Feeling So Tremendously Blessed!

Today was day 1 of our 2 day garage sale weekend.  Today we had a HUGE day with tons of traffic.  We still have lots of goodies left, but we sold many of our big items.  I am SO happy to report that after today we are fully funded!!!  We will still do our garage sale tomorrow and our Peter Piper Pizza fundraiser, as our fundraising goal is just an estimate and we could very easily need more (or hopefully less ;)).   We will also have lots of therapy items and medical items (such as a new set of AFOs) to buy Ramya as well, so any extra money will definitely be put to good use.  Anyhow, today we made.....

$1,752!!!!!  WOW!  God is SO good!

When we started our adoption, the idea of needing $35,000 to $40,000 seemed very daunting.  I never stressed about money, though, because I knew that even though that amount of money we needed seemed overwhellming to me, it was nothing to God.  I truly belived that God wouldn't have put Ramya in to our lives without already having a plan to bring her home.  Sure enough, He has taken care of it, and our goal is met!!

We are so thankful for each and every one of you who made this possible.  We really cannot tell you how much we appreciate you! 

Be on the lookout for antoher update tomorrow!

Spring Cleaning? Cleaning Out Your Closets? Send Your Old Treasures Our Way!

It's that time of year again... garage sale fundraiser time!!  This may very well be the last garage sale fundraiser we get to have before bringing Ramya home (though we will most likely have another in October if she does not get to come home before that). 

If you are cleaning out your closets, doing some spring cleaning, or have anything just lying around that you are not wanting any more, send it our way!  We love any donation, no matter how big or small.  Clothing, furniture, household items, anything; we take it all!!

We are happy to come and pick up donations, just let us know!

The big sale will be April 20th and 21st, so you have some time to start digging through your buried treasures. We will take donations any time from now until the sale.

 As always, if you are able to come help organize donations, run the sale, or play with the kids while I do any of the above, we would love to have you!

Thanks so much for loving Ramya and helping us bring her home!

When Life Hands You Lemons....

.... Pray (and cry a little).  That's what we're doing right now, and we'd appreciate it if you would join us (though I don't recommend the crying part.  It's not too fun)!

I got some not-so-great news about Ramya that we are struggling with.  As we knew, Ramya's orphanage is trying to go to only offering domestic adoptions.  After the small amount of children they have now are adopted, the orphanage director is retiring and they are closing their doors to international adoption. 

Because our paperwork is taking so long, they have decided to transfer Ramya to a different orphanage.  The good news is that we can still adopt her. 

Unfortunately, this will, again, delay our paperwork as we will need to modify documents for our dossier.  Additionally, this will be Ramya's 3rd orphanage in her short years of life.  It, once again, severs any attachments she has.  When we do finally get her home, it will probably be hard for her to see it as "home" and not just another place she's transferred to, again.  My little girl just got out of a long hospital stay, where she was alone and probably very scared, and is now getting transferred to a new orphanage where she knows no one.  This breaks my heart.  I'm sure she will feel so sad and alone.  I just want to run and scoop her up and throw her on a plane, but I know they won't let me.  I wish they would send her to us and at least let us foster her until we can get her home, but they won't.  We are powerless to help her right now. 

There is, of course, one huge thing we can do for Ramya.  We can cover her in blankets of prayers.  Please join us tonight as we pray for peace, comfort, and understanding for Ramya.  Pray for a miracle in getting her home to us quickly.

Additionally, tomorrow is our big fundraiser sale.  Please be praying for no rain (I type this as it rains ;)), a great turn-out, and lots of mulah!

Basically, just pray a lot tonight for, and with, us!

Garage Sale Reminder... WE NEED YOU :)

Our garage sale is next weekend, December 2nd and 3rd.  We will happily take:

- Items to sell
- Bake sale items to sell (breads, jelly, cupcakes, cookies, muffins, brownies and more)
- Help to organize or run the sales (Really just on Friday, I think we have Saturday covered.  Even just helping set up would be HUGE!)
- People to come shop
- Prayers.....   we just got a bill for $10,500 in the mail, and I thought I'd have more time until that came around, so we're freaking out a tad right now

Thank you SO much for all your support!!

Save the Date and Your Unwanted Stuff!

Live in Phoenix?

