Many of you (and we did too when this began!) have wondered where all the money goes for adoption, so we have added a new tab, Cost Breakdown, to our blog so you can see a breakdown of our adoption expenses.
We are nearing the last two months before we leave to meet our children (can you believe it?!), and we need to raise $11,000 more. We are officially half way to our goal, thanks to a donor who gave exactly $55 yesterday when we were $55 away! :)
During the next few weeks, we have two very large payments coming up: the final payment of $10,000 for the orphanage/lawyer fees, and about $10,000 for our flights.
Please pray for our upcoming fundraiser events. Our planned fundraising events will conclude in May, and the money we raise at these will be used to pay for part of our flights and other travel expenses.
However, right now, we are about $1500 shy of our $10,000 payment to Uganda, which we need to send as soon as possible. If you've previously thought of helping, would you please consider helping now?
And thank you again to all of you who have already helped us and in so many ways, we wouldn't be this far without you!! We praise God that He sent you to be a part of this special time and we have been so blessed to share this with each of you! :)
Sunday, April 28, 2013
Saturday, April 27, 2013
Fundraising is Hard Work! But SO worth it!!
We are $55 away for our the half-way mark of our fundraising!! I can't believe we have raised $10,945 since March. We still have a way to go, but have a few fundraising events coming up that will help us get there.
One of which is our May 3-4 yard sale. If you're local, please come by! We will also have our handmade necklaces and custom-printed t-shirts for sale, as well as some yummy baked goods!! :)
This is what our garage looks like right now...at least 30 families, probably more, have donated items for us to sell. (This doesn't even do it justice, it is completely packed under all of these tables and behind the clothes and in the corners...) We definitely have some very generous friends helping us with this sale...and we want to say a big THANK YOU to everyone who has helped us get this far!!!
Even more has already been taken to children and adult consignment sales or sold on Craigslist, and we still have more items coming in this week!
The idea of fundraising seemed so daunting in the beginning, and still does sometimes (when we only have two months left!), but God keeps showing me over and over that He will provide a way to bring our children home, whether through our own savings or selling our possessions, getting a tax refund, receiving donations from friends and family, and giving a lot of sweat equity (I've quickly learned that fundraising is a LOT of work!). I'm exhausted, mentally and physically, but I know I'll be much better once I get through the yard sale next weekend, and knowing that the end of this process is near and knowing that SOON we will see our children!!
As a side note, on Friday, we received our appointment to get fingerprinted at USCIS, and then we wait on their approval, which will take weeks!! Please pray that there are no hold-ups and that we get their approval back quickly so that it doesn't delay our trip! Our expected date to leave depends on this!!
Throughout all of this, the Lord continues to give me strength (and stamina I didn't know I had), and He reminds me often that "He who calls you is faithful; he will surely do it!" (1 Thess 5:24)
Thank you all for your continued support and prayers!
One of which is our May 3-4 yard sale. If you're local, please come by! We will also have our handmade necklaces and custom-printed t-shirts for sale, as well as some yummy baked goods!! :)
This is what our garage looks like right now...at least 30 families, probably more, have donated items for us to sell. (This doesn't even do it justice, it is completely packed under all of these tables and behind the clothes and in the corners...) We definitely have some very generous friends helping us with this sale...and we want to say a big THANK YOU to everyone who has helped us get this far!!!
Even more has already been taken to children and adult consignment sales or sold on Craigslist, and we still have more items coming in this week!
The idea of fundraising seemed so daunting in the beginning, and still does sometimes (when we only have two months left!), but God keeps showing me over and over that He will provide a way to bring our children home, whether through our own savings or selling our possessions, getting a tax refund, receiving donations from friends and family, and giving a lot of sweat equity (I've quickly learned that fundraising is a LOT of work!). I'm exhausted, mentally and physically, but I know I'll be much better once I get through the yard sale next weekend, and knowing that the end of this process is near and knowing that SOON we will see our children!!
