Fundraising Focus

Christmas Ornaments

We only have a few left to sell.  While you may no longer personalize these ornaments (we are simply selling the rest of the pre-made ornaments) they would make a GREAT Christmas present for one of those last minute gifts you need to purchase.  We are asking for a $10 donation for each ornament and you may pay via our PayPal donate button OR mail us a check (e-mail me @ hearts1982@gmail.com for our address).  Just leave a message with the number(s) of the ornament (s) you would like to purchase.

#1                                      #2

#3                                       #4

#5 (sold out)                           #6 (sold out)

#7

Other Fundraisers ~ Homemade cards, Pumpkin pies, Faith and Grace quilts, Just Love Coffee, Soda cans, Sponsor a puzzle piece

God is good way more than I give Him credit for

Nate ~ It’s true. I know to trust God and I know that He works all things together for good, but sometimes I still forget to expect that. Sometimes I even say the words and still forget. Anyone know how I feel? :o)

 

The car was a mess this weekend. Nothing went right (for us or the mechanics). It wasn’t done until after 10 AM Monday morning. It was a huge frustration and it really messed up our whole weekend. We tried to get a car to borrow but nothing came up. We assumed, by Sunday afternoon, that Pam would be taking me to Wal-Mart on her way to work, I’d be walking to the mechanic after they opened at 7, and waiting until at least 10. Instead, last minute, Sunday night I got a text from a friend who offered me a ride. 

 

To make a long story much shorter, I’m going to adjust my hours by a half hour and this friend and I are going to start carpooling. What does that mean? That means that God used a frustrating weekend with the car to start us down the road of saving $30-$40 a month. Something that we can use now and we will REALLY need once we bring our children home and Pam stops working full-time. How amazing is that? I hadn’t even really considered carpooling as an option and yet, it’s really not going to be much of a problem.

 

So, there it is. God working things out much better than I could have again…and me not trusting Him to do that, again…

 

(God is good, all the time…we just might not see it, but that doesn’t change who He is, it just means that our perspective is off.)

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!!!!!

God is good...but it's still hard

Nate ~ It's funny. God provides for our needs. This is a true statement and there is no questioning it. However, our needs are not our wants. :o)

I drove my sister-in-law to the airport this morning. From the moment I started driving I knew something wasn't right. I got to the mechanic's and they opened an hour and a quarter later. After they looked at it they confirmed that the clutch was slipping. They then confirmed a $650 price tag. Now, do you wonder how God is good?

It's simple. Since June, we have had 3 fairly costly repairs to make on our cars. In all of that, each one has happened shortly after we regained our store of savings so that we can get these things fixed when they happen. So, the price tag is high, but we can get it fixed and I can go to my job on Monday.

It still hurts though. That's going to be $650 that we will need to replenish before the kids can come home. (Please note.  No money that is donated to our adoption ever goes to these things. We take care of this on our end with our pay checks...so your donations go completely for our kids). That's hard, because now my OT from the last couple weeks will need to go to the care repairs instead of the adoption.

Would you please pray for both Pam and I? God is aware of our hearts and minds. He knows if we need encouragement and how much (more that we ourselves know) and He'll continue to provide for our needs. God is amazing and now we get to see, again, how He will provide for us outside of our own power!!!

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!!!

Fundraising Focus

Pumpkin Pie 

This is a BRAND NEW fundraiser for the holidays!!!  A parent of one of my students has volunteered to make pumpkin pies as a fundraiser for our adoption!!!  Martha is taking local orders and will have them done to be picked up or delivered by Christmas {or before if you want them early!!}.

She is asking for a minimum donation of $12 per pie, and they will be DELICIOUS!!!  If you live local to her {Indianola, IA} she will deliver your pie(s) to you; if you are local to the Des Moines area, Nathan and I can arrange a pick-up location with you.

If you are interested in ordering a delicious pumpkin pie, please e-mail Martha (mmkclrowe@gmail.com) or me (hearts1982@gmail.com) with your order and the date you would like your pie.

Thanks, Martha, for all your hard work!!!

BTW......There may be a limit to the number of pies she can make by Christmas, so get your order in TODAY!!!

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!!!!!

Fundraising Focus

We're going to try something new!!!  Each Friday, I am going to focus on just ONE of our current fundraisers.  That way you don't have to read a short summary of everything we are doing every Friday and I can go into a little more depth on one specific fundraiser.  If you want more information, you can always leave a comment and ask :-).

Let's start with.....

Home-made Cards

We started this fundraiser back on September 24th.  Nathan's sister, Heidi, enlisted the help of several very creative and talented ladies to make a wide variety of home-made cards.  They made cards for birthdays, get well, wedding, sympathy, and general friendship cards {just to name a few}.  Heidi collected all these cards and we put them into 4-card packets.  We made All-Occasion packets as well as Birthday packets.

We are asking for a $10 donation for each card packet (breaks down to $2.50 per card), and if you are interested in buying some very cute home-made cards AND helping with our adoption expenses, simply send me an e-mail {hearts1982@gmail.com} and let me know how many and which kind of card packets you would like to purchase.  OR you can pay via our PayPal "donate" button and simply leave a note with the same information there.  We are willing and able to ship these cards anywhere within the continental US.

CHRISTMAS IDEA: Maybe you still need a Christmas present for a co-worker, babysitter, beautician, teacher, etc.  This would be a great idea for a creative gift without costing you a fortune.  Just a thought :-).

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.