papers, papers, papers

It is exciting to say that we are nearing the end of our paperwork!  I can hardly believe it, but we just checked, so it must be true!
Our agency is a Type-A person's dream.  They have an online portal where we interact with our case worker when we have questions.  There is a section where they have broken down our required documents, trainings, and other activities into several checklists as we upload documents or mail them to CAS we can check the item off the list and each checklist gets submitted to the case worker as it reaches completion.  She reviews the documents that we've uploaded and marks the list as 'accepted' if she has all the information needed.  Its a great help for organization, timing, and for reviewing when I feel like I haven't done anything towards the adoption in a while.
We received confirmation that our references have gotten their letters and are working on those for us.  It kind of makes it a little more real to know that some work is being done by others toward the end of Baby Henderson!

Additionally, I had some wonderfully encouraging conversations with several friends this week.  It was incredible to feel loved by each of them in such special ways. 

I have decided that we will do a Spring yard-sale to help raise funds, so if you live nearby and have items that you'd like to donate start thinking about it and making a pile because spring will be here before we know it. 

Lastly, one of our sweet talented friends has been busy working on some home décor items that she will be selling for our adoption at an undisclosed location on a Saturday in November from 9am - 3pm.  Please stop by Ozilia's Originals (this is a working business name) and check out her handy work! This is all done free hand which blows my mind, see the example below:

oziliascott@gmail.com if you want to place an order. (I don't know if shipping is an option)

Progress

This week was exciting because we were able to submit 2 more checklists of documents to CAS (the adoption agency)!  So that's 4 of 11 lists now completed. 
Saturday was a cool, rainy day (Luke's favorite kind) and most of our regular housework was done so I spent a few hours in our guest room cleaning out drawers in preparation for the transformation into our child's room. 
A few months ago my parents visited and brought some boxes filled with some of my old stuff.  It was a pretty surreal moment to be going through my old books and thinking that these might actually be read by my daughter one day.  I'm not going to lie, I got a little teary eyed.  Then today we were speaking to some friends and Luke remembered that he had some of his childhood dominos in a drawer.  When he showed them to me we found the onsie that he was brought home from the hospital in.  When Sandi first gave that to us I was a little heartbroken because I was convinced that we'd never have children. (yes I'm prone to be a bit dramatic at times)
I love that each little step toward adoption and each little moment of revelation that there is hope for a child at the end of this points me back to my Savior; His changes in my life and His love for me.

Giving Platform Decided

Hello Friends! 

We have made it back safely from the UK and have hit the ground running in regards to the adoption world.  Our latest efforts have been in the fundraising relm.
after much research we have decided to use YouCarring.com as our platform.  Basically, this was the website that will end up passing the largest amount of the raised funds through to us.

If you are desiring to donate to bring our child home and have a PayPal account, please use your PayPal to make the donation as this will result in 100% of the donation coming through to us. If you use your credit card your donation will have to have 2.9% + $0.30 withheld for processing fees. The other sites that we researched withhold 5% or more.
I know some people might think that this is too much information to share, but I feel that you deserve to know the rationale behind the site we chose as well as why we're asking you to use PayPal if possible.
We want you to know that we appreciate your contribution toward our adoption whether it be prayer, emotional, financial, or anything else. 

We have had a few fundraising ideas (home décor & jewelry) from friends around us so if you prefer to buy an item rather than just donating funds please hold on, an update will be coming for you soon!

We love you all, please keep praying for our little one and his/her mother.

URL:  https://www.youcaring.com/luke-lynn-henderson-445032