Wind in Our Sails

Two major things have changed since our last post-

1. We submitted our dossier!

2. We were awarded another matching grant!

It's funny how quickly things can change, especially our attitudes. Last Monday I traveled down to Salem to get the state seal (kind of like notarizing our notary's signature), and Tuesday Paul dropped off our dossier- the collection of many, many pages of documents. Dossiers will vary depending on the country you're preparing them for, but ours included two matching packets- one for the US and one for RMI- that had marriage certificates, birth certificates, photos of our family and our home, medical examinations, passport photos, background checks from CA, OR, CPS, and the FBI.  Despite the fact that we had already done most of the work by collecting all of this, there was something so incredible about sending it out- literally the last major thing we have to do for the time being. An enormous weight was lifted off our shoulders as that packet left our home, even though now the real waiting begins.

We also found out, amazingly, that we were awarded another matching grant by Hand in Hand Adoptions- this time for $4,000! This is obviously incredible news- if we can fundraise the 4k by October 17th, we will be awarded the additional 4k- when combined with the $2k grant from LifeSong, it means we'll be able to pay for our dossier (whew!)!!! (Side note- if you're considering adoption or currently pursuing one, I would love to share information with you, especially about grants. Just let me know.)



Paul said to me this week, "Now's the time to get this stuff done- while we've got the wind in our sails".  That phrase has been stuck in my brain all week, because it totally feels like the winds have shifted. There's still a lot to do to be prepared for as many possibilities as we can be- financially, emotionally, and in our home- and we have our work cut out for us, as any expecting parents do. Life can be like that, but we're definitely glad to have the energy to keep going.

Other than the getting-ready stuff, now we wait. As long as our social worker confirms that the packets are ready to go, we're going to be on the short list for families waiting for a referral, but the average wait time is still around 7 months. Once we are matched with a child, we get to choose whether or not we accept the referral. Once we say yes, we get ready to leave! Currently, in our program, families travel appx 1 1/2 weeks after referral- which is an insanely short amount of time to spend preparing. Think about it- we won't know the gender or age of our child until 1 1/2 weeks before we meet him/her! I know that not knowing the gender isn't the end of the world, but not knowing the age is hard for me to wrap my mind around- we won't know what size diapers to buy, what types of bottles to get, or anything else like that- we will have TEN DAYS to prepare to wrap our entire lives around our baby.

We have had wonderful friends say they'd help after we left- make grocery runs and supply stops to get the pertinents, and we WILL take you all up on that… but because we will be in the country for 3-6 weeks, we will also need to be bringing 3-6 weeks worth of baby stuff with us to RMI, so we will obviously need that beforehand.  Crazy!

In the meantime, we're currently not running any fundraisers because we are both still getting adjusted to our new work routines, and frankly,  I don't even know where we'd start in the next four weeks. However, we will be trying to run them soon, so we will let you know when there's new information (about fundraisers or the adoption itself). If you're interested in contributing to our fundraising efforts, please let me know- we appreciate you all so very much!

I know that this post comes with a different attitude than last week's, and frankly, I'm grateful for it. I hate for my emotions to be strung so closely to our circumstances, but it is a relief to feel the weight of the past few months lifted off of us. The wind really is in our sails now, in large part due to those of you that kept us going through those rough months. Thank you for being so loving and supportive- we love you all!