Weight-Loss Adoption Fund-Raiser!!

Guess what??  We have a new fund-raiser to help us raise the money we need to bring home our son!

Here are the details:

I would like to get more healthy! I plan to lose 35 pounds to get down to my ideal weight for my height. Not an easy thing to do when you are only 5 foot tall and have given birth 6 times! (And to try and do this at the same time as navigating an international adoption means that I just might be crazy!)

Would you like to encourage me in my health goal, and help us raise the money we need to bring home our son at the same time?

Here is how this fund-raiser will work, there are 3 options!

1) Pledge a one-time amount of your choice in support of my efforts.

2) Pledge a dollar amount of your choice per pound I lose.

3) Pledge a certain amount to donate per week of successful progress. (I will post weekly updates of amount lost for 12 weeks or until my goal is reached, whichever comes first.)

Donations/Pledges can be made here:





 Please help me reach my goal and bring home our son! Please pray for my efforts and share this event to get it out there! Thank you and God bless you!

Catching Up...and a GREAT Announcement!

Hello everyone!

It has been WAY TOO LONG since I have updated our blog here. I am sorry to leave you hanging!

The reason for the delay is pretty much that life has been crazy busy...some of it usual life stuff, but mostly because I have been fund-raising like a mad woman! I am working like crazy to raise the money we need to go and get our little man out of his orphanage and home with us where he belongs! We have also been busy working on completing our Hague Adoption Class requirements, and working on paperwork etc.
We have had garage sales, on-line auctions, vendor fund-raisers, you name it. It is coming along SLOWLY but surely. It is SO worth the effort, but fund-raising is starting to feel like a full-time job some days!

I do have a bit of news to share! We found out today that our commitment documents were accepted by the government officials in our son's country! Hooray for some encouraging progress! It was such exciting news to receive! Soon we will be assembling dossier paperwork and really getting down to work!

We still have almost $3000 that we need to raise to pay our first installment of agency fees. So, let me share three fund-raisers that we currently have going.

1) Our BUY-IT-NOW Christmas Gift Sale !
In this event, we are selling all brand new with tag/in packaging items. Stop by and do some holiday shopping and help us bring our son home at the same time!

2) Our National ADOPTION Month Challenge !
November is national adoption month? Did you know that? Isn't that great? In this event, we are trying to raise the rest of our first set of fees by Thanksgiving Day. Now THAT would certainly be something to be thankful for, wouldn't it? Can you help us reach our goal?

3) Our Skip-A-Meal Fundraiser !
For this event, we are not actually asking you to not eat a meal, but to consider not eating out for one, and perhaps donating the difference to help us raise the funds we need for our adoption.

So, like I said, I am super busy working on getting our little guy home...and planning these fund-raisers! I think I am going to start dreaming about fund-raisers at this rate! So please, if you can, would you consider helping us reach our goal? Every single dollar gets us closer, and blesses our hearts beyond measure. It is like climbing a mountain, but knowing that every step gets us a little bit farther along than we were before. And please, oh please, share with anyone that you think may be interested in helping. And above all, please pray for us on this journey. Pray for us as every decision is made,  and every paper is signed, notarized, and apostilled. Pray for us to be able to negotiate the process as quickly as possible to go and get our son out of his orphanage and into our family!

And I shall leave you with some super-duper cuteness, because that is what you are really here for aren't you? Oh, come on and admit it. I will understand. I feel the same way when I walk by his pictures in our kitchen every day!                                    Here's our boy.......

Online Tupperware Party!!

Guess what???

I am here to announce a new fund-raiser we have going to raise funds for our adoption costs!



A friend who desires to help us fund-raise has set up this online only Tupperware Sales Event! 
                                                                 THANKS, SUSAN!

                                           Tupperware is a trusted name featuring great products.

To make a purchase:

TUPPERWARE ADOPTION FUND-RAISER


For any and all items that you purchase, our family will receive 40% of the sale to put towards our adoption fees. That is nearly half of the profit, and would be a great way to help us with our process while purchasing home items that you need. All sales will first be applied to our home-study funding needs, and any amount over that will go towards our commitment fees!

And don't forget, Christmas is coming soon! Get some of your shopping done early, while helping out a great cause. All you have to do is make a purchase through this specific Tupperware Party and you are on your way. But hurry, this party ends on September 17th!

To make a purchase and help our family give an orphan a loving home, click this link:
http://order.tupperware.com/pls/htprod_www/!twx$eparty_ctl.p_guest_welcome?pv_eparty=04760d18156363f84b6bdf36f971f8ab

Even if you cannot make a purchase at this time, please share with friends and family so that we can get this information out there! THANK YOU!

Oh, and one more _small_ announcement. 

There is a certain little boy in Eastern Europe that we are waiting to see if we will be officially matched with for adoption. It will be a little bit before we know for sure, but I will share more when I can! So exciting!

Small Update On Our Adoption Process!

Today I have a small update for you on where we stand with our adoption plans!

We have received preliminary permission to proceed with pursuing adopting a child with special needs from a country in Eastern Europe. We got this permission from the child placing agency. We are just in the beginning stages, but we are thrilled that they will be working with us! We have filled out our application for them, and they will be contacting us after they review and approve it. Our next task is to schedule a phone interview with their staff. After that, we will begin completing our required adoption education classes. It feels so good to be making some progress and heading down the right path that will lead to our future child, who will be an ORPHAN NO MORE at the end of that path!

Soon, we will be knee-deep in all of the paper-work associated with international adoption. Especially since we plan to complete our home-study update in October...that is not very long from now!

Which brings me to my next topic...FUND-RAISING! So far, we have raised a little bit more than $200 of the $750 we need for our home-study. That will be followed by commitment fees/agency fees soon after, so we really need to get serious about raising funds. But, one step at a time. To meet our first goal, we need to raise approximately $550 more by October 1st.

Here are some opportunities to help us raise this money!

1) My home business: Homecomings, Headbands, and More 100% of all proceeds go toward helping us fund our adoption. You can also visit my store on Facebook.

2) Check out my Starfish Poem Prints that I put together here: Home-Study Helper
These prints make great gifts, and are available for a donation of $5 or more!

3) For my local friends, we will be having a garage/yard sale to benefit our adoption on
Saturday, August 25th, from 8am-4pm. If anyone has anything they would like to donate, please let me know! We will have lots of toys, household items, furniture, etc. I will also be featuring some of my store items!

4) We have a Chip-In Event set up to run until October 1st. You can find a blue donate box on the upper-right-hand side of this blog. Secure donations can be accepted via PayPal/Credit Card by clicking here. I will also post it below:







Please consider helping us reach our 1st goal! Our home-study goal! We are currently $550 short, and I know that together we can get it done! Also, please pray! Pray for our process, for our fund-raising, and above all, please pray for our to-be-adopted child. An orphan's life is not an easy one. We want to get to our child and bring them into a home filled with God's love ASAP. We will be working as fast as we can. Every day matters, there is no time to waste! To those who give/pray/support/encourage we say...

AND....