Fundraising

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And the Winners Are…

Well, so much for trying to eat healthfully now that life should be a little less demanding.

If Tyler, Elise, and I each ate 1 burger a day and then 1 hot dog a day once those were depleted, we’d be eating them till September.

If we each ate 1 piece of cake a day we’d be eating cake until September as well.

But who wants stale cake?

Party at the Werner’s!

Except… I’m really quite excited to not be planning anything for a while, so we’ll just have to gorge ourselves on cake and save the rest frozen for a Welcome-Home-Baby Party later.

Anyway, you’re probably all scanning this to see who won the Raffle and not really reading anyways, so I will cut to the chase. The winners of the Raffle Drawings were….

…

…

…

US!!!

In spite of a turn-out that was a little less than we had hoped for (ergo the surplus of food and resulting imminent weight-gain), people were extremely generous. We still have about $4,000 to go, but compared to $20,0000, that’s a much more manageable amount to finance if we have to. I really can’t believe the gifts we’ve been given. We have been so incredibly blessed by our family and friends, and even strangers. We truly can’t describe the burden that has been lifted and replaced with a…. poncho? parka? snuggie? of support. (You pick the season and imagery. I gave up after 5 minutes of trying to come up with something serious.)

What I mean is that not only are we relieved, we are also overcome by the encouragement and love people have shown us and our future-baby. I can’t wait to be able to hang this in our baby’s room:

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Alright, I’m done with the sappy stuff, here are the real winners of the Raffle:

Essential Oils from Healing Reign: Britta D.

Crafy Momma Designs Pallet Sign:  Sarah J.

Crafty Momma Designs Pallet Box:  Danielle T.

Scentsy Warmer: Lily S.

Villa and Londyn Romper:  Darlene H.

Piano Lessons with Jen Barr:  Mandy B.

Target Gift Card:  Aaron and Jen J.

Old Orchard Juice Package:  Sabina W.

Tyler’s Table:  Jen T.

Amanda Mae Designs Photo Session: Des and Adam S.

iPad Air 2:  Cindy W.

2 Nights at the J.W. Marriott:  Michaellyn and Brian H.

THANK YOU to all who donated and to all who helped us with the dinner! And please check out these businesses who donated prizes for our Raffle:

Sabina Williams from Villa and Londyn Baby Apparel

Vicki Goethals from Healing Reign

Jen Barr from Jen’s Piano Studio

Old Orchard and my friend Dana from Marketing

Lacey Key from Crafty Momma Designs

Mandy Bowerman from Amanda Mae Designs

Laura Hess from Scentsy Fragrence

The J.W. Marriott 

 

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Raffle Closing Soon! Drawing on Saturday

Last Chance! Our Fundraising dinner is tomorrow, and the Raffle is closing to online submissions at 12:00 noon on Saturday. Check out all the prizes!

(Not pictured are 2 months of weekly piano lessons with Jen Barr [$10 donation] and a Scentsy Wax Warmer Gift Set from Laura Hess [$5 donation])

To donate and enter the raffle just Click on the image below and leave a message with your donation stating which prize you’d like. 

Raffle Prizes.jpg

 

We would love to have you come grill out with us, but attendance is not required to win. It’s from 5-6:30 Open-House Style (come-whenever-leave-whenever). We have Gluten Free and Vegan options as well!

I’m seriously considering breaking into those essential oils right now… I could use a little “Stress Relief” and “Tranquility”!

Though I’m not sure why I’m stressing when we bought enough food for 200 people for less than $400. And that includes tablecloths/decorations/plastic-ware. And we have plenty of people helping, so we should be all set.

I think my 2 biggest fears are (1) that no one will be able to come and (2) that we will have TOO much help and people will be bored.

Oh wait, make that 3: that we should probably make some kind of short thank-you speech and I will get all choked up before I can even get a word out.

But then I think about the real focus of this dinner: our baby.

Our baby who may very well be kicking around in his mama’s womb right now. Our baby who is very-much loved by this woman who is making such a difficult choice for her child. Our baby that will only be ours because so many people have contributed to help make it possible for us to bring this little person home someday.

We finally had the chance to put our names in for a baby this week. The baby is due in October, and while chances are slim that we would be chosen on our first opportunity, my heart goes out to this baby and its mama and to the couple it who will be its parents.

Thank you all again so much for your support – both financially and emotionally. Please continue to pray for our family, our baby, and for their birth-parents.

