Verbal Referral and Other Happy News!

We have reached a wonderful milestone in our adoption of "Abraham"!  His country has approved our dossier and issued us a verbal referral for the little guy!  Soon we will be receiving written referral along with travel dates for the first trip!

And we have some more wonderful news and evidence of how God is not being outdone in generosity.  Sean received an unexpected bonus at work, which has boosted our adoption funding to 75% funded!  Thank You Jesus!  We are down to having to raise the last quarter of Abraham's ransom!  It's amazing to see how God has provided so far--through generosity of friends and strangers, through this unexpected bonus, and through utility bills that "should" have been bigger but allowed us instead to save more.  Starting this adventure we knew He would help us.  We've read of this happening to other families on similar journeys.  But still, to see it happen to us has been a wonderful gift in itself.  He is multiplying our loaves and fishes!

We have our next (and final!) big agency fee due next month when Sean comes home from meeting Abraham.  That means we need to raise another $1500 in the next few weeks.  To help do this, we're preparing for a group online auction with some other adoptive families from our agency.  The auction will begin March 30, and I will update with a link when we get closer to time. The auction is now live and can be found at: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.619804048055549.1073741833.527688600600428&type=3

If anyone has items (in good or new condition) they would like to donate to our auction to help bring Abraham home, please let me know!  Spring clean, declutter your home, and help a little boy know the love of a family all at the same time!

7 Quick Takes: The Big Announcement Edition

~ 1 ~

Major happy news! We will be welcoming not one but two new little ones to our family this year and couldn't be more excited about it!  I am pregnant and due mid-August.  Prayers for a healthy pregnancy and for "Abraham" to come home and start getting settled before the baby is born are much appreciated.  Getting him home before baby is a long shot, but it's possible with God!  Even if the baby comes before Abraham and we need to rush around getting a homestudy update at the last minute, we are just praying that Sean is not away on the pick-up trip while I'm giving birth. Yikes!

I am thankful that so far this has been my easiest pregnancy yet, with little to no morning sickness.  I've had more of a lack of appetite than full-blown nausea.  Luckily my sweet husband is a marvelous cook and has been making sure I eat well and finds foods that appeal to me.  What would I do without him?!  I have been tired as is normal for the first trimester, but getting to bed nice and early solves that problem.

~ 2 ~

Our dossier is in Abraham's country being authenticated!  We are getting closer and closer to receiving our official referral.  Can't wait!  When we get the referral we will also receive updated info and photos of the little guy.  It will feel like Christmas!

~ 3 ~

I have added some new items to our Etsy store, such as this cute "LOVE" dishcloth, an adorable bandana print blanket, some new ruffle scarves, and a listing for custom Bible covers.   More ready-made Bible covers coming soon too!  I have been neglecting the male population in my Etsy offerings and am excited to be working on some cool, masculine Bible covers at the moment.  I am learning how to crochet in plaid!  A great big thank you to my sweet friend Tabitha for the inspiration!

Guaranteed to make the dishwashing experience lovely.

~ 4 ~

This past Wednesday, Sean and I celebrated 15 years of knowing each other!  We met at the regional science fair in 11th grade back in 1999.  Yes, we are a real pair of nerds, but it was love at first sight... or at least love at first conversation.  We started talking and haven't stopped since! 

Snowball fight!

It is our family tradition for Sean to take the day off work so that we can have a fun family day together on this science fair anniversary. This year however, with the two adoption trips plus our baby's birth coming up, he is saving as much leave time as possible.  We were expecting a normal, business-as-usual kind of day this year.  Nothing really special.  But we just so happened to have a very rare (for central SC) snow day on our anniversary!  We got to spend the day together after all, snug and cozy in our warm house while the snow and ice came down throughout the day.  And because he was able to use his snow day for studying for his next actuarial exam (for which his company gives him paid study time), this unexpected time out of the office didn't count against his personal leave.  What a surprise gift from God!

~ 5 ~

We stumbled across a real gem of a book the other day.  During a recent library visit, one of our kids grabbed a cute picture book off the shelf and put it into our book bag to check out.  We enjoyed that book, The Other Goose by Judith Kerr, and saw a list of the author's other works.  Her book titled When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit caught our attention just because of its unusual title.  On a whim, I logged onto the library website and placed a hold on it.

And I'm so glad I did!  It is an autobiographical novel about a little girl named Anna, her brother Max, and their culturally Jewish parents who flee Germany as Hitler is about to come into power.  The author handled the serious nature of this time period and subject matter very well for children.  I was worried it would get too heavy or sad--and some parts were suspenseful--but nothing too scary or graphic for the little ones.  It was full of the children's adventures and misadventures as the family moved from one country to another in search of their new home.  At times even Sean and I were laughing tears! 

