Auction Items

Some people have asked what items we have donated for the auction, so here is a complete list as of today! Lots of great things!!


Pastor Whipple's Tie
Colts Tickets
Chicago Condo
Florida Condo
Baseball Card Collection
Plane Ride
Free Family Photo Session
Tropicanoe Cove passes and Ice Cream
Joel Brovont Concert and 3 Papa Murphy’s Pizza
Family Fun Night and 2 Papa Murphy’s Pizza
Piano Lessons
Piano Lessons
Smores kit
Burp Cloths and Bibs
31 Bag
Girls size 1 Dress
Hairbows and crochet purse
Summer shawl
Necklace from Egypt
Dollhouse
2 Freezer Meals
Cake
Cinnimon Rolls/Cake
Bacon/cooler/turkey
$25 Hunters Pub Giftcard
Pie Certificate
Cup cake Certificate
Crochet Lessons
House Cleaning and supplies
Red Seven and Rubia
Lawn Mowing
Enterprise Weekend Rental
$30 Jimmy John’s
2 McAllister’s Meals
Chipotle Lovers (3 free meals, 2 half price meals, 1 free chips and guacamole)
Noodles & Co. Lover (5 free noodles, salad or soup)
2 Hours Computer Clean up
Ice Cream Cake
3 Pizza Hut Pizzas
$20 Moe’s
Cracker Barrel 2 Meals
2 Rounds of Golf and Balls
2 Rounds of Gold and Balls
Golf Lesson
3 Month Membership
$100 Miracle Fitness Card
Painting
Canvas with quote
Bath, Body and Candle Basket
Coffee/Tea Basket
Changing Pad, Piggy Bank and wipes
$15 Java Roaster/books
$10 Sonrise diner/books
$10 Sonrise/books
Tea Set
Pat’s Hats
ESV Study Bible
Jane’s Gourmet Deli and Sandwich bag
Horse Drawn Carriage Ride

Auction Update

Oh my word, this auction is coming together!!! I met yesterday with my sweet friend Cara who is one of the women helping me put this auction together and we nailed down a lot of details and got all of the items that are donated into categories. One thing (and I say one because there are many) that has totally blown me away, and I have probably already written about it but I seriously just can't believe it, is how generous people and businesses have been. It is unbelievable.

Every single bit of the dinner has been provided. I mean every bit-from meat to sides to desserts to napkins to plates to forks to knives....every single bit. We have almost 50 items for our silent auction-restaurant gift cards, paintings, an ice cream cake (I wish I could bid!), rounds of golf, cakes, meals, a doll house, children's accessories and clothes, you name it and we probably have it donated in some form. We have several items for our live auction-a condo in FL, a condo in Chicago, a plane ride around the Lafayette area and more. If you live in the Lafayette area, you are not going to want to miss this. Most of this is from our church as well as businesses in the Lafayette community. It is so crazy to me how willing people are to donate to help us bring our baby home. It is such a reminder of God's goodness to us in this.

Well, I just wanted to give you all an update on the auction! I would also ask that you pray for God to open up situations for us to present to. We are so wanting this sweet baby God has for us so we need Him to open up the doors for us as we go along on this beautiful journey!

I love paperwork!!

You may think this blog title is sarcastic and I guess in some ways it is. Who knew there'd be so much paperwork involved in this?? I do love paperwork though because every piece of paperwork brings us one step closer to our child. We just sent off 4 agency applications which means once they receive and process our application we will be able to present to birth moms (to know what that means check out my previous post). The consultant we are working with also has several other agencies that call her when a situation comes up. So now we are in the waiting game. We will wait for a situation to come available, have our profile book presented and then wait for the birth mother's decision.

Here are a few pictures of what my last few days have been about:

First we started off with a pile of paperwork. Each of those is an application to a different agency. All of them require different things so the post it notes are to help me know what we were still missing.

