Sent!!

Well we've had an exciting few weeks...We got our home study rough draft last week, I reviewed it and got the final draft approved the next day!! Then got the notarized copy of it a few days later!!! This is a huge piece of the process and I am thankful we're done with it. On Friday I picked up the home study report and sent our I600-A that day!! It is a form that once approved means we're allowed to adopt internationally. We will get fingerprinted too. When we get the approval back (called the I171-H) then we can mail our dossier to Ethiopia. Again my goal is to get it across the pond before the end of the year-Lord willing :)
Our home study states that we can adopt a child from 0-3 yr. old and we are approved for more than one child. We did that because we have heard of instances where people get over there to get their child and find out there is a sibling that may have been in another orphanage and even a case where they found out their child was a twin!! How could you leave that other sibling behind?! Whenever I've prayed for our son I would hear sons (plural). Don't know why...we are not looking to adopt 2 but we'll leave that up to the Lord. I know my hubby hasn't felt that leading but again, not OUR will but His will be done. Frankly I want another excuse to go Ethiopia, so I'd rather only get one child this time ;)  I've never been to Ethiopia but there is a piece of my heart there. A son whom I've never met but who God ordained from before the earth began to be a part of our family. How could my heart not ache to be there??
Another big key to getting the home study report back is that now we can apply for grants. We desperately need a big chunk of change to send our dossier to Ethiopia. We're only a quarter of the way to our goal. We have plenty of fundraisers going on right now. I have three friends who are donating a portion of their business sales to our cause. Our cookie sale is coming up quickly. I have many dear friends/family who are going to bake on our behalf :) We'll sell cookies by the pound right before Christmas, how can we go wrong? Pray for this event and God's continued guidance in this process.