We couldn't feel more thankful! We are surrounded by such a loving and generous community. I lost count of how many families came out to support us and Vineyard Glendora - not to mention the countless people who e-mailed us with support even though you couldn't make it. We are definitely humbled and blessed!
For those of you who couldn't make it or who just want a little more information, below is a list of links from A Night of Hope that may be helpful:
Vineyard Church of Glendora: Learn more about the community of faith who is doing so much to support adoptive families and help ensure that all kiddos are connected with loving forever families. You can learn more about VCG or click on the Online Giving link to give to the Vineyard Adoption Assistance Fund.
Project Hopeful: A non-profit organization committed to educating, encouraging, and enabling families adopting children with HIV/AIDS.
The Boulton Family Blog: Bart and Lyndsay have definitely been instrumental in helping us learn more about the international adoption process and how to best move forward in our own journey.
American World Adoption Agency: This is the agency that we have chosen to work with for our adoption. There are loads of great agencies out there, but we knew many others who had used AWAA and are incredibly impressed with their reputation and the support that they give to their adoptive families.
Other links that may be of interst to you:
AHOPE: A non-profit organization that operates a school and orphanage and countless other programs to support orphans and other children in Ethiopia who are HIV+.
There Is No Me Without You: One of the first books that I read about the orphan crisis in Ethiopia. Melissa Faye Greene also has a blog and other informative books about international adoption.
Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services: While it's true that we are proud supporters of international adoption, we desperately want to support local adoption services. Find out more about domestic adoption in Los Angeles County here; if you aren't in Los Angeles, just contact your local Department of Children and Family Services to find out about pursuing domestic adoption.
Again, thanks to everyone who came out to support us and Vineyard's Adoption Assistance Fund. For anyone still wanting to order a t-shirt, you can just click on the PayPal Donate button or email me at cferg7@gmail.com to order your shirt today. .
Much love,
Jimmy & Celeste
Sunday, March 25, 2012
Saturday, March 17, 2012
The Choice to Fundraise and the Bigger Picture
We are well on our way to finalizing our home study. One last notary stamp and we should be all set. The plan is to have it stamped and off to our social worker by the end of next week!
The timing is perfect. A finalized home study is usually the first step in getting to be able to work with non-profit organizations to fundraise. This means that people can make tax-deductible donations to the organization and because we've been selected by the organization we can benefit from the donations.
For us, this is perfect. We wrestled with the idea of "fundraising" to support our adoption. Early on we had no plans of fundraising - at all.... totally against it. After all, if we were having a baby in the traditional way, there would be no fundraising, so why on earth would we expect adoption to be any different?
The change in thinking for us came as we began to understand that although we saw adoption as the way we planned on building our family and not a humanitarian project; in the big picture, there is an orphan crisis - just like there is a clean water crisis or injustice in Sudan or mass devastation following a tsunami. So, just like it would be ridiculous for the Red Cross to think they could do anything to help end human suffering without raising awareness and encouraging others to get involved, it would be silly of us not to see this as an opportunity to invite everyone we know to get involved in a issue of social justice that is so close to our hearts.
UNICEF estimates that there are over 200 million orphans in the world. Obviously our first desire is that these kiddos could be re-united with their birth families; but the reality is that this isn't always possible. So, as we fundraise, we are partnering with non-profit organizations that financially support families through the adoption process, organizations that support orphanages and transition homes for kiddos who have been separated from their families, or organizations that help to support families who are at-risk so that no child is orphaned because a birth family didn't have resources to support themselves. We invite you to join us as we work to raise awareness and fight to connect every kiddo with loving family.
Next Saturday, we are hosting our first official fundraiser in partnership with Vineyard Church of Glendora. We've been involved with the Vineyard Association for over a decade. About a year ago, we discovered Vineyard Glendora. It is a faith-based community who lives and breathes our heart for adoption and foster care.
Join us, Saturday, March 24, 2012, at Domenico's Pizza (146 N Glendora Ave.) and Classic Coffee in Glendora - just about 20 minutes east of Los Angeles. Beginning at 5 p.m., Domenico's will donate a percentage of their proceeds to the VCG's adoption fund. From 6- 8 p.m., Classic Coffee -just next door- has extended their hours so to host a small event for us. You can expect music by Jimmy and his friends, stories of families who have already adopted from Ethiopia, and a little of our story. We'd love to see you there!
With love,
Jimmy and Celeste
The timing is perfect. A finalized home study is usually the first step in getting to be able to work with non-profit organizations to fundraise. This means that people can make tax-deductible donations to the organization and because we've been selected by the organization we can benefit from the donations.
For us, this is perfect. We wrestled with the idea of "fundraising" to support our adoption. Early on we had no plans of fundraising - at all.... totally against it. After all, if we were having a baby in the traditional way, there would be no fundraising, so why on earth would we expect adoption to be any different?
The change in thinking for us came as we began to understand that although we saw adoption as the way we planned on building our family and not a humanitarian project; in the big picture, there is an orphan crisis - just like there is a clean water crisis or injustice in Sudan or mass devastation following a tsunami. So, just like it would be ridiculous for the Red Cross to think they could do anything to help end human suffering without raising awareness and encouraging others to get involved, it would be silly of us not to see this as an opportunity to invite everyone we know to get involved in a issue of social justice that is so close to our hearts.
UNICEF estimates that there are over 200 million orphans in the world. Obviously our first desire is that these kiddos could be re-united with their birth families; but the reality is that this isn't always possible. So, as we fundraise, we are partnering with non-profit organizations that financially support families through the adoption process, organizations that support orphanages and transition homes for kiddos who have been separated from their families, or organizations that help to support families who are at-risk so that no child is orphaned because a birth family didn't have resources to support themselves. We invite you to join us as we work to raise awareness and fight to connect every kiddo with loving family.
