Our January Wait List Number!!!

We received our January number today!!!  Seriously, I am SO SO excited about this.  I just keep thinking that....any day now....any day they could call us!  I keep wondering where I will be and what I'll be doing when they call.  Okay, okay, so here is the new number!

Isn't that super exciting??  Isabel's paper link chain is getting so small!  She was so happy to tear one of the links off today.  Tonight we read Psalm 5 and prayed for our daughter that we have yet to meet.  Would you pray for her too?

"Listen to my voice in the morning, Lord.  Each morning I bring my requests to you and wait expectantly.  Let all who take refuge in you rejoice; let them sing joyful praises FOREVER.  Spread your protection over them, that all who love your name may be filled with joy.  For you bless the godly, O Lord; you surround her with your shield of love."

New Blog Design!

Have you all noticed the new design and facelift that the blog has received?  Isn't it fun?  I really really love it!!  I have had the same design every since I started this blog in 2009.  I've been wanting something new but I just wasn't sure what to do about it.  However, my friend Leigh knew just what to do!  She asked me about colors that I liked and anything I wanted to include along with pictures and then wah-lah!  I also love that it seems more personal now.  I feel like it's a better reflection of our family and I was even able to include the verse from Colossians 2:2 that inspired the name of the blog.

 "That their hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love, to reach all the riches of full assurance of understanding and the knowledge of God's mystery, which is Christ."

Something really cool about Leigh's new blog design business is that she is using it to help families that are fundraising adoptions! For 3 months, a fundraising family will receive 15% of the profits.  SO, you can get a a pretty blog AND support adoption at the same time.  
You can check her out at The Crazy Coccoon and see some other samples of her work along with prices!

December Wait List Number

Yesterday we received our wait list number for December.  Our official number is still the same as November, #7.  However, since families within our agency communicate with each other, we found out we are "unofficially" #6!  One of the families ahead of us received a referral for their child.  So we have moved up one number!  We're getting closer!

 This January makes 3 whole years that we have been on this journey of adoption.  It was January 12, 2010 when we were accepted into the Ethiopia program with our agency.  It was then that we started fundraising like crazy to get that first amount in so we could begin our home study and dossier paper chase.  Some days it seems like this whole thing will never come to an end....like we will never see our daughter's face...but I know that's not true.  I know in my heart that we will see her soon.  I don't know and understand God's timing but I am choosing to believe that HE is good and that HE is faithful  (and yes, I have to CHOOSE, because many times I don't FEEL like it).  Some days my heart aches because I just want to know her.  It's a strange feeling.  

"I don't know what You're doing, but I know who You are." - JJ Heller, "Who You Are"

Here is the verse we are repeating in our family!
"Yet I still dare to hope when I remember this:
The faithful love of the Lord never ends!
His mercies never cease.
Great is his faithfulness; 
his mercies begin afresh each morning.
I say to myself, "The Lord is my inheritance; t
therefore, I will hope in him!"
The Lord is good to those who depend on him, 
to those who search for him.
So it is good to wait quietly
for salvation from the Lord."
-Lamentations 3:21-26

Show Hope Fundraiser

I wanted to make sure I had a post that contains all of the tshirts that we are selling!  We are so grateful for the chance to sell these shirts because we love what Show Hope does and how they want to support adoptive families and care for orphans.  They have made it so easy for us to be able to raise funds for our adoption process.  If you'd like to check out their ministry go here: http://www.showhope.org/

So here are the t-shirts and here is the link to purchase them. 
 http://www.adoptionbug.com/huntadoption/

  
The prices and sizes for the shirts vary but all of them except the light blue and the light pink come in ADULT, WOMEN'S, and YOUTH/CHILDREN sizes.  The light pink only comes in Women and Youth/Children and the light blue is Adult and Youth/Children.  The prices range from $16.99 - $24.99.  So just head over to our store front and you can order from there.  They take care of everything!  Go do some Christmas shopping!

Thank you guys!!

November Number!!!

Yesterday we received our new number for the month of November!  We have moved up one spot!  We're getting closer and closer y'all!!  I can hardly believe it!!  We are #7!

