Adoption Update

It’s been a little while since I actually updated on the progress of our adoption so I’ve got a little catching up to do :)  We’ve been busy!!

Back at the end of November we had the drawing for the iPad Raffle and the secondary prizes.  The winners were Trudi Aldrich for the iPad, Donna Sumners for the Rodan & Fields Dermabrasion Bar, and Jose (a friend of my brothers so I don’t have a last name) for the Organizing Utility Tote from Thirty One Gifts.

Thank you so much to everyone the donated prizes, bought tickets, and prayed for us.  We raised close to $1500 after the purchase of the iPad with this event!  This amount bumped us over the top so that we were actually able to send in our first payment to MLJ in November and become “official” clients :)

December 11th was our Pancake Breakfast with Santa.  Both the Spring Hill Captain D’s and the Walgreens on Port Royal Road sponsored our event and really showed that they care about their community.  Please remember to patronize these businesses! We were blessed with $1000 for this fundraiser.

This came just in time because we had our homestudy visit on the 17th and we actually had the money to pay for it! LOL.  The visit went well and we hope to have the report finished up in the next few weeks.

So you can see that we really are taking this adoption one step at a time.

In case you are wondering why I am sharing what we raised and what things cost it is because someone may be reading this blog that has considered adoption but is fearful of the amount of money it costs.  I am an open book and I want people to see that God will provide the means if He is calling you to adopt!  Do not be fearful, put your faith in Him and let Him lead the way :)

Our blog is going private…

Our agency has asked us to be very careful as to what information is publicly disclosed regarding our adoption therefore our blog is going private. 

I am an open book and enjoy sharing my experiences because it may help or encourage someone else that is going through the same thing so I don’t hold back much :)

If you’d like to be able to continue viewing our blog make sure to become a follower!  If you haven’t already, you will need to create an account and log in.  Just click the follow button in the far right sidebar.

Thank you for understanding.  We don’t want anything to mess up our progress.

And the winners are...

Congratulations to the winner of the Apple iPad. Trudi Aldrich you are the winner! The secondary prizes are as follows: Rodan and Fields Dermabrasion Bar goes to Donna Sumners and the Thirty-One Gifts Organizing Utility Tote goes to Jose Arroyo. Thank you to everyone that bought tickets and helped sell them. We raised $1500 through this event towards bringing our daughter home!

We'd love to have you to continue to follow our blog and to pray for our family as we continue working through this wonderful journey that God has called us on.

Blessings to you all!

iPad Update

Just wanted to give a quick update on where we are.  We will hopefully be doing the ipad raffle tomorrow. I have one more set of tickets I'm waiting to come in that are in the mail. So sorry for the delay.

 

Crossing my fingers that they get here tomorrow so that we can pick a winner!

What’s your comment worth? In the eyes of our daughter it’s priceless.

I’m a little late in posting this but better late than never right?  It’s been a busy month and I’m trying to make more time to just relax and hang out with the kids which means less time on the computer aside from my workday.

This is a big news post though so please read and then do your part :)

In honor of National Adoption Awareness month Six Seeds.tv has partnered with us in our fundraising efforts.  They have posted a featured article of our family on their website and FOR EVERY COMMENT RECEIVED on our story THEY WILL DONATE $2 to our fundraising expenses!

Six Seeds is a Christian based website that brought you reviews and such on things like Chronicles of Narnia.  By leaving us a comment you are signing up for the newsletter but you may choose to opt out and we still get the credit for your comment.

You are the hands and feet of God and this child needs you!

Our article can be viewed here:

http://sixseeds.tv/s/content/adoption/653-adoption_the_butler_family

As of this morning we have 337 comments.  Our goal is to get at least 500.  Will you help us meet this goal?

The feature runs through the end of November but please take the time to leave your comment today and then share with your friends. 

Feel free to blog about it yourself, send it out on facebook or shoot it out in an email.  We need help spreading the word!