Have lots of unwanted stuff you want to get rid of?

Looking for an easy way to help us raise money for our adoption?

Well, I have the perfect event for you!

Mark your calendar for:

Saturday, December 2nd and 3rd

We will be having another fundraiser garage sale at our house.  I know it's late in the year, but better late than never!  We will probably have another in March as well.

How can you help?  Great question!

1)   We want your unwanted stuff! Clothes, electronics, exercise equipment, old movies, toys, household items, etc... We want it all!  Anything we can sell at our sale, on craigslist, or on e-bay that you don't want, send our way!  All the money will go towards our adoption.

2)  Volunteer a couple days here and there some time before the sale to help us price and organize, or to play with two cute children while I price and organize. 

3)  Help me run the sale the day of, so either December 2nd or 3rd, or both!

4)  Bring me coffee when I'm a walking zombie and come prepared with a smile and a joke to keep me motivated!

Thanks so much for all of your support!!!!

A garage sale/ money update :)

Here's a little update on our garage sale and overall adoption funds :).  Granted, this price does not include getting 4 of us to and 5 of us home from India or private lawyer fees, or what we paid for our classes or to Oasis for our homestudy, but it's the biggest bulk of it.


First off....

We made another $280 today, so our grand total from our garage sale this weekend was just over $1,000!!  WOW!!!!  I am so in awe!

22,000 adoption fees to Wacap/Orphanage
-100.00 donation
- 1,000 garage sale
-8,000 tax return from '10 taxes
= $12,900 to go!

I know that seems like a lot,  plus we'll probably need about that again for travel and lawyer fees, but, considering our homestudies aren't done yet, we have only had one fundraiser, and we're still quite a way out from being able to bring our daughter home, I think it is AMAZING!  God has really blessed our venture thus far, and I know he will continue to.  Thank you for all of your garage sale donations and, as always, your prayers!!

The results of our first garage sale...

We'll go at it again tomorrow, then again next weekend.  After that everything will get packed away until October.  We're using the money towards our adoption, so I'm very, VERY, excited to say....


Today we earned.....

$800!!!


GOD IS GOOD!

It's DONE!

Our initial adoption paperwork, doctor's visits, autobiographies, fingerprints, and everything else we needed to do to start the process is finished and officially in the mail!  I was hoping it would not take so long, but when you have to stay up at night, after picking up the house and doing dishes, to write your autobiography, it takes a while.  And when you have a husband that hides funny things for you to find in his autobiography, just to see if you are really reading it, it takes a while.  Yes, David, I know I was no good at clarinet in 6th grade.  Thank you. 

In other news, our garage is filling up with goodies to sell at our big sale in April.  We have been SO blessed and so many people have given to us.  It is absolutely amazing and touching.  There is so much stuff, I know we will end up doing multiple sales.  I might actually do one the week before and one the week after.  I plan to save everything that does not sell and do another garage sale (or two or three) when it cools down in the fall, then a few more before we get to bring our child home, whichever child that may be.  We are still pursuing Manasa, the one year old in India, but I know she may not be the child God has for us, so we are trying to be open.  It is really sweet to hear David pray for her, though, and it's impressive that it is without any prompting.  I know she is on his heart, as she is on all of ours.

And now for some amazing news......  Our homestudy will be $1,250 to Oasis.  Then, if (I'm afraid to say when, I'm not sure why.  I feel like I will jinx it which is silly since I don't believe in that sort of thing) we pass our homestudy, we will immediately need $890 for Immigration fees, as well as $6,000 for Oasis fees.  Well.... our tax refund was pretty much exactly what we needed for these fees!!!!  We will still need plenty more, as the fees are around $22,000 and there is travel on top of that, but WOW, that is an amazing start!  If anyone wants to look at the fees, they can be viewed here http://www.wacap.org/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=s0edZ%2fiEITc%3d&tabid=117 though they do not include fees to Oasis, fees for a private lawyer to finalize everything, fees for doctor's visits and other things you need to get cleared, travel, and a few other things.

Thank you for sharing our journey with us.  Hopefully I will have updates soon!

I know I'm pretty, even when I'm covered with sauce!

Mom! You didn't tell me you were going to show this picture to my girlfriends when I'm older!