Sorry it's been awhile since our last post. We have been busy collecting orders for the Valentine's Day fundraiser and working out the last kinks in our homestudy report. I am happy to report that the kinks are worked out and we should have it in our hands next week :) This means we can submit to USCIS!! Woohoo!! And thanks to a very generous donation we have the funds to do that.
I also want to thank everyone who ordered goodies from our sister-in-law, Melinda, for the Valentine fundraiser. I don't have an exact total yet, but it looks like she raised right around $700 for the boys adoption fund! Thank you Melinda!! And now she is busy making lots of chocolate goodies to deliver/ship all over in the next day or two. And her husband, Mike (Joel's brother), is busy eating lots of "leftover" chocolate :)
Over the last couple of weeks, we have seen God use others to provide for our boys. It is amazing! We had someone donate $2000 through our church, then someone else gave our pastor $200 for us. Then we had someone donate to the boys via Reece's Rainbow and then someone from Switzerland sent a card with a donation for the boys! All this, along with the Valentine fundraiser, has encouraged us so much!! Some might say that in the grand scheme of things, a couple thousand isn't very much. I DISAGREE!!!! We are now under $25,000 needed total. Yes that's quite a bit, but not to God!! And not when we started out needing $35,000!! All the little donations add up. I am so thankful that people are donating what they have to give, even if it doesn't seem like much to them or others. Every donation, big or small, is such an encouragement to us, and such a great blessing. God is providing! In His way and in His time!
Thursday, February 10, 2011
Sunday, January 30, 2011
Praise the Lord!
The Lord is so good!! We had someone donate, through our church, $2000!!!! This is enough to cover our immigration application and our translation fees (which, due to a change in procedure, we just found out we would need soon)!!We are now down to needing only $25,000 more to bring these little blessings home!
Don't forget about the Valentine's Day fundraiser going on to help bring them home! Go to the following link and order some homemade sweet treats for your sweetie for Valentine's Day and 100% of the money will be donated to the boys adoption fund! Thank you!!
http://runmelindarun.angelfire
Don't forget about the Valentine's Day fundraiser going on to help bring them home! Go to the following link and order some homemade sweet treats for your sweetie for Valentine's Day and 100% of the money will be donated to the boys adoption fund! Thank you!!
http://runmelindarun.angelfire
Sunday, January 23, 2011
Thursday, January 20, 2011
Pictures of the remodel
Well, it took a bit longer to get them up, but here they are! Remodel pics, click here!
It was a lot of work! We couldn't have done it without help from Leroy Kelley (SonShine Construction), Steven Wood, Amber (The Drywall Chick), Steve and Heather Herrington, and Josh Mink! Love you guys, thanks so much!
Joel
A few samples of what is on the slideshow from the above link:
It was a lot of work! We couldn't have done it without help from Leroy Kelley (SonShine Construction), Steven Wood, Amber (The Drywall Chick), Steve and Heather Herrington, and Josh Mink! Love you guys, thanks so much!
Joel
A few samples of what is on the slideshow from the above link:
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
Finally, 2nd home study visit complete!
From a man's perspective, stress comes in waves....and this wave has crested! Our second home study visit was completed today and on the list of items needing to be completed was our remodel of the second story of our house. We moved into this quaint little 1 bedroom farmhouse 3 years ago, and 1 bedroom was stretching it. The second story of the house was separated by a wall, into two rooms....one updated around 1970ish (by the looks of the orange carpet and sweet looking paneling) and the doorway to the other room was a piece of plywood screwed to a door frame. The second room was updated in the early 1940's (according to the newspapers under the pretty bow tie wallpaper, what little was left on the walls) and what was visible of the floor was covered with complete nastiness that I won't go into detail over.
With the help of dear friends, the stairway of death was removed, the ceilings raised from 6ft 8in, to 8 ft, new electrical run (we had two lights.....that was it), new staircase put in, floor leveled (bounce removed) and the new layout included two bedrooms, a hallway, and a bathroom.
When this adoption process started, we knew we would have to have it finished before the boys got home, we planned on budgeting our time, effort and money to meet that schedule...about 6 months...shouldn't be a problem. Well, after our first home visit, our plan changed to meet a new, improved, 3.5 week schedule (half of that I was going to be on the road working). We finished everything at 2:30 this morning, just 8 hours before our second home study visit...and yes, I'm tired!
The visit went extremely well, and now all the stress of this wave has crashed.....and now, I am too! Tomorrow will bring forth the start of another wave of paperwork and fund raising....
Pictures to follow, after a nap :)
With the help of dear friends, the stairway of death was removed, the ceilings raised from 6ft 8in, to 8 ft, new electrical run (we had two lights.....that was it), new staircase put in, floor leveled (bounce removed) and the new layout included two bedrooms, a hallway, and a bathroom.
When this adoption process started, we knew we would have to have it finished before the boys got home, we planned on budgeting our time, effort and money to meet that schedule...about 6 months...shouldn't be a problem. Well, after our first home visit, our plan changed to meet a new, improved, 3.5 week schedule (half of that I was going to be on the road working). We finished everything at 2:30 this morning, just 8 hours before our second home study visit...and yes, I'm tired!
The visit went extremely well, and now all the stress of this wave has crashed.....and now, I am too! Tomorrow will bring forth the start of another wave of paperwork and fund raising....
Pictures to follow, after a nap :)
Monday, January 10, 2011
Thank you!!
Thank you to the anonymous person who donated her emergency savings fund to the boys adoption!! What a blessing to recieve that envelope with $500 in it knowing that she sacrificed for these boys to have a family!! We now only need another $27,050!! Please help the boys by praying, spreading the word, and donating as the Lord leads you!! We are hoping to have our homestudy done by the end of this month, as well as our dossier, minus the USCIS approval. So however soon we get that after our homestudy we will be ready to submit to EE. We are praying that funds will not hold us back from going to get the boys asap!
Thank you to all who have donated, helped with fundraisers, or even done your own fundraiser to help these sweet boys!! What a blessing you all are to those boys and to us! We thank God for you all!!
Thank you to all who have donated, helped with fundraisers, or even done your own fundraiser to help these sweet boys!! What a blessing you all are to those boys and to us! We thank God for you all!!
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
HAPPY BIRTHDAY JACKSON!
Today is Jackson's third birthday! Please join us in celebrating! We have a goal of reaching $4300 by the end of today to cover the travel costs for the boys. We still need $2750 to reach that, but regardless, we know God is in charge!! Please help these boys so they won't have to spend another birthday in an orphanage. Please continue to pray for these boys and the funding needed for them to come home!!
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