Our newest fundraiser!

Eeeekkk they are finally here!  Our bag fundraiser is officially underway.  I love how they turned out thanks to a good friend for putting together the design.  We ask that you donate what you would like, but are asking for a minimum donation of $5.00 (if paying via paypal please add 50 cents to cover the paypal fees).  I think it would be a great way to wrap your Christmas presents this year!  I love that every time I  use this bag I will get a chance to share our story.  I hope that in doing so more children get hosted and more children find their forever homes!  Let me know if you want some bags and we can arrange a drop off, or for a little extra we can ship it to you (Shipping usually costs between $3 and $5 thanks). 

Paypal:

Out of our hands!

Well, in a few short hours (Monday early AM) everything will be out of our hands officially and we will be waiting... waiting for a referral which we hear could come in the next 2-4 weeks!  Will you please pray for those that are looking over all of our paperwork and pray for us as they do.  We are so excited to get there!

Blessing

I come to you tonight with a thankful heart.  My mind is just spinning out of control thinking about everything that is going on.  This was a big couple of days for us.  We found out that a special little man was asked a life changing question and that he officially said YES.  I was told on the phone " I said yes MOMMA"   The fact that it was a YES made my heart skip a beat but hearing MOMMA made my heart about pop out of my chest.  During hosting I wasn't called mom I was Linda.  Until there was a change.  Then over night I was called Mom.  Hearing it caught me off guard.  I have 3 young children running around the house saying MOM all day long so it's normal. Although hearing it with that little accent always catches me off guard.  Our second big news is that we have gotten approval from USCIS.  This is the paper we have been waiting on for 73 days.  This is the last paper to send then everything goes to  the orphan court!  This is huge!  We are so grateful.  

The other day the kids and I were able to travel with Ryan.  He had an install at a customers site.  It just happened to be close to fellow hosting families.  So while Ryan went and worked I got the privilege of sitting at a park on a beautiful day talking to 2 fellow host moms.  It was wonderful.  We didn't now each other 4 months ago!  Now we have all gone through something life changing and we will be forever connected.  I do have to say that even our children were connected.  I heard 2 of them talking about hosting.  Later that day we were able to have a wonderful meal and were joined by yet another host mom. We had an enjoyable time sitting around the table sharing our funny moments of hosting.  I could have stayed all night talking, laughing, and crying.  We left way too late and headed out for a 6 hour drive home.  At midnight I took over driving while Ryan got some sleep.  I started out with some car karaoke and then I went to praying.  I was overcome with thankfulness for everything God has done.  Thinking about being called to host  and then to adopt just amazes me.  Why us?  We are not perfect parents!  We are not rich!  We are not knowledgeable in all the adoption mumbo jumbo!    I do not know why God called us to host and to adopt but I am so thankful he did.  My life has been forever changed.  My heart will never be the same.  

We are almost at the 1 year mark.  About a year ago we were sinning up for hosting.  Oh how our lives have changed in a year. I know that I have never cried this much in my entire life.  I have seen God provide in  every way.  I wish I could say oh I handled every obstacle that came my way with grace.  Umm NO...  We are real and we fail in so many ways.  About a year ago we shared with our family, church, and friends that we were hosting. Some thought we were completely CRAZY!  It sounded crazy.  We are going to be bringing home a child who speaks very little Engish and give him a family for Christmas!  Oh we had no idea what we were getting ourselves into.  We thought we were going to be blessing him. We didn't think we were going to be  blessed by him.    When we signed up to host we knew it was going to be financially tight but we knew that we were suppose to do it.  It took 5 days!  5 days until we were able to pay all of the fees for hosting.  When we pursued adoption we knew once again that God was directing the way.  We knew that he was going to provide and he has.  Every time there is a payment needing to be made there is always enough.  There is so many instances where we have seen God provide.  When we were doing our auction we were down to the last few hours. Ryan and I were kind of freaking out.  We had set the auction to cover our apartment rental estimated at $2000.  We were at $700 then people started bidding and we were once again blown away when we ended $1563.  Then people paid even more than what they had bid.  WHAT!  Once everything comes in we should end at $2527.  That is crazy!   God is showing us to trust him completely and not just financially.   Our family is getting ready to change.  Yes we will try to guide and direct this change but honestly we are completely trusting God.  My faith has a whole new meaning.  I know it's going to be a transition for our family but I do have this amazing peace in my soul that is telling me God has this.  At times I need to remind my brain to stop trying to figure things out.  

The future:  We don't know!  

