Great quote from Chick-fil-A creator

"Nearly every moment of every day we have the opportunity to give something to someone else – our time, our love, our resources. I have always found more joy in giving when I did not expect anything in return.” -S. Truett Cathy

Chick-fil-A Night!

So, we already knew that Chick-fil-A is awesome and Brian's favorite place to eat. He loves it so much it was even mentioned in our wedding ceremony, for real, ask somebody that was there. :)

They are great for kids with Tuesday nights offering kids' meals for 99 cents and fun stuff for kids to do along with a playplace! They even let you switch out the book in the kids' meal for icecream if you want! The creator, Truett Cathy is cool too! He is passionate about children, taught Sunday School for more than 50 years, and even began a foster care program through his Win Shape Foundation. So I shouldn't be surprised that they allow families and groups to do fundraising events there in the restaurant! Our lovely fundraising coordinator went over to the Robinhood location in Winston and they were very excited to help us! So, get your calendar out y'all and mark off Tuesday, February 23rd! That night we will be at the Robinhood/Peacehaven Chick-fil-A from 5-8pm! We will receive 10% of all the sales that evening even from people who order that we might not know! So, invite EVERYBODY that you know!! And, it's a Tuesday so it will be kids' night with 99 cent kids' meals!! I will send out a reminder closer to time. We will also have flyers that can be handed out and an email that will have all the info that you can give out/send out too!

Mmmmm, aren't you excited??

A Packed Basement

Oh my goodness! I wish you all could see our friends' basement. It is packed full with stuff for the Rummage Sale! Tons of clothing and toys. We have many departments already. :) Housewares, Electronics, Sporting Goods, and of course Christmas/Seasonal Items! There are soo many things down there that they have had to move some of their own stuff into another room in their house! A lot of it is from a way cool family that found out about us through friends. They are also adopting from Ethiopia and they found out that we were looking for stuff. They had a lot of extra items that they were originally going to use in a sale that they ended up not having so they gave it to us! So so nice! Also, I'm so excited about all of the people that have said they would come to the sale and offered items and baked goods! Thank you soo much!

We can't wait to see what else God is planning!

Love,

I will boast in the Lord, my God

So some of you may think $10,000 is insurmountable. I won't deny it...it's a lot of money, especially when you are just recovering from one spouse not having a job for close to a year and the other only having a full-time position for about half a year. I know it looks crazy but we cannot shake this! We know that God is up to something pretty amazing, something miraculous! He loves orphans y'all! I mean that's what He's all about! Restoring us back to His family, calling us sons and daughters!
And I know it sounds crazy but I am glad we're starting with $0.00. That way, God gets all the credit and all the glory!

Here's a verse and chorus from one of my favorite Paul Baloche songs.

"Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom
Or the strong man boast in his strength
Let not the rich man boast in his riches
But let the humble come and give thanks
To the One who made us, the One who saved us

I will boast in the Lord my God
I will boast in the One Who's worthy
I will boast in the Lord my God
I will boast in the One Who's worthy,
He's worthy"

RUMMAGE SALE!!

Here's the info on the Rummage Sale! It will take place on Saturday, February 13th from about 8am-2pm! Our fundraising team has secured a great place for it too! No worries, you won't be out in the cold looking over all the great stuff! You can come to New Hope Presbyterian's gym! New Hope is right off of Harper Road in Clemmons. We are planning on having a bake sale there as well. So, if you love baking and would like to help us out, please let me know! Also, if you have any stuff that you want out of your house, let us know that too and we will gladly come and take it off your hands!! We haven't had the rummage sale yet but we already have $340 from items sold off of Craigslist and donations!!! Isn't that crazy?? I hope to see you all there!!! We have some great stuff so far! Housewares, toys, clothing, baby stuff, furniture, etc. I'll give more specifics later!

