A Few Updates

So it’s been a while since I’ve blogged...life has been…well, CRAZY! We are still waiting for our USCIS approval. They received our application on April 20th and they tell you it takes 1 ½ to 2 ½ months to get. We went for our fingerprints last Monday, which they schedule for you (which was only 3 weeks after the receipt date, which is pretty fast, I think) Recently, I’ve seen people reporting getting approval within about 6 weeks. We are hopeful this will be the case for us, which would mean we would receive it sometime the 1st week in June. Fingers crossed. This would be helpful in getting our notarization, certification, and authentication done earlier and allowing us to hopefully be able to send in our dossier early. My goal is to turn in our dossier the first part of July. However, we KNOW that this is all in God’s hands and that everything will be done in His perfect timing! But patience is not my best trait! "It is not for you to know the times and dates the Father has set by hi own authority." (Acts 1:7)


So fundraising…WOW! Can I just say that we’ve been doing this crazy fundraising thing for four months? Four months. That’s all!?! It is unbelievable to me that we have raised $21,000 already! I’m serious. How can this be? It is nothing short of a miracle. Again, I CAN NOT express how incredible grateful we are to God, first and foremost, but also to the people who have helped us out by spearheading fundraisers and for those who have so generously donated to our cause! Thank you! From the bottom of our hearts! Thank you! Speaking of “thank yous”, I so apologize that I haven’t properly and/or formally thanked all of you who have helped with these fundraisers and by donating. We HAVE received your money. We DO appreciate your efforts! Thank you! I am WAY BEHIND on writing thank you notes. I have the best of intentions. I really do. In the beginning, I sat down every Sunday and wrote notes for the donations that came in that week. I thought I had a good handle on it. But now I’m SO behind…like weeks. Months. BEHIND. So if you have contributed, please know that we are so grateful and that you WILL get a thank you note. Eventually! "With man it is impossible, but with God, all things are possible!" (Matthew 19:26)


We have just finished up a MAJOR fundraising event…the oh-so-dreaded GARAGE SALE!! For Natalie’s adoption, we held three, yes three, garage sales-one at home, one in Birmingham, and one in Tupelo (where Todd’s parents lived at the time). We raised a lot of money, but oh. My. Goodness. It was A LOT of work. We swore we would NEVER have another garage sale, as long as we both shall live. Well…I’m here to tell you, we did it again. Just one this time, but it was BIG! It was two weekends ago. And if it weren’t’ for a free massage the next day and a free vacation the week after, I might still be recovering! Talk about God’s perfect timing! (Long story on the free massage—it was a real one and by a professional! And the free vacation was a work trip for Todd—5 days at THE BEACH—no kids. Thank you very much!) So we did this Garage sale thing once again and we had SO. MUCH. STUFF donated to us from friends and neighbors. Stuff just kept pouring in! We held the sale for two days and the people just kept coming. We hardly had a break. We made over $3300 just selling mostly “small stuff”. And we still have several “big” items that we now have listed on Craigslist that we hope to sell to add to this total. I have to say, I AM ready to have my garage back…stuff, be gone!

The Noonday Jewelry party was also a success. We had a great turnout of ladies and sold lots of jewelry. Ten percent of sales went to our adoption fund, which turned out to be a little over $200. I am so grateful for Heather Loden for opening up her home and hosting this event! We are also so grateful for Belle Cromwell, who was the Noonday Ambassador for this party! She so generously and unexpectedly matched what was raised (plus some) from her own pocket--$300! Thank you so much, Belle!! So this party raised a little over $500 to help us bring Zack home! If you want to learn more about Noonday, order jewelry, or host a party, click here to visit Belle's website.

So after the garage sale we decided that we would take a break from fundraising for a little while. We now have enough money raised and saved to get us through everything up to the travel costs (we think/hope!) Well…seems God is ready for us to keep on truckin! We applied to do a Both Hands project a few weeks ago. I didn’t really know if we would be chosen to do it. For some reason, I expected we wouldn’t. Well, we got a call two days ago…WE'VE BEEN APPROVED! So, onward! Both Hands is a very cool thing! In a nutshell, Both Hands help families fund raise for their adoptions. A family gathers a team of volunteers and Both Hands coaches them to coordinate a service project fixing up a widow's home. The family and their team raise sponsorship for their day of service and the funds raised help an orphan be adopted into a forever family! More details about this project to come! We are very excited about this opportunity--not only about the chance to raise the remainder of the money we need to bring Zack home, but also for the chance to serve a widow while doing it! "Forget yourselves long enough to lend a helping hand." (Philippians 2:4)

More to come with details about this project. Stay tuned…

Guess Who's "Paper Ready"?!?!

So, remember the little guy I talked about in my blog while I was in China? The two-year-old who has Down syndrome and a cleft lip/palate? Click here and here to read those posts.

