Big Update!

We have a lot of crazy updates. First, sorry we have been so distant! We have been so busy this year and a lot of crazy things have happened and we have been trying to figure out God’s plan for it all before we moved forward. Long story short, we are no longer adopting from Ethiopia, big shocker I know. But don’t worry, God has some BIG plans for our family and we are still on the path to adopt, the path is just a little different than before. “The change” started in mid-February when, due to financial issues with the family business, I lost my job. We never made a big announcement about it because it was supposed to be temporary and we really didn’t know what God’s plan was. We aren’t going to lie, we were mad. It threw a HUGE wrench in the plans, especially financially. After about a month of being unemployed, I finally acknowledged that God had been asking me to quit my job and become a stay at home mom for a long time, I just refused to listen (yeah I do that a lot). Even though we struggled financially for about two months, we were blessed with Chris getting a raise and more hours. Around this time I started to get the small whisper that maybe we should look into foster care. Whoa! That is the OPPOSITE of what I wanted to do! Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE the idea of fostering and it has been something that Chris and I have been talking about since before we were dating! But NOT NOW! My view is (was) that fostering is something you do once you feel like your family is complete (enough) and you are ok if you never permanently add another member to your family. Foster-care is unpredictable and you never know when and if you will have to say goodbye. Did I mention that I want a HUGE family?? (yeah yeah I’m crazy; we will get to that later) To me our family is nowhere near “complete” right now. I LOVE Jacob to death and I am not saying that he is not “enough”, but like most moms, my heart desires for more children. Back to the idea of foster-care, while I have been terrified of fostering, my husband has been excited for the day that we get to foster. He loves the idea of adopting internationally, but he is PASSIONATE about foster-care! If you know my husband, you know it takes a lot to get him really worked up about something, good or bad; he is just that easy going. When I usually ask him if he wants to do this or that, he usually says “I’m fine with whatever”. With the idea of fostering, he is completely different! (My poor husband has had to watch all my craziness while he “got it” the whole time, this is why I love him) Ok we will talk more about that later, back to this spring. After we got back to being financially stable, we realized there was no way we could fund the adoption alone. We still had about $8000 to raise just to get on the waiting list! We prayed and prayed that God would provide if it was what He wanted and we continually heard “wait”. So we waited and waited and even had a pretty profitable garage sale. At the end of June I really started to feel a tug about domestic adoption and foster care. I again tried to ignore it, more because I figured it was just my impatience tugging me that direction. We started having major doubts about Ethiopia, not because we thought it was “wrong”, we just didn’t see how we could ever afford it. We knew it would take a miracle for us to ever move forward but we (I) was too stubborn to admit it. We gave it to God and tried to just do what we could to move forward.  The week of July 2^nd changed everything for us. We received an email from a friend at church about an 11yr old boy that needed a temporary place to stay while his mother recovered in the hospital. Instantly I said yes, I mean why not? We had a spare room that is just waiting for a child to fill it. I think I surprised Chris a little because he thought I would be too scared! A crazy and sad set of events happened in that week and on July 6^th we were asked to consider adopting the boy and his 9yr old sister! Uh what?!? That night there was a crazy war going on in our hearts. I’m not going to lie, I fell asleep crying. I’m a dreamer and I dream BIG! I “plan” things to the detail and I fall in love with that plan. When plans change I have to mourn them before I can begin with new plans (this is why this whole journey has kinda taken a toll on me emotionally). I mourned over the idea that there was NO way we could continue with Ethiopia, I mourned the idea that Jacob might be jealous of his new older siblings, I mourned the idea that I wouldn’t have cute cuddly babies/toddlers and I mourned about the fact that these kids might hate me and never see me as “mom”. As I was falling asleep that night I just prayed that God would give me overwhelming peace when I woke up if this is the path He wanted us to choose. The next morning we woke up with amazing peace and a decision made, we said yes. We said “yes” and God said “NO”. What?!? Yean I agree. Without going into a lot of personal details for the kids and their family, God had different plans for both families and used this situation to soften hearts and redirect attentions.  After we mourned yet another change of plans, it became very clear that God wanted us to change our direction and hearts toward domestic adoption and foster care. So I’m sure many of you will ask (as we asked too) “why God would really ask you to take in kids and then say No after you say yes?” The only way that I can explain it is to think of Abraham and Isaac. Ok not quite as dramatic of course, but God didn’t want Abraham to actually burn his child, He wanted his obedience. I think He wanted the same from us.  When I look on the last two and a half years I can see how I have ignored Him numerous times because it didn’t fit in with my plans or how I saw our family life.  I think I can even see where God started leading us in the direction of foster care and I said a stern NO because I was just too scared. I have to laugh too at God using the story of Abraham to get my attention. A man with many sons who thought he could have none. I pray that we can be obedient and that God can use our story to bless others.

