AND THE WINNER IS

And the Winner is .........Lisa Williams....  Congratulations Lisa!


   Thank you to all of you that donated. In the last month we have raised thru the iPod giveaway,Makenzys sand dollars,parents night out done by Amanda and Madison and donations  $5,995!!! WOW! we are only $310 away from what we need for our next trip (the court trip). Keep watching because we are going to be doing another giveaway to help with the  $9,000 we need for our 3rd trip (the Gotcha trip where we get to bring him home). Not sure what the prize will be yet we are thinking on that.Thank you for helping us bring our boy home! 

We're Giving Away a New iPod Touch! will draw the name tonight at 8:00

We are excited to announce that one lucky donator will receive a brand new iPod Touch 32 GB!

For every $10 donation you will have one entry in the drawing.  We will draw the name on January 29th

We need the help of a lot of people to help us raise the final $15,000 that we need to finish the process of bringing Josiah home. By the grace of God, and thanks to a few donations,we have been able to cover the first $18,000 in expenses.  We have had just what we needed as we needed it. (Thank you, Lord.)  But we still have a ways to go financially to make this a reality, and how much sweeter would it be to know that many people came together to help bring this miracle about!

Every donation will be valuable to us!  We thank you from our hearts for anything that you can give!  We love you!!!

Would you  please help us spread the word through Facebook or your blog or e-mail...ANYTHING...that would help even more!

Here's How To Donate/Enter the Giveaway:

To pay by check or credit card, Click on the "ChipIn" button to the right of this post.  Please enter the total amount of your donation as the "price" with a quantity of "1". It doesn't work when you enter multiple quantities.

TO MAKE A TAX-DEDUCTIBLE DONATION through our REECE’S RAINBOW FAMILY SPONSORHIP PAGE, CLICK HERE:
http://reecesrainbow.org/sponsornin
If you donate this way, please e-mail me or leave a comment with your contact information because I will not have it otherwise.

If you would rather send a check, just email me for our address katrina9@clear.net
OR if you live close to us, feel free to bring it by our home so we can give you a big hug!

We can't wait to do THIS every day. 

Thank you for helping to make this dream a reality!

It won't be long....

Drawing the name for the iPod touch tomorrow.

We will be drawing the name for the iPod touch tomorrow. You still have time to get in on it! Just use the chip in and donate $10 and you will have a chance to win. We are so close we only need $690 for our next trip.

update

I copied this from Heather's post  because it says just what I would say.

Quick Update


Tuesday, our coordinator got a call from the Judge's assistant and she said that, rather than meeting with her (the assistant) on Wednesday, the judge would like to meet with her in person next Monday (our Sunday night) to review our cases (us and the Nine's.)

I'm not sure if we should be nervous, or what. We are the "pioneers" of the special needs program in which our agency is partnering with Reece's Rainbow, in this region. We're the first two families to come through who are adopting kids with DS in a while, I think. There are a bunch coming soon, but we are the first. And we both have larger families than they are used to. So I think the judge is being a bit more thorough than usual.

I e-mailed our coordinator and asked if this was unusual, and her reply was,

"Hope the judge wants to see me because she needs to hear on the documents (the ones that she asked for last week) and choose the court date upon the information received and accordingly to her schedule."
Hope so, too.
HOPE SO, TOO!!!!!
We pray that we'll find good news in our inbox Monday morning.

here is the link to Heathers's blog for Anya http://www.fillmoresjourneytoanna.blogspot.com/

The Inside of My Heart: My 1st letter to V Josiah.

This is my Daughter Amanda's blog please go read the letter she wrote to V Josiah it touches my heart more then words could ever say.

The Inside of My Heart: My 1st letter to V Josiah.: "I am making this blog to show what it's like to be part of an adoption, to be the older sister of an adopted sibling (and many biologic..."

My girls made a blogs for sweet little Artem and Christopher

My daughters Madison and Amanda made  blogs for the sweet little  Artem and christopher  from Reece'sRainbow who they have chosen to be a prayer warrior for.I'm so proud of them they have such huge hearts for the kids that still need a family.

here are the links
http://artemneedsafamily.blogspot.com/                     http://www.you-have-a-story.blogspot.com/

 

The judge wants some updates

Well the judge wants a few things updated.we are getting them done and hope to be able to get our court date next week. This is a small setback, we can do this, look how far we have come 10 months and 9 days of setbacks, this is nothing new. Thank you Lord for the blessings you have shown us it has made us stronger.

guess what ...........we got $1,050 in donations today Thank you Lord!!!