As a side note, on Friday, we received our appointment to get fingerprinted at USCIS, and then we wait on their approval, which will take weeks!! Please pray that there are no hold-ups and that we get their approval back quickly so that it doesn't delay our trip! Our expected date to leave depends on this!!
Throughout all of this, the Lord continues to give me strength (and stamina I didn't know I had), and He reminds me often that "He who calls you is faithful; he will surely do it!" (1 Thess 5:24)
Thank you all for your continued support and prayers!
Monday, April 15, 2013
Our Latest Update
On Friday, we completed and mailed off our I600A to USCIS (the immigration office who gives the approval for adoptive parents to adopt internationally)!! What a huge relief this was! This means the bulk of the massive paperwork is done!! :) It also means that now we wait..for the notification to get fingerprinted in Atlanta, which could take a couple of weeks, and then we wait for a few more weeks to get our approval to adopt internationally. At this point, since I'm not very good at waiting, I am very thankful for the fundraising projects (especially the yard sale coming up) to keep me busy!
And I'm very thankful that we are one step closer to Uganda and bringing Tabitha and Eli home!!! Please keep us in your prayers that things will go smoothly with USCIS, as this is our next BIG hurdle!!
Also, for those of you who have asked for a way to make a tax-deductible donation, we have now set up a profile through adopttogether.org, who are able to accept tax-deductible donations on our behalf. You can click on the link below to make a donation:
Make a tax-deductible donation through Adopttogether.org
Again, we just want to say thank you to all of you for your continued support and prayers and encouragement. We are blessed that God has brought so many wonderful and loving people into our lives to share this experience with!! May He bless each of you for helping children who need families!!
And I'm very thankful that we are one step closer to Uganda and bringing Tabitha and Eli home!!! Please keep us in your prayers that things will go smoothly with USCIS, as this is our next BIG hurdle!!
Also, for those of you who have asked for a way to make a tax-deductible donation, we have now set up a profile through adopttogether.org, who are able to accept tax-deductible donations on our behalf. You can click on the link below to make a donation:
Make a tax-deductible donation through Adopttogether.org
Again, we just want to say thank you to all of you for your continued support and prayers and encouragement. We are blessed that God has brought so many wonderful and loving people into our lives to share this experience with!! May He bless each of you for helping children who need families!!
Thursday, April 11, 2013
We met our children via Facetime!!!
What a wonderful, exciting morning we had!!! My heart is overflowing with joy!
At 9:00 this morning, we met Tabitha and Eli via Facetime. Our son was very excited to "meet" his new brother and sister, not to mention all of his new friends. Three other local families, besides us, also got to meet their children today...a total of 7 children coming to Chattanooga!!! And seeing all of their smiles and glimpses of their personalities was so incredible and precious!
We learned Tabitha's favorite color is red, and Eli's is blue. She enjoys school and can write her name already, but Eli would rather stay home (which is great since we plan to homeschool :) ). All the kids seemed shy, even Colin, but I doubt that will last long. ;-) We noticed Eli likes to make funny faces lifting his eyebrows! And I think I was right about him and Colin going to have a ball together!! Then, we sang "Happy Birthday" to Tabitha, who's birthday was a few days ago...that envoked a very sweet smile from her, as it may have been the first time anyone ever sang "Happy Birthday" to her. They were indeed precious and beautiful, and we cannot wait to meet them in person!! We are praying the next few months will go by quickly. :)
We are so very blessed and fortunate to have an awesome, Christian man with a huge heart for helping these children to facilitate all of our adoptions and to bring our families together! It was so wonderful to finally "meet" him too, the one we've been talking to via email for the last few months. We were able to meet his beautiful family too, and his children were adorable!
God, in all of His goodness and glory, knows exactly what we need, and He has already blessed us tremendously on this journey! Not only have we been blessed to walk through this with dear friends who first began this journey, but, we have met two more families to share this with, all of whom will now become our extended family! What an amazing God we serve!!!
I cannot express how grateful and humbled and privileged I am that He has called our family to adopt Tabitha and Eli!
