A Little Adoption Humor

You Know You're Adopting When...

• You keep an extra copy of your dossier in your car just in case the house burns down.
• You stalk the mail person on a regular basis.
• You feel more connected to other adoption bloggers than you do to some members of your extended family.
• You’ve had more yard sales this year than you have had in your entire life.
• You are now on a first name basis with the employees at USCIS.
• You worry about, dream about, and are completely in love with a child you have never met.
• Your heart skips a beat when the phone rings.You have given your Case Manager a special ringtone on your cell phone (AGCI loves this one!).                                ~Provided by AGCI

Our New Year Wait List Numbers!

Baby Boy Siblings (3 months-3 yrs old)

*We jumped 5 spots this month!
And yes, that is the 24 TV show logo :-) 

Baby Boy (3 months-12 months)
* We jumped 3 spots this month!

God is in Control!!!

Our Merry Christmas December Wait List Numbers!

Baby Boy Siblings (3 months-3 yrs old)
Yay! We have officially entered the 20's!

 

  Baby Boy (3 months-12 months)
We jumped so many spots on the boy list last month and only 1 spot this month! The wait list is very unpredictable at times but we take hope knowing that our God is in control of this list and we will bring home our baby(s) at the exact time He has chosen!

Our November Waitlist Numbers!

           Baby Boy Siblings (3 months-3 yrs old)

 

Baby Boy (3-12months old)

Firetruck quilts for our babies!!!

Grandma Bennett made two beautiful firetruck quilts for her soon-to-be great grandbaby boy(s)! She presented them to Andrew and I during our Thanksgiving celebration today!

THANK YOU GRANDMA! 

We love them!

Thank you for helping "change" a child's life!

We wanted to give a BIG thanks to all of you who donated your spare change to our baby bottle fundraiser! We finally took all the change to the bank today to get deposited. After counting thousands of coins (with over 3,000 in pennies), the grand total came to:

$725.43!!!

With this money we were able to pay for the U.S immigration fees for our child  to come home!

Waiting...

Our journey continues and the lessons in patience seem to grow. We are excited to be done with our dossier and waiting for a referral! Our waiting list numbers can't get small enough fast enough! We knew this process would take time but it seem so much longer and slower as we get closer to bringing our baby(ies) home. We are thankful for all the prayers and support we have received through the process. Megan is getting ready to finish her RN and I am continuing my studies while we wait. I am thankful for the distractions to help us pass the time. I know that we will be on a plane headed to Ethiopia before we know it!

As a soon to be Father I can’t help but be a little anxious but mostly excited! I know that there will be challenges and many more lessons for me as this is all new to me. I am thankful for an amazing wife who is more than ready for a baby! I know we will be able to handle the challenges and I can’t wait to share the joys that will come with being a parent! 

We will continue to keep everyone updated as we hear more. We are grateful for your continued prayers for the right baby(ies) in the right time!

Andrew

NOTE: Megan has decorated the baby room and it looks great and the only thing missing is the baby(ies)! Click here for pictures!

Seattle AIDS Walk/5k Run Sept. 25th 2010!

Everybody needs their very own Adoption T-shirt! ;-)

We have several adoption T-shirts left over from the 1/2 marathon "run for a child" fundraiser! We payed $6.50 each for them so we are just wanting to sell them for that amount or for your donation! All proceeds will of course go towards our adoption fund! We have all sizes left! Just email us at: Megandrew7@gmail.com and we will get one to you!

This is the fun part!

I have had so much fun the past few weeks going to garage sales every Friday morning and cruising Craigslist for baby stuff! It has been amazing to see the kinds of deals I have been finding! The whole nursery is full of used baby items that were either given to us by friends, family and sometimes random people, or found at garage sales and Craigslist! We have bought nothing new! God is so good and has really been blessing us through others.

It's funny how the mention of our adoption at a garage sale influences the seller to lower the price. It usually goes like this: I am looking around at the cute baby boy clothes and ask "how much for this baby sleeper?" "All the clothes are $2 a piece" says the seller in a very matter of fact tone. She then asks "how old is your baby?" I respond with a smile, "Well, I'm not quite sure." Of course my response usually is followed by a disturbed look on that mother's face as she is probably thinking of what a horrible mother I must be not to know my child's age. I then go on to explain that we are adopting a baby and do not know the age as of yet. "oh...(sigh of relief on mother's face) that is wonderful!" I say the usual thank you and yes we are excited. As I continue to look through the baby clothes the mother says "how about 3 for a $1 in instead of $2 a piece?"
I don't mind paying full price for items, especially garage sale full prices but it is so nice to see how God blesses us in even the little things!

Help "Change" a child's life!

Help “change” a child’s life by donating your spare change!

All funds will go towards helping us bring home our adopted baby from Ethiopia!

Please let us know by email if you would be willing to fill up a baby bottle with your spare coins or dollar bills!

Our goal is to collect all the bottles by August 31st! 

This is our last adoption fundraiser before we bring our baby home!

Thank you so much for your support!

Andrew & Megan Charvet

megandrew7@gmail.com

 

Hurry up and wait!

Well, I have not posted in awhile so thought it is time for an update. Things have been really busy lately. I started a new nursing job working full time nights and I also work part time at the hospital too! All the funds from the nursing job are going straight into our adoption fund! Andrew is working full time plus part time school as well!

Since the possibility of adopting two babies, we needed to add several thousand dollars to the funds we need to raise. With working overtime shifts, applying for a grant, doing the baby bottle fund raiser and PRAYER, we are confident that God will provide the necessary funds we need to bring are babies home!!!

