The Year of Adoption...and FUNdraising!!

Happy New Year!!  It is 2011 and what joy fills my heart as I anticipate all that God will do this year! None of us can know what lies ahead, but sometimes we get a glimmer! I am filled with excitement and great anticipation at the miracles God will do this year. :)

This morning we sat down with all our adoption information and wrote out a plan that takes us from where we are in our adoption process (waiting on the home study to be completed) to the very end of finalizing our adoption 6 months after we bring our precious ones home from Uganda. We made careful notes of how much money will be required and at which points along the way things need to be paid. Then we sat back with a huge sigh. WOW! This is definitely something that is WAY WAY bigger than we are!

You can see over on the right, I have included a new widget on our blog to reflect our funds that we will need in order to bring our two children home from the orphanage in Kampala. And yes, that really says $40,000!! I was amazed that it will require this much, but by the time we added up all the needed paperwork, lawyers, court fees, visas, passports, plane tickets and on and on...that was the number we reached! There is a US adoption credit that will become very important to us, but it is not given until after our children are officially adopted. The program in Uganda is such that we will get full custody of the children in Uganda and then come home and proceed as if it were a domestic adoption. In Ohio, that means an additional 6 months of home study visits and a final lawyer and court visit to complete the process. That said, the tax credit will not come to us until well after we have needed the money. We hope to take advantage of no interest loans that are available to families who are adopting, but we do not have any guarantees.

Now this is gonna get fun!! What? Fundraising is fun? Sure! (Why not? I see the word "fun" in there, don't you?)  ;)  Just today I was contacted by a friend of mine who offered to help out with our fundraising! She is a rep for a neat little online boutique called Thirty-one. She has set up a Shaw family adoption fundraiser that begins TODAY! :) Here is a link to enter the fundraiser and SHOP!  Purchases can be made toward our adoption until January 23rd. Your ordered items will ship about 3 weeks after that. There are some fun thermal bags on special this month (my girls excitedly pointed out the patterns their friends have for their lunch bags at school!) that would be fun gifts for Valentine's Day or Mother's day or even teacher gifts. There are many more fun products available beyond bags...here is a link to the general catalog. Just enjoy looking around and know that you can shop till your heart's content and know that it is going toward reducing the orphan population by TWO!! YAY!!!