Ladies' Tea Party Fundraiser!

On May 15th, the culmination of much hard work and planning finally went into effect...
our Ladies' Tea Party!

My dear friend Lynne had donated, over a year ago, a beautiful queen-sized quilt she had made. She originally made it to raffle to raise funds for a missions trip years ago, which ended up not being needed. So, she offered it to us for our fund-raising efforts. With us not wanting to go the "raffle" route, Lynne concocted the idea of an event for women which would have the quilt as its door prize!




















We asked Rose at the Inn at Tern Lake if we could use the great room at her Bed n' Breakfast (a gorgeous local establishment that hosts wedding receptions-including Tricia and Jerry's almost six years ago!), and she graciously offered the space free of charge!

I asked six special women if they would serve as hostesses...and they all willingly offered their help! They each tried to sell tickets ($15 admission), and exuberantly took on the task of decorating their table in hopes to win the "People's Choice" award for most appealing table! Rebecca won the prize for the best table...she had all of the kids at her table, and had an African theme, complete with African animal masks for the kids to wear!





















Everyone seemed to have a delightful time visiting, and it was a wonderful opportunity to bring awareness to the orphan crisis. I created a "Trivia Quiz of the non-trivial sort" using Ethiopian statistics...such as the population of Ethiopia, then the number of orphans in the country, the median age, and percentage of children who die before age six. (There was a prize for those who got them all right)! I also showed a clip from the Show Hope DVD...and it was a somber education for many in attendance.

We had a buffet with a delightful assortment of goodies that our friends and family helped to make. There was live background music provided by our friends Keith and Kristin (who also play on our worship team), and my friend Virginia on the keyboard. It made the atmosphere so inviting to have their beautiful music playing!

We also had a silent auction going throughout the tea party. We had so many donations...my friend Mel made a lap quilt, my friend Willow made a lamp, there were lia sophia items from my mom and Pampered Chef products that I had gotten for free with the fundraiser parties I'd had, artwork and ceramic pieces from my friends Sue and Melissa, framed prints of nature photography from Tricia, a fishing charter for which I had traded out goat buck!, small household items from my friend Rosella, a big sketch of Teddy Roosevelt and a handmade bedframe from my friend Judy, and more...I'm taking a big risk by trying to list everyone individually! We were just blown away by the outpouring of love and support to pull this event off successfully!



















The most fun came when it was time to do the drawings at the end of the party! Melanie offered her flower arrangement to draw a name to win, and of course the drawing for the quilt! I had Lynne pull the name out of the basket, and she pulled out my friend Jill's name!!! I was so thrilled that she won, as she and her family are in the process of adopting two children from Rwanda!














The whole event was such a blessing to us, and I pray it was a blessing to those who were involved in various ways! And the final result? $2025 raised towards our adoption fund!!! Praise God!!!

(Thank you, Tricia, for taking all the lovely photographs of this event)!

The "List"

It may be unofficial, but it's a list.

I recently joined our agency's yahoo group for families in all stages of adopting from Ethiopia. It's an amazing group of supportive, encouraging, PRAYING families, and I feel blessed to be a part of it.

One of the adoptive moms in the "secretary." Sometime I'll have to ask her how she got roped into the job! But one of the amazing things she does is to keep track of everyone's DTE dates, the age and gender of the child they requested, and puts everyone in a nice tidy spreadsheet.

This list has a lot of benefits. Basically, it lets us know at a glance where we are in the line-up for baby girls. As families receive referrals for their children, we can see how that affects our family. It also keeps us in prayer for families that are preparing to travel and for families that are having court dates.

There is one definite drawback to such a list. It. becomes. consuming. As in "trying to not get our hopes up, but look where we are in the line-up now!!!" The other drawback is that it is an unofficial list...there may very well be families that have NOT joined the yahoo group, and as such we don't know if they have DTE dates before our own. It can just lead to some major disappointment.

For these reasons, I am so glad that I didn't join the list any earlier...it would have been agonizing to watch our name creep up the list ever so slowly. As it is, when I joined last week, I realized that we were somewhere around number 12 in all, and at about #7 or 8 for baby girls!

BUT, the past two weeks have seen a MAJOR amount of movement, with court dates being set for families that already have referrals, and LOTS of referrals being given!

Believe it or not, we are now tied (another family has the same DTE as we do, and also requesting a baby girl) in 5th place!!! Actually, I should say we're tied for 4th place, as one of the families ahead of us had requested either gender, and they were just notified that they will soon have a referral for a baby boy.

I still can't believe it...only 3 or 4 more families need to receive their referral for a baby girl, and then it's our turn!!! Two of those families just received an email notifying them that they are "on deck" and will soon have their referrals.

To think that through this whole process, God is moving things along in His timing, knowing each family and knowing each child that needs a family, and He is matching them up in the best way possible!

Three!

