100% Egyption Cotton Sheets!!!!

As many of you know we will be bring our little girl home sometime around August 11, 2012.  We are completely overjoyed! We have been longing for this day for several years now!! With all of this excitement comes the reality that we have a lot more fundraising to do.  You guys have all been awesome with our past fundraisers, so I have been trying to come up with one that not many people do and is something that everyone would really enjoy!!!! It hit me the other day as my mother-in-law and I were shopping for our favorite bed sheets that it would be perfect for us to do. So we contacted the person who we bought them from asking him to work with us on a fundraiser and he said YES. So, here it is people, these sheets are AWESOME!!! They are 100% Egyption Cotton, deep pocket sheets (18"), and they are super soft. They come in a wide variety of colors and you can get them in twin, full, queen, king, and california king. If interested please email your email address and name to jessicahale620@gmail.com and I will email more information if needed. THE BEST PART IS THAT THEY ARE ONLY $35.00. The sheets need to be paid for before I am able to order them. The same sheets retail at $100.00 at Bed Bath and Beyond and other retail stores. We have decided to do this fundraiser until August. It is a great way to help us and yourself!

HUGE Update

A while back we decided to leave the DRC Program and pursue Domestic adoption as a result of current time lines and many other things that we are not able to discuss at this time. After being in the Domestic program we are more than happy to announce that we have been matched with a mom and will be adding a BABY GIRL to our family around August 11, 2012. We are thrilled with this amazing blessing that God is working out in our lives. Through the past several years Domestic Adoption is not something that we ever considered, so I find it very funny how God kept delaying our process and nudging our hearts to lead us to one specific mom.  Although we are overflowing with JOY, we are freaking out about finances. Our African adoption after referral would take about 12 months for pick. We really were going to wait to start fundraising then, but now that is defiantly not the case. Domestic adoption has turned out to be a lot more expensive that we anticipated and now we are in crunch time. We do know that this is the perfect little girl for our family so we trust and pray that God will meet our financial needs and help to reduce our stress. Our final payment is due on July 10, 2012! BOLD PRAYER PLEASE!

We are trying to do a little more fund-raising so I thought that I would do something a little more fun! What is more fun than a raffle. Today we will be giving away a beautiful Initial Wreath that usually sells at $65.00.

This one will be for people in the Louisville or Cincinnati or French Lick Area as I'm not sure how I would be able to ship this. This is a large wreath and obviously we will customize the letter for the winner. The raffle will last until May 19, 2012.

The tickets for the raffle will be $5.00 per ticket.

To purchase tickets just click on the donate button on our page make sure to include your name and contact info in the message! GOOD LUCK!

BONUS: Let me know if you share this on your Blog or Facebook and I will put in an additional ticket for you! 

If you don't live in the area, but feel like donating I will not stop you:)

February...

It is so hard to believe that it is already February. I remember starting this process thinking that we would at least know the specifics of our children, however here we sit with nothing. I have had a really hard time lately with everyone asking do you have your kids? When will they get here? Why is it taking so long? Along with a million other questions with most of them being things that we can't answer. The longer we wait the more our hearts long to see there precious faces. My husband and I are just continuing to pray and pray and pray some more for our children. We know that God has great timing or should I say PERFECT timing, but we continue to struggle with the desire to have them here. Jeff and I have friends who completed there adoption from Ethiopia several months ago, I feel like they are the only people on the planet that understand the pain that we feel. She always tells me that it is one of the hardest things that you will ever do, but once you see them you would do it over a million times. She also reminds me that God is not only working on my heart, but also preparing there hearts for us. It is just crazy how awesome God is and how as I said before everything is all in perfect timing. Enough about how much we long for our children, we know all know that all of us adoptive parents feel the same! Jeff is still working in French Lick, Indiana at the church plant Restoration Christian Church which is really going well. We just started our children's program which has been taking up a lot of our time recently. We love it there and everything that God is doing in the lives of us and the people there. However, we are still working on raising support as he is not getting paid during this planting phase. Last weekend Jeff and I celebrated Valentines Day a little early as I have to work on February 14. We went to the indoor water park in French Lick which was a really nice little getaway for us. That is basically our life lately. This month we hope to get approved for some grants to help bring our babies home. I will leave with one last comment that my husband said the other night which shows how much we long for our kiddos. "It's 11:11pm right now in DR Congo where our kids are and my wish and prayer is they are tucked in a bed dreaming of us the way we dream of them"

One Year Later....

Im sorry that I have not been keeping this blog up to date. My husband is officially a church planter and I work full time so basically the weekends when I normally have time to blog.... doesn't happen. However, its one of my new years resolutions to keep this updated... which is kind of hard considering that most of the time we are just waiting with no update to share! I figure if nothing else I can just let you know what is going on in our lives. So we are currently sitting at number 5...... YES THATS RIGHT #5 we could not be more ecstatic...!!!!! Its still hard to believe that we have been in the adoption process for one year this month, with still no referral. I know that it will come at the right time, but my heart longs for them. My husband and I pray for them daily with the names that we have given them, but a face to put with those names would be a blessing. So we are hoping that with the new year our babies will come home!

Better Bows And More!!!

Help bring home our babies!!!!! You can order bows which are cute for little girls, purses, sweaters, and etc. Just visit our website www.betterbowsandmore.com!

Moving up!:)

We just received exciting news that we are now number 14!!!! What joy my heart feels when I actually hear that we are making progress!!!! Sometimes it feels like our kids are never going to get here, but I try to remind myself that God already knows who our kids are and its going to happen at the best timing. The momma inside of me on the other had wants her babies NOW!!:) I remind myself also that our agency is truly working hard to bring kids home to all of us going through this process.