YAY!!! Good News on the Grant front!!!

If you can read the letter attached to the right then you can see that  we have been approved for a matching grant in total of $6000 from Hand in Hand Christian Adoption, Inc. The way this works is that we will be sending out letters to family and friends asking for donations to be sent to Hand in Hand. Once we get to $3000, they will match it dollar for dollar and we will have a total of $6000 to go toward our adoption process! This is so exciting and we are so very thankful to God for providing for this process.  We are sooo blessed!                   

This was part of the scripture that was read last night at church:

"For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for? But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it."-Romans 8:24-25

Yesterday was just one of those days where I needed to let go and let God and didn't. :( I had taken so much of the worry of this process back and away from Him. I wasn't letting him have my worries and my stress. I was not depending on him. I know that we are only into month 2 of our wait and there are families out there that have waited for YEARS to become parents or for their little ones to come home to them, but it was one of those days that I was just down in the dumps. I was throwing one of those pity parties that wasn't any good. On my way home from lunch though I prayed and asked God to forgive me for taking these worries, that I had given to him, back. I know where my help comes from and I know that God would take those fears of this process and the worries that I have and His will would be done.

Today has been a different day and its all because of prayer. I can't see this child that he has planned for us. I don't feel it move in my womb, I don't have those natural things that come along with a pregancy. This child is growing in my heart and it is through faith that I know he or she will come to our family. I have to, we have to, have patience and wait upon the Lord. He is working on this and will take care of it in his time. I am so blessed and will wait upon him! He has shown today that He is for us and this adoption. He will continue to bless.

More information about our grant will be coming soon. As soon as our letter is approved by the grant agency I will be sending them out. Have a great night!  Oh and don't forget about our yard sale tomorrow and saturday. We have LOTS of good stuff. See our ad below:

Adoption Yard Sale Fundraiser

Owensboro, KY - 1702 Thistle CT.
July 27-28 - Friday & Saturday - 7 am to ?
Help us bring a child into our home. We are trying to raise the fees needed to pay for our adoption and we appreciate anyone that comes out. Our son will be having a Lemonade stand to help make him a Big Brother. Some please come out and atleast get a glass of lemonade and a cookie.

Great Back to School deals! Girls & Boys name brand clothes sizes 4-7 and tons of shoes. If you need some good, clean and like new clothes, come on by and we can dress your child for school.

Great work clothes for Men and Women sizes 8-24 lots of dresses, suits, dress shirts etc. Popluar brands like Eddie Bauer, Aeropostale, Lane Bryant, Dress Barn, Liz Claiborne. Shoes and purses as well.

Baby Items include Girls & Boy clothese sizes Newborn to 3T. Baby Girl bedding set, Evenflo Car Carrier with Base, Blankets, Bibs, Toddler Booster Seat. More Girls stuff than boys, but we do have a little bit of boys stuff. Baby Toys like new.

Playstation 1 with controllers and Games. Playstation 2 with all cords and games. Over 50+ games. Palm, Misc. CD's

Variety of Furniture, 2 Tv's, Shelf, Bar stools, Lighted decorator tree, fish tanks, and we are still finding MUCH MUCH MORE!"

Our Profile

Our Profile has been published on our agency's site. You can visit it by clicking here: Matt and Mandy's Adoption Profile . We are excited to have more exposure and ask that if you know of someone who may be looking at adoption for their child, share our profile with them. If you don't that's ok, you can help us out in another way, through prayer. We can use all of them we can get.

What's Happening in Our World Right Now?

Mary Kay Adoption Fundraiser - Now through July 22. Take a look at an online catalog by visiting this link: MaryKay. You can send me your order via email (visit our profile to obtain the address, don't want spammers getting ahold of my email address) and I can get it Amber. She's working on her webpage, but its not up yet.

Yard Sale Fundraiser - July 27-28. 1702 Thistle Court. We have had lots of donations and are looking for more. You name it we will take it. Just let us know and someone will come by and get your stuff.

More to come later. We hope everyone has a very blessed day!

Planning and Waiting

The title says it all. We are planning more fundraisers and waiting on a placement and grant responses. Waiting and praying I say. I want to blog more to keep the journal of this process and hope that in the coming weeks you will see more posts. I just asked Matt if he wanted to say anything, he says "Hi"! LOL! He's not much on talking as we all know, but he is doing a great job helping me stay sane and not getting to upset with the wait. Things are very quiet right now on the adoption front, but the grant front is pretty active. We received an email today from one of the grants to which we applied. They are waiting on a couple of our references and then they will be ready to submit it to their board. We are hoping to hear good news from it soon. It is a matching grant that will match  donations made by our friends and family. We are hopeful that we will hear from some of the other 5 that we have applied for in the next 60-90 days. These grants have kept me busy for much of the wait so far, but now we are back to waiting again on multiple fronts.

We are starting to work on fundraisers again and we have scheduled our 2nd yard sale for July 27-28. If you have anything you would like to donate, please let us know. We will come to you! We are hoping for another great turnout. We are also looking at doing a Spaghetti dinner. If anyone has any ideas for our area or Louisville, let me know. We are thinking of some type of entertainment and auction. Any help organizing would be appreciated. 

What else is happening? We are enjoying the summer with our little guy who just celebrated his 6th Family Day! We are so blessed to have him and we are so grateful to the woman who allowed us to be his parents and Vilma who cared for him until we were able to pick him up. What a blessing it is to have God on our side!

We just made a trip to Holiday World. Clayton had a blast but it was HOT! What's with this heat? We are enjoying some XBox and keeping cool. Matt and Clayton are enjoying their last month of summer vacation before school starts. Matt starts back August 1st and Clayton the week after. Not sure what I will do having to get up early again, but I guess I better get used to it!


OH I FORGOT TO MENTION OUR NEWEST ADDITION!!!

May 8th we brought a new little member to the family, Pippa the Boxer. After losing our dear friend Sebastian early in the year, Matt and Clayton wanted a new puppy. Matt loves boxers and when we found Pippa in an ad we fell in love.

She is a sweet puppy with LOTS of energy. When we brought her home she was 4 lbs, shes now over 16. She's gonna be a big one, but we know she will be a loving puppy for the family. She is already a special part of our little family and we are so glad she's here.

Welcome to the family Ms. Pippa!

We have no time frame, we aren't sure how long it will take, but it's in God's hands. We are doing the best we can being patient and waiting for God's plan to unfold. It isn't always easy at times, but we know that if we will keep His faith He will bring us through this wait and will bless us greatly. He has once before and I know he will do it again.  Thanks to everyone for your thoughts and prayers!