And we hope to see you at the grill-out! 6950 Peace Church, Middleville, MI 49333

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The Final Count / A New Song

I think back to where God has taken us since our struggle with infertility. I felt so broken them. And so weak for my inability to persevere with faith in God’s goodness. I knew He would give us a child one way or another eventually, but didn’t understand why He was making it so difficult. People would say things like “It will happen when you’re ready” and “God’s just preparing you to be an even better parent.”

It was crushing to hear those things actually.

When we finally got pregnant I was so excited. Yet, my heart was weighed down with guilt because it was at a time when my doubts were the greatest. I knew there were others struggling with infertility whose faith was much deeper than my own. Couples who were much more deserving and had been waiting even longer than we had.

For the first few months of my pregnancy, I wrestled with this, “Why did we have to wait so long? Why  did God answer our prayers when I was at my weakest? Was it because He gave up on me?”

These answers have come since then:

Because God’s timing for our daughter’s life to begin was not all about ME. Much of our future in this world hinges on timing, and Elise’s birth has a purpose too.

Because Christians must endure hardship just like the rest of the world. How else can we be relevant to a hurting world that doesn’t know Jesus? It gives us an opportunity to stand by someone else when they face the same struggles and to remind them that God cares, even when the answer to our prayers seem so far off.

Because God wanted to teach me – who always wants to be perfect and please everyone – that I can’t earn His favor. He loves me just.as.I.am. While I was broken and worn out on faith, He stepped in and showed me Grace.

Let me repeat that: While I was BROKEN and WORN OUT on faith, HE stepped in and showed me GRACE.

And finally, because God was preparing us for our next child. We never would have considered adoption before because of the cost. But once we were met with so many obstacles to conceive, we began feeling God calling us to adopt. And ever since deciding to start the process, we have been overwhelmed with our growing, synchronized excitement for adopting our second baby.

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Our garage sale was these past three days, and I’ve been a little emotional, to say the least.

Friends and family running over to drop off baked goods before a vacation.

Strangers coming to the sale and just slipping us $10 and $20 bills without even giving us a chance to properly thank them.

So many people telling us to “keep the change.”

One woman even coming to share her story and introduce us to her newborn baby… that SHE just adopted.

Lots of encouragement from adoptive and foster parents as well as adoptees.

And so, so many donations of money, garage/bake sale items, and time.

On our own, we would have had our sale on our dirt road in the middle of nowhere. Instead, our father-in-law opened his house in town up to us for the community-wide garage sales in our home town.

On our own, we would have sold a few books, my pre-pregnancy clothes, and a some odds-and-ends home decorations that I don’t know how to decorate with. Instead, OVER 30 people donated items for us to sell.

On our own, I would have had to take a whole week of vacation time to prepare. And taken anti-anxiety medication. Because of a dear friend and our father in law, most everything was sorted and priced by the time I came to help set up on Wednesday.

On our own, we would have sold 3 types of cookies. Because of 12 different people, we had zucchini bread, apple pies, cinnamon rolls, cupcakes, muffins, dog treats, peanut brittle, and *drum roll please* 12.types.of.cookies!!!

On our own we would have been lucky to raise $200. But because of our family, friends, and community, we raised…

Are you sitting down?

Are your tissues ready?

Might as well forget tissues. Grab a sponge.

$5,079

Bringing our Adoption Fund up to $10,614.Fundraising Thermometer

God has taken us from brokenness to the most overwhelming joy and gratefulness. We thankful for our hardship, because it has put a “new song” in our hearts. These last 3 days we were met with gifts and encouragement every time we turned around. We have never felt more loved and can’t wait to share news of this baby with the many people who are helping us bring our next child home.

“I waited patiently for the Lord;

He turned to me and heard my cry.

He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire;

He set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand.

He put a new song in my mouth, an hymn of praise to our God.

Many will see and revere and put their trust in the Lord.

Many O Lord,  my God, are the wonders you have done.

The things you planned for us no one can recount to you.

Were I to speak and tell of them, they would be too many to declare…

I cannot conceal your love and your truth from the great assembly.”

Psalm 40:1-3, 5, 10

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Why My Car Smells Like Hobby Lobby

When we first were considering doing a garage sale I thought, “My father-in-law lives right in town, maybe he will get more traffic than we would out here in the country. On a dirt road.”

I thought, “Last year I sold almost $200 in 2 days at my friend’s subdivision garage sale… every little bit helps.”

