A fiery begining to fall

As most people around the world know, Southern California has been on fire. There's no region untouched by flames, as they span from Los Angeles to the mountains near Big Bear, through Orange County, and around San Diego County. There have been tragic losses for many families, and over 250,000 people have been forced to evacuate. President Bush visited the regions yesterday and has declared Southern California a disaster zone.

Thankfully, our family members most closely affected by the flames have been allowed to return to their house that was spared from the fire's fury, and we can all begin to work towards rebuilding what was lost. For a couple of weeks we're told to stay indoors, and have a damp cloth over our mouth/nose to breathe when outside. Ash is raining down all around, and the smoke burning your eyes and throat is a reminder of the ongoing battle against the flames. Yet another reminder of all we have to be grateful for.

It's been a long time since I've added a post to our blog, as there's been little adoption related for me to add. As Joe's company began regular rounds of layoffs, we've been carefully planning and searching for another option for him, should his turn to be laid off come. We could not, responsibly, carry forward with the adoption until we knew more. I can't imagine draining our accounts to pay adoption fees, and bringing our baby (or babies!) home to such a tight situation. While Joe's job is still an uncertain thing to rely on... we're feeling less terrified. We've been working feverishly at coming up with that side income we've been hoping to come up with for quite some time.

I have finally found a business I would like to begin, out of my home office, on the side. It'll take a while to start up and really get going, but recently I've begun learning about Leisure Group Travel. It seems like a perfect fit for me. I have such a passion for travel, spending time people, and trying to expose people to the diversity of the world. Starting a group travel club should enable me to do just that, while also bringing in some income on the side. It is such an exciting possibility! I'll post more as I learn more, but for now, just the potential is keeping me pushing forward.

We have also begun our own business franchise. After only 2 weeks with the company, we are already enjoying more success than we would have thought possible. The company I'm referring to is Fortune High Tech Marketing. We were quite skeptical when first introduced to it by our amazing friends, Geoff and Val, but after learning more and deciding to give it a shot, we are thrilled beyond measure! We decided to give it a go after learning Geoff and Val's close friend was able to leave her job after less than a year with Fortune, because she had been able to replace her previous job's income that had been over 6 figures! For anyone interested in learning more, please feel free to visit our website (www.fhtmus.com/vividdreams) or watch one of two videos (www.thefortunedvd.com or www.successwithfortune.com). Joe and I are so happy Fortune found us, or that we found Fortune, and would be so excited to see our family and friends benefit from it as well!

Also, we now have a travel website that is a subset of Travelocity. If you're going to be booking tickets, staying at a hotel, renting a car, or buying tickets to any attractions/theme parks/shows, please check out our site! The URL is www.travelfhtm.com/travelabroad. The hotel prices have a 110% price guarantee, which the normal Travelocity site doesn't have! You've got to check it out!

So, as you can see, despite the current concern we have over the stability of Joe's job, we are beginning to work towards better financial security. Since our ultimate goal is also to prevent me from ever needing to return to being a traveling employee (for my current job), it may also one day allow us to be comfortable that if the need for me to begin traveling again ever arises, I will be able to safely say "No!" I do not want to be a mom that is only home on the weekends, and will do whatever I can to prevent that situation from happening!

As a final note of celebration, I plan to be sending our dossier to Sacramento today to be certified. Once it is certified, it will be ready to send to our agency and on to Ethiopia!!! We are getting closer, and will be waiting for our referral soon! Thank you everyone for your support through the last few months of obstacles and stress we have faced. We couldn't have done it without you!

New button added to accept donations!

I've been asked by a few people if there was a way for them to help us in our adoption process. At this stage, the place where Joe and I need the most assistance, is in collecting the funds to submit our dossier. We have added a button at the top right-hand area of our blog that links you to Paypal and allows you to make a donation to our "Adoption Fund."

We are currently in the process of preparing to pay $6250 to submit our dossier to Ethiopia and begin waiting for a referral. Once we receive a referral, we will then send another $5,500 to our agency, and also begin making our travel arrangements to Ethiopia to pick up our child(ren)! We hope to be traveling by the spring, but have no idea how long our referral will take to get. As you can see, there is a lot of money we still owe, and the stream of water-damages that plagued our house for a number of months took a serious dent out of our savings account. We hope to be submitting our dossier by the end of the year, so any assistance is greatly appreciated! We feel humbled by the graciousness of some of our amazing family and friends that have asked to be given a way to help, and hope that everyone understands the depth of our gratitude. We are truly fortunate!

Love to all!