Growing Snowflowers

Greetings Family and Friends

Well, I guess it's time to let you all know that we are in the process of adopting another child from China. We are so excited!! Piper is pretty keen on having another kiddo in the house, as are we.

We submitted our paperwork to China late 2006 and have an official LID (log in date with the Chinese government) of 12/08/2006. The wait times have increased dramatically since our last adoption, when we applied for Piper the wait was six months from LID to referral, now we are looking at 30+ months, as much as five times the wait. This comes with it's fair share of burdens, including having to renew much of our paperwork, clearances, USCIS filings up to two more times. We didn't quite bargain for that when we started out so we are starting a fundraising effort to help defray some of the costs of the additional paperwork, as well as raise the $3000 orphanage donation fee.

We are also on the list for a 'waiting child', which could mean a referral later this year, which would be wonderful but also brings with it the possibility of additional expenses. For those of you not familiar with the 'waiting child' program, it is set up so that children who have mild to moderate special needs can find homes, most of the special needs would be considered minor in the USA, like a cleft lip, club foot, minor heart issues, birthmarks, anemia etc, but they often disqualify these children from the non special needs lists because they are not considered 'normal'. We are in agreement as a family that we can't let one more child go without a family, regardless of a health issue.

We are trying our best to raise the $25,000+ for the adoption and have cottoned on to this dandy little fundraising helper called chipin. Even a $1 donation will help us work towards our dream of bringing another Hoppe home.

This is the official beginning of the 'Hoping for another Hoppe' campaign!

Donations are made through paypal and are completely secure.

Blessings

Hayley, Mike & Piper