as the sale was winding down, ryan and i decided that this was probably it for us and yard sales for awhile!! they are a lot of work but we are so thankful for the funds we have raised for adoption by doing them. through yard sales and craigslist sales, we are estimating that we raised about $2200 for our adoption! wahooo!! our leftovers were passed along to another great family raising money to bring home their 2 boys from ethiopia. if you are in the area, they are having another yard sale next weekend so let me know if you want to check it out!
Monday, August 30, 2010
$821 closer + yard sale tips
as the sale was winding down, ryan and i decided that this was probably it for us and yard sales for awhile!! they are a lot of work but we are so thankful for the funds we have raised for adoption by doing them. through yard sales and craigslist sales, we are estimating that we raised about $2200 for our adoption! wahooo!! our leftovers were passed along to another great family raising money to bring home their 2 boys from ethiopia. if you are in the area, they are having another yard sale next weekend so let me know if you want to check it out!
Saturday, August 28, 2010
elizabeth's wedding
Friday, August 27, 2010
expecting from ethiopia
Monday, August 23, 2010
fundraising with Both Hands
i know i've briefly mentioned that we've been given a pretty amazing opportunity to raise funds for our adoption through the both hands foundation, but i've yet to explain the process so i want to finally do that today. i know most of you have probably heard of lifesong for orphans and if you haven't you should check out their website! they have some amazing resources for adoptive families or for people who just want to get involved with orphan care.
another awesome giveaway
you've got to check out this awesome giveaway over at the mathews family blog. i just bought my entries for the giveaway and hope you will too! although secretly i didn't want to share about the giveaway because i want to win, i can't keep this awesome prize pack a secret :) it's another awesome way that little by little, we can help support bringing another orphan into a loving family. you can enter the drawing for $5 and get other entries for posting about the giveaway as well. go here to see all the amazing prizes (including one of our One Less tees)!!
Saturday, August 21, 2010
supporting adoptive families
1. When your loved one comes to you with the news that they are planning to adopt:
2. Once families are in process:
3. Once families are home:
Friday, August 20, 2010
orphan sunday
Thursday, August 19, 2010
a thousand words
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
doom and gloom girl
ok, so i feel like i'm beginning to sound a little like "doom and gloom girl" on here. i'm sorry if i've been excessively melodramatic lately in my posts, but truth be told, that's a little of how i'm feeling lately. it just seems that many things are not quite going as planned or expected for me lately...which i guess by now should be the expected!! between my trip to afghanistan and the tragedy that happened while i was in the country, the ceiling in one of our bedrooms and living room having to be torn out from water damage, not getting a referral for our ethiopian kiddo yet, my unexpected trip to the hospital {i'm still here, btw}, and the news ryan received at our home visit today for the boys**, i'm really am just feeling a little overwhelmed and spent.
**sidebar: the boys will be beginning overnight visits with their mom. the SW wanted to start this friday but my dear husband kindly informed the SW that she would have to keep dreaming. he told her that he wasn't going to rock the boat this week after things have already been so chaotic with me being in the hospital and school starting back today. to say that i'm a bit shocked/disappointed with the timing of all this is a bit of an understatement. without disclosing too much, we've just had a frustrating few weeks with the boys' mom and the care they've been receiving while at her house. {i guess that's not really new, huh?} unfortunately, our concerns are obviously not shared by the ones who are supposed to be in charge of the boys' best interest though... so, starting next friday the boys will be heading to their moms on fridays after i get off work and will be returned to us saturday night. poor ryan had to be the bearer of the bad news to me today since i couldn't be at the home visit and i think it liked to kill him. he tried to encourage me to look at it as positive because we now have an extra date night and an opportunity to sleep in late on saturdays again. i tried to appreciate his point of view but i know him well enough to figure out that he's still trying to convince himself of the positive side too. {see, there i go again. more doom and gloom...ah!}
anyways, i say all of this because i really feel like the devil is on the prowl in my life more than usual and i hate that. i really wish he'd GO AWAY but at the same time, i'm glad i'm actually on his radar. i hope that means that my life is messing with his preferred path of destruction!
as all these things keep adding up, i can't help but to reflect on a blog post i read a week or so ago by missy at it's almost naptime {cutest blog name ever, huh?}. you can read it for yourself here but she is basically talking about the devil's spiritual attacks against adopting couples. she points out that satan would love nothing more than to destroy the living portrait of the Gospel that adoptions paint, and i completely concur.
in the spirit of letting the devil know that he's not going to steal my thunder, not now and not ever, i would like to state publicly that come hell or high water, our family will continue to serve the Lord as He calls through foster care and adoption. no, i can't begin to guess what that will look like in the future, nor do i think that it will always be easy. however, i do know that we've seen and heard everything that we know on foster care and adoption for a reason and i'm not ready to forsake that purpose any time soon.
