I am struggling today. It's been a rough couple days actually. Several great things have happened in the midst of it though. We have our homestudy under way. Our social worker will be making her first visit to our home on November 27th. We got news that Asher is back with his foster family after his cataract surgery and seems to be doing well. We got Asher's bed put together. I go into his room often and stare at his bed and think about what it will be like to tuck him in at night and watch him sleep peacefully. It's also hard to look at his bed because doubts still creep in. What if we will never get to tuck him in? What if I will never see his sweet face in person? What if he will never call me mommy? I am trying with all my heart to cast my cares on the Lord, but I find that I have to do it repeatedly and often.
We are still being blessed by a few generous donations and we will never be able to tell you all how thankful we are. I received another email from our agency today reminding me, as if I somehow forgot, that $2500 is now due and we can't move forward until it's paid. I don't know if I've explained in detail what this means. If we don't pay this first fee now, we don't get to move forward in putting our dossier together. The dossier is the stack of papers that need to be acquired, filled out, notarized/apostilled, and sent to China. China gives us a deadline of when those need to be submitted, which is 6 months after they have given pre-approval. Our pre-approval came on October 29th, so that puts us in April for having them returned. It usually takes roughly 4-5 months (if everything goes smoothly) to complete your dossier. What happens if we don't have our dossier to China in that time frame? Well, we are told that they might grant us one 90 day extension, but if we don't have our dossier submitted on time, China closes our file and we lose Asher. That's just it. We don't become his parents and he is again put back on the waiting list. We can't reapply to adopt him, it's over. It's hard for me to even type those words because I don't want to admit that it could happen, but it could. We could still lose our little boy.
I know God is in control and I still have faith that He will provide if this is His will, but I'm human and I'm scared. I want to bring my little boy home. Right now, after other fees have been paid, we have $400 to put toward the $2500. Every time I sell a crochet item, the money goes in the fund. Every time I babysit, the money goes in the fund. Any time we have extra, it goes in the fund. We aren't even buying our kids Christmas presents this year because we've talked to them and we've all decided that we already have more than we need and we need to be putting our money toward bringing Asher home. We are tapped out.
This leaves us at the mercy of those willing to help bring Asher home. We have a puzzle fundraiser where we are asking people to sponsor a piece for $25 by using the PayPal Donate button on this blog and it's ongoing. We have an Usborne Books fundraiser that is going on until November 30th: https://w3493.myubam.com/ . We have a 31 fundraiser going on until November 29th: https://www.mythirtyone.com/shop/eventhome.aspx?eventId=E3967700&from=MYEVENTS .
Would you consider helping us bring our son home? We would be forever grateful.
God bless,
Carly
Friday, November 15, 2013
Friday, November 8, 2013
Waiting and fundraising
We are so thankful and excited to be moving forward in our journey to Asher! Thanks to the generous donations of so many wonderful people, we were able to make the first half of our payment to our homestudy agency today! We will now be assigned a social worker who will get to know us and visit our home. This is a big deal, because without their approval, we don't move forward.
Our next steps right now will be more waiting and intense fundraising. We still have a $2500 fee that we need to pay our adoption agency. They gave us a 90 day deadline, which would be January 13th. They will grant one 90 day extension, but our urgency lies in the fact that we must have our completed dossier logged into the system in China within 6 months of our pre-approval, which was October 29th. It typically takes 4-5 months to complete the dossier and we can't begin it until we pay our agency fee....it's all an exhausting, vicious circle.
We have been SO incredibly blessed by the generosity we have received so far. We can't wait to tell Asher how loved he was before we ever brought him home! I have also been fortunate enough to earn extra money through my crochet business and doing some babysitting. Every extra penny we have is making its way into the Asher fund, but we are still coming up short for our agency fee.