I thought, “We have so much we don’t really need” as I started a pile of clothing, DVD’s, books, 2 of the 3 necklaces I own, and home decor that haven’t been used in ages, but was met with protests of, “It’s perfectly good _____ and we might want it someday,” by my husband.

I did NOT think people would start bringing us totes and car-fulls of donated items.

I did NOT think my father-in-law would buy the contents of an abandoned storage unit from an auction.

I did NOT think my parents would have 3 trailers-full of donations for our sale.

I did NOT think a friend would actually.donate. her CAR!!!

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I did NOT think our aunt would donate a gorgeous 7-piece bedroom set.

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I did NOT think people would bake us 15 different types of cookies; an assortment of pies, breads, and cupcakes; and 60 jars of barbecue sauce.

I did NOT think joining the “Lake Odessa Garage Sale” group would result in 3,000 people wanting to buy our stuff.

Ok, that last one was an exaggeration, but only slightly!

 

So here we go! My car smells like Hobby Lobby because it’s full of silk flowers and vases that my coworker brought to me yesterday. And when I say  full, I truly mean FULL. She had even more, but I didn’t have room for it all. She seemed so disappointed…

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wpid-img_20150602_052131932.jpgWell, we have $15,000 left to raise and I think with everything that everyone has donated, we should be able cut that down by more than $200.

Holey Moley, people. Our baby is so very loved already. Thank you… 

I think I’ll just not bother wearing eye make-up for the next few days.

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Beuller?

Did you hear about our Rafffle? 

Beuller?

Beuller?

Beuller?

Haha. The funniest thing is that up until a year ago, I didn’t get that reference. And to be completely honest, I ended up hating the movie, but I kept it on whilst doing projects just so I could see the “Beuller” part and feel like one of the cool kids. I’ve been waiting for a chance to fit in like this. Too bad I didn’t think to just look the clip up on Youtube.

Life’s tough lessons ya know.

(My apologies if you are a Ferris Beuller fan.)

wpid-img_20150527_203634726.jpgAnyeeway… the odds are very much in your favor for the Raffle! I’ll just say that we’ve had many very generous donations, but no one wants to put their names in for the Raffle prizes!!! For goodness-sake, people! I wanted to make this rewarding so that WE can give to YOU too!!! And actually, they were mostly all donated-prizes, so it’s really more like we’re re-gifting.

As of right now, there are 5 tickets that have been put in for the ipad… and your chances are about the same for everything else. Just sayin’ – those are some pretty good chances.

1 month until the drawing! The drawing will be held at the end of the benefit dinner we are having on June 27 at Peace Church (6950 Cherry Valley Road, Middleville, MI 49333) from 5:00-6:30 pm. 

Also, if you are big into garage sale-ing or baked goods, we (ok, I) will be at 754 Washington Blvd, Lake Odessa, MI 48849 from 9:00-4:00 on June 4-6.

(I guess Tyler has to be at school for the final days of the school year – something about having a sub on your last day of school just wouldn’t seem right.)

And speaking of Tyler, I should tell you a short little story:

I made 3 different types of cookies this weekend and froze the dough to bake up for the sale. One of the cookies that everyone always seems to love is cinnamon-chip snickerdoodles. The only problem is that finding the cinnamon chips is like searching for truffles (the mushroom, just to be clear).

When I came home empty-handed from my truffle-hunt this weekend, I went on Amazon and discovered that I could order 6 bags for $16 including shipping. Not bad at all.

They came today.

cinnamon chips

 

Only… there were 12 bags, not 6.

I didn’t exactly tell Tyler I was ordering them, so I debated whether to stash them somewhere in the basement or let him find them and hope he didn’t mind my um… “preparedness.”

I decided to share my shopping-sins and piled them in one huge pile on the kitchen table.

His reaction surprised me. I thought  hoped he might be amused when he got home, but wasn’t prepared for him to think I was THAT funny for ordering 12 bags of cinnamon chips.

As it turned out, HE’s the one that ordered the exact same box of 6 from Amazon to surprise me!

I’m not exactly sure how to feel about this: amused, grateful, blessed, or a little creeped-out.

Or maybe just hungry.

 

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First News of a Birthmom

It’s been a long two-and-a-half weeks since getting approved to adopt. On average, our agency has 3 birth-moms a month looking for a families for their babies. Probability was not high we would have received news of a birth-mom before now, but with adoption you never know.

So of course I’ve been as attached to my phone as a 6th grade girl.

