Wednesday, June 29, 2011

Me: Brynn, what do you think Anna Gray is going to call you? Brynn, Bree, Sass?

B: Hmmm... probably Nicholas.

Tuesday, June 28, 2011

You can help:

We are ready for our first fundraiser already!
That is only due in thanks to my friend, Jordan. She is a future-adoptive-mom and was planning an adoption yard sale for this weekend. She oh-so-sweetly invited us to partner with her and split the proceeds, benefitting BOTH of our adoptions! We are so, so grateful.

The yard sale is THIS SATURDAY, July 2nd.
It will be held at White House Church of Christ, beginning at 7:30am.

If you have ANYTHING (including baked goods!) you would like to donate to sell, just let me know! You can drop it off at the church anytime this week or bring it Thursday night or Friday afternoon while we are setting up. 100% of the proceeds from the sale will go towards these adoptions and helping bring babies to their forever families.

Unfortunately, Nathan and I had a romantic getaway planned for this weekend (my mother's day gift- although I don't who is more excited!). We weren't able to get a refund on our trip to be there for the sale which stinks, but at the same time this will be our last kid-free getaway for a LONG time ha. At least until we travel together to see Annie! So we are thankful for the opportunity for some alone time before our lives become consumed by paperwork.

If you would like to volunteer to work at the yard sale on our behalf, we would be so very thankful!

You may also notice the box on the right side of the blog. If at anytime you feel called, you are able to click that box to donate toward our adoption. It is tax deductible and 100% of the donation goes toward bringing Anna Gray home!

Thank you sooooo much for your love and support!!

The details we can share:

We are adopting thru Reece's Rainbow- They are an amazing organization fighting for the orphans of the world, more specifically orphans with Down Syndrome and other types of special needs. They have been wonderful to us so far and we are looking forward to partnering with them to advocate, not only for our daughter, but for the other precious waiting souls as well.  Click here if you would like to read more about DS.


About our girl:
Right now, she is known as Gracie. If you don't know, that was Brynn's name before she came home as well... pretty cool, huh?

If you also don't know, I have an obsession with names. More people than I'd like to admit can verify the existence of a navy blue binder specifically for names. Boy names, girl names, place names, surnames, family names, nature names... arranged by sex and in alphabetically order. It's ok, you can pray for me.
That being said, I spend a lot of time "naming" children- both for myself and for other people (and yes, some people have actually used the names I've suggested for them :)! True story. I have named about 12 children for us... can't honestly say how many of those I think we will actually use. By the way, Nathan is included in these discussions regularly- he's a trooper :)

As for our newest addition... well, she kind of named herself. Her official name will be

Anna Gray.

Anna is for my grandmother and Gray is for my dad.
We had/have every intention of calling her Anna Gray, but within hours of deciding to adopt her, the kids were already calling her Annie.  Actually, BEFORE we decided to pursue the adoption and BEFORE we discussed what her name would be if we did, Nathan accidentally called her Annie instead of Gracie during one of our conversations ha!  She does look like an Annie, so we'll probably use both.

For now, Anna Gray lives in an orphanage in Eastern Europe. For the safety of her adoption and the adoptions of other sweet littles, we can't say her specific location publicly. Please respect that to protect these children and their forever families :)

We should be able to go get her in about 7 months. Nathan and I will travel together once, and then I will go back a second time and actually bring her HOME! She is 3-4 months old right now, so she will be just under a year by the time we get to her.

The cost to adopt her is about $25,000.

Just let that sink in for a moment.




To answer the obvious question... NO, we don't have a spare $25K laying around. What we do have is a big, big God. We don't believe He would have specifically told us to adopt this child, and then not provided a way for us to do that. We will have to work hard, but we truly believe He will take care of us. He's never let us down before!

Be prepared to hear about several fundraisers in the very near future. We have absolutely zero intentions of soliciting money from anyone. However, for those who WANT to help bring Anna Gray home to us, there will be opportunities to do so. Already, our family and friends have stepped up in support in so many different ways- I can't wait to see how God uses all of us for this baby girl!

Intro:

Welcome to our adoption blog! We are so, so excited to have a reason for it.

This blog will be used to document our journey as we bring our sweet girl home. This whole process is going to be very educational for us! We had not intended on pursuing an international adoption (which is a learning process in and of itself!) and have very limited experience with Down Syndrome. But when the Lord calls- you answer!

For those of you who are not immediate family or friends, here's a little background on us:
Amber decided she was going to adopt at the age of four years old. When she and Nathan began dating as teenagers, she told him her plan and said he was either in or out… he was in! They were married eight years ago and blessed less than a year later with a biological daughter, Layla, who is now seven. A couple of years later, they started the adoption process, ready to grow their family. About halfway through the process, they were told it was impossible for them to conceive- even though they had a healthy 2-year-old at home! This news just confirmed that they were already doing what God has always planned for them to do. Before they could even complete their homestudy, Nathan and Amber were asked to parent girl/boy twins! The babies had already had four homes and three sets of names in their short six weeks of life. Brynn and Cale are now four years old and almost as tall as their favorite person (big sister, Layla)!
 
Just recently, Nathan and Amber began updating their domestic homestudy. They planned on another domestic infant adoption, but God had better plans! Amber was introduced to Reese’s Rainbow by another adoptive mother, slightly by accident. After combing through the website once or twice, praying for the precious waiting souls, she saw Gracie. Little Cale had been praying for God to bring him “a baby with a mohawk” and he found one! All three of the children started asking, “When can she come home?” before Nathan or Amber ever mentioned doing just that! They took some time to pray about her, seeking God’s will for their family and felt very clearly that this was His plan for them. They are all so excited to hold this little squishy and bring her home. She, and her “mohawk” , will fit right in!
 
You can also find that information, along with the opportunity to donate toward our adoption fund at this link:
 
Follow along with us as we experience this amazing ride. She will grow, and we will grow together, while we wait.