Happy Fathers Day

Now that we know we will have a daughter.......

I couldn't resist. This card was screaming at me from the shelf at the store. When I picked it up I welled up with tears. I think the teenagers standing next to me in the isle thought I was nuts but who cares! The inside was so simple, so true and so fitting......

When Andy opened it he got all teary eyed and said, "I didn't expect this..." and smiled. She has a very special place in our hearts already and I know God is preparing her for us as well. Can't wait till her daddy is actually holding her on Fathers Day!

Thank yous and updates

It has been WAY too long! I am so sorry! We have been so busy. I haven't had time to blog but there is so much to update on so this is gonna be a long one!
First of all the garage sale:
I want to say a HUGE thank you to Amanda Wilson! Amanda and I have been friends for about 12 years now. We don't often get to see each other, but we are the kind of friends you know you can count on and even if you haven't seen each other for a year it's like you haven't skipped a beat! Love her! Amanda called me out of the blue one day and said she wanted to do a garage sale fundraiser for us. She did everything! I hauled one load to her house and that's about it! Not only did she plan it, organize it and run it....She did all of that while MOVING! She literally moved her whole house, 2 dogs a husband and 3 kids the weekend before the sale! What a blessing she is! THANK YOU AMANDA!
I also want to thank David Arment of David Arment Photography. He donated 100 pictures for us to sell! They are super cool outdoor pictures with scripture on them. We still have some left if anyone is interested! We are selling them for donations. You pick the price! Contact me if you are interested!
Another thank you to Heathyr Harkless of House of Harkless Photography. I had never met Heathyr. I am a cloth diapering consultant and Heathyr is a customer I was going to do a consult for. I had never met her but we had been communicating via facebook. When she found out we were adopting she instantly offered a photo shoot for us to raffle off. (We raffled it off at the garage sale and my friend Alice won it!) She has a heart for adoption and plans to begin her own adoption process next year. What a blessing! How often does someone you don't know just offer you something like that?! Thank you Heathyr!!
Thank you again to Joanna Beasley. She is a recording artist who gave us a ton of her albums to sell. We had them out at the garage sale as well and we still have some left if any of you are interested! We again are selling those for whatever donation you would like to make! She is really awesome! I highly suggest you check her out!...p.s. she is in the midst of making 2 more albums at the moment! CAN'T WAIT!
And lastly, thank you to every one of you who donated! I don't even know all of the people who donated items but to all of you THANK YOU! Thank you to everyone who shopped and donated money. Amanda was telling me about people who hardly had enough money of their own giving extra just because they believed in the cause. Thank you God!
The garage sale brought in over $560.00 and we still have a whole slew of California Raisins collectibles to sell on ebay! Believe it or not what we have could bring in an additional $500.00 once we get it up for sale! You wouldn't believe the people buying this stuff!! Kinda crazy but kinda cool all at the same time! :) So all in all, once we get those sold we will have made somewhere in the ball park of $1000.00! Praise God!

On to the next topic! We have the money to pay for the home study taken care of and now we are in need of $2,490 for the next phase of the adoption. We have again been trusting God for each cent knowing that he will pull through! We have gotten checks in the mail here and there from friends we haven't seen in a really long time and have been totally blessed by each one! A week or two ago we were blessed above and beyond! Some good friends of ours gave us a check that blew us away! I continue to be amazed by peoples generosity! People giving us tax returns or their tithe money for the week. Whatever the situation is we are so grateful for each and every one of you who have given to us. You have no idea how much each dollar means to us....We are humbled and thankful!

Next up on the list today is Home studies. Since we last blogged we have had our final 2 home studies. Our social worker has come to the house, looked around, talked to the boys, talked to us and read through the conglomeration of papers we have had to fill out and notarize. (I have never had to notarize so much crap in my life!!) She asked us a million and one questions, watched us with our boys and talked through just about every aspect of our lives from birth up until now. Pretty sure there is no stone left unturned! she was really kind easy going but we are so thankful to be done! It has been a long time coming! We had to delay things for weeks and months due to Nahum being sick or Nahum having surgery or her schedule being busy. Whatever the reasons were, it just plain took too long! But hallelujah it is done! We meet up with her on Thursday evening to verify and basically sign off on the papers that will be sent in to our adoption agency. FINALLY! Now on the the craziness that is the dossier.....I am certain there will be some crazy blogging during that 6 months! The dossier is a 4-6 month process of paper work and at the end of that we submit it to Ethiopia for approval and then we wait!

