For family and friends to share our journey through the adoption process and beyond, for our child that is somewhere, out there.
This past week there was a downpour of referrals. 6 in all. 5 boys and 1 girl. We are now 66 on the list, I believe. There was also some courtdates that were given. Things finally seem to be moving again in the Ethiopia program.
I had to add the word verification to my comments, since I was getting spam in my comments. Just type the word and then you can post your comment. Hopefully this will help keep the spammers away.
Last week, I got an e-mail from our adoption consultant. Just checking in and updating us on our our position on the list. For a change, the number she gave was less than the number I had figured. I had thought we about #75 and she said we were #71. Almost out of the seventies. We're moving on down! Now we just need a splurge of referrals.
There was a referral of a 7 and a half year old girl and a waiting child was placed. So that brings us down 2 places to about 75. We're all hoping for a referrals to pour in soon. Usually once courts open, there are soon after, but courts are not opened full-time just yet. Their is quite a bit of training going on.
Yesterday, I stopped at CVS for just a couple items. If you bought $15 of Energizer batteries, you got $5 in Extra Value Bucks to use in a future purchase. So I bought 2 four packs of Lithium AA batteries. They also had buy one get one free on Almay blush. Without coupons and sales, everything would have come to over $46.00, but with the sales and the $10.00 in coupons, I saved $25.57 and only spent $21.57. Not a bad day for only 4 purchases.
I was looking at the Meijer One Day Sale items and was really excited to see that they have 3 lb. bags of honeycrisp apples for $1.99; I think I usually see honeycrisp apples going for $2.99 a pound.
I haven't shared any of my savings lately. Last week, I had a very successful CVS shopping trip. I bought the above, plus one more package of cotton swabs. Had I not bought the items on sale that I did, as well as without coupons it would have come to a little over $70.00. But along with sales, including 3 buy one, get one free items, 1 buy one, get 1 50% off and $15.25 in coupons, I ended up spending only $32.52 and I got $6 in extra value bucks that I can use next time. This week's sale ad looks pretty good and I'll try to put up a post to report my savings.
I can't believe it's been 2 months since I blogged. Courts were closed for part of August and most of September. due to the rainy season. Courts are now open, but there is training and stuff going on so they aren't totally back to normal yet. During the past couple months referrals were very slow, but the past 2 weeks saw about 6 referrals. Also, a few weeks ago I found out where on the list we were . I had figured we were further down the list than we really were, but there were/are 4 families ahead of us who are on hold, so until they get off hold, my guess of where we were on the list was close. I think we are about #77 on the list. Hopefully with courts having just opened, there will be referrals starting to roll in soon and I'll have more to blog about.
Just realized I forgot to report the good news that three referrals were given out a 4 1/2 month baby boy and 10 week and 4 1/2 month baby girls. So we should be down to about 81 on the list. So we are moving down the list; slowly it seems but surely I guess. We started out 2 1/2 months ago at #98 and as of today, we moved 17.
There were 2 referralks this week a 2-month baby girl and a sibling set of a 3 year old boy and his 3-month old sister. The families waited 12 and 16 months, respectively. So we now are about #84 on the waiting list. The family ahead of us in line were told about 10 more months. I think there request is for a 12-24-month old boy, while we are open to eith a girl or boy up to 18 months.
Currently, there are 60 families in Home Study/Dossier stage, 96 families waiting to be matched, 40 families with referrals, waiting to travel, and 7 families in Ethiopia receiving their children right now.
The investigation into the abandonment cases is over and abandoned children will now be referred and court dates for previously referred children who had been referred will now be getting court dates. But for the next 2 weeks, MOWA (Ministry of Woman Affairs) will be closed for 2 weeks for training; hopefully once this is over, everyone will be well-trained and things will gop smoother. More good news is that court will not be closing for the rainy season this year from August to October. Once MOWA re-opens the backlog of those waiting courtdates should be processed. Also last week, there were 3 referrals. One for a 3 month old baby boy, another for a 9 month old baby girl and a sibling referral of a 3 year old boy and a 5 yr. old girl. These families waited 11, 12, and 5 months. We have moved down the list to about #86
I just figured out my June coupon savings, which was $60.14. That brings me to half year point of $234.75 on coupons used. That's more than I saved in either 2006 or 2007 and I only need to save about 40 more dollars and I'll have saved even more than I did last year. I thought $303 dollars was good, but I expect that I will blow that amount out of the water. And I am not as compulsive as somepeople about coupons. I don't even count restaurant coupons, but I try to use even them as often as possible. We'll be up in the U.P. and expect that this weekend will probably be sadly a coupon-free weekend. Well better go pack.
Last week there was a sibling set on the waiting child list that was placed and today there was a referral of a sibling set and also an infant boy. So we moved down 3 more spaces and are about #89 on the waiting list.
Another big sucess today; this time at Walgreen's. They had John Frieda hair products on sale and if you buy 3, you get $5 in Register Rewards. Well last week, I think, the Sunday coupons in the newspaper had coupons for $3 off John Frieda Root Awakening Products. And since my parents and a friend gives me their coupons, I had several, so I was able to use a coupon on each of the 3 coupons, which even with my mediocre math skills comes to $9. The total came to $7.05 and if you count $5 off that I will be using in the next 2 weeks, that would make the purchase like $2.05, about 68 cents each; SWEET! Well, maybe I should actually see how I like the shampoo, etc. after I use it tomorrow. With the month 2/3 over, I have used $43.14 in coupons. That means with the year almost half over, I have saved $217.45 with coupons and am just about $15 dollars shy of my coupon and rebate savings for the entire year of 2006. I am astounded!
This week a family on the list accepted a referral of siblings from the waiting child list. So we moved up one on the waiting list to about #92.
This week there was a referral of 7 week old twin girls. The lucky family waited a record-breaking 15 months. The wait for siblings is the longest of the waits. I think the wait for a baby girl is about 11-12 months and for a baby boy about 10-11 months. There were also 2 families who accepted referrals of waiting children, a boy age 5 and a 7 year-old girl. So we should have moved down three more places on the list and be about #94.