Blessings,

Update on the iPad Giveaway

To date we have sold 132 tickets and given away 25 to our sponsor and supporters that bought 5 tickets and got one free for a total of 157 tickets.

We are over half way to our goal of 300 tickets!

Hopefully we will be able to wrap this up mid to end November and get somebody an iPad for Christmas =)  Won’t that be nice!

So if you haven’t gotten your ticket(s) yet please let me know and we will get them to you asap.

Thanks everyone for your support.  I will be updating the blog again later today with some other announcements so please be sure to check back!

Have a blessed day friends!

Why? Why do we need another child when we already have three?

It was brought to my attention that some people may be wondering this very question and I felt a need to share my heart and what has become my passion.  I hope this will help you all to understand why we are adopting and why we are adopting specifically from Nicaragua.

Let me begin by saying that our adoption is not just about me having another baby.  There is nothing wrong with my baby maker and if it were just about having another child I could physically do that myself and let the insurance pay for it and save us a whole lot of money.

Danny and I have a love so strong for orphans, for fatherless children.  We want to give a child that has NOTHING a home and a family to love them.  And yes I realize there are children right here in the U.S. that need homes but we are feeling called to Nicaragua because of the time that Danny has spent there.  I also feel that the children here have a little more opportunity for care and to find families than the ones internationally do.

Can we afford it?  The actually adoption itself?  Well not really, but in all reality who has that kind of money lying around? But I can tell you this, MY GOD IS BIGGER THAN $30,000.  And it will happen in His timing.  Can we afford another child?  Yes.  I don’t care if we have to eat rice and beans every single night for dinner and pile them all into one bedroom because that is the kind of sacrifice that we are willing to make to SAVE A CHILDS LIFE.  College you ask?  Well we have a whole 7 years before our first one gets there and if God brings us to it He will bring us through it.

I also want to tell you that this journey is becoming a passion and when my little girl is home it will not be over.  I want to DO SOMETHING to make it easier for families to adopt.  A $30,000 mountain should not be in the way of giving a child a family.  It is so heartbreaking to know that we have homes just waiting for these kids but because the average family cannot even fathom the costs nothing comes of it.  So you wait and see, God is working this out but I am feeling this and I am going to do something.

This is my heart cry and is becoming my obsession.  I hope you have a little better understanding of the WHY now.  Blessings to all and please pray for our family as we continue forward.  God is moving mountains!

It’s the BIG ONE! iPad Giveaway and more!!!

The number one question we get asked about our adoption is “where are you in the process” so I wanted to give you an update. There were some crazy ups and downs last month in our employment/insurance situation but God worked that all out and I can now say that WE ARE FINALLY STARTING OUR HOMESTUDY! It’s exciting to be moving into this phase because from what I understand this is where things really get rolling.

We are also kicking off our BIGGEST fundraiser YET. Anyone want to win an Apple iPad? Yep, that’s what I said. We are raffling off a 16gb wifi iPad! Does this baby have your name on it?

A $10 donation will get you one entry into the drawing, each increment of $10 will get you another, and a $50 donation will get you six!!! Buy 5 get one free. What a deal!!!!!

One more way to enter: If you would like to help us sell the tickets you get an entry for each book of 10 that you sell!

More than one winner here!

We also have some great secondary prizes to offer up

Custom Made Ruffle DSLR Camera Strap courtesy of Shelley at Pink Punk Boutique. I have a custom DSLR bag and strap made by her and I get lots of compliments on it.

Rodan & Fields Micro-Dermabrasion Bar courtesy of Christie Buchanan. To get hooked up with all the great R&F products you can contact Christie at bamagirl73@bellsouth.net

and last but not least, a Thirty-One Gifts organizing utility tote courtesy of Thirty-One Gifts with Tabitha Butler. You can keep up to date on all my events and sales here :)

Here is the down low on how to get your tickets:

1. Give your money to Danny or I directly and we will give you your raffle ticket. This is for the Tennessee people.

or

2. See one of our many helpers for an entry into the drawing. Right now those are Brian Bruce (Florida), Heather Banholzer (Alabama), Keith Jones, Lorinda or Charlie Rivers, and Betty Apple but the list is still growing.