What will we be waiting for you ask?  Well....Andy and I have said from the get go that you can't pick a gender when you have a biological child so we would leave this one up to God as well. However, God has really impressed on our hearts that he has a specific child for us and the way we answer the questions (ie: would you take a cleft lip, cleft pallet, deaf, boy, girl, siblings etc etc.....) is the way a child (or children) would be chosen for us. So we prayed. We answered questions. We prayed. We changed answers. We talked and prayed some more and changed some more. All of that to say...dun dun dun....we will be getting a GIRL! I almost lost it in the store tonight when we walked past the girls clothes. :) I know in my heart that God has a little girl in mind for our family! I know it! Now why did I say "or children" a few sentences back? Well, we said that we would take a sibling group if there was a little girl who had a brother or sister. I don't want to break up siblings!!! So, if God wants that or has that in mind for us it is a possibility for Ethiopia to refer siblings to us.....oh my.......Are we crazy? :)

Lastly I want to thank my friend Darcy of Darcy Holsopple Photography. She took the amazing picture you see above. When she posted it on fb she had some really sweet things to say and it got me all weepy. Thank you Darce for being willing to do this for our family! Get your trigger finger ready to take pictures of a beautiful little girl in 18 months to 2 years from now. And....get those braiding fingers ready cause I. CAN. NOT. FRENCH BRAID!

Thank you all for checking in and supporting us! Also, check out the thermometer to the side....it keeps going up thanks to God and all of you!!

Garage sale update

Due to interest in donating all types of items, we will be taking donations for all items not just children's items for the Garage sale! If you are interested in donating items to the sale please contact me or Amanda at spirited_88@hotmail.com! The sale is May 10-12 at my house if you want the address, contact me!

Childrens Items Garage Sale

My sweet friend Amanda came up with a great fundraising idea. She is even planning it all out so I don't have to do it! How awesome is she?! Here's the scoop. If you have any children's items you are willing to donate (anything from clothes and toys to furniture and anything in between) she will come pick them up from you, price them and we will sell them at a garage sale at my house the second weekend in May! Here is how you can help. If you want to donate just email Amanda at spirited_88@hotmail.com and tell her you are wanting to donate. Another way is to come shopping!! :) Who doesn't love a good garage sale? Ok, ok, I know not all of you are garage sale junkies like I am but hey, come out and see us anyway! Keep an eye out, we will be posting more updates on the sale as it gets closer!

Nahum's surgery update

I know this is an adoption blog, but it is also a way for people to keep up with us in general. I thought it would be a good way to give everyone an update on Nahum after his surgery.
If you didn't know, we have been trying to get Nahums tonsils and adenoids out for quite some time but we couldn't ever keep him healthy long enough to get it done....for instance, he had strep 4 times in 5 weeks and then 2 ear infections....So the Dr had us in quarantine for 2 weeks before and on antibiotics for 3 weeks before in order to keep him healthy. PTL he stayed healthy!
On the day before his surgery he was really nervous and kept asking questions and telling us he wasn't going to do it. The morning of surgery we had to be there really early so we just woke him up and left. He did really well up until we got into his pre-op room. He panicked thinking it was the operating room. Once he figured it out he did fine.
The Dr came in to check on him before they took him back and said his ears needed drained but there was no need for tubes. For some reason this translated to Nahum as "you don't need surgery" So he marched out of the room and followed the nurse back to O.R. like a big boy. All. By. Himself!
Surgery went well and quickly. When we got back to see him in the recovery room he was so groggy and sad. :( He kept asking to go home. Poor kid. He was refusing liquids so they made us stay until he drank 4 ounces of sprite....this took 2 hours....
Once we got home it was a rough day/night. He would panic every time we asked him to drink or take his medication. I think part of it was him still coming off of his anesthesia. He did however want to try EVERY food item we had purchased special for him. I NEVER buy 90% of the stuff we let him have so he thought he was pretty cool. He would take one bite of something and then move on to the next. It hurt him too bad to eat, but he wanted so badly to try everything....so. he did. Here is his food log for the past 24 hours
~
3 oz watered down cf coke
2 licks of a popstickle (as he calls them)
2 Tbs ice cream
3 Tbs jello
2 Tbs pudding
2 Tbs instant mashed potatoes
2 oz chicken noodle soup
meds
2 more Tbs chicken noodle soup
2 Tbs pudding
1 Tbs watered down cf coke
meds
1/4 c overcooked mac n cheese
1 tbs apple juice
a few more licks of a Popsicle
3 oz apple juice
2 oz cf coke
1/4 c mac n cheese
1/4 cup cool whip (gag me)
5 mini marshmallows
meds
1/4 c overcooked pasta with Alfredo sauce
3 oz coke
meds~ all through the night
1/8 cup cream of wheat made with choc pediasure and Greek yogurt
3 oz cf coke
1/8 c spaghetti o's (makes me want to vomit!)
1/8 cool whip
1/4 ice cream
1 oz cf coke
1 oz apple juice

