Very Overdue Blog Post!!

Hey Guys!

The last time I blogged was in October!! Geez!!

So, PROJECT 30 in October was simply AMAZING!! We had so many fundraisers (thanks to our "village") and we ended up raising......

 

10 thousand dollars!!

 

thank you. thank you. thank you.

 

We could have never done that without you guys!!

We are considering ourselves "fully funded." Yes, there may be surprise expenses that come up, but we feel confident that we are very close to the total amount that we need to bring this baby boy HOME!! We do have lots of left over shirts that we will sell in the next few weeks so keep an eye out for those!!

 

Here are a few photos from that week.

But these are only a few photos I had on my phone. There were so many other amazing fundraisers!!

 

 

My husband's gun raffle turned out great! He raised around 4K just on the raffle! Thank you to everyone who helped and bought tickets.

 

 

Megan Manuel did an awesome bake sale! She even delivered the goodies!

 

 



 

We had a Noonday party (pictured above). We also had a Trades of Hope party but I don't have any photos on my phone.

Proceeds from a Brittany's antique booth!

 



Crossfit Clinton hosted a Saturday WOD!

 



Outdoor Movie Night at the Gates' house!!

 



 



Another photo from the Crossfit WOD!

I could spend the rest of the blog talking about how amazing it was to see our village come together! Amazing things happen when people join together around a common cause!

 

So why am I just now updating on a fundraiser that happened in October??

 

Well...

On October 24th I wasn't feeling "normal." I decided to take a pregnancy test "just to rule it out."

To my complete and utter shock... it was POSITIVE!!

Seriously, I paced around the house sweating! Can I reiterate the word "SHOCKED??"

Pregnancy was the farthest thing from mine and Lee's minds. God had different plans!

One week later... BAM.

Nausea. Fatigue. The fullness of the first trimester hit me!

I am so thankful for Lee because there were days that I just laid on the couch and let the boys run wild. It was a rough 3 months!

 

I'm feeling better now!

And....

It's a GIRL!!

We are thrilled!

 

 So how does this effect our adoption?

We filled out all of the necessary paperwork to remain in the program during pregnancy. We are officially "on hold" with our agency until baby girl turns 6 months old.

After baby girl is born we will update our home study as a family of 5. When she is 6 months old we will come "off hold" with our agency and be eligible for a referral (so around December 2016).

While "on hold" we still continue to move up the waiting list!

Which means that by the time we finally come off hold, we should be very close (hopefully) to the top of the list! We are praying for a referral in 2017!!!

 

We are currently #29 for an infant and #16 for a toddler!

 

Lots of changes coming up in the Blackburn household!

 

Thank you so much for journeying with us!