News from the Hanson home

We are very happy to let you all know we were offered a potential match with a beautiful (so I'm told) little five year old girl named Nbo. Should everything work out the way we hope, Nbo and Josue will be ours in the next three to six months! Like Josue, we don't know much about Nbo, other than she is between the ages of five and six, and we don't know how to pronounce her name! We should receive their profiles soon, including family history and medical information. I'm not sure how much we will share on this blog, to be honest. But what we can share, we will, and I can't wait to show you all pictures of my newest beautiful babies.

Fundraising has been going pretty well, and we have so very much appreciated all the support from our friends and family. This week, Ryan turned thirty, and we asked that people donate $30 to celebrate and help us bring home our kids. That brought in over six hundred dollars, for which we are extremely grateful. Anyone that wants to contribute can donate through our adoption fundraiser page through a fantastic non-profit called Adopt Together, which makes donations tax deductible. That site is http://adopttogether.org/thehansons

One of the amazing things we've been doing to prepare for our adoption is visiting a church in Boise made up of African refugees, called New Heart International Church. In fact, the pastor is from the Congo, as is a large percentage of the congregation. It's been so very cool to meet so many wonderful people there, and we look forward to growing those relationships. I'm excited to think of what a fabulous experience this will be, not only for our Congo kids, but for all of us American grown as well! We haven't been able to visit as often as we'd like, mostly due to Ryan's schedule. He's graduating with his master's degree in a few weeks, and this last bit of coursework is a killer! I'm so very, very proud of him, though. He's worked so hard and so long, and soon, it will all be over!

I'll leave you all with a couple of pictures of my beautiful kids on Easter. I love their (not so little) faces!

Birthday Fundraiser

Completely forgot to post this to our blog, but for my birthday yesterday, Jess and I ran a fundraiser "$30 from 30 on my 30th". I hit the big 3-o yesterday, and 13 people donated, either on our fundraiser site (http://adopttogether.org/thehansons/) or with a check in the mail. We are so blessed that people are willing to support our adoption process through prayer and giving. It is a humbling experience and we are just so blessed!

We will have some other updates soon! God bless the little children of this world who need loving caring homes and all the people who help in anyway that they can!

Sad Day

We found out today that one of our potential matches, Aristria (3), is no longer available for us to adopt her. She has either gone home to her parents or is being adopted by another family. I'm sure I don't have to tell you how sad this makes us- it goes without saying, right? But I am also happy for her, that she is on her way to being out of the orphanage forever.

We're grieving today. There was a time, a few years ago, that we were in the process of adopting a little girl and it didn't work out. We had a name, pictures, information about her. And when we didn't adopt her, it broke my heart. I felt like I'd lost a child. Thinking about her, even now, I hurt deep inside. This is not quite like this. We don't have a picture of Ari or any information about her. Just a name and an age. Where losing Maria felt like a miscarriage in a lot of ways (the loss of an actual child), this is more like finding out we were never pregnant to begin with. There's an ache in my chest that won't go away.

Josue is still available for us, and we plan to move forward with his adoption. In the meantime, the staff in the Congo will be looking for a second child for us, another little girl. While we will be thrilled when this comes, and while we know Aristria was obviously not meant to be a part of our family, it still aches.

We only had a name. But that's enough to make me miss her.

Long Overdue Update

Early this month, we received news of a potential match with two kids in the Congo. We don't know much about them, but we do know that there is a little girl, Aristria (3) and a boy, Josue (6) that might become members of our family. They are not siblings (yet), and Ari lives in an orphanage while Josh lives with a nun. Let me tell you, this was very exciting news.

For those of you wondering what a potential match is, I'll do my best to lay it out, from what I know. Before we get an official referral (match), the kids have to be tested for several medical conditions and the lawyers have to do a social history and make sure the kids are officially (by US definition) orphans. But that takes money. Before they will go forward with any of that, they need a $7000 retainer from us that will pay for that stuff as well as the orphanage fees, etc. etc. etc.

Once all that is done, we receive an official referral, and our Congo lawyer works towards legally adopting them on our behalf in the DRC, for a lovely fee of $10,000. So essentially, before we can move forward, we need to have a full $17,000. Fortunately, we actually have $10K of that.

But it's hard, because the longer we wait to test the kids, the longer it will be before we can bring them home. Right now, we're (hopefully) looking at July/August, but at this point, we have no idea when we'll be able to go. We're diligently working to fundraise, but it's a lot of money. We also have to come up with the money to travel, which will be another $6-8,000. Eeesh.