3. If you would like to make an online donation to us please contact me via email at butlersadopt@gmail.com.

The drawing will be held once 300 tickets have been sold, this is expected to happen fairly quickly with the aid of our seller helpers :) We will post a live video of the drawing on the blog and facebook as well as contact the winner by phone. You can stay tuned to this blog for frequent updates as to when the drawing will be. Please tell all of your friends, post it on your Facebook, Blog, or Tweet it to your heart's content.

Your $10 donation (or whatever you chose) is greatly appreciated and even if you are just doing it for your chance to win you are helping to bring our little girl home from Nicaragua!

Best Wishes!!!

Catching up…

Thanks again to everyone that participated and helped spread the word about the facebook blitz last month.  We raised $150 above the cost of the iPod itself and every dollar counts towards getting there :)

It’s been a busy last few weeks with lots of things going on in the Butler house.  We found out we needed to buy insurance prior to our home study to show that we are able to meet any medical needs our little girl may have, then we received word that my position at work was being done away with so we were racking our brains for another plan when my job then came back and offered me the opportunity to work full time from home.  What a blessing that turned out to be!  Our insurance needs have been met!

So I’m working on filling out our home study application and off it will go on Monday!  God is soooooo good!

We are working on a few more fundraisers at the moment.  The first one coming up this week is another raffle but this time with a BIG PRIZE.  We will be raffling off a 16gb iPad along with some other secondary prizes.  We will be needing some helpers to get the word out and sell some tickets for us.  Each person that takes a book of 10 tickets to sell will receive an entry into the drawing.  If you sell two books, you get two entries.  Our goal is to sell 300 tickets.  If you are willing to help us in this area leave me a comment or send me an email at butlersadopt@gmail.com.

In the next few weeks we will be having another BIG, BIG yard sale here at the house.  If you’d like to do some fall deep cleaning and de-cluttering and donate your no longer used treasures we would appreciate it so much.  We will take everything from books, toys, furniture, dishes, you name it.  I do have to ask that if you are donating clothing please do so lightly.  We still have a ton of clothes to sell from previous donations.  The sale is tentatively scheduled for Friday October 1st and Saturday October 2nd.

And last but certainly not least, Buffalo Wild Wings has offered to let us have a fundraising night at their restaurant.  We are going to select a night for families to dine there and just by turning in your receipts we will receive a % of your meal ticket towards our fundraising.

The little ones also started preschool this week.  They were so adorable all dressed up for the first day

  

and a little tired come the end of the day :)

Sean also tried out for the SSTMS soccer team this weekend.  We will find out Monday if he is in or if he is out.  Crossing our fingers!

 

Have a blessed weekend

Winner is announced

We have drawn the winner of the iPod touch my friends.  Check out the video to see if you were the lucky one!  Thank you so much to every one that donated, posted and prayed for us this week!  We are getting closer $1 at a time my friends :)

 

 

The winner of the iPod shuffle will be drawn tomorrow.  I did not have a chance to get it all together this evening.

An awesome little blog

Our adoption was shared on a very cool blog! Check it out and bookmark it for later. There is always a new family with a new story that needs help making their dream come true!

 

http://postyouradoptionfundraiserhere.blogspot.com/2010/08/win-ipod-help-sweet-girl-come-home-to.html

It’s Blitz Time Baby!

Now that we have been “officially” accepted by MLJ adoptions it’s time for us to get serious about some fundraising.  We are completely confident that God is going to open the doors needed, close the ones not needed and provide the finances to bring our sweet little girl home to us but we must voice our need in order for others to know how help.

