Created for Care

Our youth minister and his wife have adopted domestically and they recently sat down with us to talk about their process. We are grateful supportive friends who will walk this journey with us.
Hope told me about this conference she was going to. She stayed up really late back in August to register for this weekend and the entire conference was booked in 2 hours. I looked it up, realized it was something I wanted to experience and signed up for the waiting list on wing and a prayer. You should note that I signed up 19 days before the January conference. I also signed up for the March conference wait list as well.
8 days later, I got an email from the ladies at Created for Care saying that they had an opening and if I wanted to come, I had to decide quickly and register. I was in Nashville for a girls weekend and frantically called home to ask Future Dad if I could be gone 3 weekends in a row. Nashville, DNOW, and now Created for Care. I could not have married a more supportive man. Love him!

Well, the weekend is here and I am in Lake Lanier, Georgia with 350 adoptive moms spending a weekend resting.

Rest....

Being with people who are walking this journey...

Being with moms....

I'm a mom...

Mom...

P.S. I'm fighting a bad cold... prayers for relief.

Dads become Granddads

This month was my dad's birthday. We are trying to be conscious of our spending, so we decided to make this year's birthday presents as economical as possible. We took some leftover flooring from our previous renovation and Future Dad used his new table saw to make the pieces smaller. He did a fantastic job. With the help of my Silhouette and a little paint, we created this

We made if for dad to hang in his office... then we found out his office is also used as the staff dining room. Here's to hoping he can find a place to hang it.

Isn't he going to be a fun Granddad!

1st Homestudy

EEK!!! Our first homestudy visit is MONDAY! You read that right.... in 3 DAYS! I thought we would have more time to prepare than just 3 days. When we had our orientation interview on Wednesday of this week and they said we would begin ths process within the month. I am grateful that we are able to move this process along fairly quick. (Here's to hoping the trend continues...)

I'm especially freaked out because we are leaving tonight for DNOW with our youth group. This is an in town retreat for all our youth and Future Dad and I are chaperoning. 

We are excited about it, but that means I will have Sunday afternoon and Monday morning to get my entire house in order. YIKES! 

I'm going to spend all my free time today making lists of things that need to be done. 

This is what I think my house feels like.... cluttered, unkept, messy.

This is what I want my house to feel like.... clean, welcoming, warm.

Ok people, how do you know a person's house is clean? What do you look for? Should I wipe down baseboards? Do I need to clean the ceiling fans? Any advice will help. I'm really bad at prioritizing. I tend to start cleaning the kitchen and end up organizing my kitchen utensils. Or I start to clean off a shelf and end up looking through magazines that were cluttering up said shelf.

Start filling my comment boxes with your cleaning advice... I only have 3 days for Pete's sake.

P.S. What do I wear?

Book 'um Danno

Last Monday was the day we had to get our fingerprinting done for our DHR Background Check.

Future Dad looks so excited.

I am a little worried that DHR won't accept my fingerprints because I have scar tissue left over on 6 of my fingers from when I was a little girl. It pretty much makes my fingerprints look like smears. It makes me unique in that my fingerprints are half gone. Thanks scars...

The officer and the staff that we worked with were really great. Thanks to our local police department for helping us so promptly.

Our Youngest Supporter

Got this awesome picture from our youngest adoption fan. Our friend Sarah, bought some hair ties and her sweet daughter ended up sporting some of them. I think she looks great. Hopefully she will share with mom! Ha!

We love pigtails!

Tax Credit Extended

$0.00 is the amount of adoption tax credit in 2013 if Congress did nothing and let it expire.

$12,770.00 is the maximum amount of adoption tax credit in 2013 since the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012 was extended. (credit)

I am not one for much political talk, but I am grateful that this part of the act was extended. This takes a small burden off our shoulders. While we will still have to have the $12,770 to pay up front, the following tax year we will receive a refund that will hopefully bring our total cost down to about $28,000 in the end. 

Praise God!

First Fundraiser- Hair Ties

Here is our first attempt at fund raising. We are guessing that this adoption will cost somewhere around $40,000, so every little bit helps. We are trusting God that all the funds will be available when they are needed. So, without further ado, here are the hair ties that are sweeping the nation...

These are hair elastics that don't leave a crease in your hair when you take it down. The Emi-Jay's were made famous by Jennifer Aniston, Reece Witherspoon, Kourtney Kardiashian and Sarah Jessica Parker. These are almost identical to the Emi-Jays.

We are selling these hair ties, 3 for $5.00 or 1 for $2.00. If you know of anyone with long hair, tell them about our blog. If you want some hair ties, let me know by leaving a comment below.

IT CAME!

Today, we got the phone call! We are an official adoptive family with Lifeline in Birmingham! They have accepted our application and as soon as our file gets put on the right desk, we will begin our interview/paperwork. 

Definately not the most recent picture, but it was the most excited-faced picture I could find of us! We were as excited about our marriage (5 years ago) as we are about our Hungarian children today.

P.S. I learned today that two of the children in my school are Hungarian. They are going to have to teach me some Hungarian. It is one complicated language.