HE LOVES TO DANCE!

we were assigned a judge

We were assigned a judge, she is gathering all the necessary paper work from everyone involved.She will go over everything very closely to make sure there is nothing more she needs.  I ask that you pray that the Lord put favor in her eyes for us, that everything she needs is there,that she does not ask for anything more and that she gives us a court date soon.

Big sister helping out, Sand dollars for sale fundraiser

Makenzy our 12 year old daughter wanted to do something to help raise money to bring her little brother home.She thought up something she could do.Years ago the kids went with grandma and papa to the coast and went out early one morning and found hundreds of sand dollars, they brought them all home and grandma bleached them all out. We have a lot of them sitting in a basket. Makenzy thought wow if only we had a real dollar for every sand dollar! and hey why not $10? So Makenzy is selling a genuine Oregon coast sand dollar found on Seaside Oregon's beach along with the  legend of the sand dollar poem printed on nice card stock paper for $10 each plus $2.50 if it needs to be shipped. All proceeds go to help bring her little brother home.(Makenzy told me she had a dream that she was the one that got all the rest of the money we needed to bring Josiah home. lets see if you all can help make her dream come true.) You can pay thru paypal thru the chip in that says" sand dollers 4 my baby brother" please give your name and address if it needs to be shipped. You can also pay thru check or cash. If you need our address please email me at katrina9@clear.net or just post a comment.

two months since the first day we held him

Today it has been two months since we held our baby boy in our arms for the first time.We only got 7 visits with him each under an hour. Can't wait to get back there and hold onto him. Even if we only get one visit next trip it's worth it just to see that smile. The next time we see him he will be ours and we will never have to let him go.

Visa pictures it's wait time

Went and got pictures taken at Walgreens for our visas today, woo hoo exciting huh lol! we got four each because will probably have to get visas for each trip and they ask for two pictures for each visa. just thought we may as well get it all done at once. It was $35 something we didn't remember to add to our total of what we need. That's how it all adds up, not only by things like airline tickets and agency fees but all the little things like visa pictures, postage ect. So that was our excitement for the day as far as the adoption goes.Not much more we can do till we have a date then it will be hurry up time hurry up and book flights, hurry up and get a hotel, hurry up and send in for the visas.Hurry up time is much better then wait time even though it can be stressful at least your doing something.

Hurry up and wait!

Back to the waiting game! Boy we sure have learned how to wait thru this adoption.



Hurry up and wait, Hurry up and wait, that's about how it goes.


Now we wait for the judge, we pray they don't need anything more from us, we pray the rest of the money we need comes in. Other then that we just wait.But al least we are one step closer to our baby!

we were submitted to the court!!!

I woke up to read this email this morning.

The Nine family's dossier was submitted today to the court. Now I am waiting to hear from the judge. At this point I do not know yet what judge will be assigned. I will get in touch with you for more information on this case as soon as I hear from the court.

we are excited that means it wont be long now! But we still need $12.600  please pray for us.

10 months

Today it has been 10 months since we committed to adopt V Josiah. I almost didn't post because I really didn't know what to say. I feel content right now, I know God is working. we have had a few pretty good donations in the last few weeks, something I didn't anticipate. we have had ups and downs since we got back from our 1st trip almost two months ago. I miss him really bad one day and the next I'm fine. Right now I'm feeling good, I know we will have him home soon and like I said I'm feeling content. That is a strange feeling for me because for the last ten months I have felt everything but content. I just thank the Lord for giving me this peaceful feeling in my heart right now because its something I really needed. I could be stressing out over the fact that we still need just over $12,000 before we go for our next trip but I'm not. I could be stressing out that our coordinators in-laws were hit by a car and are in the hospital but I'm not, I just pray for them. I could stress out about getting our visas, our plane tickets, booking the hotel but I'm not. I could be stressing out about COURT or the 8 DOCTOR MEDICAL EXAM we have to have but I'm not. I'm calm, I'm content and I'm fine. For now anyways lol.I hope that I will have him in my arms when I post that it has been 11 months.