Still waiting...

We are still waiting on our referral packet to arrive.  Last we heard, it should be translated by now and on its way to our agency.  We are hoping to have it this week, but that may not happen.  Things are looking more and more bleak for Claudia to be home this year.  This is very tough on us but we know that everything will happen according to God's perfect timing, so we wait and trust in Him.

You may have noticed that we took down the Chip-in for Claudia's quilt.  Why?  We did not see any progress with it.  We understand that it was not a fundraiser to get her home and there was little in it for you so we decided to call it quits.  BUT  Brenda and Emily and so super sweet that they donated the quilt to us anyway!  What a beauty it is.  Not only is it gorgeous but the lining is super soft, perfect for a child.  So without further adieu, here is Claudia's beautiful quilt:

The lovely packaged quilt

 

 



 

 

I wish I had better lighting to do this quilt justice.  I assure you it is masterfully made, excellent quality.  I urge you go to their Etsy shop: http://www.etsy.com/shop/masterpiecequilts and browse the available quilts.  These would make an amazing Christmas gift for a loved one!  Also, visit their website: http://masterpiecequilts.com/ to learn more about this Mother and Daughter team.  They are amazing. 

We will keep on waiting and update you when we have news.  Please keep us in your prayers as we wait and pray that the funding  will come in as we need it. 

Sweet Opportunity

We have been blessed by so many people along this journey, friends, family, and complete strangers.  Another has stepped forward with a lovingly sweet opportunity to bless our family and to bless our daughter.

Along our adoption journey, I have met a woman named Brenda.  Brenda is the owner of Masterpiece Quilts (visit her shop: HERE or her website HERE.)  Brenda has a beautiful daughter, Emily who has Down syndrome.  Masterpiece quilts is a two woman team of Brenda and Emily.  The Masterpiece in the name is Emily.  Emily picks out the colors and patterns of the quilts and Brenda quilts them.  Each quilt is an amazing work of love and shows the inseparable bond between a mother and daughter.  If you look closely, each quilt has one square that is slightly different than the others.

Brenda has offered to make our beautiful Claudia a custom quilt of her very own!  The quilts cost $85.  Here is where you come in.  Brenda has said that if we can raise the $85 she will not only make a quilt for Claudia, but will also donate $42.50 to our account!  What a blessing!  We are trying to get the $85 raised in one week, by Friday the 24th of August.  Can we do it?

I am adding a special Chip-in just for the quilt. 

If you feel led, please consider donating $5 or $10 for this quilt to be made for Claudia.

Thank you all for your continued prayers and blessings.

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.