Delivered!!!!

Pam ~ Our dossier was delivered to its final destination YESTERDAY!!!!  That was EXACTLY one week after it was shipped.  So, those of you who voted "one week" in our poll are our WINNERS!!!!!!  Speak up and let us know who you are.  Just leave a comment!!!!

Where in the World is Our Dossier

Pam ~ We received an e-mail yesterday afternoon letting us know that our dossier is on its way from our agency's headquarters, and it's heading to Ethiopia!!!  We were told to not worry if the package makes stops in Europe or other countries for long periods of time.  Apparently that is normal and they have seen it happen often.

So........I am now a FedEx stalker :-).  I have a tracking number and will be following our dossier on its journey.  If you are interested in following it with me, just look over to the upper right side of the blog.  How long do you think it will take before it gets to Ethiopia????  You can vote over on the right!!!!  Let's see how close we can guess!!!!!

{Insert Screaming Here}

Pam ~ It has been a confusing couple of weeks since we mailed our dossier on Monday, December 20th.  We had been praying that we would be DTE before Christmas (well, I had been praying that.  Nathan had been praying that it would happen before the end of 2010.), and we were sooooooooooooooooooo excited that it looked like we would be DTE on Christmas Eve.

But then I received a call from Emily, our family coordinator, on Tuesday, letting me know that we had forgotten to sign our passports before we photocopied them, so we needed to sign them, scan them, and e-mail them to her ASAP.  We did that as soon as Nathan got home that evening and e-mailed them to her immediately.  However, I didn't hear back from her on Wednesday so I didn't know if she had received my e-mail.  She had told me that because AWAA was closed on Thursday and Friday for Christmas, we would probably receive a DTE date of the following Tuesday or Wednesday (Dec. 28th or 29th).  While that was not what I wanted, I was still grateful that we would be DTE before the New Year.

However, when I e-mailed her on Monday morning (Dec. 27th) to confirm that she had received my e-mail, I got an "out of office" response that told me she was out until January 3rd!!!!!!!  Oh, No!!!!!!!  I ended up e-mailing the lady who was filling in for Emily while she was gone and, to make a long story short (kind of), everything was confusing to me.  Lost e-mails are floating around out there in Internet land somewhere, and it seemed as if we were not going to be DTE in 2010.

This was hard for me.  I've been struggling with a little anger and lots of frustration that we did what we needed to do, and we STILL weren't DTE.  Nathan had a better attitude and has been reminding me that God knows who our children are and when they will be ready to enter our lives.  If we aren't DTE in 2010, it's because God has a different time-table for our adoption journey.  Yesterday I finally came to a peace about this and was just grateful to know that we had done what we could and God was going to take care of the rest of it.

I e-mailed Emily this morning to ask about the status of our dossier.  I received an e-mail within a half hour letting me know that she was sorry about the confusion and our DTE date is CHRISTMAS EVE, December 24th!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

God is sooooooooooooooooooooo good!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  He knew all along that we were already DTE, but I think He was teaching us a lesson in patience and trust.  And then He still chose to give us the desire of our hearts!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Will you take a minute to pray along with me, and thank God for His overwhelming goodness?!?!?!?!

Delivered!!!!

Pam ~ Our dossier is safely at the AWAA office in Virginia!!!!!  I'm just waiting to get an e-mail from our family coordinator letting me know she has it!!!!!

New Goal

Pam ~ Thanks to so many of you who have helped us reach our "Dossier" goal, we now have a new thermometer and a new goal to reach.  Our next financial goal will be saving the money we need in order to accept a referral.  A referral is when our agency will call us with the names, ages, and photos of two siblings who are within our age request and available for adoption.  We will have one week to review their files and choose whether to accept or decline the referral.  When we choose to accept a referral we will have the following fees due:

3rd Installment of Program Fee ~ $1500
Post Adoption Administrative Fee ~ $385
1/2 International Program Fee ~ $3750 times 2 children ~ $7500
International Specialist Consultation ~ varies ~ $400 estimate

That brings our new goal to a total of $9785.  Again, this is our largest goal yet, but God has already provided just under $15,000 towards our adoption and we are confident that He will continue to provide the money exactly when we need it!!!  Please continue to pray for us as we move on to the next step (the waiting period) of our adoption journey!!!

