Thursday, June 8, 2017

One Piece at a Time

For those of you that know me well, you know I am very nostalgic and crafty, especially when it comes to my kiddos.  I spent a lot of time getting ready for and documenting pregnancy and newborn months with each of our girls and tried to find ways to create keepsakes for them for when they're older.  Well, as we work towards adopting our son, I am once again looking for ways to document the time, effort, prayer, and in this case, the people that have gone into making him an Eddie.


Michael and I are generally very self-sufficient people and rarely ask for help, especially when it comes to money.  We know that God wouldn't put this calling in our hearts and not provide for us one way or another. We trust that it will all work out in His time and according to His plan.  Maybe you are a part of that plan, too. It is not easy for us to fundraise for our adoption, but we keep reminding each other that it's for our son.  It's to give this small orphan child a family, a home, and a hope for a better life. It's to give us one more sweet kiddo to love on and the girls another sibling to play with, argue with, and adore. We can't do it alone. It's going to take a lot of prayer, a lot of paperwork, a lot of guidance, and a lot of support from our village of family and friends. It's going to take a plan far bigger and better than any of ours.





In order to show our future son just how many people were lovingly involved in helping bring him home, I have created this puzzle that we will display in his room.  For this fundraiser, you can purchase a piece of the puzzle, either by purchasing one of my cookbooks, donating directly to our adoption fund, or contributing items/time for our garage sale we are planning for later in the summer. Have another idea of a way you can help? YOU ARE AWESOME! I am all for suggestions! Then we will write your name on the back of a puzzle piece.  When it's done, we will frame it in an open back frame so we can take it down and show him every single person that played a part in this chapter of his life story.  Right now, it's all going towards the $5,100 that we have due at the completion of our home study. (which will be very soon! EEEEK!)

Wednesday, June 7, 2017

Our first Disney trip! 2017

In the midst of completing our adoption home study, preparing to send Annalyn to kindergarten and Emma to preschool, we got the pleasure of escaping to Disney World for our first Disney vacation as a family (and first ever for Michael and the girls).  Luckily, we've been planning this trip for years (since I was pregnant with Annalyn and went to Disney with my mom), and it was entirely planned and paid for before we even started our adoption.  Honestly, I still had a hard time with spending any extra money, so we had groceries delivered to us and packed almost all our meals outside of the couple we'd pre-paid for.  This was one time I was so glad that I had planned ahead so far in advance, because we enjoyed every minute of the trip I never would've planned after starting the adoption process.  After promising the girls for years that we would go before Annalyn started school, I'm glad we were able to follow through with it while they are both in the short-lived magical stage.