Adoption Yard Sale

On the weekend of September 15th we hosted our first ever yard sale, with all of the money raised going toward our adoption costs.  Neither of us ever hosted a yard sale before and we learned that we had a lot to learn.  With the help of some amazing friends, neighbors, and family we were able to pull it off and make some money!

Thank you to everyone who donated items for us to sell, we are so appreciative of your generosity.  We sold more of the donated items than we did our own stuff!  Thank you to Jenn, Morgan, and Nicole (and Blake) who spent much of their Friday night in our driveway going through all the donations and help us organize and price items.  If it wasn't for them, we would not have gotten any sleep on Friday night because it would have taken us way longer to sort through all of the donations.  Thank you to Mariela who woke up early and spent her Saturday morning helping us sell items - she was better at negotiating than we were!  And thank you to everyone who stopped by to visit with us and do a little shopping (or bring Starbucks- it was much appreciated :)).   We are so grateful to have so many awesome people in our lives and so thankful for your friendship and support!

Our first ever yard sale was a huge success and we made $740!!!!  Mark still has some "big ticket" items to sell (golf clubs, weight bench, etc.) on Craigslist, so the total raised may even go up higher.

And to end an awesome day, all of our neighbors came out and we had a cul-de-sac pizza party.  It was so fun to see all the kids running around playing in the cul-de-sac and all adults catching up and just hanging out.  We couldn't have asked for a better day!

Beginning of the day 

Nearing the end of the day - looks like a lot is left, but its so much less than the morning!

Flapjack fundraiser - save the date!

Adoption can be expensive, and for some families the cost deters them from ever moving forward with the process. Lucky for Mark and I, we love a challenge. I have to admit that the cost scared us at first too, we wondered how we could ever save enough money to fund our adoption. But as time went on, and we felt more and more that adoption was God's plan for us, we knew that there had to be a way. We have faith that God will provide, although we also know that money will not fall from the sky, so we have planned a few fundraisers.

Last weekend we held our first ever yard sale (and probably last ever yard sale). Boy was it hard work! We are reminded time and time again how amazing our friends and family are. We had so many people donate stuff for us to sell and come to help us out on the big day. The yard sale itself deserves a whole post and I'll be working on that soon!

In the meantime, we are gearing up for our next big fundraiser - our Flapjack Fundraiser on November 3rd. Those of you who live locally we would love for you to come out and join us, it's from 8am-10am at the Applebee's on Hillsborough St. We will be selling tickets ahead of time and will need to give the restaurant a head count a few days before. So if you are interested in coming make sure you get your tickets. Shoot me an email or text to let me know if you want one and I'll get up with you. We also need a few people to volunteer to help us seat guests and serve pancakes that morning so let us know if you want to do that too!

Feel free to share the flyer with anyone you know who might want to come (coworkers, friends, small groups, family, etc) - the more the merrier!

Adoption Baby Shower Part 2

We are so blessed by great friends and family who came to celebrate adoption (and the future baby Harrill) with us! We had a couple's shower and close to 50 people came (and tons of adorable babies). Everyone was so generous and we got some awesome gifts to help us get ready. We feel so very loved and so lucky to know that we are supported by so many people.  I wish we would have gotten pictures with all of our guests, but unfortunately we didn't.  There were so many friends/family there, that we didn't even get to spend time talking with everyone, but we absolutely appreciated everyone excitement and support! How did we get so lucky?!?   Baby Harrill is going to be one loved and spoiled baby! I can't wait to tell him/her about all of the wonderful people who were a part of this celebration.   

Here are just a few many pictures of the fun gifts that we received for baby Harrill

 Clothes

 Animals on baby's butt...so darn cute! 

I LOVE owls

 "Worth the Wait" and "Loved" onesies - perfect 

 Blankets (they are all so soft)

 Lots of books :)

 Do you think our baby will be clean?  

We are excited for lots of fun bath times!

 Storage (even baby storage is cute)

 Diaper bag and cart/highchair cover (for germa-phobes like me:)) 

 How fun are all these toys

  Ready to eat 

Yay, our video monitor 

(which I may or may not have already used to spy on the dogs) 

 Umbrella stroller (not the best picture)

 A rocking turtle!  Is this not adorable?

We missed everyone who wasn't able to make it, but we plan to continue celebrating adoption from now till forever, so I'm sure we'll have an opportunity to celebrate together :)

This past weekend we hosted our first fundraiser...the yard sale!  Again, we were so blessed by donations and help from friends and family!  I'll try to post about it later this week, so stay tuned!

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!

Approved!

Last Sunday, a few days before I wrote the "We're adopting" blog post, we received official notification that our home study had been APPROVED. For those who don't know, the adoption process is a long process, which includes a lot of paperwork, several interviews and a home visit. We finished and turned in our paperwork at the end of May, and received a phone call from our social worker during Memorial Day weekend to schedule all of our visits. We met with her a total of four times; both individually and as a couple. We talked about everything from how we grew up, what our families are like, our Faith, why we want to adopt, and how our relationship with one another is. To say that these interviews got personal is an understatement :) It took about a month for our home study to be completed and reviewed by everyone involved. The board officially approved us on July 17, 2012. What a relief to get this letter in the mail.

This Wednesday (8/1/12) we will be meeting with our agency director, which is the next step in this process. Hopefully after that, and a few more odds and ends, we will be ready to be "officially waiting". Although some days this process feels like it has been going on forever, it has actually flown by pretty quickly. We attended an information session in February, make our decision to adopt in March, and here we are less than six months later almost ready to go on the "list".

Over the next few days I'll be working like crazy to get our photo album finished, our "birth mother letter" written, and our on-line training completed. So, if I go MIA please forgive me, it will only be for a short while.

We're adopting...

...yes a BABY! Mark and I are happy to finally be sharing our exciting news. We always knew that we wanted to adopt, and started talking about adoption before we got married. We had imagined it would be something we would do later on, but over the past year God has shown us that his plan is for us to adopt NOW. We've prayed about it, talked to families who have gone through the adoption process, and are taking the leap of faith. We are so excited to see what God has in store for us!

We will be adopting an infant, most likely from North Carolina. The average wait is nine months, but it could happen immediately or it could take eighteen months. Not having any idea when it might happen is part of the excitement. We could have the opportunity to meet the birth-mom before she gives birth, or we may get a call from the hospital telling us that a baby has been born and to come right then. Either way this is going to be a memorable journey!

We would love for all of our friends and family to experience this with us. Please ask us questions, we absolutely love the opportunity to share our story and experience with the adoption process and what God has been doing in our lives. I'll be updating the blog often as I can and will hopefully use this as a place to share our experience as well---so stay tuned!