Great Christmas Gift Idea!

Most people know that adoption is expensive.  However, I don't think they realize how expensive.  When you choose an adoption agency and sign the contract you are given a list of agency fees. These fees alone will cause your head to spin!  When you start to add the little fees into it you soon begin to realize just how expensive it will be.  These little fees such as postage, fees for various documents(like multiple copies of birth certificates), and then to authenticate these documents add up very quickly.  

We have been blessed that God has always provided the money we needed when it has come time to pay for various adoption costs.  It is another sign that this what we are meant to do this and that God directing this journey to parenthood.

We have had yard sales and sold various items around our home that we no longer need/use to help fund our adoption.  We have cut our budget and given up little luxuries in an effort to save money for our adoption. We have been blessed to find a great fundraiser selling coffee.  The link to our coffee fundraiser is on the right side of you screen.  The coffee is sold by a wonderful company with a great mission to help children find loving homes and to help orphans.  We receive $5 for every bag of coffee sold!

So what does this have to do with Christmas gifts.  Well...in an effort to boost our coffee fundraiser sales I have come up with a great gift idea.  So here it is-

To make this lovely gift which would be wonderful for the coffee lover on your Christmas list.   The small carry all caddy is a 31 Gifts product that I placed a nice coffee mug and a bag of coffee from our fundraiser.  31 Gifts has a variety of fall patterns for the carry all caddy and Just Love Coffee has a huge selection of coffee. 

Here is the link for the 31 gifts Little Carry All Caddy: www.mythirtyone.com/moomau

Here is a link to our coffee fundraiser:  http://www.justlovecoffee.com/bradyadoption

 ***Remember for every bag of coffee purchased through our store front we receive $5***

4,637 Miles

4,637 miles from our home town to Warsaw, Poland.  That is approximately far away our child/ren is from us.  That is approximately how far our paper work traveled.  That is approximately how far we will travel to grow our family.  Our dossier is in Poland! I had tears of joy when I got this important news!  Preparing our dossier has been my part-time job for close to 10 months.  I often tell people that I spend my days working, and doing adoption stuff.  Sometime in there I eat and sleep.  It is an amazing feeling knowing that all the hard work, tears, and paper cuts is done for now.  It will take about 2 months before we are officially on the waiting list for international adoption. 

We do not know how long we will wait for a referral, if it will be for 1 or 2 children,  or if they are boys or girls.  All we know is that somewhere in Poland there is someone who needs us. 

"Somehow destiny comes into play. These children end up with you and you end up with them. It's something quite magical." - Nicole Kidman

Road Trip!

Our dossier is complete!  It is all authenticated and packed up ready to go in the mail!  I was up and going at 5:30am to be able to meet up with my mother-in-law and make it to the Secretary of State office by 8:30am.  I went not knowing if I would be able to get all 42 documents completed in 1 day.  Fortunately the lady working at the desk today had a big heart and made sure the documents were completed.  It is so great having these nice folders all filled with the documents that tell about our life.  

The trip to was not only getting paperwork authenticated but we were able to get some shopping in too!  Also made a stop at Krispy Kreme for nice afternoon snack.  We were blessed with beautiful weather and wonderful government employees to help round out the day.  

I hope that my next post will be announcing that we are officially waiting!