Happenings...

The tellers at the bank are beginning to know our faces, and this last week when I went in to deposit more change, the teller excitedly asked how much I was depositing this time.  I am so excited to tell you through change jars and another paypal donation from our amazing friends and family, our adoption savings is up another $274.41!! To see the small steps toward a HUGE goal adding up is so humbling. We are forever grateful to those donating change and extra money they are setting aside for our boy. We could not do this alone and we are increasingly aware how much we need and appreciate your emotional and financial support. We are both working extra hours at our jobs (which we are extremely grateful for) but the extra pennies and dollars that people are donating are so appreciated.

In other exciting news, we FINALLY have our homestudy complete...

Aaron was able to pick up the finalized, notarized copy this week. We had been waiting on this homestudy for so many reasons-to apply for grants, and to apply for something called an I-800a. This is an application to the USCIS (customs and immigration services) that is basically alerting them we are adopting. With this homestudy and forms we had to fill out for the I-800a, we had to send a $900 check, so again we are so grateful that we had the money you all had donated in our adoption savings account to help cover this.

The I-800a we were able to send off this week is one of the LAST STEPS to our dossier. We have to have the official government approval in order to have our dossier submitted to the secretary of the United States and Chinese Embassy. This I-800a approval takes several weeks to get back, for some people it takes 4 weeks for some it takes 8 weeks, so we are praying for patience and for God to have his hand in speedy USCIS approval. Every week is bringing some progress. We are so thankful for this.

For now, while we wait on the USCIS approval of our I-800a, we are applying for grants and planning a few fundraisers. The first is planned for March 14 and it will be a silent auction of sorts, so if you know of a business willing to donate any goods to go towards our auction, please please think of us. I am getting together a form letter to take to different organizations. Every $5 gift card or donation of goods or services is helpful. We are still working on a way to try to get these donations as a tax deductible write off-as of now we have a site that we are applying through to have cash donations tax deductible, but do not have a way to have goods and services written off-so if you know of anyone with expertise in this area, please contact me, we would love any help possible. We are also planning a garage sale for the spring, so stash away those things you are thinking of donating-we would be happy to come pick them up if needed. Every little thing helps!!

Thank you so very much for the love, and as always-please pray for our boy, pray for his safety and for him to be taken care of physically and emotionally by someone in his orphanage. Please pray for him to come home to us soon and for the process to move as quickly as possible.

--Aaron and Sarah