So, what now? Well we have found a great foster care/adoption agency that a few friends from church are using and we love them already! On August 7^th we went to the orientation and already learned a lot of the foster care system. We have A LOT of training to do before we can be licensed but I am strangely patient right now. We are still unsure what we will “request”, either all cases (emergency, legal risk, etc) or just legal risk. We have no idea the timeline and I’m strangely ok with it all.

I know this can’t come easy to everyone, I understand, it was NOT easy for us! I know there are some people that have financially supported us and you may be mad that basically we have “wasted” money on the parts of the Ethiopian adoption we have paid for. The only thing that I can say is that we have gained more in the last year emotionally and spiritually then money could ever pay for and YOU have helped us grow spiritually. Also I promise you we are “out” more financially then anyone who gave and at the end of the day, money is just money (ouch that still hurts saying that). The experiences we have had in the last year far outweigh any of the money that was spent. And even after I say that and you are still upset, feel free to email me and we can talk about it. (just please don’t start drama in the comments, and PLEASE don’t say “yay, you are finally taking care of “our own”, this will force me to get mad and I don’t feel like getting mad!)

One of the best things that I can take away from our journey to try to adopt from Ethiopia is our love for Africa. I have always felt a tug toward Africa; I just never knew what it meant. I think I had to look at Africa with a momma’s heart before I could truly love it. Though we may not be adopting from Africa right now, God still has big plans for us in Africa. We just have to wait to see them unfold!

Abbey

P.S. One more thing, we want to thank everyone for their support in this journey. We truly could not do this without all the support and prayers. You guys mean more to us then you could ever imagine!

Home Study Approved!!!!

Ou home study is FINALLY approved!!!! Yay, that means that we are SOOO close to being able to submit our dossier!!! I will blog more tomorrow about this! God is moving in this adoption! ~Abbey

I'm a bad blogger!

Hello!

So, sorry I’m lazy and haven’t updated in FOREVER! In the past two months there has been little movement and I’ve felt kinda ashamed to come on here and say “ok another update…we are STILL working on our home study!”. And Im sure right now you are thinking, what the heck, you still aren’t done?!? Well if you aren’t going to admit it I will help you, I feel the same. Ive sat at my desk many days crying, wondering if we will ever get done with this portion. I mean come on, most people race through this phase but we just seem stuck! The crazy thing is that its not like we are having huge problems with our house or family history or anything like that. In fact our social worker didn’t have any issues with us and thinks we are a great family (see at least ONE person thinks it! ;0). I really can’t explain it except to say that it is God…well and a little procrastination by me! I know God doesn’t want us to hurt or stress about all this. I know He doesn’t want to see me get so frustrated that I am about to quit. No, I think God is slowing us down because this is HIS story, not just ours. You see God has this AWESOME plan that he is writing and working out for our family and my impatience is trying to get in the way!

Yesterday we got an email from our social work telling us that she is DONE writing our home study and now she is waiting for it to be approved and finalized! Twenty minutes later I received an email from a lady that wanted to buy one of our shirts! I was amazed by how God was working the little details of our adoption. Later that night we received a check in the mail from one of Chris’ sisters that was a late Christmas present that got lost in the mail from Chris’ grandparents. Again I was thankful for God’s blessings and reminders that He’s got this. Today a friend asked us about our shirts and bought one! I am blown away by God’s faithfulness to His promises! That’s almost $100 toward our adoption in less than 24hrs! That’s $100 closer to reaching our $7700 dossier submission fee! And for those that have given and/or supported us in any way so far, please know that even if we don’t say it enough, we appreciate each and every one of yall more than yall can ever know! You are helping us pay the ransom to free our children and you will forever be in our hearts!

So what now (I have been asked this a lot in the last 24hrs!)…now we wait for our home study to be approved and then we will send it off to the US government for them to approve it and assign us an appointment to get our FBI background checks/fingerprints. While we are waiting for that we are still working on more forms and paperwork (did I mention that I am a procrastinator??). Oh yeah and there is that HUGE dossier fee that we have to raise (look to the right to see how we are doing on that!). We are hoping to have all that finished in the next few months. Hopefully I will be a better blogger and keep yall a little better updated! I sincerely hope that you are having a GREAT week!

~Abbey

 “I lift up my eyes to the hills, where does my help come from? My help comes from the LORD, the Maker of heaven and earth. He will not let your foot slip, He who watches over you will not slumber; indeed, He who watches over Israel will neither slumber nor sleep.” Psalm 121:1-4 

"Why I Hate Religion, But Love Jesus"

A little empty...

