Week of progress and surprises!

This week was one of progress! We feel accomplished and motivated.

This week we had our first fundraiser. Laura, a great friend of mine, held a younique fundraiser for us. Thank you to everyone who purchased and made the fundraiser a success.

We also had an anonymous donation on our GoFundMe page this week. This was a first for us! Thank you to everyone who continues to share our page and donate to baby Campbell.  https://www.gofundme.com/qzvexyks

Our prayers have been answered and we found a physiologist that will do our evaluation for us under Adam’s insurance. We are scheduled to go April 27^th!   Please pray that this appointment goes well!

This week Adam finished his blood work and we are waiting for the results to officially have the medical report signed! He also completed the financial statement that we need to mail in.

We started our adoption trainings online. We honestly were a little put back by the types of trainings that need to happen. We know that these trainings are in place because bad things have happened. There are bad people that use any system for their own benefit. We just don’t process life that way. Our hearts are good… they are full of so much love. We are saddened to read some of the trainings because they seem like common sense or things that just wouldn’t happen. The truth is, there wouldn’t be trainings without a reason. We also had a training on having a biracial family, or as the called it a conspicuous family (one that stands out). We have been and will continue to pray for the community around us to embrace our child into their lives without degrading their heritage or negating their culture and beginning.  We are looking forward to the day that we are accepted by a county and can begin our research into the cultural norms, language, parenting, etc and hopefully continue some of those traditions with our new baby! We don’t want to adopt a baby and make them conform to our culture. We are really looking forward to celebrating both!

On our list for this week is to draw a map of our home and write up directions. We also are going to complete ALL of the adoption trainings by Sunday!

Our next fundraiser will be May 21^st. Our church does an annual FunFest which is a free family day with lots of events and food. We will be doing a bake sale during the FunFest. I invite you and your family to join is from 10am-1pm at 1215  Fishburn Rd. Hershey. Stop by and say hello! If you would like to help bake a treat to sell please contact my mom, Jane Kratz, at janek4pink@comcast.net or let me know!

When we got home last night we found a very generous donation that was sent to us by two people we dearly. This put us ½ way to our goal for the home study. Adam and I stood in the middle of the kitchen speechless at how much love you share with us. Thank you just doesn’t seem to be enough.

Where are we?

The question we get asked so often is "Where are we?" Everything that we are doing is behind the scenes right now.

First, we are fundraising! This will be an on going process. We have been blessed so far with amazing friends who opened a GoFund Me account for us.

https://www.gofundme.com/qzvexyks

We feel so blessed each time we get a notification that a donation has been added to our account. We are blown away by donations given on the GoFund Me account and handed to us in person. We can not begin to thank each of you enough!


I mentioned, last week, my fabulous friend Laura is doing an online Younique fundraiser for us. Laura is so graciously donating ALL of her proceeds to us! The party will end on Saturday. If you are interested, I have provided the link below! Feel free to share the link with any of your friends or family.

https://www.youniqueproducts.com/LauraGuenther/party/3894592/view

Upcoming fundraiser: My mom and I will be organizing a bake sale for the FunFest at our church in May. More dates to follow!

Second, we are checking things off of our home study list. Our current progress is listed below!

Adam FBI Clearance (waiting for return, finger prints are taken)
Adam Child Abuse Clearance 
Adam PA Clearance 
Michelle FBI Clearance  (waiting for return, finger prints are taken)
Michelle Child Abuse Clearance 
Michelle PA Clearance 
Michelle FL Clearance 
Adam and Michelle Phycological Evaluation (continuing our search to find someone to do this... its proved harder than expected! Please pray we are able to find someone with knowledge on how to do this paperwork and accepts our insurance!)
Adoption Trainings (Starting THIS week!)
Draw a Map of the home and provide directions
Copy of Adam's Birth Certificate
Copy of Michelle's Birth Certificate 
Copy of Marriage License 
Adam Personal Data Form 
Michelle Personal Data Form 
Financial Statement
Adam Medical Report (Going Thursday!)
Michelle Medical Report 
Adam Blood Work (Thursday)
Michelle Blood Work 
Adam TB Test 
Michelle TB Test 
Adam Employment Verification 
Michelle Employment Verification 
Duty of Disclosure Form 
Adam Residence From 
Michelle Residence Form 
Direct Service Fee Form 
Household Compensation Form 
Corporal Punishment Form 
Medical Conditions Checklist 

PHEW! As you can see we are working diligently to complete the paperwork needed to turn in to our social worker. Once everything is turned in we need to pay for our home study. Many of the things on this list have already costs money (hundreds of dollars). Everything needs to be notarized also! The fundraising will help pay for our home study.


Please, continue to ask any questions you may have. We might not always have the time to answer it right them but we will absolutely answer it! We want this process to be explained for all people, not so that you know all that we are doing necessarily but, that people understand the process. We also want people surrounding us know that it may seem like we are just waiting right now, but we aren't... not yet. We have heard this is a hurry up and wait process. We are still in the hurry up part of our home study. When everything is turned in, we wait for the home study to be scheduled!

Until then... let the hurrying up and fundraising continue!

Blessings through Beauty

Thank you! Thank you everyone who has helped us already! We are early in this process and are so blessed by you. Last week I announced our GOFUND ME Account that our friends Karyn and Jessica set up for us. I have listed the link below. At the same time we complete our paperwork towards our home study we also are trying to raise money to pay it. The cost is around $3,000. After our home study we are able to apply for grants and scholarships to help off set the cost of the adoption as well as continuing to fundraise.

https://www.gofundme.com/qzvexyks

This past week, one of my best friends from high school offered to do a fundraiser for us! Laura will be donating 100% of her proceeds to baby Campbell. Laura is beautiful inside and out and helps stay looking beautiful with the makeup line Younique. Laura started selling this line because of what they stand for and how well they work. Laura has always been the type of person that cares so deeply for the people in her life, her family, her coworkers, and her friends. We feel incredibly blessed to have her and Greg's love, prayers, and support through this process. (xoxo)
A little about Younique:

"Younique's cosmetics development processes utilize scientific research to ensure that our products contain high quality ingredients that enrich and nourish the skin. The result is a beautifully efficacious product that is safely compatible with virtually every skin type.  Younique begins by looking to Mother Nature for the inspiration behind our cosmetics. Our in-house scientific team then formulates a product that honors that inspiration while delivering cutting-edge cosmetics. Our goal is to provide healthy, clean, and pure cosmetics."

Laura has a Facebook page which I would encourage you to "like". Laura's Pretty FABULASH Beauty Bash. If you would like to start browsing her webpage is Prettyfabulash.com. When the party is open I will be sure to post it on Facebook. If you would like to be given the link privately please comment below and I will pass it on. Remember to share the link with your friends and family!

This week we sent in our first official packet into Holt International. We are not waiting for all of our clearances to come back and for Adam's physical. Over the next month we will be completing our online trainings that are needed for our home study.