Still waiting

I haven't forgotten you all! We haven't heard back on the supervisor's approval yet. I don't want to be a pest and bother them everyday, so I'm trying to be patient. I will let you know when I hear something.

Where are you at now?

I've had several people ask where we are at with the homestudy approval, so I figured I'd better update everyone on that. Our social worker has finished writing up our homestudy and has submitted it to her supervisor for approval. Once she gets that approval, we're official! I will definitely let you all know when I hear back from her. Hopefully, it will be very soon!

Zumbathon Update!

Thanks to everyone who came out today! I had so much fun, but I am worn out now! Two hours of Zumba...that's like 1600 calories, right? I am now going to enjoy a brownie sundae guilt free! We had about 30 people come out to the gym. Lacey lent me some Zumba wear, and it made me feel official. Officially what, I don't know, but it was fun to wear. We Zumba'd for an hour before taking a little break. Several people donated door prizes for me to give away, so we gave those away at that time. John brought the boys by and we were able to thank everyone as a family. I meant to thank all the people who donated door prizes and Jasa for taking pictures, but I got all emotional and only thanked the instructors. Sorry!

These people helped make today happen:

Jasa W. - Event photography and handcrafted door prize donation (www.http://jasawolfrey.blogspot.com/)
Stefanie S. -Creative Memories door prize donation
Tracy M.- Handmade baby gift set door prize donation
Cheri- At Home America door prize donation
April A.- Scentsy door prize donation (www.scentsy.com/aprilaurand)
Jennifer J. - Zumba instructor
Angela E. -Zumba instructor
Stephanie C.- Zumba instructor

A very special thank you to:

Andrea B. -She is the manager at Sport and Health. She has been very helpful to me every step of the way and very supportive. No matter how many people wanted to come, this could not have happened without a venue.

And a super special thank you to:
Lacey - Lacey (www.golaceygo.com) is the instructor that helped me put all this together. I had the idea, but she helped me make it a reality. She put a lot of time and effort into this, and I really appreciate it.

The total is incomplete right now. But as of this moment, the total for this fundraiser is $344! There is some more donation money coming, and when I receive it, I will update the total. One of my friends took pictures and will be giving me a cd of them at Tuesday's class. I will post most of those to facebook, but will share a few here as well. I'm sure there is something else I should say right now, but I am so tired and my brain has shut off for the day, so I'm signing off for now.

Thanks again, everyone!

Zumba Fundraiser Today

The day for our Zumba fundraiser has finally arrived and I am stoked!!! It's going to be great! I hope to see a ton of you at Sport and Health today at 2pm!! We're going to have door prizes, a raffle, an appearance by some very adorable little boys, and LOTS OF FUN!!

All the details are here:
http://www.mixedwithlove.net/search/label/Zumbathon%20Fundraiser%20%289%2F26%29

If you can't come, but would like to help us bring a baby home, donation information is on the right hand side of this page under the heading "Would you like to help?" We appreciate donations of any size.

I will update you later this evening on how it went.

Radio Interview Pt II

I did tape the interview yesterday. He wound up airing it that same day, instead of today, so I wasn't able to get the word out in time. It was not the station I thought it was, but it was a sister station, that airs on the AM side of the dial (1230AM, for local folks). The station on the AM side is a talk radio station. I am very thankful for the opportunity to talk about what we are doing and to get the word out. I do need to clarify something for anyone who happened to hear the short version of the interview yesterday. I was not trying to say that we are the only people interested in adopting minority babies. It sounded like that's what I was saying in the short version. I mentioned that I was the only Black person trying to adopt through our agency at this time and that's why things were moving faster than we originally expected them to. I talked about the process, where we were in the process, the cost, why is it so expensive, and the fact that our agency is a non-profit and they are not getting rich off the fees. I talked about our fundraiser on Saturday and explained what Zumba was and what we were doing and how people could help us or come to the fundraiser. Most of that didn't make it into the shorter version, however the man who interviewed me did mention my website and put a link to it on the radio station's website. A longer version aired today and that one had more information and focused on our fundraising efforts. That one can be heard below.

Radio Interview

I am going to be on the radio talking about our adoption and also our Zumba fundraiser on Saturday. I am so thankful to God for this opportunity and I ask you all to pray that God will speak through me and guide my words and that this interview accomplishes whatever plans he has for it. Maybe someone will hear me speak about adoption and be moved to pursue it for themselves. Maybe God will speak to some who are listening and have them support us or attend the fundraiser. We're going to tape it on Thursday morning and it will air on Friday. I don't know what time yet, but I will get that information after we're done taping the interview. It's going to be on B 101.5, for those who are local and I will see if you can listen on online, for those who are not local. If you can, I will post the info on how to do that on Thursday when I let you all know what time it will be on.

