WHAT DOES IT COST TO ADOPT FROM ETHIOPIA????

We have had many people ask this question and while no one likes to talk about the "cost" of adoption, I find it amazingly hard not to talk about it because this is one area that God has blessed us immensly.  It's unbelievable how God provides the means when you are obedient to what He has called you to do.  When we started our process for Taiwan, we established an "Adoption Fund" through our church so that friends and family could give gifts towards our expenses and also get tax credit for their gifts.  It remains open for our Ethiopian adoption and right now, we have a couple who gives to our adoption fund monthly, and a family who gives a certain percentage of their commissions made in real estate.  God has blessed us far beyond what our minds can grasp and we are trusting that He will be faithful to provide the needed funds to fulfill this journey.   So, after all of that, these are the costs for our adoption.......(We were able to get a Pastoral discount for the ET Program Fee and we have been able to meet all of the US Expenses thus far!)

U.S. EXPENSES
America World Application Fee	$250
America World - Ethiopia Program Fee**	$4,100
USCIS Fee	$685
Dossier Authentication	$400
Home Study/Post Placement Fee	$2,700 - $3,000
International Specialist Consultation Fee	$250
FOREIGN EXPENSES
Dossier Translation and Authentication Fee	$600
Consul Fee for Child's Visa	$380
International Program Fees	$3,450
TRAVEL EXPENSES
Round-trip Airfare (two adults)	$2,400 - $4,000
Airfare for Child (one-way)	$250 - $1,000
Ethiopian Visas (two adults)	$40
In-Country Package	$2,600 - $3,000
TOTAL ESTIMATED EXPENSES $18,105 - $21,155

I'TS HERE!!!

Our final puzzle piece arrived this morning!  Our I-171H all certified and ready to go!

I will work over the weekend to get our copies made of everything and have our dossier ready to be mailed on Monday!

One step closer!!

I found this poem on another blog and had to borrow it!  So Sweet!

A whisper started our journey
Yet with no spoken word
A whisper tugged upon our hearts,
Instead of being heard.

Your family is not quite complete
There is yet another
A precious child that waits
For a father and a mother

A tiny hand to hold
A child to embrace
A priceless little smile
A reminder of God's grace

A whisper offered us faith
As we asked "Who?", "When?", "Where?"
Our searching paths found direction
As we whispered back in prayer

Then you were born, your photo shared
Our hearts were drawn to you
Now the whisper brings us joy
As the days between us grow few
Her little hand you're soon to hold
In a family hug
You're soon to see her priceless smile
A reminder of God's grace

Thank you, Lord, for all you've done
And all that you will do
Thank you for whispering to our hearts"I have a child for you."

by Todd and Leslie Murrill

Dossier Photo Pages

Part of the dossier includes making photo pages.  These are to include the front and back of your house, each main room in the house, pics of your family, and family life.  It's just a glimpse into our lives!  Kind of hard to figure out which pics to use and which ones to leave out!  These are samples of how we did ours. 

The first page is our house, inside and out.

  Second page is the main rooms in the house.  We have two pages of these and YES we included the bathrooms!  I was afraid not too.  We put the master bath and then I was afraid that the people in Ethiopia that would be looking over our pics would think that we only had one bathroom for 8 people, so, we put all three on the pages along with all of the bedrooms!

 The last set is of our family.  We had two pages of our family and then a page titled "Family Life". 

HAPPY DADDY'S DAY!!!  WE LOVE YOU!!!  YOU ARE THE BEST DADDY IN THE WHOLE WORLD!!!

Mommy took these pictures at the beach and we framed them for daddy's office! 

Love,  Tommy,Taylor,Blake,Leyla & Sophi

PARTIAL DOCS RECEIVED FROM FL SOS!

So......we received our first packet of docs back from being certified today!  Now, we just wait for one more paper to be certified and we are completely done!!!!! 

Ok, So it was my turn to make a mistake!

After getting the packet off yesterday, I was sitting at home today and realized that I didn't include a cover letter stating what we even needed to happen with our document!   I did put a return envelope in it so we will at least be able to track it back even if nothing is done! 

I can't believe I did this!!  I put the check in the envelope but didn't bother to tell them what to do nor did I include our contact info!  Hopefully they will read the approval letter and see that the country is Ethiopia and certify it correctly!  If not, we will send it back!

BREATHE.........

Ok....another crazy story to share!  We were getting our I-171H ready to be notarized and sent off to SOS when suddenly.....it was missing! I had a melt down and knew that we were in trouble!!  This is the piece of paper that you are told to "guard with your life" and it was gone!!  Nowhere to be found!  I knew I had seen it on Sunday (only because I keep walking by it and touching it to make sure it was real!) and Mark had seen it.  We had made a big run to Sams and Wal-Mart and we had a lot of boxes to throw away so Mark suggested that we look in the trash tonight.  Well, I couldn't wait, I was ready to mail it off and couldn't find it so I had Blake go get the trash he had taken outside last night.  He brought in two bags and Taylor and I started going through it. (Nice, huh?)  Well, I look over at Taylor and she was holding it!!!!  I think I had another meltdown!  Just knowing that if I had waited until tomorrow like I felt like doing, it would have been in the big dump!  Trash day is Tuesday and it would have been long gone!!

Thank you God for prompting me to get it done today!!!!

It is safely on it's way to Tallahassee to be certified as I write!

Oh yeah, when I asked who threw it away, Blake said he was just trying to help by throwing out all of the mail that was sitting on the counter!!!!!  Poor little guy...he keeps apologizing!