Well...he's "paper ready"!! And he has had his lip repaired (which I already knew because I asked about him back in December, but I haven't seen pictures of him with his repaired lip until now)! His file is coming soon to America World Adoption Association. And He needs a family!

So, I was asked to write up a post for AW's blog about him to tell his story and to help find him a family. They posted it today...with recent pictures of him! I'm so happy to see him so happy!! Now, I want to find him a family! Will you help me? Maybe you've been considering adoption? Maybe you know someone who has. Please share this little boy's story with everyone you know. I just know his family will find him!

Here we are together!

Muffalettas, bread, and jewlery...oh my!

Wow! We have had so many wonderful people working so hard to help us raise funds for this adoption. We are so incredibly blessed! Just a little update on a couple of fundraisers that family and friends have been doing to help us bring home our son!

First, the muffaletta and hummus sale my family did at Prince of Peace Catholic Church in Hoover turned out to be a HUGE success! I posted after the first weekend that we were so incredibly overwhelmed just by the generosity we received that weekend. My family took pre-orders again after every mass the next weekend and then took a break for Easter weekend. Then, the week after Easter they were busy, busy making hummus and muffalettas to be delivered after the masses that following weekend. They ended up making more than 250 containers of hummus and about 225 muffalettas. So many people were so kind to volunteer their time to help my dad assemble the sandwiches and package everything. Thank you so much to: Joe and Pam Sinopoli, Brenda Boyd, Stacy Rohn, Marie Bateh, Cindy Crook, Heidi Monte, and of course my parents! Thanks also to my sister-in-law, Heidi Monte, whose idea this was and who helped organize the fundraiser and to my brother, sister, and brother-in-law for all of the time they spend after mass taking and delivering orders. A special thanks also goes out to Najis Pita Gourmet in Birmingham, who so generously sold my dad the hummus ingredients at a significantly discounted price and donated several packages of pita bread! We ended up raising $8673 after all expenses. This fundraiser far surpassed our expectations and we feel so incredibly blessed and grateful!

Second, Todd's mom decided to do a fundraiser making her delicious homemade honey wheat bread several weeks ago. She sold the bread mainly to her neighborhood via the neighborhood Facebook page and raised $466! Another amazing blessing!

Finally, a friend of mine, Heather Loden, hosted a Noonday jewelry party at her home yesterday, where 10% of the sales will go toward our adoption. The party will be "open" for another week and a half, so if you want to order any beautiful jewelry (mother's day is just around the corner!), you can order by visiting www.bit.ly/heatherloden. The really cool think about this jewelry is that it is all handmade by women from impoverished areas around the world and the profits go to these women to empower them and help them provide for their families. Really cool stories you can read about on the website! I don't know the total we have raised from this fundraiser, yet, since it is still open. But I will update soon!

I read a passage in the Bible when we had just begun this journey. Two of the verses stuck out to me: Deuteronomy 1:9, 13 "You are too heavy a burden for me to carry alone...choose some wise, understanding, and respected men from each of your tribes and I will set them over you." When I read these verses, I related this to our fundraising...the enormous amount we had to raise is "too heavy a burden" for us to carry alone. I knew that we would need "wise, understanding, and respected men" to help us raise these funds. This truth is unfolding so amazingly, as so many people have stepped up to help us. We thank you all from the bottom of our hearts! And most of all, we thank God for working his miracles in our lives!

Puzzle Update- Week 9

So we got a little behind in our puzzle assembly. We have been so blessed with donations pouring in over the past few weeks, we simply could not keep up! Thankfully, over the weekend, we had a little help from Gigi and Pops and were able to catch up! We now have 677 pieces assembled! We are 2/3 of the way finished. Please help us spread the word and continue to add pieces to our puzzle. Each piece is $10 and we will put your name (or whatever name(s) you wish) on the back. You can buy as many pieces as you'd like. When it's finished, we will frame it with double sided glass and hang it in Zack's room, so he can see all the people who helped bring him home!. Here's a picture of our progress!

Home Study- Complete! On To the Next Steps

I just reviewed the draft of our Home Study Report! Our social worker said that it should be finalized by the end of the week! Yipee!

The next step in the process is for us to apply with USCIS (United States Citizenship and Immigration Services), which can take 6-8 weeks to get approval. This part seems to be pretty simple (once you fill out the 16 page application!) While we wait for that approval, we will continue the "paper chase" gathering all of our dossier documents. The good news is that almost all of the documents needed for the dossier have been gathered and notarized, we just need to get them all certified and authenticated, which seems, at the moment, to be a daunting task! Then there are just a few small things that will require a little work on our end that don't have to be notarized like making copies of of our passports, and putting together a couple of family photo pages.

