To say that the last week has been interesting would be a huge understatement. Chris and I have been struggling with how to pay for our international adoption. Through our agency, we would be looking at $20,000+ by the time our adoption was finished. After a LOT of prayer and late-night talks, we decided a week or so ago, to drop our agency and continue our adoption independantly. Although it would mean we assemble our dossier on our own, it would end up saving us about $10,000. A huge weight felt like it was lifted off our shoulders . . . until last Wednesday. That's when we received an email from our coordinator letting us know that as of August 31, 2010, Rwanda will be suspending international adoption while it becomes Hague compliant. Basically, if a dossier is not received by a Rwandan embassy by closing tomorrow, it will have to wait until Rwanda reopens its doors. Obviously, ours will not make it. The door for us to adopt from Rwanda is closed for the time being. We're not sure what our next step is, but we know we're called to adopt. Chris and I are looking into other adoption options and we'll keep everyone updated on our progress. Tonight though, we have a huge prayer request. Please take a minute to pray for the families around the world who are jumping through every hoop imaginable trying to get their dossiers submitted in time. These families have spent months, maybe even years, preparing their dossier, their homes and their hearts for their soon-to-be child in Rwanda. It's inevitable that so many families dreams will be put on hold tomorrow, but join us in praying for as many dossiers to get through as possible.
Romans 8:28 And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.
The next garage sale extravaganza is just around the bend. We will be having it the second or third weekend in August, location TBD. The last garage sale extravaganza was hugely successful and helped us to cover some of our initial program fees with America World. Our next goal is to get our homestudy started. Thank you to everyone who has already brought items to be sold at the garage sale. We are still looking for more items as we'd like to put our last garage sale extravaganza to shame. Books, dvds, toys, clothes, furniture, lava lamps, that weird 70's shoe holder that your not sure where it came from, we'll sell it all. As always thank you for your thoughts, prayers, questions and encouragement.
Till next time,
Chris
Here is a pic of one of the necklaces brought back from Rwanda. They really are gorgeous! We are asking for a suggested donation of $20 per necklace. All funds will go directly to covering the cost of the home study. If you are interested in purchasing a necklace, contact me. Thanks to those of you who have already purchased necklaces.
We are also collecting items for our next garage sale which will be on July 31. The donations we have received so far have been amazing! We have boxes of stuff sitting in our apartment waiting for the big day, but we can definitely use more. We can especially use bigger items such as old furniture, kitchen items, kids stuff, etc. Let us know if you have anything you would like to donate and we will arrange to pick it up.
Thanks!
Nicole (Chris, Cade & Eli)
Hey everyone. First of all, Chris has been crazy-busy at work lately so we'll be tag-teaming the blog. If nothing else, you'll get to see each of our perspectives from opposite ends of the spectrum. Chris is the eternal optimist; me . . . not so much. We'll try to remember to sign our posts so it doesn't get too confusing.
As far as the adoption goes, we are at a temporary stand still. We have been struggling with our desire to rush things along regardless of the cost with our belief that God has called us to financial wisdom throughout this process. After much prayer and deliberation, we decided that we don't feel comfortable going into debt to speed this process along. We have a set amount of our income that we have pledged and we are going to trust God to supply the rest according to His will and in His time. As difficult as it is to wait, we know that God chose our child for us long ago just like He chose Cade & Eli.
Anyway, we have been eagerly following the blogs of the last AWAA group to travel and their children are gorgeous! Seeing all of the months (& years) of preparation and worrying and waiting come to an end for those families is so encouraging. I can't wait to watch their new journey with their new children.
One of the families was even kind enough to bring back necklaces made by Rwandan women for us to use as a fundraiser. (Thanks Becky & Sarah!) I'm so excited about this one!!! Not only is an awesome fundraiser for our adoption, the original cost of the necklaces went directly to Rwandan women to support their families. I love it! I'll post a pic/info soon & anyone interested in a buying a necklace, contact me. You can facebook, email, call, whatever.
Thanks again to all of you who have donated already, prayed for us or even just asked how things were going. This would be a much more difficult road without you!
Nicole (Chris, Cade & Eli)
Hey all,
It's been a while since our last update. There has been a lot going on. I sat in on my first America World conference call for adopting parents from Rwanda, that was pretty cool. Right now we are wading through a significant amount of paperwork/organizational stuff for the homestudy and at the same time for the whole dossier. There have been times when I've questioned God's foresight in matching me with my wife because we truly are polar opposites but I have never been more happy to be married to a "list maker". I am utterly convinced that if she weren't here this thing wouldn't happen because I have the passion just not the organizational abilities. She has both.
A little run down as to where we are:
- Taking our Hague convention class (intro to international adoption)
- Reading the required reading for our home study
- Filling out all necessary medical paperwork/legal paperwork/home study paperwork
- Connecting with our home study coordinator to get our home studied and our dossier underway (last update the wait is looking like 9 months from submission of your dossier to being matched with a child)
- Planning our next garage sale (looks like it's going to be in the next month or so...I'll post again with a firm date)
That's what I can think of right now I'm sure there's more. As always we appreciate your support more than you know. Please continue to pray for us as we still have several hurdles in front of us and no grand idea to get over them as of yet, but we press on.
Redeemed,
Chris, Nicole, Caden & Eli
I recently told someone that I am convinced that God is clearest in the unexpected places. This was all the more evident this past weekend. We had our first garage sale and were able to raise ~$700. We pulled up at 6:00 AM and before we had the second box on the lawn there was someone coming to look at what we had. At 2:00 PM we closed shop and literally had people sifting through the boxes as we were loading stuff back in the garage. The most expensive thing we sold was $40, but on average we were selling stuff for a buck or two. Between the first garage sale, donations and the money we've raised selling stuff on Craigslist we've raised the first 10% of our $20,000. With that I am beside myself. Our family, co-workers and friends have been so encouraging and inspiring. We've had boxes of stuff donated, money donated and help coordinating every aspect of the garage sale. All we can say is thank you. Everyone has been amazing and God has been incredibly faithful.
We will be having another garage sale coming up in the next month or so, different location (TBD), lot's more clothes, old DVD's/VHS's, McDonald's toys, etc... If you have items to donate and missed this last garage sale please let us know and we will do whatever we need to connect the dots.
We go forward,
Chris, Nicole, Caden & Eli
Reasons to be excited...
- Today America World receieved our signed contract and first program deposit. We now get matched with a family coordinator and begin assembling our dossier/do our home study. We are so appreciative for those who have asked us questions, for those who have shared in our excitement, for those who have shared their adoption stories with us and for those who have either partnered with us financially or our partnering with us in volunteering their time/energy. We are surrounded by people who amaze us.
- Saturday is our first big garage sale. We are very excited to see what happens this weekend.
- Nicole just brought me a Starbucks brownie at work. My wife rocks.
- There are a million more reasons to be excited, but that's what tomorrow's for, eh?
Chris
P.S. I always thought it a little ridiculous when you read people's adoption blogs they often talk about there overwhelming compulsion to be constantly checking their email/phone/mailbox. I thought life moves, you aren't going to get anything sooner just because you check it a million times. Unfortunately I must confess I have fallen into the same trap. I have checked our email for further correspondence from our coordinator about 35 times since this morning when I know she received our documents. My apologies to all whom I have judged and I am going to deny the temptation to constantly monitor my email, we've got plenty of time for that.
