Bake sale fundraiser success!

If you were to stop by our bake sale this weekend, you might have seen this proud brother and sister pair...

If you happened to come for the short while we had Baby Eva with us, you might have seen this...

This bake sale began in the hearts of several of the families in our homeschool coop.  At first, it was going to be a small affair...a way to get the kids involved in something.  Well, let me tell you, I think that there may have been a chuckle from God on that one.  This "little" stand started on Friday morning at 9am with 53 dozen cookies (we dont believe in shorting anyone on cookies around here!) and continued for 2 days... With a profit of over $1,000.00!! The mothers in our coop organized everything for us! There were teams of people serving every 2 hours. The kids were involved and engaged- they held signs to advertise and yelled on the street corners as well as serving lemonade.  The business that we set up in front of was so gracious with the use of their water, facilities and chairs- we were grateful!  If you're in Newton, shop at Faith And Life -- they demonstrated much love to us throughout the fundraiser.  

A huge demonstration to our kids was the excitement that other kids had about their new brother.  That others could come alongside our family and give so selflessly was a wonderful example.

We had people stop by and talk- I was able to share our previous adoption stories and what led us to do it again.  That was my favorite- the discussions I was able to have. Two people who stopped by had personal ties to the country where we are going and that was incredible! I asked many questions and listened as their love for this country come through in their stories. 

My thoughts from this weekend have been the immense blessing that we have to be surrounded by people who are not only familiar and in favor of adoption but whom have embraced this concept.  They don't applaud from the sidelines "hoping" it will all work out but they are willing to come alongside, with a strong, personal understanding that what God has put together is perfect.

So, on to the next task... Eric and I are going to get fingerprinted tomorrow and that will be the final step before our approval on the US side.  I am beginning to work on the July fundraiser feverishly! It's going to be so much fun! I hope you can come!! We will need to have some more items donated to our silent auction... So far, we have salon products and gift certificate, Scentsy products, Longaberger baskets, Creative memories items, Rusted Chain jewelry, handmade jewelry, a fun barn tent, Mani/Pedi gift certificate, handmade pottery and a quilt...doesn't that list sound fun so far?  Do you think there's anything else you can add for us? Any skill or item you could donate to help us raise some money?  We would appreciate it so much! 

Thank you so much to those who stopped at our booth and donated, and to those who thought of us and prayed- we are amazed at what God is doing to provide for us right now!

I'm excited to be posting again. 
So much has happened in the last month! 
We sent our dossier to our faraway land - a little earlier than we were expecting.  My parents were blessed with "time on their hands" and volunteered to take our dossier to be apostilled in Topeka.  This was wonderful because then we didn't have to relinquish all of our most important papers to the mail system. 
When they returned with all the documents, our facilitator suggested that we overnight them to another family traveling that weekend to this faraway land.  Can I tell you that I was really anxious about this step.  This is really real. To send all of the paperwork.  That's the final step that is in our "control." Now we are preparing to settle in and wait...and wait...and wait.
So, our documents are there.  Being reviewed by our facilitation team on the country side and then on to that government. 
Reece's Rainbows has such a great system in place.  The team in the US has seen all of our documents and we've been able to make quick changes that will speed the process along on the other country's side.  They have such an efficient method.  Their goal being to quickly and safely get orphans to their families.

We have recently heard that the process may be longer than it has been - this country has become known as a "fast" country to adopt from...however, as the spiritual war continues for the hearts and lives of orphans, a new little "hiccup" may cause dire complications for this countries most needy...for us, it means that possibly we won't travel as soon as we thought.  But we don't really know.  We will wait.

I just got a facebook update on a child that I haven't been able to forget.  This child had been adopted and died within hours of arriving home with his forever family.  Some may think - "why even bother if they're that sick."  Others may wonder if the "trauma" of travel was "good for this one."  I have rolled this very topic over in my head many times - ever since I worked with medically fragile and terminally ill babies several years ago.  Why?  And the answer is that Father God has made it so.  He sees purpose in each little life.  And He sees the deepest heart-needs of the dying child.  He knew that for that little child who died upon arriving home, he needed to be held in the arms of a forever love.  Possibly, through the support raising of this family, others will be adopted - awareness raised.  His life was not lived or lost in vain. 
This is not an isolated case.  It's not pretty either.

Within our family, we just celebrated a really good Father's Day.  We had 28 people over to our house for BBQ.  It was really fun!  Our kids wanted to create their own sprinkler park so we pulled out the beach ball sprinkler, slip and slide and in-ground sprinkler system and had fun!  Eventually, the kids got tired of running and landing on the slip and slide so they got a Little Tykes slide out and slid down that, giving just the right amount of momentum to get a really good ride.  Ingenious, what a little laziness will create.  :)

Since we now have evenings free of paperwork and corrections, we have been working on getting our two oldest kids rooms painted and decorated in the basement.  Up until now they have both shared a room upstairs but Isaiah assures us he's too old for that and doesn't want anything "girlish" in his space.  Annie is more reserved in her excitement - that's typical of her personality - but she's chosen pink and purple for the colors and it's beautiful.  We will have our new little boy in the room across the hall from us as we get to know him better and he learns what it means to have a mom and dad available to meet your needs and calm your fears.  That's a new concept to an orphan and has to be learned like everything else.   It has taken Isaiah and Annie several years to feel that it's ok not to handle things like illness and fear on their own.  New Brother's independence will be that much more established. 

Our adoption support with Reece's has jumped a considerable amount recently - thank you to whomever responded to our need.  Our next big bunch of money to transfer across the ocean is 8500 to cover country fees such as lodging and transportation when we are in this country. 

Our homeschool support group has been baking and planning for a lemonade stand and bake sale to raise money for our adoption.  We will be at Main Street Mania this Friday and Saturday 9am-3pm each day.  Come and check it out!  It will be set up in front of Faith and Life Bookstore - they have been so generous with the use of their facility.  I'm so excited about this! 

There continues to be many unknowns.  More than I'm typically comfortable with.  I recently purchased a verse picture that has the verse from Psalm 16:5-6 ... "Lord, You have assigned me my portion and my cup; You have made my lot secure.  The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; surely I have a delightful inheritance."  I feel that this is God's promise to me right now.  He has assigned me my "task" and has made the boundary lines pleasant.  I don't know what we will encounter but I know this promise and it's what I have to hold onto.

Well, there's our little night owl (Eva) howling at my side now...it's 11:42pm...so I will be done for now but will try my best to update you after this lemonade and bake sale stand this weekend.  Stop by if you can!