Updates...

As I sit here watching Clayton play, I realize how Matt and I have been blessed. This little boy who looks at me with his big brown eyes and tells me, "I love you mommy", is a miracle to me. God didn't have to give us a child, much less one so sweet, but He did. How blessed we are to have him! I want to work for God and try to repay the many blessings he has given. God is soo good. I know that this new adoption will happen in his time and according to his plan. I just have to trust in Him and know that He is leading. And I know He is, by the donations we have received from our friends and family and the friends who are wanting to help through fundraising. This week alone we received $165. We are so blessed to have wonderful friends and family who have chose to support our adoption. Thank you all.

Homestudy Update: We are still waiting to start our homestudy. This is taking longer than what it did with Clayton because we have some things to take care of first, but it is good. Latest news on the homefront is Alex will be moving out on the 1st into his first place. We are excited for him and his friends and know that this is a great step for them. After Alex moves out and we do some room arranging, we will be ready to start our homestudy. We hope this will take place by Mid-April. We plan to have our first fee's raised ($1500) by that time. We are on our way, as we have $881.50 raised so far.  I'm not concerned at all about it. I have a sense of peace to know that it will happen.

Fundraising Update:I am going to start planning our Garage Sale and also a Bunco-31 Party. I expect to have both of these planned and on the calendar sometime in April. I will be posting here and on Facebook dates for both events. So keep a check out here if you want more info on our fundraising events. There is still opportunity to make a tax-deductible donation to our adoption. You can send a check written to All Blessings International or we have a form for credit card donations. NOTE: There is a 4% charge for credit card donations. After your donation is received, we will mail you your tax receipt.

Clayton's Matching Campaign. Clayton is still putting money in the Family Fund every chance he gets. He pull his first tooth this past Sunday and he tried to put his tooth fairy money in, but we wouldn't let him. Just the thought was enough to make us see his desire to help. He wants a sibling and he is willing to give us his own money to make it happen. He has received 2 matching donations to his original $16. Anyone willing to give to his matching campaign can send it to Clayton made out to All Blessings International.

He still prays every night for God to bring us a baby. Even tonight as he said the blessing over our dinner, he asked for Him to bring a baby.

I hope to have more updates soon, but don't worry as soon as I know anything I will be sure to let everyone know.

Gods working...

Gods working, and his plan is never wrong. I'm so glad of how things are going. It's going in his time and will happen just as he sees fit.

This week we finished our Mary Kay fundraiser and raised $115. Thanks to Kristi Mimbela for doing this for us. It's wonderful how God puts people in your life. I'm so glad to have met Kristi and her family.

We are going to start planning our next fundraisers. I'm looking at a chicken sale, bunco party and others. We have received a few donations from the letters we sent out. Donations sent to us and written to our agency are tax deductible. Contact us if you have any questions.

We are hoping to have raised our home study fee by April. We are getting very close. Then we can start the home study process.

More to come soon!

Check that off my list!

ý FBI Checks and All Criminals Mailed
ý Physicals scheduled for all

ý Fundraising started!

Its great to check things off our list!

Our FBI checks request was mailed today. All of our criminals have been requested. One step checked off our list. We are now working on paperwork and the house to get ready for our homestudy.

One of our big things right now is working on fundraising. We have had a number of people to ask to help us. One is a good friend, Kristi - a Mary Kay representative. She is doing an online sale for us starting tomorrow through the 15th. We will receive 30% of all sales made. We are doing this fundraiser through Facebook at: http://www.facebook.com/#!/events/181725385272496/

We also have a friend and adoptive mother who will be doing an auction for us. Tracy is awesome and I can't wait to see the product and link the auction. It is wonderful to have such great friends who are so willing to help us through this venture.

Clayton keeps talking about our baby. We are explaining that it is going to be quite a while before we are able to bring a baby into our home. If things had happened a bit differently we would have waited to say anything to him, but since alot of this happened because of what he had been praying for. God planned all of this and I know that he is leading this adoption. We are so blessed to have such a sweet little boy and such a loving God.

More updates and fundraising information to come!

Clayton's Matching Campaign

Good Morning!

Today we received a match to Clayton's donation on Friday. (See Friday's Blog post: The Sweetest Thing) He is continuing to donate his own money, even after being told he doesn't have to, and we have decided to see who out there would be willing to match Clayton's donations. He is soo excited about a new baby in our family and we are too. We can't wait to see how great a big brother he will be.

On Friday, out of his own money, he donated $16 to the Forever Family Fund. If you would like to match his donation, please make the check out to All Blessings International (501(c)(3) non profit adoption agency) and mail it to us. We will record your donation and if over $25 will obtain a receipt for you, your check is enough to show the donation as well. Please email (see my profile) me for the mailing address.

Help Clayton become a big brother!

Thanks.

The sweetest thing...

The sweetest thing happened today.

We have started what we are calling our "Forever Family Fund" in a bank that Clayton received for Christmas. Clayton and I decorated it with stickers and took the change that we had been saving in our pickle jar and put it in our new bank. It was a total of $14.

That was a couple of days ago and Clayton had not paid a lot of attention to it until today. Today we had some really bad weather, tornado warnings etc. So I wasn't thinking about the adoption or our fund. I had told Clayton to get his stuffed animals out of his room that he wanted and then sit in the hallway - our safe place during severe weather. Then the next thing I see is Clayton standing in front of me and handing me $16. He said, "Mommy, I want this to go in our Family Fund." My mouth dropped and I was in shock. I was so caught off guard, I couldn't figure out what to say. I told him to put it back in his bank and he told me no, he wanted this money to go to helping our family fund. I almost cried, I gave him a big hug and let him put the money in the bank. 

He is so excited about the idea of a baby in our family that he wants to do whatever he can to help. everytime we get change from buying something he tells me, to put it in the family fund. With him we may be able to save more money. :) He even said today that maybe we could set up a table and ask people as they come by to donate their change.  All I can do is smile when I think about what he did today. What a generous and sweet little guy that we are raising. I love this little boy!