November 30, 2011

UPDATE!!!

Thank you to everyone that helped support this fundraising effort on Cyber Monday. It was so successful and our friend Lolly was able to raise some extra money for our adoption! If you didn't get to check it out, look down at our last post.  There is a link to her company, which is AMAZING! 

Thank you again!

April & Chris

November 27, 2011

Cyber Monday Fundraiser



Just wanted to let people know about a fundraising / shopping opportunity from one of our Portico friends, Laurel Denise Smith--also known as "Lolly" by most.  Lolly owns her own jewelry & products company "Laurel Denise", where she uses her own handwriting to create beautiful, stunning pieces of jewelry & glassware, and much more.   She has graciously decided to donate a portion of her proceeds from Cyber Monday to benefit our adoption, and in addition, is offering free shipping on any of her products all day tomorrow, Nov. 28th, until 11:59 pm

If you haven't yet checked out Lolly's unique & intricate jewelry & products, click here to see her website.  She is a master at what she does!!  Her necklaces are absolutely beautiful and can be custom made.  Lolly's products can also be found on Etsy (click here

So if you are looking for a very special and unique Christmas gift, consider shopping here tomorrow to help benefit our adoption.  Be sure to type in "Happy" for free shipping!

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving with family!

love,

April & Chris

November 24, 2011

Double the Blessing

Happy Thanksgiving!  We wanted to take this time to let everyone know what a blessing they have been to us!  We have been completely floored by the generosity and giving towards our adoption.

We also want to update everyone with where we are in our adoption process.  Some of you have noticed that we have changed our fundraising amount from $21,000  to $28,000.  This is because we have decided to adopt... 2 children!!!  Hence, double the blessing! 

For awhile now, we have been praying about whether this would be a possibility, but weren't sure if we would even be able to raise the money needed for one child.  After the yard sale and an outpouring from those around us, both Chris and I were reminded that with God anything can happen.  We are going to proceed through this adoption in hopes that we can adopt two, but will be leaving it in God's hands.  I can't tell you how many times I had to remind myself that God was in control of the yard sale - and He proved Himself over and over.  We trust fully that He KNOWS our children and has already handpicked them to be in our family.

Within the past two weeks, we were given two different updates from our agency.  We were first told that our orphanage is moving away from allowing 2 unrelated children from being adopted at the same time, and are only allowing people to adopt sibling groups.  So this left the question in our minds about what happens if there are no sibling groups in our requested age range to adopt?  This also extends the length of the adoption process as we need to wait for sibling groups to become available. 

Then, this past Friday, our agency informed us that they will do everything possible to honor what they first told us to expect in this process. They will first look for a sibling group, and if one is not available, then they will work at trying to match us with two unrelated children from a different orphanage.  This was hopeful news!!! Just another reason why we feel comfortable with our agency, Generations Adoptions!  They have worked hard to communicate thoroughly and promptly with us. 

I am reminded daily to not put God in a box.  I can already see that He has great things in store for Chris and I, and that He wants us to trust completely in Him. I've learned these past few months, that He is capable of steering us in a direction that we never thought we would go. He changes our heart's desires. He walks alongside of us in the hard places and enters in with us.  He pushes, stretches, and grows us.  Yet... are we always willing to allow Him to do this with us?  Sometimes we allow our fears to hold us back. 

He has changed my heart's desire from wanting to give birth to my own child, to adopting one child, to now adopting two!!!  I'm excited to see what lies ahead.  The uncertainty of the future is scary and unpredictable, but it is also marked with hope and unbounding joy. 

Please pray for us.  We are about to start our first Home Study meeting which is set for December 2nd.  We're really excited to get this process going!!!  We'll keep you updated on our progress. 

Thanks for your continued support!

love,

April & Chris

November 5, 2011

Blessing Amidst the Storm

Matthew 14:31 "Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. 'You of little faith,' He said, 'why did you doubt?'" 

I'd have to be the first to admit that there were many times along the past few weeks that I felt "doubt" and worry about this yard sale.  This verse comes to mind because Chris and I had multiple conversations in the weeks leading up to this sale about how we thought we couldn't possibly acquire enough items to sell in order to put a dent in our fundraising.  Oh, how God showed us how little our faith can be at times!   

We started filling up our home 3 weeks before the sale and only had a small pile of donations in the corner.  But as word spread that we needed donations, our dining room filled up pretty quickly and it poured out into our living room and front porch.  We started to feel like hoarders

As we began to bring items to Portico Church on Sunday evening, we filled up 1/3 of the auditorium.  By Tuesday evening, we arrived to see that the ENTIRE auditorium had been filled with donations.  GOD IS GOOD!  I would have to compare it to when Jesus fed the 5,000, and often during this week, we felt God's faithfulness in supplying all we needed and then some.  If we had to guess the number of families that donated, it would be somewhere around 50+! 

Amazing!

Well, I guess a yard sale is what we would have called this adventure a few weeks ago before we amassed enough stuff to clothe an entire army, furnish multiple houses, and compete with Best Buy for the number of TVs and sound systems on display.  In five short days, we managed to turn the sanctuary of Portico into a flea market!
I remember the night before the yard sale, as we were finishing up our preparations, we checked outside to find that it was SNOWING!!!  I couldn't help, but get worried that this would keep everyone from coming to the sale.  BUT God is faithful - again, we had to trust in Him that HE would provide all we needed. 


"And my God will supply all your needs according to His riches and glory in Christ Jesus." Philippians 4:19

As we drove in at 5:30am, the morning of the sale, there was snow on the cars, pouring rain, and all of our yard sale posters had been taken down by the city workers.  I began to worry about whether people were going to show up. I grabbed the duck tape, a towel and some more posters and began driving around trying to hang them up.  BUT, because it was freezing the posters wouldn't stick to the posts!  I had to laugh to myself and ask God, "What are you trying to teach me at this moment!?"  And...yet, I knew exactly what He was teaching me. He was showing me countless times throughout this process that I needed to surrender everything to Him - that He knew the outcome even before we could dream it up.  

God not only touched the hearts of those in our lives to donate more items then we ever could have imagined, He also blessed us with over 100 volunteers!!!  We knew that our church family, relatives, and friends were amazing, but to see such an outpouring of love still overwhelms us.  We want to thank everyone who spent many countless hours organizing, loading/unloading vehicles, tagging items, baking/cooking food, collecting money, cleaning and setting up the church, providing us meals, and most importantly, praying for us. 

The total we raised for the day...$10,058!!  We thought we would raise about $3000 if the weather was good, and God surpassed our expectations.  We reached over half of our fundraising in one day!!!  GOD IS FAITHFUL! 


We can not thank you enough - Both Chris and I said that it was amazing that we raised that amount of money in one day, and know that we couldn't have done it without you!!  But even more amazing than the money, and something that will forever last in our memories, is the support we received from so many people.  Bottom line- we are blessed to have you in our lives and blessed to call Portico Church our home. 


Thank you for being such a blessing to Chris and I!! 



Shopping during  the yard sale


Our friend Alex wheeling and dealing


Christa & Jenn AKA "yard sale coordinators"


Kathryn & Jon selling the best cupcakes in the world!


Our friends Jeremy, Julianne, & Norah surprised us from North Carolina!


Jon, Alex, and Jessica helping out