Where we are!

 

We have had some people ask where we are in the process of adopting our little ones.  So I thought I would post where we are at both time wise and money wise.

We have had our USCIS biometrics (digital fingerprints) taken on Friday!  I am hoping that we get assigned an officer in the next few days and I will try to call again Friday to see where we are on that.  For those of you that are not in the “adoption world” this means that we have to send an application in to the United States Citizenship and Immigration Service.  We send in our application, home study, marriage license and copies of our passports and they determine if we are approved money and background wise to adopt.  We don’t see any issues on this front.  We are above the income requirements and don’t have any criminal background to speak of so we aren’t anticipating any issues.

After we get USCIS approval for both children, we will be ready to send our dossier.  Since I am going on a short mission trip to Bulgaria on March 13th, I am hoping that all our paperwork will be done then so I can hand carry it over to Bulgaria to deliver it to our attorney/facilitator over there. 

From that point it could be 2-3 months before we are able to travel.  Our attorney will submit the documents to the Ministry there and they will extend an invitation for us to come meet the kids.  I am hoping that I will get to do that in May or very early June.  I will be spending two weeks there…one week visiting Landon and one week visiting Evelyn.  Then it will be another 3 months or so before I travel back to bring the children home.  I am hoping that will be in August or September at the latest. 

SO that is where we are time wise.. or at least that is my timeframe.  What I hope happens and what really happens are two completely different things when it comes to adoption.  I will keep updating as things happen! 

Now for the funds.  We are going to be running into a bit more in expenses that we originally anticipated.  Both children will be older that 2 so that will be two one way flights for over 2 so that will add some and the fact that for the first trip I will be there for 2 weeks which I wasn’t anticipating.  With the additional that will be due for the fees and all the travel expenses we are looking at needing about $10,000 to $12,000 depending on how much airline tickets run.  I had budgeted $1,000 for each of my trips, but because I will likely be traveling at peak season both times that might add $1,000 to $2,000 to our costs straight off!  So that is where we are looking at to be fully funded. 

We will be having a couple fundraisers between now and then so stay tuned!  If anyone is so led, the button to the right top with Landon’s picture is a link to Reece’s Rainbow where tax-deductible donations can be made.  We also have a chip-in above that and that would go directly to our paypal account and that is not tax deductible!  Just wanted to put that out there if some is so led. 

Most of all we appreciate any prayers for our journey!  We could not do this with out the support of God, Jesus and all of our friends and family!