March news....

Wow, I haven't had the time to blog in a while!  Things always seem so busy in my life!  I say this now, but things will just be even more busy once we get our little cutie!  Yesterday, I painted my fiftieth painting!  God has been so good to me.  The orders keep coming, and I'm not even doing anything to promote myself!  I am so thankful for each and every order, and also thankful for the people who have donated money for no painting at all!  There have been some very generous people, and I am thankful, thankful, thankful if I haven't said it enough already :o)  It's VERY hard to fund-raise, in many ways.  The most difficult part of it for me is taking money from family & friends.  Especially if they could use it themselves.  But I know I would do the same for them.

So, Chris and I have been waiting about 18 months now.  The wait is not easy, and truly, only another waiting mom (or dad) can really understand the wait.  The emotional ups and downs.  The comments from people who mean well.  About a month ago, we read an article that made us believe that things were possibly slowing down even more than they already have.  This was very frustrating and upsetting.  Chris said to me, "That's it! We are taking a vacation!"  That's exactly what we need...something to look forward to.  Something that we knew would happen soon, and something we had control over!  So, I was thinking something on the cheaper side as we are saving & raising money for the adoption (and also the fact that Chris has turned me into somewhat of a skinflint when it comes to spending money on things that are not necessary!)....maybe a stay-cation.  Nope....we are going to JAMAICA!  I am feeling really guilty and irresponsible here!  AND, I want all the people who bought paintings/donated to know that not a penny of that money is being used for our vacation!  That money is in a separate account, and I actually took money out of an old IRA I had just sitting there in order to do this.  After being together for 12 years, we have never been on a vacation.  Not even a honeymoon!  It's always work, cleaning & errands over and over again. So, this might be our only opportunity to do this!!!!!  Shortly after we planned our vacation, we received our update numbers...we have made more movement than expected, so I am hoping that things will actually speed up, and that we hear something within the next 6 months.  But, I hang onto the fact that each month, we will always be One.  Step.  Closer. 

New Year Numbers!

New month, new numbers!  I was hoping to be lower (as always), but we only went down one spot on the boy list, and surprisingly we went down three spots for a girl!  So that was exciting and unexpected!  The girls list is catching up with the boys, so you never know!  We will be ecstatic no matter what!  I talked with my caseworker the other week, and she informed me that they are only accepting children into Hannah's Hope (our orphanage) who are paperwork ready only, so that is one reason why we are seeing the slow down.  Unfortunately, it's hard to know if this pace will continue, or not.  All we can do is sit back and hope and pray, and try to be patient while the control freak in me goes crazy ;o)


We had the opportunity to have some new friends over to our home who are also waiting for children in Ethiopia.  They are with different agencies, but they have been waiting very close to the same amount of time that we have, AND both will be first time parents just like Chris and I!  We feel very blessed to have met them and to be able to share this journey together.  We had an Ethiopian feast, but it was a lot more time consuming than Chris and I thought!  I don't think any of us love Ethiopian food, so everything we had was pretty good, and I think we all did well with our attempts!  And also, if anyone plans on making Ethiopian food in their home, beware!  Our house reeks!  My clothes and my jackets are infused with the aromas from that day! ha! Live and learn!  I think from now on, we will take the trek up to Portland if we want to eat Ethiopian!  There are actually more families in our area that have brought their little ones home this year, too!  I was able to meet some of them earlier in January, and they have been so helpful and sweet!  It feels so good to know that there are families around us that either have adopted from Ethiopia, or who are still waiting!  Not too long ago, I actually thought that we would be one of the few multiracial familes around Salem, but there will actually be more than I thought!  I'm looking forward to getting to know all of these families better, and excited that our little guy or girl will have playmates who are also from Ethiopia!  How cool!

Oh, also, I am still doing my paintings for donations!  So far, I have raised about $1,800 with them (some were very generous with their donations), and have completed about 30 paintings...phew!  Just a little bit towards the big chunk we will have to come up with, but I really appreciate what people have given us :o)  I have been busy the past couple of weeks, and haven't been able to paint, but I can hopefully start up again real soon.  I think I have 6 painting requests right now...and remember, I can do whatever you want!  I have a cool custom set that I am excited to do for my cousin!


One Step Closer!

