April 2004

Now that we have decided on a country and an agency, its time to figure out where the money is coming from. The estimated cost of this endeavor is between $15K-$18K. Owie. We decided it was time for the house we had worked so hard on for the past five years to start paying us back. Re-finance! This is the part that weirded me out the most. When we talked to our mortgage company about refinancing, we told them the reason. They at first said it would be six to eight weeks start to finish, but after hearing the reasons for the refi, EVERYONE seemed to be on our side. The initial paperwork came to us in three days. The appraiser called us two weeks earlier than he was supposed to and set the appraisal for the NEXT DAY! This was the first worry stage. If the house did not appraise for enough, there would not be enough money for the entire adoption. (Freak Out City for Rob) We needed it to appraise for $170K. Considering we bought the house almost exactly five years ago for $104K, this might have been a stretch...but all the work we did on it should help. Guess what...the appraisal came in at $176K. More than we hoped for!! Something told us this was
meant to be. Something felt right.Rob did not want to send in the adoption application for CCAI until the refi was done. He of course was paranoid. A few days before closing on the refi, he gave in and we sent the application in. It has begun.