Mailing Dossier!!!!!

Pam ~ IT'S DONE!!!!!!!!!  Our dossier is in the mail to AWAA and the paperwork pregnancy of our adoption is OVER!!!!

We decided to mail our dossier via FedEx, which seems to be the safest and most common dossier-mailing method, but we couldn't find a FedEx store in our town.  Which seems incredible to me because we have just about everything else in our town.  Why not a FedEx store???  Anyways.  Nathan and I looked on-line last night and found that there is a FedEx drop box inside our Staples store along with packaging materials.  So I, and a friend (who has to remain nameless for today), went to Staples this morning, only to find that they ONLY have a drop box and no packaging capabilities :-(.  Disappointment!!!!!

The nice man in Staples said that we would have to go into Des Moines to send anything FedEx, and he recommended looking for an Office Max because they have a FedEx center inside their store.  Well, I had an appointment to meet with an new adoptive mama friend, Reagan, at McDonald's at 11 a.m. and knew that there wasn't time to run into Des Moines before then, so the dossier would have to wait a couple more hours.

We ran a couple errands, met Reagan along with her sweet daughter and ADORABLE little boy Caleb, and then headed into Des Moines.  Anyone who knows me should know that I have the world's WORST sense of direction.  But, thanks to my loyal TomTom, we found Office Max.

I carefully handed over our dossier envelopes and told the lady to be VERY careful because she was holding the last six months of my life and a good chunk of my future in her hands.  Since she was obviously looking at me a little strangely by now, I told her that my husband and I are adopting and that she was holding all the very important paperwork we have been working on.  She was nice and laughed at my silliness as I asked her if I could take some pictures!!!!

I called Nathan as I held the packaged and labeled "dossier containing" FedEx box so that he could be there with me, and had my friend take a picture.  So, while you can't see him, Nathan is there too!!!!

Then I handed the box back to the nice lady and told her that I was leaving my life in her hands.  Be careful with it!!!!!

(It's supposed to arrive at our agency by 10:30 tomorrow morning, so you can guess what I'll be doing all morning!!!!)

Amazing

Pam ~ If you are friends with me on FB, you might have seen a little excitement going on yesterday.  What an incredible day that I am still working to process.  We started the day just $303 short of the $7700 we need to submit our dossier.

Throughout the day yesterday, God laid it on people's hearts to share our story on their blog and on Facebook.  We received a total of 7 online donations and 1 in-person donation and brought in $366!!!!  We have MORE than what we need to mail our dossier!!!  Two of those donations were from people we don't even know; three were from fellow adoptive families, one from a childhood friend of mine, one from a parent at my school, and one from a couple in our church!!!

We have been praying that we would be able to submit our dossier by Christmas and God has answered that prayer!!!!  We are now continuing to pray that we will be able to mail it on Monday (snow is in the forcast), that it will make it safely to our agency (America World), and that all the paperwork will be in order and accepted!!!  Please pray along with us!!!!  What a WONDERFUL Christmas present it would be to be DTE (Dossier To Ethiopia) on December 24th ~ Christmas Eve!!!!!

We want to give a BIG Thank You to everyone who has been praying for us, shared our story, and/or donated to our adoption fund!!!  Our dossier thermometer is FULL!!!  Praise the Lord!!!

Dossier

Pam ~ I spent some time on Saturday putting together all of our dossier paperwork.  Our dossier has to contain all ORIGINAL documents {with a couple exceptions} along with 2 copies of all the paperwork.  We went last Wednesday and made all the copies, but they have been sitting on our kitchen table waiting for me to have the time to "assemble" them.  We are still missing one document {which will hopefully come in the mail SOON}, so these pictures aren't quite complete :-), but I think you can get the basic idea.  And, just in case you are actually interested, here are the pictures of the photo pages I put together.