From what we have read from other families who have gone before us.   We could be about 6 - 8 weeks away from travel.  After a few more steps we will get our travel dates.  Usually they give you a 2 week notice before you are to be in their country.  Could the government shutdown affect us.  YES  Could the holiday season affect us YES.  SO we really have no idea :(     I'm a planner people!   

What I do know is that we are not ready financially.  We are currently trying to raise the roughly $5500 that we still need to cover our first trip.  Thankfully we have 3 plane tickets already funded.  We are still selling puzzle pieces.   We currently still have 117 pieces left to add to our puzzle.  If we are able to add all of the pieces to our puzzle the total still needed will be down to $2600 and all of our plane tickets will be covered!  We have a couple of fundraisers coming up but I know God will provide on his time. A garage sale is planned for next week.  We will be selling tickets for a chance to win an I Pad Mini! Also our adoption support group is helping us with many different fundraisers as well.  We are so grateful for all of the support from everyone!  

People are always asking us how can we help.  It is amazing and we are so thankful.  We believe in the power of prayer and so we are asking that you join us in praying for our adoption. Here are some specific things:

1. We are waiting for our USCIS to come in the mail.  I pray it is in the mail tomorrow.  

2. That our paperwork gets processed quickly in his country.  

3. Please pray that we will be able to travel with some other families.  

4. Pray for this child who is taking a huge leap of faith. He is saying yes to an adoption that is going to move him half way around the world. 

5. Pray that we will have the funds available when we get our travel dates.  

6. Pray for our kids this is a huge transition that they are getting ready to go through.  

7. Please pray for Ryan and I and our marriage.  

8. Please pray that God is able to use us to GLORIFY Him!  

Thank you so much for all of your support.  We are blessed to have you in our lives. 

Moving in the right direction!

Today was a pretty exciting day for us!  We have been waiting for 67 days for an immigration officer to be assigned to our case (application for adoption).  I have been calling every 7 days or so since day 40, and every time I had called in the past, they would tell me that it has not been assigned yet and the average wait would get pushed back 10 days every time.  Today, I had Linda call and guess what?  A case worker has been assigned as of today!!!  We should see approval in a day or so!

So what does this mean?  This is the last piece of information that we are waiting for before our dossier (which is already translated) can be presented to the court.  Shortly after the ministry receives our dossier, we should receive a referral.  After we accept the referral, we will then get our invitation to the country, which will more than likely be set for two weeks after we accept the referral!!!

This means that we could be traveling in 6-8 weeks.  We are in the process of raising the funds for our airfare.  We are a little over halfway to our goal.  We have had 135 of 252 pieces added to our puzzle.  We are asking for a $25 donation per piece to help cover the cost.  We would like to have the puzzle complete by November 1st.  Can you help us reach our goal?  Can you help us complete the puzzle?  You can click the link below to be a piece of our puzzle!

It is difficult to see but the recently added pieces say "Family"

Successful auction and huge blessing

Our online auction has come and gone, and I would like to thank everyone who participated in anyway at all.  I would have to say that it was a big success helping us raise almost $1,600.  As I was sending out messages to the winners, I started getting replies from people letting me know that they were sending their bids to us.  One particular message that I received told me that they were going to send much more than the total of their winning bid.

This evening we were blessed once again by a person sending a gift to our agency on our behalf.  If you had not noticed by the bar at the top we are now over halfway to our goal.  We are completely humbled by the generosity of so many, and thankful for those that have come along side us and stood shoulder to shoulder with us as embark on this journey!

Another State Added!

Illinois	89
Indiana	17
Ohio	7
Missouri	5
Canada	4
Georgia	3
Iowa	2
North Carolina	1
New Hampshire	1
Massachusetts	1
Texas	1
Maryland	1
Connecticut	1

Total                            133

After being away for a week, I spent some time this evening checking on our puzzle progress.  We are now up to 133 pieces added.  You will also note that one of the new pieces that has been added has also added another State to our list of States!

Long week!

A VERY long week is starting to come to an end. 2 flights, 1 layover and a 2.5 hour drive seperate me from my bed.

I spent the week installing and training a new customer on how to use our system. The week started out with everything going wrong. Thankfully it was not anything that was my fault, bit some of the things caused a few issues for me. It seemed like one thing after another was piling on.

The day's all began to run together. I was having lunch with some of the women and we were talking about our adoption process and where we were adopting from. They had mentioned that one of the other ladies in the office had just spent 3 weeks there on vacation. REALLY, what are the odds. Most people have never heard of it before. We had a good conversation about the process and it was a nice break from the issues.

Things were looking up lastnight and today went very well.   Things were falling into place. I had a few more conversations in the office and as I was wrapping up and leaving, I was blessed by one of the women in the office. God is good.