More fundraising :)

We had our auction a few weeks ago. It was so fun!! Our auctioneer was hilarious and such a huge blessing. Quite a few people from J's Dad's church showed up and a few others. It wasn't a huge turnout but God still provided and I think it was a blessing to all involved. We also received a check from his Dad's church for all the change they collected over the past month, and they matched funds for it!! So exciting!! So God has provided for the next step as He promised.
We are STILL waiting to get our home study rough draft back-really thought we would've had it by now but our social worker is really busy. We REALLY want it back because the cost of sending our documents to the USCIS to get approved to adopt internationally is going up Nov. 23 so we're praying we get it submitted before that!! Once we get the rough draft, we'll look it over and send it on to our adoption agency. If she approves it then we'll send it back to the social worker and she'll provide us with the final draft. We have all of our documents ready to send to the USCIS, we just need the finalized home study in hand!! Not so sure if we'll be able to send our dossier to Ethiopia (DTE) by the end of the year though...we'll see. His timing is perfect, so I will not stress. We don't have the money for our dossier to be sent anyway, but we know He will provide that when we need it too. I have embraced the phrase, God is seldom early, never late, but ALWAYS on time.
So now that the yard sales, pancake breakfasts, auction fundraisers are over....I'm moving on to MORE fundraisers!!! I am planning a cookie sale at our church Dec. 5th. A dear sister is doing a fundraiser for us where she will donate a percentage of the sales from her business to us!! http://www.ellieannapurses.com/ is the website, you have to mention that you're doing it for us. She has some beautiful hand made purses, jewelry, etc. Another dear friend is doing a Tupperware fundraiser for us. There are some really neat products that are only available through the fundraiser. We're still selling Gooseberry cookbooks as well. Coffee sales from our site are doing well too. You can click on our link from this page to purchase some coffee.
The other big key to getting our home study back is that we'll then be able to apply for grants. There are some neat programs out there that provide them, we just need to have a completed home study!!! Also our adoption agency has a Waiting Children Program for older children, sibling groups and children with special needs. Once we get our home study we can also apply to adopt from there if we find a child we want.
So that's where we're at...just praying that God shows us direction while we wait. There is always a reason for waiting, something to be learned. So we're just being patient and listening and preparing our home for our new child.
Please pray for God to continue blessing this process, to keep our family safe (Satan hates adoption!!) and to watch over and protect our son in Ethiopia and his family as well.

Trust & Prepartion

A week or so ago I was reading in Mark, Chap. 8:1-10. Jesus tells the disciples he feels sorry for the crowds who have gathered and have no more food to eat. Most of them had come a long distance and wouldn't have the strength to get home. The disciples ask how they could possibly feed all the people. Jesus asks THEM how many loaves of bread they have. They answer seven. So Jesus took the seven loaves and thanked God for them, broke them into pieces and gave them to the disciples who then distributed them to the crowd.  Everyone ate until they were full and there were still seven baskets left over. Jesus fed four thousand people with seven loaves of bread.
This verse was so encouraging to me and not because I have ever wondered where the money would come from for this adoption but because it just reaffirmed that all He asks is what we HAVE. He will do the rest if we're willing to let Him. God knows we don't have all the money for this adoption but He just asks what we have. Well we have willing hearts, room in our house and hearts and that's all. HE will provide the rest.
I was also thinking this week as we were at J's Dad's church about all the people there who are rallying around us and how God prepared them for that. After a couple spoke last year about Haiti and brought their little boy they had adopted from Haiti with them to speak at their church almost everyone started sponsoring children from Haiti. What if God hadn't primed their hearts for the plight of orphans? I am amazed and yet not at the same time-He is just sooooo good!!
He also brought to my mind all the little boys I've babysat over the past four years. What amazing preparation for our youngest!! Since birth, she's not had all of Mommy's attention. It's always been shared with older siblings and other little boys her age. God is one smooth operator!!!
I love looking back at how God's hand has guided everything. His plan is the only one I want to follow and I continue to look forward to meeting the little boy He has had planned for our family before the beginning of time.

Auction

We are in the process of waiting :) It's the name of the game at this point and only just the beginning...We have had our physicals done and are just waiting for our Dr.'s to get the paperwork done RIGHT. Who'd of thought that it'd take so long for them to figure out how to fill out a form?! No worries though because we're still waiting to get our home study rough draft back from our social worker. The only thing we need other than that is info on J's life insurance policy. I have the forms all ready to send to the USCIS when we get our home study back. If they approve our form then we get the coveted I-171H (which means we are allowed to adopt internationally.) From there our dossier will get sent to Ethiopia after a few hands see it first. So that's where we're at with the paper chase part. We're hoping everything will be sent off across the pond by the end of this year!! Lord willing...
Our auction is this Friday. We're very excited. We've got some great items to auction off and have some yummy desserts on the menu. The gentleman doing the auctioning is doing it for free-we've never met him but he does auctioneering for volunteer purposes only and is a pretty funny guy I've heard. We can't wait to see how the Lord will provide!! Please pray for this event for us. More updates later...

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??