A little update

Lots of exciting things have happened since I last posted so I thought I should write a little update.

Paperwork Update:

Two weeks ago we received the long awaited LOA (Letter of Acceptance) for John Thomas. This is a very important piece of paper as it finally gives us a basic idea of when we might travel. We won't know our exact travel dates until aproximately 2 weeks before we must travel, but most people travel 8-10 weeks AFTER they receive their LOA. If this is true for us, then we will travel sometime in May. There is still some uncertainty here though, because we have not received Julia's LOA. Hopefully we will be getting that very soon so that their paperwork can be put together and we will be able to travel in May.

After we got our LOA we had to fill out about 763 more pieces of paperwork that were sent to USCIS After that...lots of other steps have to happen before we get our actual travel dates, but honestly, I can't tell you what they all are. These steps are new to me and very confusing, but they are necessary now because of the Hague Treaty (which was not in effect when we did YouYou's paperwork). I'm okay with not knowing the steps at this point because they are all out of my hands, and for the most part, I don't have a free minute to worry about them because there is so much else going on!

Questions:

There are some questions that several people have been asking recently so I thought I might answer them here.

Will you travel to get the two children at the same time? Yes, that is the plan. Because we were matched with Julia at the time we were, we will be able to make one trip and get both children. We will fly to Beijing first to do a little bit of sight seeing. Then, because John Thomas's province (Shaanxi)  is south of Beijing but north of where Julia is, I assume we will fly to get him first. Then a few days later, we will fly a little further south to Chongqing to get her. Then a few days after that we will fly further south to Guangzhou to complete the U.S. side of the adoption.

Are the two new children brother and sister? Well, they are not biological siblings, but they WILL be brother and sister.

What do the other children think? Our children are so very excited about their new brother and sister. I think they are happy to be getting a boy and a girl. They talk about them every day. I can tell YouYou's little mind is working because several times she has said things like, "I wonder what it will be like when my brother and sister get here." We do anticipate things to be difficult and there will be a transition time for everyone...but we are praying for the hearts of all five children.

Financial Update:

We continue to be blown away at how God is providing for this adoption. We have been blessed with so many friends and family who are supporting us.

We recently had a Thirty One auction which was organized by our friend Cheryl. She auctioned off several of her bags and donated the profits to us. In one week, this auction put $575 in our adoption account! Praise the Lord! Thank you to Cheryl and everyone who bid and won those items. Just last week, my mom, sister, and Cheryl got together and organized a quick Thirty One party to help even more. In just a few days they have sold $1000 in product. Because of Cheryl's commission, her matching donation, and another anonymous matching donation, we will be getting 75% of the amount sold. This is amazing!

Another way God has provided financially is through our friend Kristie, who has taught her children how to make paracord bracelets. They have been selling the bracelets (and emergency whistles) and have given us $150 towards our adoption. Thank you Kristie and thank you everyone who has purchased a bracelet from her. Kristie, and another friend, are also organizing a small talent show with our home school group as a fundraiser. This will take place in a few weeks. What a blessing!

Our adopt together account continues to be a blessing as well. I can't even list all the people who have contributed in that way but you can go take a look if you would like (http://adopttogether.org/thehammonds). There have been small donations...and very large ones. We are grateful for each and every one!

What is coming up?

Well, the next fundraiser will be an online auction. I am working on setting up a blog for this. Each item will be listed as a separate post and the bidding will take place through the comments. The auction will run for one week, and then when it ends the person with the highest bid will win the item. Some of the items will be delivered or shipped by me, and others will be shipped by the person or company who donated the item. I hope to have this ready by the end of this week. Here is a link to the auction blog...http://anauctionfortwo.blogspot.com. Although there isn't anything on the blog yet, you can go ahead and sign up to be a follower if you would like notifications when items are added. Or, you can just bookmark the blog and check it at the end of this week. I have had some really great donations so it should be fun! Again, we have been amazed at the people willing to donate items to help us. Thank you all!!

On April 5th, we will be having a fundraiser with Panda Express. Very soon, I will be getting a flyer from them and sharing it with everyone I know :) If you take the flyer to the Panda Express on University Drive in Huntsville and eat there on April 5th sometime between 12 pm and 10 pm then we will receive 20% of the price of your meal! It is simple and yummy!!

And finally, I don't know the exact date, but we will be having a yard sale in April. Our church is allowing us to use their parking lot for this...which is wonderful! We are accepting donations and we can take them any time because our church is also giving us some storage space. So if you need to do some Spring cleaning we will gladly take your stuff off of your hands! We really need items because we sold most of our junk in our first yard sale awhile back.

Whew...I think that is all! Organizing all of these fundraisers is like a full time job...but it is so worth it! Thank you, thank you, thank you for your support. I cannot wait to hold these children and whisper to them about how many people love them and have worked hard to bring them into our family.

Oh...actually, I guess I need to thank a few more people! Did you hear that we are going to be on TV? Well, it is the craziest of all crazy stories. About 25 of my sorority sisters have been scheming for over a month. It was a total surprise and I cannot believe that many girls kept a secret that long!! This past Thursday, we learned about their little scheme when 6 of them showed up at our house with a television crew. Oh my word, was I ever glad that I had at least been given warning to put on make up! We were chosen to receive WHNT Channel 19's Pay It Forward donation ($319). The segment will air on Monday night at 10 pm and then it will be available on their web page. Aaron and I both hope that God will receive the glory for the great work He has done in our hearts through adoption. The fact that these ladies, most of which I don't even see on a regular basis and many of which I haven't even seen since college, would organize this to bless us is just so very special. Thank you girlies!


I guess that wasn't really a "little" update. Sorry about that :)

More coming soon...