fast update:

We have mailed out 99% of our dossier to our agency for review and the last paper we needed came and I ran all over the state today to get it notarized and certified so it could be sent to the courier who will deliver it to the consulate to be authenticated.   As soon as that process is finished it will be overnighted to our agency.  All of our paperwork is officially out of our hands.  Our paper-chase complete.   So overjoyed.

Where things stand today paper work and ugh, the money::

Today we are waiting on the finial copy of our home study to read and sign!  This is a huge step and it has been super quick this time around.    For our first adoption we started our first home study document on Aug. 1st and had the home study in our hands around Jan. 30th.   This time we started our home study on September 1st and should be signing it this week.  There is an extra step in our new state and it will have to be approved at the state level before going on to US immigration.  This will add an extra week or two to the timeline.  

In other news we hope to see our children's files very soon maybe even before Christmas!  Maybe!!! My husband and I have been busy day dreaming about these two and soaking in all the joy of knowing they are on their way to us.   It was not always an easy road and we were told on more then one occasion that this adoption may not be possible.   I am so glad we stayed true to ourselves and pressed forward no matter how crazy it seemed at times.  Oh I can NOT wait to tell you all the whole story and shout from the roof tops who these beautiful children are and that they will be our family!   I can not believe that it has been almost a year to the day that they first stole my heart.

This week we are also shipping out the very last of our Braver than Most tees.   I can not believe how well this fundraiser went from start to finish.  We brought then back for a total of 4 sales.  They were so popular and I can not believe all the support we received.  After all of the sales and with a couple of unbelievably generous donations that completely warmed my heart in a way I can not explain we were able to put just over $4000 toward our adoption expenses.  

So most of you know I HATE HATE HATE talking about money.  I would much rather just hide under a rock and let things take their course.  Not smart!  I know!  But this time when we started this adoption I promised myself that I would be more transparent.  It is a little embarrassing that we can not do this on our own like we were able to when we adopted Charlotte.  And I am a little to fragile to take the criticism that comes with sharing the things I am about to share.  Why are we adopting 2 children if we can not afford it??  That is a very fair question.  So I am going to outline the expenses for you and you will see there would be very few people who could afford this and that if we don't do it then who?  Who would take in these children and love and raise them?  We have the desire in our hearts and it is really hard to not have the financial ability to make it easy.  We will make this happen even if  it  means we will go into debt, and maybe a few meals of beans, possibly not all the children will be going to college, but we will make this work one way or another.  :)

Here is the break down of adopting 2 children from China:

Placing agency fees:$10,535
Home study agency fees:$3,375
Dossier fees and translations:$4,580
Immigration and authentication fees:$1,400
Orphanage donation (not a donation at all ;) ):$11,200
Children's US Visas to come home: $800
Medical fees and in China registration (paperwork) fees:$4,120

Total::$36,010

YIKES:  BUT THAT IS NOT ALL!!!

We still need to go to china and bring them home and the above does not include that 2-3 week trip.
Plane tickets for Logan and I to go to China and to bring us all home will be about:$6000
Fees for survives, in country travel and expenses related to adoption, and guide fees: $6000

Another total of about::$12,000

GRAND ESTIMATED TOTAL::::  $48,010   ACK!!!! Can I puke a little now???  And I think most people would say this is a low estimate stating it will be closer to $50,000/$52,000  :'(

The GOOD NEWS!!!
We have already raised $4000 toward this total with our tee shirt sales and donations!!!!!

Also once the adoption is complete we will receive a grant from my husbands place of work.  They will grant us $4000!!!   So we are loaning this money to ourselves right now.  

There is also an adoption tax credit.   Our CPA believes that we will get back a total of $20,000 over the 5 years that follow the adoption in taxes.    This is a long long long term loan to ourselves.  

So that means as we look at it today we have raised or will receive in the 5 years following our adoption a total of $28,000.   Not to bad huh???

THE HARD TO TAKE NEWS:::
We still have about $20,000 to raise or take out on loan.    This is what keeps me up at night.   I have come up with a few more fundraiser ideas that I am excited to share with you all in the next few months.   At this point I am waiting until we are officially matched with our children to start up any more fundraisers.   I am also looking into and applying for grants.   Sadly we do not qualify for most of them for one reason or another.   Most grants are not set up for people in our situation but we are still going to try.  

I am going to leave you all with this: Thank you from the bottom of our hearts for all your love, support, and understanding!!!

Progress::

I have to admit I have been avoiding my blog like the plague.   For so long, all summer in fact, I had not good news to share.   Our adoption process came to a complete and sudden halt.  We were moving from our beautiful farm.   And, mostly I was just fearing a lot of changes for all of us.

But, finally I have returned for a quick update and I think it is pretty good.  
We have moved cross country into our old area and things are going so much better then I expected. The kids for the most part (after over coming some challenges) are settling into school well.      We really feel like we got lucky and picked the perfect school out here for them.

The adoption process has CONTINUED!!!!    We are not out of the woods yet on potential problems but we feel very very very hopeful with some more information that things will work out and we will be able to bring these children home in time.   So with that our home study is in full swing and we hope to have it completed and our paperwork in the mail to immigration very shortly.  

One last round::

We are bringing back our "Braver Than Most Shirts" by popular demand for a very limited time.....

just this one week!!    

This time our amazing shirts have their own facebook page that shows all their options and gives the the opportunity to order them directly through me.  

100% of the proceeds go to bringing home our children!!  

