Sari Give-a-way!

I am so excited about our newest give-a-way! My friend from our Cambridge days (and mom to Nathan's closest friend there) is now living in Pune, India with her family. She is working with some local women to develop a business making beautiful saris for 18" dolls (American Girl size and similar). These saris are incredibly beautiful. Anna Faith has been drooling over this one all day. Janet's venture is intended to help the women in this city earn scholarships for their children. She tells me that this area of India is incredibly poor, and she is working out a way for these women to help their families with their impressive talents creating these saris--each is a piece of art in and of itself. According to Janet, these women are "provided training, equipment and a chance to work in their homes for wages they set; profits from sells go towards scholarships for their children."

First, I want to tell you how you can help Janet and the women of Pune! You can place an order for your doll-sized sari for your daughter's American Girl doll, or other 18" doll. Each sari is $25 and includes a bangle, gift bag, and bindi. $10 of each of these purchases goes toward scholarships for the children of the artisans. She is also looking for sponsors to help them purchase more sewing machines. These are $160 each. For more information, email help@deedeescottage.org and thanks for helping make a difference in the lives of these women!

On to the give-a-way...Janet has sent me one of these beautiful saris to give a way to you all. This sari is red and gold and comes with bangles and a beautiful bag in the same fabric. I can't tell you how beautiful this traditional Indian fabric is and I am sure the pics don't do it justice. Anna Faith allowed me to use her Julie doll to model. I will be giving this sari to one lucky donator. For each $3 donation to our adoption fund, you will get one entry. Just use the link at the right. You can donate even if you don't have a paypal account. I will also give you freebie entries for sharing on facebook or your blog-just comment here to let me know you shared. I am happy to ship the sari if the winner is not local. We are very close to traveling and have a lot of money left to raise, and we really appreciate each and every donation!

And remember, if you don't win, you can still order one of these beautiful saris for your daughter and her doll and help the women of Pune at the same time. Thanks!

Submitted!!

We were submitted today! Wow. God is showing off. Grace and Malachi here we come! I will update on DC soon. What a week! Help us fundraise! So close to traveling!

Painting Give-a-way

We have a beautiful, framed original piece of artwork to give a way by the artist Dan Bourne. It is beautiful and bright. The dimensions are 20"x24".

Here is a close up view of the color and detail:



Donate to our adoption fund to enter. Each $5 will earn you 1 entry. And let me know you if you share this give a way on fb or on your blog and I will give you an extra entry. Because of the cost of shipping this item, this will need to be a relatively local winner. Thanks all in helping us to continue our fundraising as we wait on a travel date!

Baseball Give-a-way Winner!

Congrats to my winner (and her boys!). We drew for this earlier today but then had to run out to softball ourselves, so I am just now getting this posted. Sorry!





Congrats Mandy Welch! I will be in touch about your Bases Loaded package and thanks to Bases Loaded again!

Lauren

Oh my. Sweet Lauren. She has stolen my heart with thos big brown eyes. They remind me so much of my Abigail. But sweet Lauren is across the ocean and has never known the love of a family. I would go get her in a second if it were at all possible. But I can't, so the next best thing is to help her family find her. Are you her family? Just look at those beautiful brown eyes. I am more than happy to answer any questions for you if you are interested in bringing Lauren home and showing that sweet girl what love is. Find out more about Lauren here.

So here we are

I still really can't believe we are in this place--both in the year and in this adoption. I can't wrap my head around it. On one hand, I am in total amazement at God's work getting our immigration approval so fast. We are so close to traveling and meeting our newbies. I can not wait. We were so blessed to hear news of them this week from the blogger that started it all. Corbett--the updates you have given me are priceless. She is at our orphanage adopting her sweet little man right now and who should she see walk by but our 2! She said Grace had little pig tails with red puff balls attached to them and is "just as beautiful in person as in her little photo" and she has a "soulful quality about her." Malachi was hilarious she said, "cruising along, not paying attention" and he has the "chubbiest little cheeks." And if that wasn't enough excitement, she saw them the next day too! She said "they both look super healthy" and Grace talked to her!! She said "she has a sweet voice and said paca mamma (bye mamma)" and she seems "really sharp and sweet." Malachi was "swinging his arms and marching through." I can. not. wait!! We are praying for favor in their country and speed with submission. We are so close to our decade plus long dream of adoption!