Three months down! Only 5-8 months left in our wait time for a referral!

Tick-Tock!

I know I didn't get it posted yesterday, but I certainly thought about it...

We are TWO months down in our waiting game! our 8-11 month wait for our baby girl is now a 6-9 month wait, and I already know what it feels like to be pregnant for that long (though I'm actually losing weight time time around rather than gaining it)! :)

lia sophia fundraiser!

I don't know if you're familiar with lia sophia jewelry or not, but the ladies in my family have really come to love their stuff! My mom became a lia sophia advisor over a year ago, and so she graciously agreed to do a fundraiser for us!

This past Sunday we had a party here at the house, and most of the ladies who attended are also working on collecting orders from their friends and family.

Do you like jewelry? Do you have gift-giving occasions coming up? Do you have an outfit that needs an update?

You can be part of the party, too! Here's how:

Head to my mom's website: www.liasophia.com/lindajoy

From there, you can view the entire catalog online. Enter Wendy as the hostess, and start shopping! The entire commission on the sales, 30%, will go directly to our adoption fund! If you have any questions, just email me or my mom (her address is on her website).

The only clincher is that this fundraiser will only last through Sunday, March 21st...so hurry! And if you're not in the market for any jewelry, we still need the most important support of all: Prayer! Thanks so much!

Silver Lining

To all those who have commented, emailed, or called about our discouraging news...THANK YOU!!! We feel so blessed to have such an amazing support group with us through this!

As far as the changes being instituted in the Ethiopian Federal Court, they are really quite positive overall. Very hard for us mid-stream, yes, but overall positive for the country and the children.

And, there is more to it that I didn't realize...the silver lining is there, after all! I'm just going to copy below what my friend Jen left as a comment on our last post (Jen, have I told you lately that I love you?) :), and please correct me if I'm off on my explanation here!

Jen adopted her daughter Gigi from Kazakhstan, which requires a a trip for court prior to bringing your child home. With the court proceedings handled ahead of time, the newly adopted child travels to the US on an IR3 visa, which means that as soon as they step foot off the plane, they are a US citizen.

Jen just adopted her son Gav from Ethiopia...obviously prior to the newly required pre-travel court trip. Her husband Jim went over, and came home a week later with Gav! Without the pre-travel court trip, the child is granted an IR4 visa, and is not technically a US citizen, (and I think maybe not even recognized legally as your child in the US), until you go through the re-adoption process in the US court system.
Put the pieces together: adoption + paperwork + US court system=hassle + $$$.

With that background in mind, here's Jen's perspective:

I am sorry you are facing yet another financial burden. Ugh!

There is definitely lots of good news in this, and your finances may not actually take that much of a hit due to the elimination of the readoption fees.

Ironically, it was just yesterday when I was grumbling to myself, "If we adopt from Ethiopia again, we're traveling over pre-court. No more of this IR4 business!" It is one big hassle! Gigi came home on an IR3, and it was so simple! Not to mention, with the IR4, there is all the readoption stuff which requires a lawyer, and upwards of $1-2k extra about 3-6 months after our kiddos come home. No more lawyers or expensive readoption fees (or travel for American court) for an IR3 visa. It's a beautiful thing! :-)

So yeah, needing more money is no good. No good at all. But there are quite a few positives too. Having done it both ways now, if I can help it, I'll never bring home another kid on an IR4. It might be a little more expensive, but in the grand scheme of things it's actually a good thing.

I hope that didn't come across as preachy! I just was hoping to give you a little peace knowing that once you overcome this new obstacle, the benefits are quite positive.

I do have more peace about all of this now...but more fundraising news headed out soon!!! :)

Not the change we hoped for

We received an unexpected email from our agency today. There has been a change in court policies enacted today by the Ethiopian Federal Court. Here's the news:

Beginning today, families need to be prepared to travel to Ethiopia approximately 4 - 8 weeks after receiving a referral in order to be present in Ethiopia for their appointed court date. Families will remain in Ethiopia for roughly 5 -7 days and will then return to the US. After officially passing court, families will then travel back to Ethiopia approximately 10 -12 weeks later to pick up their adopted child(ren).

There are still many details to be worked out, and many questions that the answer people don't even have answers for yet. But I sure have questions that I'm sure will have answers soon enough!

I know we're supposed to give thanks in all circumstances, and I'm trying. But I'll admit that this is pretty discouraging...lately, as folks have been asking me how the process is going, I've responded with "Great! Our dossier is in Ethiopia, and we only have about $8000 left to raise." But this will change that a bit. I've done flight searches from Anchorage to Addis Ababa, and the lowest ticket price I've seen is $2500. Per person. Basically, this change will mean we need at least $5000 more, maybe more.

What can we say? Not much, other than it will keep us on our knees longer-which is always a good thing, and it gives God the opportunity to shine even brighter, right?