This week we have a lot to celebrate, we are almost done with the home study, we have a new fundraiser going on and Jacob is finally eating again after that nasty 5 day tummy sickness! But for some reason today I am a little...empty. We have been going non-stop for the last few weeks and it’s been awesome helping me keep my mind occupied. The house is cleaner, the remodels are done, the home study paperwork is done and the dossier paperwork is slowly getting done. But for some reason today I can't stop thinking about my babies I can't hold yet.
About a month ago we cleaned out the 3rd bedroom and now at that’s left in there is a desk that will be moved this weekend. I’m going to tell you a little secret, not even Chris knows, some nights I go in the room and just stand there and look at the empty room. I have visions of a little girl’s room with purples and grays or an older little boy’s room with toys all over the floor. I think about all the memories waiting to happen in that room. We are happy and blessed and we love our son so much, but I can’t help having that feeling like we are missing a few family members.
Monday I got an email from a family member that kind of hurt. In reply to us emailing her about our decision to adopt from Ethiopia, she stated that “If it is God’s will that you adopt, I will pray that He changes your heart to adopt in the USA and NOT a foreign country. We have a lot of babies here that need a loving home.” Ouch. I will state first that I agree with her last sentence, there are a lot of babies in the US that need homes…and there are MILLIONS of babies around the world that need loving homes, I don’t chose who I help by where they live but instead where I feel GOD leads me too. But besides all that, he statement hurt because to me we are expecting from Ethiopia (heck we will call it pregnant if you will) and if our “hearts change” it will be HEART BREAK! My babies are in Ethiopia, my children who I pray for and already love are in ETHIOPIA. Asking me to change where I am adopting from is like asking me to give up my kids! Still don’t get it? Praying for me to change the location we adopt from is like telling me that you are going to pray for a pregnant me to not be pregnant anymore. Overdramatic? Maybe, but this is how I feel.
Can I ask you to do me a favor? Can you pray for our brown-eyed babies? Can you pray with me that they are being loved on and cared for since we can’t yet? I know right now they are going through the worst pain they are ever going to face and I wish I could be there to dry their tears and hug them like only a mommy can.

~Abbey

Proverbs 16:9 "The heart of man plans his way, but the LORD establishes his steps."

Home Study scheduled and another fundraiser!!

Our home study meetings are scheduled!! We are meeting with our social worker THIS WEEK!! AHHHHH!! How amazing is that?!? We are meeting with her on Friday and Sunday!! Wow when God says move He means MOVE!! Everyday we are getting closer to holding our new child(ren)!

Also, here is another fundraiser we are doing!! My sister, Hannah, who is a Thirty-One consultant, has offered to do a fundraiser for us!! 100% of her commission will go toward our adoption fund when purchased under this party! Please note this party ends NOON, Dec. 12 which is both the cut off day for Christmas delivery guarantee and the end of the current special.

Thirty-One is a fun & unique line ...of products. Browse through the catalog to find everything from signature purses and totes to storage solutions that help organize your life. There's a little something for everyone. There's a fun special going on right now!! For every $31 you spend, get one All-In-One Organizer, Soft Wallet, Cinch Sac, Zip-Up Pencil Pouch or Flat Iron Case for ONLY $5! These items are originally valued from $10-$22! Buy gifts for others and keep these for yourself! Shop at http://www.mythirtyone.com/hannahcole/ and make sure to shop from "Abbey's Adoption Fundraiser"!

~Abbey

We are moving forward again!!

Hello!! First I wanted to say sorry to anyone who actually reads our blog! Things have been kind of busy and crazy and I felt the need to step away from the blog for a little while. But, I’m back! Today we FINALLY mailed off our huge home study packet!!!! YAY!!! Ok so maybe we took a little longer than expected (um by a few MONTHS) but I feel like God was slowing us down for a reason. When I took a step back I started listening to what God had planned for this adoption. I’m not going to lie; I didn’t do this on purpose. I got really negative and sad and even refused to pray because at one point I wasn’t sure what to pray about anymore. I even went as far as researching other options because it just seemed like we weren’t moving forward at all. Between repairs at home, financial issues and our schedule, I just felt like we were never going to be “home study ready”. Looking back, I know the slowdown was important. Slowing down forced us to look at our own motivations for this adoption and listen to God’s plan for this adoption. Since starting the adoption process, so many of our desires have changed and our hearts are slowly beginning to want what God wants. I will blog more about this later!

About three and a half weeks ago our home study social worker emailed us about a home study seminar that will count as one of our four required meetings…awesome right?? I thought about it and then forgot about it because I was certain that we had to have our packet in by then and I was certain that we would NOT have it ready yet. Thankfully an awesome adoptive mom Beth (check her out at give1save1.com) messaged me, encouraging me to go to the seminar and informed me that we could go BEFORE we turned in our paperwork! The funny thing is that for the last two years, I have consistently felt God telling me to wait, even when I felt God pushing us to start the adoption, He still reminded me to wait. When Beth encouraged us to attend the seminar I suddenly stopped hearing the “wait” and instead heard the “hurry!”! Friday we went to the seminar and TODAY we sent in our home study PAPERWORK!!! Thank you Beth for letting God use you to encourage us! I’m so excited (and nervous) to begin the home study meetings!!

~Abbey


Isaiah 43:2 "When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire,you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze."

