Adoption Expenses Update

Our matching grant from Lifesong for Orphans has been completed!!!!!!! Click HERE to read the blog post Nathan wrote on that blessing!!!!!!

After the matching grant, we still have an estimated $2,000 remaining to be able to complete Layla's adoption. WE ARE SO CLOSE!!!!! God has been so good in blessing us and bringing friends and family alongside us in Layla's adoption journey!!!! Thank you!!!!!!

Our account with Lifesong will remain open for regular (non-matching) donations until Layla's adoption is finalized. So if you have been and are still wanting to give a donation that will be tax-deductible for 2014, you need to do that today or tomorrow!!!! Click HERE for all the information on how to donate to our family's account.

We want to thank everyone for the support and encouragement and prayers that have come our way through this crazy adoption journey!!!!!!

Matching Grant from Lifesong

We are excited to announce that our family has been chosen to receive a matching grant of up to $2,000 from Lifesong for Orphans (through Lutheran Family Services)!!!!!!

Here are the details.

 - Lifesong will match ANY DONATION up to $2,000 between now and January 14, 2015!!! So, for example, if a person were to donate $25 (or any other amount) to our adoption fund, Lifesong will match it to give us a total of $50!!!

 - You can MAIL your check to Lifesong for Orphans, PO Box 40, Gridley, IL 61744. Checks should be made payable to "Lifesong for Orphans." In the memo, write "Maxwell #4931" to assure it goes into our family account. Lifesong has been blessed with a partner that underwrites all U.S. administrative and fundraising costs. That means 100% of your donation will go directly towards our adoption!!!!!

 - You can PAY ONLINE by going to www.lifesongfororphans.org/give/donate. Select "give to an Adoptive Family." Complete the online form and fill in "Family Account Number" (4931) and "Family Name" (Maxwell) fields. NOTE: PayPal charges an administrative fee (2.9% + $.30 USD per transaction. Your donation will be decreased by the amount of this fee.

 -  (NOTE: In following IRS guidelines, your donation is to the named non-profit organization. This organization retains full discretion over its use, but intends to honor the donor's suggested use. Individual donations $50 or more and yearly donations totaling $250 or more will receive a tax-deductible receipt. Receipts for donations under $50 will gladly be sent upon request. Lifesong is a 501(c)3 tax exempt organization.)

Would you please consider helping us continue to raise/save the remaining $6,300 we need to complete Layla's adoption? (Her adoption will be finalized sometime in February.)

Puzzle
We have not yet completed Layla's puzzle!!!! We have had 178 pieces sponsored with leaves us with 322 more pieces. If we had just 200 of those pieces sponsored, we would completely FILL our matching grant and be that much closer to having Layla's adoption paid for!!!! If you would like to donate via Lifesong to have your donation matched and would like your donation to be put toward sponsoring a puzzle piece, please just send me an email or FB message to let me know. For every $10 we will put your name on the back of a puzzle piece!!!!!

Will you have a part in helping us make Layla Autumn Rose a legal part of our family?!?!

Three Things

1) You should vote in our poll (located to the right of your screen).  How much money have we raised via soda cans/bottles?  GO VOTE!!!

2) We have FINISHED our Lifesong matching grant!!!!!  Just over $3,000 has been donated towards our adoption expenses and Lifesong for Orphans has MATCHED that amount with another $3,000 to give us a total of $6,000!!!  Thank you to everyone who helped us reach this goal!!  The deadline to raise the money was tomorrow, so we just made it!!!  Praise the Lord!!!

3) Check out our updated thermometer!!!  We already have $1,167 (18%) of our 1st trip travel expenses saved!!!!  We have a GREAT God!!!

Fundraising Friday ~ Lifesong Grant Update

It's probably about time that I update you readers on the status of our matching grant that we received from Lifesong for Orphans.  On January 28, we found out that Lifesong for Orphans had approved us for a matching grant of $3,000!!!!  What a blessing!!!

The matching grant works like this.  Friends and family send monetary donations for our adoption to Lifesong and Lifesong MATCHES the donation, dollar for dollar, up to $3,000.  These donations are tax-deductible for the donors and help us raise the money we need to bring our children home.