Several people have asked how they can pray for our family.  So, here are some things that we are praying for right now:
1.  We FINALLY received Brian's mom's biometric scan appointment!  They scheduled her appointment for way later in the month.  Many families go earlier and they are allowed to get their prints done then.  So they are going next week and we are praying that they will allow her to do that so they can process them and then send us our updated FDL (Favorable Determination Letter) very quickly.
2.  You can pray for our continued fundraising and grant applications.  We are preparing to apply for a couple different grants.  Show Hope is one that we are going to apply for and they are also allowing us to sell their t-shirts to help with our fundraising.  They offer it at no cost to our family and they operate the store front.  Basically, if you buy a shirt, they donate a large chunk of that directly to our adoption and some goes to support the work of Show Hope!  Pretty amazing and generous of them.  AND the shirts are really cool.  Steven Curtis Chapman and his wife, Mary Beth initially founded Show Hope out of their desire to see more children find their way into forever families.  I have a gray and pink one and it is so soft and comfortable.  Isabel has a Show Hope shirt too.  They come in Men, Women, and Youth/Child Sizes.  Here's me wearing mine! :)  Here is the link to our store front: http://www.adoptionbug.com/huntadoption/

   3.  Over all, we covet your prayers for our daughter that we have yet to meet!  We pray that God would prepare us for each other and that he would bring us together in a way that brings glory and honor to His name.  That we would be faithful in this wait and that she would know that her Heavenly Father loves her and that He would redeem all that has been lost.

This is the verse that I have been seeing all week in multiple places!

"For the Lord is GOOD; His steadfast love endures 

forever, and his faithfulness 

to all generations." -Psalm 100:5

Winners!!

I'm sorry I haven't posted this earlier in the day!  I emailed the winners earlier today once I got the results from Random.org but I haven't had a chance to actually sit down and write a post.  After we got all the entries, we created a spreadsheet and then used Random.org to help come up with the three top winners.  Random.org is crazy to me....it says they don't use just math algorithms but atmospheric noise to create the randomness.  I don't even know what it means but I trust they know what it means! Hah!  Anyway, we want to say that we are SO grateful to everyone that purchased tickets for this raffle to support our adoption.  Every time we do a fundraiser we are blown away by your generosity and support and God's faithfulness! Seriously, thank you all so much.  We made a little over $1500 which is amazing!  I actually looked up a flight to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia from Charlotte today and the average cost was $1500!!  Seriously!!  So, that is a huge help!  We are planning more fundraising and applying for grants to help with the rest of the flights because we will need to pay for 2 trips.  So stay tuned! :)

So the winner of the Kindle Fire HD is Beverly B.  The coolest thing ever is that TODAY is actually her birthday!  She was so surprised! :)  Congratulations Beverly!

The winner of the Target gift card is Jessica M. and the winner of the WFU/Vanderbilt football tickets is Megan B.  Megan said her dad and brother LOVE Wake Forest so I hope that her family has fun at the game!

Thank you all again for your support!

Love, 
The Hunts

TWO DAYS LEFT to BUY RAFFLE TICKETS!

 
This Friday is the last day to enter the Kindle Fire HD Raffle!!  Tickets are only $5 each.  Each ticket you purchase is another entry to possibly win this tablet valued at $199!  You can buy tickets in person OR by clicking on the Paypal link to the right over there....





The 2nd Runner up prize is a $20 gift card to Target so even if you don't win the Kindle Fire you might win the gift card!  

I'm adding another LOCAL runner up prize too!  A friend donated 4 tickets to the Vanderbilt vs. Wake Forest football game on Saturday, November 24th here in Winston-Salem!

 So I will draw THREE random names THIS SATURDAY to win the KINDLE FIRE, the TARGET GIFTCARD, and then the FOOTBALL TICKETS!  Don't forget that if you purchase a ticket and then you SHARE this raffle that you get an additional ticket!!  Thank you SO much for helping support our adoption and helping us get closer and closer to being able to bring our little girl home!

New October Number

Our number for this month is still...

Isn't that a pretty number 8??  While we were hoping to move up a few spots we know that God is working out all the details of this crazy wait!  Last October we were #29.  We also know that the courts in Ethiopia are open again and we are hopeful that we will get a referral soon for our sweet little daughter!

