Give Away Does NOT End Tomorrow!

Hello all!  I have so much to blog about, and I will do it soon, I just need to get my thoughts together and organized!  So for now I wanted to let you all know that:

***TOMRROW IS NOT THE LAST DAY FOR OUR GIVE AWAY***

That's right , so if you have not had a chance to enter yet, don't worry, there is still time! Click here:
http://www.prayingclaudiahome.blogspot.com/2012/06/give-away-continued.html 
AND make sure to leave a comment that you shared/donated to be entered to win one of these great prizes:

An herbal neck wrap and eye wrap set from Comfy Creations http://www.etsy.com/listing/50940291/herbal-neck-wrap-eye-pillow-set-hotcold

A 5 pack sampler set of Honey Tea from Honeyteathyme shop is here: http://www.etsy.com/shop/honeyteathyme?ref=pr_shop_more,

A spa pack including: Sugar scrub, lotion, a candle and bath salts in a DELICIOUS Vanilla scent from Rustic Ridge Creations, Shop here: https://www.etsy.com/people/kimberlygoddard1

$25 Target Gift Card

Tutu

Photo Credit

Custom Made Emma Skirt

$50 Amazon Gift Card

$25 Gift card to the Cheesecake Factory

Photo Credit

Hand made little girl’s Pillow Case Dress in any size 2-6 (Several colors and styles available)

Kisses From Katie

Package of 3 vintage sewing patterns (your choice out of a huge collection)

A hand made scarf purchased in South America (we will purchase and bring back to ship to you)

Kaleigh is the one running the give-away and she is currently in Latin America with her family as they adopt TWO precious little girls.  This is super exciting but has also made the logistics of shipping the items in the give-away difficult so we are extending it for a short period of time instead of making people wait a super long time to recieve the items!  I will update you soon when we figure out when it is going to end.  Sorry for the confusion!

Sorry for the lack of posts...

I have been so terrible at posting lately and am sorry for that!  Things here have been a roller coaster ride of sorts!

Last Sunday was my birthday, Happy Birthday to me!  It was also Fathers Day!  Jason and I spent a nice morning together, he made me breakfast of eggs, bacon and toast :)  We had a good time at Church and spent the afternoon together before heading over to his parents house for a nice dinner with his parents and grandmothers.

Jason is such an amazing husband and I thank God for him every day.  We have come a long way in the nearly ten years we have been together.  We cannot wait to really begin the journey of parenting.  Jason is so excited tat he even "helped" Claudia pick out a birthday present for me! 

Isn't he just too awesome!  I did have to point out that it says for ages 4+ but he says we will help her!  Haha, I love that man!  She also "gave" me a card:

I love it!

This past weekend on Thursday, Friday and Saturday we had our BIG garage sale.  You would not believe how huge it was.  Seriously!  We had the garage and sun porch completely full PLUS the equivalent of 5-6 tables in the driveway, two huge tarps in the driveway, a retaining wall covered in items and the stuff on the ground!  It was A TON of work but it went very well.  Overall we made a little more than $800 for the adoption including the donations.  We had some wonderful friends posting about the sale on Facebook and I posted it 3 times on craigslist.  We had a great turn out on all three days!  My 6th (ok now 7th) graders Abby and Grace showed up to help out on Friday, they did an awesome job!  I love those girlies :)  The sale was sooo much work.  We spent several evenings tagging and setting up everything, trying to organize it and then getting it outside WOW, garage sales are very tiring.  Today I am just trying to relax, I am whipped but it was so worth it.  I got to spread the word about Reeces Rainbow and the troubles that children with special needs face in other countries.  The postings that our friends did on facebook not only brought people to our sale but has also helped bring money in from outside of the sale, how awesome is that!?  The leftover items from the sale will be donated to our Church's yard sale benefiting our special needs ministry called the Friendship Ministry.  Win, Win, Win for everyone!

I want to thank everyone who donated items for our sale and everyone who posted and re posted about it on Facebook.  It is because of you that it was such a success.  You are all such wonderful people, THANK YOU!

After a nice week it ended with some not-so-good news.  We are still running into difficulties with our agency about our psychological report.  They don't like the way it was done and are requesting more changes that our Psychologist does not seem to think need to be made.  Please pray that they can overcome their differences and do what is right by us and for Claudia.  We are on hold until this can all be resolved and we are unsure of how long it could hold us up, possibly for 3-4 weeks.  We do not want that at all!

More to come as we get more info.

Pushing forward

Hello my friends.  I know it has been a while since I have posted anything.  Things have been very busy around here.  Jason has been putting in 55 hours a week at his job and just picked up a second job to top that off.  I can't wait until this adoption is paid for and Claudia is home so that I can see my husband regularly again!  I have been doing quite a bit of pet sitting over the last few weeks to earn some extra cash :)

Next week is our yardsale!  Please keep this in your prayers as we are still about $2800 away from being able to submit our dossier.  Praying for a miracle.  The sale will be June 21-23, if you are in the area feel free to stop out and help support us.  On Friday of next week my friend is throwing a fundraiser for us by selling her Arbonne products and donating her profits to the adoption.  How awesome is that!?  We also still have the puzzle fundraiser going and could really use some more names to put on those pieces Click HERE!  The give-away will run until the end of the month Click HERE.