The next step in our process is to submit $7500 to our agency.  This payment covers things like our dossier, translations, some education expenses and postage/mailing fees.  I’ve been told that it is VERY expensive to mail things to and from Nicaragua.

So here are the details:

Wanna win an IPOD TOUCH or IPOD SHUFFLE?? It’s BLITZ time!!! You can win by simply donating $10 or spreading the word on your blog or facebook!! OUR GOAL IS TO RAISE $3750, HALF OF THE INITIAL $7500!!

For the next 7 days we are challenging you to HELP us bring our daughter home by raising awareness & spreading the word about our BLITZ event. Oh, did I mention we are GIVING away an IPOD TOUCH & an IPOD SHUFFLE?!?!

To win the IPOD TOUCH: For EVERY $10 you donate to our adoption, you will receive one entry in the Giveway. You will be emailed a giveaway number for each $10 you donate through the Chip-in on our blog. If you want to mail a donation, please email us & we’ll give you our address.

To win the IPOD SHUFFLE:
1. Post a blog entry on your blog about our giveaway & you'll receive one entry
OR
2. Change your wall status on facebook with a link to our event
OR
3. If you do both, then you will receive TWO entries in the shuffle giveaway. IMPORTANT: You must post a comment on our Princess’s facebook group with a link to your facebook or blog entry.

***We will hold the drawing on Sunday August 28th at 6:00pm (CST). It will be done the old fashion way…we will put all the entries name/number in a jar and pull from the jar. We will video the drawing and post it on our blog.***

Oh yeah…we will give away one 8gb IPOD Touch for EVERY $2000 we receive in donations so SPREAD THE WORD and skies the limit!

 

A day of beginnings

Today was a day full of new beginnings.  My first born started middle school today.  I can’t believe how these years have flown by.  It’s gone fast for me but he is counting down the days until he can drive, lol.  He’s taking band as an elective this year and plans on playing soccer and baseball for the school too.  We are looking forward to a great year full of new experiences and lots of learning.

<-------- Doesn’t he just look thrilled. Ha!

We also OFFICIALLY began the adoption process today.  The application was mailed to our agency so now we have actually taken the first step.  We have to find someone to do our home study on our own though because of our agency being out of state so that is the next step for us.  I have a few places to check into but if anyone has a recommendation we’d love to have it.

 

And here is the sacred envelope.  Yay!! 

VBS 2010

Here are some pics from our fun filled week of VBS.  I had such a blast this year with the sweet little preschoolers.  It was so much fun to see them singing and dancing and learning about Jesus.

   

 

  

 

 

  <-----------------------------THIS GUY HAD WAY TOO MUCH FUN DRESSED IN A CHIPMUNK COSTUME! 

Hope is fading

A friend of mine shared this video and it was so powerful and said so much without any words that I felt compelled to share it with you.

Hope is Fading from Allan Rosenow on Vimeo.

As for an update on our adoption, we are still trying to save up for the first of three payments.  At this point we have about $1500 of the $7000 that is needed for the initial payment. 

We are having another yard sale very soon.  As soon as ball is over with and we can pick a weekend out (it will be within the next month).  Our last one was a great success and we hope this one will be as well.

God is definitely providing the funding so far, it’s just hard to remember that it’s on His time and not ours.  I’ve been able to work some extra hours the last few weeks and jobs for our plumbing business have been coming in pretty consistently too.

Oh, and the blog raffle has officially ended and the winner of the makeover was Mandy Ducharme.  Congratulations Mandy and thanks for supporting our adoption!  I will be contacting you soon with the details of you makeover!

Some new pics and some new news :)

It’s taken me a bit to get these pics up but they were taken at St. Augustine Beach when we went down earlier this month for Andy and Meredith’s wedding.  I just love the way they came out with the beach behind us and everyone was actually looking.  This may be our Christmas card pic this year! LOL

This one came out really nice of Sean and Matthew too

 

I spent some time out in the garage sorting things for our yard sale this weekend and the boys decided to have an improptu lemonade stand fundraiser.  They did a great job and worked hard out in the heat to earn $22 !  Matthew was irresistable holding his sign and waving to the cars as the drove down the road.  People were actually turning around and coming back to buy some!