I was counting this week out and getting ready to jump in the shower after digging in the dirt (aka assisting my father-in-law with converting the whole front of our house into lovely flower beds. And by “assisting”, I mean my father-in-law probably did 95% of the work.)

*hangs head in shame*

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And then my phone ding-ed.

It was an email from our adoption worker about a birth-mom due in September.

And guess what else?

Twins!

*faint*

 Twins… a lot to consider. When we were first asked about our openness to adopting twins we said, “Sure, bring it on.” But the reality is that twins AND a 2 year old AND working full-time just sounds a bit overwhelming. Elise still needs so much attention, and both of us being occupied with a baby may not be a very easy transition for her.

But on the other hand, who gets to choose what’s easy? 

Also weighing-in on our decision are the preferences this birth-mom is looking for: Monthly visits, more if possible; a stay-at-home-mom situation; and a family that doesn’t yet have a child. None of these “preferences” are set in stone; birth parents will read all about us and our preferences for openness and make an informed decision.

 

We have until June to give our official answer, but surprisingly we both haven’t felt any “nudge” like these could be our babies. It’s especially surprising to me, because I’m usually the idealistic, rescuer type who would be open to taking any baby. Without a doubt though, there is some couple ready and excited about these babies and we still pray for a beautiful future for them.

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Meanwhile, we are revving-up for our garage sale that’s happening June 4-6. We have TONS of stuff that has been donated to us:

Clothing in all sizes

Furniture

Lamps

A Car

Yes, seriously, A CAR. I posted on facebook asking if anyone wanted to donate their “yacht, car, or house” for our sale – totally in jest. And then one of our good friends texted me saying they just bought a new car and wanted to donate their old one anyway. I just can’t believe you people… ❤

We will also have baked goods – basically every-flavor-cookie imaginable as well as some pies, barbecue sauce, vegan energy balls… the list keeps growing!

I realized today that Lakewood’s last day is June 4, so I hope to draw some people to the bake sale since the sale is adjacent to the school parking lot. So if your kids go to West El, come stop by for some Last-Day-of-School Treats!

Hope to have more news soon of other birth-moms looking for families, but for now we’ll keep busy while we wait!

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New Raffle Prize from Old Orchard!

What juice do you crave on humid days like today? For me, it’s ice-cold grape juice.

My amazing friend Dana from Old Orchard hooked us up with a new Raffle Prize! It includes:

FREE Juice for a Year

(in the form of 52 “VIP” free product coupons, each redeemable for a free 64oz bottle of Old Orchard juice, any variety, up to a $3.49 value)

2 Tervis Tumblers

2 Old Orchard Watermelon Lip Balm

1 Men’s Cutter & Buck Quarter Zip Sweater

1 Women’s Nike Golf Quarter Zip Long-sleeve Shirt

1 Reusable Shopping Tote


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Approximate Retail Value: $290! 

To get in on this Raffle, just click here, donate $10 to our Adoption Fund, and when it lets you leave a note after you donate saying something like “Juice.” Or you can always donate in person too and let me know how many tickets you want. 40 days left till the drawing! Which probably sounds like a lot to you, but since we are doing it at our benefit dinner, I feel like we have sooo much to do before then! (And no, you do not have to be present at the dinner to win!)

New OOB Logo

Hope you win! I actually really wish you could ALL win, because ALL your support – whether $5 or $500 – means so much to us. All I can say is an overwhelming “thank you.” We promise to pay it forward whether by giving ourselves or by teaching our kids to be generous people like you!

(To see the rest of our Raffle Prizes, click here)

 

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Why Does Adoption Cost So Much?

Our approval yesterday went great. We signed some papers and handed over our profile book. The adoption workers discussed what to expect next, which basically was anything. Every birth-mom is entirely different, and every adoptive family is different. It’s impossible to predict how long it will take for us to be chosen, but now we are officially a choice.

So of course in the mail today I opened the box to find a letter from Bethany.

bill

So sweet of them – a bill for $5000. Thankfully, we have been very used to limiting our spending and have saved up enough so that with the $2200 you have given us, we don’t need to panic or take out a loan!

Which means only $14,000-17,000 more to go!

Which leads me to the common question we are asked:

“Why Does Adoption Cost So Much?”

