Fundraising

If you look at our fundraising thermometer, it's significantly lower than it used to be.  I can assure you that the 2300+ has either been used already for all those smaller fees or in our savings account.  Since that money needed to be used elsewhere in our adoption journey I thought it would make sense to not count it toward our international fee goal.  In the near future I will make a separate thermometer that displays all the money that has been raised with the total amount needed at the top so  that we can see the bigger picture.  The 220 dollars is from our puzzle fundraiser which is strictly to raise money for the international fee.  I have provided a link to the right if you want to participate in this fun fundraiser.  It's so easy, jut ten bucks for a puzzle piece.  That's it!!  Thank you!  

Middle of the Night Musings

I'm up.  It's 4 am.  I have a sick child and to try and go to bed and sleep is laughable.  So here's how it went down.  My mom sense kicked in and began to awake around 3:40 am.  There's a light in the hallway.  Did I leave that on when I came to bed?  Is Nate still in here or is he up?  No, didn't leave a light on, yes Nate is still here.  So I get up and check the bathroom just in time to direct my child to the toilet, this child is VERY inexperienced with stomach bugs.  :)  Ah yes, it's take action time.  Does it hurt or feel sickish?  Is it bad or just annoying?  Do you want to try to drink something?  Let me get a bucket and get you back into your comfy bed.  Oh and do you want me to set up the iPad so you can watch something on Netflix?  Phineas and Ferb?  Okay buddy, you got it.  He also gets his mother and father at his disposal.

Even though I don't like seeing my kids sick, I find it a privilege to take care of them.  I love taking care of them and comforting them when they feel bad.  I know I'm not the only parent that feels this way.  Then I think of the sick kids that don't have a mommy or daddy to get up with them in the middle of the night, let a lone stick an iPad in front of them to watch a cartoon.  I find that I feel frustrated a lot because I can't adopt them all.  I don't have enough money to get the proper medical care all millions and millions of them need.  So I pray for them.  I put them in God's hands and hope that someone will be there to show them a parents love, even if it's just temporary.  So while my son lays next to his bucket and laughs at the cartoon, I'm sitting here praying for the children who don't even have a blanket to snuggle.  Pray with me.

Pictures and Prayer Requests

First of all, I'm sorry for the look of this blog.  I don't like it one bit.  I was trying to change it up for Haiti and the giraffe background wasn't cutting it.  I have no idea how I managed to mess it up and I'm trying to figure out how to fix it without screwing it up even more.  Ugh.  Now on to more important stuff.

We have access to pictures from the orphanage we will be adopting from and I can't stop looking at them.  There is one particular picture where the children (who look to be about 2-4 years of age) are sitting on top of boxes that were recently donated to their orphanage.  They received boxes and boxes of dry milk.  The kids that are 3 or younger will get 2 cups of reconstituted dry milk twice a day to help ward off malnutrition.  They have their little hands up in the air cheering for their dry milk donation in this picture.  They have so little and are thankful.  I'm excited to be on this journey and humbled God is using us.

I'm excited because after this adoption is final, it's really only the beginning of our journey to help the orphans.  Think of all we could do for this orphanage with our money and resources!  It's so exciting!

We have to have psychological evaluations for the Haitian dossier, we need eight passport photos for each of us and pictures of our home and family and we are done with the dossier!!!  Eeeek!  

Here are some ways you can pray for us:

1. For our psych evaluation to go smoothly and that it won't take forever to get the report to put in the dossier.

2. That all our dossier docs are approved and that we won't have to re-do anything and we can get it sent off to Haiti.

3. We have the money to send the dossier and to take care of the smaller fees such as USCIS (immigration) application fee of $720 and the $85 per person fingerprint fee and passports, which is a huge praise.  Just keep praying for that international fee to build up.  

4. We have four grant applications filled out but just not sent because we are waiting for the final copy of our home study, because they all require a copy along with several other documents.  Pray they have funds to help us out!

Thanks everyone!