And then I can't believe we are at this place in the year already. I can tell you exactly what we were doing each day last year now. I have pictures for each of those as well. I'm so thankful for the blessing of having Eli 5 weeks before we lost Abigail so that I have such vivid, intentional memories of what would be those last days. I should be getting ready for Abigail's 3rd birthday party. It would have probably been this coming weekend like it was last year. I should be buying her spring clothes and giggling at her newest antics. Instead, I am trying to find the perfect flowers for her grave and plan some kind of celebration/fall apart for April 9th. How am I going to get through that day without holding her? And then to re-live those memories just 2 days later. God carry me through. I can't do it. I miss my baby girl and that longing for her is a constant ache in the depths of me.

The highest of highs and the lowest of lows. What a roller coaster this year has been. And then on Wednesday I get to go and share her story in DC. I get to beg and plead for legislation that would save lives, that might have saved her life. What an honor and oh how painful this is going to be. I dread preparing what I am going to say later today.

I am so moved by how many people my little bit has touched. I am so moved that she is still remembered and loved. I am so moved by how many lives are being saved, in part due to her story, through the beautiful tribute of adoption. But despite all of that, I just want her. I want her giggle and her dimples. I want her yelling and screaming. I want her demands and her purpose and her passion. I want to feel the weight of her in my arms and smell her dirty little neck. I want to battle with her over naps and eating and everything. I want to see her following her siblings and bossing everyone in sight. I want to see her play and scoot and fall down. I so desperately miss jump jump jump and her version of twinkle twinkle sung at the top of her lungs. I miss her not letting me hold the buggy while I try to push her through a store. I miss every bit of you little bit, even the hard parts--I loved those the most. Even in all our busyness and our excitement over the newbies, you are always at the front of my mind and I am suffering without you to the depths of my soul. Our reunion will be oh so sweet baby girl and I can't wait!

It's Off!

What a flurry of adoption activity the past 2 days have been! We had our immigration fingerprints taken last Thursday and so we called Monday to check on our status, and were quite surprised to receive our approval just a couple of hours later! Wow! That is unbelievably fast! Of course, we weren't expecting approval that fast, so Monday evening turned into a flurry of activity looking for a notary to get the last of dossier papers ready. I then drove those papers to Montgomery for apostilles this morning and shipped them out via UPS on the way home. Bye bye baby!

It feels good to get that step out of the way, but at the same time, I am starting to panic-ha! We have so much to do to be ready to travel and to bring 2 children home. I can't wait but I am so tired just thinking about what we have to do!

Lot of people have asked me what comes next. Basically, our dossier will now be translated and submitted to our Eastern European government. We will wait on them then to invite us to travel to meet our children. Once we accept their referral officially (and fill out lots more paperwork etc) we will go before a judge and prayerfully become offically their parents. After a 10 day wait after court, we will be able to spring them from their baby house and get a new birth certificate, passport, visa, etc, and bring them home! The entire process takes around 6 weeks in country.

I have also thought so much about how God is redeeming our April. He is bringing beauty from our ashes with the timing of this adoption. At this rate, we are likely to find out our travel date around April 11th. These children couldn't begin to replace my spunky one, but they are giving us a reason to keep moving through this dark valley. We love them even though we haven't met them yet, and we know that they will have their own spaces in our hearts, just like each of the others. It is has always amazed me how we are designed to love each child with our whole heart, even if we have a house-full.

On the fundraising front-we still have a long way to go. God is providing, but with the speed of this process, it is hard not to get discouraged. We have faith that the funds will be in place as we need them. We are still selling coffee and t-shirts (see the right here) as well as having a new give-a-way for baseball lessons (see below). Thank you for all your support!

I hope and pray that we will be able to announce submission and then a travel date very soon! And I would love to be able to announce that we are fully funded.