What's new and what's not?

It's been a few days since I last posted. We were exhausted after the huge yard sale and car wash event and needed to unwind. We went to stay with some friends in Massachusetts for the July 4th weekend and had a great time. Then I realized I'd neglected my web world.

What's new? Not too much. We are going to meet with Bethany Christian next week which we are very excited about. I pray that we leave our meeting with them with more information about their agency, and a clearer picture of what's in front of us. We also pray that after our meeting with them it is relatively easy for us to decide as a family which agency will best meet our needs. I've had about 2 weeks to think about Adoptions Together and Catholic Charities a little bit more. I've really reflected over the two this last weekend while I was talking to my friend in Massachusetts. I spoke with a coworker who was only using Adoptions Together for her homestudy, and they sat on it for 3 months which held up their international adoption. My coworker eventually pulled her homestudy from them, and went with another agency called the Datz Foundation in VA. She highly recommended that agency, however, we were hoping to find one closer to home. I thought about the presentations that each agency had given. Adoptions Together was so unorganized. When we left there, we had heard a lot of the same info, but some new info of course as it's a different agency. But when we left Catholic Charities, we could tell you everything about the different countries they worked with, what the reasons were generally for the children being given up for adoption, their recommendations, what agencies they worked with for their international adoptions, etc. They were just so thorough. That's the kind of agency I want us to work with. They require waiting parents (homestudy approved waiting for placement) to go to meetings monthly. Sure, this may be an inconvenience given our work schedules, but how great to know that they have support for us, and something to keep us busy, and other families in the same place as us for us to talk to?!?!? So if we had to decide today just between the two agencies we have met with, it would have to be Catholic Charities. We just left there feeling pumped up and good about their mission and support they will provide for us. Sure they haven't placed as many children, but I have a feeling we'd have less (notice I didn't say none, I believe that adopting comes with quite a bit of it) frustration with them. We may wait longer, but getting a baby tomorrow isn't why we're here.

We are working on planning another fundraiser, but I would like to hold off on announcing it just yet as we're still working out some bugs, and trying to make sure it is doable before proceeding. I can tell you that if we go through with it, it will most likely be held this fall.

What's not new? We're still trying to sell some things on craigslist that didn't sell at the yard sale. Some things have sold, others we are going to relist and hope we will have more people interested. Some things we may try to list on ebay.

We are still selling raffle tickets for our 50/50 raffle, and hope that more people will buy some before the end of this month which is when the drawing is. If you're interested, please email us at hopingforanother@msn.com .

We still have "Bottles of Love" available for people who are interested in saving their spare change to help contribute to our adoption fund. If you would like one, please email me and we will make sure we get it to you. Thank you to those who have saved their change and turned it back in to us. Each bottle has given us between $18 and $28 for our fund!!! Thank you!