Restless

A year ago I didn't think about Africa, orphans or really even poverty really. Its not that I didn't care or didn't see it, I just didn't think about it. I felt like no matter what I did, I couldn't make a difference. I was so stuck in my world with my problems (which was at the time infertility) that I just kind of ignored the needs of others. I mean, someone will help right? It doesn't have to be me right now. Wow was I wrong. God calls all His people to help the "orphans and the widows" ( James 1:27) and to give generously (1 Timothy 6:18). I didn't truly start to wake up to the orphan and poverty crisis in the world until after reading "Crazy Love" by Francis Chan and started thinking about adoption.


Still, I am overwhelmed by the needs out there...how can my little gifts, the little amount that we can afford, help enough people to make a difference? Well it may or may not make a big difference in the world, that's just the way life works. I saw a quote today that kind of made me stop to and think ‎"Never get tired of doing little things for others, sometimes those little things occupy the biggest part of their hearts". Wow. You see the "burden" that is poverty and orphans is not a burden but a face...millions of faces actually! What if my dollar gives a mom one more day with her baby? What if my dollar made a child feel safe and loved? What if my dollar helped a woman escape human trafficking? Or, what is I kept my dollar and it did nothing? These are the things I think about now. My heart is restless to DO something, GO somewhere, LOVE on someone, to make changes! Right now the best I can do is GIVE and I want to give generously, I want to give in a way that makes me a little uncomfortable. When we give generously we take the power away from money and wealth and its hold on us (ok I might have stolen that from Dave Ramsey, we are doing FPU in our small group and I feel like I remember him saying something like that) and we save lives and hearts. I want to share some of the places and people that have helped build this fire in my heart and who I want to advocate for. Each of these organizations and people have a passion for helping those that can't help themselves and to love the fatherless:

Because Every Mother Matters - becauseeverymothermatters.com

Their mission is to reduce the occurrence of maternal and infant mortality by providing sterile birthing kits, holistic childbirth and development centers, and sponsorships of mothers in East Africa. I talked about them in a previous blog post but I wanted to get the word out about them again! Organizations like this are vital to stopping the orphan crisis! Right now they are trying to fund an ambulance that will help 24 villages in Ethiopia save many lives. Can you help them?

Delicate Fortress - http://www.delicatefortress.com/
Shop with purpose! Delicate Fortress sells items that are made by refugees to help stop human trafficking, extreme poverty and modern day slavery. They are unique and well made. Check them out and do a little guilt free shopping!

Give1Save1 - give1save1.com

I think this is said best in their words "every monday i’m going to ask you for a dollar. i’m going to tell you who it’s going to and what it’s being used for. we’re mostly funding african adoption for the people, by the people. we’re just going to rain down a crazy blessing on a family, organization, orphanage, or project and we’re going to do it every week. we’re going to get huge. and the world will be changed for lots of people because of your generosity. that sounds exciting, doesn’t it?! let’s do it.
i’ll tell you who we’re sponsoring and where to send your dollar. you’ll need a paypal account to play. if you don’t have a paypal account, you just need one. it’s time. so go ahead and set one up and meet me back here. i’ll link a button to the paypal account that we’ll be blasting. then once you’ve donated your dollar spread the word to get some more dollars in here. if you have a voice, an email account, a blog, a facebook page, a twitter account or a pinboard USE IT! the only way we can make a big difference is to make it viral!
SAVE 1
and your dollar will be saving and restoring lives in all kinds of ways. in ethiopia one in six children don’t live to be five years old. there is a desperate need for basic food, clean water, and medicine. removing a child from an orphanage gives that child a family and a future, something everyone needs. it also frees up a bed in an orphanage for a street child. your dollar will change lives and save lives in ways you may never know." Um, this is super cool and it was started by an adopting Mom!! Yeah she pretty much rocks! Every week they will spotlight someone different and you can expect $1 a week to go to a family adopting a baby, an older child, siblings, and a project. Super cool...Can you give a dollar a week? Or what about a dollar a day? Think about it, pray about it!

Sweet Sleep/Jenn and Chris Verme - http://www.pureandlasting.com/ and www.sweetsleep.org

"Sweet Sleep is a faith-based nonprofit organization which provides beds to the world’s orphaned and abandoned children, demonstrating God’s love for them and improving their quality of life.
Sweet Sleep’s vision is for every orphaned child in the world to lie down in their own bed reminding them they are loved, protected and cared for with hope for the future through Jesus Christ.
According to UNICEF, there are more that 210 million orphans worldwide. Today, 5,760 more children will become orphans.
Orphaned and abandoned children around the world suffer from lack of sufficient or healthy places to sleep. These children often sleep on old, broken and soiled beds or have no beds at all – forcing them to sleep on paper-thin mats or cold, hard floors, making them susceptible to crawling, biting insects and disease. In these conditions, it is nearly impossible to get a good night’s sleep and the effects are staggering:
1 in 5 of all childhood deaths is caused from malaria.

90% of these children are in Africa alone.
A sagging or misshapen mattress may add tension to a child’s joints because their bodies rest on the mattress for hours at a time.

