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!!!

Just Love Coffee

This may be our easiest fundraiser yet!!!  If you love coffee and would like a portion of what you spend on coffee to go towards our adoption, all you have to do is go to our side bar and click on the link.  It will take you directly to our personalized family page.  Order whatever coffee you would like {and make sure you look over at the left side of the page ~ there are more coffee options listed there for you to choose from}, and we get $5 per bag you order.  They will ship your coffee directly to you, and then mail us a check once a month with our adoption profit!!!

Please pass along this link{http://www.justlovecoffee.com/Maxwells) to everyone you know who drinks coffee!!!  The more people order from our site, the more money will be raised to bring our children home!!!

Joe Sings

Watching this just makes me smile!!!  This is my nephew, Joseph, singing "Jesus Love Me" and "I Will Obey."

Garage Sale Total

Pam ~ Are you ready for it?  Would you like to know how much we made from our garage sale this past weekend?  Have you been just dying to know?

I am hoping that Nathan and I will have time one night this week to sit down and make a list of all the many ways God worked throughout last week.  There were so many blessings He sent our way, and we want to share them with you.  I'm not going to even try to start the list in this post.  But I do want to share with you that the sale went much better than we could have planned or even dreamed!!!!!

We brought in a total of .......

$971

 

I know!!!!  I couldn't believe it either!!!  We serve a mighty God who has a perfect plan for our adoption.  He is providing in His perfect plan and timing.  Praise the Lord!!!!!

Garage Sale

pick up. unload. pick up. unload. 

sort. price. stay up late. get up early. pick up. 

unload. sort. price. tired. stressed.
signs. blessing. friends. care. paint. pick up. 

price. too much. more. even more. 

full. e-mails. more. sale. soon.

That pretty much sums up our week thus far.

Our garage/bake sale starts bright and early TOMORROW MORNING!!!!  Our garage is stuffed to overflowing and we are still getting messages from people who have more to bring us!!!  It's a GREAT problem to have, but we really and truly don't have room for any more!!!  If you live in central IA, PLEASE come by tomorrow or Saturday and buy stuff!!!  We have a few items for a bake sale along with some bags of Ethiopian coffee!!, our homemade cards will be available for people to buy, and we are going to have a place for people to leave soda cans.  If you are not able to come but you know of someone in our area, please pass along the info.  If you need our address, please send me an e-mail {hearts1982@gmail.com} and I will give you directions.

It has been a very tiring week, but God has been doing some amazing things and we are so excited to see the plans He has for this fund-raising sale.

{By the way.  I will not be doing a "Fund-Raising Friday" post this week.  I will post pictures and info. on the sale sometime next week, and catch you up on our fund-raising next Friday.}

Our God is Greater, Our God is Stronger

 Nate ~ It's funny.  Pam and I KNOW that our God is greater than any other.  We even pray for our adoption knowing that God will provide and that He will provide in His own way and time.  Yet, somehow, it still amazes me.

We are having our sale this weekend as a fundraiser for our adoption.  We prayed that God would bless and He has brought more donations of items than we ever thought we'd get.  Then, we posted our sale on the Life 107.1 website so that people could see that it was coming up...and God chose in that moment to remind us that He is better.  The station has chosen to mention our sale on the air at least twice {Pam heard it on the way to work and then I did a little later too}.  I never even thought about the fact that they might announce it as a sale for our adoption.  Yet, here we are.  God has blessed in the donations, He has blessed in the advertising.  We trust that He'll continue to bless {weather, turn out, etc.}.  Please continue to pray with us this week that we'll be daily, continually, leaning on Him and working towards our adoption in His strength and not our own.

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!!!!

Adoption Update

Pam ~ We mailed our I-600A yesterday!!! Now you may be wondering, "What is an I-600A?" Good question. :-)

The I-600A is a United State Citizenship and Immigration Services {USCIS} form that is also called the Application for the Advance Processing of Orphan Petition. This form allows the USCIS to begin processing our request to bring orphans into the United States.

In order to submit the I-600A form, we had to have a completed Home Study. In addition to the I-600A form and our home study, we submitted copies of both our birth certificates, our marriage license, our home study agency's license, along with a cover letter and a check for $830. Needless to say, we packaged all these important documents in a padded, water-resistant manila envelope and prayerfully mailed it at the post-office.

Now we have to wait to be contacted with a date, time, and place to go be fingerprinted. After the fingerprinting is done, we will wait some more until we receive our I-171H form in the mail!!! The I-171H is basically our letter of acceptance and permission. It doesn't sound so exciting, but it is a HUGE step in the paperwork we need for our dossier. It sounds like IA is one of the states that has a longer wait time to get this processed, so we are happy to have it done and in the mail!!!

While we wait for this to be done, we are continuing to work on the rest of our dossier paperwork. I am typing this post at school, so I don't have the list of the documents we still need to complete in front of me, but I'll try to remember and list a few of them {since I know that you are just dying to know}.

