Well its been almost a month of planning and preparation and we are so excited for our fundraising garage sale this Saturday!! Please tell everyone you know! The amount of stuff that has been donated is unbelievable!! I just have to give the Lord all the praise!! We just want to thank everyone who poured out the love of Jesus on our family and gave to us generously. Thanks to our loving friends and family we have a packed garage of wonderful exciting treasures!
Here is the information for the sale again...
We live in the Spring Meadows subdivision. Our address is 2815 Sandpiper Dr. Branson MO. The sale will be this Saturday from 7am to 4pm. We will have furniture, appliances, tools, firearms, clothes, shoes, bags, crafting items, bedding, home decor, Christmas decor, books,.movies, games, tons of baby and children items, kitchen items, and much much more!
We also plan to sale donuts in the morning and hot dogs and drinks in the afternoon. Don't forget to stop by our baked goods donation table for some yummy home baked treats! We are praying for a great turnout!
Hope to see you this Saturday!
Monday, September 19, 2011
Tuesday, September 13, 2011
What a crazy amazing week!
Let me just start off by saying how wonderful the Lord is! He has been so present in our lives and so real I can't even describe it. As you all know we are having a garage sale fundraiser and God has already had his hand all over it. We have been hugely blessed by so many loving friends and families in the community with donating things for the sale. At the beginning of this whole thing I was concerned about advertising and getting enough donations etc. But I knew in my heart that the Lord just wanted me to trust him and I knew if I put forth the effort he would be faithful. Wow has he ever! I have tons of stuff for the sale, the advertising is going great, and I think we are going to have a lot of shoppers for our sale. I am very excited for the 24th!
Also earlier this week a good friend of mine gave her life to Jesus! Just amazing! Oh and this is such a praise.. someone anonymously paid my ticket to Beth More! And the Lord has just been at work in the lives of my friends...so amazing just to see him at work all around me.
Other news..
We cancelled cable to help save money for the adoption. Carters children s clothing called me back a few days ago and decided that they wanted to hire me. Wow I guess the Lord does want me there. funny :) Also the Lord has provided an organizing job for me to do on the side to make extra money too! Awesome! Ian starts soccer this week.
On the paperwork front...
Still working on the Dossier forms and USCIS (immigration paperwork). We are going to be attending a parent training course on October 8th and 9th looking forward to that. Karl and I attended a webinar on adopting from China last night which was very informative. I am reading a lot of information to prepare us for the challenges that go with parenting a child who has been in an institution and has special needs. All of that information has been great as well.
Currently...
I have been working really hard to get everything organized, cleaned up, and priced for the sale. It's been a big job! I am thankful the Lord has given me some time to work on it. If you want to know where I am you can find me in our garage..lol I'm not sure when I will start work at Carters yet. I am looking for a few ladies to bake some yummy things for my fundraising baked goods table at the garage sale. So if you or anyone out there loves to bake feel free to bake away and drop it off around the 22nd or 23rd. I am also looking for a few volunteers to help out on the day of the sale. Let me know if your interested :) I guess that's all for now. I love you all and thanks for all your support and encouragement!
Also earlier this week a good friend of mine gave her life to Jesus! Just amazing! Oh and this is such a praise.. someone anonymously paid my ticket to Beth More! And the Lord has just been at work in the lives of my friends...so amazing just to see him at work all around me.
Other news..
We cancelled cable to help save money for the adoption. Carters children s clothing called me back a few days ago and decided that they wanted to hire me. Wow I guess the Lord does want me there. funny :) Also the Lord has provided an organizing job for me to do on the side to make extra money too! Awesome! Ian starts soccer this week.
On the paperwork front...
Still working on the Dossier forms and USCIS (immigration paperwork). We are going to be attending a parent training course on October 8th and 9th looking forward to that. Karl and I attended a webinar on adopting from China last night which was very informative. I am reading a lot of information to prepare us for the challenges that go with parenting a child who has been in an institution and has special needs. All of that information has been great as well.
Currently...
