Wow, what a week we had last week!! TWO fundraisers in one week!! THANK YOU everyone who was involved!!
Wednesday the 16th my co-workers had a bake sale for us. Everyone pitched in, and brought some YUMMY goodies! By the end of the day, there was hardly anything left, and our total for this sale was just over $900!!! can you believe that?!
Saturday was our rummage sale, and MAN did we have a sale!!! Ford's Prairie Grange was STUFFED with donated yard sale items, and quite honestly I was in a panic that we would have to bring alot of that stuff back home. Folks kept coming in, and I think there was only a handful of people who didn't leave with something. After all said and done, we ended up brings home a small fraction of what we started with. Our total for the sale? $2045!!! woooooot!
So in one week alone, we earned over $3000 toward our adoption fund! WooHoo! The best part about our fundraisers is being able to spread the word about how God is working in our lives, and hearing others' stories. I have found that once people have adoption in their lives, and in their heart, they will share anything with whoever will listen. The same holds true for us. Since we advertised as an adoption fundraiser, that drew people in that had some experience in adoption, and it was wonderful chatting with those folks.
As far as our progress, we are awaiting the final draft of our home study, which may take a few weeks. Once that is finalized, we will be able to request a fingerprinting appt with USCIS(dept of homeland security). This will take a couple weeks, and THEN.......Finally we will be able to submit our dossier to Ethiopia!!!
Stay tuned for more updates, and some more FUN fundraisers we have planned! Thank you for your prayers!!
Tuesday, May 22, 2012
Monday, May 14, 2012
BLESSED
Have I mentioned how blessed we are?? Well, we SOOOO are. :-)
We have a couple fundraisers going on this week. A fellow nurse that I work with offered to arrange a bake sale at work to help with our adoption costs, and that will take place on Wednesday the 16th. Been baking up a storm for that! What a perfect excuse for me to bake!
And THEN......Saturday the 19th will be our rummage sale!! 8-5 at Fords Prairie Grange in Centralia, on Reynolds Road. MANY, MANY families have donated toward the sale, and we are so blessed by that. What is really cool, though, is that people we dont even KNOW are spreading the word about our sale in hopes of drumming up lots of customers! A cashier at the christian store told Kevin she would spread the word after he mentioned what we were up to this weekend.....a friend of a friend of a friend is telling EVERYONE she knows about it, and so on. Many people are offering to help with anything we need help with.
Things like this give me peace of mind that we are on the right path. God is leading us, and He is making sure that He is providing. I do have to say, though, that I do not like being, what's called in adoption world, a "fundraising family". Don't get me wrong....I am so THANKFUL for every single contribution toward our adoption. It's just that it is not in my nature to ask people for help, for donations, for anything really. i am sure that it is just the enemy that is putting these uneasy feelings in me. I know perfectly well that in adoption world, just about every family who are in the midst of an adoption are "fundraising families", and this is how it becomes affordable. I have to just keep telling myself, this is God's path for us, HE WILL PROVIDE!
Hope all the mommas had a great Mother's day, by the way!! My day was fantastic! Spent some time with MY mama, gramma, aunts, sister, etc, etc....then came home to some prizes from my boys. My little man is so stinking cute, and was SOOOO proud to give me his gifts and cards. Of course, handmade and hand picked by him, and I wouldn't have it any other way!! Those are the best ones! Oh, AND they both worked so hard and cleaned the house for me!! I can't imagine not being a mom, not knowing that love that only a mama can know. Amazing. just Amazing.
Our home study should be ready for our review by the end of the week, and if looks ok, will go to the family coordinator at AGCI for review. The next step after approval is to apply to the department of homeland security for an advanced petition to adopt, included in this is called a biophysical profile, which is advanced fingerprinting, eyeball scanning, etc. Once that is done, then we can send our Dossier off to Ethiopia!! Once reached in Ethiopia, our waiting will then begin.....
Until next time.....Thank you all for supporting us. Now come shop our rummage sale!!!! ;-)
We have a couple fundraisers going on this week. A fellow nurse that I work with offered to arrange a bake sale at work to help with our adoption costs, and that will take place on Wednesday the 16th. Been baking up a storm for that! What a perfect excuse for me to bake!
And THEN......Saturday the 19th will be our rummage sale!! 8-5 at Fords Prairie Grange in Centralia, on Reynolds Road. MANY, MANY families have donated toward the sale, and we are so blessed by that. What is really cool, though, is that people we dont even KNOW are spreading the word about our sale in hopes of drumming up lots of customers! A cashier at the christian store told Kevin she would spread the word after he mentioned what we were up to this weekend.....a friend of a friend of a friend is telling EVERYONE she knows about it, and so on. Many people are offering to help with anything we need help with.
Things like this give me peace of mind that we are on the right path. God is leading us, and He is making sure that He is providing. I do have to say, though, that I do not like being, what's called in adoption world, a "fundraising family". Don't get me wrong....I am so THANKFUL for every single contribution toward our adoption. It's just that it is not in my nature to ask people for help, for donations, for anything really. i am sure that it is just the enemy that is putting these uneasy feelings in me. I know perfectly well that in adoption world, just about every family who are in the midst of an adoption are "fundraising families", and this is how it becomes affordable. I have to just keep telling myself, this is God's path for us, HE WILL PROVIDE!