After some hesitation to continue my fundraiser, many people have encouraged for me to keep it up.  I tend to worry about things more than the average person, so as my husband says, I just need to chill out :o)  What I am going to do is place a paypal donate button on my blog.  I am not a non-profit organization, so any donation to our adoption fund can not be claimed on your taxes.

Here is what I am thinking of doing.  For any donation of $30.00 (or more), I will send a painting of choice as a thank you gift.  Any donation amount is appreciated, though.  I have some sample paintings in my "Adoption Fundraiser" blog that I originally started (just scroll down).  I can do any of those, and you can request any color for the backgrounds.  I was also thinking of painting states, or other countries for those of you who might want something like that.  I will do a sample one of Oregon State to see if anyone likes that.  I try to get the paintings to look as similar as the photos you see, but there will be some differences.  Also, if you need your gift by a certain date, please let me know and I will be sure to get it out to you.  Sometimes it's hard to get paintings done & shipped out while working full time, so it could take a couple of weeks!

I'm excited to see how this does!  Like I said before, we have about $15,000 or more we'll be needing before our adoption is complete.  I would like to be able to stay home to bond with our baby for as long as possible, so this will help with that also, as I won't have an income when we return back with our child.

I highly doubt I will blog before the New Year, so I want to wish everyone a safe and Happy New Year!  Chris and I are heading up to Portland to have a nice dinner, and to see a comedian!  We are super excited!  I can't remember the comedian's name, but I guess he is kind of known....but not a big deal :o)  Here are a couple of goals of mine for the new year (in no particular order!):

1.  Get into better shape.
2.  Learn more about God & His Word
3.  Buying more to support other families adopting...as gifts for others....and maybe for myself ;o)
4.  Better eating habits (I was horrible this past year!)
5.  Learning more about Ethiopia / Adoption / Babies
6.  Enjoying life a little bit more, getting out more (I'm such a homebody)

2012 will be a GREAT year!!!

We're in the TEENS!!!

We heard wonderful news this past week!  After being in the 20's and 30's for longer than expected (due to no movement on the list the past couple of months), we can FINALLY say that we are in the teens, and it feels SO good!!!  Luckily, our teen experience didn't come with pimples and cracked voices :o)  We were hoping to hear that we were at least in the teens for Christmas, so this was the best present we could ever ask for!!  For a while now, I've been feeling like the day when we get our child will never come.  Our patience is being tested like never before.  This wait is oh so hard!  But now, things are getting so much more exciting!  Our baby is almost ready for us, and is probably in his mothers belly right now!  This past Christmas will be our last Christmas just Chris and I :o)  Our special little boy or girl has had gifts given for the past two Christmases, and even on our Birthdays he/she has received gifts!  I sure hope things speed up a bit so all of these books and toys are not just sitting here, and all of this love we feel in our hearts can be given to him or her forever!  

I also want to mention how touched I am at those of you who have bought my paintings, or have donated money for our adoption fees.  Your support means so much to me, and helps heal the hurt from those who do not support us in our decision to adopt from Ethiopia.  I want to continue to sell my paintings, but I am a bit confused as to the legalities of it.  I've looked it up several times online, and some people say it is illegal, and others say it is legal to fund-raise, or to accept donations.  Some places say that you can accept donations as long as you say that you are NOT a non-profit organization.  I don't know what to believe, or where to go to know for sure, and this whole thing scares me.  If anyone knows what I need to do, advice would be greatly appreciated!  So for now, unfortunately, I am holding on selling any more paintings until I know for sure....but I'm still painting because it's fun and therapeutic!  I'll let you know in my next blog whether or not I will be selling more, and what the prices will be (I will have new prices as I really didn't make very much on the ones I sold so far).

We had a wonderful Christmas at Chris' mother's home in Gig Harbor.  She is quite the cook (and baker), and had a fun weekend planned for us.  After a walk she took us on, we have decided one thing we need to improve before baby is our fitness!  We went for a 2hr walk while we were there, and boy did that kick our butts (sad to say!).  We can't be having that.  I'm going to try my best to get in shape before 6 months....because I am hoping we will get our referral about then or before!   

Thanks again for all of your prayers & support, and I hope you all had a nice Christmas! xoxo!

ADOPTION FUNDRAISER!