If you're wondering what certification and authentication involves--just about every document in the dossier has to be notarized. Then, each notarized document has to be certified at the state level (the state in which it was issued) and then authenticated at the appropriate Chinese Consulate. There are several Chinese consulates and each state has a designated one. Since we had to order certified copies of our birth certificates and marriage certificate (from Alabama-where we were married, Louisiana-where I was born, and Ohio-where Todd was born), we've already sent those documents to the appropriate state for certification. Once we get those back, we will send them to the appropriate Chinese Consulate (LA and AL go to the Houston Consulate and OH goes to the New York Consulate, both of which don't allow you to mail the documents. You have to use a courier service). Here's the daunting part. All of our Tennessee documents not only have to be certified at the state level, but at the county level, as well (TN is one of the states that requires this extra step)--the county where the notary holds their certification. Of course, we ended up with notaries from three different counties we have to receive certification from. From there, we take it to the state, which thankfully, we can just drive everything up to Nashville and take care of in one swoop. Then, Tennessee's assigned consulate is the Chinese Embassy in D.C., which requires each document to be additionally authenticated at the U.S. State Department before going to the Embassy. So, yes, that's FOUR certifications/authentications PER DOCUMENT we have notarized in TN, which if your curious is about 15 separate documents.

Also during this waiting period before we complete our dossier, we will be working on completing the required training, which includes reading three books on adoption (the first one of which has been very good and informative so far) and 12 hours of online training (10 are China specific and 2 are for adopting an "older child").

The great news is that as soon as we can get all of this completed, we can submit our dossier to China because we now have enough money to make the payment that is due with that step!! All praise and glory be to God!! It will all have to be submitted to our social worker no later than the end of July so that it can get to China by August 15th, which is our deadline for holding Zack's file.

Once the dossier is submitted to China, I believe it will be 2-3 months before we travel. Not 100% positive on that timeline, yet.

Many have asked if Zack knows that he's being adopted. At this time, he does not. Once we receive our official referral approval (RA) from China, they will tell him and we will be able (required, in fact) to send him care packages (with photos of our home, family, etc., to help him begin to adjust to the idea of coming home).

Please continue to pray for us during this long journey: For us to persevere through these next steps. For our documents to arrive safely and timely to the designated places and back to us so that we don't lose any documents or have to do any over. For us to continue to be blessed with the funds needed to pay the fees for the future steps. And prayers for Zack, that he is healthy and happy, and has a sense of peace and knowing that he is soon to have a family.

It's Not Our Story

We have been so incredibly blessed over the last two weeks. If you've been keeping up with our blog, you've probably noticed that our thermometer has jumped $7,000 since the last post, putting us almost at the half-way mark for our goal...in just two short months, we've raised a whopping $11,581. Isn't that amazing!?! It's miraculous! God is SO GOOD!! When he wants something to happen, you better believe it's going to happen! Just say "yes" and let him do the rest!

Most of this increase is from a fundraiser that my parents and siblings have decided to hold at their church in Hoover, AL, Prince of Peace Catholic Church (The church we belonged to before we moved. The church where we were married). Dad is making his delicious muffaletta's and his soon to be famous hummus. It's famous in our family already. Best hummus I've ever had. So Todd and I attended all the masses (ehem! FIVE masses) this past weekend. We spoke after each mass to tell "our" story and to kick-off the fundraiser (well, we only ended up getting to speak at four of the masses. We didn't get to speak at the Saturday evening mass. Long story. But four was plenty!) We took pre-orders after each mass. To say it was successful would be an understatement. When we left Sunday night, we had already raised $4100. And they're taking orders next weekend after each mass, too! Boy, my dad's going to be busy cooking in a couple of weeks.

And just in a week's time, another $2500 has come in (a $500 donation from the Knights of Columbus at Prince of Peace, a check for $1000 from a couple who was moved by "our" story at church...complete strangers! Angels, if you ask me, and two $500 checks from family members, angels, also!). After each mass, people came up to us and told us how great "our" story is. It felt a little awkward saying, "thank you". And after I thought about it, I came to the conclusion that the reason is because it's not OUR story. God is the author. He is the one writing this beautiful story. We are simply the main characters; going where he leads. If God is calling you to do something, GO! No excuses. He will provide you with everything you need. He will make miracles happen to show his power. Let him work through you. We are so blessed to have this opportunity and to witness first-hand his almighty power!

"With man it is impossible, but with God, all things are possible. (Matthew 19:26)

"Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us." (Ephesians 3:20)

"Let not the wise man boast of his wisdom or the strong man boast of his strength or the rich man boast of his riches, but let him who boasts, boast about this: that he understands and knows me, than I am the Lord, who exercises kindness, justice and righteousness on Earth, for in these I delight." (Jeremiah 9:23-24)

"But let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord" (2 Corinthians 10:17)

The Mayor's Granola Update

So, I mentioned before that Todd's cousin and her kids decided to do a fundraiser for us selling homemade granola. Well, we received the money from the fundraiser last week and they raised $500! We are feeling pretty blessed right now!! God is good! Thanks so much, Josh, Dava, and kids!! We love y'all!!