I could possibly be the worst garage sale putter onner (did you get that?) you will ever meet. It's pretty much guaranteed that if you ask for a deal on something I'm selling, no matter how outrageous the offer, I will probably say yes. I just can't say no. I can't do that bargaining stuff either...I'll either just accept, or I look at Kyle and he takes over. Kyle has never come out and said it, but I'm pretty sure he hates doing garage sales with me since it usually would have benefited us more if we just donated it all to Goodwill and gotten the receipt for our tax deductions. I think we once made $86 in a whole weekend. Yes, that's me. So, all that to say, the money we made this weekend was nothing short of a miracle. Our total came to $1095!! That's not even including our t-shirt pre-orders or what Jeremy and Joni made on their bake sale. We were absolutely amazed. It would never would have happened if we didn't have all of our friends and family who donated tons of stuff, came and shopped (and donated money), and our sanity being saved by friends who helped us price, set up and tear down. $30,000 still seems so far away, but our simple little garage sale this weekend made us really excited to see in what big and small ways God will provide. It also bring us just a couple hundred dollars short of our home study fee and after that's done we can start applying for grants. So to everyone who helped--thank you, thank you, thank you--your help and excitement for us means more than we can express!
The time I got to spend with Jeremy and Joni this weekend was also a really big blessing. Because of how far we always seem to live from each other we don't spend much time together unless there's something at my parent's house or a family vacation...and even then there's usually kids wanting some aunt and uncle attention. This is the first time that just J & J, Kyle and me have all spent alone together. It was great getting to talk with them about our adoptions. We wondered who our kids are, if they're born or not, what they're going through at this moment, if they're being loved on or feeling alone and scared. We talked about what it would be like when they got home. We talked about the adoption process and how we'd do anything we had to to have them in our arms. It was a special time and everyday I'm more and more grateful that we're going through this together. Even though we're adopting from different countries and the process looks a lot different for both places, in the end it's all the same to us as we dream and pray and work to have them in our family.
This weekend gave me a break from paperwork, training videos, stressing on what to do in what order, and allowed me to know that this isn't just a process, but a journey that I will look back on with very special memories of friends' support and family talks of a child I already love and will someday be holding in my arms.
Tuesday, July 30, 2013
Sunday, July 28, 2013
Selling our stuff...and other people's too
I just realized I didn't post our awesome garage sale flyer that Kyle made. Today is our final day--come by and shop and eat! My brother and sister-in-law have some breakfast
tacos for sale and lots of other goodies. We will be
marking most items half off a little later.
Thursday, July 18, 2013
Perfect Timing
There have been a few times Kyle and I have questioned when the right time to start adopting would be--we even went through training for a domestic adoption before Charlotte was born but ended up not being able to finish everything due to circumstances way beyond our control. This time when we discussed it we knew that it was the perfect time and we decided to go ahead and start telling people. We didn't make a big deal out of announcing it to our parents, just kind of slipped it into conversation--but it ended up not being our news that was so exciting for me to share, but what my parents said....
They were still researching countries and agencies and home studies at that time, but weren't announcing anything yet because they hadn't made any final decisions. In fact, this is kind of the big announcement--I was given permission to post their news to the "world." :) I can't tell you how excited I was to hear that we would be sharing this awesome experience with them. I don't really have many people (2? 3?) in my life who have adopted, or have been touched by adoption in a personal way, or are even planning on adopting sometime in their life, so to know that my awesome, sweet (big) little brother and his amazing, beautiful wife will be going through all this--the paper work, training, waiting, fundraising, decisions, more paper work, finding grants, more waiting, traveling, the emotional experiences after bringing our children home--at the same time as we are is more than I ever even thought to pray for. I'm excited to be an aunt, and thrilled that it's going to be through adoption. It's moving to think that our kids will grow up together. I sometimes wonder how hard it is for a child who has been adopted--what questions they have, how comfortable they feel about talking about their fears and anxieties. I know that it's different for each child, and different at each stage of their lives, but how amazing will it be that these future cousins will always have a family member who can truly understand what they're feeling no matter what doubts or questions they have. It's a beautiful picture of family, and how much more perfect timing can you get than that?
I'm so excited to share this time with Jeremy and Joni! They will also be at our garage sale with baked goods to sell. If you would like to donate any baked goods I know they would be soooo very grateful. If you can't donate at least come and try some of Joni's awesome baking--really, it's always delicious! Please let me know through email or comment if you can donate towards the garage sale and/or bake sale!