So many people have been asking where we are in our adoption process. Well, we had a couple setbacks that were quite frustrating but we know that God has a perfect plan and timing. Our adoption case worker had to leave the state in an emergency before she finished our home study. We waited for a while and then AGCI said that they would go ahead and move the process along despite the undone home study. We sent in our dossier last week and we have a couple changes that we need to make in the next couple days then we are officially on the wait list! Our wait list will be very short due to our adoption of a special needs child so once the agency begins looking for a child for us, it shouldn't take too long before we travel to Ethiopia!

During this wait time we are working a lot, spending time together and getting our babies' room ready! We have decided to do a fire truck theme so we are adding decor as we find it at garage sales and Craigslist!

Please keep us in your prayers as we wait! It is much more difficult than I anticipated. Unlike a pregnancy, we do not have a "due date" and things are very uncertain. Are we getting one child or two? What will their ages be? What will their backgrounds be? Will they be very sick? Will we get to meet the birth mother or will she have passed from AIDS? So many questions and uncertainties. Please pray that God will give us peace and patience.
Thank you!

                                                   Our baby room under construction!

Run for a child May 30th 2010!

Well, we did it! We all ran/walked the 1/2 marathon & 10k to raise money for our adoption! The trail was a lot harder than we all anticipated with steep muddy hills, rocky terrain and small creeks to cross! We are so proud of everyone, it was not an easy feat! Thanks to all the participants and all who prayed for us, cheered for us. For our camera crew, and for all our sponsors! THANK YOU!!!

  

This is the group of runners minus a few who were not there yet!

                                    Getting all warmed up and ready!

                                                                    Yay Molly!!!

 

And Todd making it look easy with an incredible running time!

                                                Bryan & Karin! You guys are amazing!

                                               Jo and his battle wound from the trail!

                                 Jing-Ping with a "I'm so glad this is over" smile on her face!

                                                       My Amazing Mother!!!

                                             Andrew, Megan & Sara!

                                                            Peter Andrews and family!

Praying for two...and yes the rumors are true!

Andrew and I have been thinking and praying a lot in double lately! We feel like God has recently lead us to possibly adopt a sibling group instead of just one child. We spoke to our social worker about it during our last home study visit and she thought it was a great idea!

By now you may be wondering why two? Why would they want the extra hassle of buying two of everything, having two crying and screaming children riding back with them on a 36 hour travel from Ethiopia, or paying the extra fees in order to bring home a second child? We say, why not? With double cribs, highchairs and medical bills also comes double joys! Are reasons for requesting two children (besides the fact that we feel God's leading) are as follows:
     First, we know that the transition from leaving the orphanage in Ethiopia, perhaps the only home our child has ever known will certainly be easier if he or she has a sibling to share the experience with. Everything they know will be unfamiliar to them, including us, so having one familiar person in their life will aid in the transition to a life with their forever family!
      Secondly, we know that we want to adopt more than one child at a time because from a financial standpoint, it is much more cost effective to spend a few thousand for a second child now than another $30,000 a couple years down the road. Also, if we adopt a second time, we have to complete ALL the paperwork over again and that is not something I want to do again anytime soon (although it is totally worth it and I would do it again in a heartbeat :-)
      Thirdly, there is a greater need for families to adopt sibling groups. They usually fall into the 'waiting children' category along with kids with special medical needs, and older children.

We don't know if God will for sure bless us with siblings but we are excited for the possibilities! whether one or two, we know God has a perfect plan for our little family and I can't wait to see it all unfold! Please pray that we can get the last several thousand dollars we still need and that the rest of the process will continue to go smoothly!

Hannah's Hope in Addis Ababa!

                          This is where our baby/babies will be staying when we go to pick them up!

Adoption Garage Sale Success!!!

WOW! Our garage sale went amazingly well last weekend! Despite the occasional rainy weather, we had a huge turn out with many customers. People were so great and would tell us to keep the change after buying something. My favorite customers were the ones that would bargain us down on an item they wanted and would then give a donation that was more than the money they saved from bargaining! I guess it made them feel better to get a good deal and donate to our cause! People are funny.

A BIG thanks to the Partsch family, specifically Susan, John, Ashlyn & Grandma, the Charvet family, Genie, Kelvin, Mary & Paul, Shelly Stern, Emily Savage, the Jewett family, and to all the many people that donated so many items so that the fundraiser could be such a HUGE success! THANK YOU!

Are you ready to hear the total?.......Drum roll please............

$2900 (approx) !!! WOW! This is unheard of for a garage sale! That is enough for two round trip tickets to Ethiopia! Praise the Lord!

Need Bake Sale goodies:)

Hey Everyone! My little sister Ashlyn is in charge of the bake sale at our adoption garage sale this Friday & Saturday! Is anyone willing to bake their favorite pan of brownies or cookies to donate for a good cause? Please let us know if you are and thank you!!!

H.R. 213: Adoption Tax Relief Guarantee Act of 2009 (GovTrack.us)

H.R. 213: Adoption Tax Relief Guarantee Act of 2009 (GovTrack.us)

Adoption Garage Sale & Bake Sale!!1 May 21st-22nd

Come visit us at our Adoption Garage Sale and Bake Sale on May 21st-22nd! It will be held at our friend's house in Renton. We have so many great items donated by multiple families! We would love it if you would stop by for a visit, come help out, or perhaps go shopping! :-) There will be an amazing bake sale as well as Italian sodas for everyone to enjoy while they shop! The sale is at the Jewett's house: 18113 141st AVE SE, Renton WA 98058!