Fingerprinting

The day has finally arrived for Lewis and I to be finger printed for immigration.  I am so excited and nervous.  Excited because it is taking us one step closer to our little girl, but nervous that we are closer to meeting our little girl.  We feel truly blessed that God has taken our family on this amazing adventure.  I am so thankful for our family and friends for your prayers, support, and gifts.  We have a new prayer request that could use as much prayer as possible.  Lewis and I have applied for an adoption grant through helpusadopt.org.  The grant we have applied for will be for $10,000.  The prayer is that God will inspire the hearts of the committee to find our application worthy.  

Pancake Fundraiser

I am still in awe of how God showed up in such a wonderful and profound way on Saturday.  After  weeks of preparing, planning, and praying our first large fundraiser is over and completed.  We personally want to thank our life group and our parents for coming out so early in the morning to help us.  We also want to thank and brag about our three boys. They were awesome helpers and willing workers.  Our boys were the waiters and I am happy to report we did not have any spills.  Our breakfast started at 7:00 a.m. and ended at 10:30 a.m..  When no one showed up until 8:30 we were getting nervous (I have to admit).  However, at 9:00 it started to pick up.  We served 50 people breakfast! The fundraiser made close to $1,000!  We should have only made $200 if everyone had paid what was asked.  This amount would not have covered our expense, however, God showed up!  God had who he wanted to be at our breakfast.  We are so thankful to God for taking care of us and our daughter! Thanks God you rock!

One Week Away

We are one week away for our biggest fundraiser!  Please Please help us by spreading the word.  Please email, facebok, or tweet your friends.  This is a great opportunity to have breakfast with your life group or friends.  We have not set a goal because we trust that God will truly come through.  Remember Saturday October 29 from 7:00a.m. to 10:30 a.m. All You Can Eat Pancake Breakfast at Holland Park in Fishers.  We would love to see you there.  If you would be interested in volunteering please let me know.  Please pray for our family during this time.  We are far below our goal needed to make the next step in our adoption happen.  We are around $2700 dollars short.  God Bless to everyone

Immigaration Here We Come

Thank God our home study is done! On Thursday of this week we mailed out our application to immigration. We have completed one step on our journey and beginning another.  Wow this process has already been full of ups, downs, stop, and goes.  Our hearts are so thankful that our heavenly father has been with us every step of the way.  It seems at every turn our faith has been tested by trusting in God and not ourselves.  I have some exciting news to tell everyone.  our next fundraiser has been scheduled on October 29th we are having an all you can eat pancake breakfasts.  Please tell your friends or anyone you know how this will help bring our little girl home. 

Results

Our total from the consignment sale is around $300.00.  We sold  close to 250 items of our 640.   I am happy to say that we also blessed Goodwill with the remiaing items which will in turn bless other families.  All together it was not a bad day.  God truly blessed us! 

Consignment sale

Today was our first fundraiser at Shine Again Consignment sale.  We ended up having 640 items!  I have not received a final total as of yet, but we only took home about half of our items.  Barb and Monica invited us to set up a booth to sell beverages, chocolate, and our t-shirts.  Yes our T-shirts have arrived and look very nice.  We made $130.00 from sale of the booth and donations from many generous people.   Today was a true blessing to our family.

Wow has time flown by with all three boys in school and soccer.  I am so thankful for the overwhelming blessings God has given to us through our friends and family.  Thank you to everyone who has been supporting us through prayer, clothing for the consignment sale, financially, and being a shoulder to support us through some storms that have come our way.  We are currently waiting for our home study agency to finish all the necessary paper work to complete our home study!  I am excited to start a new chapter in this long process.  Here are some fundraising updates:  consignment sale is two weekends away!  We currently have 530 items, but could use more.  We are starting the process of having our t-shirts printed and they will hopefully be available in two to three weeks!    I am working on a night out for the family wth comedy sportz!  If you have any ideas please send them our way.  We have a long way to go to reach our goal.

We have finished all of our Hague training!!!!  I only have one medical form to turn into Adoption Support Center to finish our paper work for the home study.   Some exciting news is that we are planning awesome fundraiser.  Need a night out as a family or a date night?   We are currently working on a family friendly night out of comedy.  Comedy Sportz is an impromptu is a (clean) comedy show.  This night would feature dinner and a show what more could you ask for?  Also we are so close to having our t-shirts printed.   Please pray for continued guidance and strength for our family. We have been under spiritual attack and are feeling the brunt of the storm.  However, I know that my/our God is stronger, bigger, and refuge from any storm this life or Satan can throw our way.  Also please remember the consignment sale is coming up soon.  We are still in need of donations.  Thanks to all who have already donated and who will be donating!

Busy Busy Busy

Time is flying by so fast I can hardly keep up.  School has officially started and the boys are in 4th and 2nd grade.  My little men are looking so big!  Tonight is our in home portion of the home study process.  I have spent the weekend cleaning and purging our home.  We also spent the weekend tagging items for the consignment sale.  So far there is 355 items.  However, we need more items to reach our $1000.00 goal.  Our Hague training is almost complete we only have 20% more of the 10 hours to complete.  This process is going faster than I thought it would praise God!

