SUBMITTED

We received word today that our dossier has been submitted to the DAP team!! This means that all our paperwork we've painstakingly been plugging away at for months is now in the hands of the official department of adoption team! Eeeekkk! I just can't believe it! We are getting so very close to holding our baby girl!

We don't know exactly how long we will have to wait now.  The next thing we will get is our travel date.  This could come in 3 weeks or in 12 weeks.  More than likely it will come some time in the next 5-7 weeks and then we would travel 2-3 weeks after that notification.  It is so close!  Part of the unknown is that they recently came out with a new expedited petition for adoption.  Families who are adopting children with certain disabilities can be allowed to use this new form.  Charlotte's disability is one of those allowed.  However, it is so new that we aren't exactly sure how it will speed things up.  Nothing we can do about it anyway, so we will just pray that the Lord gives us the green light when it's the right time.  We are not worried about it...just dying with anticipation!! It's just like a waiting on a pregnancy and not knowing exactly when that baby will make their debut! Very exciting!!

Now, in all this excitement is reality.  We are still about $15,000 short of being fully funded!  We've been working so hard! I sell at the farmers market every Saturday, Dave is working extra shifts at his second job, held a garage sale, selling our stuff, doing benefit night at Pizza Ranch, etc.  We are willing to work and work HARD to bring this money in! We've also applied for numerous grants, but we are concerned that our travel date will come too quickly for decisions to be made by the organizations.  Grants are typically only disbursed a couple times a year and most have to happen before we travel.  For all the grants we had to have a completed home study, so our window of opportunity was/is very small!

Can you help us meet our goal? Would you be willing to pray for us, donate financially, or give us any fundraising ideas? We need your help bringing our girlie home safe and sound!

A HUGE thank you to all who have helped us raise so much already!  God has blessed us!!

Stacy