Home Study Work Is Well Underway...

This week has been full of home study prep!  I feel like we've made good progress so far!  Here's our current list of paperwork, and our progress:

Release forms (4 forms): done
Health forms: appt April 3 for Doc to fill these out
Criminal Background Checks: appt March 27 for fingerprinting and submission
Employer References: Sarah-emailed to main office this week
                                     Ryan-to be filled out Sunday
Personal References: emailed forms to them this week, they should all be turned in next week.
Financial Statement: done
Copy of Taxes: done
Self-study Questionnaire: working on it...
Marriage License: done
Birth Certificates: done

Whew!  All we've got to do is finish the self-study!  Everything else is done, or scheduled!  We haven't met with our home study agency, or our adoption agency yet.  Our adoption agency Ghana program coordinator is actually IN Ghana, and returning this week, so we'll meet with her soon.  Also, we'll meet with our home study coordinator soon too.  We will also have training/education to complete, and personal visits for the home study as well.  Praying we can get it all taken care of soon, so our home study will be complete in record time!  God is at work, for sure! 

Next comes our dossier (the packet of information that is sent to Ghana) preparation...I've looked at the list of required documents, and we're pretty much taking care of them with the home study.  We will have a couple of forms that we'll need to have notarized for the dossier, but that's easy, peasy!  Just gathering and signing! 

All in all, I'm pleased with how things have progressed this week.  I'm loving this journey, even though it's daunting and exhausting!  I've also been searching around online, and reading up about Ghana and some of the ministries that Generations is partnering with.  I'm so excited to see what God's  doing and be part of it!  Please, check out Feeding the Orphans!  It's really an amazing ministry! 

Please keep praying for us, for our daughter, and for those caring for her now.  Remember, you can still contribute to our adoption fund, through paypal (send a gift to sarahtalexATyahooDOTcom), through snail mail, Just Love Coffee, or the jewelry we're selling (see our facebook pages!). 

Also, share our blog with your friends!  We'd love to have people we don't even know praying for us! 

We are Official!

Today is a BIG day in our adoption process!  We decided to pursue Ghana as our country!  Why Ghana?  Here's a summary from Generations website:

The culture-rich West African country of Ghana has a population of 22 million. While English is the official language, Ghana is a very diverse country. It is comprised of various tribes from more than 100 ethnic groups each with its own languages, religions, and traditions. Ghana, formerly called the Gold Coast, was found to be rich in gold. Today, tourists visit historic sites including castles and forts that serve as reminders of the barbaric slave trade that took place years ago.

Ghana is a country of great wealth and great poverty. There are large, industrialized cities as well as remote villages with no access to electricity and clean water. Due to poverty, illness, and illiteracy, there are many orphans, abandoned children, and even young children being sold into forced child slavery who are exploited by the fishing community. Fishermen often resort to ‘buying’ children from disadvantaged single mothers to help them fish the lake. They use the children’s small fingers to untangle fishing nets caught in trees in the lake. Unfortunately, a mother in desperate circumstances, unable to feed her children, believes that the fisherman will feed her child and perhaps learn a skill that she cannot give them.

There are approximately 1 million orphans in Ghana.  1 million orphans in a country the size of the state of Oregon!  Our goal is to bring one of those orphans home, forever. 

With this decision finalized, we also submitted our home study application with Adoption Consultants, Inc., and our agency application with Generations Adoptions! 

We received the "official" acceptance from Generations later this afternoon, so we are offically in the Ghana program!  We will be meeting with our home study coordinator soon, and the paperwork begins! 

First Goal.....Check.

We made it!!  We have officially reached our first fundraising goal.  When we first started the adoption process, our goal was to have $5000 raised by June.  With the $5K, we can pay for our application fees, home study, and the first installment to the adoption agency.  Well, as you can see, God blew "our" plans out.of.the.water.  Just this morning in my Bible study, I was praying that God would simply work however HE wanted to...I wasn't praying for him to supply the remaining funds in any particular way, but just for Him to work in whatever way that would bring Him the most glory.  Well, He decided to work through someone that we don't even know!  I'm so amazed by the way His plans are fulfilled.  We were given a check that covered the remaining balance, plus some!
Check out the fundraising page for the updated totals.

Our ultimate goal is at least $30,000, so we've still got quite a ways to go until we've got our adoption funded!! 

So, what's next? 

Now, it's time to submit our agency application and home study application!  Of course, we have to actually be sure on the country we're adopting from before we do that....so here's the question:

 

What country do you think we'll choose?

I'm curious to see and hear your thoughts!  I have the applications pretty much completed, so it won't be long, and we'll be on our way!  Leave a comment, and let us know your ideas!!

We're Almost There!

What a couple of weeks it has been!  We had an article in the newspaper, and then the TV station did an interview!  I was so nervous....and for those that knew Daddy, after I've watched the video a few times, I realized I had Daddy's "bird-face" during the entire thing!  HAHAHAHA!!  You can check out the KNOP news story here.

