MAY FUNDRAISER!!! ALL OF MAY!!!!

We are doing another fundraiser throughout the month of May.  It is a ThirtyOne fundraiser being hosted by Jennifer Webster.  Please click on the link below to begin shopping!  Jennifer is donating 100% of her commission to our fundraising efforts!

http://www.mythirtyone.com/shop/catalog.aspx?eventId=E1694455&from=DIRECTLINK

Long day and a mistake I hope doesn't come back to haunt me!

So today, as expected, was a really long day.  I got Jaz to school at 715 and then made copies of the dossier docs and waited for the post office to open.  I get over there, get all my envelopes in order....a Priority one for the State Certifier's office; inside that went an Express envelope addressed to There's Always Hope in Chicago, and inside THAT was all the stuff needed for authentication AND another Express airbill for Denise Hope to send the docs back to me.  So i was so proud of myself for keeping it all straight; right??  Later, I'm watching my kids play their ball games, and it hits me:  I forgot to do tracking or delivery confirmation on the entire packet going from my town to KC!  So if it gets lost, I'm sunk.....I hope and pray nothing happens to it just going that short distance.  Staying up as late as I did last night is NOT a good idea!

James' team lost one game, won one; Jessica's team won 2 out of 3 and got 2nd in the tournament; yay!  Jessica herself got two great hits and eventually got home to add her run to the game.  She's had a lot of trouble hitting, so it was great to see!  Jazmin had a choir festival at 2:30, so I drove to Harrisonville to see her, then we came back to Leeton to watch the older girls' final game, which they won 20 to 2!  Never eaten so much junk food in my life, it seems!

Finally got home around 8pm and I am soooo tired!  I did exactly what I planned, my feet are up and relaxing, but I can hardly keep my eyes open.  A much less busy day planned for tomorrow (other than grocery shopping to feed the "critters").

Paperwork, ugghh!

It's 1:30 in the morning on Saturday and what am I doing?  I've spent the last 3 hours getting my dossier docs ready to send to the State Secretary's office, then they will be sent immediately to a courier, There's Always Hope, in Chicago.  She will walk them into the Consulate and leave them to be authenticated, a big, long word that basically means they put a page with a China seal on it, charge $20 a page, and the courier comes to get it.  THEN, she will send it back to me, upon whench I will make copies of all said documents, and whisk it off to our agency.  So I had to make sure I had a list of what goes in what envelope and who gets what!!   IN THE MEANTIME, our I-800A was received TODAY in the lockbox.  I spoke with 2 different officers at NBC today and they said to call back next week and see if we can expedite the fingerprint notice (we just need the piece of paper, then we can walk in before the actual appt they give us).  We HAVE to get fingerprinted before May 18th, because Jr's co-worker is getting married, and will be gone for two weeks!  There will be NO WAY he can take off to go up to KC, so keep your fingers and toes crossed that I can finaggle that notice next week!
Here's a funny story (it is now, but wasn't earlier today).  I called NBC (Nat'l Benefits Center) and they couldn't find us in the system....I was freaking out because I got my dates mixed up and thought our I-800A went LAST week, not THIS week.  YuPing at WACAP got me straightened out, and I called the officer at NBC back and apologized about getting the dates wrong!  He was very nice; wow, such a difference from 2009.  It is sooo nice to talk to a real person anywhere anymore!
I also had another grant application to get ready.  On top of that, I have to have Jazmin at school at 7:15 for a choir event in Harrisonville, softball/baseball games at 9am and throughout the day, and then have to get to Harrisonville for Jaz's end-of-day concert.
I think I will come home tomorrow night, plop on my couch, and just go to sleep right there!
I will be so happy when the dossier goes to China; that's always a nice "breather"!

I-800A sent FINALLY!

I am happy to report our I-800A went out yesterday; the USCIS should have had it today as we had our agency Express it to the lockbox in Dallas.  My understanding of the new process is that (get this), it goes from here to Dallas, then BACK to Lee's Summit!  Is that not crazy??  But it is Hague and this is our first Hague adoption; the first two were non-Hague.  Once it hits Lee's Summitt, we get an officer assigned.  However, I plan to call as soon as I get my receipt and get our fingerprint notice expedited, so we can hightail it up to KC North and get our fingerprints done.  Have to get all this accomplished by May 18th as one of Jr's co-worker's is off from May 21-30 and he won't be able to get off.  So keeping our fingers crossed for good luck!  In the meantime, I'm sending our dossier docs for certification and authentication so once we have immigration approval, all the other docs will be at our agency ready to go. 
We are continuing to fundraise to match our LifeSong grant; if you feel led to help bring Lucky home, please go to: http://www.lifesongfororphans.org/donation.html and put "CAVENDER #2792" in the Purpose line; thank you and God Bless!

Link for LifeSong donations

Here is a link to the LifeSong donation page...remember, if you use this link, not only do we get closer to matching our grant, but YOU get a tax deduction as well! God Bless and thank you for helping Lucky come home!

http://www.lifesongfororphans.org/donation.html

Choose your method of donation and reference "CAVENDER #2792" in the Purpose section (Paypal) or memo line (check).

Many Blessings Today!!

We have received great news today! LifeSong has granted us an $1100 matching grant! What that means is that amount of money must be received by LifeSong in donations for us in order to "activate" the grant! You can either go to www.lifesongfororphans.org, click on the "Give" tab and then donate in whichever way you like (check, Paypal, etc.) You will need to indicate our account: CAVENDER #2792 in the memo or comment section. Or click on the "Donate" button to the right! (But if it doesn't work, follow the previous instructions!). Please help us get one step closer to bringing Lucky home; it's only 100 people giving $11! Thank you for your support!

We also received a wonderful video of Lucky today; see it here! He's the tall, skinny one in the purple shirt.

FUNDRAISER ALERT!!

Lia Sophia Online and Home Party 6 pm tonight!!!

Lia Sophia Fundraiser!
April 16th 6pm - April 18, 12am
Adoption Jewelry Party; Help us bring our son home!
Directions for Placing an Online Order:
1. http://sites.liasophia.com/sites/lisariportella/catalog-intro
2. Type hostess' name: Jenni Padgett
3. Have fun shopping and place the order!

Wait! If you do not want to purchase jewelry, you can still make a donation! Just click on the "Chipin" on the right side of our blog.
Thank you so much for your support of our journey and thank you to Jennifer Padgett for hosting this for us!