These are some of the things we are selling to help with our adoption funds. I have another craft show this weekend and I'm really hoping to sell a lot of my hairbows and magnets! Not only that but just hoping to get our story out there to more people so maybe just maybe more people will take a minute and think about orphans and what they can do to help. Most of the paperwork for our dossier will be in the kids country early next week and the rest hopefully a week or so after that. So now the waiting will begin on the paperwork side and the serious begging for help with our fundraisers will start. We will need to have the rest of our funds by the time we travel in a couple of months hopefully.....so wanna buy a bracelet? or a hair bow? or a hair bow holder? or sugar scrubs? or glycerin soaps? lol thought I'd at least try!!! Well be praying for my friends Janice and Tim while they are over in the country right now geting ready to go see their new kiddos. They have already met them so its just a reunion but its still a scary process for the kids. Tim and Janice also need some more money due to some medical issues here with their youngest son. If you feel generous they have a tax deductible acct through Reeces Rainbow and I am having an auction for them on facebook the page is called Auction for The Rowe Family, adopting two teens from Eastern Europe.

We have bracelets for sale to help fundraise!!! There are two sizes available, adult and youth. The adult comes in light blue and green and the youth comes in pink or orange. They say "Love creates a Family" and on the bottom it says James 1:27. Jared chose this saying because it applies to all families no matter how they were created. Our family is bio, step and adopted but that doesnt matter...family is family. Each bracelet is $5 and can be purchased by making a donation to our grant account through Reece's Rainbow to the side of the screen which is tax deductible or by donating to our chip in which is not tax deductible. In other news I drove to the state capitol today to have most of the paperwork for our dossier apostilled!!! Still waiting on a few more things but part of the paperwork will be heading to Masha and Leonid's country this weekend with another adoptive family that is graciously taking it for us! So I'm really tired and ready for bed!!! But we almost have met our matching grant we only need $520 by October 31st in our Reece's Rainbow acct to receive a $2000 grant from a friend!!! So excited and thankful to those who have helped us! We are lucky that we will get news about both our kiddos in a week or so from friends who are there adopting now! I'm so ready to hear how they are doing! We hear from Masha sometimes but this will be the first news we will get of Leonid! That family is there right now adopting two teenagers from the same orphanage as Masha and are not fully funded:( Their youngest son Atticus was diagnosed about two weeks ago with Leukemia so that of course has caused some financial bumps, I am hosting an auction on facebook to try to help them. If you are interested please let me know!!! The fundraiser auction page is called Auction for The Rowe Family, adopting two teens from Eastern Europe. It is a page so you can search for it and "like" it.

Paper Pregnancy

I was having a hard time even thinking of what to call this post so I just called it what it is, paper pregnancy. To tell the truth I'd much rather go through a physical pregnancy than all this paperwork! I have been both kids of pregnant before and even all the morning sickness and hormones and weight gain are nothing compared to an international adoption. The amount of paperwork required for it is crazy huge and very stressful. You have to make sure everything little thing is perfect every i dotted correctly, every t crossed just right. Right now we almost done with our home study, there were a few paper work issues that delayed it getting done sooner:( We went ahead and have started on our dossier paperwork while we wait for the home study to be completed. We know we are going to miss the November cut off date for submitting everything before the country we are adopting from shuts down for the winter but we are hoping to at least have eveything done so when they do open again we will be one of the first families to get a travel date. I would love to be there before our girls birthday but I dont think thats going to happen. Another family we know will be traveling next week to go adopt their two kids who happen to live in the same orphanage as our girl so we are excited to hear how she is doing. Unfortunately the probably wont be able to go see our boy "Leonid", they adopted from his orphanage before but dont think they will be able to go back and visit but I'm praying maybe they can just one day go see my little guy. Tonight Jared and I are going to have the rest of our paperwork for the dossier notarized then we will have to send it all to the team to check it for errors and if it is correct I can drive to Austin soon to start having it all apostilled. It feels like its never ending but I know after I get all the paperwork done and am just waiting and fundraising I will feel even more helpless since i will have no control over any of it anymore! I just want to see my kids and have them home:)

Anyone interested in a coach diaper bag for $10??!!!

Ok I have a 6 month old authentic Coach messenger style diaper bag that I bought brand new and have barely used it, maybe a dozen times or so. It still looks brand new. How would you like a chance to own it for only $10??? I'm going to have a flash giveaway for it that will end Saturday October 6th at 5pm. All you have to do to enter is donate $10 to our adoption grant through Reece's Rainbow for 3 entries, if you want more entries you can buy additional entries for $5 each and get one free one for sharing my blog on your facebook page or blog. You have to comment here on this blog post to let me know that you either donated and how much or shared the post and where. I also will need your name so I can get a hold of you if you win!!! After the giveaway is over I will ship the bag to you on Monday! Any donation you make is tax deductible as long as you donate to us through Reece's Rainbow, I also after the giveaway will be splitting the total amount raised with another family that is adopting and is listed on Reece's Rainbow. The two children they are adopting are in the same orphanage as my girl! Below is the link to donate to our tax deductible grant account! I can take more pictures of the diaper bag, it has a light purple interior and is the coated material that you can wipe clean. Dont forget to let me know you entered!!! Thank you!!! www.reecesrainbow.org/sponsorwilliams-4

Manic Mondays

Today was definetly a manic Monday for me, Ashlyn was moving suuupper slow this morning getting ready for school. Kaeden had such a messy diaper I had to give him a quick bath first thing and Savannah kept flopping around like a fish out of water while I was trying to changer her diaper! Then I couldn't find Kaeden's lunch kit for mothers day out today so he took his lunch in a target plastic bag!!! I had planned on taking the new to me jogging stroller to the park to walk a few miles after dropping off Ashlyn and Kaeden but since we were running late I didnt have time to load it in the suburban, and tomorrow is out I am going at 8am to get my medical exam for the adoption paperwork. Fun times, not. I gathered all the documents today that Jared and I can go ahead and get notarized tomorrow so we can start on this huge monutain of stuff for the dossier. I knew it was a lot but geez, how did you other parents who have done this before survive??!! Especially those of you with lots of kids???!!! It doesnt help that I hate paperwork, always have! In my previous job as a hiring manager at Bath and Body Works I hated the hoilday seasons like Christmas and Mothers Day when we hired a bunch of people because of all the paperwork I had to fill out for them to be hired then trained. I was good at training people and organizing a stock room and getting stock out fast, not paperwork so this is like a nightmare for me! I'm going to go today and get a few small gifts to send over to Masha with a family who is traveling this month to adopt two kids from the same orphanage she is in. Apparently she was very excited about getting something, I told her in our last letter I was sending something for her and the missionary said Masha told her several times that day that she was getting presents. To a child that has nothing even the smallest thing seems special. You should have seen her when she was here and we took her to target and let her choose whatever shoes she wanted she was shocked! Well nothing really new to report jusr paperwork, paperwork, paperwork. Oh yeah and trying to get ready for a yard sale Friday and Saturday.