All (-one) of our original dossier documents

Yesterday's Fundraiser ~ Our friend, Megan, raised just under $200 for our adoption fund at the fundraiser yesterday!!!  Praise the Lord!!!  And a BIG Thank You to Megan for all her hard work!!!!

All we are waiting on now in order to submit our dossier is just under $600.  The paperwork is sitting on the table waiting to be mailed!!!  It is really hard for us to see the dossier packet and know that the only thing keeping us from getting on the waiting list for our children is $600.  PLEASE pray along with us that the money will come in SOON!!!!!

Prayer Request

Pam ~ Take a look at our thermometer!!!  We are just under $800 in what we still need in order to submit our dossier!!!  We are still praying that we will be able to submit it before Christmas and we are SO CLOSE!!!

My friend, Megan, is having a fundraiser for us THIS MORNING at an open house that is being held in her area.  Would you please take a minute to pray for the success of this fundraiser?  We are thanking God so much for her encouragement and sweet giving spirit!!!!  I'll try to post an update as soon as she lets me know what was raised!!!

Dossier Update

Pam ~ Yesterday was a BIG day!!!  We thought we had all of our dossier paperwork completed {I stayed up until midnight on Tuesday night doing our photo pages ~ if you know me at all, you know that I do not normally stay up past 9:30/10:00ish!!!} so we planned to go make all our copies after work.

I took our BIG binder to work and during my students' nap time, I set to work organizing all our documents and double checking to make sure we had EVERYTHING!!!  I was going to just sit at my desk and do this, but it soon became apparent that I needed MORE ROOM!!!  I went to our lunchroom {just outside my classroom door} and spread everything out on a table.  Then I stepped back and looked at the last six months of my life.  So many documents that will allow us to bring our children home!!!

But then, horror of horrors, I saw a document on the list that I didn't have!!!  Well, I thought I had it.  But then I didn't.  I know.  Very confusing.  Imagine how I felt!!!!

After an hour going through all the documents and the binder about six times, posting questions on our Yahoo group, and a phone call to our family coordinator, this is what I discovered.

We need an "Agency Post-Placement Commitment" document AND a "Home Study Agency Post-Placement Agreement" document.  They are TWO DIFFERENT DOCUMENTS!!!  Whoops.  And double whoops.

So I've sent an e-mail to our social worker about the one that we are missing and am hoping to hear back from her soon.  Unless I missed something else :-( we have everything else we need!!!!

We went and made three copies of all of the documents that we have {2 copies to submit with the dossier, and 1 copy for our own records}, and then drove to church for prayer meeting.  It was funny.  Nathan and I were nervous leaving all the papers in the car.  There was six months of hard and emotionally draining work just sitting in the back of the cold car.  Of course nothing was going to happen to them {our church is in the middle of a small town in the country}, but still.

My goal is to have the papers all re-organized and re-checked and put into their envelopes by the end of this week.  I can address the big mailer envelope and then all we are waiting on is the rest of the money needed to write the $7700 check.  We're almost there!!!!

Adoption Friendships

Pam ~ One of the blessing of our adoption journey that I hadn't expected was making new friends within our adoption community.  Our agency {America World} has a Yahoo group for those of us who are adopting from Ethiopia and it has been SUCH a wealth of information and encouragement over the past few months.  I have been especially interested in connecting with other Ethiopian adoption families here in our own state so that our children will have some friends from their home country.

One of these new friends is Megan.  She and her husband are adopting a little girl from Ethiopia and were DTE {Dossier To Ethiopia} on 11/4/10.  She and I have also connected via Facebook and it has been great getting to know her and her family a little.  It was such a blessing when she and her husband and two sons stopped by our house a few weeks ago and we enjoyed a wonderful afternoon of Christian and adoption fellowship!!!