Aren't they cute?! They're going to be a great mommy and daddy!
my brother and sister-in-law are adopting too!!
They were still researching countries and agencies and home studies at that time, but weren't announcing anything yet because they hadn't made any final decisions. In fact, this is kind of the big announcement--I was given permission to post their news to the "world." :) I can't tell you how excited I was to hear that we would be sharing this awesome experience with them. I don't really have many people (2? 3?) in my life who have adopted, or have been touched by adoption in a personal way, or are even planning on adopting sometime in their life, so to know that my awesome, sweet (big) little brother and his amazing, beautiful wife will be going through all this--the paper work, training, waiting, fundraising, decisions, more paper work, finding grants, more waiting, traveling, the emotional experiences after bringing our children home--at the same time as we are is more than I ever even thought to pray for. I'm excited to be an aunt, and thrilled that it's going to be through adoption. It's moving to think that our kids will grow up together. I sometimes wonder how hard it is for a child who has been adopted--what questions they have, how comfortable they feel about talking about their fears and anxieties. I know that it's different for each child, and different at each stage of their lives, but how amazing will it be that these future cousins will always have a family member who can truly understand what they're feeling no matter what doubts or questions they have. It's a beautiful picture of family, and how much more perfect timing can you get than that?
I'm so excited to share this time with Jeremy and Joni! They will also be at our garage sale with baked goods to sell. If you would like to donate any baked goods I know they would be soooo very grateful. If you can't donate at least come and try some of Joni's awesome baking--really, it's always delicious! Please let me know through email or comment if you can donate towards the garage sale and/or bake sale!
Tuesday, July 9, 2013
Fundraising! Garage sale anyone?
Yesterday morning Eli came into the living room wanting to "sell toys to get money for kids who don't have any." I assumed this was to help with our big garage sale we'll be having at the end of this month, but after filling his box, clipping a tie on his Mario t-shirt and putting on his Angry Birds winter hat, he was ready to go sit in the 100 degree heat to sell his stuff to "get money for his sister."
When he didn't get anything more than a wave, he and Kyle decided to try something else and set up a drink stand. We made do with some Light lemon/limeade and half frozen ice. Honestly I wasn't sure if anyone was going to stop--do people still do anything like that these days? So when I watched through the screen as the first person stopped I wanted to cry from the perfect picture of this sweet young guy who stopped for a little boy selling limeade, and for my big hearted little boy who already loves the sibling he's never met and knows nothing about, and for the little sparrow we will be welcoming into our home who will know love in ways they may not have ever encountered before. And then more and more people came. It wasn't "people lining up" like the image Eli had in his head, but in real life I saw people's faces lighting up when they found out this was "to adopt his sister." One lady gave $20 because she was adopted after being found as a newborn in the park and believes in adoption so much she would give to complete strangers like that. In the end we went through three pitchers of limeade and Eli made $35.80!
I've been a little worried about the cost of the adoption. It's made me hold back on getting anything done quickly because of how much each step costs. Thankfully the agency we're going with has it spread out pretty evenly, and I've seen so many other adoptive families who never knew how it could be done watch as the money just came together. God has shown us so much over the last few years how he will always provide for us and I know he won't stop now, so we're praying and getting busy with some fundraisers. Once I get this blog a little more organized I'll be able to show dates of events that we're doing and ways that people can help.
For now we do know we will be having a garage sale the last weekend of this month--July 26-28th. We will also be having a book sale soon after and if anyone knows a nice place that is free or very inexpensive to have it then please let us know as we plan to make it a pretty big event with time for people to browse through the hundreds of books and cd's that will be for sale. There will also be baked goods/drinks (limeade anyone?) for sale, and who knows what other fun stuff we can come up with. If anyone has any thing you would like to donate towards the garage sale and/or book sale we would gladly accept it!
