Thankful Hearts

With Thanksgiving just behind us and much food consumed, friends and family around the table, laughter and stories told, we press forward.  I love Thanksgiving. I love family that flies down from New York to be with us, I love friends; new and old who come and share food and stories with us. What a great time! As I recently read on an Aussie friend’s FB, “How come we Aussies have embraced your Halloween and not your Thanksgiving?”.  Good question, a very good question. I know, I know, it goes back to the founding of this country, but surely we can hijack it – there is plenty of other ‘American-ness’ that we steal. Maybe one day.

The adoption process continues to move forward. We are still in the process of getting ready for the Homestudy. With plenty of paperwork already submitted, plenty more still needs to be gathered and provided. As part of the process we also need to complete Hague Adoption Training which requires us to read three books and interview a couple who have already adopted. One of the books I read is called ‘Are Those Kids Yours?’.  A very interesting read that helped me think through how our family will be changed with adopted children from another country. I actually love the thought of an American-Australian- Besothian family…and a Colombian-born dog! Who knows how it is all going to work.  Cam and I are still working out the whole American-Australian thing. J

Our hope is to have all the paperwork in by the first couple weeks in December and then hoping that we can get our first Homestudy appointment completed before the end of the year.

We have been super encouraged with all the t-shirts purchased. I am really excited to start wearing mine and the thought that people in the United States, Australia, Colombia and Singapore (and we are still working on South Africa) wearing them definitely makes me smile. Thank you for all of you who have purchased or made a donation through Bonfire, we are so grateful to each of you. There are still 6 days left before the t-shirts are printed and sent out, so if you want one there is still time. Just click on the t-shirt on our home page and you will be directed to the purchase page. Thank you! Thank you!

Our coffee fundraiser is also going off! Many of you have purchased coffee through our online store front via Just Love Coffee Roasters. Thank you!

In my last post I mentioned that the total adoption will cost approximately $40,000. In the short time we have started our blog we already have had $5,000 come in. Amazing, right? We are pretty excited and encouraged.   

Sing to God, sing in praise of his name,
    extol him who rides on the clouds;
    rejoice before him—his name is the Lord.
A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows,
    is God in his holy dwelling.
God sets the lonely in families,
    he leads out the prisoners with singing;
    but the rebellious live in a sun-scorched land.

                                                                       Psalm 68:4-6

Want to donate directly to Small World? Small World is a qualified 501c3 organization, donors will receive a tax deduction for these gifts so long as the memo states "for the child to be adopted by ‘Clausing’ family". Click on http://smallworldadoption.com/faq-2/payment-2/

Want to buy a t-shirt? Click on https://www.bonfirefunds.com/clausingadoption/?r=17312

Want to buy some coffee? Click on https://justlovecoffee.com/about/beneficiary/clausingadoption/

Thanks for sharing this journey with us. Until next time…

Taryn (& Cam)

Crunch Time

Thank you for all the love that filtered through different channels in response to the ‘breaking’ news of the beginning of our adoption process. We are so thankful for so many friends and family scattered all over the globe. Thankful – yes indeed!

Some of you are more familiar with the adoption process than others so for those who are not really sure about the process allow me to fill you in. Once you have been accepted with an adoption agency you can move forward to arrange and pay for a Homestudy. The Homestudy with Small World Adoption agency is priced at $2,800 and consists of four appointments with the first one being in your home. As the director of Small World told us they just need to make sure that you live where you say you live J.  Over the course of the four appointments we anticipate being asked many questions about who we are, our marriage, reasons for adopting and a myriad of others. Once we receive our Homestudy we will then begin the real ‘paperwork’ party (a.k.a the Dossier). This is the major packet of documents that is prepared for the Lesotho government. After the Dossier has been sent to Lesotho it really is a waiting game until we receive a referral which is the actual names and photos of the two children being referred to us. If we accept the referral, more paperwork comes and at some point the adoption becomes finalized. Once we hear that it is finalized we are free to travel to Lesotho to meet our two little ones and are free to return home with them. We are required to stay in Lesotho for 14 days with our children to ensure we familiarize ourselves with Lesotho culture. Easy right? Well this process could take up to 2 years so we are in for a wait.

The final cost of adopting two infants from Lesotho is approximately $40,000 (gulp). The encouraging thing is that we don’t need $40,000 all at once so we can gather the funds little by little. Once we have a completed Homestudy we should be eligible for a number of grants so we are hoping these will be a major part of our cost but we will also be conducting a variety of fundraisers that we are hoping will help us with the cost. We have already been blown away with the generosity of others. Our newly established fund at Small World already has $4,000 in it which means that we were able to pay for the Homestudy and really get the ball rolling. WOW!  Thank you for those who were so quick off the mark to help us – we are humbled and grateful.

Personally, I think the most overwhelming aspect thus far is trying to figure out what fundraising we should do and when. I have so many ideas, but thinking about what we should do and when really starts to do my head in. I have a few large fundraisers in mind (watch this space) and some smaller ones already on the go. Not many people actually enjoy asking for financial support, myself included, but I have had to come to the realization that in order for us to reach the $40,000 that we need our community of friends and family to help us – big or small.

Here are two of our newest and smallest fundraising campaigns that are all go:

1.       JUST LOVE ROASTERS. Some of you have seen recent FB posts of ours that include that beautiful aroma of coffee. If you haven’t watched the video about this company can I urge you to spend a couple of minutes to watch it and see just how they have designed their company. The short of it is that you get great coffee (Cam approved) and part of the proceeds goes toward our adoption fund. Check out the video here https://justlovecoffee.com/ and then head to our storefront at https://justlovecoffee.com/about/beneficiary/clausingadoption/ to buy some coffee. They also have some other great stuff all things related to coffee that you can purchase. How about thinking who you could buy some of these things for Christmas?

2.      

      Our newest Fundraiser are personalized t-shirts that you can purchase and again, part of the proceeds go toward our adoption fund. We absolutely love the t-shirt and think it certainly captures the heart of adoption. We need to sell 50 t-shirts before any of them are sent out so again, share the word and buy a t-shirt. If any Australians want a t-shirt, email or FB message me and we can arrange a bulk shipment. Go to https://www.bonfirefunds.com/clausingadoption/?r=17312 today to buy your shirts.

Thank you for walking with us. Thank you for supporting us. I will keep you updated once we have the Homestudy booked in. Until we meet again…

With gratitude,

Taryn (& Cam)