Even if a child sleeps well on a bad mattress, these injuries to their bodies only make them weaker.
Old mattresses or scraps of foam are breeding grounds for bed bugs and allergens that contribute to startling increases in respiratory diseases, including asthma as well as rhinitis, eczema and bed bug bites.
When children continuously do not get enough sleep it affects their health, makes them tired during the day, hinders their ability to do well at school and leaves them more prone to disease.
Sweet Sleep’s provision of mosquito nets to orphanages is literally life-changing to children who live in fear of death by malaria. With your help, we are able to get sweet orphaned and abandoned children around the world into healthy, comfortable new Sweet Sleep beds."

Jennifer and Chris went to Ethiopia and Rwanda last month and visited the Noel Orphanage, which is home to over 600 children. Many of these children sleep 2 and 3 to a bed. Right now, Noel needs 50 new bunk beds for the girls and 20 new cots for the toddlers. Each bunk bed cost $135 and each toddler cot cost $65. Can you help a child sleep safely tonight?? You can donate on either the Give1Save1 site, Jenn and Chris' blog or straight to Sleep Sweet's site.

Ok that's all I have right now! There are MANY more organizations out there to help, all you have to do is look.

~Abbey

Walled up!

Monday morning the new contractor came to wall up the arch in the loft/3rd bedroom. They did a great job and finished it in one day! Now I just have to texture and paint the wall on the livingroom side and texture and prime the bedroom side (don't want to paint until we know who is going in there). Here are the before and after pictures. Sorry they aren't that great...both are cell phone pics and I completely forgot to take good ones!

The before picture (there was a railing there but the contractor popped it out before I got a picture of it)
The after...not great because it hasn't been painted, but you get the idea!

We are so relieved that this is finished! Not only did we make an extra room for our kids, but we just uped the value of our house because it is now a 3 bedroom house! Our contractor is awesome! He gave us a discount (He and his wife are adopting from China!) and he added an outlet in the bedroom and patched up 2 other holes without us asking! He is truly a God send!! Did I mention we found him at church?? His wife serves in the elementary ministry at our church with Chris! If you live in the League City/Southeast Houston area and need a contractor, let me know and i will give you his info! Now we just have to finish the bathroom remodel and we can submit our homestudy paperwork!!

~Abbey

Busy Busy Busy

Im exhausted! We have been so busy over the last two weeks that I'm kind of starting to feel like Im sleep walking! About a week and a half ago Chris and I both realized that we felt God pushing us to change our request from one child to two children! Yay! We are so excited to see where God is leading our family! But this brings another challenge for us. You might remember our concern about the lack of rooms we talked about here and the fact that we only have 2 bedrooms and a loft that has a huge arch opening. Thankfully the loft has a window, 2 closets and a doorway with a door so if it didn't have the huge archway, it would be a true bedroom. Chris and I just figured we would figure out how to afford this after Christmas when we would be close to sending off our dossier. Thankfully I decided to contact our social worker about our change in request just to see if there was anything we needed to do and she informed me that we had to have the archway walled up before we could be approved for another child over 2. Dangit! I kind of wanted to cry (ok fine, I DID cry) and I started to think that maybe this was a sign that we aren't ready for siblings yet. I mean, how were we going to afford another big chunk of money when we are already struggling to afford the adoption all together! And we had to have it in a week! Well again I will say, what God favors, God provides for! My very sweet parents let us borrow the funds to afford the remodel! Praise God! Now I know that this does not insure that we will be approved for siblings but at least I know that we are doing all we can to bring them home!

To add to all the mental and emotional battles that we are fighting, we are also physically exhausted! About a year and a half ago, we started to remodel our upstairs bathroom which is supposed to be Jacob's bathroom. We had no choice, the toilet was leaking, the bathtub was leaking and well the bathroom was just ugly! We started out thinking that we could do it ourselves and quickly realized we needed help! Instead of hiring a professional (ie expensive) contractor, we hired a "friend" who has been doing side contractor jobs for years. Win win right?? Fast forward a year and a half and we have a halfway remodeled bathroom and zero faith in our "friend" because he never calls when he decides he doesn't want to come over to help (um and get paid!). Ugh! Against our better judgement, Chris and I decided to give this guy another chance and offer a pretty nice chunk of change that we had been saving for this project to finsh the bathroom and a few other quick fixes around the house. Friday he even talked to me, face to face, about bringing some donations for another future garage sale when we comes on Saturday. Sadly by 10am on Saturday we still had not heard from him and he refused to answer our texts. I was crushed! What the heck are we going to do?!? Poor Jacob has gone sooo long without an actual bathroom (ok we still clean him in the shower, but come on, every kid needs a bath! ;) and no one is going to approve us without a working guest bath!! Another UGH! We spent the next 20 minutes angry, confused and crying (ok well I cried), debating about what to do. My husband, my rock, decided that WE were going to finish it! What?!? I know we are kinda handy and there isn't THAT much to do...but drywall, and door framing, and floor laying?? I've never done that! I've watched a lot of HGTV but I hardly think that makes me a trained professional!! After a little prayer I decided that well, we didn't really have a choice. So, armed with our TWO home improvement how-to books and YouTube (hey, you can learn a lot on YouTube!) we dove head first into bathroom remodeling 101! I would love to show the before and after pics but the after isn't finished yet! We busted our behinds all weekend long (did I mention how thankful I was that it was a 3 day weekend?!? GOD IS GOOD!) and learned A LOT but we are slow (hey, learning takes time!) and we still have a little left. We are hoping and praying that we can have it done this weekend and we can move on to the next thing on our "getting the house ready for the homestudy" todo list!

