Raffle!!

My generous friend, Tracy, has worked hard making things and gathering donations to put together an amazing raffle. It will be going on all week and has some great stuff!!! Here's a sample of what will be in the raffle:

You can go to the RAFFLE tab at the top of the blog to get pictures and more details on each donation!

Moving along

We finally got some good news about our home study report. It was completed this weekend and we read over it and had her edit a couple things--for instance, Kyle is actually not Canadian. It's now in the hands of our adoption agency, who has said once they're done reading over it then it'll be back in our home study agency's hands to add/correct anything and then it will be completed. And then we will be registered in India's system!! What?! In a perfect world I would put a timeline of it being done by Friday, but we've all seen it doesn't work that way. So I'll just be happy that we're at this point and oh so close to being known in India as wanting to adopt one of their sweet kids!

One of the things our adoption agency told us yesterday that needed to be added to the home study was a Special Needs checklist. I had checked with them a few weeks ago to ask if they had something for me to fill out, but they said not to worry about it at the time (it's crazy the things that can get mixed up in this process). We finally received the checklist and Kyle and I sat down and did it last night. If you've never had to fill one out, be a little grateful because it's not the most lighthearted thing to do. If you take the standpoint that these are just terms and not think about the kids who have these special needs and are waiting for families, then it's a lot easier. But it was hard for me to do--I felt like those check marks were for the children themselves. One of those check marks are what has more than likely made my child available for adoption.
           

Medical issue                 yes                no             maybe                 Thoughts in my head


HIV+                                                                               Either way-Both parents have died and they're all alone
HIV-/with HIV+ mom            

Burns:                                                                              What abuse has this poor child suffered?
On face
Arms/Legs

Cleft lip                                                                            Abandoned because of social stigmas

Child requiring wheel chair                                             Parents want to take care of this child but know they                                                                                                                 could never afford their medical care

   

And on and on....
I know those are purely my ideas and not always the entire truth--but there is truth in that these children hurt both physically and emotionally and want a forever family to care for those hurts. We did have to say no to some--just as most adoptive parents do--for many different reasons. And it's not easy to say no to those things on that checklist, and I'm sure it was a whole lot harder for some of their parents to say no to their sweet child.
Yet we were able to say yes to many of the medical needs on that list, and I will forever be thankful the Lord allowed us to say yes to our special child--special need and all. 

Craft fair!!!

I always love the craft fair/bake sale at Providence because I know I'm going to leave with some awesome gifts for my whole family (immediate and extended) and for myself too! As I mentioned in a previous post--ALL the money--every single penny, will be going towards our adoption fund. This is super generous since that means everyone who is making/baking/donating is giving up lots of the their time and money for this sale. And then they turn around and spend even more money buying all the good stuff that everyone else has made. It really is a great sale! Maybe I can bribe some of the crafters to take a couple pictures of their stuff to post here. But for now, I'll post the adorable flier--thanks again Kelsey!

Seriously--it's worth the drive no matter where you live. But for sure friends who live in the DFW area need to come shop--and visit me. :) GREAT CHRISTMAS PRESENTS!!!

Got books?

This weekend was a $1,300 success! Kyle happily watched his books, CDs, and childhood G.I. Joe and Star Wars toys leave our garage. He'd thank me for helping throughout the weekend and I'd thank him for his help (since I didn't really do anything) and he'd say, "you mean for keeping all my stuff all these years?" Hey, if it helps get our little one home, then it was all perfect timing, even if he did have to keep some of it for over 30 years for this perfect moment. :)
We still have sooooooo many books left. This is what our garage looks like right now...(minus CDs)

 Thanks for putting up the lights Chris, they were perfect for our sale!!

 

As comfy as it looks (I could spend all day and night out there reading if I didn't have other responsibilities), it's a little overwhelming since we don't know what we're going to do with it all. We're considering doing another sale black friday weekend, but haven't decided yet. I've also posted it all on craigslist and am going to email a book reseller that came and bought a bunch this weekend to see if he or anyone he knows would like it all for a deal. We have some GREAT stuff left and are hoping to just get it out of there.
Kyle still also has a few hundred CDs left we're going to see if we can sell to Amazon. And a fellow toy nerd came by this weekend and told Kyle about the GIJoeCon that happens to take place in Dallas in 2014 (50th year!), so we're definitely going to look into getting a booth to sell all his little Joe guys. This guy picked 5 or 6 guys out and offered Kyle $20 for them when Kyle would have given them up for $2. Maybe we can fund the whole rest of the adoption with these plastic people. I'm going to be living with a G.I. Joe nerd for the next six months--I can't even begin to explain how excited Kyle is to get to research (play with) all his toys.
We had a lot of fun, and had our awesome friends over Friday night for a kick off party. They were as generous as ever. I know there was some buying just to help us out, but we also have some serious book and music fans for friends, so I think they enjoyed going through everything. Right, friends?! ;)

