I woke up this morning knowing that we were overdue for an adoption update. Honestly, the process has been somewhat quiet lately. A few weeks ago, we gathered all our international dossier paperwork and sent it off to our adoption agency for review. This was a landmark step in our adoption process. At this milestone, we've completed all the paper that needs to be sent internationally, and we are awaiting adoption agency review to see if we need to modify or redo anything. We expect that soon our agency will be sending off our papers to the Philippines!

This is a culmination of six months of people writing letters of recommendation and notarizing their signatures on our behalf. The adoption process involves a lot of people, certain authorities, and LOTS of patience. We are grateful for those who have played a direct role in this whole process.

Also a long time coming is an adoption expenses update. Recently, we've dropped a little over $5,000 for this international dossier stage. We need to update a previous claim that we've paid for half of our home study fee. We had expected to be invoiced and pay for the half of the fee halfway through the home study, but we did not receive an invoice until the very end. This invoice is for the full amount of $2,200. This has not yet been paid, so we lowered our home study expenses paid back to $0 for now.

Adoption grants has been something we have been researching. We were under the impression that grants could be applied for once we have a completed home study. This is true for a couple grants, but most grants actually require us to have a child already lined up for adoption. Additionally, some grants are conditional on the child(ren) being older, having special needs, or being a sibling group. Until we step into child referrals and have a child or children selected, we will not be able to apply for these grants.

The funny thing about adoption grants is that they are supposed to help pay for adoption expenses. However, by the time you can get a grant, most of your adoption expenses have been paid. So a grant is many times a reimbursement. We have been enlightened by this reality recently, and it is demonstrating why fundraising is so important and helpful.

An additional method of fundraising that we started a few months ago is a local bakery business. Liisa loves to bake and has baked for a few weddings and other events this past summer. We registered with the State as an LLC and began running a booth on Saturdays at the local farmer’s market. Our booth has turned out to be very successful, and this has started to help fill in some of the adoption funding gaps. Perhaps the most difficult part about this avenue of fundraising is know exactly how much is going toward adoption expenses. With the all the business expenses we have for operation and supplies, we try to section out money that gets put into savings weekly. However, some of this gets turned around to pay for supplies again. We do know that these funds have been a BIG help, and we would not have been able to pay our last adoption fees completely without our newly-formed business.

This past week we signed on to be part of the winter market that takes place in our local shopping mall. WE ARE EXCITED, and this has turned into a very fun family venture. Thank you to all who have helped make our business popular. Word of mouth is the best kind of advertisement. We have distributed hundreds of business cards and are starting to get special orders for events, such as birthdays, business gatherings, and more.

What is this business, you ask? Expressions of Sugar is the name. Our primary method of contact for now is via social media, but also have an email is interested parties wish to use it.

You can visit us on Facebook at: www.facebook.com/expressionsofsugar

Or you can view our Instagram page at: www.instagram.com/expressions_of_sugar

Feel free to contact us via social media or by email: expressionsofsugar@yahoo.com

 

Well, that is our latest update. What's next? We are waiting for our paperwork to be officially sent to the Philippines. Once that takes place, we begin immigration-related papers and background checks. Once our international paperwork is approved by the Philippine government, we begin the referrals process, which is the review and selection of child profiles.

Stick with us and stay tuned! We appreciate all our supporters, and we are happy to have gotten this far in our adoption. Our adoptee(s) will have a home yet!