long as some experience, 5 families accepted referrals last month alone and 7 families cleared embassy to bring their children home!
In closing Merry Christmas from our family to yours!
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