A great question! I wondered the same thing and checked on other agencies and other options for adopting for less. I was surprised to find that Bethany actually had the lowest cost of all the agencies I looked into. The short answer is this:

  • Birth mother expenses (hospital, housing, food)
  • Government and legal fees
  • Counseling with potential birth mothers
  • Adoption agency overhead and expenses
  • Advertising on your behalf

The only real way to bypass such incredible expenses is to adopt from foster care, which is no cost. And while we may do this in the future, foster care means two significant things we don’t feel ready for: (1) Agreeing to support the goal of re-uniting the child with their parents and (2) most-likely adopting an older child. With Elise not yet two years old, we felt ready to grow our family, but not ready to disrupt her birth-order or expect her to handle having foster-siblings coming and going from our home.

I believe back in 2012 there was a $12,000 government refund for adoption. Now, they have made up to $12,000 tax deductible. Which to me, makes no sense. At a minimum, why isn’t the entire expense tax deductible? Just sayin, it should be.

In addition, my employer offers $5000 reimbursement – which was amazing until I realized that I will not be paid for any leave I take because I did not give birth. So I am thankful for that, but will be using it to cover my leave. And taking that time is extremely important in adoption because the adoptive parents are not who the baby has heard and smelled and felt since conception. So much of the research supports new parents taking as much time as possible to bond with and nurture an infant.

So while the cost was EXTREMELY overwhelming at first — and still is somewhat of course — I’ve been amazed at God’s faithfulness throughout. Every single gift has been… an indescribable blessing. Not just because of the towering cost, but because people care. God cares. I was so disappointed when I found out my work did not win a $1500/employee bonus that we were favored for. The timing and amount would have been perfect. But God – through even more meaningful means – provided exactly what we needed. Thank you for every gift, friends – not just financially, but in your “congratulationses” (?), encouragement, and excitement for our family. 

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Thank You, Good Night

Long week: 50 work hours, 5 hours of sleep each night, sick (again), preparing for a garage sale. Apologies for any discontinuity in the following recap.

Check out the bags under those eyes! Eesh.

Check out the bags under those eyes! Eesh.

 

Friday night, 10:30 pm – Finally finished baking 12 dozen cookies for the Indoor Community Garage Sale, our first fundraising event.

Saturday morning, 5:00 am – Alarm goes off on my phone.

Try to turn my alarm off by frantically squeezing the side buttons and sliding my keyboard out.

Remember I no longer have a flip phone.

Frantically slide my fingers all over the screen. Somehow manage to silence the alarm.

Crawl out of bed.

5:03 am – Get Rylie up.

5:05 am – Make a list of everything I need for the Indoor Garage Sale today.

5:06 am – Search for my Chalkboard Marker.

5:10 am – Remember I was supposed to order the rest of my Profile Books from Shutterfly with the $20 off coupon I got from Buy Buy Baby yesterday.

Search my bag.

Search the kitchen.

Search the living room.

Search my car.

5:15 am – Quietly sneak into the dark bedroom to search the laundry pockets.

A voice breaks through the darkness, “You got Rylie up already??”

Indignantly, I verify that I did in fact get Rylie up.

Then I look at the clock.

4:15 am

Wait, what?

WHAT?

*sigh*

4:20 am – Search my car again. Found the coupon.

4:21 am – Search for the chalkboard marker. Ay-yi-yi

4:25 am – Give up on my search and order my Profile books.

5:00 am (again, but for real this time) – Lay down on the couch to nap until I actually have to get up.

5:00:01 – tick

5:00:02 – tock

5:00:03 – tick

5:00:04 – tock

5:00:05 – Consider how to demolish the clock from my place on the couch.

Spend an hour thinking. In the dark. On the couch. With the ticking clock.

6:00 am – Get up and nearly run into Tyler.

Almost wet my pants.

Apologize for my alarm going off so early.

“That was my alarm.” he tells me

Cry a little.

6:03 am – Find my chalkboard marker on the coffee table I had already checked 6 times.

Thankfully, the rest of the day went much better. I met Nick and Jamie (our friends from college who are also adopting) at the venue for the Indoor Community Garage Sale and we got everything set up just fine. In fact:

9:00 am – Doors open.

9:20 am – Run out of Dog Biscuits my friend made for us to sell.

I couldn’t believe the amount of people who came out to support us. People who I worked with, people I used to work with, people who only kind-of know us, people who have known us since college… It meant so much to have so many people come support our adoption.

