Showing posts with label adoption. Show all posts
Showing posts with label adoption. Show all posts

Monday, June 3, 2013

Happy Anniversary

This weekend we celebrated our 18th anniversary - by having a garage sale! Yep, we did a fundraising sale on Saturday with the help of many donations from our friends! A garagle sale is a TON of work, just in case you didn't know...

Over the last couple weeks our friends have dropped things by the house for our sale then last Tuesday we started sorting through and grouping things - let's put all the hats & gloves over here, oh yeah, scarves too. Then we knew that more things would be brought closer to the day of the sale, so we waited to do more until Friday. Then came Friday! (sidenote: originally we were going to have our sale on Friday, but the weather was less than cooperative - rain, rain, rain.) We opened the garage to let some light and cool air in and then we started really going through things and pricing them around 10 a.m.We figured out sizes on bedding that was donated, cleaned up shelves and cubbies, put all the decor items together, put all the stuffed animals in a box, put all the shoes in a box, purses...you name it. We worked hard for about 4 or 5 hours. Then Alan's tooth started giving him, well, hell!

Back story - Alan had to have a crown remade, apparently it had cracked and it was less than 5 years old! So, he had to have the old crown taken off - which was bad because they don't just "come off," they are pried, cracked, and cut off - then they put a new crown on. Well, he was still experiencing some pain, then more pain, then unbearable pain. So at 3 p.m., Alan is standing in the doorway between the garage and the house with the phone in his hand. "Are you going to call?" I asked. "Yes," he replied. He came back out a couple minutes later and said he had a 3:30 p.m. appointment, so we dropped what we were doing and I took him to the dentist. Long story short, he ended up having a root canal (to which he would NOT say "bummer!" because it helped so much) and we didn't get back to it until about 8 p.m. that night.

So here we are, back to the garage, we continue sorting and pricing everything until about 10 p.m...except the clothes. UGH! How in the world are we going to efficiently sort clothes? Alan had hung up a nice rack in the garage and grabbed a bunch of hangers, but we still had to make signs and it was 10 p.m.!! So, I say, forget the clothes for now and we make signs. Around 11 p.m. we decide we should go to bed since we have to wake up bright and early to get everything pulled out, signs put on their respective intersections and get our game faces on.

Saturday morning, up and at 'em bright and early. Shower, get dressed and as I start pulling things out Alan heads out to put the signs out. By the way, it was a GRAND day outside - absolutely beautiful!! At this point, though, I STILL haven't done a thing about those darn clothes!! Around 7:45 a.m. my friends Andrea and Ruth show up (to shop) and ask if I need help - YES!! They spent about 15 minutes helping me getting those darn clothes either up on the rack or in nice piles on the tarp. That 15 minutes or so was like a lifesaver for me! While they were helping, one of Andrea's daughters is shopping and finds something she likes, and - get this - proceeds to pay me with a card...a hotel key card! So adorable!!!

Anyhow, we ended up having a good turnout and had great support from friends and earned some money to "help bring kiddos home" as my friend Vicki would say. Thanks to ALL of my friends who helped either by donating items for the sale, donating stickers and supplies, donating time, spending money or sending friends over. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

It seems as though spending our anniversary weekend getting ready for a garage sale is just one indicator of how things might be different when we have kids - but that's okay, bring it on and we'll figure it out just like we did the garage sale - with the help of our friends! :)

Friday, January 18, 2013

The Waiting Game

Classes started on Wednesday and so inevitably, I'm helping students with logins, passwords and course registrations. This morning I had to contact a vendor (via chat) to help one of my students get logged into her course. Ugh...chatting...and waiting...

So, I head to the wonderful internet and put in all my info and start waiting in the queue - you know, the virtual waiting line. It says that I am number 3 in the queue and that the average wait is 8:22 - not great, but not bad for this time of year. So I wait, and wait, and wait...I have waiting much more than the anticipated 8:22, but somehow the average wait time has gone DOWN to 7:02. I don't know how this happens when I have been waiting, and waiting, and waiting. FINALLY, I get to chat with John and tell him all of my troubles...about 9 minutes into our chat we are spontaneously disconnected and I am re-queued!! Now, instead of actually chatting, I am FIFTH in line...fifth? I've been waiting here for a while again, my average wait time is 14:52, but of course I have waited longer. I am now third in line and I "should be connected to an agent in about 33 seconds." Hmmmm...

It makes me wonder - are there a couple kids who are waiting? A couple of boys who felt like they were in the queue...some boys who thought that their average wait time has passed? My waiting is so very inconsequential compared to our future children. I wish I could speed up the process, but I do not know how to do that.

People have been asking where we are in our process and all I can say is that we are fundraising. I feel like I should have a better answer, but at this point, that's what we do, wait and raise money. I pray for God's timing in this whole process, I pray that our children do not feel like they have been re-queued.

BTW - I have been waiting in my queue as I type this...my average wait is now 10:58. :)

Friday, December 21, 2012

What Do We Know So Far?

So, in conversations with people - in-person and online - there are a string of questions, of course! Here are just a few of the most common questions:
  • When will you get your baby?
  • Do you know who you are adopting?
  • Where are you adopting from?
First, let's just say this: WE AREN'T ADOPTING A BABY...yeah, if you know us, you probably know that, but just in case it wasn't clear - NO BABIES, sorry ;)

Now, our plan is to look for two boys, aged 5 to 7 years old...that's our plan...who knows what GOD'S plan is though? We might end up with one of each, older kids, etc...(pretty sure He is onboard with no babies though!).

Second, and maybe obvious at this point, no, we do not know who we are adopting, yet. We are in the very beginning stages of this whole thing. We still have a lot of fundraising to do and a lot of steps. We'll keep you informed of the progress.

Third...where...WELL, this is a BIG one for us...we are adopting from Ethiopia! I know, I know...people will ask why we don't adopt locally or within in the US, but we feel called to adopt out of the US, we just do. We feel that if we get to choose our child, we want to make an impact and since we have choices, we're going for it! We believe that by adopting from Ethiopia we will literally be saving a life...or two.