Miscellaneous News

Adoption Update

Happy New Year!!!  The New Year has made me even more excited about bringing Gabi home.  I think because 2013 is the year she is coming home (God willing)!  Before 2012 was over we completed a couple more steps to complete our paperwork and get it sent to China.  Our documents were verified by the Secretary of State in Springfield, and then we drove them to a courier in Channahon who will hand deliver them to the Chinese Consulate in Chicago tomorrow.  Then next Thursday she will pick them up, overnight them to us and will then send all of our paperwork to WACAP for them to check over and send to China! Whew!  We are also starting our research on China and are starting to practice our sign language. 

Fundraising

I also wanted to share will all of you two fundraisers we have had already.  The first was an amazing Hot Air Balloon Fund Raiser.  Hank and Aissa Norris spent an evening giving our friends and family tethered balloon rides.  Many people were able to check this off their bucket list and help us raise money to rescue Gabi.  It was wonderful and we were blessed by so many people.  Thank you again!

The second fundraiser was selling peanut brittle and homemade noodles at our churches annual bazaar.  Andy and I helped by grandparents make the peanut brittle and they made the noodles for us.  We had a great afternoon with my grandparents and got a refresher course on making peanut brittle.  Again, thank you for supporting us and we hope everyone enjoyed their homemade goodies.

Praises

The adoption tax credit was made permanent, and will help many families with adoption costs.  This credit will not be refundable so will not benefit everyone; we can continue to pray and talk to our legislators about the need for it to be refundable.  Another part of the adoption tax credit is that we can exclude from our income adoption expenses paid by an employer.  This is awesome news for us because starting in 2013 Caterpillar is giving a $5000 adoption credit on qualifying expenses once our adoption is finalized.

We are excited to see what 2013 has in store for our family and yours! Happy New Year!!!  P.S. If you have a few extra dollars left over from Christmas and would like to help us rescue Gabi we added a donate button to the side of this page.