Hi Everybody!
I've had a few people ask how they could help us financially... You could either send it to us at 129 Summer Street, Auburn, ME 04210 which would help us with the next phase that we don't have money for, our home study. You can also send it through Christian World Adoption (CWA) which would be tax deductible since they are non-profit. (This can't help us with the home study as we have to go through a different agency for this) All you have to do is go to cwa.org, click donate now on the right bottom of the page, & fill out all the info. There is a spot where you can specify the family's name so 100% of your donation will go straight towards our adoption process. You could also send in a personal check to the address on their website, but remember to send in a letter with the check to specify that you want your donations to go towards Joshua & Anna Cousineau's adoption. Thank you so much for allowing God to use you in this way. As I said, Josh & I can't afford this, but knowing this is a call from God, we know He will provide, and if He does by using you......Thank you so much for being a part of that!!!!!
Anna
Wednesday, July 9, 2008
Tuesday, July 8, 2008
Contracts completed
We've signed & sent our contracts, both to CWA & MAPS. We're now just waiting to hear from both to find out our next steps.......
Friday, July 4, 2008
Making our decision
Josh & I have always talked about adopting. We looked into it about a year ago, but all the agencies we looked into required both applicants to be 25. Neither of us were, so we just kinda set everything aside, and put it behind us for a while. When my 25th b-day came around, I started looking into it a little again. I contacted 1 agency that told me we could send in our application when Josh turned 24 1/2, and then by the time he actually turned 25 we would be well on our way. We were pretty happy about this response, so we furthered in prayer. I mentioned to Josh that I felt very strongly about adopting from Africa, and he agreed that sounded good. We talked about it, and decided there was no earthly way we could pay for an adoption so we prayed that God would open our eyes at what He had in store for us.
When I went to Sarah McNelly's (our church administrator) house to do our taxes, I called Josh very excitedly to tell him we were getting enough back to pay for the first stages of an adoption (sign #1).
A month or 2 later, Braden & I were grocery shopping, and we passed a little black boy about Braden's age. I, of course, stared for a minute because he was so stinkin' cute. I smiled and walked away. They again passed us down another aisle of the store, when he & Braden caught eyes. Extremely scared of what Braden would say, I told him to stop staring. Braden pushed me away. I again told him to stop staring, and Braden still staring at the little boy, said to me "so cute, Momma!" I agreed, and almost cried. I was a little nervous about how Braden would be with an adoption because Maine has a very low diversity rate. He doesn't see very many colorful people. After our encounter with the little boy, I knew Braden would be fine. (sign #2)
As I looked into different agencies, income was one of our problems. I had 3 agencies respond back telling me we made just barely below what we needed to make to qualify. I told Josh, and I was quite upset. Josh called me from work the next day, and told me something really good happened. Sarah told him they were making a few changes to the staff's salaries. Josh asked her how much that would put him at for the year, and her answer put us just to where we needed to be in order to qualify for the adoption. (sign #3)
After all this, we decided God was preparing the way for us so we started looking into different agencies to pick "the one". We narrowed it down to 3. We knocked one out because we felt we needed to go through a Christian agency & it wasn't. As I looked further into the other 2, I read that Christian World Adoption only required 1 parent to be 25 for some countries. One of those countries was......Ethiopia! There was no question about it. Josh & I both agreed to go with them & start the process right away. We sent our pre-application in.....Accepted! We sent our application in with the fee......Accepted! We did our orientation, and that went really well. We sent all our legal docs to CWA (Christian World Adoption) and have started working on our home study docs & forms.
There's our story! As we do more, and have more to post about, we will....Thanks for joining us, and thanks ahead of time for your prayers.....
Anna
When I went to Sarah McNelly's (our church administrator) house to do our taxes, I called Josh very excitedly to tell him we were getting enough back to pay for the first stages of an adoption (sign #1).
A month or 2 later, Braden & I were grocery shopping, and we passed a little black boy about Braden's age. I, of course, stared for a minute because he was so stinkin' cute. I smiled and walked away. They again passed us down another aisle of the store, when he & Braden caught eyes. Extremely scared of what Braden would say, I told him to stop staring. Braden pushed me away. I again told him to stop staring, and Braden still staring at the little boy, said to me "so cute, Momma!" I agreed, and almost cried. I was a little nervous about how Braden would be with an adoption because Maine has a very low diversity rate. He doesn't see very many colorful people. After our encounter with the little boy, I knew Braden would be fine. (sign #2)
As I looked into different agencies, income was one of our problems. I had 3 agencies respond back telling me we made just barely below what we needed to make to qualify. I told Josh, and I was quite upset. Josh called me from work the next day, and told me something really good happened. Sarah told him they were making a few changes to the staff's salaries. Josh asked her how much that would put him at for the year, and her answer put us just to where we needed to be in order to qualify for the adoption. (sign #3)
After all this, we decided God was preparing the way for us so we started looking into different agencies to pick "the one". We narrowed it down to 3. We knocked one out because we felt we needed to go through a Christian agency & it wasn't. As I looked further into the other 2, I read that Christian World Adoption only required 1 parent to be 25 for some countries. One of those countries was......Ethiopia! There was no question about it. Josh & I both agreed to go with them & start the process right away. We sent our pre-application in.....Accepted! We sent our application in with the fee......Accepted! We did our orientation, and that went really well. We sent all our legal docs to CWA (Christian World Adoption) and have started working on our home study docs & forms.
There's our story! As we do more, and have more to post about, we will....Thanks for joining us, and thanks ahead of time for your prayers.....
Anna
Starting The Journey
Here is the place that Anna and I will journal and keep our friends and family in the loop of what is going on with our adoption process.
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