View Full Album

If you are looking for a yard sale this weekend be sure to stop by ours!  Lots of families have donated and there is some great stuff going up for sale!

So close yet so far

We’ve been saving, selling, and working extra hard  trying to get the money needed to submit our letter of intent and application to the agency and it is paying off.  We are almost able to do it but not just yet.  We have only another $170 to go before we can mail that sweet packet to Indiana.

I have a goal to reach that amount BEFORE our yard sale next weekend.  I want our yard sale to be a great kick off to the first actual BIG payment you see.  So that’s why I really want to be able to take this step first!  It may seem strange but in my brain that’s how I want it to work.  Everything has to have an order.

Anyway, today and tomorrow you can double your dollars! I’m still selling tickets for the Custom Blog Makeover so today for each $3 donation I’m going to give you two chances to win and I’m going to scrape up pennies and count my change to match your donations!

 

The following info was copied from the original post found here

 

For all you BLOGGERS out there, this is one you won’t want to miss out on.  I am donating a full custom blog makeover to go with Modern June’s donation of Soul Sister to be used in the design!  A total value of $45!  The kit is fun, funky and fabulous!  Combined with the creative blog template and custom design your blog will sure be the hit among your readers.  They will all be dying to know who your stylist is!

If you’ve been thinking about a new look this is your chance to win it and help a good cause

Check out these blogs recently redone as well as my very own blog you are currently viewing:

How to purchase raffle tickets:
Every $3 donation you make using the secure PayPal/ChipIn button above will buy you a raffle ticket. The suggested donation is $3 per ticket, but you can donate any amount you choose. Enter as many times as you wish. Each $3 donation buys you one ticket. (You can donate more than once and get one ticket each time, or in one lump. If you donate, say, $30, we will know you want ten tickets.) The more tickets you buy, the more times we'll enter your name in the drawing and the more chances you'll have to win the makeover! Donating is secure and will be accepted through the PayPal icon at the top of my blog. When you donate via PayPal, you are automatically entered in the raffle to win the makeover. Soon after you donate, we will send a reply email to the address on your PayPal account, letting you know what your raffle ticket number(s) are. Then you wait until the raffle-fundraiser is over on July 1st and see if you won! Please feel free to email me at butlersadopt@gmail.com if you have any questions.

Another way to win!
So you want to increase your chances of winning? Just put a post up on your blog linking your readers to this post, leave a comment after this post with a link to your blog so that we can verify your post, and we will double the amount of raffle tickets you buy!
IF YOU WANT YOUR TICKETS DOUBLED, YOU HAVE TO EMAIL ME WITH THE NAME AND EMAIL ADDRESS YOU PURCHASED YOUR TICKET NUMBERS UNDER. I CANNOT DOUBLE THEM WITHOUT KNOWING WHO YOU ARE!

Not interested in the prize package?

If you are not interested in the prize, you can also make a donation to the adoption fund without purchasing tickets. Just make sure to mention that you don't want ticket numbers. We are very humbled by all donations.

Contest Details:
All it takes is $3 to make a huge difference in an orphan's life. Contest ends at 11:59 pm, July 1, 2010. Winner to be announced July 2, 2010. Void where prohibited. Chances of winning are based on number of tickets sold. Winning number will be selected via random.org. We will post a photo of the winning number to verify the results. The winner will receive an email immediately following the end of the Raffle-Fundraiser with details of getting the makeover started!
Thank you from the bottom of our hearts for helping us raise the funds we need to bring our little girl home from Nicaragua! Every $3 donation is a miracle to us... God bless you all!

 

Lastly, for anyone driving through our neighborhood tomorrow the boys have decided to have a lemonade stand/cookie sale to do a little to help.  How cute right?

