I feel the need to warn any readers that this post is quite a long one. Hey, it's been awhile and I've been quite neglectful of the blog to say the least! I will say that it doesn't seem like it can be possible that it has been nearly 2 months since I've last made a blog post. We've managed to keep pretty busy over here this summer. Shortly after I last wrote, we headed to Coldwater, Ohio to Grandma Sue's for a week with the Osterfeld Clan. Maryn and Bryn were in heaven to spend the week with their Grandma, cousins, aunts, and uncles (and Mommy and Daddy, too, of course); eating popsicles and swinging, riding bikes and splashing in the baby pools. And this only a couple of weeks after a trip to Tallmadge, OH to visit Uncle Steve, Aunt Burdie, and cousins Clare and Maggie for a weekend. They were spoiled with so much cousin time and had a hard time adjusting to coming home to our little family of four! : )
Other than that, the girls and I have spent the summer doing a whole lot of relaxing, really. Park visits (a huge favorite - especially if they include a picnic lunch), trips to the zoo (a special treat when they include company from our friend Emily (who is also their babysitter) and her boys Dominic and Adam), visits to Grandma and Grandpa's Ottke's house and to play with cousin Brayden and Aunt True and Uncle Mike, and of course a trek out to the backyard swing set and sandbox once or twice... a day! We also welcomed a new baby cousin into our family in July. Brayden has a new baby brother, Luke and Maryn and Bryn love loving on him.
Jeremy was home from work for the summer and so we got to have Daddy's company during many of our outings which we all loved, of course. As far as relaxing, lets just say Jeremy had a little less of that than the rest of us! My hard-working husband took on a giant project this summer - HAND-digging out our crawl-space which is the entire width of our house, using just a shovel and wheel-barrow. He made it two feet deeper so that we can now walk around in it an easily store things in there. He also built shelves and a wood floor for the space! He's pretty amazing!
In adoption news...We had most of our paperwork for our homestudy submitted mid-July and all of it turned in and fees paid by the first day of August. Then, we had our first experience (far from our last) of WAITING for everything to be reviewed and for our social worker to contact us. Just as I was starting to feel really antsy and worried, I had two very smart people remind me that all none of this is going to be done in our timing. The One who is in charge of it all is going to make this all go just as it should in order for us to be ready when the name of the little boy He wants for our family is ready to pop up on that list that comes through from China each month... It gave me such peace to remember that and as soon as that happened, well, darned if our social worker didn't call us - that very day. What a waste of worry and anxiousness, huh? We heard from her the middle of this past week and she came for her first visit yesterday afternoon. She'll be back on Thursday to do individual hour-long interviews with Jeremy and myself and then next Saturday for a tour of our home and some education time with us. After that, we may have one other meeting with her. She said that she may be able to complete our homestudy by the end of September so that is our big hope! We will also be completing 12 hours of adoptive parent training sometime over the next month or so - either online or in a class. We can see the benefits of being able to connect with some more adoptive parents with the class format. However, we are hoping we will be allowed the online option since, as far as we know, the classes our home study agency offers once in the fall and once in the spring have not yet been scheduled - which to us just sounds like more delays in the making. And, they will require a 4 hour drive to northern Ohio and 2 six-hour long days during which someone will have to take care of our girls for us. We will find out at our next meeting with our social worker which route we will be taking when it comes to the 12 education hours.. .
Once our homestudy is complete, we will be ready to submit what is known as an I-800A, a form that we send to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services office. It is the Application for Determination of Suitability to Adopt a Hague Convention Child (meaning a child who comes from a country who has adopted the Hague convention which regulates adoption). We send the form with a bunch of supporting documentation (birth certificate, marriage certificate, homestudy) and about another $900. The paperwork that comes back to us from submitting the I-800A will be a part of our Dossier which will go to China.
So... we are one more step closer but still have quite a ways to go!
And, in other adoption news...In addition to our normal summer fun and always present "daddy's-project-of-the-season", some of you may know that we had ourselves a little GARAGE SALE this summer! Only, the sale was not little - in the least. This sale has been, without a doubt, once of the most humbling experiences we have ever had as a couple. The amount of people who stepped forward to donate items, bake desserts, buy water for us to sell, loan us tables, share their yards, help us sort clothes, help us set up/tear down, help care for our girls, shop at our sale, and share encouraging words has been amazing and overwhelming. We even had garage sale shoppers, total strangers, who saw our signs and came to shop our sale and BRING ITEMS TO DONATE! We had a shopper who was a social worker who works with children who have been adopted who gave us her information and offered to consult with us for free if we ever have any questions or any needs. Many adoptive, foster, and prospective adoptive parents came and shared experiences and encouragement with us. We had 3 days of sales and the sale has continued on an online re-sale site all summer. We have also taken 2 van loads of items (so far) to St. Vincent DePaul to donate. To date, we have raised over $2880.00 selling things of our own and items that have been donated! And, we are still going... We are truly shocked and SO grateful. THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU to anyone who has helped us in any way with this fundraiser. We appreciate it so much!
So, including monetary donations and our garage sale fundraising, we have currently raised $4276 of the $25,000-$30,000 that the adoption will cost us.
A friend recently asked me a question about our fundraising. She wanted to know what would happen to the money that we had raised if we didn't raise enough to go through with the adoption. Would it be donated elsewhere or to another family's adoption? She was worried that I would be offended but I wasn't - I was so glad that she asked. I know that this is something that is totally unheard of for many people (fundraising for an adoption), although it is actually quite common and I really want people to understand. It is awkward enough asking people for donations, and even moreso if there are any questions with regard to our use of the money!! She suggested that I may want to share what I shared with her with others so that it is clear for everyone.
My answer to her was that this adoption WILL happen. Yes, it is beyond the financial means of our family and we do not have the money in the bank to do this as it stands right now. Yes, we are trusting God to help bring the funds through the generosity of others to make this happen. But, no matter what, (as long as we are found fit to adopt which will be pretty much official when our homestudy is complete - assuming they don't turn us down!), we ARE bringing this little boy, whoever he is, home to join our family. There are other resources available besides relying completely on donations from individuals. Another big benefit to having the homestudy completed (besides getting to move forward in the process) is that we will be able to begin applying for grants and financial aid for the adoption. Right now, we are planning to send in applications for at least one grant, one matching grant (in which the organization will match all donations we have made to them in our name), and most likely an adoption loan as soon as our homestudy is complete. There are at least a few other grants we are aware of that we may apply for down the road depending on the outcome of the first few. None of these are a guarantee and we don't know if we will receive a grant, multiple grants, or no grants...Should none of those come through for us (heaven forbid!!) we always have the option of taking a loan out of the bank and paying it off as we can. We are also planning on at least one more "event-type" fundraiser at some point down the road. So, that's that when it comes to financing and fundraising...
Well, I think I have borrowed all of your eyes for long enough this time around and can't think of anything else we have to share right now.
Dreaming of the day when we have less to share about paperwork and finances and obstacles and more thrilling news to share like a picture and a name of a little boy - the next member of the Osterfeld bunch who will make us a family of five! :)
Thank you all, again, for your continued prayers and support. It is worth a million to us!