We will have our puzzle fundraiser going on until every piece is sponsored, and we have also started two other fundraisers. Until November 30th, you can visit this link https://www.facebook.com/events/217723795071474 to purchase books through Usborne Books, and your purchase will help us raise funds. Until November 29th, you can visit this link https://www.facebook.com/events/217723795071474 to purchase items through 31, and your purchase will help us raise funds. We thought these two fundraisers were great with the upcoming holiday season, for those looking to buy Christmas gifts.
As always, please continue to pray for us as we move forward in this journey God has called us to. We would appreciate specific prayer that our homestudy/social worker visits would go well and the Lord's will would be done. Thank you and love you all!
~Carly
Our next steps right now will be more waiting and intense fundraising. We still have a $2500 fee that we need to pay our adoption agency. They gave us a 90 day deadline, which would be January 13th. They will grant one 90 day extension, but our urgency lies in the fact that we must have our completed dossier logged into the system in China within 6 months of our pre-approval, which was October 29th. It typically takes 4-5 months to complete the dossier and we can't begin it until we pay our agency fee....it's all an exhausting, vicious circle.
We have been SO incredibly blessed by the generosity we have received so far. We can't wait to tell Asher how loved he was before we ever brought him home! I have also been fortunate enough to earn extra money through my crochet business and doing some babysitting. Every extra penny we have is making its way into the Asher fund, but we are still coming up short for our agency fee.
We will have our puzzle fundraiser going on until every piece is sponsored, and we have also started two other fundraisers. Until November 30th, you can visit this link https://www.facebook.com/events/217723795071474 to purchase books through Usborne Books, and your purchase will help us raise funds. Until November 29th, you can visit this link https://www.facebook.com/events/217723795071474 to purchase items through 31, and your purchase will help us raise funds. We thought these two fundraisers were great with the upcoming holiday season, for those looking to buy Christmas gifts.
As always, please continue to pray for us as we move forward in this journey God has called us to. We would appreciate specific prayer that our homestudy/social worker visits would go well and the Lord's will would be done. Thank you and love you all!
~Carly
Friday, November 1, 2013
Puzzle Fundraiser
Sponsor a piece and help us put our puzzle together!
We have put this puzzle fundraiser together to help us raise the funds for the first half of our adoption process. Each piece can be sponsored for $25 and we will put your name or family name on the back of a piece. Once the puzzle is complete, we will have raised $8400 to pay our agency fees, homestudy fee, fingerprinting, dossier, passports, and visas! We will be gluing and placing the puzzle between two pieces of glass with a frame, and hanging it on the wall by Asher's bed. What a beautiful way to see how God worked in the hearts of so many generous people willing to help us bring our son home!
To donate, you can either click the Paypal Donate button at the top of our blog, or you can email me at carlyduvall1628@hotmail.com for our address to mail us a check.
Thank you all from the bottom of our hearts for partnering with us to bring Asher home.
God bless!
~Carly
Tuesday, October 29, 2013
Our journey officially begins!
Amazing news came today!! We received pre-approval from China for our son! I was starting to think it would never come, but God is faithful! We are just over the moon excited and SO ready to move forward. There is so much to do and so much to think about and get organized, but I'm up for the challenge :)
Our next big steps are raising the funds for our first agency fee of $2500 and the fee of $800 to get our homestudy started. The homestudy is when our social worker will start getting to know us and visit our house several times to make sure everything is safe and ready for Asher. We will not be able to adopt him unless our social worker gives us the stamp of approval. That paperwork, along with A TON of other papers, will then go to China where they will need to have final approval from the social welfare system.
I mentioned our first fundraiser, a puzzle fundraiser, in my last post. We have a 336 piece puzzle with this picture on it.
Each piece can be "sponsored" for $25 and when you sponsor a piece, we will write your family or individual name on the back of the piece. This can be done by either clicking on our Paypal Donate button at the top left side of our blog, or you can message me for our address to send a check. After every piece has been sponsored, we will have raised $8400! That money will cover everything in the first half of our adoption process. Our agency fees, our homestudy fees, all our paperwork, fingerprints, passports, visas. We will also have this wonderful puzzle with the names of all the amazing, generous people who helped us bring our little boy home and we will be hanging it on the wall by Asher's bed. What a blessing it would be to have you all partner with us in completing our puzzle!
