Anniversary Fundraiser

Today is mine and Lee's 2 year anniversary!! 2 years seems like such a small number considering we have been together almost 9 years total! We couldn't be happier! I'm not gonna get into a bunch of mushy talk :) but just know that I love love him and am so thankful that God blessed me with him to journey through life with! We say all the time "it's gonna be a fun ride! Not sure what the future holds, but it'll be good!"

We decided to have a little fundraiser in celebration of our anniversary! Two years ago I made this little piece! It sits on our mantle in our home. Lee says it helps him remember our date haha! Anyway, If you want one just send me your anniversary date and colors you would like! They're 15$. All proceeds go towards our adoption! Here are some wedding pics and pics of the "anniversary fundraiser."

FINALIZED!!

Our Home Study was FINALIZED yesterday! Yay!!!! We are so excited to have that HUGE leg of the journey behind us! I know that we will probably have to update it at some point, but that's ok! We are excited about this step. So what next? What does this mean? Unfortunately, it does NOT mean that we are on the waiting list yet :( but we are "almost" there! I asked our family coordinator if it was possible that we would be on the waiting list this summer and she said it was very possible!
So what's next? More paperwork :) I am about to speak a bunch of "adoption jargon" so bare with me. Now that our home study is complete, we can send in our I-600A application to the USCIS (United State Citizenship and Immigration Services). In a nut shell, the best I can explain, is this form allows the USCIS to begin processing our family's request to bring an orphan from another country into the US. Our sweet baby has to become a citizen, so necessary paperwork must be done! So this is where we are today - filling out the I-600A!
Honestly, all these forms are kinda over my head so please bare with my pitiful explanations! :-)

All I want to be able to type is
DOSSIER TO ETHIOPIA!! When I type that - we are officially on the "waiting list." It is only a few more steps until that day!! God has been so faithful in our journey this far! We are excited to keep watching Him write our story!
A sweet friend said the other day, "You know, we are always yearning for the end of stuff. Whether it's to get off work on Friday, to just get through this year, or to get through a difficult season in life. What we don't realize is that life isn't about the end... It's about the journey." Sarah, you should have quoted that :)
But the truth is, Yes, we long for the end of this adoption process because that will mean Malachi is in our arms and life with him begins. But to only yearn for the end is to miss everything that God is doing through this process and all that He is teaching us! I pray that He always keeps me content with His timing!

Stay tuned - we have 2 fundraisers coming up :-)





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Twitter

Some people have told me that they don't know when I have blogged because for whatever reason they didn't see the update on Facebook. I know that Facebook gets so busy and there's tons of people to look at :) plus my wall can get busy as well and you may miss the update! There's good news! Follow us via text message (twitter).
KEEP READING! People who dont have twitter automatically tune out when I tell them this, but trust me :)
You DO NOT have to have a twitter account to follow us via text on twitter!
Q & A
1) how do I follow via twitter? Send a text message to:
40404
In the message type:
Follow @journey2malachi

This twitter account is ONLY for our adoption process, so you won't be getting random tweets 24/7. I only update to let people know if I blogged or if something BIG has happened.

2) does it cost anything? No. Standard text message rates apply. So if you have unlimited texts, you're set!

3) can I stop following at any time? Yes! It will give you instructions on how to stop

4) can I reply to the tweets? No, not via text. It will be kinda "information only"

5) why do you have to twitter account set up? I plan to use this account as a way of sending out "mass text messages." As many of you know, sending an actual "mass text" from your phone is not always very successful. People don't get the messages til days later at times (if they get them at all).
The long term plan is to send updates from Ethiopia once we travel there. If I have Internet I will be able to tweet. I do not anticipate having time to blog while I am there, and I may or may not have Internet to tweet - but it's worth a shot!

Send me a message if you have trouble figuring it out :)

Update:
I just received an email from our home study agency. She said they had a few small changes to make in the home study and that our social worker is working on them now. Once those are completed and approved, they will work on finalizing!!

We are praying for THIS week on finalization!!



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Sweet Story

Last blog post I wrote about the amazing financial blessings we received from the garage sale. This post I wanted to write about a few of the non-financial blessings we received from the garage sale. Without a shadow of a doubt, the spiritual lessons we learned far outweigh all of the other. God taught us so much about trusting in His provision, giving and serving. Those treasures will long outlast the monetary blessings we received.

I have two other blessings I want to share.

The first one is meeting our neighbors. April 28 marked 1 year we have been living in our home. We honestly had not met that many neighbors in the year we have been here. Sure, we would wave casually as we passed by and knew a few of them by name, but had not had very many lengthy conversations with them. Anyway, God just totally blessed those relationships through the garage sale! In the weeks preparing for the sale they would see us working outside and inquired about our sale. We were able to share out story with them and began to get to know them better! Some of them let us borrow tables and even came and shopped! We are rejoicing in those new relationships!

