Finally... some progress!

I have been behind on blogging for a long time now! Why? Because things have been so sloooow! I finally have some updates. We completed all the application requirements in August and began the home study process. Near the end of our home study, our case worker quit her job and left us waiting on someone else to take over our case and complete the process. Finally, we were assigned a new case worker and completed our home study last week! Hallelujah! It has been a roller coaster for the past couple of months. One amazing thing that happened was that people from the Family Law Center in Lithuania visited the orphanage and took updated pictures of Paulius and sent them to our case worker. I opened the e-mail with new pictures and just started crying... happy tears of course! I was not expected any new photos of Paulius until the referral comes, so this was an unexpected gift! On a sad note, Paulius celebrated his 4th birthday on September 22nd without his family. It was a really hard week for me as I faced the reality of losing four years with our son. It seems like the harder I've tried to get through the process, the slower things seem to move :(

We have also started doing some fundraisers. I held two bake sales, consigned donated children's clothing in four consignment sales, and had a garage sale. Combine the money raised at all of these events and we barely topped $1200! We have our work cut out for us and a LONG way to go before we raise enough money to complete the adoption and travel to bring our son home. Katie did a great job holding a hot cocoa/lemonade stand at our garage sale. None of the garage sale items were selling, but she sold a $100 cup of hot cocoa and a $20 cup of lemonade. Her lemonade stand made almost all of the money the day of the garage sale, which was a total for $477!

I am trying to think of more fundraising ideas that will bring in a little bit larger amounts of money. I picked up some photo Christmas cards from Target dollar area and will be making "Prayers for Paulius" cards to send with his picture and a letter about the adoption. I will send these out to all of our family and friends within the next couple of weeks. I am also making some handmade crafts that I am selling at a small craft fair soon. These bring in small amounts, so I will also be submitting lots of grant requests once I have our completed home study letter. I am starting my new job as substitute teacher for metro-Nashville schools next week. This will be a great way to raise money for the adoption if I can get jobs and hand in there! Some of these schools are pretty tough, so please keep me in your prayers :)

Now that the home study is complete, I will being giving updates more often (since there will hopefully be more to report). Please keep our family in your prayers as we continue our journey to bringing Paulius home. Please keep Paulius and the other children in the orphanage, and the caregivers in your prayers as well. More updates to come soon...