I will leave you with a cute pic of Jacob from this weekend

I am so blessed to have a sister (who is also my best friend!) who took care of Jacob all weekend long so we could concentrate on the remodel without distractions! Here he is with his "friends" watching a movie at Aunt Hannah's house!

~Abbey

Because Every Mother Matters

Its no secret to most people that know me now, I love adoption. I think adoption is beautiful and a blessing to both the parents and the children. But what if there wasn't a need for adoption? Huh? What if there weren't any orphans? What if parents were able to stay well and be able to care for their children? I LOVE adoption but I really wish there wasn't a need for it! Last Friday I came across an awesome organization, Because Every Mother Matters, that is trying to help reduce the amount of orphans in the world by helping mothers around the world stay healthy! Isn't that awesome?!?! I also found our that they are doing a fundraiser to fund an ambulance that will service 10,000 people and save 20 lives a month! But thats not it! With this fundraiser they are also donating to 11 adopting families!! Here are the details:

THE CURRENT PROJECT: raise $20k for a 4 wheel drive vehicle, that will save mother's lives, and prevent further orphans from entering the world.
THE BENEFIT FOR ADOPTIVE FAMILIES: If you or anyone you know donates $20 for this cause, you will be entered to be gifted 25% of what we raise thru this initiative, up to $10,000. You could be given up to $2,500 toward your adoption!
if we reach the $10k mark, the rules change a little bit for the remainder of funds... for every $1k we raise, you will be entered to be gifted 50%! if we make our goal of $20k, that is 10 families who could be given $500 toward their adoption!
that is 11 chances to win!!!
WHAT IF I AM NOT ADOPTING? CAN I STILL GIVE? absolutely! if you are not adopting but know someone who is, you can donate the $20 in their name, and they will be entered for the $ gift. if you don't know anyone who is adopting that is fine too, you can still donate toward the ambulance!
FUTURE PLANS: we at BEMM are all about helping mamas. there are women, in ethiopia who need our help all the time. if this campaign is successful, we will do adoption $$ give aways on a regular basis!!!
CONCLUSION: the more $$$ raised, the more $$$ going toward the ambulance, and the more $$$ going toward bringing home a current orphan! it is a win/win for everyone!!!
spread the word! tell your family, friends, co-workers, teachers, barrista, whoever! you only have one more week to enter!!!!
http://www.bemm.org/

This is such an awesome fundraiser! Can I ask you to donate toward this? This fundraiser ends 9/4 (this Sunday) and they NEED this ambulance to save mothers and babies. If you like you can enter our names in the comment section to add us into the drawing, but if not thats ok, I just REALLY support this! Just go to the link above and click on the "donate" tab. In the "notes to seller" tab enter "ambulance Chris and Abigail Newton"!

You can also get more info from their blog at http://toliveloveandlaughtoday.blogspot.com/2011/08/adoptive-parent-talk.html

~Abbey

I know, I know...

I know no one wants to hear even more about money but well I have decided that you can rarely talk about adoption without talking about money. Stinks I know. But since this IS an adoption blog its only fitting to talk about money right?? (Blech!) As I said in our last post, our home study is completely funded (YAY!) and while we are ecstatic about this we now have to move on to MORE fundraising. I'm learning quickly that in the adoption world you have many hills to conquer and you only have a minute to celebrate each one because the next hill is bigger and badder. Well our next hill is $7700! Yep you read that right! The $7700 is for the dossier submission that we are hoping to do in January. (please refer to http://theadventuresofthenewtons.blogspot.com/2011/06/adoption-costs.html for the adoption costs breakdown) And on top of that there was a mistake with our taxes (my error...) and we owe about $2800 by October 15. Thankfully I am already saving for the taxes but it so hurts my heart that I have to subtract that from the adoption funds! So why am I telling you this?? Well as I have said before (and I will keep proclaiming), God funds what God favors and He uses His people to do so. No that was NOT a guilt trip I promise, instead it is a plea to help us bring Z home! ANY amount helps (remember the coin jar...) and we have been sooooo blessed by all our donations so far! Also all of our fundraisers benefit our donors too by being able to buy good quality products! Here is a list of our current fundraisers:

Just Love Coffee: https://www.justlovecoffee.com/newtonfamily Love Roasters takes the two passions of its founder, ORPHANS and FAIR TRADE COFFEE, and incorporates them into one company. Their mission is to offer quality Fair Trade coffees and to use these coffees to help orphans and their forever families. They have created a fundraising program where we are able to set up our own online store! I have tried it and it is VERY good! With each bag sold, $5 will go directly towards our adoption. Your coffee is delivered to you by USPS and you get to help us adopt or child (or children)!Proceeds to Our Adoption:• Coffee: $5 will go towards our adoption• T-Shirt: $5 will go towards our adoption• Travel Mug: $3 will go towards our adoption• Tote Bag: $3 will go towards our adoption• Hat: $3 will go towards our adoption• Coffee Scoop: $1 will go towards our adoption

A Novel Idea Crafts: http://www.etsy.com/shop/ANovelIdeaCrafts I have been making jewelry for about a year and now all proceeds goes into our adoption fund!