This past Friday, I received an e-mail from Megan telling me about an open house that a group from her area is having this coming Saturday.  Megan was asked if she would like to have a fundraiser for her adoption at this open house, and she instead contacted me and asked if she could have a fundraiser for ME at this open house!!!  She has been such an encouragement to me and I am thankful that the Lord brought her into my life!!!

Megan blogs about her family's adoption journey over at her blog.  Why don't you go read her story????

Would you join me in praying for the success of Saturday's fundraiser?  We are soooooooooooooo very close to having the money we need to submit our dossier!!!!!

Six Months

Pam ~ We were accepted by our agency, America World, into their Ethiopia program six months ago today.  Six months of paperwork, payments, home study meetings, God's provision, overtime, fund-raising, appointments, paperwork, fund-raising, overtime, paperwork, grant writing, God's provision.....You get the picture.

"They" say that typically the dossier takes 4-6 months to complete.  Well, it's been six months and we are very, very close to having all the paperwork completed.  We are still praying each and every day that we will be able to submit our dossier before Christmas.  Will you PLEASE pray along with us.  We are still $1307 short of being able to mail it, but I know that is nothing to our Provider, Creator, and Everlasting Father.

Adoption Update

Pam ~ It's been a busy past week, so I missed updating you all on a MAJOR milestone in our adoption journey.

OUR I-171H CAME IN THE MAIL!!!

Last Wednesday I had a half-day at school {because of Thanksgiving being the next day} so I got home before Nathan.  I never get the mail, but since it was cold and dreary weather, I decided to go ahead and get it so that Nathan wouldn't have to when he got home.  And there was the envelope from USCIS!!!!

I am so thankful for having heard from fellow adopting moms that the I-171H isn't a very obvious document.  It's "official" title is "Notice of Favorable Determination Concerning Application for Advanced Processing of Orphan Petition."  Can you see why we all call it the I-171H form?????

Anyways......
The only place on the form that I-171H is written is the very bottom right corner in very tiny letters!!!!!!

I texted Nathan right away to tell him that it came in the mail.  Just NINE days after our biometrics apt.!!!  Praise the Lord!!!

The last "paperwork" item for our dossier is putting together our photo pages.  I don't know why this has been a stress to me, but it has.  I finally made myself sit down tonight and go through our photos.  We have to have 2 "formal" photos of Nathan and I {facing the camera, smiling, etc.}, 1 photo of the outside of our house, 1 photo of the main living area inside our house, and 4 "casual" photos of Nathan and I {with family/friends, "hanging" out, etc.}.

Would you like to see what I have come up with????  {minus the photo of our main living area ~ it's still on my camera}

I'm really hoping that these will be okay.  Now all I have to do is get them printed, and put them together with some journaling on card stock.  I'm open to suggestions from any adoptive moms who've BTDT!!!!

Fund-Raising Friday

Christmas Ornaments ~ This is your last chance to order some of these adorable personalized cross-stitched ornaments.  Click here for pictures.  My mom has been making these for us to sell {$10 each} and they can be personalized with names, dates, etc.  If you are interested, please send me an e-mail at hearts1982@gmail.com.  This is the last week to order any personalized ornaments.  Next week we will simply be selling any pre-made ornaments that are left.  Order yours NOW!!!

Faith and Grace Quilts ~ Check out this fundraiser my friend Karen is doing @ 27 Penguin Place.  Sponsor a quilt block for $10 and help us wrap our babies in quilts made with love!!!

Just Love Coffee ~ I posted on my Facebook yesterday about the Black Friday contest JLC is having.  Whoever sells the most coffee/products from their store will win 20 bags of FREE coffee!!!  Since Nathan and I aren't coffee drinkers, if we win we will gift those bags of coffee to anyone who helped by ordering coffee.  Today is the last day of this contest, so please go ORDER NOW!!!