Yard Sale Update!!

Wow! We had so many donations from friends for our yardsale today and were blessed with fabulous weather. Our house is in a prime location for traffic, so we had lots of people stop by. We sold all of our big ticket items, with the exception of my wedding dress (which someone is coming back later to try on). Thank you so much to all my friends who helped out with this!! You all are amazing and I am just overwhelmed with all the love and support you have shown to us. I know everyone wants to know the total, so here it is:


$501.75!!!

Isn't God good?? Thank you, Lord!

A surprise fundraiser

Our HOA is going to be having a community wide yard sale this weekend. I found out about it two days ago when I drove past a sign, but didn't really think much about it. But this evening, I ran into a friend at the grocery store (who doesn't even live in this development) who asked if I was participating in the yard sale and said she would be willing to give me some of her stuff to sell to help with our adoption. I told her I didn't know, but as I thought about it, I felt like it was a good idea. So I posted on facebook and on my mom's group and several people have offered to donate items for us to sell. I was a little surprised, since the sale is on Saturday, but I am excited now to see what God will do through this. Please keep it in prayer for us.

We're back!

We are back from our trip down south. It was a good trip, but parts of it were definitely not fun! The night driving thing went well, with the exception of Micah not being on board with the plan. Luke slept from 10:30 until 7 and I couldn't believe it. Nathanael did really well too. We had lots of fun on our trip that included the reunion events, as well as a trip to a local children's museum and a Labor Day family get together. One of John's cousins owns two horses and she let the boys (and mama!) have rides at her house. It was a first for Nathanael and Micah and they all enjoyed it. All of John's siblings were at his parent's house with us, so we got to have big family meals and spend some time with them outside of reunion events. Of course, it went by really fast, so we didn't get as much time as we would have liked, but we will be back down at Christmas. I have vacation pics up on my facebook page.

Nathanael wound up getting a stomach bug, and then he shared it with Grandpa Karl and Micah. Micah came down with it on our first of two days at the beach, so John had to stay back at the hotel with him while I took the other two to the beach. That wasn't so much fun (esp. with no washing machine!), but at least it was a one day deal for him and we were all able to go to the beach the next day. The beach was fabulous and I wish we could have stayed longer. But, I thank God that we got to go at all. I know it was a total blessing from Him.

I have been in contact with our social worker today and yesterday and she now has everything she needs for our homestudy. When we left, she was awaiting our references and the results of our fingerprint check. She said she is about halfway done writing up our homestudy and plans to be done with it by Friday! So at that point, we'll be officially approved. Woohoo!

On the financial front, God has been bringing in some large donations. We are down to needing $5,945!!!!! THANK YOU,LORD! I am amazed. God's hand has been all over this. I have a little box on the right about half way down the page that will show how much we still need, for anyone who would like to keep track. I know of some places that I can apply to to be considered for an adoption grant once we are approved, so I will be doing that as soon as the homestudy is official.

A fundraiser kind of just fell in my lap today. I'm going to tell you about that in a separate post.

Going out of town

We will be headed south from 9/2 to 9/12. John's homeschool group is having a reunion (which I think is awesome) and we've decided to attend. I don't know most of the people that will be there, but I was homeschooled too. I am very familiar with the "culture" and feel like I'll fit right in. All of John's siblings will be there, and there are som fun events planned, so it should be a full but great weekend. We'll be staying with his parents until Tuesday, at which point we're headed to the beach in AL. We thought we wouldn't be able to afford the beach this year, but God has blessed us. John discovered he had enough hotel points for three free nights at a hotel not far from the beach in Gulf Shores, AL. There is a micro-fridge unit in the room, so we will be able to eat cheaply in our room most of the time. I'm a beach girl, so I'm really excited about that too! I won't have internet until we get to the beach hotel. John's parents are on dial up, so I'm not even going to bother trying to get on.

Our social worker will also be on vacation while we're gone, so I don't think a whole lot will be happening while we're gone. When she gets back, she is hoping she has the reference letters back and the results of our fingerprint check. As soon as she has those things, she can write up our homestudy.

I will update you when I return if anything happens. Have a great holiday weekend everyone!