Moving along...

So, I think it's official that I'm not very good at updating this blog.  I think about it often, but I rarely sit down to do it...and I have a really hard time coming up with what to say.  So, I thought I'd just give an update of where we are in the adoption process...

Right now we are finishing up our homestudy.  It probably would be done already, but after waiting for the FBI to run our fingerprints for 10 weeks, we found out yesterday that they had stopped  the process because they don't accept personal checks.  Of course, no one called us to let us know this.   And I've been anxiously going to the mailbox for the past 4 weeks.  Needless to say, this was very frustrating to find out.  It's the only piece of paper holding up our homestudy.  And we can't move on to the next step without a complete home study.  So, after a good cry yesterday....we've now come to find out that there is a faster and more efficient (but also much more expensive way) to get our prints run.  So, we're in the process of doing that now, and will hopefully be done with our homestudy in the next couple of weeks.  YAY!!!  And then we'll move onto our Dossier.

In our last meeting with our caseworker, she asked me what I thought would be the most stressful part of this whole adoption and I said it would be that there is so much I don't have control over.  I can't control how slow the mail is, how long is takes for someone to respond to me, how so many of these organizations look at us as just another number....how you can wait 10 weeks to find out something was "stopped" 5 weeks earlier but no one called to let you know.  So, there has been a lot of waiting and letting go and trusting that even something like the FBI not running your prints in the timeframe you thought they would is all part of God's sovereign plan.  His timing is not my own.  He knows exactly when we need to have things happen.  I'm working on remembering that more often.

We've also been doing some fundraising to help offset the cost of the adoption.  About two weeks ago, we had a Silent Auction and a Yard Sale.  On Friday night, we had a Silent Auction with numerous items from local businesses that were donated to us.  I am still in awe of the people and businesses that donated these items to us so generously.  It was a really fun night, and some friends went home with some great items:)  Here is a pic of the Silent auction before the night started...

We also had a Preview Yard Sale on Friday night (where everything was double price) and a regular Yard Sale on Saturday.  Again, we had so many people donate items for us to sale.  I was overwhelmed by the generosity of people...many who barely know us or had never even met us before.
Here are a few pics of  "before" the Yard Sale...

It was all a huge success!!

I also meant the whole night to take a picture of the amazing friends that helped us do all of this.  I could never thank them enough for everything they did to help make this night and day possible.  We could never have done this without them.  It's just another reminder of how we aren't going through this alone. Not only do we have a Heavenly Father who is with us every step of the way, we have been blessed with amazing friends who listen to me cry, call to check on me, come over before the sun has even come up to help haggle with "yard sale folk" and mostly who just walk alongside us in this process.  I hope you know who you are and how very thankful I am for each of you!!