MAKING A DIFFERENCE

Happy Sunday Everyone!! This weekend we finished our dvd's!! When we give our social worker the last of our paperwork our homestudy can be complete! PRAISE GOD!! But for once this blog isn't about our adoption. Its something that I have thought about many years.
          During Christmas time I have always felt a little guilty for all the gifts I get and now all the things we buy our daughter. Don't get me wrong I love it, but in the back of my head I have always wished there was a way to help others that have nothing around the world. Last year our church introduced Operation Christmas Child to me.  This is exactly what i have been looking for since i was a girl! Operation Christmas Child is a program that sends a gift to a child that is less fortunate around the world. The gift is a shoebox filled with gifts that we take advantage of here in the U.S. and our children would probably be upset if they got. So many American children are spoiled and ungrateful and I am just a guilty as you of making them this way. Not something I am proud of but it is true.
            So I know so many of you have bought new school shoes for your children or even yourself during the great sales that have been going on. I have a favor; SAVE ME YOUR SHOE BOX!! Last year I wanted to send a shoe box but i missed the deadline and was literally heartbroken and have thought about this program all year. I WONT MISS THE DEADLINE THIS YEAR :-) That's all i need from you is a shoe box, most of you can help with that.
             Do you want to help too? I hope this pulls at your heart as much as it does mine! So if it does this is what you do. 1.) Get an empty shoebox  2.) fill your box..below is a list taken from the OCC website. 3.)Include a $7 donation for shipping. 4.)Find a drop off location near you. For those close to me you can bring your filled or empty box to me and I will make sure it get where it needs to go! This is something that everyone can do. Encourage your children to save their allowances and fill a shoe box. You can get most of these things at the Dollar Tree. I also encourage you to write the child a letter. By making your donation online using a credit or debit card you will receive a special shoe box label included in your e-mail receipt. Print or copy the label as many times as you need to attach to each of your boxes.  Your specific barcode is connected to your e-mail address, so it’s important to use the same label on each of your boxes. The barcode on the label enables us to track each shoe box gift. You will receive an e-mail telling you the destination of your gift, along with information about Operation Christmas Child in that country. If your boxes go to more than one country, you will receive more than one e-mail. This is an inexpensive wonderful way to share the gift of Christmas with a child that has nothing..possibly no one!

learn more at:
https://www.samaritanspurse.org/index.php/OCC/followyourbox/

Working Mom Found a Free Time!!

Hello everyone!! I am so sorry I haven't posted anything in a few weeks. I have been CRAZY busy! I went from being a full time mom and house wife; to working full time and still being a full time mommy and wife.  I have a new found respect and appreiation for my mom who; worked more than one job, went to school, took care of her parents while they were sick and dying and still was an A-M-A-Z-I-N-G  mom to my brother and I, while never missing a baseball game or practise. I don't know how you did it, and I am sorry for not understanding sooner.
             While I have been working many hours, have no fears our adoption is still my # 2 priority (Bri being 1st). Any and every sec that i have down time between phone calls or faxes, I'm working on the adoption. It may be selling a T-shirt or filling out paperwork or emailing our agency. While we did forget about a few things for the homestudy, we should have EVERYTHING we need turned in for our homestudy by next Friday. I am praying that our social worker will be able to have our offical completed homestudy by the next Friday. I got really bummed and disappointed in myself for letting it drag out for so long when we were so close to being 100% a few weeks ago. I quickly snapped out of it and thank god for it moving so fast. A friend I have met through the Ghana group said it took them over a year to complete their homestudy, others I have read that it has taken 3-6 months...WE ARE BLESSED AND I AM THANKFUL!! I have to remember we are working on gods time..we must not be impatient.
              So while we are wrapping up the homestudy I have moved on to getting the documents we need for our dossier. We have to get Tonys passport thats the big thing that is needed for it. I have everthing else, or I have ordered everything else :-) Our agency has also sent me the offical letter to apply for our I-600A and  to do our biometric fingerprints!!! Of course can't be done until we have to completed homestudy and our next fee of $890. I'm thinking that cookout that got rained out in July would be a great way to earn this set of fees :-) Since we already have everything ready to turn in, this next step should go super fast. I have to remember we are working on Gods time. We have also set up our apt to get our shots. We go Sept 21. Some great friends put us in contact with a Dr. that will file with our insuarnce and what insurance don't pay for he will only charge us at "cost" This is truly a blessing what was going to cost close 1,000 each is probably at most going to cost us 300 total!! Again, WE ARE BLESSED AND I AM THANKFUL!!
               I just want to say "THANK YOU!!" to everyone who has supported our adoption so far. Thank you for the prayers, the sharing of our blog and story. Thank you if you have bought one shirt or help sell 5-50. If you donated one dollar or 500 you are AMAZING and we couldn't do this without you. Any and everything that you have done is bringing us one step closer to bringing the cutest little boy in Africa home!