Fundraising Updates

Pam ~ We haven't been doing too many "active" fundraisers in recent weeks, so I haven't mentioned our adoption finances on here in quite a while.  I think that the waiting time has started to wear on me.  We have been DTE for almost 7 months and really don't know when we will be getting that long-awaited referral phone call.  It "could" happen this week, or we could be waiting for several more months.  We had focused hard on saving the money we needed to be able to submit our dossier (which we did in December), and then we focused hard on saving the money we would need to be able to accept a referral (which we were able to save last April).  Since then, we have be working to save the money that will be used for our first trip travel expenses.  In the 3 months we have had this as our financial goal, God has allowed us to save just about $2,400 out of the estimated $6,500 we will need for our first trip.  We haven't been "focusing" on fundraising over these past 3 months, so the savings has been slow, but steady.  It is hard for us to feel an urgency when we don't know when we will be making this first trip.  However, we want to be ready.  We want to have that money saved and ready to purchase plane tickets ASAP when we receive that wonderful referral for our long-awaited children.

We are back in the "fundraising" business :-).

This weekend we are having another garage sale.  Our sale last October went so well, it seemed like a good idea to have another one.  Throughout the past two weeks we have been collecting items from friends and family to sell from our garage.  As of today, our garage is STUFFED and we still have a few more items coming!!!!  Praise the Lord!!!!

We will be up late tonight pricing items, and then up early tomorrow morning to pull everything out of the garage and set it all up.  This is quite a feat right now, because I am still not supposed to lift anything over 1-2 pounds (this has been "fudged" on several times this past week) so Nathan is having to do a lot of extra work.  We have been very blessed to have had several college girls coming over evenings this week to help us out.  (Thanks Tonya, Erica and Hannah!!!!)

Please pray for GOOD WEATHER!!!!  The forecast is calling for rain (which would not be fun!!!), but I am praying that God will allow the rain to skip us (just between the hours of 7 a.m.--6:30 p.m.)!!!  Will you please join us in praying for God's blessing on our sale??????

We will be putting out several of our hand-made cards that we have been attempting to sell :-).  We have packages of 4 cards that we are asking $10 for the group.  If you are interested in our beautiful cards, please leave a message or e-mail me (hearts1982@gmail.com)!!!!  We have sets of Birthday cards as well as All Occasion cards.

And in case you have forgotten, we are still collecting soda cans/bottles and getting the deposit money for them.  My mom just let me know that they are saving cans out in Colorado for us and will be bringing them to us when they come to visit in August :-).  You can't get a deposit back in CO so they are hauling them to IA just for the $.05 a can/bottle :-).  I love my parents!!!!!

Prayer Requests:
     ~ NO RAIN on Friday and Saturday (at least not during the hours of our sale)
     ~ That we will rest in knowing that God is in control of this garage sale.
     ~ Calmness.  I (Pam) get stressed when things are not "normal" and out of my control (like the weather).
     ~ Patience.  For Nathan as he has to deal with a "stressed-out" wife :-)
     ~ Patience.  In the wait.  To see our children's faces.  To bring them home.