~ Police Reports
~ Three letters of reference
~ Proof of medical insurance
~ Proof of life insurance
~ Application Letter
~ Family Photo Sheet
~ Copies of our passports
~ Two passport photos of each of us
~ Dossier Checklist {that's not what it's called, but it's the general idea}
~ A few others that I can't remember :-)

I am leaving right after school today to attend a two day teacher's conference so these documents are having to wait a few more days. Nathan and I are planning to sit down on Saturday {hopefully} and talk through a plan on when/how to complete the rest of these documents. Our personal goal is to have the paperwork done in the next month or two, and then just work hard and wait on the Lord to provide the rest of the needed finances to submit our dossier. He has a plan and we are excited to see how He will provide. Wouldn't it be GREAT if we could submit our dossier before Christmas?!?! What a wonderful Christmas present that would be!!!!

{By the way, since I will be out of town on Friday, our "Fund-Raising Friday" post will probably be on Saturday.}

"You could use the STOVE"

Pam ~ Do you ever have those moments when you feel very silly and it's a four-year-old child who has taken you there?  I had one of those moments at lunch yesterday.

I was babysitting my three nieces and went to reheat some leftover macaroni & cheese with hot dogs that they had in the refrigerator.  I took the cover off the container, opened the microwave, and pushed the buttons to start it.  The light inside came on and the numbers started counting down, but the microwave was not running.  As I played around with the buttons, my 4-yr-old niece, Jenna, came over to see what was going on.  Here is how our conversation went.

Jenna ~ "What's wrong?"

Aunt Pam ~ "The microwave isn't working."

Jenna ~ "Did you push 'Start'?  You have to push 'Start' or it won't work."

Aunt Pam ~ "Yes, Jenna.  I pushed the 'Start' button, but it still isn't working.  I think your microwave is broken."

Jenna ~ "Yes, it is broken and won't work anymore."

Aunt Pam ~ "I think we might be having cold mac & cheese for lunch today."

Jenna ~ "But I don't want cold maccaroni."

Aunt Pam ~ "Jenna, if the microwave isn't working, I can't heat it up for you to eat."

Jenna ~ "You could use the STOVE, Aunt Pam."

Leave it to a 4-year-old to teach her 28-year-old aunt that you CAN reheat things on the stove if the microwave is broken!!! 

Jenna, 4-yrs-old

Chloe, 2-yrs-old

Esther, 6-yrs-old

Fund-Raising Friday + A WINNER!!!!

Home-made Cards ~ We have sold 16 packets of our cards over this past week!!!  Praise the Lord!!!  It has been so encouraging to us to see so many people interested in this fund-raiser.  We still have 64 packets left, so there are plenty more for YOU!!!  Each packet contains 4 different and uniquely made cards, and we are asking for a $10 minimum donation per packet.  Just let us know how many All-Occasion or Birthday packets you want.  We are willing to mail these cards anywhere in the US.  You may pay via our "Donate" button, or e-mail me {hearts1982@gmail.com} to arrange payment via cash or check.

Soda Cans ~ This fund-raiser took an interesting turn this week :-).  A friend contacted us and asked if he could pay us 10 cents per soda can, up to 200 cans!!!  He needs soda cans for a project he is working on, and he figured he could get his cans quickly AND help our adoption fund at the same time :-).  We currently had almost 200 soda cans in the car, so we ran them over to him and let him take them off our hands.  What a GREAT idea!!!  Does anyone else need soda cans from us???

Sponsor a Puzzle Piece ~ We now have 98 puzzle pieces sponsored!!!  That's almost 1/5th of our puzzle!!!  This picture was taken last Sunday, and does not include the most recent 6 pieces sponsored.  But you can see that the edge is finished and we have begun filling in the middle!!!  Thank you to everyone who has had a part in putting this puzzle together!!!  If you are interested in sponsoring a puzzle piece for $10, you may pay via our "Donate" button {just make a note that it is for our puzzle} or e-mail me {hearts1982@gmail.com}.

Together for Good Photo Shoot ~ Erin has her first TWO photo shoots scheduled for tomorrow!!!  We're so excited to see this fund-raiser up and running.  If you are interested in a photo shoot with Erin, along with a CD of all the pictures she takes and edits, in exchange for a monetary gift of ANY SIZE to our adoption fund, please contact Erin at Together for Good.

Thermometer ~ Our thermometer rose higher this week!!!  We are now at 23% of our total dossier goal!!!  Praise the Lord for His great and wonderful provision!!!

GIVEAWAY ~ Thank you to everyone who participate in our giveaway this past week.

 

And the winner is........

**Kristi**

Congratulations!!!  We will be giving these 10 beautiful home-made Christmas gift tags to you.  Thanks for all your prayer and support of our adoption!!!