Home-made Cards  ~ We still have several packets of cards to sell.  We are asking for a $10 donation for a packet of 4 unique and beautiful cards.  Please contact me at hearts1982@gmail.com or pay via our PayPal donate button.  Just specify if you would like a packet of Bday cards or All-Occasion cards.

Soda Cans ~ How many cans do you think we have deposited since July 12th {that was our first deposit run}?????  Post a comment with your best guess!!!

Sponsor a Puzzle Piece ~ We received a check in the mail this past week with some money from God!!!  We chose to use that money towards puzzle piece sponsorships.  Someday when our children ask us why God's name is on so many puzzle pieces, we can tell them about the many wonderful ways God worked to bring them home to us!!!  What a lesson in the faithfulness of our amazing God!!!

Thermometer ~ We are only $1387 away from being able to mail our dossier!!!  Thank you for all your prayers and please DON'T STOP PRAYING!!!

Productive

WARNING: This is a loooooooooooong post!!!!

Pam ~ We were soooooooo productive yesterday!!!!  It felt GOOD!!!!  Both Nathan and I had taken the day off work because we had our biometrics appointment in the morning.  At first, I was just going to take the morning off and then go into school for the afternoon, but I decided to make it an "adoption day" and took the whole day off.  I'm glad I did!!!

7:00 - Wake up {Hooray for sleeping in!!!}

8:20 - Leave for Des Moines

8:35 - Arrive in Des Moines and try to find a parking spot

8:45 - Walk into Federal Building

8:55 - Fingerprinted

9:10 - Leave USCIS office

9:20 - Arrive at Capital Square and try to find the right building

9:35 - Walk into the Secretary of State's office

9:40 - Talk to a nice lady about getting our two papers notarized and state certified

9:45 - Talk some more, sign, and wait

9:50 - She tells us her fee is $575!!!!!

9:50 - Laughter!!!!  It's just $10.

9:55 - Leave with certified papers!!!!

10:10 - Arrive at Walgreens

10:15 - Photos taken

10:25 - Purchase M&M's along with photos :-)

10:30 - Heading home!!!!!!!

It was such a blessing that everything went so smoothly.  We really didn't have any sort of a wait to speak of at any of the places and we got everything accomplished by 10:30 a.m.  The only part I am worried about is two of my fingerprints.  Apparently my right hand ring finger, and my left hand pinky don't make good prints.  the lady said that she "hoped" they would accept them, but if they didn't I would get a letter in the mail.  I am praying that I never get that letter!!!!  Will you pray with me that they accept ALL my fingerprints?????

The majority of the rest of our afternoon was spent working on grant paperwork.  We finished all the paperwork to submit our application to God's Grace Adoption Ministries, Inc. and it should be in the mail by tonight {Nathan is taking it to be weighed and mailed after work today}!!!!  We have our application for Show Hope all done except for a letter from our agency that we are waiting for and we are hoping to be able to mail that application by the end of this week.  And then we started the application for Lifesong.  The hard part of that one is done and now we just have to gather the other needed documents.

We made soooooooooooo much progress and it was so much fun to just be able to spend the day together.  The dossier paperwork is almost done!!!!!!  I keep intending to post a list of the documents we have been working on, but since I often type these posts at school during my students' nap time, I never have the list in front of me.  Maybe I'll get that done tonight????

Please continue to pray along with us that God will bring in the rest of the money we need to be able to submit our dossier.  I am fairly confident that we will have all the paperwork {minus our I-171H form, unless it comes quickly} done by the end of November, and we are praying that we will be able to mail it before the end of the year.  We still need $2700 in order to do that. 

PLEASE PRAY!!!

