Just keep swimming, just keep swimming....

says Dory from Disney's Nemo. And that is what I keep saying to myself through this adoption journey, as well as "just keep having faith" and "God is faithful all the time"...but with the Dory jingle! :)
It simple amazes me how much of the journey is a spiritual process...on so many different levels. I am (being transparent here) a materialistic person. I like stuff. I get it honest. My great grandmother was a hoarder. I'm not a hoarder, but I do like my stuff. And as we find ways to raise money for our adoption...garage sales have been one of the easiest ways. This past weekend Brett and I had another garage sale and we made a little over $200.00. Not a lot, but more than what we had on Friday night. It really hit me Saturday when I sold my FAVORITE Africa basket (I purchased it on a mission trip in 2005) how much more imporant a child's life is than all the stuff and fluff inside my house. It really just sunk in with me. I'm not good with words so its very hard for me to explain the process that I went through and have been going through since this adoption started. The guy that purchased my Africa basket wanted to purchase it last year and again at the beginning of Spring this year when we had a sale...and both times I said, "no way!" This time...we are much further along in the adoption process and its starting to feel so much more real than just paperpushin (although there is still a lot of that happening)...so it was easier to sell it (along with some encouragement from my hubby)....to let go, knowing that every penny from that basket put us a dollar closer to bringing our two beautiful children home. (or one child if that is what God wants).
Where are we?
We are waiting for July 7th at arrive for some more fingerprints(yes more fingerprints), meanwhile working on raising money with a huge July 20th fundraiser approaching, working on grant paperwork and more dossier (Africa) paperwork. Once that clearance arrives...we travel to Springfield for a little hoop to jump through and then ship all our documents to our caseworker who will prepare them to be sent to Africa. We are hoping and praying that we can get them to Africa in August. And then we wait, and wait, and wait and wait for those awesome pictures to arrive.
What are we doing to raise money?
We are having a Bingo fundraiser Wednesday July 20th at 6:30pm at the Charleston VFW. We will play 10 games ($10 presale, $15 at the door) with prizes from home vendors such as Pampered Chef, Dove Chocolates, Close to my Heart, Mary Kay, Scentsty etc. We will also play 3 intermission games (those are an add. $5), hold a 50/50 raffle (tickets are $1 each or 6 for $5)and just have FUN. We will take sometime to talk about our journey and raise awareness of adoption. This fundraiser will probably not be our last fundraiser, but I cannot stress to you how important this fundraiser is. Out of the approximately $11,500 needed for just this step...we are approximately $5,000 short! We have to have that money in order to submit our paperwork to Africa. We won't get it through grants because they do not get awarded that quickly. This money will come from the July 20th fundraiser, garage sales and donations. Donations can be made on the blog using the chipin link on the right hand side. We don't need $8,000 for this particular step, but we will need more than $5,000 eventually so I just left that as the goal on the Chipin widget. *sigh* It truly can get discouraging when you look at the numbers. But honestly...God has provided every penny this far. We managed to get debt free last year...and by doing so we are able to personally contribute more money now towards this venture...but ultimately God has provided every penny...FAITHFULLY!
All of that reminds me of the other spiritual journey in this process...pride! Man...its been so humbling to have to put ourselves out there and ask for financial help with this. Its our mission...and God says its a mission in the book of James. Some people refuse to accept it as such. But for us...we embrace it and press forwarded knowing this is what God has called us to.
I could go on and on and go much deeper here about the emotional aspects of it all, but for now...I'm going to stop.
Please feel free to ask questions, donate if you like, attend our July 20th Bingo fundraiser. We want our friends and family to spread the world about journey.
Thanks!