Its Been A Long Time

Geez....it has been 3 months since I last posted to our blog.

As you may recall, David and I have always wanted to adopt from Vietnam but adoptions have been closed with the U.S. for a few years now.  Because of that we applied with Holt in hopes that Vietnam would open adoptions before the end of the year but not knowing for certain we began our process with the China program.

I am glad to say that on September 16, Vietnam officially opened adoptions with the U.S.!!  This is a dream come true for us.  All that we can do now is get our paperwork ready for our home study and then sit and wait until a match comes through.

We are getting close to Christmas now and we are in the holiday spirit in the Le household.  The boys can't wait to get the Christmas tree up and decorated.  It is the holiday season that gets me so emotional.  Makes me think.  I wonder about our daughter.  Is she born yet?  Is she safe and warm?  Is she cared for?  I want her to know that we are coming for her. I want her to know that she will have a family at Christmas time be it next Christmas or the year after, although I pray that it can be next Christmas.

Until my next post (which I promise will not be 3 months from now), stay safe and warm this Holiday Season.

Navigating Whole Foods On A Budget

This post is not adoption related in the least but another passion of mine is making sure that my family eats as clean and healthy as possible.  And since we are on a limited budget then we cannot afford to spend a lot of money on groceries or anything else for that matter.  I allow us $450 per month for groceries.  I hear all the time that organic and clean groceries are so expensive.  On that note, lets learn to navigate Whole Foods on a budget.

Whole Foods, Whole Paycheck! That’s how the saying goes, right?  That phrase always scared me away.  I’ve always been a Walmart kind of girl.  The meat and produce are always cheaper there. Why the need to go Wholefoods for my groceries?  

Then I started learning what was actually in that chicken breast that I was buying from Walmart or what was used to keep the pest away from those apples that my family had been consuming.  Eeeeek!  So the adventure to learn how I could keep my family healthy on a Walmart budget began.

First I will admit that eating cleaner and healthier can be a bit more expensive.  Eating fresh and not having packaged processed foods can seem intimidating, especially for busy moms.  But I am here to say that it can be done and I will show you how.

I shop on Saturdays because the hubby is home and that is the first available time I have without three kiddos in tow.   So on Saturday mornings I make a meal plan.  I try to keep meals as easy as possible.  The crock-pot can be a mom’s best friend.  I search Pinterest for easy meals and make my grocery list according to what I need for the next two weeks of meals.  I don’t’ want to go grocery shopping more than twice a month because each time that I go into a store I end up impulse shopping for things that I don’t need.  I only buy groceries at a grocery store.  Everything else that we buy we get online. 

I don’t buy everything organic.  There are only certain fruits and veggies that are highly contaminated with pesticides.  There is dirty dozen list provided by EWG.org of fruits and veggies that are the most contaminated so I buy those fruits and veggies are only bought if I can get them organic.  We eat lots of strawberries, apples, and potatoes in our house.  Those items are bought as organic.  We also eat lots of bananas and raspberries, but they are not on the dirty dozen lists so to save money we do not buy those items organic. 

I love animals and hate animal cruelty but I also love meat.  So my thought process is this….I want to eat the meat but I don’t want the animal that I am eating to have lived a horrible life or encountered a horrible death.  Whole Foods has a rating system for their meat and poultry.  The rating system is on their website, but basically WF rates all of their meat on a scale of 1-5 with 1 being animals raised with no crates and no cages and 5 being animals raised free roaming, outdoors on one farm their entire lives.  I buy meats with a rating of 4 meaning that the animal in which I have selected had been raised outdoors and was free to roam.   Oh, and the price of that meat is not that much more than I would have paid at Walmart.

Now for those prepackaged food families, you are in luck!  Whole Foods has a store brand called 365.  So just like Walmart has Great Value, Whole Foods has its  own brand as well.  I save tons of money by buying Whole Food’s generic brand over the more expensive brand name labels.  And with that I know that Whole Foods only has non-gmo plant derived ingredients in its brand.  So I do have breakfast bars in the pantry for the kids to eat and I can throw some mac n cheese together for a side dish with my organic meat.  They also have milk, butter, yogurt, etc.  Great Money Saver!!

Whole Foods also has a sales ad at their front entrances with coupons and specials for the week.  Grab one on your way in and save even more.  And if you are like me and you like to stock up on certain items, you can buy a case of your favorite product and WF will give you a 10% discount to boot.

So with a family of 5, I can manage to make my way through Whole Foods and buy what I need to feed my family on a budget of about $200 every 2 weeks.  Sometimes a little more and sometimes a little less, but I am here to say that it can be done.  Happy, healthy shopping!

