Adoption Fundraising

Are you still trying to raise money for your adoption? or maybe trying to pay back money for your adoption? I have an opportunity for you to raise more money.

Host a lia sophia jewelry Catalog show!

How does it work?

Step 1: I send you several lia sophia catalogs for you to take to work, have family members take to work etc.

Step 2: You post the party on your blog, on facebook, and via email.

Step 3: Have your friends, family, and readers order jewelry.

Step 4: Jewelry is delivered to me and I sort it and mail it to you for locals and mail it to your readers.

Step 5: You get 10% of the sales towards your adoption. But it doesn't stop there. If your friends, family, or readers host a catalog show, you will get 5% of their show sales towards your adoption. And if one of their friends hosts a catalog show you will get 5% of their show sales towards your adoption.

With Christmas coming up this is a great way for your family and friends to shop for gifts for the ladies without stepping into the mall.

Would you like more information or have questions email me or visit my website at www.liasophia.com/kchapman

Adoptive Parents

Yesterday was our adoption class with our agency. We learned a lot. The brought in Adoptive Parents to speak to us about their journey. Their daughter was only 7weeks old. This particular couple was amazing. The father was hilarious and their daughter was so cute. They talked to us about their most difficult moments and the amazing moments. When they received the call the wife was the first to find out. She was writing down notes and said she apparently was missing details. They were told the weight of the baby was 6lbs 10oz. All she heard was the 10 and told everyone they talked to that the baby was 10lbs. I found out that they didn't set up a nursery. They said when they got the call people came out of the woodwork giving them stuff. I'm still processing that part. We are actually going to buy our crib today. I want to have parts of the nursery set up because that is something I can control in an uncontrollable process. Honestly for the nursery all we have to buy is the crib. I have a dresser in the attic that just needs to be stripped and stained. It was my dresser at my moms house. I also have a little table that my brother and I used when we were toddlers. So we'll just need to buy a mattress and the bedding and then we'll paint the room. (that is a little bit away, the room is still a storage/office room).

The agency also had a birthmother come in. Her story was an interesting story but to me didn't seem typical. I know that in adoption their isn't a typical birthmother or father but hers was very unique. I don't think I could have ever done what she did. And she continues to come speak to groups at the agency. She is an amazing woman.

We also talked about how to raise an adopted child. When to tell your child they are adopted. Our social worker said that we should start early and don't make it an event. She remembers asking an adoptee one day when he found out he was adopted and he couldn't remember, because it was always talked about with him. Cart gained the most out of this segment of the class.

I did ask the name question too. They said that BM and BF only receive our first names. They suggested that on FB I change my name to my nickname and that Cart changes his to his legal first name. They also said that in this day in age you can google anyones name and find out at least where they live, phone numbers and sometimes email. I randomly google my name every so often and not much comes up. I think we'll be safe with just changing our names on FB.

I also found out that our agency has a website for the FL couples waiting with our agency. I skimmed through the couples last night and noticed a lot of couples had links to photos or websites. I was thinking about creating a new blog for this particular purpose. I don't think it would be appropriate to let the BM see this blog so early on. So creating a blog under my business account, in which I can have pictures and our letter to the BM will be good.

Adoption Updates

We've done a few things recently toward the adoption. When we returned from DC we had our physicals at the doctors office. We went on the same day and got it over with. Two weeks prior to this we went and had blood drawn for HIV testing and blood counts.

Our doctor was quite humorous about some of the questions on this form. One question was Expected Life expectancy. He looked me up and down and said "eh 94. What do they want me to say" So he wrote normal. Everything on there he wrote normal with spoken side humor.

The day we returned from vacation we had an envelope from the agency. It was an invitation to a mandatory adoption class along with two more questionnaires. We each filled out our respective questionnaires and mailed those back with our questions answered.

I spoke with our social worker yesterday and found out that our references will be receiving their letters soon. Once they have a few of those returned then they will schedule our first meeting with the director of the program.

Also before we went on vacation I printed all 156 pictures we are using in our book. I'm sure I won't use all of them but most of them.

For now the next step is the adoption class on November 20th.

Picture Post

As promised because I know I'm horrible at follow through. Here are a few of our pictures from the Marine Corp Marathon.

This was Friday before the marathon as we headed to the Air Mueseum.
Don't mind my expression. I took a self portrait in front of the Washington Monument. It's still a cool pic despite me not smiling. :) This was during the Marathon.
Look at all those people. There were a total of 35,000 runners and it took them all 30minutes to cross the start line.
There is Cart running past me on the National Mall. He had just passed the Smithsonian Metro Station. Green Shirt, white hat.



There is Cart running to the finish line. He finished in 5hrs 19min and 38sec.