A Little Bit More Personal...

I think that I am going to share some of the more private parts of our adoption process in this blog.

Before Roger and I left the Deep South, we turned in some paperwork to INS, making sure our children would not be illegal immigrants. (Is that funny? I kind of think so, but I'm not sure.) It was pretty quick and only slightly painful. Once we got here, we turned in our paper work to work with the Children's House International adoption agency. That was also pretty quick, but slightly more painful. The fee's are adding up quickly. Total cost for the adoption of two siblings will be approximately $36, 000. Oh, My... Uggg.

One might wonder why it costs so much. Luckily, there is a specific breakdown of costs that add up to the total. The majority of the money, $14,000, goes strait to the orphanage for the care of the kids. That makes it a little better.

Roger read some place that it is not uncommon for people to get to Ethiopia and feel guilty for adopting a child, when the money spent could have fed, educated, clothed, medicated an entire village. That is so sad and something to think about. I guess that I never really thought about entire countries being in severe poverty. There was recently a fundraiser for our adoption agency to get a washer and dryer for their center. Last year 3 children died of pneumonia AFTER their parents were found because they never had dry, clean clothes. The majority of people in this country still wash their laundry in rivers.

Anyway, this has been a humbling experience for Roger and I so far. We have had a goodbye/fundraiser/baby shower party, I am selling hair pins on-line (so if you need stocking suffers...see my shop) and I am also selling cute cupcakes and cookies for Christmas.

It has honestly brought tears to my eyes more than one occasion when someone would buy something, or give us $50 bucks, when I knew that they didn't really have the money to do it. I don't think that I can adequately convey my feelings about the generosity that we have seen. I know of great sacrifices that have been made to help these two little kids come home with us. So, I guess that I just wanted to share a big thank you to everyone who cares enough to help out...or cares enough to look at this blog for that matter. Seriously. It is easy to forget that there is a huge amount of kindness and generosity abounding in the human family.

So, everyone reading this blog, help yourself to a big fat dish of THANK YOU. And don't forget a steaming hot helping of MERRY CHRISTMAS to go on the side.