January Saving and Fundraising Progress

January was a little stressful as far as finances go! We were very blessed to have so many donations, and we also had a lot of checks to write! We're just not used to having so much cash come and go so quickly, BUT....we're making progress!!! :) This month we paid our first agency fee of $3600, which pays for: - Orientation (the meeting we went to in Atlanta on the 17th)
- Home study
- Child abuse records search and USCIS (United States Citizenship and Immigration Services) filing
- Dossier assistance (the Dossier is all the documents we send to China)
- 12 hours of parent training required of all international adoption parents
So it feels good to have all that paid for! Other things we paid for this month that weren't directly adoption related (ha!): $110 for my passport renewal, $24 for passport photos, and $40 for certified copies of our birth and marriage certificates! Our heads are spinning! :) So here is our progress for January:

Adoption expenses left to pay, carried over from last month: $28,500
Paid in January: $3,600
Left to pay: $24,900

January fundraising:
Quilt donations: $1,015 (WOW!)
Necklace donations: $340
Stella & Dot earnings: $108.98
Savings account for Mei Mei: $1,745.96

So we have $21,690.06 to go! That's great for only two months in! :)

By the way, all fundraising from previous months will go into Mei Mei's savings, and that's the account from which we pay all our adoption expenses. The Hoffmanns are making sacrifices to contribute to that account each month too! For all of 2014, we are not eating out, I'm not getting my hair done (it may look kind of scary by Christmas!), we're cancelling cable (after the Superbowl, haha), the grownups are skipping holidays and birthdays, no clothes shopping except for maybe some kids' school uniforms in August, and just penny pinching and couponing in general. So don't think that we're not working hard too. :) The sooner we're fully funded, the sooner we can breathe easy! THANK YOU for all your support!