Thank you!!!!

https://www.facebook.com/groups/1586674461593850/

update past due::

I have wanted to update you all on our adoption process for a long time.  The problem......nothing much to update.   The only thing to really share is that a few weeks ago our agency was in China to visit all of the children they will be placing.   They were able to meet out children and get photos and videos for us.  It was amazing.   The paperwork is still out there somewhere and we continue to wait.   It is not easy but we know they are our children so we will wait as long as we have to.  
Here is a video of our agency trip.  It is beautiful and show some of the amazing children they will be working to find families for in the near future.

In other news we are tying to enjoy every last minute of our time left her in Virginia.  Spending time with friends, enjoying the farm, hiking, soccer, everything.   This is by far our hardest move to date.  The children, heck all of us have settled in so well here that picking up and moving is just nearly impossible.
We are however very much looking forward to catching up with old friends, and getting to do many of the activities we miss once we get back to Colorado.  Not to mention I can't wait to get my hand on the house we built 5 years ago and have barley lived in.  Ha ha ha!

The next few weeks will be busy with last minute goodbyes, and movers, cleaning, and shipping.  My next update should be from Colorado and hopefully will include finishing up our home study!!

#braverthanmost:: The Short(er) Story~

Not long after we returned home from China with our Charlotte did I feel the pains of wanting to go back and adopt again.   It is impossible to explain these feelings and the tug on your heart that you live with everyday once you have seen the parent-less. No, I cannot take care of all of these children who need care and love myself but as you stand in front of them looking into their eyes you almost believe you can.  In order to attempt to heal myself I decided to start to advocate for children to help bring families together.  I mean I couldn't possibly bring home another child we had 4, plenty to keep us on our toes and I was sure it would be so much better to help others find their children.  And, I was right at least for a little while. And then, I saw her face.   Okay truth be told I was seeking out children with a specific special need and that search lead me to her.  But as soon as I saw her face everything changed.  I was struck in the heart in a way that I have never felt before.   Let me tell you something here. I see hundreds, literally hundreds of children everyday pop up on my facebook page, in my emails, all over the place and nothing has ever been so clear to me.  She was my child.  BUT, oh yes you know there is ALWAYS a BUT!   She could not be mine.   My husband and I had talked about going back to China, we didn't know when, or what our next child would look like but we knew one thing.  We needed another boy in our family.  

  For a very long time China was known for adopting out their girls.   The factors involved are far beyond our comprehension the country the traditions, the values of China’s past are completely different from those of our own county.   But as time has passed and things have slowly changed in China so has their international adoption program.  Now the vast majority of children available for adoption in the country are boys, the numbers lay somewhere between 75-80% of the waiting children. 

Taking in the facts that there are families needed to adopt boys from China and that we only have ONE boy who would DIE for a brother the choice was clear.  The girl I had seen stayed on my heart but I continued through my work and not but a few minutes later I saw another photo.  A boy, and he had done the same thing to me as the girl I had just seen.  I was clearly losing my mind.  How on earth could I have completely fallen in love with not one but two children in the same handful of minutes?  My mind was racing to figure out how I could find out more about them and how I could bring them into our family (clearly from a Looney Bin where my hubby would obviously have be placed as soon as he heard my plans.)

With the help of a friend I was able to make some connections and a message I received in my facebook inbox changed the course of our lives.   I opened the message and it spoke so lovingly about the little boy I had seen and decided I needed to find out more about.   Then in the next lines BIG things happened they spoke of his BIOLOGICAL sister.   CHILLS y’all because I know you already saw this coming, oh yeah, you are right, his biological sister was the girl who had initially made my heart do flips in my chest.  

There is more, tons more to this story.  But sharing that would not be the SHORT(ER) story would it?

We are and have been moving mountain and well lets face it whole mountain ranges to bring these children home to our family.   They are our family.  We are more then humbled to share we cannot do it alone.  I have designed some tee shirts that I think are perfect for so many.  Our families, our children adopted or not, special needs or not, are so so brave.   We have a goal, a crazy, over the top, to scared to share it or say it out loud goal. We would love to sell 1000 (yep, ONE THOUSAND) shirts.  Told you I was cray cray.   And not only do we want to sell that many but we want to do it in just a couple of weeks.  The faster we race to the goal the faster I can order the shirts and have them in your hands.  

Please consider buying a shirt or 2 or 3 or more ;)  and sharing with your friends, special needs groups, anywhere you see fit.  

Thank you, Thank you, Thank you!!!!

Here is a link to order and there are many types, sizes, styles, and colors to choose from:

https://www.etsy.com/shop/AvaMei?ref=hdr_shop_menu

Wading through winter:: And a 3rd birthday::

After last winter and the kids 18+ days of no school we really thought we were getting lucky this year.  It was mid-February, and only a few more weeks were snow was even a possibility.  Right?!?!
Well lets just say the kids have only had 1.5 days of school in the last 2 weeks.  Yikes.
But we are making the best of it, skiing, playing, and just watching the white stuff come down. It sure makes the farm look extra pretty.  

We were also able to take the whole crew skiing.  It was Charlotte's first time just days before her 3rd birthday.

I was a lot of work and she feel asleep early in my bed reading her book.  You may remember that I had this board book made for her shortly after we were matched.  I was so happy they gave it back to us and it holds a very special place in all of our hearts.   I have even confirmed with some volunteers at her orphanage that they often read the book to her that summer we were waiting to meet.  

Charlotte's birthday is always bittersweet.  Her birth family is never far from my mind but they pop up more and more as we near her birthday.  We know they loved her very much and had to make an unthinkable decision in order to save her little life.  I can't imagine how hard her birthday must be for them not knowing is she is even alive.  I wish with all my heart that they know she is loved, and cherished by so many.