Auction Happening Now

We are having our first "real" fundraiser on our adoption Facebook page right now ::squeal::! I'm so excited to get this going. Its an online auction. I have been promoting it for about 3 weeks now and we have a good amount of donations from some incredible vendors and bidding is happening.  If you have not taken a look at our adoption page on Facebook you can do that here.  This is where our online auction is taking place and where I post many of our updates or fundraisers and their statuses.  Go take a look around and bid on some awesomeness knowing that it is going to a great cause. 

Why are we adopting internationally?

This is and will be a question that gets asked of us for the rest of our lives. This is a debatable topic.  People want to know why we are adopting from another country instead of helping a child right here in our own city, state, country.

Everyone who adopts has a reason for why those chose their particular location or situation.  There is no right or wrong answer.  The right answer for one family maybe the wrong answer for another.

We don't feel like a child from our country is any less deserving of a family than a child born elsewhere. However, we personally would like to help a needy child which for us rules out private domestic adoption.  Typically, the babies involved in private domestic adoption have multiple families waiting to bring them home.  Their chances of finding a loving home are the highest of any adoptive child and they will be adopted right from birth with no time spent in foster care.

So why not adopt from foster care?  That has been something that we have researched and I still continue to research.  For our family, we feel like we are best suited for a child under the age of three because we have two 3 year olds now and we do not wish to adopt a child older than our oldest child who is 6.  This is more of a personal preference and what we feel would be best for our family.  Children who are available in foster care are typically older than 3.  Younger children are not typically available for adoption.  There are infants and young toddlers who are in the foster care system but they are usually only in state care temporarily and we would have to deal with the loss of that child if/when they are reunited with their families.  That is not something that, at this point, I am ready to deal with.  And while children in the U.S foster system do not have it easy by any means, they are typically better taken care of than most of the children who are in international orphanages and foster care.  They also do not age out until the age of 21 in some states, while internationally children age out as young as 13 years old.

Adopting internationally is what we feel we are called to do.  Adopting from another country suites our needs best.  We will be able to adopt a child under the age of 3 with little to no special needs.  We will be rescuing a baby from a life in an orphanage where they would spend most of their time in a crib because most orphanages are understaffed.  They become mentally and physically delayed in these environments.  Also, given that we are already a multi-cultural family we feel like bringing a child home from an Asian country would make our future child feel less like she is standing out in our family.  Our hearts are pulled toward Asia, mostly Vietnam but if that is not possible then we will likely be adopting from China.

Again, this is personal preference only.  Whatever, a family chooses for their route to adoption should not be criticized by someone else.  A child in need is a child in need no matter where they were born or who they were born too.  It should not matter where someone is adopting from, only that they are taking the opportunity to adopt.

For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God. So you have not received a spirit that makes you fearful slaves. Instead, you received God's Spirit when he adopted you as his own children. Now we call him, "Abba, Father."For his Spirit joins with our spirit to affirm that we are God's children.  Romans 8:14-16

Its back to school time

We are getting ready for back to school in our house.  School starts here next wednesday.  Hudson needs to get some structure and activities going.  He is so bored.  He play mine craft a ton, which is a newfound obsession favorite in our house.  If he plays, then his brothers want to play too.  I don't quite understand the concept so if someone could enlighten me that would be great.

Anywho, back to the topic at hand.  I like to buy everything online so usually my go to place is Amazon.com.  They have everything, usually have the best prices and when I order I can expect that I will have it at my doorstep in 2-3 days.

And what's even better....if you shop Amazon through my amazon associate link that Amazon will give a portion of you sale back to us to put into our adoption fund!!!

Here is the link.  Shop Away!

Shop Amazon - Back to School

I said to stay out of the rain

But do they listen?  Of course not.  Oh well....just a little summer shower to cool things off.

Coffee Grounds Recycled

Did you know that with all the coffee grounds that are thrown away every morning, something useful could come out of them instead.  In our house we all about recycling items that can be recycled into something else useful. Just this morning David asked me to start saving all of the grounds that I have been throwing away.  Why yes! Yes I will!

We happen to have coffee fundraiser going on right now with Just Love Coffee.  For every 12 oz bag of coffee that you buy we get $5 toward our adoption fund.  They also have 8 oz bags, single cup servings, etc.  We are using our first bag now and love it.  We have the Costa Rican coffee.  Here is the link to our shop: https://justlovecoffee.com/and1

And here is a list of some useful ways to reuse those coffee grounds.

