Counting Pennies

Well, we have 11 days until we travel. We are still fundraising and hoping to raise the final funds needed to bring our Angel home. We have been tossing our change in a large jar for the past year or so. It's time to cash it in and add the money to our adoption fund. So far, we've rolled $186.35 in coins and we have one more small jar of change. Right now, every penny counts.

We just updated our fundraising activities to reflect what we've raised so far (see right side of the screen).

Don put my ring on EBAY - we are praying someone bids on it - if you are interested, click on the photo of the ring and you will be linked to EBAY.

Also, we still have some soap, candles, and lotions left from our "Mango Mania" weekend. We will be adding those items later today or tomorrow. Please stop by frequently to see what we are up to.

Thanks for your support,

Elizabeth

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So Much To Do........

First, let me apologize for not posting sooner. We have just been extremely busy. Despite our lists, excel spreadsheets, and stuff for Russia boxes we (mostly me) are just meeting ourselves coming and going. How can anyone plan for the unexpected?

Last weekend, Don had a toothache and bought himself an emergency root canal - he was down for 2 days. Needless to say, he is behind on his "honey do" list. Yesterday, I was painting our Angel's room and found myself flying through the air and landing flat on my back. Don heard me scream and came running. I have to say, the fall knocked the wind out of me. And by the time Don came in, I was just laying on the floor trying to remember how I got there. Then I started laughing, and laughing, and laughing - I must have really been a sight. Today, I am very sore and not able to get much done - I am not laughing anymore. Now, I am starting to fret about everything we have to do to get ready to travel in 12 days!!!!

We are asking everyone who follows our journey to pray God will provide the last pennies we need to bring our Angel home. Again, we have had a few unplanned expenses that are impacting our finances. We know who to blame for that (hint: his name begins with a S). He is just not going to let us have an easy time even as we get closer.

We are still working on fundraising for the last bit of funds we need. We are being blessed daily by the generosity of others and we are truly amazed at the response we've received. Two fellow adoptive families transferred Sky Miles to Don's account which will help with our Angel's ticket. We were very surprised to find out that they were able to transfer 5, 000 miles for $50.00 and Delta gave a 2,000 mile bonus for each 5,000 miles. If you are interested in transferring Delta Sky Miles to help us bring our Angel home, please email us at murrayadoption@yahoo.com. We currently have 54,000 miles and we need 90,000 miles for our Angel's award ticket - if we can use Sky Miles for her ticket it will save us $890-$1500.

We are so close and continue to pray. We have faith that God will provide - but our human nature gets in the way sometimes and we find ourselves worrying just a bit.

Don put my jade ring on E-Bay, we are still selling fundraising items through our online store (www.heartforadoption.net) , and I am tempted to ask the neighbors if I can check out their sofas and chairs for loose change (just kidding)! But, seriously, we are still thinking of ways to raise what we need. We only have 12 days and we are open to any suggestions.

Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Jesus Christ. Philippians 4:6,7

Thanks for following our adventure,
Elizabeth

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Happy Birthday Pappa - You Have a Court Date!

Woo Hoo! Yippee! Hip Hip Hooray!

WE HAVE A COURT DATE - CAN YOU HEAR ME SHOUT?

What a most wonderful birthday present for Don!

You know, if anyone has a doubt that our Angel is not to be ours, they just need to look at our story and all doubts would disappear. We have been in this process for over 3 years and we have definitely faced many challenges during our journey. But now, as we receive our court date, we know it was all in God's timing - we were just a little ahead of Him in our planning! Ha!

We slowed our adoption process down because of financial and health reasons in the fall of 2007. In January and February of 2008, we heard from our agency wanting to know our plans. We prayed about it and decided we should get our documents updated and resubmitted to Russia. We spent March through August updating our homestudy and dossier. Our timeline for the past 1 1/2 years looks like this:

• August 12, 2008 - Dossier to Russia (3rd times a charm!)


• September 15, 2008 - Heard from our family coordinator about an older girl


• September 16, 2008 - Contacted our family coordinator that we were open to an older girl, our little Angel


• September & October 2008 - Worked on regional documents hoping to be registered


• November 12, 2008 - Registered in Nizhny Novgorod Region


• December 4, 2008 - We got the call - referral for a little Angel


• December 5, 2008 - Phone consultation with International Adoption Physician


• December 8, 2008 - Accepted referral for our little Angel


• December 16, 2008 - Received travel itinerary


• January 9, 2009 - Left US for Moscow


• January 12, 2009 - MOE appointment and met our Angel (my birthday) Found out our Angel's birthday is the same day as my father's


• January 16, 2009 - Returned home


• January 17, 2009 - Let the fundraising begin!