What a nasty diet!! Obviously he isn't eating a ton, but at least he is eating often lol! Keep the prayers coming. The dr said first week is critical for us to help him heal. If he doesn't drink  A LOT he will end up back in the hospital. We don't want that!

the car ride there with his GINORMOUS dinosaur

After he got his mini scrubs on in the pre-op room they got  booties and a hat for his dino...forgot a pic of the hat :)

right when he first woke up in recovery

Watching tv in recovery because he refused to lay down.

He kept asking to go home. Poor kid.

snuggling daddy ...and that huge dinosaur lol!

a few licks of his popSTICKle

runny mashed potatoes anyone?

chicken noodle soup....what's next?

No, I am not kidding...how sick is this? :) Ah well, at least he is eating.

late night movie time

so excited about his balloons from his school friends. I love his school!

 Dunno who likes em more, Olie or Nahum

The balloons came with this dog. He hasn't put it down yet!

This is his little set up in the living room. He is so tired!

He loves those stinking balloons! ;)

Fundraiser Instructions

Ok, this new coupaide fundraiser is a great one, but there are a number of steps to go through in order to finalize it all. I figured it might be helpful if I gave you super detailed, step by step instructions. I know not everyone is computer savvy and this can get confusing.
Here are your directions

~Go to http://coupaide.com/deal/toth-adoption-fundraiser/ or go to our blog http://ahomefordurye.blogspot.com/ and click on the coupaide fundraiser box on the right and our site should come up.

~click on the red button that says BUY NOW

~Now you have to register. Fill in the blanks by making up a user name and password. (They will email you a confirmation)

~ Now, use the user name and password you created to log in.

~Once logged in you purchase however many deals you want.

~ Once you purchase you gift card it says to print it.

~ Print it (There is no button to print, so just print by hitting Control and P at the same time)

~ Go to the website it tells you to go to under the "redeem at:" portion (It should say Dine.Restaurant.com)

~click the tab that says redeem your gift

~enter in your zip code in the zip code box

~ Enter how many miles you are willing to drive for a restaurant in that box (I did 30 and a TON came up)

~ Then you should show that you have $50 (or however many you bought) to spend and you can start scrolling through a list of gift cards you want to buy. For instance you can buy a $25 one for      La Esperanza and a $25 to the Emporium or split it however you want to between the restaurants listed. There will be pages of them and each restaurant offers 3-5 different price ranges to purchase.

~Select how many, of which ever ones you want and add it to the cart. Continue shopping if you haven't spent your full amount.

~Once done "shopping" you select "check out"

~Now, enter in your email and make a password (can be same as the one you used at coupaide.com but doesn't have to be.)

~Fill in the blanks on your email...blah blah blah...Make sure you check the box that says you read their policies....blah blah blah...

~Print each gift certificate. You have to do each one you order/buy individually
If you are wanting to purchase more than one, but not all at one time, please email Matt at service@coupaide.com   and tell him how many you want to purchase and he will send it to you via email. They are trying to correct the problem of not being able to order more than once, however if it is not corrected and you would like to purchase another gift card use this route!

Fundraiser with Coupaide

Yay! We are super excited about this next fundraiser! NO MATTER WHERE YOU LIVE IN THE USA you can be involved in this AND SAVE MONEY all at the same time! For this fundraiser, all you have to do is visit our site, purchase a gift card with a $50.00 for ONLY $20.00 and search for restaurants in your area! I promise there will be at least one....I mean heck, there is even one that participates in the sticks of the upper peninsula where my parents live and the itty town of New Paris has one! No, I am not kidding! I am super excited about this one because not only do we receive $10.00 for every card you purchase, but you save 60% at some really great restaurants! What a cheap way to have a great date night! Check it out guys! Visit http://coupaide.com/deal/toth-adoption-fundraiser/ !