so, just to wrap up, if you're an adoptive/adopting family, please read missy's blog post. if you know a family in the process of adopting or that's already adopted, please pray specifically for them to be armed and ready for the devil's attacks, frustration, trickery and manipulation. thanks :)
{ps - as a complete first for our little macbook - my computer completely froze and i had to do a hard restart while typing this post...sorry, satan! it's still getting posted :)}
Monday, August 16, 2010
laid up
that's right...i'm spending the day laid up in the hospital :( i started not feeling great friday night but had hoped it was just travelers' stomach stuff and that i'd be on my feet before the weekend was over. however, after staying down and out for most of the day saturday and sunday, we decided it was time to head to the ER last night. {i'll spare you all the gross details but boy am i glad i got to the hospital when i did!!}
after having a CT scan, they determined that i have colitis possibly caused by bringing home some little friends from afghanistan. i had a pretty rough night but am feeling much better now that I've been pumped with a cocktail of antibiotics and fluids all night. i'm supposed to be seen by a GI doc today and they're hoping my labs will reveal exactly what i need to be treated for. so far, they are kicking around giardia or amoebas but we don't know for sure...
in the meantime, i'm just pretending that i'm hanging out at a hotel...napping, watching tv, reading, etc. i'll be on this little "vacation" until at least tomorrow so once again ryan is caring the burden of daddy duty. all I can say is that i'm a lucky girl! he's taking good care of me and the boys so I couldn't ask for more.
Thursday, August 12, 2010
back in the US
hey all. i've made it back to the States from my trip to @fghanistan. i had planned to try to report in daily on the things we were doing on our trip but given the tragedy that took place within the NGO (non-governmental organization) community in @fghanistan last week, i decided to discontinue my updates until i got home. i did this partially for security and partially so i'd just have more time to reflect on what i'm comfortable sharing and what i'm not comfortable sharing...
Friday, August 6, 2010
video from BA
Thursday, August 5, 2010
a-stan: day 2
Wednesday, August 4, 2010
i made it!
that's right...after departing at 7:00 p.m. on monday, i'm officially finally in afghanistan! {well, technically, i've been here for almost 15 hours but am just now getting to post an update.} the trip over was very smooth and the flights were pretty much a breeze. in fact, on my long flight from atlanta to dubai, there was a family sitting about 3 rows in front of me that were on their way to pick up their 7 month old son from ethiopia!! we got to chat briefly about it, and my heart leaped a little to think that we will be in their shoes in a few months :)
the hardest part of the trip is an 8 hour layover in dubai, but even that passed pretty quickly. thankfully we found mcdonalds for a late dinner/early breakfast and also some comfy lounge chairs where we could stretch out and sleep. the cultural diversity in dubai never ceases to amaze me though! you literally see all kinds of people there and i could people watch all day!
when we arrived in afghanistan, it was crazy to see that it was raining and very cool for august {not that i'm complaining!}. i have been bracing myself now for weeks expecting temperatures of the upper 90's but to me delight, it was around 75 degrees today! i guess God decided to answer my desperate pleas for a cold front :) we got settled into the guesthouse around 8:00 a.m. on wednesday but our bodies felt more like was midnight on tuesday...very confusing! so, at the advice of our seasoned guesthouse team, we decided to take a mandatory nap until lunch at 1:00 p.m. and i was seriously out like a light!! i slept very hard and was not even bothered one bit by a bunch of loud banging and hammering being done on a building right next to ours.
after our naps, we had lunch and then spent some time as a team talking about our expectations for our trip and cultural differences. our team is small {there's only 4 of us total} but mighty :) everyone is super sweet and flexible, which is key here!! we also have a variety of giftednesses but all seem to be focused on children and education primarily. it was also good because we got to spend time this afternoon with friends who are working here long term. what a blessing they are to us and to our afghan staff! we chatted most of the afternoon away, which i'm thankful for because i was growing increasingly sleepy and was trying to avoid the temptation of laying back down! around 6:00 p.m., we headed out for a fabulous dinner at a lebanese restaurant. i'm not usually a very adventurous eater, but the food was awesome and the atmosphere was even better! the restaurant is set in the heart of the city but you would never know it. we ate outside in the gardens and the cooler weather was a nice break from the hot summer we've been having in kentucky!! it actually felt more like october than august.
overall, it was a great first day and i can't wait to see what the rest of the trip holds. we are headed to B.A. community tomorrow where hundreds of afghan refugees have relocated, and our organization has been actively working for a few years. if you've been lifting us up in prayer, thank you!! so far so good so please keep praying :)