Scentsy: https://abbeynewton.scentsy.us/ A friend of mine did a Scentsy fundraiser for us last month to raise funds for our adoption and now I have joined her team and am a Scentsy consultant! All commissions go into our adoption fund!

Simply Love T-shirts: In June I decided that I wanted to sell t-shirts to help raise more funds AND to orphan care awareness! Thanks to Kari at mycrazyadoption.org we are selling Simply Love T-Shirts to help bring our child home! We originally offered totes, hats, and shirts but after about a month with only 2 requests we decided to narrow it down to just shirts. I now have these in hand and are available ASAP!

Here is the Men's green shirt (the back says "Man up. Protect and love the fatherless") I have 2 Smalls, 5 Mediums, 7 Larges, 7 XL and 2 XXL. You can order them with the Paypal link to the right.



Here is the Women's black unisex shirt. I have 5 smalls, 6 Mediums, 7 Larges, 2 XL and 2 XXL. You can order them from the Paypal link on the right.

We are so blessed by all the support we have from our friends and families. It overwhelms me some days and I am humbled. Please know that we are pinching from our budget everywhere we can and we don't ask for donations without first taking from ourselves. In fact the thermometer to the right is not just donations but donations PLUS our own savings. No monetary sacrifice it too much to bring our sweet Z home!

~Abbey

Some updates

Sorry for being kind of MIA! I tend to do that when I feel a little discouraged and I've been feeling that way for the last few weeks. I just feel like we are taking FOREVER to submit the homestudy stuff. I've seen a lot of other families do this way faster than us and I feel like its all our faults. But I know that things are going at the speed they are supposed to go (or atleast I hope so!). Also it seems like we are ALWAYS busy and when we finally have a break to work on the paperwork, we decide to be lazy instead. No more though, its crunch time because I am happy to say that our homestudy is FULLY FUNDED!! Whoohoo! Its really funny because a few weeks ago i was really upset because we weren't able to save as much as I thought (from our own income) and I was certain we were almost a month away from being about to pay for the homestudy. But God is awesome and over the weekend we received a few donations from various places and BAM we are over funded!! Praise God!

~Abbey

Adoptive Families for Famine Relief...Update!

Praise God over $4000 was raised for famine relief!!!! In one day!! This is amazing!!Approximately $190 went to the World Food Programme, $425 to Doctors Without Borders, $1,085 to Children's HopeChest (most of that earmarked for the well at Trees of Glory), and $2,195 for World Vision. A few donations went to Samaritans Purse and Catholic Relief Charities. Thank you soooo much to everyone that gave!! The website is still up for anyone that still wants to support the organizes we have listed!

~Abbey

Adoptive Families for Famine Relief

Ethiopia, Somalia and Kenya are currently in the grips of the worst drought and famine in decades. Today, more than eleven million people are in need of food assistance, and unfortunately, the situation is only expected to get worse in the coming months. It is estimated that at least 29,000 children under the age five have died in the last 90 days in Somalia due to this horrible drought!

Another adoptive mom has put together a website to help provide relief for Africa from this horrible drought they are experiencing. It breaks my heart to think of my child over there right now suffering along with so many others. We are asking that you help us by donating to one of the recommended organizations on the website below. Several families (including us) have donated items for you to chose from if you donate $25 or $50. This drive is only for Thursday, August 11 and ends tomorrow night. Please give if you can!!

http://adoptivefamiliesforfaminerelief.weebly.com/index.html

For more info about the drought check these links:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/global-development/interactive/2011/jul/04/somalia-hornofafrica-drought-map-interactive