The other blessing is why I named this post Sweet Story. Like I said earlier, it has been almost exactly one year since we moved into our home. This was our first home to purchase, so you can understand that we were extremely anxious and put much much prayer into the decision. God graciously blessed us with this home and we love it! We met the previous home owners (and builders) on closing day. We spoke briefly with them and departed ways. One year later - The week before our garage sale, we posted an ad on Craigslist. Our previous home owners saw the ad and recognized the address. She looked me up on Facebook and sent me a sweet message about our adoption. She let us borrow some tables (and even came to the sale!) My favorite part of her Facebook message was when she shared with me that she and her husband had always discussed/considered adoption (they have 2 precious biological children as well). Anyway. I just smiled when I read about her heart for orphans. I love how God cares about the smallest details of our lives. Consider this: the home that we prayed so hard about and finally found/purchased was built by a sweet couple who have a heart for orphans! That same home is where we will bring Malachi home to (God willing). Some of you may say "coincidence" or "don't look to much into it." But I know better. God, who knows everything and is over everything, custom designed this home with all of us in mind! He cares about the details! He reminded me in that moment of something He has been teaching me the last 6 months.... "That He is at work even where my physical eyes can't see." That was my sweet kiss that day! Thankful for my new friendship too :)

Ok. Ok. So last but not least- what's the latest with our adoption? We are (anxiously) awaiting the final approval of our home study! Our Home Study Agency has completely approved it. They are waiting on our family coordinator at America World to review and approve. I know she has been super busy, but we are praying this week will be the week it's finalized! Please join us in that prayer!

Happy Mother's Day!!




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Garage Sale Blessings!

We finally had our big garage sale!! It was a huge success! I learned so much both about garage sales and a tiny hint of what my God is capable of doing!

Garage Sale in review:

-- We asked for donations and didn't really know what to expect. God did! Before we knew it our ENTIRE garage was packed full of stuff and we had to start putting items in the dining and living rooms! The response to our request for donations blew our minds!! We had so much stuff! Think of a lot of stuff then double that and you "might" be close :)

-- We worked hard sorting, organizing and pricing items! Sweet family and friends helped us organize and even brought us dinner the week of the sale! God is teaching us so much about serving others through our family and friends!

-- Lee and I prayed specifically for God's name to be glorified, pretty weather, friendly customers and a profit of $1,000.

-- Family came over Friday night before the sale. We finished organizing, ate pizza and got ready for the sale. We didn't go to bed til midnight, then woke up at 4:30 (talk about needing some coffee!) I'm pretty sure I didn't sleep at all :)

-- FINALLY... Saturday was here. We started putting the stuff outside that wasn't going to stay in the garage around 5am and finished at 6am. Our first customers arrived with flashlights at 5:30 am!

-- The day was crazy busy!! We SERIOUSLY could not have done it without the help of our family!! We are so thankful for them!! At one point, Kristin (my sis in law), Kelli (Lee's cousin) and myself were all checking people out and we had two lines full of customers! Craziness :) But good craziness! For those of you who know where we live - someone told us that we had cars parked all the way down to the stop sign! Prior to the sale we did not know how many customers to expect. I had made 120 flyers to put 1 flyer in the bags of everyone who checked out. Those flyers were gone quick and everyone (for whatever reason) did not receive a flyer. I think it's safe to say we had a MINIMUM of 150 customers! We were totally blown away! I was also excited to know that at least 120 people left with a sheet of paper that had scripture on it :)

-- So how much did we make?? We prayed specifically for $1,000. God did more :)
Drumroll Please...........

$ 2,119

yes.. that's two thousand one hundred nineteen dollars :)
Blessed Beyond Measure! God continues to blow us away every step of this journey! Not just in physical/financial provisions, but in spiritual lessons as well!

Here are some pics! They don't really capture how much stuff we had because we were too busy with customers to slow down and take pics :)

1 Week Before the Sale :-/ 
Anxious?? I was!!



Friends came over and said "wow! we have got some work to do!! I think it is safe to say that "some work to do" was a bit of an understatement :) Remember.. the dining room is full too!


BUT IT ALL CAME TOGETHER!!



Here is one wall on the inside of our garage





"Some" of the clothes inside the garage



Another Pic of inside of garage



Linen Table (inside garage)





People shopping

Some of the stuff outside. See Lee in the red :) He is such a good salesman!! Loved watching him talk to shoppers!

More shoppers outside!

These two sweet babies were swimming and riding in the wagon most of the day! Miller and Blakely
Notice the tables with boxes behind them :)

They LOVED it! Thanks Aunt Chasity for bringing the pool!



This is the T-Shirt my mom bought me! Hilarious!! For those of you who don't get it... Our Garage Sale was on Cinco De Mayo :) 

Thanks so much to everyone who donated, let us borrow tables, helped organize and prayed for us!

And a big thanks to our family members who helped the day of the sale!!

We couldn't have done it without y'all!