Hope all the mommas had a great Mother's day, by the way!! My day was fantastic! Spent some time with MY mama, gramma, aunts, sister, etc, etc....then came home to some prizes from my boys. My little man is so stinking cute, and was SOOOO proud to give me his gifts and cards. Of course, handmade and hand picked by him, and I wouldn't have it any other way!! Those are the best ones! Oh, AND they both worked so hard and cleaned the house for me!! I can't imagine not being a mom, not knowing that love that only a mama can know. Amazing. just Amazing.
Our home study should be ready for our review by the end of the week, and if looks ok, will go to the family coordinator at AGCI for review. The next step after approval is to apply to the department of homeland security for an advanced petition to adopt, included in this is called a biophysical profile, which is advanced fingerprinting, eyeball scanning, etc. Once that is done, then we can send our Dossier off to Ethiopia!! Once reached in Ethiopia, our waiting will then begin.....
Until next time.....Thank you all for supporting us. Now come shop our rummage sale!!!! ;-)
Sunday, May 6, 2012
home visit....CHECK!!
Whew! Home visit, DONE!! 6 long hours of talking to a complete stranger about our upbringing, our family relationships, our marriage, our deepest darkest secrets.......SO glad that's over!! It wasn't as bad as I though it would be, it was definately easier for Kevin as you all know how much he loves to talk!!
;-)
We are STILL waiting on a CPS background check from Tunesia for Kevin, and have to re-do our financial paperwork, but other that those things, we are done with the homestudy! Our social worker will take a couple weeks to write up our report, and once it is approved by everyone involved, it will be notarized and ready to ship off to Ethiopia!! I finally feel like we are making progress in this journey. I cannot believe it has been 4 months since we started this crazy process! The term "paper pregnancy" is such an accurate term for this process. just like pregnancy, there is lots of waiting, lots of impatience, lots of anticipation, lots of nausea(especially when you write those HUGE checks!!), and LOTS of faith....faith in God, faith in your care providers(our case manager being our OB!), and faith in each other. In pregnancy, you lean on your partner, you look in anticipation of the future, you dream about what will be, what may not be; you fear the worst, and hope for the best. Expecting by way of adoption is no different. only the waiting, anticipating, fearing, trusting, and dreaming period lasts 3 times as long.
We have amazing support. Our church family has been wonderful, our family, our friends, our co-workers.....people at the bank, folks at the secretary of state office, random people we share our journey with. We are so grateful for this support. Adoption puts a soft spot in just about everyone's heart, we have random people praying for us and our journey. It is amazing. and We are grateful! Our rummage sale is coming up, and we have recieved so many donations that they are filling up our home, and several more families are still bringing us things. This is going to be a MONSTER sale!!! Now that our paperwork is nearly done, we will be planning several more fundraisers to help in funding the incredible cost of bringing our child home. Depending on how this sale goes, we may have another one later in the summer/fall....we shall see. We are also in the works of planning a Bunco night, and possible a golf tourney(this one up in the air still). Thinking about taking my crafts and such "on the road" too, maybe doing a few holiday bazaars. We'll see how much time I can come up with!
As I close this post, my heart is happy and my dreams are big. It's starting to sink in the magnitude of this journey......it's huge. at least, in His eyes, it is. And because of that, it is in our eyes too. All for Him. :-)
;-)
We are STILL waiting on a CPS background check from Tunesia for Kevin, and have to re-do our financial paperwork, but other that those things, we are done with the homestudy! Our social worker will take a couple weeks to write up our report, and once it is approved by everyone involved, it will be notarized and ready to ship off to Ethiopia!! I finally feel like we are making progress in this journey. I cannot believe it has been 4 months since we started this crazy process! The term "paper pregnancy" is such an accurate term for this process. just like pregnancy, there is lots of waiting, lots of impatience, lots of anticipation, lots of nausea(especially when you write those HUGE checks!!), and LOTS of faith....faith in God, faith in your care providers(our case manager being our OB!), and faith in each other. In pregnancy, you lean on your partner, you look in anticipation of the future, you dream about what will be, what may not be; you fear the worst, and hope for the best. Expecting by way of adoption is no different. only the waiting, anticipating, fearing, trusting, and dreaming period lasts 3 times as long.
We have amazing support. Our church family has been wonderful, our family, our friends, our co-workers.....people at the bank, folks at the secretary of state office, random people we share our journey with. We are so grateful for this support. Adoption puts a soft spot in just about everyone's heart, we have random people praying for us and our journey. It is amazing. and We are grateful! Our rummage sale is coming up, and we have recieved so many donations that they are filling up our home, and several more families are still bringing us things. This is going to be a MONSTER sale!!! Now that our paperwork is nearly done, we will be planning several more fundraisers to help in funding the incredible cost of bringing our child home. Depending on how this sale goes, we may have another one later in the summer/fall....we shall see. We are also in the works of planning a Bunco night, and possible a golf tourney(this one up in the air still). Thinking about taking my crafts and such "on the road" too, maybe doing a few holiday bazaars. We'll see how much time I can come up with!
As I close this post, my heart is happy and my dreams are big. It's starting to sink in the magnitude of this journey......it's huge. at least, in His eyes, it is. And because of that, it is in our eyes too. All for Him. :-)
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