Our Fundraising Team

So I'm ready to give you all some updates. We are working hard at raising this $10,000 and God is up to some really cool stuff! I should first introduce you to our fundraising director and team. :) We are so thankful for them! Meredith and Smitty are such good friends and they have been organizing all our fundraising efforts. They are coordinating this huge rummage sale, storing all the stuff in their basement, speaking on our behalf to lots of friends, supporting, loving, and praying for us! Here is a link to their blog.
http://simplysmittys.blogspot.com/

Don't they look excited?!?

By the way, those are kazoos, not cigars. I realize it's hard to see. haha

Approved!!

So, today we got some great news from our agency! Our coordinator reviewed our application and info with social services today and they have given us conditional approval! I know that sounds weird but it's actually very gracious of them. Because of new rules, they are asking that each family have $10,000 from the start of the adoption instead of as you go along. Since we don't have that, they did not have to accept our application. However, they thought everything looked great and they like our ideas for fundraising and are trusting God along with us to provide for this adoption. Our conditional approval actually helps us because it waives the need to re-apply after 90 days. If we do need additional time we will not have started a homestudy or other documentation that have time constraints on them and have to pay to re-do them. So we are soo thankful that they have done this for us!

We are working on the date and location for this big rummage sale that we're having. We're pretty sure we have a location down but I don't want to announce anything before it's in stone. We'll keep you updated! Keep praying! Again, if you have anything you want to donate to the sale, let us know! Oh, by the way, Isabel is patiently waiting. She said, "Mommy, when my baby brother or sister comes I will give them my blanket to sleep with. I have to wait first and we have A LOT of papers to do." Cute. :)

$10,000

Okay guys. Yesterday we found out that the social workers want us to have $10,000 ready within 30 days of our acceptance into our agency. That is close to half of the total amount we will need for an adoption from Ethiopia. They are able to hold our application for 90 days and that gives us some time to round up $10,000 before our official acceptance. So, we are committed to some serious fundraising. We have some ideas and we're getting started like NOW! Do any of you have any awesome ideas?? If you noticed I attached a widget called "Chip In" on the side bar. It's a meter of how much we need and how far along we are. Also, you can click on it if you would like to chip in and help us bring home our sweet baby from Ethiopia. The site is safe and secure and uses paypal so it goes directly to us.

Oh, also we're gonna have a yard sale (maybe indoor rummage sale). So, if you have stuff sitting around your house or garage that you want to get rid of or clean out since Christmas, please let us know! We'll come pick it up!

Much love,

Chip In

How did this all start...Part 2

So in August of 2008 on a date I told Brian what had been on my heart. He, of course, already knew something was up. He asked me what I was thinking about. I had prayed that Brian wouldn't think I was crazy and I told him what had been on my heart. I told him how adoption and orphans just kept popping up everywhere. On the radio, in conversations, in emails, and mostly in my heart. Well, God is so good when He wants something to happen. Brian smiled and said that he had thought about it sorta in the back of his mind. He said he was excited about the idea. He said he knew that there was a clear call in the Bible to care for orphans. He also, like me, loved that adoption is such a beautiful picture of what God does for us. That He sent Jesus for us so that we could be adopted as sons and daughters into the family of God. We are helpless, broken, and alone. He rescues us, restores us, and calls us His very own children! So, as you can see...God had worked it all out. I didn't need to worry what Brian would think. He had already prepared Brian's heart.

From that point we started doing research into different agencies and programs. At the beginning we considered adopting from a Spanish-speaking country because I speak Spanish. So we started looking into programs in Mexico, El Salvador, Colombia but we realized quickly that none of them really fit what our family was seeking. We wanted to keep the same birth order with Isabel as the oldest. We also didn't want there to be a huge age difference and wait 2-3 years in a program. We attended several adoption events and met some really great people. God used all of those things to grow the passion in our hearts to care for orphans. Also, we had several friends that were either adopting or had adopted. It was all around us. We also explored domestic adoption for a season. Around the time we were feeling stuck is when our life turned upside down with job change, church change, way of life change. At that time, we knew we should put adoption on hold. So we did...but we knew in our hearts that it was only for a season.

Come back and I'll fill you in on the rest!