We have been soooooooooooooooo very blessed over the past one and a half months!!!  The first blessing came in that our Soup Supper & Silent Auction was scheduled for just a few weeks after we had been approved for this grant and we were able to have all the money raised from that event doubled!!!!

The second blessing has been in the number of family and friends since then who have additionally sent in money on our account to be matched by Lifesong!!!!!  Thank You!!!!!!!!!!

We have seen $2,298.07 come in of the $3,000!!!!!!  That just leaves us with $701.93 left of the grant to raise.  We have until April 15th to raise this additional money and we are confident that God will work in His time and way!!!!

You may have also noticed that we have just $1,252 left to fill our Referral Thermometer!!!!!  So..................  If we are able to bring in that $701.93 by April 15th (and it will be doubled to $1,403.86) we will have FILLED our thermometer + MORE!!!!!!!!!!

If you would like to help us finish raising the rest of our matching grant, you may.........

*Make checks payable to ~ Lifesong for Orphans
*Memo Line ~ preference Maxwell/#1731 adoption
*Mail to ~ Lifesong for Orphans, PO Box 40 / 202 N. Ford St., Gridley, IL 61744
OR
*Pay online via PayPal ~ click HERE
*Make a note ~ preference Maxwell/#1731 adoption

All donations will go 100% towards our adoption expenses and are tax deductible!!!

Special Note ~ You may be wondering, based on my post from this past Wednesday, what our plans are based on the recent goings-on in Ethiopia adoptions.  Well.........we are going to continue praying and moving forward.  This news does not change our desire to adopt from Ethiopia, nor does it change the direction that we have felt God leading us.  We will continue to work hard to save the money we need, and we are trusting that God will take care of all the little details.  Maybe God will allow us to have ALL the money saved before we move forward.  The wait may be longer and harder than we had planned, but we are going to continue planning, preparing, and learning through this possibly extended journey.  Thank you for continuing to pray for us and the country of Ethiopia!!!!

Soup Supper & Silent Auction TOTAL!!!!!

Pam ~ This is going to be a short post because we are leaving for church in a few minutes, but this is the first chance I've had to update you all about our Soup Supper & Silent Auction we had last night. 

The bad news.  I forgot to take any PICTURES!!!!  I am soooooooooooooooo upset with myself that I forgot!!!!  I had my camera there and everything, but I got so distracted with visiting everyone and enjoying the evening that I completely forgot about my camera :-(.  So I don't have any pictures to share with you :-(

The good news.  God allowed us to raise..........

$1145.85

Isn't our God GREAT?!?!?!?

AND this amount will be doubled because of our matching grant from Lifesong!!!!!

Lifesong for Orphans GRANT!!!!!

We found out this past Friday that we have received a matching ADOPTION GRANT from Lifesong for Orphans!!!  We are praising the Lord for His provision!!!

Here is how this grant works.  Lifesong will match ANY DONATION up to $3,000 between now and April 15, 2011!!!  So, for example, if a person wants to donate $25 (or any other amount) to our adoption fund, all they have to do is mail a check made payable to "Lifesong for Orphans" with "preference Maxwell/#1731 adoption" written in the memo line and Lifesong will match it to give us a total of $50!!!  Or, you can donate online via Lifesong's PayPal account.  Simply make a note ~ "preference Maxwell/#1731" ~ to ensure that we receive your donation.

Summary ~
*Make checks payable to  ~ Lifesong for Orphans
*Memo Line ~ preference Maxwell/#1731 adoption
*Mail to ~ Lifesong for Orphans, PO Box 40 / 202 N. Ford St., Gridley, IL 61744
OR
*Pay online via PayPal ~ click HERE
*Make a note ~ preference Maxwell/#1731 adoption

All donations will go 100% towards our adoption expenses and are tax deductible!!!!

Would you please consider helping us continue to raise/save the remaining estimated $23,000 we need to bring our children home!!!

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!!!

Biometrics Appointment TODAY

Pam ~ Our biometrics appointment is TODAY!!!!  We are getting ready to head out the door to our apt. and are excited to have the whole day off work to get LOTS more paperwork done.  We have our biometrics apt. at 9 a.m., and then are heading to the Secretary of State's office to hopefully get two papers certified.  Then we are getting passport sized photos taken, and then it's home to continue working on grant paperwork!!!