Fall Adoption Update

Hello all! We have gone almost 4 months without an update- life has been SO busy! So here we go!

During the summer we made a decision to find a new adoption agency to work with. Our new agency (Angel Adoption) is based out of Chicago and they do adoptions for the whole country. That could mean later on when we are matched that we will have to do some traveling! We liked their approach to adoption and especially because the agency is founded by two women who are adoptive parents! They only accept so many applicants into their program each month and after a Skype session they accepted us for January!

We can choose to move forward whenever we want so we will always have a spot even if we decide not to by January. And there is a pretty good chance that we will not because we have some other plans we would like to see through before beginning once again.

I know this sounds pretty vague- however we do not know when or how the things we are working on are going to exactly pan out. But we have a pretty good idea of where we need to be financially and what we would like to have accomplished before our homestudy! When the time is right, we will share more details on our new plan.

I see things a lot more clearly now that we have been in this planning process for over a year. I no longer feel like we need to rush anything and everything will happen when it is suppose to. I realize some people may think we are not adopting anymore because we haven't had any big news to share-but that is just how this whole adoption process works! There is SO MUCH WAITING and planning and WAITING again.

So we appreciate all the continued support and love from everyone as we continue slowly moving along! I hope the next update we have will bring exciting news!

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And since I (Jenna) and writing this, I need to compliment Justin on just how hard he has worked in this past year! He started working with VIPKid just around a year ago to bring in additional income and he is AMAZING with the kids that he teaches! It has been so much fun sharing this experience with him and knowing that every morning when we get up and teach we are paving the path to continue on with adopting. Seriously though if we didn't have this second job- I'm pretty sure we wouldn't have even looked into adopting yet! THANK YOU VIPKID!!!

And as most of you already know I am also a consultant with Usborne Books & More to continue to assist with the financial obligations adoption brings. I have discovered an absolute LOVE for these books and the company itself. I have spent a lot of time researching and learning more about all of the opportunities Usborne has to offer. Doing booth events has been so much fun and once again Justin has jumped right in and helped me with my new business venture. He truly enjoys these books as much as I do and interacts so well with people when we have been at different events. He as deemed himself the "Assistant to the Consultant" (The Office anyone?!) and totally deserves that title!

Basically, there is NOBODY I would rather go through life with than you Justin Boggs! THANK YOU for everything you do for our family everyday!

Adoption Update!

It has been WAY too long since we have posted an update to where we stand in the adoption process. Many of you have asked and we have filled you in here and there, but it's time for an official post!

First things first- not a whole ton has changed on where we are in the process and that definitely isn't from a lack of trying. This is a slow moving process but it is moving...at a snails pace.

When we announced (almost a year ago) that we were going to adopt, I was WAY in over my head. I was wrapped up in all of the great things adoption would bring our lives and did not look at it from a realistic point of view. I was so overly optimistic that it blinded me a bit to the financial hardship of adoption that we were about to take on. It created such a huge stress and I began to panic. Here we had announced such wonderful news and every time I would update someone on where we were I'd say "just trying to save money" because $30,000 doesn't turn up overnight. I almost felt (and still sometimes do) guilty because people had offered so many well wishes, prayers, money and bought t-shirts for us and I had nothing new to tell them. I felt like a failure.

Slowly I have realized you can not set up a time line in a situation like this. It only leaves you with disappointment and heart break. Justin and I took a hard look at our money situation in April and came up with a more realistic idea of how to go about saving money, paying off debt, and making home repairs moving forward. It's really hard to tackle all 3, but little by little we will get there. We met with a financial planner at our bank and were reassured that our plan was on the right path and we could likely secure a loan soon. Yay! That was refreshing to hear, but still $30,000 is a lot to turn around and pay back. Our goal now is to see how much we can save in a year so we do not have to apply for such a large loan.