Next Saturday, we are hosting our first official fundraiser in partnership with Vineyard Church of Glendora. We've been involved with the Vineyard Association for over a decade. About a year ago, we discovered Vineyard Glendora. It is a faith-based community who lives and breathes our heart for adoption and foster care.
Join us, Saturday, March 24, 2012, at Domenico's Pizza (146 N Glendora Ave.) and Classic Coffee in Glendora - just about 20 minutes east of Los Angeles. Beginning at 5 p.m., Domenico's will donate a percentage of their proceeds to the VCG's adoption fund. From 6- 8 p.m., Classic Coffee -just next door- has extended their hours so to host a small event for us. You can expect music by Jimmy and his friends, stories of families who have already adopted from Ethiopia, and a little of our story. We'd love to see you there!
With love,
Jimmy and Celeste
Wednesday, February 1, 2012
Still Waiting...Unofficially
We are not patient. I spend my days helping 10-year-olds (who aren't really ten anymore, but everyday I remind them that they will always be ten to me) maximize every minute of their day. And I'm pretty sure the first complete sentence that Jimmy had something to do with me not driving fast enough. So how is it that we have been fated to wait an indeterminate amount of time before we get to bring home Ellie? First, we waited to see if we would be accepted into the Ehtiopia program. Then, we waited to start our home study. Now, we're waiting for passports, birth certificates, marriage certificates, doctor's appointments, and on and on.
It's really not that bad and we knew what we were signing up for when we started this. But, for today, I wish we had a timeline that cleared away the mystery :) Mostly, I'm impatient today because we're almost there, I think. Jimmy has a doctor's appointment tomorrow and will get the last bits of our paperwork to finalize our home study. The next big deal when we get that will be something that goes to USCIS that officially allows us to get an adoption visa, submit our dossier, and become official "waiters."
From the looks of things, other families have been waiting about 12-16 months after submitting their dossier to Ethiopia. There was a pretty big slow down in Ethiopia last summer with adoption processing so we're hoping now that things are back on track that our wait might be a bit shorter. It's definitely been amazing how many wonderful adoptive families we've met along the way. I can't imagine doing this without their wisdom. As I write my way out of my impatience, I realzie that we're really just totally excited and our excitement increases with every tiny task that I get to check off of our adotion "to do" list.
It's really not that bad and we knew what we were signing up for when we started this. But, for today, I wish we had a timeline that cleared away the mystery :) Mostly, I'm impatient today because we're almost there, I think. Jimmy has a doctor's appointment tomorrow and will get the last bits of our paperwork to finalize our home study. The next big deal when we get that will be something that goes to USCIS that officially allows us to get an adoption visa, submit our dossier, and become official "waiters."
From the looks of things, other families have been waiting about 12-16 months after submitting their dossier to Ethiopia. There was a pretty big slow down in Ethiopia last summer with adoption processing so we're hoping now that things are back on track that our wait might be a bit shorter. It's definitely been amazing how many wonderful adoptive families we've met along the way. I can't imagine doing this without their wisdom. As I write my way out of my impatience, I realzie that we're really just totally excited and our excitement increases with every tiny task that I get to check off of our adotion "to do" list.
Sunday, December 4, 2011
Holidays and Home Studies
Okay, I may have missed a prime opportunity by ignoring Black Friday and Cyber Monday, but let's be honest, none of you actually has all of your holiday shopping finished. Besides, those are like Hallmark holidays and you are all way too smart to be suckered into spending on something so artificial. So, consider this my gift to you: a reminder that people are expecting gifts from you and the malls and other stores are a ZOO, so you should click on our Amazon link on the right and shop from the comfort of home in your pajamas. Really, could life get any better? I didn't think so. Happy shopping.
In case you're keeping track of our progress, we had to reschedule one of our home study visits because of the massive winds last week. I was pretty sure that the Santa Ana winds were a suburban legend created by Steve Martin in Father of the Bride (if you're keeping score that was a pop culture reference, but it's over ten years old, so I'm not sure it counts). Turns out that these are crazier than any tornado that I've ever seen. Most of the city was totally fine: however, our tiny lil' part of the world lost electricity and was cluttered with fallen trees. The good news is that we were able to squeeze in the home study this weekend. So, we are 2/3 of the way through the process. We bumped our last meeting back until after New Years. So, all should be pretty quiet on the adoption front between now and then.
If you've managed to get this far, I'm not sure why you haven't clicked away to Amazon, but you should. Go. Click. Shop.
Love,
Jimmy and Celeste
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| Storm Watch 2011 ;) |
If you've managed to get this far, I'm not sure why you haven't clicked away to Amazon, but you should. Go. Click. Shop.
Love,
Jimmy and Celeste
Saturday, November 26, 2011
Thanksgiving
We're so thankful for few days off to relax. It's been fantastic getting to celebrate Thanksgiving with some of our family and having their help as we prepared for the first meeting with our social worker. We've got three more meetings with our social worker and then we're set to work through the huge stack of paperwork that goes with our dossier. Once we complete our dossier, we'll make our way on the official un-official AWAA Ethiopia waitlist. The current waitlist has about 70 families waiting for infant girls with an average wait time of 15 months. We're hoping that the changes in the way that the Ethiopian government is processing paperwork doesn't change the wait time too much. If all goes as expected - which is so doubtful :) - we can expect a referral and travel to Ethiopia by May 2013.
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