1. Deodorize the fridge
2. Clean pots and pans, perfect for those cast iron skillets
3. Plants that love acid will respond well to coffee in their soil
4. Repel snails from your garden
5. Use as an exfoliant - mix with vitamin E
6. Ant deterrent

And there are many more...just google it :)

Where does all that money go?

As most of you know and some of you may not know, adoption is quite expensive.  Did you know??  Well now you do.  We are looking at about $30,000 for this journey to our daughter.  Here is a breakdown of where some of  that $30,000 will go.  Of course there will be unexpected expenses as well.  What does cost mean when you want so badly to give a little girl a forever family.  I would pay this amount over and over for any of my children.

Application - $300 paid

Technology Fee- $250 paid

Adoption Education Classes -$150 paid

Homestudy Fee - $ 2000 plus .52/mile

USCIS Application - $1000

U.S. Processing Fee -$3500

Adoption Program Fee - $15,000 (not a typo) that is 15 thousand

Travel cost - ~$10,000

Placement Fees - $2000 plus mileagae

Paperwork, paperwork, and more paperwork

It is never ending and it is just now beginning.  Luckily I have a very organized husband so all of the info needed for the paperwork is close by and I don't have to do much digging.

One of the items needed by our adoption agency is a pic of all of us.  Much easier said than done.  Trying to get all three boys to look at the camera at the same time and smile is no small feat.  This is the one that we ended up sending.
It was the best shot of all of us.  Blah!  We'll try again soon but for now this one will have to work for now.

We are officially in the Holt Adoption System

I got an email today saying that the intake has finished processing our app and we are in the China program.  Now starts the fun stuff.  Training courses, gathering paperwork, deciding what medical needs we will accept.
I guess I should talk to our ped. to see what her thoughts are on all these special needs that we could encounter and if we think we are capable of caring for these children.
I am excited and emotional about the whole process.  Its scary and joyful at the same time.  Can't wait to see where this journey takes us.

One step at a time

I talked to the adoption representative at Holt International today.  She just confirmed the worries that I already have.  Vietnam may or may not open by the end of the year and the needs of the children are not certain nor are the ages or if we would even qualify.  So many unknowns.

The only option right now is China.  So the next step is a home study to make sure that we are capable of taking care of a child ;).  We can begin that process and then hope that Vietnam opens up sooner rather than later or we can just decide to go with China.

If we decide to go with China then we may wait a little while anyway because we are wanting to adopt a girl and there are more people wanting girls right now than there are people wanting boys.  Which kind of makes me sad anyway.  This could put us at another 6 mos out which would mean about 2 years before we area able to travel to China and come back home with a baby girl.

I guess we just take one step at a time.

Our first fundraiser

We are starting our first fundraiser to help with the funds to bring home our daughter. I love this fundraiser because it not only helps us but also helps Haitian parents to care for their children who may have otherwise been adopted out due to poverty.  The organization that helps these parents is apparentproject.com.  The jewelry is made out of cereal boxes and other recycled material.  I am incredibly impressed by the craftsmanship of each piece.  I just love this organization and what they are doing in Haiti.

Please support us and this organization by purchasing a bracelet.  Each bracelet is $9.50 including shipping.  They are each different and unique.  Send me an email including your paypal email address and I will get one shipped to you asap.  Thanks so much for your support.

Let The Journey Begin!!

We have decided on an agency and the application has been sent.  I have gotten the agreement notarized and will be mailing it out on Monday. It will take 2-3 business days for the agency to review the application and we still need to decide on a country but at least the first step is finished. The journey officially begins today.  The journey to our baby girl! I am so nervous and I know David must be too.  All the uncertainties!

I will update when we know more about what country we choose.  For now the application is done and now we proceed to the next step.

Welcome

Welcome to our corner of the inter webs! Some of you may know this by now but most do not.
WE ARE ADOPTING!!!!  This is something that David and I have hoped to do even before we got married.  We always said we would have 2 bio kids and adopt one.  Little did we know that God had different plans for the amount of bio children we would be blessed with.  I love my three boys with all of my being but I have always little princess.  So we are starting our journey to find here.

We haven't decided on a country yet.  Our first choice has been Vietnam but we are starting to think otherwise now.  Vietnam is currently closed to the United States but will likely open again towards the end of the year.
There are quite a few uncertainties that come along with Vietnam until they actually reopen adoptions with the U.S.  Not sure if they will only be allowing adoptions of older children or if younger children with specials needs will also be adopted out.  So with the unknown of when Vietnam will open and also who will be available for adoptions, we are thinking that we may have to consider another country. China possibly!
The first step if we rule out Vietnam would be to decide on an agency.  Hopefully we can come to an agreement and make that decision asap.