We are ALMOST to our first goal!!  We had originally planned to reach this goal by June 2013, however, our GOD, who wants to do even more than we can ask or imagine (Ephesians 3:20), continues to amaze us.  When we have $5000, we will begin our applications and our home study.  I've already been preparing these, so hopefully, we'll be able to submit them as soon as we reach the goal.  Guys, we are SO CLOSE!  Like, $432.50 CLOSE!  Our new plan (since God blew the first one out of the water!) is to reach our goal and submit our applications by March 15.  If we get that done, MAYBE, just MAYBE, we'll even have our home study completed by June!  Thank you so much for your prayers and financial support.  We can't do this without you. 

Be sure to check out our facebook pages for photos of the jewelry we have available, or head on over to Just Love Coffee to purchase some great coffee.  If you're not on facebook, shoot me an email at sarahtalex(at)yahoo(dot)com and I can get photos of the jewelry to you.  Thanks!

Out of our Comfort Zone...

I think my friend Harmony said it well in her blog.  I'm totally uncomfortable with the article in the Telegraph, but God doesn't call us to a life of comfort.  God doesn't call us to a life of smooth sailing.  He works the most in our lives when we are totally out of our comfort zone (something that's been drilled into me since I was a teenager, right, Eric?).  Fundraising is not a fun process, but it's necessary to bring our daughter home to her family.  It's necessary to meet the obligations required to be able to adopt.  So, like Harmony, we trudge on, knowing what Isaiah 55:8-9 says is true:

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways,”
declares the Lord.
⁹ “As the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts.

 

 

Thank you for your continued prayer and support.  No matter how uncomfortable I am with the idea of fundraising, and asking people for help in our adoption, I am grateful.  I am grateful for the journey that we're on, and I'm grateful that God is allowing so many people to be involved in our life story. 

So Blessed!

We are so blessed by God!  We have only been fundraising for 1 1/2 months, and we only have $1300 $930 left to reach our first goal!  I cannot believe how God has blessed our efforts.  It's such a reminder and an assurance that this is God's plan for us, not just our idea.  Thank you so much for your support, and especially, your prayers.  You can give through our Avon fundraiser, our Just Love Coffee fundraiser, or you can donate through Paypal.  Just send a "gift" to our email:
sarahtalex(at)yahoo(dot)com 



Thank you again....every little bit counts, and it's adding up quickly!

God's definitely got BIG plans for our family...

If we were unsure of God's leading our family toward adoption before now (which we were NOT), we definitely would be sure now.  Wow!  There is no way that I thought I'd be saying we are at 67% of our $5000 goal just one month into our fundraising!  We are sitting at almost $3400 today.  When we get to $5000, we will apply with the agency, and start the home study process, which will take anywhere from 2-4 months to complete. 

Our Tupperware fundraiser is closing in just a few days.  If you would still like to order, you can do that here.  Also, our Just Love Coffee fundraiser is ongoing.  You can access that here.  We are so pleased to be working with a company such as Just Love Coffee Roasters.  Not only can you support our adoption, but you can also support a FAIR TRADE Certified product.  Win-win.  Also if you have a business, or a church, we can work with you to provide the coffee at a wholesale price as well.  Wouldn't it be great to serve coffee that you can be sure does NOT support slave labor?!?  We are also working with Rebekah Blocher Designs Jewelry.  Our first set of fundraising jewelry SOLD OUT in 3 days!  I'm so excited to be getting this great product.  We have 2 more orders on the way to us.  I hope we sell them just as fast!  You can also simply send us a "gift" through Paypal.  Just send money as a "gift" to sarahtalex(at)yahoo(dot)com.  Sending as a gift avoids paypal fees for both parties. 

I've visited with a new store here in North Platte, and they are considering allowing us to sell some of our fundraising products as a special event in the store.  We pray that if this happens, it will be an amazing event with lots of adoption sales! 

We also received our "prayer cards" today.  I'm so excited to pass these out...so that people will be reminded to pray for our family and follow our journey as we travel through the adoption process. 

Here's my BHAG

(Big Hairy Audacious Goal), as my friend (and boss!) Eric Ramsey would say.  Since our fundraising kicked off so amazingly, I'm altering our original goal.  Our first plan was to reach our $5000 goal by summer, so we could start our home study.  Now, I'd like to reach our $5000 goal by March 15.  If we do this, perhaps we can have our home study ALMOST complete by summer.  This will greatly reduce our wait time until our daughter is home!  We've got some ideas and projects that we'd like to participate in, but some of these require us to have our home study completed....so let's get on it! 

Thanks so much for your encouragement, support, and prayers.  We know that God has some amazing plans for one little African girl, and some even more amazing blessings for us, her family, through this process. 

If you're not "following" our blog, please do so, or leave us a comment.  We would love to know who's following our journey, and praying for us!