Ideas

I really need some ideas. We were not granted our top choice grant application, we chose them to go with first because they did not have a preference over having a child. All the other ones that I have found that we "qualify" for give preference to people without children. I see pros and con's with that philosophy. Yes, they want people who don't have children to get their first child ever. But those of us with children, they are EXPENSIVE!!! So less money to go to saving for our adoption. Anyway, I am NOT going to be negative, I will just keep filling out grant applications till my hand falls off. What I need are ideas though.

I need ideas on how to raise money without asking people for money! I know, I just contradicted myself there. With Randy working overtime, it is awesome, but Camden and I never get to see him. Luckily the school year is starting up again, so I will be able to sub on days that Randy is home, but they cut our sub pay down $20 a day, which is a chunk. We will do another garage sale in late September, but we still need ideas.

If you have an inventive idea on how to raise money I would appreciate your ideas. Our church is not big on fundraisers, so that is out of the running for ideas. No spaghetti dinners for us! If you have an inventive idea I would really appreciate your input! Thanks so much.

Denise

P.S. On the positive, our agency gave out several trip dates and court dates last week, so thing are looking up for our agency. There are still many in front of us though, so we will see.

Grant...

Unfortunately we were denied our grant application. I guess we either
A.) Make too much money! Cough, sputter, gag!!! Please, we are a 1 income family!!!
B.) We have no debt, so we are seen as having the funds that other families might not have.
or
C.) They just didn't have enough money to go around.

I really hope it was C. But anyways, we are moving on, Grant Application 2 is getting worked on as we speak!

Please Pray

For this adopting family, their judge is not being cooperative at all. Thank so much.

http://fromrussiawithlove2009.blogspot.com/2010/08/any-suggestions-know-anybody-who-knows.html

You know you are in the middle of an international adoption when...

Please check out this post from a fellow blogger. It is absolutely hilarious!!!

click here

As for us, no real new news. Just waiting. Our agency's weekly update did come out and state that things are looking like Russia will be ending adoptions for single applicants and persons of "alternative lifestyles." This isn't a sure thing yet, but it looks that way. We don't know if they will finish out those that are already in process or not, so this could impact us greatly. We could get moved up the list a lot if that happens.

Paka,
Randy, Denise, and Camden

Waiting...

I really wish that I had news to update everyone on, but unfortunately I don't. Things are slowly chugging along. We are just waiting. On the positive though Randy has been working like a mad man, the fire dept. is short on numbers until the new hires get through their training classes so he has been able to work a lot of overtime these past three months. The only bad thing about that is Camden and I are use to him being gone for 24 hours at a time, but 48 gets looooong! I don't know how military families do it when one member is gone for months for even years!! Plus it helps us with financing our adoption. We have three goals financially for this adoption. The first goal has been met. The second goal we are about $5000.00 from meeting, and the third, ??. We will deal with that when we get there. These goals also include our travels. The third goal will be substantial because we will have the cost of being in Russia for almost a whole month in that goal. We are also waiting to hear back from our Grant Application. We should hear back by the end of September. Wouldn't it be awesome if they finished out our 2nd goal!! We will wait and see.

Many people have asked how much this adoption will cost, with travel and hotels, food, everything we are preparing ourselves for $40,000. That is almost as much as I made as a counselor before I resigned to do my current job. Mommy. It is an insane number but we know that God will provide!

Blessings to all,
Randy, Denise, and Camden

Patience

“Patience is waiting. Not passively waiting. That is laziness. But to keep going when the going is hard and slow - that is patience.”-Unknown

It definitely hard and slow, but I am learning. I ran across a blog the other day that taught me that I was being so selfish being sad that we still have such a long wait. They have waited over almost a year for a court date, that is right, a year. Their child has aged a year since they last saw them, that had to be outright torture. The good news is, they get to go get their child in a few weeks. I am truly happy for them! Again, patience is not my virtue, but I just learned a huge lesson.

Denise

Movement

There is starting to be some movement for our agency. In the past two weeks, there has been 4 court dates set and two first trip dates given. That is giving me some hope. On the down side it looks like one of our regions is closing, not sure what will happen to those families who have traveled and met their children.

Again on the positive, our agency is trying to open up new regions so that they can get us moving along. Praying it goes good. It also looks like the end of August to beginning of September is when dates are going to be coming out for waiting families. We are back in the list so we are not expecting anything yet.