Hope Quilt Fundraiser

I was searching the internet today for some different fundraising ideas for adoption and I came across a lot of really neat ones but one in particular stuck out. People were selling puzzle pieces for $5 each and would write the contributors name on the back. When all the pieces were sold the puzzle would be placed in a double sided frame and hung in the baby’s room. I thought this was a neat idea but 1) we aren’t adopting a baby and 2) I have no idea how to get my hands on a Latvian puzzle without spending a fortune. Then the grandest idea hit me! I would LOVE to make the girls an adoption quilt that showed them how many people helped to bring them home. And since I love being crafty this is right up my alley.

Each square will cost $5, you can purchase as many as you’d like to go in their quilt. Each HOPE square will have the contributor’s name written on the back with a fabric marker. We’d also love for you to send us a scripture or some kind words for us to include with your name. Once it’s time for the quilt to be assembled we will transfer those names and scriptures to a book so that they will always be able to look back and see who contributed to them having HOPE and a FUTURE.

One twin size quilt takes about 391 5” squares. We’d love to sell 782 squares so that each girl can have their own HOPE quilt. Think we can do it?

I don’t know 782 people so we are going to need your help! Please share this on your facebooks and even better share it on your blogs and help us get the word out.

You can buy your HOPE square(s) through this PayPal button. Please leave us your name and note or scripture in the message area so that we can add it to your square.

This graph will be updated regulary to reflect how many squares have been sold


8/13 - 82 Squares sold so far!

We are $2400 short of being able to submit our dossier to Latvia for translation. Once this is done we will receive our official referral. We will then need to have around $10,000. This will cover travel fees, visas, attorney fees, lodging and some other stuff so our current goal is to raise $12400.

Thank you all for sharing our cause and supporting us as we travel this long and bumpy journey to bring our daughters home and complete our family.

Some updates

I just wanted to update everyone and let them know that we are now down to needing just a mere $2400 more in order to send our dossier to Latvia. We will be having a yard sale this Friday and Saturday if anyone has anything they would like to donate to it.

We are also planning a car wash for later this month. Possibly in two locations if we can get enough volunteers to help. If you would like to help with this event please let us know. Older kids can wash cars too. I’m hoping Sean will be able to get some of his friends from his Sunday School class to come out. If anyone has any connections with a location in Spring Hill and/or Franklin that would be great otherwise I’m going to start calling around.

Every little bit really does add up. Every $5 makes a difference when you think of the $65 we paid each for drug testing yesterday, or the $10 for background checks, or the $190 to have my passport expedited. And that doesn’t touch on what we are paying for the actual adoption. It’s crazy that it’s such a high price to bring these kids to families.

I’ll be looking into and applying for some grants this coming week too. We had to have our home study finalized before that could be done and then while the girls were visiting this summer I didn’t have time to work on any of it.

We tried to call the girls at their orphanage but they are gone to the city for camp until next week. They still do not know that we are adopting them but the director at NHFC is checking to see if we can tell them when we call them on Monday since we are a good ways into the process already.

On another note, school starts back this week for my boys. Sean is going into the seventh grade, can you believe it? My first born is growing up too fast. He got his schedule, locker assignment and met his teachers on Monday night. Then Matthew will be starting kindergarten in a little less than two weeks. They stagger their start days so it’s not so overwhelming for the little ones.

This is a photo taken of all of our kids before the girls left. The photography was done by Ricky Gongwer so give him a shout if you are looking to have your families pictures done. You can find him on facebook. The kids thought he was really funny.

*oops, can't share the photos anymore since we are officially in process*

That’s it for now. Happy hump day friends!

What’s next…

Well those five weeks of summer came and went in almost a blur. The days flew by and our house was very busy with lots of noise but without even knowing it that chaos became a comfort.

D and A flew home on Thursday morning. Leaving them at that airport and watching them walk through security while they kept looking back to see if we were still there was the hardest thing I have ever had to do. I was a blubbering mess that day. Not much could be said that wouldn’t make me tear up.

It’s been two days now without them and our house is quieter but it’s a sad quiet. Not the quiet that I begged for some times during those summer weeks. The stillness is a reminder that my little girls are gone. We’ve closed the door to their room because walking by and seeing it empty is hard. Watching my four year old sit sadly and tell me that he misses the girls and wants them back is hard. Sean fought with them like they’d been siblings their whole lives while they were here and he’s missing them so much too, he says it’s boring here without them. That’s hard on my heart. Watching my husband cry is hard. We are praying for God to sustain us during these hard times.

We are now focusing on finishing up our dossier and hope to have it completed by the time we get our approval from USCIS. Burying myself in the paperwork is the easiest way to cope as I know it’s going to bring them back sooner. The good news is that we had a good head start because we’d finished our homestudy and filed our i800A before they even got here. Once our dossier is submitted things tend to move pretty quickly so I hear. We’d get our referral and then a travel date usually within one to two months. The girls will be able to return with us after the first court date as “hosting” again but will have to return for final court on the third trip.

That’s both wonderful and scary because while we want it to go fast so we can bring them back sooner that means we need to move fast with our fundraising. Prior to being able to submit the dossier we have to send $1500 to our agency for casework fees (paid), the remaining agency fee of $3000 (paid), a $2300 translation fee for the attorney in Latvia, and a $1000 post placement retainer ($500 remaining).

I’ve got a couple of ideas in the works but in the meantime if you’d like to make a donation to help us reach this present goal of $2800 you can do so either via the PayPal button on the right side of our blog or if you’d like your donation to be tax deductible you can send it to our agency and put our family name in the memo line of your check. Our agency is not 501c accredited at the moment but their application has been submitted and should be approved this year so all donations made in this year will be deductible (They will be retro approved to January 1). The address is:

Adoption Related Services

8 South Main Street
P.O. Box 201
Shrewsbury, PA 17361

There have been so many clear signs through this time that we know we are following God’s direction and that He is going to provide what is needed to get them here. We are so thankful to be part of His great plan for these children. Please continue praying for Dajana and Adelina and for our family and the finances as we work towards bringing them back to us.