Our warmest regards,

Danny, Tabitha, Sean, Matthew, and Chase

Raffle Fundraiser #1

For all you BLOGGERS out there, this is one you won’t want to miss out on.  Scrapberry Designs is donating a full custom blog makeover to go with Modern June’s donation of Soul Sister to be used in the design!  A total value of $45!  The kit is fun, funky and fabulous!  Combined with the creative blog template and custom design your blog will sure be the hit among your readers.  They will all be dying to know who your stylist is!

If you’ve been thinking about a new look this is your chance to win it and help a good cause

  

Check out these blogs recently redone as well as my very own blog you are currently viewing:

How to purchase raffle tickets:
Every $3 donation you make using the secure PayPal/ChipIn button above will buy you a raffle ticket. The suggested donation is $3 per ticket, but you can donate any amount you choose. Enter as many times as you wish. Each $3 donation buys you one ticket. (You can donate more than once and get one ticket each time, or in one lump. If you donate, say, $30, we will know you want ten tickets.) The more tickets you buy, the more times we'll enter your name in the drawing and the more chances you'll have to win the makeover! Donating is secure and will be accepted through the PayPal icon at the top of my blog. When you donate via PayPal, you are automatically entered in the raffle to win the makeover. Soon after you donate, we will send a reply email to the address on your PayPal account, letting you know what your raffle ticket number(s) are. Then you wait until the raffle-fundraiser is over on July 1st and see if you won! Please feel free to email me at butlersadopt@gmail.com if you have any questions.

Another way to win!
So you want to increase your chances of winning? Just put a post up on your blog linking your readers to this post, leave a comment after this post with a link to your blog so that we can verify your post, and we will double the amount of raffle tickets you buy!
IF YOU WANT YOUR TICKETS DOUBLED, YOU HAVE TO EMAIL ME WITH THE NAME AND EMAIL ADDRESS YOU PURCHASED YOUR TICKET NUMBERS UNDER. I CANNOT DOUBLE THEM WITHOUT KNOWING WHO YOU ARE!

Not interested in the prize package?

If you are not interested in the prize, you can also make a donation to the adoption fund without purchasing tickets. Just make sure to mention that you don't want ticket numbers. We are very humbled by all donations.

Contest Details:
All it takes is $3 to make a huge difference in an orphan's life. Contest ends at 11:59 pm, July 1, 2010. Winner to be announced July 2, 2010. Void where prohibited. Chances of winning are based on number of tickets sold. Winning number will be selected via random.org. We will post a photo of the winning number to verify the results. The winner will receive an email immediately following the end of the Raffle-Fundraiser with details of getting the makeover started!
Thank you from the bottom of our hearts for helping us raise the funds we need to bring our little girl home from Nicaragua! Every $3 donation is a miracle to us... God bless you all!

Our warmest regards,

Danny, Tabitha, Sean, Matthew, and Chase

2nd Annual Memorial Day Bash Champions!

The Franklin Generals closed out the tournament weekend with the title of Champions under their belts.  We were 2 and 1 and first seed when the games were called this afternoon due to rain.  The boys played very hard all weekend out in the sweltering heat.  Sean had the play of the game yesterday when he stole home to score the winning run with 2 outs on the score board.  Those last few moments were way too intense!  The team rushed the field and were all over him.  It was a great proud momma moment :)

 

Here is the champ showing off his totally cool trophy

 

And of course the little brother had to have his moment to show off too.  And since I didn’t post about this a few weeks bad, Matthew closed out his soccer season with some improvement but most of all he had a great time playing.

Here he is showing off the cutest little soccer trophy I’ve ever seen

 

And I can’t end the post with out giving the littlest one a bit of face time too.