Our pass ports have arrived!!!!  We are so ready to go and get our daughter, but reality has set in and we have so many steps ahead before our dream comes true.  I had to laugh when I saw Lewis's pass port.  They excepted the picture of him with a temporary tattoo on his face from adventure week.  I love the humor we have found in this long process.  We started our Hague training tonight.  Well at least some of it ( we accomplished 12% of the 10 hours)  I am so happy to report that the snack shack at work is going great.  Carrie and I raised about $150 dollars towards our adoptions!   Thanks to all of the people at work who have graciously purchased an item.

Cleaning out closets

Okay we are gearing up for our first big fundraiser and I need your help.  As you are cleaning out your kids closets, and going through kids clothes for school keep us in mind.  We are participating in a children's consignment sale in September.  As a consigner we will receive 65% of the profit that is sold.  We can sale fall/winter appropriate attire, games, puzzles, shoes, costumes, maternity clothing, bikes, and large items such as cribs, high chairs, strollers, beds and etc.    We are hoping to make $1000.00 from this fundraiser.  Please let me know if you have anything to donate.

I am so excited to tell everyone we have received our first two donations to help with our adopting.  God has truly blessed us.   We have had a discouraging couple of days.  The van broke down and had to be fixed, the garage door opener broke, and the car key would not come out of the ignition.  All of this happened in a twelve hour span and so far has cost us $1100.  We are still working on the key.  God has truly been with us during this trial and keeping me especially calm.  I am thankful for his grace and mercy.  

Well today Lewis and I were fingerprinted.  I guess we are officially in the system.   We also heard that our criminal back ground checks are ready to go.  So, I guess this means we have no skeletons in our closets.  

Home Study Interview

We had our first of two home study interviews today.  Today went great, but it was two hours long!  I am amazed at how much information they actually needed to know I am a good parent.  Lewis was home sick today due to an eye infection so after our appointment I used his day off to our advantage.   Lewis received his TB test (he wanted a cartoon band-aid), we both submitted for our county police reports, and started on some of our training.  By the end of the day he was done with me taking advantage of his day off.  The van was also done because the air conditioning stopped working today of all days!   Tomorrow I will be hitting all of our doctors offices to have documentation done, and off to Auston's yearly physical.  Hopefully no shots for him this year.  Then the van gets to go see it's doctor to fix the air conditioning.

We are finally back in the normal routine again after vacation.  Our family spent a week in D.C. having a ball.  The boys loved Washington, but the Metro was the best part according to them.
We have our first home-study appointment this Thursday at 10:00a.m.   Things are becoming more real everyday.  I am nervous and excited all at the same time.  We also have our t-shirt logo thanks to Samantha!!!   We are hoping to launch our t-shirts in a month.   Today also marked the opening of the adoption snack shack at work.   Carie and I made our first $14.00 towards our adoptions.  Carie and her husband are adopting domestically.  I am also excited that our adoption announcement and support letters have gone out.  We are continually praying that God will provide our every need.  Thanks to everyone for your prayers and support.

Well Friday was passport day  As we are in line to get our passport photos taken I looked at Lewis and broke out laughing.  On Thursday night Lewis helped out at Adventure Week (vacation bible school on steroids).  He had placed a temporary studio 6.7 tatoo on his right cheek.   Well his passport photo will for the next ten years represent adventure week.  I am hoping that they will accept this photograph.  We have our first home study visit coming up on July 28th.   I am so excited that things are progressing so well.  We also finished our letter to the Ministry of Women's and children's affairs today.  This is the introduction letter to the government of Ethiopia.  I am excitd today because we are telling our boys today that they are going to be getting a litle sister soon!  Well I am off to vacation.

I am officially overwhelmed!!!  Today we received our home study packet.  I never realized how much information we were needing to obtain.  Oh well I guess one day at a time one foot in front of the other.  We have our first home study office visit on July 28.  I am so excited to start down this amazing journey that God has planned for our family.  Please keep us in your prayers that we will not become to overwhelmed, but continually to seek God in everything and everyday.

The Next Step

Today we received our adoption packet from Children's Hope International.  Wow we are on information overload.   We are excited and a little scared at this moment to be honest.  Our next step will be starting and completing our home study.  Please pray for Gods ever lasting care and provisions during this time.  We are placing our faith totally on God right now.  We chose Live the Letters from Matthew 25:35-36 written above.   We look at these red letters from our bibles which are words our Lord Jesus said.  When you read on in Matthew 25:40 Christ says "Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me".   So in our families eyes Jesus is the weak, the hurting, the forgotten, the sick, the poor, the orphaned, the person we ignore on the side of the road asking for help, or could it be our neighbor next door.  For us it is the daughter in Africa that God has called us to raise, to love, and to nurture.  Many people will wonder why Ethiopia, why a girl, why that age, why why why.  The awnser is a simple because God said to us to go and do to the least of these.  We are saying Yes!!!!

The Journey Begins

We received word today from Children's Hope International that our application for adoption from Ethiopia has been excepted!!   We are so excited to get started on this long emotional journey.