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/08/04/somalia-famine-children-dead_n_917912.html

http://youtu.be/pjVE4GEHW8I

~Abbey

Running to Z

I'm going to be honest, I have no idea how this post is going to end up, maybe a ramble or maybe I will actually compose something that makes sense to others? Who knows but I feel the need to write, to get some feelings of my chest as well as some updates. First I will say that we are so thankful for all the support we have had so far! I know a lot of people in the adoption community that have had some bad reactions to their decision to adopt and I can honestly say that we have not had that experience! We are surrounded by such amazing people! I know that we will have opposition for the rest of our lives but with the support system we have, I know we will get through it.
Right now our adoption process has kinda stalled. Yes we are still moving forward and nothing has really changed, it just seems that suddenly we are at a place where we have to wait. We have to wait on a few things before we can keep moving and it kind of feels like our feet are glued to the ground. Like no matter how hard we are trying to make a forward step, we just can't move. Thankfully though I know this is just temporary. I know we will very soon have the funds to send our social worker the check to pay for the home study, the doctor will re-fill out and re-sign our medical forms and Chris' social security card will arrive in the mail (well I hope it will!). But until all these things happen we can't move forward with our home study and this means we must wait. Anyone that knows me well knows I am horrible at waiting, seriously I'm BAD at it! I'm even worse at it if I think that I could be doing something about but can't. The worst part about my impatience is that I start to close up, especially to God. As I pull myself further from God I realize that a lot of the feelings that God has shielded me from are starting to creep back in. This scares me, I don't want to be back in that place. I KNOW what God wants for our family, for our future but slowly I feel like I'm forgetting. The feelings of loneliness and inadequacy have been trying to steal my joy about our future, trying to make me feel like adoption will never be "good enough" for me, that I will never be satisfied until I have a little baby in my tummy again. This saddens me for many different reasons, I WANT to adopt and I don't want anything holding me back from our future children, future as a family and from God and His plan. I want this to be more then just about us and our family! I just wish I wasn't so human! But even as I am writing this I can feel God's loving grace surrounding and reminding me of not only what I want but what HE wants (ha no joke the song that just came on my iPod is "Running to You" by Newsboys).
One of the few things that does help me with waiting is to have a tangible goal. Well of course with adoption there is a tangible goal, but right now the "goal" in my mind is a faceless, nameless child and well that hurts my heart! I want so badly to see his/her face and hear their voice. I'm so tired of say "his/her" so instead we are calling them Z! Yep Z! Why Z? While trying for baby #2 Chris and I were pretty set on girl name and a boy name but for some reason as we have transitioned into the adoption process, I keep coming back to a different boy name, Zachary (Zoe is the same girl name but for a different reason) and finally we decided that we will keep these names when we finally bring Z home. Both have great meanings and I feel are perfect for our child. Zachary comes from Zachariah which means remembered by God. I want our child to know that even though at one time he was an orphan, he was remembered and loved by God. Zoe means life and I want my child (well all children of course) to LIVE a life of love and fulfillment!
Something I keep saying and keeping trying to remind myself of, is that adoption, through God's lead, will ALWAYS happen on God's timeline. Every holdup and stall is for a reason. Our child will come home when God is ready for them to. I can either let it hold me down or I can use this time to prepare for the race ahead of us by praying and drawing closer to God. I choose to run to Z!!

~Abbey

"For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." Jeremiah 29:11

Newton Family Scentsy Fundraiser - Ends Aug 17

A week and a half ago a friend of mine, who is a Scentsy consultant told me that she wanted to use Scentsy to help us fund raise for our adoption. She mentioned this during the garage sale/rain craziness and I wasn't able to get back to her until later that day. Jonna, being the awesome person that she is quickly set everything up and started the online Scentsy party without me asking and without my help! How awesome is that! I am soooooo thankful to her for doing this for our family. Please check it out, I've heard great things about Scentsy (my order is in route!) and they have a great selection! Here is the link and just join the Newton Family Fundraiser party! https://jonnamcneely.scentsy.us/Buy/SetupPrompt

Also, anyone that orders in the first $1000 orders is automatically entered into a drawing to win a free fullsize warmer!

Remember that the online party has been extended till August 17th, so if you are interested in ordering, get your orders in by August 17th!

We thank you for your support!!

~Abbey

Don't forget to check out the Made with Love Event!!

Just a reminder to check out the Made With Love Event going on on a friend's blog. Our shop, A Novel Idea Crafts, is a sponsor and you can enter to receive a $15 gift certificate from our shop! There are also some really cool shops that you can check out and you can enter their giveaways too! Check it out : http://ftmommyferg.blogspot.com/2011/07/made-with-love-event-is-open_18.html

Im healthy too (for the most part)!

This morning I received a call from our doctor's office letting me know that but follow up blood work came back and things look great...except that my thyroid levels are stil a little high. She said its no biggie and I will just need to take a pill once a day and re-check it in 8 weeks. Though Im a little upset that I didn't get that "clear bill of health", I am VERY thankful that it is something small and won't stall our medical exams. Our doctor should be signing our forms today and tomorrow we get to check another thing off out list!!

Chris is healthy!

During all the garage sale craziness last week, I forgot to update that Chris received a call last week that his follow up bloodwork came back normal!! Praise God!! We are waiting for the doctor to have time to finish filling out the form and sign it (thankfully they have a notary on staff!). Today I went it to get my follow up blood work done and I should know something later this week. Praying it comes back normal and we can move on! Thankfully I have already been told that I was barely abnormal last time and I may just have to manage it with meds...still hoping for a completely clear bill of health though! We are getting closer to being able to turn in our homestudy packet!

~Abbey