 

Big guy helping daddy mow the grass

 

Until next time…

Feeling abundantly blessed

I’m tired and it’s late so this is probably going to be a short post and may not make much sense but I have to sing out some praise!  God is moving things here and I am in utter amazement.  While to some this may seem small, to me it’s huge.

You see, things have been falling into place and happening so much lately and I have never experienced a movement like this in my life before.  I blogged a few days ago about a fundraiser yard sale that we are having next month and asked for you all to have a Clean Out Day in your homes to donate items to our sale.

Well there is a couple from our church that we know, we say hello in passing, and are friendly but I have never sat down and had a conversation with them.  I’m referring to Cory and Summer Yates.  Summer went on a mission trip to Ethiopia last year and God worked some serious stuff in her heart.  She and her family have felt called into long term missions, have sold their house, and are moving to Korah for the next year to build a center to keep the kids from having to return to living in a trash dump during the summers when school is out.  That is beyond amazing in itself that this woman would feel such a strong calling to build this center for these children and and be so dedicated to God that she would relocate her family!

How does this apply to me?  Well Cory and Summer have sold their house and the things they were going to trash ended up in my garage for the yard sale.  I just keep thinking, “Wow, God is moving their family to Korah and their things that they are living behind are going to help to bring my baby home from Nicaragua”.  It really gives me chills.

We also had another friend clean out her closet and drop off a load of things today.  Again, feeling abundantly blessed here.

But on top of that,  my blog design business that I’ve been trying to get going for the past year is actually picking up.  Four makeovers in just three weeks and 100% of that money is going to our adoption fund!

And last but not least, we have had steady work for our plumbing business since Danny has gotten back from his trip.

I am just beyond amazed by what God is doing.  It’s like we said, okay God we don’t know how this is going to happen, we are leaving that part up to You, but we are in” and He has just taken the reins from us and is doing it!

I realize we are at the extreme beginning and I’m not trying to sound presumptive.  I realize that there is going to be some difficult stuff down the road but right now all I can do is sing praises to our almighty God.  Why do we ever fool ourselves into thinking we have control?  It’s a unworldly experience when you just let go and sit back for the ride.

Thank you God for abundantly blessing my life with your unfailing love!

We need your stuff!

Hey family and friends we need your help! 
Our family is feeling called to adopt a child (hopefully from Nicaragua) and we are going to need you all to help us through this journey by supporting us in prayer, donations, and hugs.  We know it’s going to be a long road and we cannot do it without support from those close to us.
I don’t know who this child is, I found this photo on the web but isn’t she beautiful?

Most of you know that International Adoption is very costly thus we are going to be doing some fundraisers and cutting back on our expenses to afford it.  There are a lot of grants that we can apply for to help with the costs as well but the majority of those can’t be done until our home study is complete.  However, we need to raise some money before we can even get to the home study!
First we must submit our application and letter of intent to the agency, a cost of $1000.
Then the first payment of $7850 is due which covers agency fees, administrative expenses, the home study, and some education classes that are required.
So with all that said, we are planning a yard sale to help get us to that first payment amount and then we can start applying for some grants.
We are asking you all to have a Clean Out Day with your families and anything that you would be willing to contribute to the sale to bring by our house.  We will taking anything you’ve got (furniture, baby items, clothes, house wares, it doesn’t matter). Everything will be stored in our garage until the sale.
The yard sale is being held on June 18, 19, and 20th.  We will also need some hands to help man the sale.  Sean has a ball tournament that weekend so Danny won’t be here to help.
Please pass this on to anyone that you think would be willing to help out as well.  I plan to advertise the sale all over the place and the more we have to sell the more money to be made!
I also welcome any advice from anyone that has gone through this or has done some fundraising before.  It’s all new to me!
I’m also doing some blog makeovers to raise money so if you are reading this and have been wanting a new look, here’s your chance to do it AND to help a good cause.  Check out Big Nanny’s blog later tonight, she just got herself a brand new look.!
Thanks in advance for your prayers and support!  We are so excited to begin this journey and are thankful for the people in our lives that will walk along with us.  We love you all.

