Thank you!!

Peter and I would like to extend our heartfelt appreciation to everyone attending or donating to our fundraiser. We were able to raise close to 15% of the funds we need to pay our program and orphanage fee. Wow!! We hope you had an enjoyable evening of great food, friends, and football as we did!! ~Xie xie, Do je, Domo and THANK YOU

We also extend our gratitude to Buffalo's Southwest Cafe, a fabulous community supporting restaurant. We would not have been able to pull this off without them. If you've never been there, it's worth a trip for their famous wings and Tex-Mex menu items!!

I get so disheartened watching the news feeds of all the terrible things humans can do to each other. Last night we saw the true beauty of the human spirit when even strangers chipped in to help our little boy in China take one more step towards a better life. We will never know those people and they will never know Daniel. But we will always remember them. We look forward to the day when we too can 'pay it forward'.

Bartending

Tomorrow evening, dh and I are hosting a fundraiser at Buffalo's Southwest Cafe in the town where we live. I can't believe how fast it has crept up on us. If you are reading this and you are from "our town" come on by at 7 pm Saturday evening for complementary appetizers! We will be your ~personal bartenders~ for the evening. A fun time shall be had by all!! Seriously though, I have to say we have been completely humbled by the supportiveness and generosity of our friends, colleagues and neighbors. There don't seem to be any words to truly describe our appreciation. We love you all!!

See you Saturday :0)

Do I see a light?

Today I got back all my paperwork from the Houston consulate. That means I only have 2 documents unfinished until the I797C needs to be done. I made all my extra copies of all the certifications and authentications. Hope to ship the bulk of our dossier off to my agency so they can start processing it for corrections. That way I only have the I797C that I am truly waiting on in order to be DTC. Yippee kai-yay!! And I know my I800a has made it to the NBC. Found out it will take a week to ten days to process. Am I going to be on the phone Friday, Monday, Tuesday to them? You betcha!!

Oh, man!!

Saturday I received my express mail packet back from the NY Chinese Consulate. Good, one thing down, I thought. But no...... they wouldn't take my money order to the Chinese Embassy (even tho they are one and the same, right?) now I have to send everything back made out to the NY Consulate General. Twenty dollars, thank you very much (in postage). Now I am worried that the money order I sent to the Houston consulate will come back too. Oh, I hope not.

But not to gripe too much. It was a beautiful afternoon here despite predictions of tropical wave rains. Spent two hours in the pool with the kids who were practicing with their masks snorkels and flippers. I have prune fingers, LOL. Off to get dinner ready.

thanks for reading :0)

Various and sundry

Well having booked myself to work 4 days this week and paid for the kids to go to camp, I have been flexed 3 of the 4 days. In the meantime I am figuring out what our grant requirements are and brainstorming on the fundraising front in order to alleviate some of the $5000 country and orphanage fees. Still working on paperwork here and there. Sent our marriage certificate for authorization and also a copy of dh's passport. Didn't know if you are a naturalized citizen, you not only have to certify your certificate, but also your passport. Glad I caught that now and not later. In the meantime our I800a (orphan petition) is floating around at USCIS somewhere. This is the hard part. We are at the mercy of the ~*Paperwork fairy*~.

I am also working out how to evict dh and his 'stuff' from the spare bedroom. I found an adorable cars bed on Freecycle. It is twin size, but you can set it up so that it has a lip on it to prevent falling out of bed. I LOVE Freecycle. It's like a belongings exchange. I have found so many cute things on there, and also given away lots of stuff that I don't need anymore.

My goal today is to play musical furniture :0) hmmmm, where or where can I put that train table?!!

Today is a big day

Our I800a is finally on it's way to the USCIS (ie Immigration and Naturalization). I spoke with the China program director at our agency yesterday. Basically there is no way we can travel before "early 2010". Even if we get our LOA in December (shortest possibility), we would still have to file the I800, resend it to China and then wait for TA. So my guess would be February. I really hope we can get Daniel home before his birthday at the end of March.

For those who don't know what all the abbreviations mean, basically once China approves our adoption, the US Govt has to approve the adoption of our specific child, we have to submit US approval to China then get our travel approval back from China before we can book flights. So much red tape. By the time we finish, it will have been a year since we first saw Daniel's picture.

Fundraising and names

We are doing every little thing we can think of to drum up funds. We've already held one yard sale (and plan to do more), and we've been pounding the pavement selling chocolate bars. I have set up a fundraiser at a local Tex-Mex restaurant. DH and I are going to be "celebrity bartenders" for the evening and the restaurant has been kind enough to include appetizers for us. We are holding the event on August 22nd, just before school goes back into session.

Most people probably don't realize how expensive a proposition we have undertaken. So for those wondering or considering international adoption here is a summary:

Adoption agency fees (including orphanage fees) : $14.5 K

Government paperwork fees orphan petitions, VISA's: $1500

Home study and followup: $1500

authentication related costs: $500

Air fare: $4-5 K

In country expenses: $1000

These are all approximate, but comes to around $23,000 - 6000 (grant) = $17,000 buckaroo's.

The biggest obstacle is that the bulk of these fees must be paid before we can travel to pick up our son. I don't know many people that have $20K saved up in their savings accounts!! Part of the reason we are also fund raising is that our child will need surgery and intensive therapy as soon as he arrives. I am going to take a leave of absence when he gets here, so that I can devote all the time that is necessary to him and for him. So, that is going to leave us without a second income for roughly six months next year. We have applied for additional grants, but I don't think there is a lot of grant $$ available to families right now with the state of our economy. I know we have been looked over at least once so far. So, we are humbly asking for assistance anywhere we can find it!!

By the way, we think we probably have a name for him ...... Daniel ....... what do ya think? We haven't had any involved discussions about this, but it is the name that has kind of been sticking around.

Going to sign off now to give some attention to my other littlies!! We are going to make fruit pizza. Sounds yummy!!

Thanks for taking the time to read my blog.

Joanne