Scholarships

         Last week I mailed off six scholorship applications and one adoption loan application. It was a grueling process but I feel great that its done and sent in. It takes several months to hear back from them all so we would appreciate prayers that the scholarship committees like our applications and grant us some money to help pay for the cost of our adoption. I feel confident that if we get some of these and then the loan we will have all the money to cover the adoption. That is a great feeeling.
         I may have said this before but I don't remember so I'll say it again. I know everybody says that adoption isnt about the money and at its heart it isn't. It is of course about a child finding a home where it will be loved forever. However I feel very strongly that money was a big hindrance to us and that if we could have just written a check for $28,000 at the begining then we would have had a baby by now. This is sad to me. Ok done ranting.
            Hooray scholarship applications are in the mail. Pray we get them and always if you now of any I may have missed (I will apply for more as I find them) or have any great fundraising ideas we would love to hear them.

WE LOVE OUR CHURCH

We had a fundraiser at church this last Sunday. It consisted of Dan and I talking about adoption during the sermon and then we had a free will offering and an ice cream social afterwards. It was very exciting especially for me because I never talk in church, Dan however does it regularly. Dan did a small sermon about how God has ordained adoption and that we are all adopted by God and then I talked about our upcoming adoption, how adoption works etc. I was a little nervous and there were a few things I forgot and so you get to here them now. 
           First of all i love our church family and have from the first day we came there nearly three years ago, when they loved us from the second we walked in the door and made us feel so comfortable and welcome. Secondly: One reason (among many) we are adopting is due to the high risk pregnancy i had with our first daughter. For a long time I was very bitter that I didn't get the wonderful pregnancy everyone had always told me about. But then i realized that God knew we were meant to adopt, that it was what was in outr hearts and he also knew that I would never have had the courage to do it if "having babies" was so easy for me. So this is how God went about giving me courage. The last thing I forgot to say was what we would like you to pray for. I made little prayer cards and handed them out but I forgot to talk about them.  If you could please pray for these three things: 1) For the birth mother: that she finds peace in this extremely difficult decision and that she finds us. 2) That we raise the remaining money needed for the adoption in a timely manner. 3) that we do not get discouraged in this long period of fundraising and waiting for a baby.
            This brings us back to our church fundraiser. Everyone said we did a great talk and enjoyed hearing about adoption. We raised a little over $1,800 on Sunday. That brings the total the church has raised for us up to a little over $3,500. I find this incredible for our small little church and am overwhelmed by the love they have always shown us and continue to show us. I can not wait to pay that amount to our adoption agency.
             I am hopeful that we can get the remaining amount of money we need through grants and special adoption loans. I have a cousin who wants to make our adoption her senior project for high school, pray that that goes good as well. Have anymore fundraising ideas? I am open to them!

$20,000 to go

I just made a payment to our adoption agency (Bethany Christian Services) of $2,828. That puts our total amount of money we need left to $20,172. I know that's a lot but it is very uplifting to me it seems like we are almost over the hump and it all downhill after $20,000. We will see. This was a combination of two garage sales, a jewelery  party, a personal donation and our own saved money. My next task is to start applying for all the grants and loans there are out there for adoption. The paperwork is so overwhelming it makes mi head hurt just thinking about it. But it has to be done and it will be.

On Juli 29th, our church is having us talk about adoption during the sermon time. A free will offering for the adoption and an ice cream social will follow. Everyone is welcome to come to church that day (and always) to here about our adoption story.

Our adoption story recent developments. I'm not sure I should be sharing this but it's an honest blog so here goes. A couple weeks ago we got an email from our agency saying they had a potential birth mom for us and was it ok if she looked at our book. Normally they don't tell you when people look at your book because they don't want to overly worry or excite you. However if there is a medical condition (in this case with the birth mother herself) involved they have to ask permission first. At first the medical condition seemed rather trivial so we were excited to have her look at our book. About a week latter we go another email that said the medical condition was more complicated then first known. This and another factor gave us pause but after thinking it through we decided we still want her to look at our book and IF she wants to meet us we will address the issues then. NOW DON"T GET EXCITED. (I have to tell myself that too) this just means someones looking at our book, it doesn't mean she wants to meet us or will pick us to be parents. If she does want to meet us we may find this is not a good fit for us and have to keep waiting. But it is something for us all to pray about please.