Once we get a referral, we will wait to be assigned a court date.  Once we get that date we will make plans to travel to Ethiopia and we will be there for 5 days.  After that we will come home and have to say goodbye to our little sweetie and wait for an Embassy date.  Then, after we get assigned an Embassy date we will be able to head back to Ethiopia and stay for a few days and then bring our daughter forever home!!

So, if you're interested in helping support our adoption, we are doing a Kindle Fire HD Raffle right now to help with the costs of those flights.  The runner up gets a $20 gift card to Target.  Each ticket is $5 and you can purchase them via Paypal over there to the right or in person.  Also, if you share the Raffle after you donate, then you can get an extra entry by leaving a comment that you did it.

We are praying that we (including our sweet daughter that we have yet to meet) would know this verse to be true:

"I know the LORD is always with me.  I will not be shaken, for he is right beside me." 

- Psalm 16:8 

p.s.  Please ignore the typing at the VERY top of my blog.  I was fiddling with the html code and I messed something up and haven't had time to fix it. :)

Kindle Fire Fundraiser Raffle

We have been on the wait list to adopt a little girl from Ethiopia since October of 2010.  We started at #93 on the list and today we are #8!  That means that any day soon we will receive a referral and we will finally see the beautiful face of our daughter!  With that referral comes the cost of flying to Ethiopia twice!

So, we are hosting a Kindle Fire HD 7" tablet Raffle to raise funds for our adoption!  Each ticket costs $5 and you can purchase them through Paypal through the link over there to the right OR you can buy them in person from me or Brian!  The raffle will end on November 9th and I will let random.org choose us a winner and I will announce it on Saturday morning, November 10th.  Then, I will order the Kindle Fire HD and have it shipped directly to the winner.

I didn't mention before but if you donate, then you can get one free entry for sharing this!  Just leave a comment below with a link to show that you have shared it after you make your donation!

 ALSO, there will be a runner up as well!  The runner up will be announced the day after and they will win a $20 gift card to Target!  Who doesn't want to win a reason to go wander around Target??

Thanks you all!!  We can't wait for the day we can share the news of a referral with you all!!  

It's my Birthday Giveaway!!

So today is my birthday!  Yep, today I turned 32 years old.  32 was much easier than 30 and I actually really like my age.  I'm about to head out the door for a date night with my sweet husband but I wanted to go ahead and post about this raffle we are doing to raise funds for our adoption.

As you know we are super super close to getting a referral.  This weekend we are wrapping up our home study update and then we just wait for the papers to be finalized.  After we are "paper ready" again then we will be able to accept a referral for a sweet little girl!  I know that it will be soon because we are officially number 8 and I'm pretty positive that we are number 1 for our age parameters (0-4 years).  So, we need to be able to pay for those expensive plane tickets to go to Ethiopia twice and pay for the referral fee.  We have some saved up but we still need to raise quite a bit.  So....we thought a raffle might be a fun way to do it!

So we are going to give away a 16GB Kindle Fire HD with a 7" display, exclusive Dolby audio, and Dual-Band, Dual-Antenna Wi-Fi.  It's super cool and you can do ALL kinds of fun things with it.  Watch movies, tv shows, read books & magazines, use apps and play games & music, catch up on Pinterest and Facebook, check your email, basically whatever you want to do. :)  Oh, and it would make an awesome Christmas present!!

Here is how you can win it and support our adoption at the same time!!
Buy a ticket for $5 through PayPal over there to the right!  Or buy 2 tickets for $10 or 5 tickets for $25 or however many you would like.  Each ticket is another entry to win the Kindle Fire!  Also, if you are local and would rather just pay for your tickets in person, that is totally fine as well!  We will be sure to include ALL ENTRIES.  The raffle will end on November 9th and I will let random.org choose us a winner and I will announce it on Saturday morning, November 10th.  Then, I will order the Kindle Fire and have it shipped directly to the winner.

We would love for you to share this raffle with people that you know via Twitter and Facebook!
Thank you for supporting our adoption!!!  One day soon we will see our daughter's face!!