We also just found out that our home study is being finalized today (Woohoo!), which means we can now proceed in a number of ways, such as: sending our dossier to Uganda, sending in our I600A to USCIS (US Citizenship and Immigration Services) for fingerprinting and approval, and applying for grants to help with the finances.
On top of all this, many donations have been coming in for our upcoming yard sale, May 4, and we have several fundraisers planned and in the works. We are so encouraged by the support and love we have received from our family, friends, and church...even strangers! As we have been learning to depend on God for all of our needs, we've been able to see how He has been providing and showing us the way to make this happen!
We would like to ask that you please pray for our family, that the next several steps and months will go smoothly as we prepare for our trip to Uganda to bring our children home! Satan has definitely been hard at work over the last few months pestering our families, trying to delay our process, trying to hinder us from having Facetime with our children, but we relish in the small victories, and today, we saw a HUGE victory! And we rest in the knowledge that God ultimately gets all the victory, because He is our Sovereign King and He is the One in control!
"For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be glory forever." (Romans 11:36)
At 9:00 this morning, we met Tabitha and Eli via Facetime. Our son was very excited to "meet" his new brother and sister, not to mention all of his new friends. Three other local families, besides us, also got to meet their children today...a total of 7 children coming to Chattanooga!!! And seeing all of their smiles and glimpses of their personalities was so incredible and precious!
We learned Tabitha's favorite color is red, and Eli's is blue. She enjoys school and can write her name already, but Eli would rather stay home (which is great since we plan to homeschool :) ). All the kids seemed shy, even Colin, but I doubt that will last long. ;-) We noticed Eli likes to make funny faces lifting his eyebrows! And I think I was right about him and Colin going to have a ball together!! Then, we sang "Happy Birthday" to Tabitha, who's birthday was a few days ago...that envoked a very sweet smile from her, as it may have been the first time anyone ever sang "Happy Birthday" to her. They were indeed precious and beautiful, and we cannot wait to meet them in person!! We are praying the next few months will go by quickly. :)
We are so very blessed and fortunate to have an awesome, Christian man with a huge heart for helping these children to facilitate all of our adoptions and to bring our families together! It was so wonderful to finally "meet" him too, the one we've been talking to via email for the last few months. We were able to meet his beautiful family too, and his children were adorable!
God, in all of His goodness and glory, knows exactly what we need, and He has already blessed us tremendously on this journey! Not only have we been blessed to walk through this with dear friends who first began this journey, but, we have met two more families to share this with, all of whom will now become our extended family! What an amazing God we serve!!!
I cannot express how grateful and humbled and privileged I am that He has called our family to adopt Tabitha and Eli!
We also just found out that our home study is being finalized today (Woohoo!), which means we can now proceed in a number of ways, such as: sending our dossier to Uganda, sending in our I600A to USCIS (US Citizenship and Immigration Services) for fingerprinting and approval, and applying for grants to help with the finances.
On top of all this, many donations have been coming in for our upcoming yard sale, May 4, and we have several fundraisers planned and in the works. We are so encouraged by the support and love we have received from our family, friends, and church...even strangers! As we have been learning to depend on God for all of our needs, we've been able to see how He has been providing and showing us the way to make this happen!
We would like to ask that you please pray for our family, that the next several steps and months will go smoothly as we prepare for our trip to Uganda to bring our children home! Satan has definitely been hard at work over the last few months pestering our families, trying to delay our process, trying to hinder us from having Facetime with our children, but we relish in the small victories, and today, we saw a HUGE victory! And we rest in the knowledge that God ultimately gets all the victory, because He is our Sovereign King and He is the One in control!
"For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be glory forever." (Romans 11:36)
Friday, April 5, 2013
A video to share with you!
I came across this YouTube video today about loving the least of these. It is such an AWESOME song and video that I just had to share!!
Seeing all of these beautiful children, just filled me with such JOY! I can't wait to meet our newest children!!! :-)
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