Using Our Matching Grant

Hi.  We are getting connected with Lifesong for Orphans and figuring out all their procedures so that we can use the matching grant as we get more donations.  Since everything can be doubled now, we closed down the Pure Charity fundraiser and have a new website for accepting donations:  https://mystory.lifesongfororphans.org/stories/bringing-home-little-piece-china/

We still have some pieces left on our puzzle fundraiser, so we're happy to accept donations for that if you are interested.  We've sold about 225 with about 50 to go.  Thank you!

I'm also setting up a craft sale at the end of October at my house and am scheduled to do one in Fort Mill Thanksgiving weekend, so I'll be able to take purchases through the Lifesong site for those items too.

I am adding weekly to my stash of paintings and scarves and am keeping photos of them here:  http://crabtreecrafts.blogspot.com

Some friends and family have jumped ahead of my craft show (how pushy!) and already bought something or commissioned me to do a painting similar to a piece I have at home.  So actually if you need a gift for someone before the end of October sale or just want to go ahead and get it, it's perfectly fine to choose something now from the site or ask me to do something specific.  

**Please make your check to Lifesong for Orphans with Crabtree #6332 in the memo.  We can also take payments via this link if you prefer that method:  https://mystory.lifesongfororphans.org/stories/bringing-home-little-piece-china/.  ALL PROCEEDS will be sent to our agency for adoption fees.  THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT!!

Banner Week for Us

Wow, I am so thankful to report that we got more awesome news today!!  We were awarded a $3000 matching grant from Lifesong for Orphans!  This is perfect timing with my plans for craft sales this fall.  Up to $3000 of our sales will be doubled for a total of $6000 directly to our expenses, which is just great news!  When we didn't get the first two grants we applied for, I kind of accepted that we may not get any, so this is such an unexpected blessing and we thank God for providing for us.

Barnette CGreat news!

September 10, 2016•Edit•Delete

Cindy CWow! Great news!

September 10, 2016•Edit•Delete

Amanda LWow, that's awesome!

September 12, 2016•Edit•Delete

Dossier To China!!!!

Hooray!!  About a week earlier than I expected, our documents are on their way to China!  So excited to be on this step now!  Here's the email I received...see if you can make sense of it with the lingo :)

We received your final dossier documents back from the Chinese Embassy today, fully authenticated.  As a result, we are shipping your completed file to CCCWA for registration and translation.  It will arrive in China on Monday, 9/12.

Typical time to LID is 1-2 weeks from the day your originals are received in China.  When we see in the CCCWA database that your file has been registered, Beth or I will email you the official LID date. 

Congratulations on being DTC! 

If you didn't catch all that, here are the acronyms:

CCCWA – Chinese Center for Children’s Welfare and Adoption:  Chinese branch of government that oversees adoptions.

DTC – Dossier To China:  Your dossier has been loaded electronically in the system and mailed to CCCWA to await translation and review. Usually takes 4-6 months from starting paperwork to being DTC for the first adoption.  Subsequent adoptions may be a little shorter because the home study should be faster and usually case workers don’t repeat all of the state clearances – just your current state if you’ve been there 5+ years.

LID – Logged In Dossier:  CCCWA acknowledges receipt of your hard copy dossier and issues a “Log In Date.”  After this your dossier will be shuffled from desk to desk as it gets translated, reviewed and approved by different people. From DTC to LID can be a few days to several weeks.

Show Hope!!!

Much to my surprise yesterday, I opened the mailbox to find a letter from Steven Curtis Chapman's adoption organization to which I had applied for a grant and was to hear no sooner than the end of September.  One piece of paper, gotta be another rejection.  But no--we got the grant!!!

Could not believe it and got all teary.  Don't know why they chose us when other organizations didn't...was it something particular I said on the application?  Or something they look for that other groups don't?  Whatever the reason, so encouraged and thankful for this provision!  We are close to halfway funded now and who knows--maybe we will get more grants before it's all said and done.

For now I'm still working on those crafts, starting to sell some custom orders, and counting the days (hopefully 7 more) till we are DTC--Dossier To China!!

August Update

Not too much to tell again, but we are getting very close to having our papers sent to China, so that's a good thing!  This past month of doing dossier stuff has been easy in a way--the paperwork was basically done before we started, so not time-consuming, but hard in other ways, as several minute details on papers have caused lots of delays.  The dossier part has been a lot of "oh no, hurry and fix this" and then even more of just waiting for things to process.

