Looking Forward!

With our kids set to arrive in a few weeks (and for the past few days, seeing all the pictures from the other host groups) it has brought to mind all the fun "first experiences" that many families and kids will experience this summer. (And brought back all the memories from previous hostings)

My kids have all been hosted before (obviously), and two have been to America twice already, so we won't get to have the fun experiences that many will have. (As the host kids are completely in awe of so many things at home and so many experiences-it really is a special thing to experience for a first time) Fun "firsts" last summer for us- first time at the movies (he was in awe), first time at a restaurant, first time playing water guns (he finally came out of his shell) first time he called me mama, first time he told us he loved us, teaching him to skate.....oh my goodness the list goes on and on!

It's always such an interesting experience to learn their personalities, interests, and preferences. I am SO looking forward to getting to know both 2.0 and S even more and really getting to know V!

I am looking forward to taking 2.0 and V to the beach for the first time. I don't think it will be quite as beautiful of a beach (or as warm!) as last summer in South Carolina with "S" but it's still such a special experience to take the kids. They love the water!

2.0 said on the phone several weeks ago (when we were talking about this summer and swimming) in response to us asking him if he had learned how to swim yet, he very confidently replied "No, Papa taught me how to ride a bike and now he will teach me how to swim." :)

and

I am totally scared looking forward to our first time camping as a family! This would also be the first time for Matt and I to camp since we were quite young so that could be a very "interesting" experience. :)

So I think I have officially gone over into the crazy anticipation phase of hosting. I full expect to get very little sleep for the next few weeks, at least up until the moment that my boys are safe at home in their beds.

Hosting Faqs

I read one of the best FAQ's about hosting yesterday here: http://thehelffamily.wordpress.com/2012/05/02/hosting-faqs/

It was very well put and I thought some of you might enjoy reading it. 

And just for fun and so this post won't be "pictureless"-here was one of my favorite cuties from winter hosting:

Quick Update

Sorry I haven't posted much lately. A few quick updates:

My husband finally came home on Saturday night-after being in Texas for work for the past 3 weeks. I hadn't posted about him being gone (here or on Facebook even) for the obvious safety reasons, but suffice it to say I am THRILLED that he is back home. (And I know he is happy to no longer be living in a hotel room or working 12 hour shifts for almost 3 weeks straight!)

This past weekend we had what we hoped would be our last (3 family, adoption, fundraiser) garage sale. However, for the third weekend that we had a sale-it rained (poured) and was well below 60 degrees! We were prepared for it as much as possible by this time (for example we had the clothes that were for sale in this tent in the front yard):

But to some extent the weather did affect things (this was the slowest weekend yet). Also likely affecting it was the fact that most of our larger or more desirable items sold the first 2 sales. However, there are still many donated items that we would love to sell, so we have decided to try one last weekend on a guaranteed sunny weekend. Then we will try to sell some items on Craigslist and donate the rest. :) 

We are brainstorming for other joint fundraising efforts we can plan for this summer. So far we are thinking of a few car washes and a breakfast event at Applebees. 

Last Friday-the welcome letters for the host kids were sent to their country! All the kids get a letter to read while on the plane from their host family and they have to be sent early in order to guarantee that they will arrive on time. Our letters were a bit different since our kids know us, but it's still exciting to communicate with them in any way possible! It made the reality that they will be here soon so much more real! It's also very exciting to imagine the kids that I advocated for this spring and summer-reading their letters from their host families for the first time. 

Our last 2 dossier documents were also sent with the letters. (Or at least I hope they are our last 2 documents....I will be waiting for the other shoe to drop next week and to find out from our facilitator that a paper or two will have to be redone....but that is being a bit pessimistic I guess!) 

The bunk beds for V and S's room are still not assembled. When my hubby started putting them together yesterday he noticed that a piece was cracked so we will have to wait to hear back from the manufacturer about replacing the piece. 

That's all for now! Keep us in your prayers please!

Thank you!

Spaciba Bolshoye!

I just found out someone made a $700 anonymous donation to our hosting! What a blessing since we were literally sitting here at almost $700 short of our balance after I mailed a check for $1000 yesterday! Talk about God's perfect timing again!

I told the host director that if there is any money left over (after she deposits our money) to put it to the little boy who begged my friend who visited the orphanage to help him find a way to come to America. It doesn't look like there will be after paypal fees and etc, but just in case!