I have been working really hard to get everything organized, cleaned up, and priced for the sale. It's been a big job! I am thankful the Lord has given me some time to work on it. If you want to know where I am you can find me in our garage..lol I'm not sure when I will start work at Carters yet. I am looking for a few ladies to bake some yummy things for my fundraising baked goods table at the garage sale. So if you or anyone out there loves to bake feel free to bake away and drop it off around the 22nd or 23rd. I am also looking for a few volunteers to help out on the day of the sale. Let me know if your interested :) I guess that's all for now. I love you all and thanks for all your support and encouragement!
Tuesday, September 6, 2011
Exciting News and Updates
We have received our completed home study in the mail!!!
Also just wanted to let everyone know that I have added a donate button on our blog so you can easily donate through paypal!
Update on the garage sale...
Things are going great and I'm getting a lot of great donations, but I still need more in order for the sale to be a HUGE success. Please check your closets and storage areas for anything you would like to donate to our fundraising sale. Your unwanted stuff is going to help change a life!!! Hope to see you all at the garage sale on Saturday, September the 24th. OH did I mention we will have food, drinks, and baked goods! It's going to be a fun time :)
Also just wanted to let everyone know that I have added a donate button on our blog so you can easily donate through paypal!
Update on the garage sale...
Things are going great and I'm getting a lot of great donations, but I still need more in order for the sale to be a HUGE success. Please check your closets and storage areas for anything you would like to donate to our fundraising sale. Your unwanted stuff is going to help change a life!!! Hope to see you all at the garage sale on Saturday, September the 24th. OH did I mention we will have food, drinks, and baked goods! It's going to be a fun time :)
Tuesday, August 30, 2011
Changed the Fundraising Garage Sale Date
When: Saturday, September 24 from 7:00 am to 4:00 pm
Where: 2815 Sandpiper Dr. Branson MO in the Spring Meadows subdivision
Why: To raise funds to bring Meili home
Hope to see you there!
Where: 2815 Sandpiper Dr. Branson MO in the Spring Meadows subdivision
Why: To raise funds to bring Meili home
Hope to see you there!
Monday, August 29, 2011
Fundraising update
Just wanted to let everyone know that I have planned a huge adoption fundraising garage sale that will have items that have been donated from the community. Please tell everyone you know about this awesome opportunity to be a part of bringing Meili home. It will be held September 22-24 at my house. Please let me know if you need directions. Also if you have items you would like to donate or would like to help in any way please contact me at 417-593-1446. Hope to see everyone there. Your efforts are such a valuable gift.
Friday, August 26, 2011
Fundraising!!
Today I am brainstorming ideas to help us raise money for our adoption. A new friend of mine gave me some great ideas.Thanks Jennifer!! Here are the ideas. If anyone else has any great ideas or would like to help me with some fundraising events please let me know because that would be AWESOME! Some of the ideas that I am really considering are...
1. A huge garage sale. I would ask all my friends that if they have anything they would be willing to donate or they just want to get rid of to give it to me so that it can go in my fundraising garage sale. Advertise it big and pray that its successful.
2. A bake sale. There would be no set price on things, but people could just make a donation to help us bring our daughter home. Any ideas on where to do this though cause I haven't figured that part out yet. I will make cookies but if anyone would like to donate their baking talents as well that would be really great!
3.Making and selling t-shirts that say something about adoption on them.
4. Making and selling hair bows.
5. A dinner with an auction. I would host a dinner and auction off things that people would be willing to donate or do some sort of raffle thing??
6. Putting up a thing on my blog where people could donate. Haven't figured out how to do that yet...
7. Acrobats of China is willing to do a show where I could make some money on ticket sales that would go towards the adoption.
Anyway let me know what you all think are the best ideas and if you are interested in helping. Thank you all so much for being on this journey with us.
1. A huge garage sale. I would ask all my friends that if they have anything they would be willing to donate or they just want to get rid of to give it to me so that it can go in my fundraising garage sale. Advertise it big and pray that its successful.
