Adoption Grant....Denied.

We received very disappointing news a few weeks ago. Our application for a Grant consideration through Gift of Adoption was denied. 

After being "Tentavely Approved for Review" for about 3-4 years now, our application went before a committee earlier this month & it was decided that we were not approved for a Grant. According to their reports, they receive between 50-100 completed applications each month and unfortunately only have enough funds for up to 8 grants per month. We certainly don't feel entitled to any free funds, but we are still disappointed that we weren't approved for even their slightest grant.

A few years ago I had decided to apply through this organization after realizing that the Recession was killing our small business. Design projects had diminished by almost 50% and our accounts receivables were often times at 40-60 days and sometimes even worse. Many of our clients and vendors were now closing their doors, including one of vendors who had been in business for over 50 years!  It was very difficult to witness. We were barely getting by ourselves rapidly going through the little savings we had left and there were many times we feared even loosing our own home. In fact, we did end up trying to short sale a rental property we had purchased many years ago in hopes that one day it would provide us with some sort of additional monthly income. We tried re-financing it through our bank to a lower monthly payment so that at least we would still be able to keep our rental tenants until the economy improved but the bank refused to help and even refused all of the offers we received on that home & so they preferred to foreclose on it. It was such a shame that our bank was not willing to help us re-structure that loan so that our tenants would be able to live in that property.

There were many times during this downward economy that we worried sick over the thought of having to withdrawl from our adoption process. Even though our referral seemed to be nowhere in near sight, there were still Homestudy update fees, USCIS fees, background checks, and a huge increase in the required orphanage donation, which ultimately all added to additional thousands of dollars just to stay in this waiting game. We couldn't bear the thought of not being able to wait in line after so many years, so we did everything we could which included several fundraisers- selling lots and lots of hand painted lucky ladybug rocks ( which my mother-n-law helped to paint ), photographic prints ( donated by our professional photographer friends ), hand-crafted items, and hosting a few jewelry parties at home. We are so grateful to all the family & friends who have contributed in one way or another. We will always be so thankful to them!

We will still most likely continue to worry about the unknown, especially now that we know for sure there is no more grant we thought would help with our final adoption expenses. We are looking at traveling sometime in the fall...possibly mid to late September, still not exactly sure as we're still waiting on a couple of approvals from USCIS.  

So in these next couple of months we will now have to step it up even harder  doing anything we can to save for the rest & just hope & pray we can do it. Our little girl is now waiting for us to come get her & we just can not wait to have her home. 

Just recently, her daddy created the most beautiful map of China which includes a glimpse of her beautiful face, highlighting her province of Jiangxi. He wanted something he could hang in his office that would commemorate her birth land. He did such a beautiful job that we have decided to offer this print for sale to others in our adoption community, customized with their own child's information and photo. 

We hope that they get to love it as much as we do.

Here is the full listing: Custom China Adoption Map on Etsy