Buy Coffee and Help Bring our Child Home!

We are partnering with a great company called Just Love Coffee to help raise money for our next adoption.  For every bag of coffee you buy, they will give us $5 that goes directly towards our adoption expenses.  Go HERE for our store.  Once you get there, you can use the links on the left side of the page to see all the types of coffee they have.

I have tried a couple of different types and they are SO good!!!!!  The coffee would make great Christmas gifts!!!  Feel free to send the link to other friends and family if you'd like.

The company was started specifically to help orphans and their adoptive families.  The coffee is certified Fair Trade, which means that the coffee farmers are paid a sustainable and livable wage.  The coffee is also Organic.

If you have any questions, please let us know!  Any purchases are greatly appreciated.  We're working hard to raise the money for this adoption and would love to have you as a partner in the process.  We have more ideas in the works, so stay tuned!

Dossier and Homestudy

China requires that adoptive parents submit a Dossier, which is a collection of documents.  The documents we have to submit are:

Family Information Form (a snapshot of our family information, such as income, address, number of kids)
Application Letter (a letter we write to the Chinese government requesting to adopt)
Birth Certificates
Marriage Certificate
Employment Verifications
Medical Forms
Police Clearances
Copies of Passports
Photographs showing our home and family
Immigration Approval (we can't apply for this until the Homestudy is done)
Adoption Homestudy

Once we get all of those documents, they each have to be notarized by a notary with at least a year left on their certification.  Then, the documents have to be certified at the state level.  Then, they have to be authenticated at the Chinese Embassy in DC before heading off to China.  Each step requires filling out a form and writing a check (of course!).

The Homestudy involves requesting some documents, like the Birth Certificates and physical forms.  We also have to get documentation that our pets have all their shots.  Then we have to meet with our social worker and she'll ask us a million questions as well as come to our house.  Our house doesn't have to be perfectly clean (if you've been to our house, don't laugh!), but they want to see that we have room for another child.

Right now, we're requesting all the documents and putting together the Dossier, as well as getting started on the Homestudy.  We should be able to reuse some of our Homestudy documents from last time.  We're waiting to hear back from our local social worker as to what we'll need to do to complete the Homestudy.

Once the Homestudy is done, we can apply to US Immigration.  Last time, we had a big holdup with US Immigration.  We got caught in the midst of them changing the process.  We're hoping it won't take nearly as long this time.

Another Adoption Journey Begins ......

Some of you will recall that while we were in China last year, I (Sherry) said that I would never in a million years do another international adoption.  Well, apparently God has a sense of humor!  When we say "never", I think it's an opportunity for God to do a great work in us.

For months, we have been discussing whether or not to do another adoption.  We want more kids, but infertility makes that impossible!  I just turned 38 and I feel like I want to be done having kids soon.  Plus, if we get out of the toddler years, I don't think I want to go back!!!!!  We've been talking, thinking, and praying for a long time.  This past week, we finally both felt like it was the right time.

We submitted our application this past Sunday, which was coincidentally Orphan Sunday.  We definitely didn't plan it that way, but it's cool that it worked out like that!  I'm anxious to get started and get our new family member home!!!!!  We are going back to China.  We are requesting a special needs boy or girl under age 3.  We are hoping that his or her need will be cleft lip/palate again.  That need can have a wide range of severity, but we have a great support system in place here and a great team of doctors.  However, we are open to considering a wide range of minor to moderate special needs.

If you are the praying type, please pray that:
1.  The right child would be matched with us.  There is a lot of work that goes into matching children with families.  We are praying that the right child for our family will find us.
2.  The money we need will be provided.  Adoption is very expensive and we have some money saved up, but not nearly enough.  We have already started changing around our household budget to save as much as we can.  I (Sherry) am trying to pick up more part-time work.  It doesn't make sense for me to go to work full-time because by the time we pay for full-time daycare for both kids, I won't bring home very much money.  I've already applied to another college for an Adjunct teaching position.  I'm also trying to find some tutoring jobs and sewing work for people.  We will also be applying for some adoption grants, but we can't do that until our Homestudy is completed, so about 6 months from now.