We thank each and every one of you who have already helped with donations, support, encouragement, and most importantly prayers. We have been so blessed by family and friends and we can't wait to share Asher with you all!
~Carly
Our next big steps are raising the funds for our first agency fee of $2500 and the fee of $800 to get our homestudy started. The homestudy is when our social worker will start getting to know us and visit our house several times to make sure everything is safe and ready for Asher. We will not be able to adopt him unless our social worker gives us the stamp of approval. That paperwork, along with A TON of other papers, will then go to China where they will need to have final approval from the social welfare system.
I mentioned our first fundraiser, a puzzle fundraiser, in my last post. We have a 336 piece puzzle with this picture on it.
We thank each and every one of you who have already helped with donations, support, encouragement, and most importantly prayers. We have been so blessed by family and friends and we can't wait to share Asher with you all!
~Carly
Saturday, October 12, 2013
Our application has officially been approved by our agency and our Letter of Intent (our request to China to adopt Asher) and family info has been sent to China to be translated and then submitted!! We are now in a new place of waiting....waiting to hear if China will give us the go ahead. It feels so good to finally be moving forward. To say that we are slightly anxious about receiving our pre-approval from China would be a HUGE understatement! We know God has this and we are not worried, just really looking forward to getting it :)
Our next steps will require raising money. We now have 90 days (hopefully it won't take that long) to come up with $2500 for our first agency fee. We also need to get started with our homestudy pretty much immediately after we get our pre-approval. Our homestudy agency is Children's Bureau, Inc. out of Indianapolis. Their fee is $1600, with $800 needed upfront and the remaining $800 to be paid before the paperwork is finalized and sent to our agency. We have filled out an application with Sonscope to try to have our homestudy paid for, but there is no guarantee that it will be. Right now we are looking into the different fundraisers that are available and the three that we really like are a puzzle fundraiser, a Thirty-One fundraiser, and a jewelry fundraiser through Compelled Designs. The Thirty-One and Compelled Designs fundraisers are selling products, and then we get a portion of those sales toward our adoption. The puzzle fundraiser is a little different. We have a 336 piece puzzle made with a picture of the country of China, in the colors of the Chinese flag. You will be able to sponsor a piece for $25 and in turn, we will write your name on the back of a puzzle piece. As the pieces get sponsored, we will assemble the puzzle. Once the puzzle is complete, our fundraiser will have raised $8400. This amount will pay for all the fees we need in the first half of our adoption process, including getting all of our paperwork complete and sent to China. We will be putting the completed puzzle between two pieces of glass and framing it to hang on the wall of Asher's room so he can see some of the names of the amazing people who helped bring him home. The last half of the adoption process is travel and incountry expenses. We are hoping that those will be paid through the grant Asher already has on a wonderful site called Reece's Rainbow and through other grants we will be applying for. I will be setting up a separate post for the puzzle fundraiser soon with all the details, so please check back and consider being a part of putting our puzzle together! As always, your prayers are greatly appreciated! Love you all!