Highly, highly recommended for a read-aloud book that the whole family will enjoy.  I'm so happy to discover there are two more books in the series that follow Anna's and Max's adventures!

~ 6 ~

Thank you to all who participated in our "Got Adoption?" bumper sticker fundraiser!  The stickers have been printed and delivered to our house, and I will be shipping them out just as soon as we're able to get to the post office amidst all this snow and ice.  We only sold 9 stickers, unfortunately far from our goal of 100.  But every bit helps, and we are very thankful for each and every order we received.  We were able to place an order for 10 stickers, which left exactly one for us to put on our car too, yay!

~ 7 ~

Oh, and Happy St. Valentine's Day!  Because our anniversary lands two days earlier, we enjoy being rebels and celebrating our lovebird-day then instead of on Valentine's Day itself.  But to those who do celebrate the holiday, have a happy and blessed one!

For more Quick Takes, visit Conversion Diary!

Bumper Sticker Fundraiser: Got Adoption?

We are in the final few weeks before our next big adoption agency fee is due on January 24th.  We're still $2,000 short.  Time for a new fundraiser to help put a dent in that total and get our son home!

So without further ado, I present our bumper sticker fundraiser:

For each donation of $5 to our PayPal account, baileyak@bellsouth.net, we will send you one of these awesome bumper stickers, shipping included!  You can also order through the PayPal button below.  If you want more than one, please specify in the PayPal transaction notes (and be sure to donate at least $5 per sticker you wish to order).  Also include your mailing address please.

We are taking PRE-ORDERS now.  We plan to place the order on January 24th, our dossier submission deadline.

If you'd prefer a magnet instead of a sticker, you can pick up a blank bumper sticker magnet to turn our sticker into a magnet for your vehicle.

It would be such a blessing if we could place the order for at least 100 stickers!  And what a dent that would make in our fees.  Please consider supporting us with a bumper sticker order and sharing this fundraiser with all the adoption supporters you know!

Thank you, this fundraiser is now over.

A New Year, A New Family

It's about time for an update!  Since my last post...

Joey had a birthday!

I had a birthday!

Jesus had a birthday!

And Rosemary will have a birthday by week's end.  What a time of celebration it has been.  How wonderful to know this is the last Christmas that "Abraham" will be without a family!  We received a belated Christmas gift on Monday--news that we have been assigned a USCIS officer to approve our I-800A.  This is the form asking the US government for permission to adopt internationally  It takes several months to be processed and is a significant part of the waiting during an international adoption.  Our officer was very sweet on the phone and told me she expected to get to our application by the end of the day on Monday.  Another adoption milestone completed!

Also since my last post, we've embarked on a few more fundraising ventures.  A fellow homeschooling mom donated an Usborne Books consultant starter kit to me, and I'm now an Usborne consultant!  That means that our adoption savings account will get the commission for all books purchased through my Usborne link.  I can also do small book fairs, e-shows and home shows if I get the opportunity.  The Usborne books we've bought in the past through other families' adoption fundraisers are awesome, and I'm so excited to have this opportunity to help our family raise the funds needed to bring "Abraham" home!  Please take a look and order one (or more!) of the many wonderful kids' books, puzzles, and games they have to offer.

My Etsy store, Stitching Our Family Together, is fully operational too, and we're so grateful for each and every order placed there.  Please take a moment, if you haven't already, to see if there is something you'd like to order for yourself or someone special in your life.  If you've ordered something already, it would be such a help if you could stop by again and leave a review of your item.  I can also do custom orders, so if there is something you'd like to have crocheted that isn't listed, let me know!  Each order gets us closer to our son!

2014 is such an incredibly exciting year for our family.  We will undergo major, miraculous changes this year in our family and trust that God will be right there with us every step of the way.  How blessed we are to be adopted by Him!

7 Quick Takes - "Abraham's" Birthday Week

~ 1 ~

Abraham turned 4 this week! On his next birthday, God willing, he will be surrounded by his loving family. His big brothers and sister have already picked out a bright sparkly green "5" candle to put on his cake next year.

~ 2 ~

We went to Mass and lit 4 candles for our Birthday Boy half a world away.  His birthday "coincidentally" is the same day as my First Holy Communion anniversary!  My heart skipped a couple of beats when I first saw his birth date in the paperwork when we committed to him in June.  Another "coincidence," if I believed in coincidences, is that his birthday falls during National Adoption Month!

~ 3 ~

We started making him a blue, white, and brown Rosary that we will get blessed in his country and then again when he is baptized here. All of the big kids helped at least a little bit.  The centerpiece is a beautiful depiction of Mary holding Baby Jesus.  He won't be without a mother's loving arms for long.

