I just wanted to drop in to say hello! Two couples whose blogs we follow, The Gibsons and The Hannahs (the links are to the right), are now in Ethiopia picking up their children. Definitely check out their blogs and keep them in your prayers...
If you can believe it, I spent part of our evening painting more Christmas ornaments. We have now sold 518 ornaments. I went to Wal-Mart today and bought what they had left of the silver ornaments and have started working.... Thus, we are still selling ornaments.
As another fundraiser, I am considering running a half marathon in Lexington, KY on March 28th. Our friends, The Prossers (blog to the right Bird's Words and Semi-Daily), did this to raise money in order to bring home their little girl Ellie. I ran the Louisville half marathon in 2007 but I was thinner then. I am not a huge fan of running but I think with a combo of walking and running, I could do it. My plan: to have 100 people sponser $1 per mile that I run for a grand total of $13.10 each. This would raise about $1300. If JT does the same thing, it would be about $2600. ANY IDEAS OR SUGGESTIONS????
I Hope everyone has a great new year. I have all of the papers but 2 letters ready for our dossier. I am so excited. I will be faxing it this week to our agency to review before getting it sealed in Pulaski County and Frankfort, KY. Also, today we mailed our I-600A. Baby Steps. I just keep hoping we will see our child(ren)'s face sooner rather than later.
You guys crack me up...."baby steps"...you are taking GIANT steps! You have raised so much money and gotten so much paperwork done in a very short amount of time!!
ReplyDeleteHave you started looking into grants?
CONGRATULATIONS! Mailing your I-600 is a HUGE step! I feel like waiting for that to be processed was harder than the "wait" has been so far. Great work and I think the marathon idea is AWESOME! I ran one a year and a half ago and then ran and my husband and I both did a 15 1/2 miler last year, I wish I had thought of raising money then, we would have had a bunch of money!
ReplyDeleteJeff raised almost $5000 doing the mini, Natalie! I know you can do it! I was overwhelmed at how people gave for his run.. it was truly amazing. And to see him come across that line wearing his "Run for Ellie" shirt was one of those kodak moments!
ReplyDeleteYou ARE making huge progress.. this is very exciting!! Can't wait to see y'all soon and catch up more. Let me know when you have some time to get together!
Thank you guys for the support! It just feels weird asking people to give again after the ornaments....but God will provide.
ReplyDeleteBrittany~ We have not started with grants yet because our home study is not completed....crazy that we have all of this done without a completed home study, but it should be no later than the end of Januaray.
Amy~ Thanks for the encouragement.... my problem is I am overweight and particularly don't like running. However, it might be just the challenge I need.
Holly~ I want to see you guys SOOO bad. We have been running around like crazy that it does not even feel we have seen each other. My last residency interview is next week so after that things should be much better.
Thanks again you guys!
Hello, I am Carla and we are also an Arise family. We leave to pick up our baby girl on Jan. 23rd. I am thinking that I'm going to need an ornament ;) Not sure how to order it, but here is our email sweetpea31897@msn.com.
ReplyDeleteBlessings,
Carla