2. A bake sale. There would be no set price on things, but people could just make a donation to help us bring our daughter home. Any ideas on where to do this though cause I haven't figured that part out yet. I will make cookies but if anyone would like to donate their baking talents as well that would be really great!
3.Making and selling t-shirts that say something about adoption on them.
4. Making and selling hair bows.
5. A dinner with an auction. I would host a dinner and auction off things that people would be willing to donate or do some sort of raffle thing??
6. Putting up a thing on my blog where people could donate. Haven't figured out how to do that yet...
7. Acrobats of China is willing to do a show where I could make some money on ticket sales that would go towards the adoption.
Anyway let me know what you all think are the best ideas and if you are interested in helping. Thank you all so much for being on this journey with us.
Thursday, August 25, 2011
The Adventure begins....
Preparation...
When we decided to be obedient and adopt we were so excited, then the excitement turned into an overwhelming feeling. Just try and do a google search on adoption and you will see what I mean We joined an adoption support group through church and had awesome support from a couple from church who had adopted several years ago from China. They gave us some priceless advice. We got a book on adoption.We learned from the book that the first thing you need to do is pick a country so you can chose an agency that works with that country.We began to look at the different countries and each countries requirements and that started to narrow the list down fast. After prayer and research we felt God was calling us to adopt from China.
Choosing an agency...
The next thing we did was choose an agency. Some people take a long time and agonize over this decision, but after looking at several and calling several we just had a gut feeling that Holt International was the one for us. It looked like they had a great standing with China and had been working with them for many years. Also they were always really nice and easy to talk to.
Starting the process...
In May we mailed off our application to Holt and we were accepted! Since then we have completed our home study and are just waiting for approval from Holt.We are currently working on our Dossier which is a lot of paperwork that you have to do and send to China. We can't actually send our Dossier to China until I turn 30 which is in November. That is actually a good thing because we are swimming in paperwork! Please pray for us that we would get it all done by then =)
Where we are headed....
Once our paperwork is sent to China we wait for them to give us a match which is where they will send us a picture of our daughter!!!! Can't wait for that part! The Dossier has to be in China for 6 months before we can travel to pick her up. We could travel as early as next summer. That was the really short version of things, but I hope to keep up with this blog weekly and keep you all updated on where we are in the process and whats going on. We hope that you will follow us along on our journey to our daughter and also to see how God works in our lives along the way. Please keep us in your prayers including the little person who will become part of our forever family.
When we decided to be obedient and adopt we were so excited, then the excitement turned into an overwhelming feeling. Just try and do a google search on adoption and you will see what I mean We joined an adoption support group through church and had awesome support from a couple from church who had adopted several years ago from China. They gave us some priceless advice. We got a book on adoption.We learned from the book that the first thing you need to do is pick a country so you can chose an agency that works with that country.We began to look at the different countries and each countries requirements and that started to narrow the list down fast. After prayer and research we felt God was calling us to adopt from China.
Choosing an agency...
The next thing we did was choose an agency. Some people take a long time and agonize over this decision, but after looking at several and calling several we just had a gut feeling that Holt International was the one for us. It looked like they had a great standing with China and had been working with them for many years. Also they were always really nice and easy to talk to.
Starting the process...
In May we mailed off our application to Holt and we were accepted! Since then we have completed our home study and are just waiting for approval from Holt.We are currently working on our Dossier which is a lot of paperwork that you have to do and send to China. We can't actually send our Dossier to China until I turn 30 which is in November. That is actually a good thing because we are swimming in paperwork! Please pray for us that we would get it all done by then =)
Where we are headed....
Once our paperwork is sent to China we wait for them to give us a match which is where they will send us a picture of our daughter!!!! Can't wait for that part! The Dossier has to be in China for 6 months before we can travel to pick her up. We could travel as early as next summer. That was the really short version of things, but I hope to keep up with this blog weekly and keep you all updated on where we are in the process and whats going on. We hope that you will follow us along on our journey to our daughter and also to see how God works in our lives along the way. Please keep us in your prayers including the little person who will become part of our forever family.
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