I emailed our social worker last week and she never replied so I sent a follow up email today and after a few explanations of why we've been put off for other families I THINK she's agreed to have ours written up next. Which supposedly means we'll have it to look over this week. Pray that happens. It stinks that this is just the first step and we're already having to wait longer than promised. I don't know how I'm going to handle the waiting when we're matched with our child! I might have to get into G.I. Joes to keep myself busy.

What a night!

If you go to my blog to read these posts you might have seen a huge jump in our fundraising thermometer today. Last night at church was such a special time for many reasons. We were so blessed that Kyle was given the opportunity to share his heart about his book, time in India, and our adoption. And I never knew that a sea of grey shirts could look so beautiful--such a perfect physical example of how much we are supported by our church family. I hope the day we finally land in the US with a our little Indian child we will be surrounded at the airport with that sea of grey rejoicing with us!
Our family and friends gave so generously last night--$5200!!! Plus another $750 from shirts that we sold this round to help us raise in one night alone almost $6000! It was so humbling to see that not only are we loved more than we know, but our child is already loved and prayed for by so many others. They already want to take care of her like we do and I love knowing that one little Sparrow has so many people waiting for her to be here with us. I know last night had to make many wish this little one was joining their family--and I'm thankful that we're the lucky ones who get to have her in our home. ;)
Pastor Mark also had two more surprises for us--our very musically gifted worship leader was surprising our church with a song that he had written a couple years ago for Advent (sorry Drue, not sure on the year?) that he was recording and was going to give to us as a free download. He's still doing that, but he also decided that along with the song that he's going to share about our adoption and offer people the opportunity to donate to our adoption through the free download. This is something that everyone is going to want to hear and download and I will most definitely post the link when that's available. Drue and his family have been wonderful friends to our family and we are blessed to know him and have him lead us in worship every week. If you've never been to our church please take a minute to listen to (and buy!) his album he put out a couple years ago--it will most definitely bless you in amazing ways.
The second surprise was that the money raised from our infamous craft sale we have every year will be going towards our adoption. This is a big fundraiser for Providence--and it's only because we have some of the most creative, talented people in all of the DFW area, and I'm not at all exaggerating. I feel really unworthy of this because I am the least crafty person you'll ever meet and never have anything to offer to this sale. So I buy Christmas presents like crazy from the sale every year and count that as my contribution. Kyle has sold his Polaroid posters so I'll tag my name onto his and be thankful that I'm married to talented man! I can't wait to have examples of what's going to be offered and flyers to post because this will be something you'll want to drive to the Dallas area for to buy some Christmas presents. This is really a huge blessing for our fundraising and I never imagined this was going to be offered to us.
Kyle started a new job this year, and although we're blessed with a salary that works for us, it's less than what he made last year, and that's with a few hundred dollar jump in rent since we went from home owners to renters....but even with that we have SOMEHOW (crazy!?!) been able to also put $200-300 in our adoption savings every month, along with all the money I make with whatever little work I do for my dad. And of course there's the money from what we sold at our garage sale and we're about to sale at our book and music sale this coming weekend. All that to say that I surprisingly haven't been that worried about how we're going to raise money for this adoption, I've been more excited from the beginning to see how God is going to get us to our goal, so last night definitely proved that God does take care of us--and does it through his people. Yes, the few hundred dollars we are able to somehow find every month is a huge amount for us, but if you're only putting that amount towards $30,000 the thermometer seems to go up a lot slower than you hope, especially when you have to send $2500 to adoption agency within the next two weeks. But wow, to not just see huge chunks of money go out, but to see our very sacrificial church give to our little one in such huge amounts is definitely very humbling and beautiful all at the same time!
Thank you all to everything you've been doing for our family! We love you!

P.S.--I know I'm posting a lot about fundraising over the last couple months, but that's where we're at right now. We're still waiting on news about our home study report. It was supposed to have been finished by the end of October and I haven't heard anything about it yet, but will most definitely post news when that's written up because we can start moving along again. So for now we're blessed with money being poured down from Heaven and I definitely want to take the time to be thankful for that!