...and we're off!!

We are officially in the Holt China program! My 29th birthday was last Monday so we spent much of Tuesday night filling out the Adoption Application and paying our first $300 towards bringing our kiddo home!

It's official! The application has been submitted!

Our adviser sent us the China program guide book along with all the documents we will need to work on in February. Now we start the 6 month countdown till I turn 29.5 and can get crazy about the home study. Not gonna lie, it's going to be so hard to wait! To help me feel productive I took the advice of Brandyn (a dear friend who just finished her home study and is adopting from Ethiopia) and have been organizing all of our paperwork in a binder. There is a heck of a lot of paperwork. We are going to get really good at filling out forms...

So for now we are getting familiar with the process and making a bit of a schedule for the bizillion forms we need to submit to various government agencies. The biggest project we started this week is mapping out our fundraising plan. We will need about $5000-$6000 to cover our home study and a few other fees. Much of that will need to be paid up front so we are praying and working towards having this first chuck of change by the end of the year.

Tim has started to work on a business venture that we are hoping will help create some of those funds...more to come on that soon! We are going to be heading to our hometown of Tehachapi next month and participating in the annual Bear Valley Rummage Sale in the hopes of making a few $100s as well. Every little bit counts, right? There are a few other fundraising ideas up our sleeves that we will be rolling out over the next few months. We are taking it one step at a time but walking with boldness into this adoption adventure God has set before us!

One last treasure for this post...

When people hear about our upcoming adoption they often ask me what the kids think of it all. Well, lately, any time Sawyer hears the word "China" or sees Chinese characters written somewhere he yells, "Hey, that's China! That is where my brother or sister lives!" Be still my heart. I love this kid...

He is a keeper.