This is the process that never ends...

yes it goes on and on, my friends...

(Apologizing now, because I'm sure I've got that annoying song stuck in your head.)


Silly, naive me. I really thought our homestudy paperwork would be long finished by now.

Today, my mom had a call from someone from our agency (I assume.) He had twelve million questions about anything and everything you could think of. I'm sure she wasn't the only one, since we had six references on our paperwork. (Good luck to you all, and thanks for suffering through it for us!)

Today I also received the feedback from our adoption agency worker. She had a bunch of minor corrections for the homestudy paperwork. Nothing major, our social worker is clearly competent and did an excellent job, so it was primarily clarifying all the little points that our ee country requires (ee = eastern european).

It's not that I mind all this paperwork, but sheesh, it is dragging on forever! However, I believe that it should now be ready to be mailed off to our state. We are PRAYING that God moves things quickly, because if it gets held up at the state level there is not much of anything else we can do anytime soon. We are also praying that the state finds favor with us. There's nothing like depending on a bunch of people who are simply using a giant summary of your life to determine whether or not you qualify to adopt! Sometimes it feels so silly and backwards- these kids literally have NOTHING. Pretty much ANYTHING is a step up. (Obviously not dangerous situations.) So, seriously, if we don't have a lot of money, or a ton of community resources, or a giant house... does that really mean they should have to sit around and hope someone "better" comes along?
However, I realize and respect the state needing to have a sense of what and who they are approving. It's just hard to accept at a completely bankrupt state looking at us, shaking their heads because our health insurance is so high. (Nevermind the fact that the reason our health insurance has shot up is because the state hasn't been paying its bills. By them not paying the school district, the district has to take money from employees in order to stay afloat. But I guess we aren't supposed to consider that, right?)

ANYWAY... I'm just anxious to be done with this homestudy paperwork already!!

However, we have moved on to sending all of our dossier paperwork (well, what we can.) Which is awesome, because it actually feels like we are doing something again. What is not so great is that I am stuck in a recliner day and night (broken foot, in case you've forgotten) and unable to take care of anything myself. Mister works 10 hour days (with Fridays off) over the summer, so he isn't exactly around to take care of it himself. (And honestly, I'm having trouble convincing him he has to gather all this stuff himself, when he is already playing the role of mom and dad and home nurse right now.) I'm doing what I can, and praying that I will be up and moving soon. (On a positive note, the dr. said he doesn't believe I will need surgery. YEAH!!!)

So... that's that.
I've got a couple of different fundraisers coming up, both for my 5/5/5 kidlet. She's in China, 5 years old, and totally adorable. I'm trying to raise $5k for her AND find her a family, so if you know anyone looking for a precious little girl, send 'em my way! I'll be posting both of those shortly (one I've already mentioned, which is the balloon release.)
I've also got the five thousand footsteps walkathon that I am working on. Tentative month will be September... more to come on that shortly.
And finally, I need to come up with $2,000 to send to our agency in the next few weeks. This is still an "out-of-pocket" expense- meaning we can't use our grant donations for it. We were PLANNING to hold a garage sale, but with the broken foot, I think I need to come up with a Plan B. If anyone has fantabulous ideas, please send them my way! We need to raise these funds pronto, because they'll be due with our dossier (which is as soon as the homestudy gets approved by the state. God willing, that'll be quickly.) So... prayer and great ideas, please!!