God continues to bless us far beyond anything we deserve and we are incredibly grateful. We are just past the 10% mark for our fundraising and for us that is a HUGE deal. Aside from money that Jon and I have poured into bringing our sweet daughter home, in a little less than 3 months we have raised over $4,000. Praise God!! This doesn't even count local fundraisers we hope to push in the coming months and adoption grants we can apply for once our home-study is complete.
As far as the home-study goes we are very close to completion. We have covered most of the costs associated with that portion of our journey. In the next month or two, once our home-study is written and completed, we will then have to submit a USCIS application and get our fingerprints taken. That process will cost close to $900. Yikes. Then once our dossier is complete we have over $6,000 we will need to pay to our agency for numerous expenses, including an international program fee, and second program fee. We have some money funneled away for those expenses but we don't have the full amount so I'm planning on working extra shifts in addition to praying for God's provision. He has yet to withhold anything we need so we are trusting His continued faithfulness. It's funny. I know we have some big expenses coming but God has proved himself so much in only a matter of months I can hardly find reason to doubt his love and care for our daughter as well as for our small family. Keep those prayers coming. Not every moment is filled with faith, trust and complete reliance on the Lord but we desire to honor Him through this whole process. He is growing us and I believe even now preparing us for our daughter.
Our final required meeting with our social worker takes place on Monday. Woohoo! He will come to our house for our home visit (home inspection). I'll have more to share once that takes place. Until then...you will find me frantically cleaning. ;-) More updates to come soon!
Hi Kristen,
ReplyDeleteI have an adoption fundraising idea I'd like to share with you. Could you email me at mlee@coupaide.com?
Thanks!
Matthew Lee
With our first Haitian adoption, USCIS was only $70. With our twins it was $900--which we paid twice-- so $3,600. We'd arleady paid for all the visa paperwork in Haiti, but when they had the earthquake, the twins were sent to the U.S. and we had to refile and repay.
ReplyDeleteHope the rest of your paperwork and waiting time goes quickly.