I'll admit, I've been grieving lately. While we're here, living this rich life, with food in our stomachs and access to clean water and great healthcare, our kids are living in the Congo. I'm really struggling. This whole process has taken so much longer than I thought it would. We were so hopeful that our kids would be home by this time. And we really don't know how long it will be at this point. At this point, I don't even have a picture of my children.

It's hard, being paperwork pregnant. Since we started this process, we've had friends get pregnant and give birth. And more friends have gotten pregnant and will give birth before we ever meet ours. And while I am honestly, wholeheartedly excited for them, it hurts too. Knowing that we have children out there and not being able to bring them home NOW.

It's been a long process, but we are hopeful that things will move more smoothly from here on out. Out of $40,000, we've already raised $25,000. And that's a pretty big accomplishment, right there. The rest will come.

Thank you all for your support so far. We appreciate it more than you can know.

Jess

New Fundraiser Site!!

Jess and I have got a fundraiser site up through the good people at Adopt Together. The site allows people to donate funds to adopting families and since it is a non-profit company, any donations will be tax deductible. Please take a moment to check out our profile now. You can follow the link to the right or click here http://adopttogether.org/thehansons.

Bad News

(This was an email I posted to our adoption group in November. Our fees increased by $7000, and they were due immediately. We are very much continuing our adoption, but this was a pretty dark time for us, and it was hard to know how much to say and how to say it.)

We just got an email from our agency today, announcing that DRC fees are increasing, out of their control. This is a pilot program for them, and their first family has a referral. The fees in country keep adding up, but as we're adopting 2 kids, our fees have gone from $11,200 to $17,100. We've already paidover $15,000 this year (including homestudy, USCIS, and agency fees), and I'm falling apart. I don't know where we're going to come up with that much money! I'm losing it right now, and I guess I'm just not sure what to do.

This is their breakdown of incountry costs:
Foreign program fee (lawyers, etc): $6000 + 2500 for a second child
ReferralCommune fee $1000
Orphanage documentation $500
Orphanage Child request fee $100
Medical checkup $165
DRC Court and GovernmentRe-issue of child's birth certificate $200
Child's adoption judgment $200
Child's certificate of adoption $50
US EmbassyLegal certification of all Child's US visa documents $120
Certified translation fees (includes birth certificate, act of consent, etc.)$375, this fee can vary depending on your child's circumstances
Visa document copy fee $10
Child's passport photos $30
Child's passport $300
Bank charged Payment Processing and International Wire fees

Plus, there is $1600 every three months to care for our children until we take custody. With these added costs (including part of what we will spend to travel), we're spending more than we make in a year. I'm heartsick thinking about it. The worst part is, if we have a failed referral, we have to pay all of these fees all over again!!!! What do I do?! Our dossier has already been accepted in country, and we're so far into this, I don't know how we can possible quit now, but... I don't know how to continue either. I'm not seriously considering stopping the process, but I'm feeling miserableand confused and desperately unsure of where to go from here. Any advice?

Jess

Day to day

We're moving right along with this adoption stuff lately. We managed to sell the Subaru, which covered a nice chunk of our agency fees (but not all), and we're working on our packet to the Congo (called the dossier). I've applied for my very first passport, and hopefully, when that arrives, we can send this all in, and our agency will forward it to the DRC. Hurray! That being said, we have about $1500 that we need to come up with in a pretty short time span. So we've got a big giveaway planned, as soon as I can get the details squared away. So stay tuned, gentle readers. :)

In day to day news, there are big changes going on in the Hanson household. Mr. Robby will be starting Kindergarten on Monday. As if that's not bad enough, he woke me up this morning with the news that he has his very first loose tooth, which he is excited to no end by. When, exactly, did my baby boy get to be so grown up? He and Ella spent the entire day creating Geo Trax around our computer room, and their big brother, ahem, I mean their daddy helped them create an entire Geo Town when he got home. It's pretty impressive, actually, and only got bigger and better after the picture was taken. I'd say it's almost twice as elaborate at this point. Craziness! Just ignore the dog hair on the floor-I didn't exactly vaccuum first.

Miss Ella is getting excited for dance classes, which she will hopefully start next month. It will be a combination of ballet, tap, and tumbling. I try not to bring it up often though, because she get very indignant when I tell her that it will be a couple weeks and not "Just One More Minute, Mommy."

So, again, come back soon for the big announcement of our fundraising giveaway. It's worth the wait!