Saturday, May 26, 2012

Week of Fundraisers

Last weekend was an insane flurry of fundraising.  Our church sponsored a taco dinner for us, our friends the Simmons, Sanders and Sherers held a garage sale for us and we had our iPod Giveaway finale.  Oscar also did some 'cat sitting' for our neighbors and earned some money which he donated to help bring his brother home.  Total: we raised $2,995.  Thanks to all who supported/sponsored and otherwise participated in all these events!

On May 15th our dossier finally went to China (that's DTC in China adoption speak).  I still don't know if we have a logged in date (LID) yet.  I suspect we have it, our agency just hasn't told me what it is yet (note to self - ASK).  They did tell me to expect our official referral (LSC - I think this is letter seeking confirmation) very soon though.  Chinese adoption has so many acronyms... I can't keep it straight as to what all those letters stand for!

This past week was a week of transition at home.  School ended early for our kids, I pulled them out the last couple of days so that they could start our public system's summer school program on time (it started on Thursday).  This changed everything in the middle of the week - therapy appointments, work schedule, sleep schedule... It's been a rough last couple of days (oh yeah, and Tim pulled an 'all-nighter at work Thursday night too).  Hopefully I'll get back into the swing of things again come Tuesday morning.

We are waiting to hear back on some grants that we have applied for (and we still have a couple of grants that we have yet to apply for).  We believe we have been awarded at least one grant for $500.  All funds received from here on out go to support our travel to China.  It is our sincere hope that we can afford to take Oscar with us on our trip.  It would be a good experience for him to see where his brother comes from and it likely would be very helpful with Zane's transition into our family.  We already have his passport.  The only thing keeping us from taking him right now is the money :(.  I see more fundraisers in our future!

Monday, May 21, 2012

and the WINNER is...


Here's my spreadsheet with all the names of the people who entered.


Here they are all cut out.




Here they are folded and put in a basket (cheery yellow, no?)


Mayerly getting ONE tiny slip of paper out while Oscar holds the basket.


Deana Griffin!!!
Just let us know if you want black or white :).

Deana is Oscar and Diana's teacher at their school.  THANK YOU to all who donated and helped us get one step closer to bringing SongSong/Zane home!