Fundraisers

Since we started the adoption process, we have known that we would need to do some fundraisers to help us prepare for this addition to our family. After much thought and deliberation we have finally have details for two of our fundraisers and are excited to share them with everyone.

The first one will be a yard sale on September 15th. Our neighborhood has encouraged everyone to host a yard sale on the same day, to maximize success. They do all the advertising for us, and we just have to set up in the front yard and hope that some people come. We have never held a yard sale and didn't intend to participate in this one, because we have given pretty much everything we don't want to Goodwill. But one of our friends suggested that we do it and offered some stuff she found while moving, and that provided just the encouragement we needed (Thanks Morgan). We've managed to find some odds and ends of our own that we can sell at the yard sale, but we are still in need of more stuff. This is where we are hoping people might be able to help us out. If you have any items that you might want to donate to us, so that we can sell them in the yard sale and use that money for adoption costs, we would greatly appreciate it. We are collecting pretty much anything (as long as its in good enough condition to be sold); clothes, household items, etc. Shoot me an email or leave a comment on here if you are interested or want to help out!

The second fundraiser is still in the planning stages, but we are asking everyone to "save the date". November 3, 2012 we are planning to have a Flapjack Fundraiser at a local Applebees. The way it works is that we sell tickets for a pancake breakfast and identify a few volunteers to help us work the event. Then on the morning of November 3rd, everyone who bought a ticket comes to eat pancakes with us and it helps to support our adoption. We are excited about this fundraiser, and hope that everyone else will be as well. Because really...who doesn't love a pancake breakfast! As we figure out all of the details I'll be sure to post them on here.

We have also had some friends and family who don't live locally ask about fundraisers where they can participate. We are working on some ideas and will hopefully have some details ironed out soon.

We are so appreciative of all of the support we have gotten from friends and family. It's been great to have everyone share in our excitement with us :)

While waiting...

Since adoption is unpredictable and it may take months to get a referral, we've been encouraged to keep ourselves busy. This summer we certainly have done that. We've taken several trips out of town and stayed busy with friends while in town. We've been to the beach, Maryland, Philadelphia, NC mountains, and this past week we went to NJ.

While in NJ we had the opportunity to see my cousins, aunt, and uncle. This end of summer visit has become a tradition for us, and we look forward to it all year. We stayed with my cousin Kristin and her family. She has two adorable children who believed that Mark's sole purpose was to play with them, and he loved every minute of it :) It's so fun to see him play with them and reminds me how awesome of a father he is going to be. We had a great time just hanging out, shopping, and going to the water park. Kristin and I even did some shopping and got some really cute outfits for baby Harrill. The one below is so fitting for the whole process of adoption. It really puts in perspective, that no matter how long we have to wait (which i hope isn't long), that once we have our baby it will be completely worth it.

Now we are back home, with no trips planned for the next month or so, so we can get some stuff done around here. We need to start clearing out the office in order to turn it into a nursery. Then we need to pick paint colors and furniture, which everyone knows could take us the next couple of years to agree on :) I have lots of visions in my head for the nursery and I'm excited to see how it will actually turn out!

We will also be working on setting up some fundraisers in the near future, I'll be posting about them here on the blog as soon as I get it all figured out!

Another big step

Last Wednesday (8/1/12) we had our meeting with the agency director, which was the final step toward getting "listed". The meeting went really well, she asked us a few questions but mostly told us stories about adoption and situations to watch out for. I'm not sure that I left knowing anymore than I did when I got there, but at least I felt like she could again put our faces with our names (and hopefully remember us when trying to place a baby). The good news from the meeting was that we are now "active" meaning that we could get a call at anytime**. However, our profile won't actually be shown to anyone until I finish and turn in our photo book and "birth-mom letter". This past weekend we spent at least 10 hours working on the book, on top of all of the time I had spent previously and since then. However, I'm happy to say that the book is DONE, and we are waiting on final approval from the agency, before we can order it.

*it is possible to get a placement, even if no one ever reads our profile or our book, but its not as likely*

Although the process has felt long at times, when I sit down and think about it, I realize how quickly it really has flown by. Its tough to wrap our heads around the fact that any day now we could have a baby in our arms! Its a crazy thought actually! I try not to get to excited because the wait could be long (some people wait 18 months-2 years), but at the same time I want to maintain the level of excitement that I have felt throughout the process. This is something that we had been working toward for the past six months; something we have put a lot of thought, prayer, time, dedication, passion, perseverance and preparation into. This is an incredibly exciting time for us, and I'm going to soak it all in while I can. Regardless of how long we wait for a baby, I know that everything we have gone through will have been worth it!