Goals

WE did it!

We took the first step.  Leap! Hop or Jump..Pick which work you like but we did it and with your help!
We gathered our papers!  We notarized them.  We met with the people who will be completing our home study!

You did it!

You helped us by supporting us with your kind words, thoughts, prayers, and money!
Our people, you helped us raise 2,000 bucks in 2 weeks!

God did it!

He asked us to take care of the orphans....
He provided us with amazing friends and family, and coworkers and even acquaintances!!!
This is His show!


'I am inspired!
Thanks for hearing my thoughts!
We have more goals to come!

25,000
-2,000
________
23,000
To go!

Ciao
Shell

Tony will do a guest post about the actual home study sometime this week! Stay tuned!

Sweet

Today was the kind of day where you feel like trusting...

Like a sunrise!

A day to remember that the God i serve wants to take care of me.

I read

"Do not let your hearts be troubled.  Trust in God; trust in me also."

So today i trust!

To go on a journey~ begin with one step.

So we are taking steps to gather support for our little one in Thailand.

Ciao,

Shell

“So do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded. You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised.” ~Hebrews 10:35-36

Family BAM~ily

So,
If you ever have been cleaning your house...you know the kind clean where you are gonna have your home study and you want everything even under the dressers clean...Then...you get a call..."Have you been on line today?"  "No?"  "Well get on my face book page and check it out?" 
So,
I am so blessed!
My Cousin Melissa who owns this super fun store called Calliope's Carousel.
She is going to have a contest!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The Franco Baby Contest will start tomorrow on 9-25-12, and will end on 10-25-12. ALL proceeds will be sent to them for this. If you'd like to check them out personally, check out their Blog on 'LivinLaVidaFranco'. You won't be disappointed. Once again...this is a TWENTY-FIVE CENT thing. NOT 25 thousand, 25 hundred, 250 dollars, 25 dollars, or $2.50...just twenty five cents! (Although you are welcome to donate more if you'd like. If you have ?s please feel free to holla at me. Thank you all in advance for your generosity, and giving hearts.

Anyway, I am asking for Twenty-five cents. Yep! .25. I know it is a lot to ask for, but I'm gonna do it anyway. Each person who comes to Calliope's Carousel and donates $.25 to my future baby cousin will get entered into a contest to win a $25.00 gift certificate to my store. C'Mon...who couldn't use free $$$

Calliope's Carousel Face Book is

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

That is why you need the link to her super fun store in Sherwood AR near Jacksonville.

Go and check it out! She is super cool!  Yes,  way way cooler than me!

Also, i you have friends interested in following our journey..share my blog with them! Thanks

Ciao,

Shell

Franco's Home Study

Well,
If you want to adopt, you must must must do a home study...Why are we so excited about this any who?

The laws of every State and the District of Columbia require all prospective adoptive parents (no matter how they intend to adopt) to participate in a home study. This process has three purposes:

• Educate and prepare the adoptive family for adoption
• Evaluate the fitness of the adoptive family
• Gather information about the prospective parents that will help a social worker connect the family with a child whose needs they can meet

It may be helpful to remember that agencies are not looking for perfect parents. Rather, they are looking for a good match between a child's needs and a family's ability to meet those needs

That info came from this web page.

So a guy from Grace adoptions is gonna come to our home and test us.  Ha, i mean he is gong to see how our boys interact...and...make sure tony and i have our stuff together (like a million documents).  And see who we are as a family so the kid...we get paired with...gets a good match.  I think this is super kid centered!  Also, we are gonna have to pay him some money to make this Franco Family Report.

Pray that we are able to do this with accurateness and consistency!

Again these pic's are nearly a year old!

But aren't they darling!

I'll do my darnedest to get some new one's up soon.

If you have a good story about your home study to share..by all means leave it in the comments!

Ciao

Shell

Hype and Money Type!

Dear Blog~Diary

I am pumped up so much that i can feel the thoughts swirling around in my brain!!!
I am so thankful for the well wishes and prayers about our first steps to our Adoption.  (I pray friends and family keep them coming)
I am fully trusting God to take care of every step...He has never failed me, after all He owns the cattle on a thousand hills. Heck, He owns the hills too.
Well so here i sit thinking about the basically 2K that Tony and i are going to need like one week and one day from now

Wait we need 2,000 dollars in like a week? Sure, no sweat, God's got it covered!!!!!!

So, if you have any friends or family that want to help us with the money types help/interested in adoption/have the gift of giving...Share our blog with them and you can email me and get our address i am Rogue143@gmail.com
Also, in addition if you want to hear of any special needs or immediate needs of the Francos' you can also use the handy dandy email address and get on a "we pray for people's stuff' list!
I’ll try to have an up to date picture of we four super soon!

Hugs
Ciao
Shell

We are expecting!

Welcome Back friends and Family to La Vida Franco!!

Happy Hello to our Friends and Family -
The Franco’s are embarking on an adventure. Not one that will take us far (for now), but one that will bring someone from far away to join our family!  Yes, we are beginning the adoption process!  We applied to Holt International nearly 6 months ago and hoped to join the Thailand program, but we had two barriers. One, the youngest kiddo in our family had to be at least 2 years of age. Second, their Thailand program was closed at the time!  

We waited and prayed, we tried to find a way around but we could not. So we hunkered down and began to do our best to get rid of any debt we had hanging around. Our heart is to adopt without adding a single penny to our debt!   

After many months of waiting we got an email from Holt telling us two glorious things. The first, as of now the rule about the youngest member of the family being two years old has changed to eighteen months old!  The second is their Thailand program, which they thought might open near the end of the year, is open now!  Our collective brains exploded with joy and praise to God, for his timing is perfect.
We are asking you for some serious prayer to blanket our adoption from head to toe--for overall education and preparation, for heart and mind unity for our entire family, for our future adopted kiddo. We could definitely use some financial help if you’d like to join with us in that way. It’s a pretty expensive process. And we will need lots of encouragement to get all the paperwork and home prep done well and in a timely manner!

The rough timeline for tasks and finances -
Application Fee               $300                     Fee Paid!
Home study                       $2,000                 Need in 2 weeks   
U.S. Processing Fee        $3,000                 Need in 2months
Adoption Program Fee  $10,000              Need when assigned child
USCIS Fee                            $1,250                Need when assigned child
Dossier Prep                       $700                   Need when assigned child
Travel to Thailand            $10,000                  
Adoption Finalization     $1,500               
Post Placement                 $3,000               
We completely trust God to take care of all our needs!!!  We also trust our family and friends for all the support! Thanks for joining with us.
James 1:27
Love,
Tony, Rochelle, Sage & Jasper