Fundraising excitement!!

The cookbook sales are doing pretty good. Quite a few of my dear friends have bought some and we put some at my brother's bakery as well. Yesterday a lady went into his bakery and was talking about wedding favors and my brother showed her the cookbooks we were selling. So I get a call to see if we could have 100+ sent to her by Friday for the wedding this weekend!!! So today it was confirmed that we could ship 110 of the cookbooks to her!!! Praise God!! I love how the Lord works it all out in a way that we could never do ourselves. I still have some to sell as well as the pocket calenders, so if you're interested...:)
We are also continuing to gather items for the auction which is in 3 weeks!!! I am very much looking forward to that event-it should be a lot of fun! I also have a date set for the cookies by the pound sale in early December...just need to secure the location.
We got quite a few more documents notarized this weekend. Still waiting on all J and I's blood work results before our physicals will be notarized. My brother will be helping me with our photo pages for our dossier as he has a Mac and can do it a lot more efficiently. So other than waiting for our home study rough draft to come back we're looking pretty good. I hope to have our dossier in the mail by the end of this year.
Again, I have to say I have been so blessed with the people who have jumped on board with this adoption and stood with us to help with all that this adoption entails. It is certainly not a solo effort and I truly am beyond words at what people have done for us. It really is so neat to see how this is affecting so many people and touching so many hearts. Adoption was His plan from the beginning and as I've just finished the Old Testament it was so neat to read it with that in mind. Esther, Jesus and more throughout the Bible were adopted. I bet God has big plans for our son too ;)

While we wait...

While we wait for the perfect timing...




they hope they can wait another day.





While we wait for more money...



they wait with nothing.





While we wait for a bigger home with enough room...



they wait for room in our hearts.







While we wait for others approval...



they wait with any dignity they can find.









While we wait for the ideal child....



they wait knowing they are not.



While we wait trying to decide if we can manage another...



they wait trying to manage on their own.









While we wait to see how much we have to give to them...




They are waiting to give us even more.





While we wait for God to provide...



He waits for us to take the first step so He can.



We must NEVER use 'waiting to hear from Him' as an excuse for not doing what He has ALREADY commanded in the bible for us to do... proclaim the truth, care for orphans, serve others, be His hands of justice for the poor, and show compassion.



So, what are you waiting for??

Checklists & Fundraisers

HOME STUDY IS DONE!!! Normally it takes 4 weeks to get the report back but it will be about 6 for us as the lady who did it is on vacation for 2 weeks. Again, in God's perfect timing everything will happen exactly when it's supposed to. Jonathan is now finished with his online training and we both have passports in hand ready to go!! We have a bunch of paperwork to get notarized and I still need to have my physical done. Well I tried to have it done last week and waited an hour in the waiting room when they came out and told me my Dr. went home sick!! Go figure. So it's rescheduled for next week. Jonathan also needs to get his updated as they didn't do all the blood work that was required. We have a little time though as we have to wait on the home study report to come back before we move forward with the next steps. We have all three reference letters from our dear friends and just need to get those notarized as well.
On the fundraising front...we are selling Gooseberry Patch books and calendars. They have the cutest stuff!! Check out their website if you are not familiar with them. Or let me know if you'd like to purchase either or just want information on them. We are also in full swing of planning our auction/dessert/coffee bar event!! We are doing it in the County (!) October 22 at 7pm. We have a saint up there pulling together the event (collecting auction items, etc) and J's Mom is doing her part and collecting items, etc as well. I am working on getting auction items from our area. We now need to work on getting all the desserts together. Anyone want to bake?? Very exciting although I must admit I am having a hard time letting someone do all this work for us. But when I think about it, it's not really for US, it's for a child, for the Kingdom, for what God has called us to do. This adoption has never been about US. Some days I am quite comfortable with where we're at, with our THREE children. But God doesn't want us to be comfortable, He wants us to be more like Jesus. Jesus wasn't comfortable on the cross, but He was being obedient. And that's simply what we're doing, being obedient.
"Do not be afraid, for I am with you; I will bring your children from the east and gather you from the west. I will say to the north, `Give them up!' and to the south, `Do not hold them back. Bring my sons from afar and my daughters from the ends of the earth.'" -Isaiah 43: 5-6

Reality Check

So I read a great blog post this morning, although my hubby may disagree as he woke up to a weepy wife. The lady had adopted two children previously and is in the process to adopt another. She was writing about the "other" side of adoption. The one not many people consider. Most people think about what they're doing for the orphan and how they'll really be able to bless that child. However, how many of us consider what that child has been through? What the mother/family has gone through? Was the child hostily taken? Did the mother walk away after dropping her baby off, crying? Was the child abandoned somewhere? My heart just broke at the thought, the emotion of what it would be like to have to give up my child because they weren't the "right gender" or because we couldn't afford to feed him/her. We've been praying for our little guy but my prayers have turned to his family as well. It breaks my heart that he'll have gone through more in his few years than I have in my whole life. He's going to come with baggage to his forever family, but hey, didn't we all come with baggage when our Heavenly Father opened His arms to us??