I'm having a blast reading and typing all of the yummy recipes I have been receiving from family, friends, and total strangers! This is such an exciting project for me! So far I have about 50 recipes, so keep them coming! I would like to have a total of 250-300 recipes from 100-150 different people. There is a link on the right to my original post about the cookbook and how you can send me recipes to help us bring Sophia home!
Thanks, and may God bless you for helping!
When one embarks on such a journey as this one, it is comforting to have companions along the way. We have found fellow travelers all over the place--church, Internet, work, school--and the instant camaraderie is incredible. Some of the people I have met have already completed their journeys, and their stories bring us hope. Some are almost ready to travel and bring home their newest family member, and their stories bring us excitement for what is to come. Some, like us, are just embarking on their journeys, and we can encourage one another as we walk this road together. I thank God for all the friends, old and new, that I have met--and will meet--as we journey to Sophia in China.
May God bless us one and all!
Things are moving along nicely with our initial steps on this long journey to bring Sophia home. We have been cleared by our adoption agency to move forward with our home study even though we have not sent in our formal application, due to lack of finances. With a completed home study we can apply for grants which will help our financial situation, so we are excited about being able to move ahead in this area. The first two Saturdays in September we will be sitting in on some mandatory educational classes as we line up interviews and complete paperwork for our home study. Please pray with us as we trust God to provide the $1500 needed to pay our home study agency. And remember to send us your recipes for our adoption fundraiser cookbook!
Our need is great, but our God is greater!
Do you like to cook? Do you have a favorite family recipe or two? Then we could use your help! We are going to publish the "Forever Family Cookbook" as an adoption fundraiser. I need at least 250 different recipes from at least 150 different individuals, so...please pass the word to families, friends, Sunday School classes, women's groups, etc., etc.! I would love to receive recipes from around the world...in fact, it would be really neat for people to submit favorite family recipes that highlight their family's heritage. You can send recipes to me via e-mail at tfisher83@myexcel.com, or, you can click here for a .pdf file that you can print, fill in, and send to Terri Fisher, PO Box 146, Jonestown, PA 17038. Please include your name and, if you know it, the "heritage" of the recipe (english, german, chilean, etc.) so that they can be included in the cookbook. Feel free to print several forms and pass them to friends and family, and if you have a blog, please help us get the word out...we need all the recipes we can get! Recipes can be for anything edible, so pull out those recipe boxes, old cookbooks, and tattered pieces of paper, and get typing...or writing...so we can bring Sophia home!
Thanks for your help...and stay tuned to our blog for how you can order a cookbook!
This morning we held our International Adoption Awareness Meeting with a representative from our adoption agency via telephone. We had received a bunch of paperwork to read over prior to the meeting, and had a nice discussion with the rep regarding international adoption and the risks involved as well as what to expect from the process. Now we move forward with completing our formal application. It was clarified for me that the formal application can be sent in without the home study...I was a bit confused by that. The application itself is pretty straightforward, although several items need to be notarized. The big factor is that we must send in the application fee and first agency fee with the application which is $2800. Add to that the $1500 for the home study fee, and you can see my revised ticker on the right with the grand total for this segment of our adoption process being $4300. Please pray with us as we determine how to fund this first segment, and begin our fundraising efforts for the remaining large sum of money necessary to bring Sophia home.
We look forward to sharing with you how God provides for our family!
Today was a fruitful day on the adoption front as I made contact with our previous adoption agency (from when we adopted our older boys) and set in motion our home study process. Since we adopted with them previously, they are waiving the application fee so we only have to pay the home study fee. This will be our first big monetary hurdle--the first of many!--but we have faith that God will supply. I have added a Paypal donation button to this blog for anyone interested in helping us in that way, and I have also added a ladybug ticker to show the progress we make towards each of the small monetary hurdles we must leap on our journey to Sophia. For those of you who don't know, ladybugs are a symbol of good luck in China, and have been embraced as a symbol of Chinese adoption by adoptive families. While I don't necessarily believe in "good luck" per se, I like the symbolism behind the ladybug and its ties to Chinese adoption. It will be fun to watch as God helps our little ladybug move towards her goals on this long journey ahead of us! Stay tuned for other ways you can help us as we try to get creative with our fundraising efforts!
Thanks for helping us bring our little Sophia home!
Last week I was out of town for the week, but we did receive the good news that our agency feels as though we can move forward with the intent to adopt from China, as their liasion in China, in talking with the CCAA, thinks my medical situation is not going to be an issue for them.
Yeah!
So now it's on to the next step. This Thursday morning Dave and I will be meeting via conference call with a representative from our agency, Adoption Associates, Inc., to discuss international adoption in general and the special issues associated with it (e.g., bonding and attachment). If, after that meeting, we still wish to pursue international adoption, we move to filling out the official application--and the fun begins!
Thanks for your interest in our journey!
