FUNdraisers

Our adoption agency will be referring us to an organization called Brittany's Hope Foundation.  Their Seeding Gift Program provides grant money to families in the adoption process.  For whatever funds we raise in their name, they will provide us with a grant in double that amount paid directly to our adoption agency to offset our remaining fees due.  We are so thankful to be a part of this "pay it forward" program.  Any grant money we recieve will have been provided by previous families that have fundraised, and the money we raise will go towards a grant for the next family that is referred to Brittany's Hope. 

So fundraise we will! 
We held our first fundraiser this past Thursday, June 21st.  It was "An Evening with Elvis" at the Lansdale VFW.  The tablecovers, centerpieces and place settings really transformed the place.  And Andy Svrcek, the Elvis Tribute Artist, was great!  There was dinner, entertainment, Chinese raffle baskets and a 50/50.  We are so very thankful for the love, support and generousity that so many of our family and friends have showered us with...many of whom bought 50/50 tickets or gave us a donation since they couldn't attend the event.  So many others helped by providing food, raffle baskets, door prizes, etc.  For those who joined us Thursday night...thank you, thank you, THANK YOU!  You made us feel so supported in this journey.  We ate well, laughed hard and raised nearly $2500!  Words cannot even begin to express how blessed we feel!

We are planning more fundraisers and will keep you posted.  We will host a Bingo event Saturday, October 13th at Calvary Church in Souderton.  And possibly a family pizza night, Mini-golf tournament, Casino bus trip and another Elvis dinner event.  But I am most excited to plan a Thank YOU party once we return home with our little girl and her new cousin, Tim and Dawn's little girl.  We can't wait to show you the two beautiful little faces that have found their way to our families because of your love, support and generosity.

Home Study

We have completed our two home study visits.  The first one was last Thursday morning.  The kids knew something was up because I was furiously cleaning the house for two days.  I found out on Tuesday afternoon (June 5th) that the social worker would visit our house Thursday morning (June 7th).  I have known since day one that this day would come...but I guess I thought I would have the luxury of more than 48 hours notice to get my whole house in order.  Riley is sooo sweet:  I found him Thursday morning struggling with the comforter on his bed, he was "trying to find all 4 corners".  He asked me if it was the day the social worker was coming...he wanted to make his bed.  My heart melted!  He has never attempted to make his bed before, but he knew it was an important day and he wanted to do his part.  The second visit was Monday afternoon, June 10th.  When she got to our house at 3:45pm the boys were just getting home from school and Sean was just arriving home from work.  We had exactly two hours to offer her because Sean had a doctor appointment at 5:45, Aidan had a baseball game at 5:45 and Riley had soccer practice at 6:00....welcome to our crazy, busy but wonderful life! 

1st visit: 
            interview Sean alone
     interview Shannon alone
     speak with Bud (Sean's dad)
     speak with Maura (the social worker hardly got a word in...we warned her!)
     House Tour

2nd visit:
      interview Sean and Shannon together
      speak with Riley and Aidan (and of course Maura wanted to talk too!) 
      time to ask the MANY questions that we have

Now we wait for our home study approval.  (although she "unofficially" told us that she was going to approve us)  Hopefully we'll have the 15 page notarized home study report in about two weeks.

Next step:   File the I-800A (request to be approved by US Immigration and Customs to adopt a child from China)  During the 2-4 month wait for that form to be approved we will be preparing all the documents for our Dossier (which is the official paperwork that is sent to China)...let the paperchase begin!