Countdown to PH & Money!

We're on our 1^st of many countdowns towards getting our girls home! Our Preliminary Hearing (PH) is set for this Friday May 31.  That's only 5 days! At this hearing they will review our girls' file & officially deam them orphans so they may be adopted. From what we've heard, no news is good news after this hearing. We will hopefully hear something 1-2 weeks after this with our travel date. We could have a few days notice or a few weeks. It varies. Also at or shortly after this hearing MOWA (who is like our children's service) will review OUR file & give their approval for us to adopt these precious girls. We are praying this goes smoothly & quickly. We are praying there are no problems, delays or follow up questions. Praying they do not have ANY issues with Jeremy's health & that they will simply look at the medical letter that says he is fit to parent & leave it at that, no additional questions. Will you commit to praying the same? We are praying that we will travel by the end of June. We can't wait to meet our girls. I can't wait to have them in my arms. To hug them & kiss them to pieces! I can't wait to see all their little features. Learn their personalities. But I am NOT looking forward to leaving them for 3-4 months. That will be the worst thing in my life! I'm trying not to think about that part.

Also just wanted to give a recap of our fundraising. God has provided non stop throughout this adoption. I could never have imagined that this would go as quickly & smoothly as it has. It seems like it's been forever but it's only been about a year since the very beginning & in the adoption world that is very quick. God has provided all of the money that we needed when we needed it! We got a $6,000 Grant from Show Hope the week before we got our referral. We just got a $7500 Grant from Gift of Adoption Fund last week in time for our travel! We only need about $1800 or so for the remainder of our adoption expenses. That is just amazing! Some of the costs are estimated & won't know for sure for a while but I have no doubt God will provide this money when we need it!

Thank you all for your love & support! I will try to keep you all updated. Also if you haven't been following since the beginning I do want to apologize for my writing skills. I am NOT a writer & never claim to be. I just want to keep you all up to date on our adoption. Thanks for baring with me!

Also if you didn't see it on Facebook, here's our girls cute feet! (I can't wait until I can post their faces on here!)

Chelsea is on the left & Lina is on right. 

Thermometer

Check out the thermometer to the right!!!  Yes it is correct!!!  We are almost there!  I will try to post more later but so many of you helped us so much in getting to where we are that I felt you needed to see that yes it IS making a difference!  Even if it was only a little bit.  It ALL adds up!

Amazon Fundraiser

How often do you buy off of Amazon?  We have set up an account so we can raise money for our adoption by your every day purchases from Amazon.  You can use your same account, buy the same things & pay the same price.  We just earn a small portion of your purchases for our adoption.  All you have to do is use the below link.  You can save it as a favorite or put it on your task bar so you don't forget about it when you go to buy.  Easy enough right?  We're not asking you to go buy something just to help us but if you're already going to buy something on Amazon you might as well use our link so it can help us bring our girls home.

Lance Amazon Fundraiser

Please share with others!  Every little bit helps!

Thanks!

Soap Fundraiser

We're trying out a new fundraiser.  A fellow adoptive mother started a business selling handmade soaps.  Most soap you buy in the store has lots of chemicals.  These are made with natural ingredients.

Haven Bath & Body uses natural ingredients including sustainable palm oil and local non-pasteurized honey. Haven Bath & Body currently features 3 soaps, Oats & Honey, Lavender & Cedarwood and Cocoa Butter. Each 4 – 4.5 oz. bar retails is $5 (plus shipping if not picking up).  I have a sample of each of these if you would like to see, feel or smell them!  They are also introducing a new Tea Tree Oil Soap but I do not have a sample of that. 

Oats & Honey is good for exfoliating & moisturizing.
Lavender & Cedarwood is relaxing & calming.  This would be good for baby's night time bath.
Cocoa Butter is very creamy & moisturizing.
Tea Tree Oil is good for skin conditions like Eczema.


I must order at least 9 bars at a time.  Once the order is placed it will take 3+ weeks as they are made to order.    I am planning on taking orders now through May 19th & then will re-evaluate if we will place additional orders.


If you have any questions on this soap, please let me know & I will find out for you.


UPDATE: Check out this article on why this type of soap is better than commercial soap.
http://www.gardenofbeauty.net/5-reasons-why-natural-handmade-soaps-are-better-than-commercial/

Pennies & Prayers for our Girls!

As many of you know our Preliminary Hearing is scheduled for May 31^st for our precious Chelsea & Lillina! This is when they will review our children's cases & officially determine them orphans so they may be adopted. Also at this hearing MOWA (who is like our children's services) will begin to review OUR paperwork to determine if we are eligible to adopt these amazing girls! We need lots of prayer this month for our children & our case. I am praying that when MOWA looks at our file that they will sign off on it right away & not have questions or delay it. They are the ones that would look at Jeremy's medical letter & could have questions on his health. I am praying that they will see that the Dr said he is fit to parent, not have any additional questions & sign off on it right away. Once this is complete we will be given OUR court date when WE TRAVEL TO MEET OUR GIRLS for the 1^st time! I cannot wait for this day! Please pray that this happens right away & that we will be traveling by the end of June! We of course are also praying for our children as they wait on the other side of the world for their mom & dad! Pray for continued health for them!

For the month of June we are asking for pennies & prayers leading up to our PH (Preliminary Hearing). Will you commit to praying for us our & children???

