Our adoption is nearing its final stages. We wait to hear about our court date and to make our plans to travel to Ethiopia. Now a court date means paying to travel to Ethiopia and that takes money - more money than we have. Dottie and I were starting to worry because we have yet to hear if we received any grants and fundraising has come to a halt (there are only so many times you can beg people for money).
As our worries mounted we were surprised Saturday to receive an unexpected donation from a family who has not only already donated considerably, but has also done a tremendous amount of work to help us in our fundraising efforts.
Then this evening there was a knock on the door by a family who were looking for the pastor of the church next door. Now if you are a pastor living in the parsonage next door to the church and someone comes knocking on a Sunday night looking for you, well, you begin to worry. It turns out that this was a family who are friends of another family who heard about our adoption. These people, that we had never met, dropped by to hand us a check to help out with our adoption.
Sometimes, I even amaze myself that I worry at all. Let me just say it, God is good.
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"Do not be afraid, for I am with you; I will bring your children from the east and gather you from the west." Isaiah 43:5 (NIV)
AWAA
About Us
- The Raymers.
- We are John and Dottie. We have 5 kids: Hannah, Abel, Joshua, Feromsa, and Bereket. This is our blog about our lives.
Timeline and Cost
- Here you can find a posted a listing of all of our adoption expenses that are paid and are yet to be paid.
- *Note* AWAA program fees are reduced because John is an associate for AWAA.
- 1-13-10 AWAA Application Fee $250.00- PAID
- 2-3-10 First program fee* $250- PAID
- 3-8-10 Fingerprinting $830- PAID
- Birth Certificates, etc. $70- PAID
- Fingerprints for NC $10.00 PAID
- NC SBI Background Check $30.00 - PAID
- Physicals for everyone $150.00 - PAID
- Homestudy $1800 PAID
- Authentication of out of state documents $40.00 - PAID
- Post-placement fees $1050 - PAID
- 4-13-10 Fingerprint appointment with USCIS
- 4-21-10 Home study complete and in hand
- 4-22-10 Referral!
- 4-28-10 I-171 arrived!
- 4-28-10 Program fee ($250), 1/2 International Program fee ($3,750), Post-placement admin. fee ($385) Total of $4385 PAID
- ????- Agency mid-payment fee ($2000), Translation/Authentication fee ($800), Post-placement deposit ($1,000), Courier fee ($150), 1/2 International fee ($3750) Total $7700
Ethiopia
Addis Ababa |