1800-A is OFF

What is an 1800-A?
This is a set of documents (U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services), through the Department of Homeland Security.  It's an application for determination of suitability to adopt a child from a convention country.

It's a set of documents that include our completed home study, birth certificates and the application paperwork.    Once it is received, it should take about 2 weeks for approval.  Once this happens, we start our work on the dossier.

The dossier is a set of legal, notarized and authenticated documents including:  birth certificates, marriage certificates, employment verification letter, financial statements, medical suitability certificates, police clearance letter, home study, USCIS approval (1800-A), reference letters of all kinds, doctor's letters, passports, family photos, family letter, heath insurance verification forms, agreements, payments for country fees, and more.    The gathering of such information will take months to complete.  Please pray for me during this time of serious paperwork business.  (:

In the middle of this, I will also be applying for adoption grants.  There are some wonderful ministries that offer grants to help with the cost of adoption.  The paperwork involved is also much to accomplish.  (:    
I have to laugh a bit, as some that know me, understand that my gift of organizing is not one to admire.  LOL    However, I am on a mission to reinvent myself as one of such talent.    I have people in my life who have achieved the status of masters of organizing and they are my mentors.  You know who you are.  (VS and JL).

We are currently in need of raising $1500.00 this week to pay our next due amount of $4950.00.

The continued support is beyond appreciated.  Thanks for keeping up with our journey.  Keep praying and sharing our story with others.

We believe that God called us to this adoption journey and He will remain faithful to the end.   We never doubt His love, His purpose and His promises.  

The hundred dollar bill

It's been awhile since last update, so I thought I'd share forward our current happenings.  
We've  just completed the last of 3 garage sale fundraisers.  I can say that 3 is the final number for me.  LOL  .  I am so thankful for the help given by my family to make these sales possible, for without them, I would've went crazy.   
The first garage sale we raised about $780.
The second garage sale (hosted by my inlaws, a three stall garage packed full, and a 50 degree rain filled stormy weekend), we managed to raise about $1000.  
The third garage sale we raised about $600.  

It was at our third garage sale where this hundred dollar picture came to be part of this story.  
It was my prayer and hope that we could raise $500.  That was the goal set.  
I remember my niece's beautiful husband, Tom, praying over our sale that morning and that we would have a great turnout of people and sales.  I was hopeful.  The weather was actually nice this day, so that was a plus.

About a couple hours into our morning, it started to really slow down.  After what we thought would be the end of our sales, I considered shutting down early.  I had counted the  money at that time, and we were about at $300.   After a little while longer, we had another rush of people and made what I thought was the final sales of the day.  We had reached $400.  

I was ready to be done.   Here comes two little girls, the older sister pulling the younger in a wagon.   They come up to me with big smiles and said, "Our mommy wants us to give this to you."    Inside the envelope was........YES, that $100 BILL!    We made our goal of $500!!

Some may say, coincidence, but I say, THANK YOU JESUS.  He knows our every need, and He reminds us in such times, that He is on our side and He loves us.  

Then, about half hour later, as we started to pack up, here comes another group of shoppers, and we made another $100.   How awesome is that!    

My $500 goal overflowed.