FBI check HAS RETURNED!

Okay guys! We got some great news yesterday! My FBI fingerprint check was finally returned yesterday! yay!! We faxed it this morning to our homestudy agency and they will send our homestudy documents again to AGCI. After that AGCI will send it back to Carolina Adoption here and then we'll get our completed homestudy. Then I'll make 3 copies and to go with the 3 copies of our dossier. Then, we get to send it to AGCI where they will review everything and then place us on the waitlist!

I had such a sign of relief to see the envelope from the FBI. I had to submit my fingerprints twice and it has taken a looong time. But now they are here!

The only thing standing between us and sending in our dossier is to raise the rest of the money we need to send in with it! We need about $1,000 more!

Would you help us by buying a cool shirt or two? For the ENTIRE month of September we receive 100% of the proceeds from all shirt sales at http://www.goseeklove.com

Thank you so much for your support and prayers!!

Check out the new designs! The women's is $20 and the men's is $18.

I need to post a picture of Isabel wearing her shirt like this. These are $12!

Exciting Updates of the Day!

Updates/Blessings of the day! Real quick cuz I have to go to bed!

• I heard from the FBI that my prints are towards the end of their process and should arrive within 2 weeks!! YAY!!!
• Our Go.Seek.Love t-shirts came in today! They're beautiful and I'm so excited for people to see them at the fundraiser tomorrow night and be able to order some.
• Some samples of our coffee from JustLoveCoffee came in yesterday! When I opened the box Isabel and I both were overwhelmed by the smell! It smells sooo good. Isabel said, "Do we have to sell this? I want some iced coffee!"
• Today and tomorrow our Concert/Silent Auction is being advertised in a 30 sec. commercial on 6 local radio stations! We didn't even plan on this. It sorta just happened through a connection at Brian's work. They offered and we accepted! Isn't that cool?
• We have 28 Donations to our Silent auction and they are ALL SO COOL!! THANK YOU!!
• We have an AWESOME band playing too! I'm so excited that they will be there!

Okay, i gotta rest up for tomorrow night's big event....and a day of teaching! :)

I can't wait to see you all there! Remember it's from 7:00-9:00pm at the Old Winston Social Club on Burke Street. The Silent Auction will end at 8:30pm. There will be food and music from Gene Francis and his band! You'll also be able to order the Go.Seek.Love t-shirts and Fair Trade Coffee from JustLoveCoffee Roasters.

una canción

Una canción (to the tune of O Christmas Tree)

O fingerprints, o fingerprints
Dónde estarías?
O, fingerprints, o fingerprints
Dónde estarías?

Yo sé que vienes pronto
Aunque me pones loco (a)

O, fingerprints, o fingerprints
Dóndé estarías??


Con amor,

Please come today 2nd round of FBI checks!! They can't complete our homestudy without you!

Document Checklist is Dwindling!! Yay!

Today I got out our Ethiopian Document Checklist that you get when you are working on your dossier. It has all of the things you have to gather and then little boxes to check when you have completed it and also another box when that item is notarized. Out of like 20 things, there are only like 4 or 5 left!! Isn't that insane?! One thing is almost finished (Brian has to finish typing it), one has to be re-notarized by a friend, I have to print another form to sign to accompany my passport (someone got Kool Aid on the first one), and we're waiting on one more employment letter. Oh, and then of course our actual homestudy. It is still being worked on. Then we get to make two big copies of everything! Then, what?!

Then, we have to send a check for $5,000 along with this big pile of paperwork to our agency and we'll get to be on the waitlist!

By the way, we are now at $1,050! So, we need to raise $3, 950 more!!

From the Pampered Chef party that a friend hosted as a fundraiser we received $92 and then from a TON of books that some more friends gave we received $125! AND...

We are so amazed at how many of you have sponsored puzzle pieces! Thank you sooo much! I'm going to post another picture soon but I have to put together some more before I do. :)

If you'd still like to sponsor a piece, then you can click on the puzzle with the giraffes up at the top! Or for a tax-deductible donation you can write a check to Reynolda Church, EPC and make sure they know it's for the Hunt Adoption.


Love,

Ethiopia Document Checklist is Shrinking!!

Okay I might just freak out a little bit here. I am looking at our dossier checklist and we have more stuff checked off than not checked off!! The main things left are some documents that just need notarization....oh and guess what I found out today?? MY NEIGHBOR IS A NOTARY!! For real, how awesome is that?! So, I'm going to go see her tomorrow. :)

Next up we need to get something State Certified which apparently is not too difficult and is pretty inexpensive. I still can't believe that Davie County would charge $25 per criminal background check (which takes like 10 seconds to look up) and the NC Secretary of State would charge $10 to state certify a document. Does anyone else think that's a little off?

So, we are completely finished w/ our education (online & workbook). I am mailing our WEWO (With Eyes Wide Open) workbook to AGCI tomorrow. We really have enjoyed that book and it's been really helpful but oh my goodness it has taken a LOOONG time to complete. I am happy to send it off. :)

And we are completely finished with our homestudy. Our social worker sent us a rough draft and it looks great (well I think so anyways)! She will send it to her office and they'll edit and then they'll send it on to AGCI so they can review it too.

Oh and tomorrow (or today actually....why is it that I always post stuff at midnight?) we are introducing the coolest fundraiser! I am so excited about it! Stay posted!

The 15 things I did in 3 hours

This week Isa is off at summer camp for 3 hours each morning. Until this morning, I had no idea how much I could do in 3 hours! Here's how it went down:

1. Dropped off sweet girl....after they peeled her off of my legs! She begged and pleaded for me to let her stay with me. She has been two other days this week and was totally fine. If she had stayed with me there is no way I would have accomplished all that I did for our dossier. So, the Lord is good and our preschool has the sweetest teachers. They carefully distracted Isabel by giving her a cool chore to do and she was in! drop off: arrived at 8:50...didn't leave until 9:00

2. Drove the speed limit :) over to the doctor's office for my 9:15am appt. to have my TB skin test read. NO TB! AND the nurse was awesome to get my 2 medical forms signed by my doctor. She EVEN found a notary in the office that seemed to be busy at first but when my awesome nurse sweetly told her what she needed, the notary got up and did her thing!

3. Called the Pediatrician's office again for that medical form...still not ready but they will get it finished and call ASAP.

4. Realize that I don't have the husband's employment verification letter and that it is in his car at HIS work all the way across town! Head straight there...9:40am.

5. Arrive and pick up letters. While I'm there I talk to my dad and make some copies of things since our copier is broken.

6. Off again! Stop by the bank to make a deposit to our adoption account!

7. Next stop: Goin' Postal to mail my new FBI fingerprints. ETA: 10:40am. Way cool British owner is super helpful and gives me a great deal to send everything safely FedEx.

8. Realize that I had no breakfast and could eat my hand at this point. So, I walk across to the parking lot to Panera! I even got a FREE strawberry scone! Oh, and an iced latte!

9. Stop by friend's house to say hey and debrief before next pick up. 11:15

10. Pediatrican calls...plan to go get letter! 11:40

11. Pick up baby girl right at 12:00pm! She had a great day!

12. Drive over to Pediatrican's office and pick up letter. 12:15

13. 12:30 Make it to drop off point to meet up with Social Worker to turn over the last documents needed to complete our homestudy!! She says CONGRATS and we're all finished. She's gonna send it off to get it all official and fancy.

14. Sit back down in car and take a deep breath.

15. Chick-fil-A drive-thru and HOME!


I'm off to take a nap. :)