Auction starts tomorrow!

Hooray!
Everything looks smashing, mainly thanks to Ian’s crazy programming skills! But also thanks to the amazing art pieces that were so generously donated by our friends, family and even strangers. Hopefully everything will run smoothly! (No T-Rex paddock losing power, etc)
Anyway, I’ve just now realized that not everyone who visits this site visits my deviantART journal on a regular basis. I’ve kind of gotten into the habit of only updating there, and I’ve gotten behind on here. So Im going to fill in the most recent adoption update I have:

Auction Preview Live - Starts This Friday

Just wanted to post a quick update about the auction. I’ve finally got the software close enough to done that you can start viewing items and creating accounts. Jaci’s also got the items up on the site for you to browse. The auction is scheduled to start this friday, so head on over to the site: http://auction.selbyfamilyadoption.com

Take a look around, and be sure to let us know if you spot any weirdness and / or bugs, so I can get those cleared up before the auction starts.

Home Study Starting & Auction Coming Real Soon

I’m happy to share with everyone a few bits of good news. First, we’re starting the home study process this week. We’ve got our first meeting with our social worker this Friday, with several more to follow over the next few weeks. We’ve also got our first pile of paperwork to complete, as well as some other interesting homework items (like our Live Scans, etc.) Both of us are really excited to start the home study, and we’ll share more information as we get it. In other exciting news, we’re really close to starting the Art for Adoption Auction.

Auction Art Preview!

With the Art for Adoption auction less than a month away, we’ve had several requests for a sneak peek at the pieces that will be available. This is only a small glimpse of the unique and wonderful pieces made by friends, family and strangers from all over the country and even the world! (Besides the ones we did ourselves)

Art for Adoption Auction

I’ve been meaning to post about this, but have just been so busy! We have started our Art for Adoption Auction, and have already received some AMAZING pieces of art and handmade crafts! We will be accepting pieces until May, when the auction will begin. All items are handmade and 100% of the profits go towards our adoption!

We’ve Been Approved!

We recently sent our application off to our adoption agency, Partners for Adoption, and we’re happy to say we’ve been accepted. This basically means that we’re eligible for the countries we’ve expressed interest in, and that the agency will work with us throughout the remainder of the process. So what’s next?

Etsy shop open!

While we are waiting for our proverbial ducks to get in a row and start our art auction, we’ve opened a small shop on Etsy! The name is Art for Adoption and the link is Art For Adoption . It’s just a handful of items, but we know how popular Etsy is, and every little bit counts. This is in addition to my own store, Sleepy Hollow Originals, where we also have made 100% of our profits go towards our adoption. Hopefully this will get us some exposure before our big art auction. We are also planning on a big, multi-family garage sale some time this spring.

Some Information About our Timeline

One of the cool and interesting things about adopting from Ghana is that the timeline for the process is much faster than other programs. This also creates some interesting challenges for us. I thought I should take a few moments to explain a bit more about typical timelines for adoptions from well-established programs and ours (and why it’s different)

Random Act of Awesomeness

Earlier today, I was checking my deviantART watch, which is basically an RSS feed of all the artists I like to follow on deviantART. I follow a group called Children’s Illustrators, and every month they have a theme. This month’s theme was African Princess. I came across one particular illustration that was just so adorable, I knew we had to have it for our future daughter’s room. However, the illustration wasnt available as a print. I contacted the artist, asking if she had any plans on selling it as a print, as we would love to have it. I told her our story and hoped she would allow me to purchase a print from her.

The Basics

Wow, thanks for all the comments guys!

I thought it would be useful to post some bullet points and information on the days we dont really have much of an update. Though, Tuesday night we got a call from our Parent Coordinator, and she had really encouraging news about two families who just came back from Ghana with their children. We also were contacted by the lady who will most likely be our Social Worker for our Homestudy. She was extremely helpful and alleviated some concerns we had. I thought I would post today about Ghana, and the Ghana adoption program.