All of the glory goes to God! This morning I am not feeling well physically. I have a nasty cold but, I am feeling so blessed! Our fundraiser last night was so overwhelming! We were blown away by the love and support shown to us by so many people.
Let me back up...last night we had a silent auction and pancake supper fundraiser for our adoption expenses. This was so far out of our comfort zone on SO many levels! The idea of raising money is very uncomfortable. The idea of raising money for ourselves magnifies that by about 100!! Based on the sheer expense of international adoption, we knew we could not do move forward without some help. We prayed about how best to do this and the silent auction/flapjack fundraiser was born!
Now that we had a plan, we needed items for our auction. Greg is a very talented woodworker (well he's talented at everything;)). We began in February working on making items for the donation ourselves. We made pallet signs, centerpieces, trash to treasure items and more! Our kids jumped on board and starting creating their own items. We literally worked on our items right up until Friday!
We still needed more donations...Another very uncomfortable thing...asking for donations! We put our plan out there and were overwhelmed by the love and support that was shown to us. Donations poured in! We were truly amazed at the generosity and creativity.
Now that donations were taken care of, we needed the food prepared, the gym set up, helpers, and many other things that go along with an event of this size. Well, we had so many people offer to help and step up to do any and everything that needed doing. It really went off like a well greased plan.
All that being said, we had a great turn out and were able to make about $3500! $3500!!! Wow! God truly blessed! We want to thank everyone who helped us make this so successful. We could not have done any of this without the love and support of so many people!
Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!
Here is an update on our adoption progress. After almost 9 months of working on paperwork, home studies, getting things notarized, state sealed and many more things, we FINALLY finished our dossier. The dossier is all the paperwork that gets submitted to Haiti for them to match us with children. When I put the paperwork together to mail, it measured 6.5" tall! We have mailed the dossier to our adoption agency who then forwards it to the Haitian Consulate in the USA. Once they authorize everything, it will ship to Haiti. Then - the waiting begins.
Once our paperwork enters Haiti, we will enter IBESR and all we can do is wait. They will process through our paperwork and find us a match. This can take as little as 6 months or as long as 3 years! Once we get a match, we have 2 weeks to accept or deny and then we are able to move forward.
Please continue to pray for us as we move through this process. We will have to continue to raise money as we wait. Once we get a match, we will then have quite a bit of money to pay. Pray for our children in Haiti. Pray for health and protection for them. Pray for our family to continue to be obedient to God's call on our lives.
As we have made our intentions to adopt more public, we have received mixed responses. Some people are completely supportive. Some people are completely against the idea! Most are somewhere in between. In all fairness, I was one of the in between people for a long time. I didn't understand why people chose to adopt internationally...or at all. I wasn't against them. I just wasn't sure how or why to support them.
God has certainly worked in my heart! I've told you all along that the word "obedience" has been incredibly impressed upon me. God has revealed to me that being obedient costs but, He is worth it! The monetary costs, the emotional costs, the family costs...all of these things could be reasons not to adopt but for us, it's why we have to do it! We are more afraid to be disobedient to God's call than to be obedient and pay the costs! We know that He is in this and will bless our obedience!
We have already seen God work in so many ways! The fundraiser was a huge one!
Sorry for the long post. I've had a lot on my heart. Thank you again for all your prayers and support!
Tonya
Let me back up...last night we had a silent auction and pancake supper fundraiser for our adoption expenses. This was so far out of our comfort zone on SO many levels! The idea of raising money is very uncomfortable. The idea of raising money for ourselves magnifies that by about 100!! Based on the sheer expense of international adoption, we knew we could not do move forward without some help. We prayed about how best to do this and the silent auction/flapjack fundraiser was born!
Now that we had a plan, we needed items for our auction. Greg is a very talented woodworker (well he's talented at everything;)). We began in February working on making items for the donation ourselves. We made pallet signs, centerpieces, trash to treasure items and more! Our kids jumped on board and starting creating their own items. We literally worked on our items right up until Friday!
We still needed more donations...Another very uncomfortable thing...asking for donations! We put our plan out there and were overwhelmed by the love and support that was shown to us. Donations poured in! We were truly amazed at the generosity and creativity.
Now that donations were taken care of, we needed the food prepared, the gym set up, helpers, and many other things that go along with an event of this size. Well, we had so many people offer to help and step up to do any and everything that needed doing. It really went off like a well greased plan.
All that being said, we had a great turn out and were able to make about $3500! $3500!!! Wow! God truly blessed! We want to thank everyone who helped us make this so successful. We could not have done any of this without the love and support of so many people!
Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!
Here is an update on our adoption progress. After almost 9 months of working on paperwork, home studies, getting things notarized, state sealed and many more things, we FINALLY finished our dossier. The dossier is all the paperwork that gets submitted to Haiti for them to match us with children. When I put the paperwork together to mail, it measured 6.5" tall! We have mailed the dossier to our adoption agency who then forwards it to the Haitian Consulate in the USA. Once they authorize everything, it will ship to Haiti. Then - the waiting begins.
Once our paperwork enters Haiti, we will enter IBESR and all we can do is wait. They will process through our paperwork and find us a match. This can take as little as 6 months or as long as 3 years! Once we get a match, we have 2 weeks to accept or deny and then we are able to move forward.
Please continue to pray for us as we move through this process. We will have to continue to raise money as we wait. Once we get a match, we will then have quite a bit of money to pay. Pray for our children in Haiti. Pray for health and protection for them. Pray for our family to continue to be obedient to God's call on our lives.
As we have made our intentions to adopt more public, we have received mixed responses. Some people are completely supportive. Some people are completely against the idea! Most are somewhere in between. In all fairness, I was one of the in between people for a long time. I didn't understand why people chose to adopt internationally...or at all. I wasn't against them. I just wasn't sure how or why to support them.
God has certainly worked in my heart! I've told you all along that the word "obedience" has been incredibly impressed upon me. God has revealed to me that being obedient costs but, He is worth it! The monetary costs, the emotional costs, the family costs...all of these things could be reasons not to adopt but for us, it's why we have to do it! We are more afraid to be disobedient to God's call than to be obedient and pay the costs! We know that He is in this and will bless our obedience!
We have already seen God work in so many ways! The fundraiser was a huge one!
Sorry for the long post. I've had a lot on my heart. Thank you again for all your prayers and support!
Tonya
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