Looks like we have a trumpet player!

I received a call a few weeks back about a day to come and check out all the instruments available to be played if your child wanted to play in the middle school band.  Sean was pretty against it because “none of his friends were doing it”.  We’ve been trying to talk to him about all the opportunities that come with playing in the band as well as how much fun it is too.

Well I was able to get him to go to the tryout session and to his amazement, some of his friends were there!  I know, crazy right?  And he thought they were all too cool.  I hate that stigma about the band.

Anyway, once he realized that his friends would be playing too he loosened up and had fun trying out the instruments.  He tried the trombone and trumpet first, then the sax which he did fine with too, then he tried the clarinet but that didn’t go so well.  He said he liked the trumpet best so that’s what he went with.  Now we have to find us a nice trumpet that won’t break the bank! We are excited for him to start learning and playing though.

K, we are off to ball games and a birthday party!  The fun never ends!

It’s been a very long time..(long post)

Wow, I have not blogged since the middle of March!  Where has the time gone?  It seems like our days are filled with so much pointless non-sense and they just flying by in the blink of an eye.
We’ve spent the past few months watching the boys playing ball.  Matthew just wrapped up his 2nd soccer season but Sean still has a few weeks to go of recreation ball.  He also made the Franklin Generals tournament team so he will be playing for them through the summer.

Danny went with a team down to Nicaragua a few weeks back.  They left the day that Nashville flooded so he missed seeing first hand the mess here.   Big things were happening in Nicaragua too though.  The guys built a church in just THREE DAYS and twenty-seven people accepted Christ as their savior! Such amazing stuff.  Here is a video of the men singing “Do It Lord” at the church’s first service.

But while I was here worrying about the rain and being shocked by all the flooding, God was working on Danny and setting into place a life changing plan for us.  You see, when Danny lost his job back in December we decided to put our adoption plans on hold before they ever really got started.  It’s something that I have been struggling with because my heart is yearning for a little girl that I know is out there needing a loving family and I just so badly want to bring her home.  I don’t even care about the financial aspect of it (this is where we weren’t seeing eye to eye), I just want to jump in feet first and go for it.  Well God intervened and brought Danny a little closer to the level that I’m on.  You see, while in Nicaragua he was able to speak with some of the men that were on the trip with him as well as a man that lives in Nicaragua who told Danny that he wished more people would adopt from there.  Danny also had the opportunity to minister to and speak with some teenage girls down there about changes they are going through in their lives and their bodies.  That shows that God does have a sense of humor since he is a father of three boys, lol.  The advice he received while on the trip and the opportunities he had confirmed that sitting by idly isn’t what we are supposed to be doing.
So as soon as the words were out of his mouth I was on the phone with the agency!  It just so happened that this past Monday there was a seminar on adoption fundraising in Indiana that was being put on by a client/speaker for the agency.  My mom is still here visiting so we were able to get away (talk about timing right?) for the day/night to drive to Indiana where we met the with the director of the Nicaragua program and attended the seminar.  Camie, the lady that was doing the seminar, called us on our way down and invited us to spend the night in their home instead of in a hotel room.  We were blown away by the kindness and hospitality so we went out on a limb and accepted the offer.  Boy were we blessed!  Turns out her husband is the pastor at the church where the seminar was held.  They have adopted two children from Vietnam themselves and were a well of information.  It was so generous of them to open up their home for us and we feel that we made some friends to walk through this journey with us.  God is so good all the time!  More details to come on our adoption process in a later post.
I also want to give a big congratulations to Sean.  He graduated from the 5th grade and I officially am the mom to a middle schooler!!!  I don’t know whether to smile because of how proud I am or to cry because of how fast he’s growing up.  Remember to cherish the moments and hold your children when you can and smother them in your love, they grow up too fast not to.

Days 66-71

 

 

 

Days 62, 63, 64, 65