Show me the money!

Well, it's begun. The paperwork. I knew there would be tons of paperwork, but I had no idea I would feel this overwhelmed. There is so much we need to do to complete our homestudy, which is the first step in the process to bring Leanna home. Just to name a few things that were added to my to-do list yesterday...

All 5 of us need to have a statement from our physicians saying we're healthy and the kids immunizations are up-to-date. And when I say 'statement,' I mean the doctor will have a 3 page form to fill out. I made the kids appointments yesterday. Still need to make mine. I have to find a new doctor (don't you just love insurance companies?) so I'll pick someone over the weekend and get my appointment scheduled.

We will also need to have our septic tank pumped since it's been more than 5 years. That's one little expense we weren't quite prepared for.

Jon and I will each need to get fingerprinted a few times to send off to the GBI and FBI. This we need to do ASAP as it may take a month or more to get the reports back from the FBI. We can't send anything to Russia to formally apply for adoption until the homestudy is complete.

The rest is really just gathering and copying documents...pet vaccinations, health insurance cards, birth certificates, marriage certificate, Federal Tax Return, etc. And the paperwork. Consents (for Child Abuse & Neglect and the Sexual Offender Registry), financial forms, employment verification, and reference letters. Oh, and the Self Study for Jon and I. Seven pages of questions like, 'Describe your personality, include what you view as your strengths and weaknesses,' 'Describe the family in which you grew up. Please include your current relationship with your parents and siblings,' 'Describe any change(s) you would like to make in your marital relationship to make it better,' (now there's a loaded question!) 'If you have children already, please give a description of them, their ages, personality, characteristics, interests, strengths and weaknesses,' (this alone could take me days) 'Explain your desires and expectations for the care of your child from birth through school,' and many, many more like this. Okay, this part alone will take me WEEKS to get through!

So, here are the costs coming up VERY soon:

$1,500 - Homestudy fee
$200 - Application fee
$2,500 - Mandatory donation to New Horizons since we decided to adopt a hosted child (we just learned about this fee yesterday)
$100 - Co-pays for our doctor visits (which will be another $100 very soon since we'll have to do it again in 3 months)
$800 - $900 - USCIS Form I-600A & Department of Homeland Security Fingerprinting (not sure about this total yet. This is based on blogs I've read from others who have done international adoptions)
$150-ish - Criminal checks and Fingerprinting for GBI and FBI
$300 - Septic tank pumping - not positive on this total yet either.

All this to say, if any of you reading this have any extra cash lying around, we would sure appreciate a donation! I'm not too proud to beg! Once we complete the homestudy, there are several adoption grants we will apply for. But the homestudy (including all of the above) is the first step.


I don't know, at this point, where the money is going to come from in order to bring Leanna home. We'll still have the $20,500 agency/country fee to pay in addition to all of the above. Plus the travel costs. I just can't wait to see how God plans to provide!

All I know for certain is that, whatever the cost,

she. is. worth. it!