Gǎnxiè [Thankful]

It was about 7 months ago that we met with Bethany and said yes to bringing Simeon into our family. Having been through this before, we knew what to expect, but when we were given information specific to adoption from China we found out that the entire process would take 10 - 12 months! We said yes thinking we had many months to fundraise. We left that meeting with NO idea how we were going to pay for this adoption, but faith that somehow the money would show up.

One of the questions we hear the most, besides "When is he coming home?" is "How much does/will it cost?". Adoption is expensive, [$43000+] and most families do not have that kind of money tucked away somewhere to pay for it, so fundraising is a necessary step in the adoption journey.

I started getting grant applications ready the day we met with Bethany, but a requirement for most applications is a completed & current home study. That meant we would need to cover the initial costs to get the process started. Then a beautiful phone call came informing us that we had been given a donation that would not only cover the initial costs...but a large portion of fees we would be paying to Bethany. If we had any doubt at all that we were following Gods will, it was erased with that phone call. It was as if God said "Door WIDE open, go get your son!!"

We knew that God would find a way to move the financial mountain, and we are humbled & so grateful that God has brought people and organizations into our lives and that we are now all connected in the beautiful story that He is writing in Simeon's life and the life of our family!

In the months since saying yes we have received 4 grants [and the one large donation mentioned above] that total $30000!! I know right?!?  One of these was a matching grant for $4000. So to get $4000 we had to raise $4000.

Last week we had our pancake supper/silent auction fundraiser to raise the funds to match the grant. We were blessed with over 25 auction items from 18 donors that raised $1831. We are humbled to share that after this event when all donations had been totaled we had met & exceeded the amount needed to match the grant we had been given. We raised just over $5000 [$5090 to be exact]!! *fist bump*

That brings the total raised so far to $35090.00!! And means we are only $7910.00 away from being fully funded!!

There have been many happy tears over the last 7 months when letters, emails and phone calls have come with the news of the financial gifts we were being given. I stand back in awe with tears in my eyes when I see how small that BIG [scary] number has become!! We still have 3 grants that we are waiting to hear back from. We anticipate getting the decisions for them by the end August. We have 3 other applications that will be sent late summer/early fall as these organizations desire to help at the end of the process. **We hope that we will be fully funded before September...but are thankful to have these ready to go just in case. Our MyStory page will be open for donations until the end of Novmeber. This page gives our friends & family & anyone who wants to contribute a place to make tax deductible donations toward our adoption. Even though we raised the $4000 to match the grant, we haven't made it to the finish line. We still need $7910 [approx]. to get us to China. Visit the link on the right if you would like to make a donation to help bring Simeon home.

While I was writting this blogpost I got a pretty important email. Our dossier was sent to China on June 27. [DTC=Dossier To China]. Todays email let us know that our dossier has been logged in [LID = Logged in Dossier] at the CCCWA [Chinese Center for Childrens Welfare and Adoption]. Basically LID simply means that China has acknowledged receipt of our paperwork.

**insert happy dance**

Now our dossier will be translated and reviewed and then we will be given final approval to adopt Simeon. This is called LOA [Letter of Acceptance]. This part of the process should take 6 - 8 weeks.
The rest of the process will look like this:

After we receive LOA we will file for our I-800.

This is a document from the US Government

giving us approval to bring a specific

orphan [Simeon] into the USA.

Once we recieve this document [which can take

as little as a few weeks & as much as a month]

we will send it to China & wait for TA [Traval Approval].
This is the official invitation from China
to come pick up Simeon! [this step takes another 6 -8 weeks]

Thanks for all your love, support and prayers. We are excited to watch God work over the next few months before we travel. It appears that, Lord willing, we will be traveling in/around November.

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