Thursday, July 24, 2008
Update on our I-800A Application
I thought I would give you a quick update on the status of our application to Immigration and Homeland Security. Unfortunately, on July 18th, it was returned to us and it included our checks that were written out to the U.S. Department of State. So, we lost 3 weeks, which doesn't sound like a lot of time to most of you, but when you have been in the paperchasing process for almost 4 months it is! The reason why it was returned was not very clear but we knew that it had to do whith the checks (one for $670 fee and 1 for $160 for fingerprints). After reviewing the application instructions again with our case worker, we decided that the checks were written out to the wrong department and that they possibly might only want one check for the total. So, everything was sent back on July 22nd along with a new check made out to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. So now.....we cross our fingers and hope that the next thing we get in the mail is our approval to adopt.
Sunday, July 6, 2008
Yard Sale that turned in to a HUGE Garage Sale!!!!
We were looking for ways to raise money to help with the adoption expenses and my mom came up with the idea of having a yard sale.
Initially this yard sale was going to be at our house and was going to be fairly small. But slowly, this "small" yard sale was growing into something very big. My sister, who lives in New Jersey, not only donated a lot of stuff but she mentioned the yard sale to friends and neighbors who also donated a lot of stuff. When she explained to them the reason for having the yard sale they all wanted to help. There was so much stuff that my mom and I made two trips to my sister's to bring back two truck loads full. We spent multiple weekends pricing and splitting everything up by category. We were going to have the sale on Memorial day weekend, but that date came and went. We just didn't have enough time to get everything done. So we decided to have it on July 5th.
A couple of weeks before the day of the sale, it was decided that were going to have the yard sale at Dave's new auto repair shop for various reasons, one of them being weather. I posted ads in the local papers and they ran 3 days prior to the sale and the day of.
Well, by Thursday night, July 3rd, I was ready to cancel the sale because of the weather forecast. They were calling for scattered thunderstorms and showers, all weekend. My thought was "who was going to go 'yard saling' in the rain?" Well, by Friday morning, after talking with Dave and my mom I decided to go through with the sale and cross my fingers that people would come regardless of the weather. The other thing that was decided was that we were going to set up inside the shop because of the weather.
So, ALL day Friday my mom and I set up and Dave helped with loading and unloading all the boxes and furniture. The sale was starting at 8am the next morning so Dave and I were back at the shop by 7:10am. Minutes after we got there, a caravan of cars pulled in. Before 8am, I already had $75 in my pocket! The flow of people remained steady until about 11:30am and by that point, had sold A LOT..........and it NEVER rained. People were still coming throughout the afternoon. The later it got the more discounts there were and we even began giving things away. We put smiles on several faces of children and adults. One little girl left with about 40 beanie babies who came back a little while later with a homemade 'thank you' card. Another little girl left with a bin full of Little Pet Shop figures and toys and a new bike. The parents of that same little girl bought our dining room table and chairs of which we gave them a good price on. They had just moved here from out of state and needed things for their new place. They left very happy too.
My mother and father-in-law came around 3pm to help us pack everything up, which was a huge help. Everything that didn't sell is be donated to local facilities.
We ended having a great day with great memories to go with it! We raised a good amount of money, which is being put right into the bank. We have had so much support from our family, it has made our journey so far a wonderful one.
Initially this yard sale was going to be at our house and was going to be fairly small. But slowly, this "small" yard sale was growing into something very big. My sister, who lives in New Jersey, not only donated a lot of stuff but she mentioned the yard sale to friends and neighbors who also donated a lot of stuff. When she explained to them the reason for having the yard sale they all wanted to help. There was so much stuff that my mom and I made two trips to my sister's to bring back two truck loads full. We spent multiple weekends pricing and splitting everything up by category. We were going to have the sale on Memorial day weekend, but that date came and went. We just didn't have enough time to get everything done. So we decided to have it on July 5th.
A couple of weeks before the day of the sale, it was decided that were going to have the yard sale at Dave's new auto repair shop for various reasons, one of them being weather. I posted ads in the local papers and they ran 3 days prior to the sale and the day of.
Well, by Thursday night, July 3rd, I was ready to cancel the sale because of the weather forecast. They were calling for scattered thunderstorms and showers, all weekend. My thought was "who was going to go 'yard saling' in the rain?" Well, by Friday morning, after talking with Dave and my mom I decided to go through with the sale and cross my fingers that people would come regardless of the weather. The other thing that was decided was that we were going to set up inside the shop because of the weather.
So, ALL day Friday my mom and I set up and Dave helped with loading and unloading all the boxes and furniture. The sale was starting at 8am the next morning so Dave and I were back at the shop by 7:10am. Minutes after we got there, a caravan of cars pulled in. Before 8am, I already had $75 in my pocket! The flow of people remained steady until about 11:30am and by that point, had sold A LOT..........and it NEVER rained. People were still coming throughout the afternoon. The later it got the more discounts there were and we even began giving things away. We put smiles on several faces of children and adults. One little girl left with about 40 beanie babies who came back a little while later with a homemade 'thank you' card. Another little girl left with a bin full of Little Pet Shop figures and toys and a new bike. The parents of that same little girl bought our dining room table and chairs of which we gave them a good price on. They had just moved here from out of state and needed things for their new place. They left very happy too.
My mother and father-in-law came around 3pm to help us pack everything up, which was a huge help. Everything that didn't sell is be donated to local facilities.
We ended having a great day with great memories to go with it! We raised a good amount of money, which is being put right into the bank. We have had so much support from our family, it has made our journey so far a wonderful one.
Wednesday, July 2, 2008
Finally.....
Our 1-800A Application is being sent out today to U.S. Immigration and to the Department of State!!! According to our case worker, 4 agencies have to approve the application, of which 2 have approved it already. So, the only 2 agencies left to approve it are Immigration and the Department of State. This could take up to 8 weeks, but most likely will not take that long. Apparently, a new department has been formed and because of this they do not have an overwhelming amount of applications to review. I asked our case worker if she thought we had anything to worry about, and she feels very confident that we will not have any problems. More to come.....
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