We want to say a huge thank you to everyone who has been praying for us, serving us, loving us and supporting us as we've began our adoption journey. We are now four months in to "officially" being in the process. It seems like just yesterday we sent off our application, and now we are wrapping up our home study. We've seen the Lord provide in so many ways throughout the past few months. We felt led to a particular agency, Lifeline, out of Birmingham, Alabama. We couldn't be more pleased with our decision to use Lifeline as our placement agency. They have been fabulous to work with and have really been walking with us every step of the way. We had to locate a home study agency in Massachusetts and found one very easily. Our social worker was great to work with and it has been as smooth as I imagine a home study could be!
We were blessed back in the Spring to have friends donate SO MUCH stuff for our yard sale fundraiser. We had a basement we couldn't move in because everyone was so generous. We had lots of help the day of our yard sale (I posted some pics in our last post) and even my sweet friend from NC, Leigh Ann came up for the weekend. She even brought a friend of hers to help. We made over $2,000 just on our yard sale.
We've also been blessed to have friends and family send us financial support to help us with our adoption costs. It's been humbling to see every one's generosity and support through this.
We also did a t-shirt fundraiser. We are thankful for the help of our friend, JK, who designed our shirt and our friend David, in NC who helped us get them printed. If you missed out, we are taking more orders to place another t-shirt order in November. They would make great gifts for Christmas! If you are interested, please email me at leighchasteen@yahoo.com and put Adoption T-Shirt Fundraiser in the subject line. We suggest a $20 donation per shirt and have child sizes XS-L and adult sizes S-XXL available.
Thirty-One continues to bring in some support as well! Let me know if you are interested in Thirty-One products or even hosting a party or online event!
All of these efforts have helped us raise 1/3 of our total adoption costs. We hope that as we begin to apply for grants, they will cover much of the remaining 2/3.
We are thankful for the support from our friends and family. It wouldn't be possible without you. The Lord has led us on the journey and has been blessing us along the way. We continue to trust Him as we wait. We are praying for wisdom, discernment and patience in this process. Thank you for sharing in our journey. We are truly thankful and blessed!!!
(On another note...my computer has been acting up and I am working on getting it fixed. Once it's fixed, stay tuned for a summer summary post. We were SO busy and had a great summer. I will also post pics of my sweet kiddos as they have started back to school. Ava is in second grade and Emet will start Kindergarten on Wednesday!)
