waiting & what we are doing to help fund our adoption

Last week we had our last home study visit and sent all our paperwork off (minus one straggler of a paper that we are still waiting for)! All our papers are now heading (and should be arriving today) to the Ministry of Social Services in Regina, where they will have them for a couple of days and then will send them down to our adoption agency. Then they will send them over to the DRC where they will be translated.

And this means that we are now officially on the wait list for a referral. Our agency has a referral time of 0-12 months from the DRC program. I found out yesterday that they are currently working on dossiers submitted in September, so we’ve probably got awhile to wait now.

Waiting is hard, especially in a world where we can do so many things instantly. While the wait is going to be difficult we do have some work to do. When we get our referral we need to have a large sum of money to accept the referral. If we do not have the money at that point we will end up slowing down the process -not something we want to do. I said I would share some of the things that we are doing to help fund our adoption, none of them are original or mind blowing but I wanted to give some ideas to those who are thinking about adopting but are feeling overwhelmed by the financial costs of the process.

1) Extra work – Since I have my teaching certificate I am very fortunate to be able to work as a substitute teacher. I’ve been getting a few days a month and we have been able to use all that money towards adoption expenses. Jared is also doing some web stuff on the side in the evenings and on the weekends.

2) Art – I have seen many people turn their creativity into something they can sell. I have been making a few canvases over the past couple of months and thus far have just put them up on Facebook but I decided that I would now open up a little store to give the opportunity for more people to buy them than just my Facebook friends. (P.S. if you live in the Warman area and are interested in purchasing one make sure to contact me about it instead of purchasing through the store so you don’t have to pay shipping).

3) Photography – I am doing a couple of family photography sessions this summer. I’ve got a few booked now and will take a few more, if you are interested, send me a message and I will give you the details. An awesome family that I’ve photographed the last two summers that I will be photographing again soon (with an additional little one!):

4) Selling stuff & a garage sell – I have been going through our house and purging lately. A lot of stuff has been going up on Kijiji and we will also be having a garage sale this Friday and Saturday (yes, the weather is supposed to be awful -it is every time I have a garage sale). We are selling a lot of newborn baby stuff (swing, car seat, vibrating chair), baby girl clothes up to a year, my mother-in-law will be doing some baking (amazing stuff, I’ll have to refrain from buying it all), and I’ll have some of my canvases up . . . I’m hoping to have the garage sale open from 3-7 on Friday and 9-12 on Saturday. If you don’t know my address and want to come send me a message and I will get that to you.

5) Ordinary Hero Affiliate Program – Ordinary Hero is an amazing organization that works with orphans in many countries around the world. They have an online store with some great clothes and accessories. We are affiliates through them, and what that means is, if you make a purchase through the store, when you checkout if you pick my name under fundraising affiliate we will receive 40% of your purchase. So, if you spend $100, in return a $40 cheque will be written to our adoption agency and will go towards our fees! So you get to support our adoption AND get some cute stuff. I ordered this shirt months ago before we were even affiliates and I love it (an no, I’m not just saying that, it is so comfy!):

I think that’s all we are doing right now to raise some money, hopefully I didn’t forget anything. In the next couple of days I will share what some others are doing to raise money for their adoptions. If you are fundraising for your adoption I would love to hear what you are doing!

with love,
Chantel