So here we are now with our papers in DC and I'm told in 2ish weeks they should be on their way to China.  Then by the end of September I think we should be "logged in" to China's system and therefore able to be matched with our girl!  We could have a few weeks' wait for the matching or a few months.  Not thinking too much about that yet, but soon we will need to talk with our agency about narrowing down that 0-5 age range and maybe even giving a couple of special needs we'd particularly feel comfortable with.

As we get ready to send the kids back to school tomorrow and I have a few days this week of no work (a.k.a freedom!), I have been thinking a lot about how much life's going to change here in a few months.  I don't think I even will realize how "free" I actually am right now, with our kids being so independent, until I am attached to a toddler again!!  Going to need lots of grace to accept that new way of life when it gets here.

For now, a big prayer is that we'd be given a matching grant that we are being considered for over the next few weeks.  If we got it, we'd be able to sell the crafts we are working on and this organization would match the amount sold up to a certain point.  Could be a big help and perfect timing with the sales coming up this fall.  They could also give us an interest-free loan, which would be helpful, or may turn us down for anything, which wouldn't be surprising.  Hoping for some help though!  We should know by the end of September and could also hear from another grant around then as well.  In the meantime, the crafts are building up and I'm running out of room to house them!

More updates as I get them...

One Giant Leap for Mankind ;)

Okay, it's not that significant, but it feels very big that we FINALLY got to start our dossier yesterday and after lots of running around today to fix a couple of our documents, we mailed off all but one of the papers!!  What we learned the last two days is that every single detail on this paperwork must be just right.  Nothing omitted, nothing scratched out, no wrong dates, etc.  We had multiple issues with these little matters and are currently waiting for Matt's doctor to fix his form for the second time, but by and large, we've got almost everything done.  What's next is that our agency will start to send the papers to government agencies to be "authenticated" and then when everything is done, it goes to China to be logged into their system and translated.  I am not having a huge sigh of relief yet.  Still feel like there could be bumps in the road.  But it is great to end this past two months of waiting and doing nothing and to be officially on the dossier step!

Now what I was kind of nervous about getting done first thing this morning was walking into the office in Raleigh where we get our fingerprints done for Homeland Security.  They send you an appointment time but friends said you can go any time, so I wanted to get it done ASAP, as the form they are tied to tends to take awhile to get approved.  I had to wake the kids up early so we could get there first thing and it's a little bit of a drive with morning traffic, so the whole time I'm just praying and hoping it's not all for nothing.  There was a line when we got there and the check in clerk was pretty non nonsense, so I was prepared for her to say we needed to come back next week, but it ended up being a total breeze and took mere minutes!

I'm learning this is definitely a process of hurry up and wait!  Now that we have rushed to get everything fedex'd away, there won't be anything to do for the next month or two.  I've still been sending of grant applications, but we've not gotten an acceptances and some we need to wait till we are matched anyway.  I'm really not sure we'll get any grants, which is a bummer, but I decided recently to go another route and have a craft fair at my house to raise money.

I have been crocheting scarves and painting signs like crazy the last couple weeks and plan to keep it up the rest of the summer, having the sale once we are matched--hopefully September or October?!

It's fun to paint again, though it makes me not want to do anything else and keeps a huge mess out on our table.  Hoping it's going to be worth it!!  Now I'm off to paint again...

Finally in Our Hands!

Well our social worker finished up our homestudy May 1st.  I thought (or someone told me?) it would take a few weeks to finalize the document.  I knew a few people at both our agencies needed to review it and I would need to make edits as needed.  It took two months!  Most of the time I didn't hear any updates so it's been a bit of a boring time in the process.  But I do feel like we've used the time to continue to get to know China.  We got to have dinner cooked by a family who moved here from China a few years ago.  It was very fun to get to know them better and try some authentic food! Gray especially said he loved all of it and he and two of the girls there enjoyed comparing their dumplings eaten totals:)

I've also read more books on China that have helped me get a better grasp of the country's recent history, particularly the Cultural Revolution.  Very interesting to see such a different world from what our country has experienced.

So finally our homestudy arrived in the mail yesterday and I was able to send of our 1-800a form to immigration today.  We have also applied for one grant and almost have one more to submit, plus some others in the works.

Very soon we'll start sending off our dossier papers to be authenticated and then sent to China, at which point we'll be logged in their system and able to be matched!  Some families from our agency recently visited some of the partnership orphanages in China and it was exciting to see their pictures and begin to hear stories.  Looking forward to moving along and figuring out who our girl is!