As far as the adoption goes we are still waiting for our FBI background checks to come in.  We had our Psych eval done and are waiting for that to be approved by our agency and sent to us.  We had our biometrics fingerprints done for the USCIS and are awaiting their approval.  I also have to get my paperwork to our Doctor to be signed and sent back to us.  Once this is all taken care of we have a bunch of papers to be notarized, certified and then Apostilled so that we can send them off to Claudia's country.  It seems like a lot but really we can see the light at the end of the tunnel!

My birthday is tomorrow, I get to share it with all the wonderful fathers out there for Fathers Day this year.  It would be such a blessing for me and Jason, the soon-to-be father, to see our donations grow tomorrow and through the upcoming week.  Please consider donating to our FSP HERE or to our Chip-in on the Right-->.  Use your donation to get something for yourself  through the give-away, purchase coffee or purchase something from this blog or my Etsy shop.  So many ways to give and also get something in return. 

We have had so many people bless us thus far through our journey.  We are amazed at the generosity of complete strangers, acquaintances and friends.  We hope you will continue to pray for us and follow our journey through to the end.  We hope that our story will be a blessing to others and even an inspiration.  We just want God to use us to further His Kingdom and do His will.

Prayer requests: Please join us in praying for the following: Claudia's health and safety, our paperwork to come in quickly, for financial blessings, that the officials in her country will find favor with us, and for safe travels.

I will update you all when we hear back from those we need to hear from and of course let you know how the yardsale went!

Application and Payment DONE for Psych Eval

One more step forward. 

I just submitted the paperwork and payment for our Psych Evals.  We take our MMPI-2 tests on Monday, have our interview later in the week and then our psychologist writes up our report, has it Certified and will send it back to us!  So happy to have finally found someone to do it AND she seems like an excellent Psychologist with TONS of Adoptive parent evals.  If anyone else is having trouble looking for a licensed psychologist, let me know, she can do them for just about anyone in the US and sometimes for other countries!  Convo me for more information.

My mom took me out to lunch today, it was so nice of her.  We went out to the local Chinese buffet, the food is never great but for whatever reason, I love it! Anyway, I am not one big on fortunes  but...

Quite true, although my family includes so many more than my biological family!  I can't wait until Claudia can join this family and be a part of our home:)

On another note, another thing happened today:

Kaleigh is such an awesome friend.  On top of the giveaway HERE, she is hosting a puzzle fund raiser HERE!  Kaleigh has purchased a lovely 500 piece puzzle!  You have the opportunity to "buy" a piece of the puzzle for just $5, your name will be written on the back of your piece.  Once each puzzle piece has a name written on it, it will be assembled , framed and given to us to hang in Claudia's room.  You can be a permanent part of her journey and she will get to see the names of all of the generous people that helped to bring her home.

Here is what the puzzle will look like completed

Here is an example of what the puzzle pieces will look like with your name put on them!

As  always, thank you for your prayers and support.  We are working hard to bring this beautiful girl home soon!

UPDATED FOR GIVE-AWAY

Ok, here are ALL of the items in the give-away, all on one page.  The give-away is running until the end of this month.  Don't miss out on some awesome items donated by some lovely and generous people! (Click on the pictures for a larger view)

1. An herbal neck wrap and eye wrap set from Comfy Creations
See an example of it opened here: (the one pictured on the blog is what you will get)
http://www.etsy.com/listing/50940291/herbal-neck-wrap-eye-pillow-set-hotcold

2. A 5 pack sampler set of Honey Tea from Honeyteathyme shop is here: http://www.etsy.com/shop/honeyteathyme?ref=pr_shop_more,

3. A spa pack including: Sugar scrub, lotion, a candle and bath salts in a DELICIOUS Vanilla scent from Rustic Ridge Creations, Shop here: https://www.etsy.com/people/kimberlygoddard1

4. $25 Target Gift Card

 

5. This lovely Tutu

 

6. Custom Made Emma Skirt! From Flannel Queen

 

7. $50 Amazon Gift Card

8. $25 Cheese Cake Factory Gift Card.  YUM!

9. Hand made little girl’s Pillow Case Dress in any size 2-6 (Several colors and styles available) from Na-Da Farm Life

 

10. The Book Kisses From Katie

11. Package of 3 vintage sewing patterns (your choice out of a huge collection)

12. A hand made scarf purchased in South America (we will purchase and bring back to ship to you)

 

How to enter: Donate your desired amount to our Chip-in or Reeces Rainbow FSP Account:

 

$10 = 1 Entry

$15 = 3 Entries

$25 = 5 Entries

 

or Post on FB/Twitter to get one free entry

 

Then GO TO Kaleighs Blog: www.prayingclaudiahome.blogspot.com and LEAVE A COMMENT on her blog that you donated or posted and how much (how many entries).

 

Simple as that :)  12 items to give away, great odds so far!