So our hosting is officially paid for! 

And what a LOAD off my mind! Now we can officially focus 100% toward raising money for our adoption of "V" and his brother "A"! I really wanted to be able to put 100% the garage sale money toward the adoption and am so happy that now we can!

I was reading a blog today and the mom said she likes to break down the money they have to raise into smaller chunks (smaller being relative, of course, when even those numbers are quite large). I like that idea so I think right now I am just going to focus on Matt's 1st trip plane tickets! Our last garage sale is next Saturday so hopefully after that we will have enough money to put back for that! Then we will focus on in country expenses. (Yikes!)

Thank you to everyone who has donated to our hosting and our adoption journey!!

Thank you for allowing God to use you! Please know that according to Matthew 25:40 you are not only blessing us and our boys, but you have also blessed God the Father! We pray that He pours His richest blessings on your for choosing to take part of our journey.

A somewhat weird birthday present?

This is what I asked for my birthday a few weeks ago:

Unfortunately it was damaged in shipping the first time around so it should hopefully arrive next week!
Is this how I know I have officially crossed over into "mom world"....when my birthday presents are for my kids and not for me??

However, I guess I still know I am somewhat of a kid...since MY mom was the one that sent me the gift. :-P

Birthdays

A few weeks ago my sweet boy had his birthday....just halfway around the world from us.

It was SO hard to not be able to see him and shower him with love on his special day. We call him every week and we texted a message to him that he got that day, and spoke with him on the phone the next day for our normal call, but it is still SO hard not being there in person. We also had cake, a teddy bear, and chocolates delivered to him a few days after (they couldn't deliver on the actual day). 

I'm thinking we need to have some sort of special birthday celebration for all the boys this summer.....

And then a few days ago was my birthday. It was a good one, but I couldn't help but think of how much I wished all my boys were here to spend it with me! 

Garage Sale Update

Our garage sale last weekend went pretty well! We had a lot of people donate items, so I was at my friend's house the Friday night before helping sort and prepare items. Then I arrived at 7 am on Sunday morning and we had MORE preparation to do-as we were dragging things out. We were pretty shorthanded so it was just three of us working for quite awhile (then my friend Nicole's WONDERFUL neighbor Christy came by and was a major lifesaver for helping us put stuff out).

As we were setting things up, it started to lightly rain. It's Washington, so we weren't TOO overly worried, and then it started to rain harder, and stuff was getting pretty wet so we started to attempt to drag some things inside the garage. (Thank goodness Nicole has a 3 car garage!) People were still dropping by and then it started POURING and it was raining pretty hard for the rest of the day. But one of Nicole's neighbors helped tarp some of the items, others helped drag items inside, and another brought over a pop up canopy for us to set up outside. Then the neighbor that let us borrow the canopy proceeded to bring items over to donate and even bought stuff herself! What a blessing Nicole's neighbors are! We had the clothes laid out in Nicole's living room, and luckily that went well for the most part (and gave us a chance to dry out clothes in the dryer).

And even with the crazy rain and half the stuff being soaked, we still had pretty steady crowds all day and did very well! We got a new load of donations on Saturday night and that really helped us out on Sunday (which was a lot slower than Saturday). We have plenty of stuff left so we are doing it again on Saturday and then again in 2 weeks as Nicole's neighborhood has their neighborhood garage sale that weekend. We hope to maybe get a few more donated items and we want to get rid of everything we have! We are splitting all proceeds between 3 families that are all donating sibling groups from U.

It was SUCH a crazy weekend and unfortunately I took zero pictures of the crazy Saturday. :-( I promise to take pictures this weekend though!

Thank you to all that helped make such a difference this weekend! 

In Route!

I have been rather horrible about updating lately! Yesterday, I sent off the rest of our dossier. (Well except 2 documents that I am waiting for that I am going to send with someone's else package in a week and  a half).

They needed our paperwork in order to go ahead and get a head start on translating and preparing our paperwork for submission in country! It's a very strange/surreal feeling to know that our paperwork is basically done and on it's way. And soon the first part of this process will be over-and we will quickly be moving on to the next stage!

*Shame on me for not taking pictures at fedex or at the secretary of state office though.*

"For I am about to do something new.

    See, I have already begun!"

Isaiah 43:19