I then ordered 13 (yes 13!) profile books. We have to send multiple copies to the agencies so they can present them to birth mothers. Let me tell you how much Walgreens loved me. Tuesday night I called to make sure they had enough material to make all of those. I then called back because the manager had given me a discount coupon and I couldn't figure out how to apply it online. I then realized I was going to have to send my order in 7 different times. So of course I called back to let them know that and that no I would not be picking them up at 3 a.m. (the time the computer told me I could go get them). Basically Kyle-the poor guy answering the phone at the photo dept.- and I are best friends, he loves me I'm sure of it!! Look at that stack though-seriously people?

Now let me tell you how much the people at Quality Print Shop (which has a post office too) love me. As you can see I dominated their counter. I'm telling you there were photo books and applications everywhere! By the way, the people at Walgreens and Quality Print Shop were awesome and so helpful even though I thought I was probably driving them crazy!!

And finally it was time to send it all off. Of course there were bumps in the road. I forgot papers at home-twice and I couldn't figure out if I had the right address for one of them. But at the end of the day they are headed to their destinations. We know this a vital step in bringing our someday baby home.

Side note: Who takes a picture of their mail anyway???

Well it's been another crazy week, but it's so worth it. We can't wait to have the baby God has for us! This is an exciting step of our beautiful journey!

Adoption Words Defined

Two posts in one week-can you believe it?! Well, most of our paperwork (for now) is filled out and on it's way to where it belongs. Lately we have been filling out a lot of grant applications, but we mailed out the last one today! I thought I'd post today and define some adoption words that I will be using a lot over the next few weeks and months so I don't have to explain it every time I write about it. So here ya go!

Situation= a birth mom is wanting to give her child up for adoption

Profile= a photo book (think a Shutterfly photo book) with pictures of Heath and me explaining who we are, how we met, where we live, our family, our friends, how we celebrate holidays, why we want to adopt, etc.

Present= showing our profile book to a birth mother

So basically the process is we are made aware of a situation and get asked if we want to present to the birth mom. If we are interested we then get information about her and sometimes the birth father-mostly just medical stuff and why they are wanting to give the child up for adoption, etc. We then say yes we want to present or no we don't. The reason we would say no would vary for lots of different reasons, but we will say yes to most situations. From there, if we have said yes, then they will present to her and the birth dad if he's around. She will then choose from 3-4 families (typically). What happens next really depends on the situation. Sometimes you go meet her, sometimes you just go to the hospital when the baby is born...it all just depends and varies with every situation.

That is in no way a full explanation of all that goes on, but those are the basics so now if you see me talking about those things, you will know what I am talking about and what the process may look like!

Love and Support

Sorry I am a little behind on posting. I try to post each week, but time just got away from me. Last week was full of paperwork. We are trying to get our grant applications out asap and hoping that we will get some. Heath and I also had a "get away" this weekend. We just went to Indy for the weekend, but it was so nice to not have a computer or any paperwork to fill out. Anyway, on to what I want to write about today...

When Heath and I started this adoption journey we had NO idea what we were getting into. I mean we did our research and Carlee answered about a bajillion questions (and still does), but to start this whole process is overwhelming. As bad is it sounds, one of the most overwhelming things has been thinking about how we are going to pay for this. We decided we were going to do our part and save like crazy and we also knew we would have to trust God to raise what we needed.

It has been unbelievable to me (and humbling and encouraging and the list could go on) the love and support we have received. Our family, friends and church family have amazed us already and we've only just begun. People have been so encouraging of us-sending us texts, telling us they are behind us in this, praying for us. We already have people committing to donate. Our church is hosting an adoption dinner/silent auction to help us raise money and people that I have met only a few times are helping get donations, making donations, helping with the meal and just coordinating the event in general. Businesses and people are generously donating things. It's crazy! Heath and I are just blown away by how people are wanting to help us. When I say thank you to people it just doesn't seem to capture what is going on in my heart. I don't really know how to express the gratitude I have.

All of this is to say thank you to those of you are loving on us and supporting us. We are humbled by all of you. This is also to say if you are thinking about adopting, jump in! It's an unbelievable way to see God at work for you. After so many discouraging/dark months of infertility, I feel like a light has come back on in our lives. It has been so neat for us to see God work for us in this.

As for an update: our home study is COMPLETE!! Carlee totally rocked and pounded it out for us. We love her!