~Carly
Our next steps will require raising money. We now have 90 days (hopefully it won't take that long) to come up with $2500 for our first agency fee. We also need to get started with our homestudy pretty much immediately after we get our pre-approval. Our homestudy agency is Children's Bureau, Inc. out of Indianapolis. Their fee is $1600, with $800 needed upfront and the remaining $800 to be paid before the paperwork is finalized and sent to our agency. We have filled out an application with Sonscope to try to have our homestudy paid for, but there is no guarantee that it will be. Right now we are looking into the different fundraisers that are available and the three that we really like are a puzzle fundraiser, a Thirty-One fundraiser, and a jewelry fundraiser through Compelled Designs. The Thirty-One and Compelled Designs fundraisers are selling products, and then we get a portion of those sales toward our adoption. The puzzle fundraiser is a little different. We have a 336 piece puzzle made with a picture of the country of China, in the colors of the Chinese flag. You will be able to sponsor a piece for $25 and in turn, we will write your name on the back of a puzzle piece. As the pieces get sponsored, we will assemble the puzzle. Once the puzzle is complete, our fundraiser will have raised $8400. This amount will pay for all the fees we need in the first half of our adoption process, including getting all of our paperwork complete and sent to China. We will be putting the completed puzzle between two pieces of glass and framing it to hang on the wall of Asher's room so he can see some of the names of the amazing people who helped bring him home. The last half of the adoption process is travel and incountry expenses. We are hoping that those will be paid through the grant Asher already has on a wonderful site called Reece's Rainbow and through other grants we will be applying for. I will be setting up a separate post for the puzzle fundraiser soon with all the details, so please check back and consider being a part of putting our puzzle together! As always, your prayers are greatly appreciated! Love you all!
~Carly
Monday, October 7, 2013
I was hoping for better news to start out my week, but that is not what I got. It's not the worst news in the world, but it feels like hitting a wall. In order for us to be able to pursue adopting this sweet little girl along with our Asher, we need to have $1200 up front and we just don't have that right now. We have looked into adoption loans and things similar to that to pay for adoption costs, but Jon and I don't feel like the Lord wants us to go into incredible debt to adopt. Jon is working 50+ hours a week and I am trying to pick up as much extra work as I can as a stay-at-home, homeschooling mom, but at the end of the day, we are just going to have to rely on God's provision and the generosity of others. I wish more than anything that we could just pull this money from somewhere, and bring these angels home. I hate that money is what stands in the way of them having forever families, but we must just have faith. If Got wants this little girl to be part of our family, if he wants Asher to be part of our family, then He will provide the necessary funds at the necessary times.
We are also still at a stand-still for the paperwork from the Dr. office to proceed with Asher's adoption. I feel in my heart that God is allowing this waiting period because He is leading us to adopt this precious girl. Here is her picture so you can all see her sweet face :) Please pray with us family and friends!
~Carly
We are also still at a stand-still for the paperwork from the Dr. office to proceed with Asher's adoption. I feel in my heart that God is allowing this waiting period because He is leading us to adopt this precious girl. Here is her picture so you can all see her sweet face :) Please pray with us family and friends!
Saturday, October 5, 2013
The last two weeks have seemed so long! I finally got in for my Dr. appt. this last Tuesday and everything went great. I've lost a good amount of weight and I continue to lose :) We hoped to leave the office with the necessary paperwork needed to finally wire our Letter of Intent to China, but no such luck. We are hoping to be able to have the paperwork on Monday. I've been a little frustrated with the waiting, but I've been reminded that God has a reason. That reason might be that He has a second child He would like us to bring home along with Asher! I was led to this precious little girl this last week: http://www.lwbcommunity.org/the-tale-of-isabella-bunny I have emailed a few people to get more info on her and on what it would look like for us to bring home two angels with Down Syndrome at the same time. This is still all very up in the air, but we are praying and seeking to see if this is the direction God is leading us. If this moves forward and God continues to open doors, we will be bringing home two 7 year olds next year! What does this mean financially? Well, we don't have all those answers yet, but it's looking like this will add anywhere from $10,000 to $15,000 on to what we were looking at before. It can be an overwhelming amount when you look at it in just a lump sum: $35,000-$40,000. To me, it's a small price to pay to bring two of God's precious children home and give them something they greatly deserve, a family. I still don't know how this money is going to come our way, but I don't have to know. I just need to have faith that God will provide if this is His will for our lives and for these two little one's lives. Please pray with us that God would give us wisdom in making this decision and faith in His plan. Thank you and we love you!
~Carly Duvall
~Carly Duvall
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