Blessings Abound

        We had another fundraiser this weekend and blessings abounded. We made $1,400 toward our adoption fund and had a great weekend meeting new people from our neighborhood. We had many people come and tell us about how they adopted there children and it was just really inspiring to see all the happy families and all the supportive people. It just really made me feel encouraged about what we are doing instead of discouraged. The sun was mostly out (a great accomplishment for Oregon) and it only poured for a couple hours. We had lots of help from family and friends and it was over all a great weekend. We also got a personal donation of $500 for the adoption which was quite a shock for us. We will be having another garage sale next weekend to try and get rid of all the left over stuff. Please come out and say hi.
         At church last Sunday we learned that there was another $500 dollars donated by church members bringing the total money our church has raised for us up to $1,500. Furthermore they have set up a day at the end of July where we will talk about adoption in church and then have an ice cream social and a free will offering. That is very exciting, I haven't talked in front of a church since I was in high school and I am excited to tell everyone about adoption. Of course all are welcome to come.  
            Through late orders from our jewelry show we raised a total of $320 dollars, we also have about $700 of our own money we have been saving. So I'm not gonna add up the totals but I will be making a big payment to the adoption agency next week and then I will change the amount we need to the right on this page.
           I just can't express how happy it makes my heart to see all the love and support from family and friends so thank you so much and keep the love coming.

Dreams and waiting

So i've ben having dreams about baby (who needs a better temporary name then baby. Dan votes for squishy but that just confuses India because her favorite baby doll is named squishy). Anyway the most recent dream i had was that there were two people from Oregon City who both picked us to be the parents of thier child and we had to decide wich one to take. I woke up and told Dan this and he goes "well thats easy we would take both of them." He's not wrong, we may be crazy but hes not wrong. Most of the time my dreams just are warm fuzzy feelings like rocking the baby and cooing at the baby with India at my side and stuff like that. It is an interesting feeling waiting for a baby when you don't know when its coming. In some ways its like being pregnant and you can't wait to see your child and you dream about it. In other ways its so differnt because you can't be sure that at the end of nine months you will actully get to see your baby. You may have to wait way longer then that or you may get lucky and get one way sooner. Not having a timeline is hard.
              In other waiting news I've gotten two emails from our adoption agency lately the first one was to tell me that they have not had anyone look at our book thus far. that thier just hasn't been the opertunity. Let me clarify what this means: the adoptive parents have a list of things they want in a baby and the birth mom has a list of things they want in an adoptive family. The agency matches these lists to each other and then shows a scrapebook of the adoptive family to the birthmom. She then decides if she wants to meet you. So what our adoption agency was saying was that they have had no matches to show our scerapebook to. In a way this is a relief, because it;s not that twenty birthmoms have seen our book and didn't like us it's that no one has seen our book. In another way it makes me think this is gonna take a while.

Fundraising: the nasty truth

         We had a fundraiser today. A lady from a jewelry company offered to give us 80% of the profits. This is a great deal. So for months I planned and planned this party. A jewelry party where people come and buy pretty jewelry and I would also talk about adoption so people could know more about it. I had free food. It was my goal to get 100 people there. I know that sounds like a lot but we have an extremely large family. My family alone (aunts, uncles, and cousins) is around 80 people. I have over 200 Facebook friends. Now i knew that not everyone would come and i knew that not most of them would come. But I did think my family would come, furthermore I asked everyone I invited to please bring a friend, so really 100 people didn't seem that high to me.
                13 people showed up 13.  Now I am extremely grateful to those 13 and between them we raised $182.00 for the adoption fund. But I'm just annoyed with everyone else who didn't come. It makes me so sad. Why can I get 46 people to come to my five year olds birthday party but I can only get 13 to come help give a baby a great home. Here is the nasty truth: FUNDRAISING SUCKS. I know people don't like giving there hard earned money away, I certainly don't, but you know what is equally un-fun? Asking for money and asking for help. Nobody likes it, I really don't like it. I wish I had a million dollars, or hey even $23,000 so I didn't have to go asking everyone I know for there help but I don't have that much, I don't have anywhere close to that much. So I'm left with the arduous task of fundraising which is so draining I can't believe it. I have a friend whose daughter has Cystic Fibrosis and it seems like all she ever does is fund raise to try and save her child's life. She is fast becoming my hero cause I don't know how she can stand all this fundraising stuff (much less all the other trials of having a daughter with Cystic Fibrosis).
                 If you are a friend or family member of ours (or just reading our blog) I am begging you to please support us. You do not need money, there are other ways to help, there is a whole blog on here entitled "What I can do to help" It is really heartbreaking to plan a party for 100 people and have 13 show up. It is really great to have a fundraiser and have a familiar face come say "hi, hows it going" that lifts our spirits. I'm sorry if this blog is kinda a downer but I said at the top we were gonna share our trials and joy and raising money is defiantly a trial.
                     

What Can I do to Help?

What Can I do to Help?

            1) Pray, pray, pray. Right now we have three specific prayer requests, they are the same ones we as a family every night: 1) That the baby already knows we love it. 2) That the birth mother finds peace in this extremely difficult decision and that she finds us. 3) That we raise enough money to fund this adoption

            2) You can also help by being involved in and coming to our fundraisers. It’s very disheartening not to have moral support of your friends and family.

            3) If you know of any great fundraising ideas please let us know, we are all ears

4) If you would like to donate money, why I think we might let you. You can even do it right now by going to the Pay Pal account on this page