~ 4 ~

We ended the day with a delicious banana birthday cake (decorated with help from his big siblings) and sang "Happy Birthday" to him.  Hope he had a happy day!  The Weather Channel said his village got up to 68 degrees and was sunny on his birthday, so I'm sure he got a chance to play outside.  That makes me happy!

We watched the little 3-minute video we have of him playing with some keys (the only video we have) before bed.  I had the most amazing dream that night that we went to the orphanage and met him for the first time.  What a gift!

~ 5 ~

To help us raise the money we need for the next big agency fee, we launched our Little House on the Prairie giveaway. Each donation of $15 gets you one of the 30 entries to win the entire Little House series on DVD. That includes all 9 seasons plus the pilot--170+ hours of family entertainment you can enjoy for years to come.  When all 30 spots are taken, we'll draw for the Little House grand prize as well as for a secondary prize of a $20 Amazon gift card.  Only 15 spots left!

~ 6 ~

We got our fingerprinting appointments for the I800-A (form asking USCIS for permission to adopt internationally) and plan to go next week. The USCIS office we are assigned to is in Charleston, 2 hours away. We're planning on making a day out of it, enjoying that beautiful city while we're there. So happy that things on this front are moving along. We've been told the turnaround for I800-A approval is 90 days. We filed last month and don't expect final approval until January. That way, if things move more quickly, we'll be pleasantly surprised!

~ 7 ~

Also to help on the fundraising front, I will be launching an Etsy store just as soon as I can get everything listed. Stay tuned...

For more Quick Takes, visit Conversion Diary!

Birthday Week Giveaway

**Update: This giveaway has been completed!  Thank you so very much to all those kind and generous people who helped make this fundraiser a great success!!  Our grand prize winner is Chelsea C. and the runner-up is Hannah W.!**

This week we celebrate "Abraham's" 4th birthday!  I wish we could be with him and celebrate with him in person, but my heart feels such joy that God willing, this will be his very last birthday as an orphan.  Abraham will be surrounded by family, friends, and love on his birthdays from here on out.

BUT we need to do some serious fundraising to get our next big agency fee together so that we can bring our little one home as soon as possible.  In a couple of months we'll need to pay a fee of $5,500, and as of today, we've saved $2,122 towards it.  That leaves $3,378 to be raised.  Time for a giveaway to give our savings a little boost!

The grand prize of Abraham's Birthday Giveaway is our family's entire 9-season collection of Little House on the Prairie DVD boxed sets (individually boxed by season) plus the pilot movie.  This was an awesome gift to us from Abraham's grandparents-to-be.  It is in like-new condition because we only watched through everything once and have kept the discs where the kids can't get to them.  Each season is available for purchase on Amazon for around $20 per season and $10 for the pilot, so this is approximately a $190 value.

There will also be a second place prize of a $20 Amazon gift card, just in time for Christmas shopping!

How to enter:

Send $15 via PayPal to baileyak @ bellsouth.net or through the donation button at the bottom of this post for each entry you wish to have.  There will only be 30 chances/entries to win.  Once all 30 entries are taken, we will draw a winner for the DVD set and a runner-up for the Amazon gift card.  People can also earn one additional free bonus entry per person by sharing this giveaway.  Just let me know if you share so that I can enter you accordingly.

This running total of the paid entries still available will be kept up to date.

Total entries still available: 0

Quick Update

We've filed our I-800A form, the application for permission from the US government to adopt internationally.  This form cost $890 in total to file (not counting shipping costs), $720 for the application fee, and $85 each for Sean and me to get fingerprinted.  The check we sent with our application has been cashed and we received a receipt from USCIS in the mail.  Soon they will give us an appointment to come in for fingerprinting.  It is good to know that things are moving along in that regard!  We can't submit our dossier to "Abraham's" country until we get approval of our I-800A form.  Right now, people are being told it takes roughly 90 days to process the application.

But this unfortunate wait has its silver lining.  Right now we have $2,000 in savings.  When we submit our dossier, we need to pay a fee of $5,500.  Time is an asset when it comes to raising so much money.  We know that God is in control and that He will provide what is needed.  This money isn't ours, it's His!  As of today, we've either paid or saved almost $11,000 out of pocket.  Considering we're a single-income family of 6 on a modest salary and weathered 11 months of unemployment ending just less than a year ago, this is miraculous!  God has taken our loaves and fishes and multiplied them many times over.

If you would like to help us financially, take a look at our page of fundraising efforts, including our Amazon Affiliate link (a percentage of each item purchased through the Amazon link gets deposited into our adoption savings account).  Each dollar raised brings our boy closer!

Visiting Andrew Jackson's childhood home and enjoying the beautiful autumn weather last week. 
I am working on making more ponchos like these to help raise the rest of that big agency fee that we'll need to pay soon.