• February through April 2009 - updated documents preparing to travel


• April 2009 - Unable to travel lacking finances - continued to fundraise


• May, 2009 - Updated documents hoping for June court date - Judge on vacation


• June, 2009 - Unable to get June court date - updated homestudy and dossier hoping for
  July court date


• June 18, 2009 - Documents sent for Apostilling lost


• June 19, 2009 - Told we would not be able to receive July court date


• June 24, 2009 - Documents still missing - began redoing all 22 documents


• June 27, 2009 - Missing documents arrived to our home via USPS - very strange


• June 27, 2009 - Updated documents sent for Apostilling - found documents sent to agency


• June 29, 2009 - Documents received by agency and sent onto Nizhny to be submitted to
  court on July 3, 2009


• June 29, 2009 - State unable to Apostille our updated documents because they ran out of
  Certificate paper - honest it really happened!


• July 1, 2009 - Documents Apostilled and sent FEDEX overnight to our agency


• July 2, 2009 - Documents received by our agency and sent via DHL to Russia - hoping to
  arrive in enough time to be submitted to the court on July 10 so we can get
  a court date in August


• July 10, 2009 - Heard our documents were submitted to the court


• July 16, 2009 - Heard our documents we okay but something was needed for our little
  Angel's documents


• July 19, 2009 - We received our court date!!! (Don's birthday)

Whew!!! And that was just the past 1 1/2 years!

Now, I don't want anyone just starting the adoption process become discouraged by our experience. We have had many many unusual things happen and our process is definitely not typical.

Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart. Psalm 37:4

Praising God and Dancing the Happy Dance,
Elizabeth and Don

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The Judge Has Our Documents!

Well, after many obstacles, the judge has our documents in NN. Now we wait and pray for a court date. We should hear next week sometime.
On our knees praying that we will return in August to bring home our little Angel.

I will wait for you, O Lord; you will answer, O Lord my God. Psalm 38:15

Thanks for stopping by -
Elizabeth

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Mango Mania Meltdown

This past weekend we participated as a vendor at Mango Mania. It is a popular event in Southwest Florida sponsored by the Pine Island Chamber of Commerce. We thought it would be a good idea to set up a booth and fundraise for our adoption as well as provide information on adoption awareness. We handed out fliers we made about us and our story with information about why people should adopt and/or support those who adopt on the back - we also listed some adoption statistics.

We had great expectations that we would raise over $1,000 based on what we heard from others who participated in the past. We contacted a company, Ladybug Blessings, and purchased some lip balms, soaps, fireless candles, and loofahs to sell as a fundraiser. Ladybug Blessings is a great company with a heart to help families with adoption fundraising and they were very helpful getting us started on our booth. They had a Mango Parade with a Mango Queen. We even got into the "Mango Theme" and had mango papaya soaps and loofahs as well as passion fruit soaps and loofahs. We also decorated our booth go along with the theme. We were up at the crack of dawn both Saturday and Sunday with great anticipation.

Well, meltdown is the operative word here. It was so hot, I swear the soles of my shoes were melting! You could see the heat rising from the asphalt. People were melting in the sun and seemed to go more for the Mango Smoothies than our Mango Loofahs! Sadly, we sold very little - we didn't even break even on the fee for our booth. We were very discouraged and felt quite guilty on our way home for spending money on such an event and not breaking even. This was so supposed to be the event that brought in last funds we needed to get back to Russia! As we drove home, Don was asking me, "What did we do wrong? Why didn't this work for us?" I just had no answer and really felt bad because it was all my idea! I prayed a lot about it before I paid the fee and really felt it was something God wanted us to do. I was definitely scratching my head on this one. I was just so sure God spoke to me about this festival.

As Don and I discussed what we felt was a major failure, I kept thinking there just has to be a positive here. And my mind kicked into gear looking for that silver lining I just have to find no matter what. And I found it!

I am convinced God led us to Mango Mania not to raise funds for our adoption but, instead, to raise adoption awareness. We spoke to many many people about adoption, why we decided to adopt, why we chose Russia, the number of orphans in the world, how to get started, where to get grants, etc.... So, if just one person we spoke to decides to adopt, isn't that worth our time and what we spent to be a vendor? Oh, yeah, definitely!

Once again, I am reminded that our fundraising efforts are more than just raising money (See It's More Than Just Raising Money) We may never know what impact we had that hot weekend in July, but I am sure a life or lives will be blessed because someone stopped to talk with us.

But as for me, I will always have hope; I will praise you more and more. Psalm 71:14

Blessings,

Elizabeth

By the way, we still have a lot of product that we did not sell, if you think you might be interested what we have, please email us at murrayadoption@yahoo.com.

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