Fundraising Time!

I feel this post is a lot more happy than the last couple posts I wrote!  We received word a few weeks ago that adoptions will continue to occur in Ethiopia and that paper work would start getting processed again!  We rejoiced over that, but still anticipated a little while before we would see any new referrals happen.  However, surprisingly, over Easter weekend our agency received a few children to refer to families!  This was an unexpected blessing and we are again rejoicing with those families!  This hopefully means that more and more families will be matched in the next couple of months! 

This brings me to the title of my post...FUNDRAISING!!  We would like to raise/save enough money in the next couple of months to have enough to pay the referral fee whenever we do get matched with a child.  We know this may still take some time, but we just want to be prepared so it's not an area of stress when it does happen.  One on going fundraising opportunity we have is that we still have our Amazon link to the right on our blog.  Please use this link EVERY time you purchase something from Amazon, and a portion of the proceeds will go directly to our adoption fund!  This doesn't cost you anything and is so easy to use!  We have raised quite a bit of money through this avenue and I just wanted to remind everyone that we are still raising money this way!  I will try to be better about sharing the link on Facebook, and feel free to share the link on your page as well!  The more it gets used the quicker we get to our goal!

The second thing I wanted to put out there is that the Tapps Island garage sale is coming up again the first full weekend in June.  We had such an amazing and successful garage sale last year that we would like to do one again!  However, we need the help of friends and family to make it as successful!  We are in desperate need of all of your donations great and small!  Any thing you don't want or need anymore, but you think others would, we would love to have it!!  Please contact myself or Ryan (or my parent's if you live closer to them) if you have anything to donate! 

Thank you so much for all of your support and prayer through this process.  I can't believe we are almost to the year mark of when we started our home study last year!  This waiting part is physically easier than all of the work it took to submit our Dossier, since we don't have to spend hours and hours reading, training or writing.  But it is emotionally draining especially given the slow down that has occurred the last few months.  As I have written previously sometimes it feels that it will never happen and we will never get to bring our daughter home.  We can get so discouraged.  We just need prayer that we can keep persevering in the wait and remember that God has his hand in this! 

Pray for April

I just wanted to post an update and ask for prayer requests.  Some of you may have read my blog post in February about being frustrated and discouraged.  Well, sadly things have not changed on the Ethiopia adoption front.  The Ethiopian government is still not processing paperwork for the children in orphanages.  This means that there haven't been any new referrals, still, since July.  I go back and forth in how I feel.  Sometimes, I feel that this is God's plan so I just need to wait and be patient.  I know these things happen on His timeline and not mine.  Other days I feel so discouraged.  I feel we will be waiting forever for our daughter, and will be really old by the time we get to bring her home! We are praying that April will be a good month! 

The newest news is that the US department of State just sent out a notification regarding the slow down, that seemed as if things have been resolved and paperwork will begin to be processed.  However, there is no confirmation of that on the Ethiopia side of things.  However, the government set up meetings with the Ethiopian adoption program for this weekend.  Friday there was a meeting between the Ethiopian government and all of the orphanages, then tomorrow, Sunday (actually tonight US time) there will be a meeting between the Ethiopian government and all of the adoption agencies there.  We are really hoping that this goes hand in hand with what we found out via the US Department of State. 
My prayer request for the month of April is that these meetings are a good sign that processes have been resolved and that paperwork will resume moving through the system and referrals will start happening again!  I would love to see some of these children waiting in crowded orphanages getting to be matched with their forever families.  It breaks my heart to hear that because of this slow down the orphanages are at capacity and beyond because no one is transitioning out of the orphanages anymore.  I would also love to get a new, smaller wait list number for the month of May!

So please please please this next month add Ethiopia adoptions to your prayer list!  Prayer works, and God can hear us!