February Savings and Fundraising Update....Wow!

We accomplished so much this month! As far as making our way down the paperwork trail, we have 13 documents total that we have to gather for our dossier: two birth certificates, our marriage certificate, two employment verification letters, two police record checks, two physicals, adoption petition letter, financial statement, home study, and our I800a approval form (which is our approval by US Citizenship and Immigration). We've gathered everything EXCEPT Nick's birth certificate (thank you, Oregon, for being slow as mud!), the home study (and the report is being written now!), and the I800a, which we can't even apply for until the home study report is finished. So little by little, we've been getting things notarized and certified. My birth certificate is in DC right now, it will be the first document that we get authenticated by the Chinese Embassy there...woohoo! :) Nick's birth certificate will go to San Francisco for authentication, and everything else will go to Houston. We're HOPING that we can have all this nonsense done by the end of next month, or at least everything except for the I800a form, which is usually the document that people are left waiting on when they gathering dossier documents (it can take up to 90 days to get approval, we're hoping it will be closer to 30!)...fingers crossed that we get a happy, speedy officer assigned to us! :)
The home study was just about as painless as it could be! Our social worker came to our home, interviewed Nick and I together for about an hour, then we gave her a little tour, she asked the kids a few questions, and that was it! And our house was clean for at least a day or two afterwards, so that was nice. :) There was one little agonizing moment, and I debated even putting it on the blog, but hey, it's reality, and one day we'll read this again and laugh. The social worker was asking the kids a few questions about how they felt about the adoption, and Eli was hiding behind my legs as he talked to her...and then he whispered something to me so quietly that I couldn't hear him...so I asked him to repeat it, and he said loud enough for me (and everyone else) to hear,

"Why does she have a big butt?"

...Now...Eli has seen his share of big butts in his life, and we have never said that there is anything wrong with a little junk in the trunk...so what possessed him to ask that, I have no idea! And Nick heard him the first time he whispered it, and couldn't believe I asked him to repeat it! I was MORTIFIED!

So. Our home study is done. Buried that hatchet and we don't have to revisit it. At least not until the follow up visits, but I'll worry about that later. :)

On to a less awkward subject...fundraising! You will be floored by how much progress we made! We have already mailed our agency our check for the I800a application, and set aside the money for it, so I'm counting it as expenses paid in February!

Adoption expenses left to pay, carried over from last month: $24,900

Paid in February: $890 (I800a application and fingerprinting fees)
Left to pay: $24,010

February fundraising:
Quilt donations: $155
Necklace donations: $360
Tshirt donations: $580 (Yeah!!!)
Stella & Dot earnings: $97.06
...and drumroll please...
Savings account for Mei Mei: $8,573.83 (thank you, taxes!!)

So we have $14,244.11 to go!! Holy COW!

This means that we can steamroll through this process as fast as this paperwork will allow, which we are SO grateful for! We are so fortunate that we don't have to stop and save each time we have to write a big check! Our little girl will be home before we know it! We will continue to fundraise until we are fully funded, and I have a list of ten grant applications that we will be submitting in March. So guess what...if an Army guy and a preschool teacher can start from scratch and finance an international adoption...ANYONE can! Of course, we have the advantage of the best friends and family IN THE WORLD! :)

First Home Study Interviews Done!

Today we got our first two interviews done for our home study! Nick met with her at noon for his individual interview, I met with her this evening for my individual interview, and she anticipates that we'll be done with everything next week! Nick said his interview was no big deal, and when the social worker talked about Nick, she said he used the phrase "it's just another kid" a lot (only Nick would be this stress-free about an international adoption!), which she thought was funny. :) I was nervous, but she just asked about my personal history, marriage, children, and why I want to adopt, so none of the questions were very difficult. :) Now all we're waiting on for our home study documents is one lab for Nick's physical. We were at a little standstill, with Chinese New Year halting everything on China's end, and our social worker being out of town delaying the start of our home study, but we're finally making progress again! Once our home study is done, we can apply for an international adoption with United States Citizenship and Immigration Services AND we can start on grant applications! Sorry if all the exclamation points are jarring haha, we're excited. :)
We just started our tshirt fundraiser, and we have to sell 50 before February 28th to be able to get our funds, so please share our link! Others who have Bonfire tshirts have said they love them and they're super soft. And I love the idea of all you wonderful folks wearing the shirts and sharing our story to maybe inspire other families to adopt in the future! :) https://www.bonfirefunds.com/hoffmann-china-adoption