So, this summer I will be working hard on teaching a lot of VIPKid classes, making my Etsy business grow and starting up newest side hustle- being an Usborne Books & More consultant. If you have seen my Facebook posts recently you have probably already read about it and I appreciate everyone taking the time to learn more I love these books and enjoy sharing them with my friends and family. When you choose to have a party you earn hostess rewards that earn you free books! Check out my new page on the blog that gives you all the details! https://bringhomebabyboggs.blogspot.com/p/help-support-baby-boggs-through.html

There isn't any crazy start up costs or investments involved. You just invite you friends and learn about literacy and the awesome books Usborne has to offer! Free books for you and I earn a small percent of the sales your party makes. All earnings will go right into our adoption fund! Everyone involved benefits! I hope you will join me in my newest effort to #bringhomebabyboggs ! I am really excited about this new opportunity to help spread my love for literacy while building up our funds to make our dream of becoming parents a reality.

I don't mean to sound pushy for posting and inviting you to different events on Facebook, I apologize if I have come across that way. When faced with this huge financial obstacle that adoption brings- we are trying to do whatever we possibly can. I literally thought last year that come this time now I would be way closer to being a mom, so I have to keep pushing forward and doing what is best to grow our family!

To wrap up, we are paying down debt and finding any way possible to make a little extra money to help with the many outstanding tasks we have to achieve finically. We hope that this time next year  to have our big costs secured, home study complete, and on to finding a family to match with to bring home our child. This road is long with the biggest ups, downs, twists, and turns. But we are not giving up, we know when the time is right it will all come together!

Thank you for the continued well wishes and thoughts as we continue in this journey. We sincerely appreciate the support and love everyone has shown us!

Adoption Blog: Is the waiting game almost over?

Hello friends! Justin here. It has been nearly three months since Jenna and I have used this space to talk about the adoption process. But I hear so many of you continue to wish us well and say you check in on the blog, so I figured it was time to at least check in.

The plan has not changed much in recent months. As mentioned in previous blogs, our social worker told us to press the pause button last fall in order for us to continue paying down debt. Anyone who has had to put themselves through college knows that is a lot easier said than done, but we're making it happen.

(In case you missed it, late last year I joined Jenna in doing online teaching for a second income!)

The plan is for us to check back in with her in April to go over our finances and see if we can get started with the homestudy process. Thankfully, we've already paid for the homestudy and some of the small upgrades around the home (like an emergency ladder, a crib, etc.) that they will be looking for during the homestudy.

The one setback we've had is that without using credit cards, the money we were hoping to save has been going to handle a number of minor emergencies that we were accustomed to using credit. In the last two months, we've have paid for an emergency vet bill, major plumbing issue and tire replacement. It's been nice to pay for these things out of pocket, but slightly discouraging that money that could be used for savings have gone to these issues.

We're also going to need to pay for the damage this last weekend's windstorm did to our gutters and roof. That estimate is coming later this week!

Meanwhile, Jenna has been focusing much of her time and effort (when she is not teaching) to recruit more people to teach online. She has even created a Facebook page (click here), an Instagram page (click here), and a YouTube channel (click here). While she hasn't referred anyone yet, she is putting in a lot of work to refer teachers to VIPKid.

I feel this has been such a positive for her. In the months after announcing our decision to adopt, I saw how disappointed Jenna became at the process, and that the timeline she had did not match reality. It was difficult as a husband to go through that with her, knowing how much we wanted to go through the adoption process.

The fact that we're spending so much time working and with her trying to recruit new teachers (which comes with a reward from VIPKid) means we're at peace knowing we're literally trying everything we can to make this happen. The question is not if we're going to adopt, but when.

The social worker might say wait another six months (although we're really hoping she doesn't). But if she does, we're really at peace knowing that there isn't more we could be doing, and whenever it is meant to be is when it will happen.

Jenna and I thank all of you for your continued well wishes. We really do appreciate hearing from all of you. Let's hope the next time we check in, we'll be able to deliver some good news to all of you!