We are ready

This week we made an important call to our agency. We called to let them know that we are ready for our referrals. We still need about $600, but we do not owe it until we actually have our referrals- So we are trusting God for it.
I am so excited that we are getting so close. Many of you have asked questions about referrals. So I will try to answer them-

• Do we get to "choose" our child(ren)? No, our agency will present us with a picture of a child and a little bit of information about them. We will have a short period of time, probably 24 hours, to make a decision.
• Will the 2 children be siblings? We have requested siblings. However, children in the country we are adopting from are typically abandoned. So there is no way to know if they are biological siblings or not. However, once we adopt them they will be siblings:)
• What happens once you say yes? Our children will be moved from the orphanage to foster care. They will then have access to doctors, nourishing meals and a more family like setting.
• How old will our children be? We have requested a boy around age 3 or 4. We have requested a girl under 18 months.

Please feel free to ask us any questions you have. No question is silly. We both enjoy chatting about our adoption. We are excited to be on this journey and want to share. After all, if we are open to share our experience, it may impact others to pursue adoption!

Pray for us as we await our referrals. Pray for patience, mine especially:) Also pray for our children, wherever they are, that they will be safe and that God will prepare them for the coming transition. Pray for our agency as they match us with our children. God is in control and we are trusting HIM with every step of this adoption.

HE did it again!!

As you probably know we have been collecting items for a Yard Sale for today. Well about a week ago, I was looking at what we all we had. And really there was not all that much. I don't mean that to sound bad at all. But it is part of this "story" of how God works in HIS time. Anyway, I was thinking about how much we still needed for this payment and was comparing it to the "stuff" we had. I know, I know- I was trying to make things work in my eyes and not God's.
Well, as the week drew to an end, we had several calls. We spent a big part of Friday doing pick up of stuff from people's houses. When we finished loading up everything from here and all we had picked up we had 2 trucks and 2 trailers FULL of stuff!! God sent it, but in HIS time.
This morning we got up early and headed up to the sale site. We set everything up and the selling began. We sold and sold and sold. My husband is the BEST at selling!! I think we probably sold 3/4 of all that we had!! It was amazing.
Once we got home, we totaled up all the money from the day- $1,113!!! WOW!!! I also had some Chick-fil-a calendar money that I had been given. I sat down and totaled up what all money we have and what we still needed.
After all my crazy "math" I figured out that we still needed about $1,200 to be able to get our referrals. I was pleased to see how close we were getting.
I sat down at the computer to write this blog and my email opened up. I was awed, humbled and overcome with emotion as I watched the screen. Dave looked over at me wondering why I was at the computer crying. You see, as I looked at the screen, there was an email from Paypal. It was telling me we had a donation from the "donate" button on our blog. A precious friend that I grew up with had donated $600 to our adoption fund!!!
My God is so faithful!! We woke up today needing about $2,500 and ended the day adding so much to our fund. We are now down to only needing about $600 to proceed with our current payment.
We began this journey knowing that it would be amazing- we just had no idea how amazing!
Thank you for your prayers and support. Thank you to everyone who donated items to our sale. Thank you to all who helped us set up, sell and feed us. We are so blessed!!

Another Yard Sale

Well it is Yard Sale time again. We will be having our sale this Saturday, October 23. We will start selling about 8 am. The sale will be on Rutledge Pike about 2 miles from I40. Just look for the signs.
We have collected all sorts of things. Please pray that the Lord will bless us with wonderful weather and lots of sales! We are about $2,500 from having referrals (pictures and information) about our 2 children.
Check back on Saturday to see results.

Golf Tournament Results

Well I have to confess, I have never been a huge golf fan. But today I had the best time. Our precious friends the Sharps and Wisharts hosted a Golf Tournament to benefit our adoption. The day was long, but we had a blast. We were blessed with gorgeous weather and 29 men who played!
There were many prizes awarded. But one category we left out was- "Cart that had the MOST fun." That award would definitely have gone to the cart driven by Gary Sharp and carrying my boys. Gary drove the cart more like a 4 wheeler and that created lots of giggles. My boys now love golf... or at least the experience they had with golf today:)
We were blessed today to add $1,075 to our fund! We are so very thankful to all who played and helped make today possible. But the biggest thanks goes to our Provider!
Please continue to pray. We have a yard sale next weekend and are still selling calendars. We need around $2,650 more to be ready for our referrals. We know God will provide that... in HIS time.

Golf Tournament

Some good friends of ours are hosting a golf tournament this weekend for our adoption. Pray with us that everything goes well.

Each day we are closer to raising the money needed for our next step in the adoption. With the golf tournament, the Chick-fil-A calendar sales, and the upcoming yard sale, we may just reach this next goal sooner rather than later! The next step is to request our referrals, which basically means that we have enough money to give the go ahead to our adoption agency to find our children for us. Maybe soon we will have pictures and names of our children.

We are continuing to wait to hear back concerning several more grants.

Will you pray? God has been so good to us as He has blessed all of our efforts. We will give Him the glory!

Postponed but...

Well, we were hoping to hear from a charitable organization about a grant this week. The committee has decided to consider our family in November. Part of me is disappointed, but I know God is in control.
Despite this news, October still could be a great month for us. We have several things happening that will help with our fund-
1. We have 2 precious men from our church who are planning a Golf Tournament to help fund our adoption. The tournament is October 16 at Knoxville Municipal. Please let us know if you would like to play and we can get you the information. We ask that you pray for good weather that day. Please also pray that God will bless the tournament.
2. We are selling 2011 Chick-fil-a calendars. And yes, they are the ones with the great coupons. They are $8 each and make great gifts. Please let us know if you would like to purchase or help sell them.
3. We are having another Yard Sale Oct. 23. Please let us know if you have donations.
Thank you so much for following, supporting and praying for us on this journey. We are excited to see how God works this month.

Grant Meeting

Sorry that I have not posted in a week or so... life has been busy. But now we have several things happening related to our adoption so here is the first-
There is a charitable foundation that we expect will meet about us this week or early next week. It is our understanding that the committee meets once a month. We were expecting them to meet regarding us 2 months ago and then they postponed our family to last month. Then last month they moved us to this month. Their goal is to put our application in at the time that is best for our situation. So please pray. We are so close to having enough funds to get our referrals. This grant may be the way God chooses to provide that need. Pray for God's perfect timing. We know that He knows the best time for our application to be considered.
Check back in the next day or two for another update. October is going to be busy!