Tupperware

We are so excited to be starting a new two-week FUN-raiser!!!  Tupperware is a great company with a wonderful product that is high quality and lasts for almost FOREVER!!!  The Tupperware fun-raising program will give us 40% of what is sold ~ but we are getting an even better deal!!!  Our Tupperware "lady" is the mom of one of Pam's former students and she is giving us her profit of 10%, so we will be profiting 50%of what is sold!!!!  What an incredible blessing!!!! 

 Here is how it works.  If you are interested in ordering, all you have to do it go to this Tupperware link and shop {make sure you click on our link, otherwise we will not get the credit}.  Your order will be shipped directly to you {as long as you are anywhere within the USA}.  When the two weeks is over, we will receive a check for 50% of what was sold.  So please pass along our info to friends, family members, or anyone you know who might be interested.  This is a GREAT idea to consider for Christmas presents {hint, hint}!!!

 Also, if you would like a packet that contains the Tupperware fun-raising line of products to pass around to people you know, please let me know.  I have 25 packets that I can distribute to people {if you are local to central IA, that is} and you can collect orders via the included order form and personal checks. 

 We are praying that we will be able to submit our dossier by Christmas, and are working hard to bring in the $3589 that we still need.  This fund-raiser could really help us lower that amount, and we are praying hard to that end.  Will you please join us in this endeavor?????

Fund-Raising Friday

Just Love Coffee ~ One of my co-workers purchased some coffee from our site, and this is what he had to say about it.  "As a coffee Connoisseur, I'll give my WORD that this coffee is the MOST AWESOME jolt you'll have had in years!!!  Try it...You'll like it!!!!!!"  If you are interested in ordering, please click the photo/link on the right side of our blog.  We get $5 for every bag of coffee you order.

Home-made Cards ~ If you are interested {$10 per pkg of 4 cards} please send me an e-mail {hearts1982@gmail.com} or use our "donate" button {just make a note that it is for cards and which pkgs you are ordering}.

Soda Cans ~ Keep 'em coming!!!

Sponsor a Puzzle Piece ~ I was hoping to have an updated picture for you this week, but I guess it's going to have to wait for one more week.  If you are interested in helping us put our African puzzle together, please sponsor a puzzle piece for $10.  Thanks :-).

"Together for Good" Photo Shoot ~ If you haven't had the chance yet, please go check out Erin's blog "Together for Good" and take a look at some of her beautiful photos.  Erin is still willing to set up a photo shoot with you {think Christmas cards!!!} in exchange for a donation of any size to our adoption fund.

Thermometer ~ We've reached and passed the half-way mark toward our dossier!!!!!!!!  Praise the Lord!!!

Fund-Raising Friday

Just Love Coffee ~ I posted about this new fund-raiser earlier this week.  We have had many people tell us what a GREAT idea it is, but we've only had one order!!!  Will you be next???  All you have to do is click on the link on the side bar of our blog.  It will take you to our personalized coffee page and you can order whatever and however much coffee you want.  We will get $5 per bag you order!!!

Home-made Cards ~ We are continuing to sell a couple packets of cards a week.  It would be GREAT if we could have them all sold by Thanksgiving!!!  Will you help us???  Please pass along the info about our unique home-made cards to people you know, and maybe even consider buying some yourself!!!  I know how many cards I run to the store to buy last minute before a Bday, wedding, or anniversary.  Why not stock up on some cards now {$10 a packet = just $2.50 per card!!!}.

Soda Cans ~ It was such a blessing to have a few people bring soda cans/bottles to our garage sale for us.  We have passed $230 worth of deposit money!!!  Thank you!!!

Sponsor a Puzzle Piece ~ Our puzzle was in pieces on the floor for a good portion of this past week :-(.  We needed our card table for the garage sale, and the puzzle broke when we tried to move it.  But we've fixed it and are waiting to add more pieces.  Just $10 to sponsor a puzzle piece.  We will write your name on the back and our children will always have a visual reminder of the many people who helped bring them home to us!!!

