Paperwork & Fundraising

It's been a week of realizing how much the slowing economy is affecting us. We're currently a single-income family, and Daniel is self-employed. He relies on phone calls from people who have the funds to pay for services. This has finally begun to slow down and we're feeling the pinch. It could be a typical holiday lag, which we have seen in the past, but whatever the case it's probably a blessing because it's gotten us motivated on our fundraising efforts. In just 24 hours I raised over $340.00 selling Andrew's homeschooling materials. I almost fell to my knees in gratitude because it covers a large portion of our next fee to the agency. Every dollar helps immensely!

This morning I placed an offer of childcare services on Craigslist, and hope to have two infants between 0-18 months old in my home on weekdays. This will be a great fundraising activity, and I'll sharpen up my old infant care skills for our little one. I absolutely adore babies and have a good feeling about this. I'll do almost anything to make sure we get this last adoption of ours accomplished, and hopefully have some fun, enriching experiences along the way.

Meanwhile, I'm shipping all the homeschool materials out today with so much gratitude for the sales. And I'm typing out all the dossier paperwork we'll be getting notarized after the holiday. We have to take our oldest, Sorin, to get fingerprinted since she's 17. This is awkward because I honestly don't know how to explain this to her when we're keeping the adoption under wraps until we get a referral. It's tricky, indeed! I've already told her it's for "adoption", and she automatically assumed it was for finalization of Andrew Prasad's....this may work a while, but I fear her discovering too early and spilling to beans to the younger kids. I don't want them going through an agonizing wait that will feel more like an eternity to them. I will be so relieved when we do have the referral and can share the news with everyone in a very special way.

I've thought a great deal about how to break the news. I spoke with other parents and they had great ideas, like placing little invitations to a 'special dinner' in their backpacks, and having pink and brown balloons and a yummy Ethiopian dish served. We'd spill the beans, then and show her photo, and have a memorable night of dancing afterward (one of our favorite family activities). No matter what we decide, it will be quite memorable.