Updates and Timelines

Hi friends and family. Sorry that we have been on a hiatus for a little bit.  Between fundraising, holidays, and just life in general, we have been super busy.  That being said, we are getting back on the blogging wagon and will be giving more updates moving forward.

On Christmas Day we received a very important notification that China had received our dossier, and had logged it into the system. Also known in the adoption world as LID (Logged in Dossier)  This is very exciting because it is the last step before we get what’s called LOA (Letter of Acceptance).  The steps following LOA move fairly quickly towards us learning what our travel date will be.  It is generally between 9 – 12 weeks from LOA to traveling to China.  We are excited, scared, nervous, excited, did I say excited??   🙂

We are wanting to get back to sharing the remaining pieces of our story with you throughout this month. We want to fill in some blanks, and also just share the steps that have led up to now.                                                                                                                              We also plan on being more diligent to give updates on the process leading up to travel.

We are so, so very grateful to all of you for your support, prayers, and donations. You all have been amazing!! When we say that we could not have done it without you, we mean that figuratively, and also literally.

The yard sale in November brought in $4,500!! Wow!! We were absolutely blown away by the donations of items beforehand, those who volunteered their time to help set up, those who worked the sale with us, those who came and shopped, and also the generosity of those who “overpaid” for their lemonade and yard sale items.  Thank you!!!

The Spaghetti Dinner (also in November) was also a big success.  We fed around 80 people that night, and had great live music from Sola Fide.  We brought in roughly $1,200 from that event.  Once again, amazing friends and family showed up big. Volunteering time, efforts, and funds.  You guys are awesome!!

The Apparent Project Jewelry Fundraiser also proved to be very successful.  That one is so awesome because it also benefited the people of Haiti.  Our family was able to keep $500, and we were able to send $500 back to the Artisans in Haiti as well.

A big thank you to Access Church for their donation during the Be Rich campaign! They blessed our family with a check for $1,000!!

We would also love to be able to list all of the individuals that have made other donations. There are so many of you, and I would hate to leave anyone out. Please know that we are so grateful for each of you!

So if you are sitting doing the math, you know that we have raised a tremendous amount of money so far.  You are right, we really have!  Those funds have been used to pay several fees that have come due.  Thank you!!

To be completely honest though, we still have a ways to go. There are still several fees left to pay, and travel expenses coming up as well.  If you have already donated, we thank you.  If you are still wanting to donate, we are so appreciative.

Here are some of our upcoming fees-

CCAI Third program fee  $3,100

Travel to China   $4,000

Travel within China  $5,600

Orphanage Donation  $5,500

Thank you for continued prayers for our family, for the process, for the funds, and for our sweet little girl in China who waits.