Hi All!  As some of you may know, I've been wanting to start a fundraiser for a while now.  We are doing everything possible to help save money for our little girl or guy!  We cut the cable, no more gym memberships, and also cut down on eating out.  All that alone helps us save each month.  Chris bought Dave Ramsey's book for me, but we haven't received it yet.  With us doing everything we can to save money, we finally realized that we need your help.  I haven't figured it out exactly, but I think we're going to be needing another $15,000 or so by the time our adoption is complete!  This would mostly be agency & travel fees.  I've been trying to think of something different to do to help raise money, something that I actually enjoy doing, and something that people would like.  I started painting on little 12"x12" canvas squares.  I am painting the continent of Africa with different color backgrounds to choose from.  I have a handful finished, and I am FINALLY ready to get this fundraiser started!  I will also be painting some Acacia trees for people who don't want the Africa ones.  I posted the painting ideas in a couple of my facebook groups, and I was so excited to see that people liked them and that they were interested in purchasing them!!!  I am selling them pretty cheap, so I thought I'd try selling them through my blog first instead of posting on etsy.  All the paintings are the same size, and all I need from you is your email address (if you're paying through paypal), and your mailing address!!!  You can also send me a check if you prefer.  I am selling the paintings for $18.00 plus $5.00 for shipping.  I have yet to ship anything out, and I know the canvas prices will go up, as I bought these on sale, so my next batch might be more expensive!  Also, if you want anything changed or if you want certain colors in your painting, let me know; it shouldn't be a problem.  Oh, and also, I wanted to warn you that although I tried my best to keep these paintings free of dog hair, there may be a dog hair embedded in a painting!  I think I got most of them out, though....lol  So....here we go!  I hope you like them!  You can contact me on here, or on facebook.  I'm kind of scared to put my personal email on my blog, but if you need it let me know.

Yellow/Black/White AFRICA 

Red / Black / White AFRICA

Blue / Green / White AFRICA

Acacia Tree #1

Acacia Tree #2

...and...I have these "LOVE" 12x12 squares.  I only have one set.  If anyone is interested, let me know and we can work out a deal :o)

Thanks again to everyone interested.  Goodbye & God Bless!!!

Well, I have never been good at writing, but I wanted to start a blog about our adoption journey.  Chris and I were not having any luck conceiving since we got married. Our original plan was to have one biological child, and then adopt one child.  Five years had gone by, so we decided to look into adoption options.  We contacted several agencies, deciding on All God's Children International in December of 2009.  Looking through their programs, we decided on the Oregon Foster program for two reasons; it was the least expensive, and seemed to be the shortest wait.  So, we started our Home Study!  Things were moving along smoothly, and then Chris and I had a talk one night in June.  Turns out, the Oregon program just didn't feel right to either of us; we both really wanted to adopt from Ethiopia, but we didn't think we could afford it.  That night, we both agreed it was in God's plan for us to adopt from Ethiopia!  We called the agency, and no problem, we changed to the Ethiopia program.  We were SO excited!!!  Our home study was completed and approved in August of 2010...phew!  Then on to the Dossier, which was completed on October 22, 2010 (Chris' birthday!).  This was a happy, yet sad day.  It was a sad day because we were expecting a wait of 6 - 9 months when we started this program, but we also found out this day that the wait had increased to 18 months.  Obviously we were elated at the same time because we WERE on the WAITING LIST, and we were so thankful to be finished with all of that paperwork!  We started off on the waiting list for a child between 0 & 12 months old, and were officially #94 for a girl, and #70 for a boy.  In the following months, our numbers looked like this:

November   85, 58
December   79, 57
January       73, 54
February     71, 54
March         59, 46
April           53, 39
May           48, 37
June           48, 35
July            41, 29
August       38, 25
September 32, 22

We're moving right along!  But it hasn't been a smooth ride the whole time.  Our agency has had to give us some bad news during these months.  In February, we learned that the number of cases that the courts would approve per day would drastically change from 25 to 50 per day to about 5 per day.   That news was devastating, I was scared they were going to close adoption down all together!  But, since then, our numbers continue to move; thank you GOD.  More recent bad news, is that they have closed down several orphanages in the southern region.  Unfortunately, some families already received referrals that came from these orphanages.  I think their adoptions will be able to move forward once the courts open up (praying for them!).  For all of those people affected, my heart goes out to you!  But I know God will get those babies to you!!!  And, let's hope this is the last of the bad news!

I think that's it for now.  Thanks for reading my blog! :o)