I can’t even explain how much every word, blog-hit, and gift has meant to us. I probably make ya’ll feel super-awkward, because I feel like I’m fighting back tears each time someone donates or says how much they enjoy reading the blog or shows up at our garage sale. I’m blown away to see names I don’t recognize as “Supporters” on our youcaring.com site. I’m moved by the interest and the support throughout our Adoption Process. And then there’s the random checks in the mail that appear right when I’m feeling discouraged… I’m in constant awe of God’s reminders to us of His faithfulness.

They say pregnant women are emotional, but I think Expectant Motherhood through adoption induces a state of emotional instability of its own.

That or I am tired. Check out the bags under those eyes! Eesh.

Like really, really tired. Can I go to bed now?

*Happy sigh*  Thank you for reading and caring so much about us and our family. You are a blessing beyond what my loopy, tired brain can formulate into words right now. {Thank you!}

P.S. If you want to, you can search “Cheyenne and Tyler’s Adoption Page” on facebook to get blog updates and find out about upcoming events.

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Ready or Not

We got an email from our caseworker yesterday asking about moving our Official Approval up to May 5! Apparently our background checks, fingerprinting, and the rest of the paperwork is all completed and approved, so we are ready!

Wait… are we ready? Are we really ready for this??!!??

Let me just give you a sample of how stubborn our firstborn is.

I am trying to prepare our profile book for birthmoms to look through and realized that all of my pictures of the three of us are from a year ago. So my amazing mother-in-law came to take some family pictures. Let me just say these pictures really tell the story better than I could:

IMG_4542 IMG_4544 IMG_4545 IMG_4548 IMG_4551 IMG_4554 IMG_4556 IMG_4555

*sigh*

But I love her to pieces. Even because of her stubbornness and independence. I just pray God uses those qualities for good as she gets older!

Meanwhile our to-do list is almost done. Tyler has pretty much finished the table that is one of the prizes for the Raffle Drawing. On the left is the actual table and on the right is a similar 8 ft. table he made for our friend Sabina:

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Isn’t he amazing? Next I want him to build me a dining room table that can extend to fit 12 people, so you can all come over for dinner sometime!

Our Raffle is in full swing… sort of. We’ve raised $500 thanks to a handful of people, most of whom are family (thank you guys so, SO much!). But we now have $5000 due in 3 weeks – yikes!!! Originally at the informational meeting they had said it would be $2050. We had that and the initial $3000 set aside and had hoped to not have to worry about money until after our Garage Sale/Bake Sale and Dinner, as the final huge portion is not due until we are actually matched with a baby. So the payment schedule goes like this:

Application Process (completed) – $3000

Agency and Legal Approval (May 5th) – $5000

Placement – $13,500

Medical/Legal expenses for the birthmom (only requested in 50% of cases) – $3000

Anyway, God will provide in one way or another, but if it seems like I’ve been annoying on facebook with the fundraising stuff, it’s just because (1) I don’t know how to do a lot of stuff on facebook and have been experimenting with making pages and events and (2) I might. kinda. sorta. be getting a little nervous about having to pay that $5000 so soon.

Fundraising is not my thing. When I agreed to join Girl Scouts, I had no idea it meant we had to sell the cookies.

What do dogs eat? Dog biscuits.

What do cats eat? Catnip.

What should Girls Scouts eat? Girl Scout cookies, duh.

Needless to say, I didn’t last long. In part because of not getting to EAT Girl Scout cookies at every meeting and in part because I was not interested in selling anything. And then there was that Flag Ceremony incident in which they wanted me to do something-or-other with the American Flag. I’m someone who can’t picture things without you showing me first, so I was terrified when they told me how important this job was, then put the flag in my hands and asked me to march down this little aisle of girl scouts all staring at ME. I knew I was supposed to turn one way and do something else…. I never really knew. I’m not even joking, I very vividly remember fighting back tears whilst bearing our nation’s banner.

Oh and then there was that time I had to sew something.

Is that why our Girl Scout Cookies have been “Back-ordered” for 3 months? Good-golly, I caved and bought the Keebler version of Samoas out of desperation. Must be they did a background check and found my maiden name and recalled the national disgrace I bore down on my troop!

Alas, I digress… what was my point anyway?

Oh yeah, fund raising. Yeah yeah, yadda yadda, you’ve heard it already and I promise to stop posting a million things on facebook!

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IMG_4531But exciting things are happening here! Our little one could be out there right now growing in his or her Mama’s belly. So crazy to think about. Please keep them both in your prayers. And the three of us as well! May 5th is just around the corner!