"Together for Good" Photo Shoot ~ Erin has been busy with several photo shoots these past couple of weeks.  But she still has some times available.  If you would like to schedule a photo shoot with Erin, she will give you a CD with all the pictures she takes in exchange for a monetary donation of ANY size towards our adoption fund.  If you are interested, please contact Erin via her blog "Together for Good."

Thermometer ~ I love updating our thermometer totals each week!!!  We are now just $158 away from the half-way mark!!!  I can't wait until it's FULL and we can mail our dossier to Ethiopia!!!

Biometrics Appointment

Pam ~ You may remember a few weeks ago when I told you that we had mailed away our I-600A form.  {Click here}  Our letters with our scheduled appointments came in the mail today!!!  They came much faster than I thought they would so I was VERY excited!!!  Our fingerprinting appointments are scheduled for November 15th at 9:00 in the morning.  I guess we will each get to have to take the morning off work in order to make our apt :-).

I have heard that we are allowed to just show up at an earlier date for our "appointment" but have to be willing to wait a while if they are busy.  But since we are still working on dossier paperwork and don't yet have the money to send our dossier in, we aren't in too big of a hurry.  Although, if we don't start making major progress on the remainder of our dossier paperwork, I think I might go crazy!!!  Our lives have been nonstop for the past few weeks, and we are both ready to have things calm down so that we can get crazy busy on paperwork!!!

Fund-Raising Friday....on Saturday

Garage Sale ~ Yep.  We're going to do it.  And we're going to do it NEXT WEEKEND!!!  What have we gotten ourselves into???  We are asking for people to donate items for our garage sale and are going to start collecting them throughout this next week.  We're hoping to completely fill up our garage and then be able to sell EVERYTHING!!!  This has been and continues to be a little overwhelming, but we're hoping to raise a few hundred dollars for our adoption fund!!!  If you have done a garage sale in the past and have any nuggets of wisdom to pass along to us, we would LOVE to hear from you.  And, even better, if you live in central IA and know us personally, and would be willing/able to come help sort, label, set up, etc. this next Thursday and Friday, that would be FABULOUS!!!!  We are going to have our sale on Friday from 8-6 and on Saturday from 8-12 noon.  Would you be praying with us for good weather and for lots of things to sell??

Bake Sale ~ We are also going to be having a bake sale along with our garage sale {I think??}.  Hopefully I can get lots of volunteers to help bake cookies, pies, cakes, and breads!!!  Would any of you who are in central IA like to help????  Just let me know :-).

Home-made Cards ~ Would you like to help our adoption fund AND come away with some adorable home-made cards?  They are only $10 a packet {$2.50 a card} and contain 4 unique and creative cards.  You can choose between an All-Occasion packet or a Birthday packet.  Or go ahead and get one or more of each.  We all use many cards throughout the year, so why not stock up now?!?!  If you are interested, send me an e-mail {hearts1982@gmail.com} or pay via our "Donate" button located on the sidebar.  Just make a note that it is for cards and specify how many of each packet you would like.  We are willing/able to ship them anywhere in the US, so don't let distance stop you :-).

Soda Cans ~ Keep them coming!!!

Sponsor a Puzzle Piece ~ Let's keep putting this puzzle together!!!  You can send me an e-mail {hearts1982@gmail.com} or pay via the "Donate" button.  Just make a note that it is for a puzzle piece.

"Together for Good" Photo Shoot ~ Erin is still scheduling photo shoots to help with our adoption funds.  She has had a couple of her shoots already {check them out at Together for Good} and has a few more scheduled.  If you live in central Iowa and would like to get some GREAT photos AND help with our adoption costs, please contact Erin here.  HINT, HINT ~ Think Christmas cards!!!

Would you be willing to help us out by passing along our fund-raising information to your family and friends?  The more people know about our fund-raisers, the more successful they will be.  And the more successful they are, the sooner we will have the money saved to submit our dossier {current goal}, to accept our referral, and travel costs for court and to bring them home.  Thank you for all your prayers!!!!