We are also asking people that are able to fill a baby bottle with spare change for the month. Maybe it's only $5, maybe $20. Whatever you have in your pockets for the month or are able to give. We will take anything, pennies, quarters, dollars anything! We need about $2,000 before our 1^st trip & about $12,000 total remaining by the end so any little bit helps! We can provide you a bottle to fill or if you want to get a bottle yourself to give to us I will list below what bottles & sippy cups we will be using.

Basic Gerber Bottles (as they are used to using basic bottles there & I don't believe are using any of our fancy bottles that most use here) They can be found just about anywhere, even Kroger. http://www.toysrus.com/product/index.jsp?productId=19351236

Nuby Soft Spout Sippy Cups - Also everywhere, Kroger has these I think an older style but basicly same http://www.toysrus.com/product/index.jsp?productId=12535849

Munchkin Straw Cups – also found everywhere http://www.toysrus.com/product/index.jsp?productId=15301876&searchURL=false

Let us know if you need us to bring you a bottle to fill!

Again, if you aren't able to help financially, we STILL need you & your prayers are needed more than anything!

Will you give pennies & prayers for the month of May???

Feel free to pass this on to anyone else!

If you are on Facebook check out our event page.  https://www.facebook.com/events/484357614977257/ 

For more information on our adoption, contact myself or Jeremy.

Thank you so much!!!

Jeremy, Tara & Jack

Still waiting

Sorry I haven't updated my blog on our adoption but unfortunately there's not a lot to update! We're just waiting to travel for our 1^st trip to meet our girls!!! So here's what's happened since our referral on March 18. We were submitted to court on March 26^th. This is when all paperwork was submitted to court to begin the process of scheduling our preliminary hearing & our court date to travel. We found out on April 5^th that our Preliminary Hearing is scheduled for May 31^st. This is when they will review our children's files & officially deem them orphans so they can be adopted. If they knew who the parent's were they would come to this hearing as well as our in country director for West Sands. Since our girls were abandoned there are no parents to appear & our agency will not appear. We may or may not hear anything for a week or 2 after this hearing. MOWA (who is like our children's services) will review our file & issue their LETTER! This is what we want & we want it fast! This is the part I am nervous about. Due to Jeremy's heart condition I am worried they will have additional questions that will delay the process. I am PRAYING (and asking you too) that they will read it, see the Dr said he is fit to parent, sign off without a second thought & delay. Please pray for this!!! Once this letter is received they can issue OUR court date when we can travel & meet our girls!!! Based on recent timelines we should hopefully travel the end of June/beginning of July if there are no additional delays. That's still 2 months away for us to meet our girls! I CAN'T wait!!! We were originally planning to go the middle of May-middle of June at the latest so this is much longer than we planned. I know God has his perfect plan & I am TRYING to trust & be patient but it's so hard! It's unfortunately only going to get harder once we have met them & have to leave. Imagine giving birth to your child & then leaving them for 3-4 months! I don't think you COULD imagine that! I know they are taking great care of them there & the nannies love them but I am their mother & need to be with them! I will need lots of shoulders to cry on! Please bare with me during this time!!! We should hopefully be bringing them home in October.

As we wait we still have LOTS of money to raise! We have been truly blessed by everyone's generosity of donations & purchasing of fundraising items. I can't say thank you enough to everyone!!! God HAS provided & shown that there is no doubt HE is behind this adoption! We are still selling sheets! If you haven't gotten any of these, they are really amazing! I'm not just saying that so you buy some, they really are so much better than you can get for the price in the store! $35 for 1200-1800 thread count sheets. You won't find that. If you are local I am more than happy to let you see them! If you're not, just trust me!!! Check out our fundraising page for more details on these awesome sheets! As of right now we have raised a total of $29,998 out of $40,337 needed. We need an estimated $2,000 more before our 1^st trip. I have no doubt that God will provide!!! If you think of it in sheets we need to sell 112 more sets to meet this goal. My former co-workers are having a yard sale for us during the Trenton Yard Sale at our house. Praying we raise a lot there! We are taking any donated items to sell!

We have also been blessed by several families in our Facebook group for adoptive families within our agency. I don't know what I would do without this group! I have had several families go over in the last month & send us pictures of our girls. These are PRICELESS for us to see now & also have later to show our girls when they get older. I hate that we have a million pictures of Jack daily for the first several months & am grateful to be getting these pictures of our girls to keep! Until we pass court we are not allowed to post these pictures online but we ARE allowed to show them to anyone so please ask when you see me & I will be more than happy to show them off!!! I can't until we get an update on their weights. I have no idea how big they are. I was told at the beginning of April that they were about the size of a newborn & they were 2 ½ months old at that time. Keep in mind they were 3 ½ lbs at birth so they have some catching up to do. They look very healthy. I have been told they have very good eye contact & are alert.

I think that's enough for today!

Thanks again to everyone for your love & support! Even if you haven't been able to give financially your prayers are much needed & appreciated!!!

Haircut Fundraiser!

I had this posted on Facebook but forgot to post it on here. 

Tomorrow's the LAST Day!!!  Don't miss out on this deal & fundraiser!

Purchase a $40 gift card now for a haircut from Lisa Bentley from Salon Lofts to use in the next 3 months. 1/2 of the profit will go to us for our adoption. Regular price $45. Comment on here so I can keep track & send her a message to purchase or just send me an email if you don't have a way to contact her. She is located at 10002 Montgomery Rd Cincinnati Ohio 45242. You can also visit her Facebook fan page at Salon Bentley at Salon Lofts.