When he didn't get anything more than a wave, he and Kyle decided to try something else and set up a drink stand. We made do with some Light lemon/limeade and half frozen ice. Honestly I wasn't sure if anyone was going to stop--do people still do anything like that these days? So when I watched through the screen as the first person stopped I wanted to cry from the perfect picture of this sweet young guy who stopped for a little boy selling limeade, and for my big hearted little boy who already loves the sibling he's never met and knows nothing about, and for the little sparrow we will be welcoming into our home who will know love in ways they may not have ever encountered before. And then more and more people came. It wasn't "people lining up" like the image Eli had in his head, but in real life I saw people's faces lighting up when they found out this was "to adopt his sister." One lady gave $20 because she was adopted after being found as a newborn in the park and believes in adoption so much she would give to complete strangers like that. In the end we went through three pitchers of limeade and Eli made $35.80!
I've been a little worried about the cost of the adoption. It's made me hold back on getting anything done quickly because of how much each step costs. Thankfully the agency we're going with has it spread out pretty evenly, and I've seen so many other adoptive families who never knew how it could be done watch as the money just came together. God has shown us so much over the last few years how he will always provide for us and I know he won't stop now, so we're praying and getting busy with some fundraisers. Once I get this blog a little more organized I'll be able to show dates of events that we're doing and ways that people can help.
For now we do know we will be having a garage sale the last weekend of this month--July 26-28th. We will also be having a book sale soon after and if anyone knows a nice place that is free or very inexpensive to have it then please let us know as we plan to make it a pretty big event with time for people to browse through the hundreds of books and cd's that will be for sale. There will also be baked goods/drinks (limeade anyone?) for sale, and who knows what other fun stuff we can come up with. If anyone has any thing you would like to donate towards the garage sale and/or book sale we would gladly accept it!
We're adopting!
Some of you may have already heard this news, but we thought we'd make official by starting a blog--that's what you're supposed to do, right?! Yes, we're bringing another little one(s?) into our family and we're all excited about it! I'm writing this as Eli is outside doing a Limeade stand to raise our first funds for the adoption--so it doesn't take much to see that the whole family is ready to get this journey started!
There's so much to say about it and I have no idea where to begin, but I thought I'd start with questions that I've already gotten to make it flow a little better since I have so much information I want to share. I'll try to write as little as possible on this post so it won't be too overwhelming. There will be months...and months...and months...for more information.
Why are you adopting?
Some people grow up wanting to be doctors or lawyers or circus clowns, I have grown up wanting to adopt as many children as I could (and to work in orphanages, but that's another blog post I'm sure I'll get to). Now that I'm older I realize that adopting isn't as easy as just saying you want to do it and bringing a child into your home, but we're ready to start filling out mountains of paperwork and looking for ways to raise thousands of dollars for at least one little one to join our family. Kyle and I have been talking about it throughout our whole marriage and we can't think of a better time to begin than now, so we're starting and praying that through every step of this process we will know we are not in control but the Lord's eyes are on us and our little Sparrow thousands of miles away.
From where? Why?
Because of both Kyle and my love for international anything and Kyle's special fondness of India we're going to be adopting from that beautiful country. We both see times of travel (and maybe living?) in India in our future, so for our adopted child(ren) to share their home country with us in that way seems really special. I know many people have their ideas about why you should or should not leave your home country to adopt, and I'm sure there will be blog posts in the future about how I feel about it all, but for now we'll keep it simple.
Do you know anything about the child yet?
India has more rules than I can possibly explain here, but we do know that our child probably will not be younger than 3. We are planning on adopting a girl--unless there's any way we can adopt siblings, which I'm praying strongly for, and in that case we might be bringing a little boy into our home too. We do know that we'd like to keep Eli as the oldest so 5 or younger is the plan. I say all this knowing that just because we have a picture in our minds doesn't mean that it's where the Lord will actually lead and I pray that we're open to anything!
How long before you will be bringing the little one home?
Only the Lord knows. This is one of the hardest parts for me. I want to know..and I want to know NOW. I want to be assured that once we get our home study done we will be matched within the month and then once that's done we will be holding that child in our arms no more than 6 months later. But that's crazy and ridiculous and have I mentioned that we're adopting from India? I'm not going to say what the time line is but I will say that I'm praying it won't take longer than 18 months. I know many people have waited way longer than that and I know it can be more like 2-2.5 years, but I'm praying for shorter time because patience is not my strength (maybe that's what I'll be learning along the way?) The time line can't be seen before it's even started and more than that it's a long, heart wrenching process that I'm sure will lead me to more tears and frustration that I can imagine right now. Which leads me to the last question I'll have for now....
Why 'Our Indian Sparrow'?
One night in May after we had officially decided that we were going to start the process I was reading through an adoption blog and the author was posting some youtube clips of her favorite songs, one of them being 'His Eye is on the Sparrow'--and I started bawling. Besides getting a list of things we need for our home study and deciding on an agency, we have not even taken a tiny step into this and I'm already overwhelmed, bogged down with how much it's going to take to get our little one home. I know there's a chance I'm going to get news about forms being lost in offices all the way across the world, or thoughts of my little one being sick with a cold and I'm not there to help them feel better, and I will feel completely discouraged. And I also know that the only thing that can get me through that time would be drawing "closer to Him" knowing that His eye is on the sparrow--OUR Sparrow and that He knows our cares and fears. If you don't know the lyrics, or haven't heard them in a long time I recommend reading them and knowing there's more truth in the message than your doubts in the lonely and hard times can ever escape.
So--this was a lot longer than I planned. And I know I talked a lot about being overwhelmed, but I also know this is going to be one of the most exciting times in our lives. Think sweet pregnancy thoughts! :)
Why are you adopting?
Some people grow up wanting to be doctors or lawyers or circus clowns, I have grown up wanting to adopt as many children as I could (and to work in orphanages, but that's another blog post I'm sure I'll get to). Now that I'm older I realize that adopting isn't as easy as just saying you want to do it and bringing a child into your home, but we're ready to start filling out mountains of paperwork and looking for ways to raise thousands of dollars for at least one little one to join our family. Kyle and I have been talking about it throughout our whole marriage and we can't think of a better time to begin than now, so we're starting and praying that through every step of this process we will know we are not in control but the Lord's eyes are on us and our little Sparrow thousands of miles away.
From where? Why?
Because of both Kyle and my love for international anything and Kyle's special fondness of India we're going to be adopting from that beautiful country. We both see times of travel (and maybe living?) in India in our future, so for our adopted child(ren) to share their home country with us in that way seems really special. I know many people have their ideas about why you should or should not leave your home country to adopt, and I'm sure there will be blog posts in the future about how I feel about it all, but for now we'll keep it simple.
Do you know anything about the child yet?
India has more rules than I can possibly explain here, but we do know that our child probably will not be younger than 3. We are planning on adopting a girl--unless there's any way we can adopt siblings, which I'm praying strongly for, and in that case we might be bringing a little boy into our home too. We do know that we'd like to keep Eli as the oldest so 5 or younger is the plan. I say all this knowing that just because we have a picture in our minds doesn't mean that it's where the Lord will actually lead and I pray that we're open to anything!
How long before you will be bringing the little one home?
Only the Lord knows. This is one of the hardest parts for me. I want to know..and I want to know NOW. I want to be assured that once we get our home study done we will be matched within the month and then once that's done we will be holding that child in our arms no more than 6 months later. But that's crazy and ridiculous and have I mentioned that we're adopting from India? I'm not going to say what the time line is but I will say that I'm praying it won't take longer than 18 months. I know many people have waited way longer than that and I know it can be more like 2-2.5 years, but I'm praying for shorter time because patience is not my strength (maybe that's what I'll be learning along the way?) The time line can't be seen before it's even started and more than that it's a long, heart wrenching process that I'm sure will lead me to more tears and frustration that I can imagine right now. Which leads me to the last question I'll have for now....
Why 'Our Indian Sparrow'?
One night in May after we had officially decided that we were going to start the process I was reading through an adoption blog and the author was posting some youtube clips of her favorite songs, one of them being 'His Eye is on the Sparrow'--and I started bawling. Besides getting a list of things we need for our home study and deciding on an agency, we have not even taken a tiny step into this and I'm already overwhelmed, bogged down with how much it's going to take to get our little one home. I know there's a chance I'm going to get news about forms being lost in offices all the way across the world, or thoughts of my little one being sick with a cold and I'm not there to help them feel better, and I will feel completely discouraged. And I also know that the only thing that can get me through that time would be drawing "closer to Him" knowing that His eye is on the sparrow--OUR Sparrow and that He knows our cares and fears. If you don't know the lyrics, or haven't heard them in a long time I recommend reading them and knowing there's more truth in the message than your doubts in the lonely and hard times can ever escape.
So--this was a lot longer than I planned. And I know I talked a lot about being overwhelmed, but I also know this is going to be one of the most exciting times in our lives. Think sweet pregnancy thoughts! :)
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