Okay! I just have to share of couple of stories about God’s goodness! Some of
you know that we have been praying for a couple months now asking for God’s
guidance as we choose a continent/country for our adoption. I was sharing with
our small group 2 weeks ago that I was frustrated because we hadn’t received any
signs yet. The very next morning, I sat down to do my devotionals and it was
completely about Africa! I looked towards the ceiling, smiled and said “Okay,
God! I am in!” Later that night, I shared with Michael what had happened and
asked if he felt that was a sign. He smiled a huge smile and said “yes honey,
that was a sign”! We are adopting from AFRICA! Michael and I are leaning towards
one country in particular, but we want to do a little more research before we
officially announce that! Stay tuned for more information on that.
Alright, onto the next story! Michael and I try to do a weekly devotional
together to keep our marriage strong, God-centered. We just finished a
devotional, so we started reading the new book by Francis Chan “You and Me
Forever”. Michael was reading the 2nd half of the introduction to me when
Francis writes this direct quote! “Why not default to action until you hear a
voice from heaven telling you to wait? For example: Why not assume you should
adopt kids unless you hear a voice telling you not to? Wouldn’t that seem more
biblical since God has told us that true religion is to care for the widows and
orphans (James 1:27)?” Talk about a zinger! I instantly felt convicted! That we
weren’t supposed to wait around for a divine blue print. We have the basics and
now it’s time to get to work!
Now fast forward to Saturday when we arrived at church to volunteer at
Elevate, which is the 1st to 5th grade kid’s program at EBC. I decided to share
my story of God’s goodness with the group of volunteers and our leader asked
what fundraisers we had coming up. We shared that we want to design a t-shirt to
sell during the end of August, but we needed help designing the shirt. Right
away, one of the volunteers mentions that her husband is into graphic design and
would love to help. Then our leader chimes in and says that we should have the
whole volunteer group where the shirts when they are finished to help spread the
word in our church about our adoption! To say that we were blessed would be an
understatement! We were/are completely blown away about the great people we are
getting to know at our church! God is so good! To top everything off, a family
friend is going to print the shirts for us and another friend has offered to do
a 31 fundraiser in September! GOD IS SO GOOD FRIENDS! If you are going through a
struggle right now or a long time of waiting, hang on! God is moving even if we
don’t see it!
Have a great week friends!
We love you all!
Carey & Michael
(f)
Sunday, August 9, 2015
Tuesday, June 30, 2015
Jobs, Homes & Kids! Oh my!
We’ve had a lot of friends asking how things are going, so I thought it was time for an update. On the job front, Michael has had 5 interviews so far and they have all gone very well. He hasn’t received any offers yet, but we keep getting new leads everyday! God is so good & we know He will bring us the right job.
On the new house front, we have been in touch with a mortgage broker and his team recommends that we submit our paperwork by the end of July to meet our goal of moving in September or October, so that is the plan! Hopefully, Michael will receive an offer by then, but we’ve decided that we are moving one way or the other. Our apartment complex has gone downhill since we moved in and they switched owners, so it’s time to move on. We don’t have an intended area yet as we are hoping the new job will point us in a particular location, but it will be closer to the cities to make Michael’s commute a little easier for him.
Finally onto the subject that has most of you on the edge of your seat! The adoption! We’ve narrowed our country list down to about 6 or 8 countries: Bulgaria, Burkina Faso (Africa), Burundi (Africa), Ethiopia (Africa), Haiti, Peru, and Poland. I am in the process of contacting other agencies across the U.S. that work with these countries to ask questions and narrow down which ones would be able to help us. We’ve raised over $1500 now, so we can submit our final payment for the home study as soon as we get our health insurance situation figured out which will hopefully be taken care of by the fall. In the meantime, we are trying to come up with a summer fundraiser, so stay tuned! We’re hoping to do something by the end of July or in August!
Have a great summer everyone! Stay safe!
Wednesday, May 13, 2015
POPCORN IS HERE!
You read that right! The popcorn has arrived in St. Paul, MN at 4:30pm this afternoon and is scheduled to be delivered to our apartment sometime tomorrow! YIPPEE! We are so excited! Michael and I will be in touch with all of our sellers to work out the best way to get your order to you in the next couple of days!! Big thank you to everyone that sold, bought or said a prayer for our fundraiser/adoption! We couldn’t do this without you!
Blessings,
Carey & Michael 
Saturday, May 9, 2015
JAMBERRY NAIL FUNDRAISER!!!
Hey Friends,
A high school friend of mine has graciously offered to do our next fundraiser for us! She is a consultant for Jamberry Nails and is giving us her commission on any sales that we make! How sweet is that?? Let’s take her up on her generous offer and have some fun buying some nail wraps at the same time! Follow the link below and start shopping!!!
Thanks everyone! With each fundraiser, we move a step closer to bringing our kiddos home.
http://jenraths8.jamberrynails.net/party/?uid=e001c6f6-33b6-4640-b4c4-5695573398fc
A high school friend of mine has graciously offered to do our next fundraiser for us! She is a consultant for Jamberry Nails and is giving us her commission on any sales that we make! How sweet is that?? Let’s take her up on her generous offer and have some fun buying some nail wraps at the same time! Follow the link below and start shopping!!!
Thanks everyone! With each fundraiser, we move a step closer to bringing our kiddos home.
http://jenraths8.jamberrynails.net/party/?uid=e001c6f6-33b6-4640-b4c4-5695573398fc
Tuesday, April 21, 2015
News, News & More News
First the exciting news! Michael and I wrapped up our popcorn fundraiser today and it did better than we’d expected! We raised almost $1,000 and sold 115 bags of popcorn! That’s amazing! A huge thank you to everyone that purchased and sold popcorn for us! You guys are the best!
Now for the bad news ~ We received a call from our agency and they have decided to look for another family to take the boys. Since the orphanage is closing, they really need someone that has the funding ready to go and that is not us. I did not take the news well at first, but then I realized that this was an answer to prayer. I was extremely stressed about how everything was going to work out by July or August and how we were going to raise that much money so quickly. We wanted to do right by these boys and even considered taking out a loan, but something just didn’t sit right in our spirit. We knew from Dave Ramsey that we shouldn’t go into debt, but we were also talking about 2 precious little lives. We decided to pray over the matter and wait as long as we could before we made a decision. Within a couple of weeks, we received the phone call, so we know that this was of God even though it is hard to let these boys go!
So what does that mean? Good question! Michael and I have decided to use the time to better our circumstances so that we are in the best place possible when our kiddos arrive. Basically, we are searching for a new job for Michael that will boost our income and also shopping for a new home. We know that we need more room than our apartment can provide and it would be better for the kids if we move before they come rather than making them go through another adjustment after already going through so much turmoil. As far as the adoption is concerned, we are going to continue fundraising like crazy. Once Michael has a new job, then we can finish our home study and start applying for grants. Our agency has also encouraged us to research countries that are open to U.S. adoptions and to choose our top 3 based on the criteria that is most important to us! We can go anywhere we want because we can do the home study through our agency and then work with another agency for the placement of our kiddos, so that has been fun. I’ve been daydreaming about how beautiful our children’s country will be and seeing their smiling faces for the first time! Even though we are not adopting the boys, we are still hopeful to adopt a sibling group, but it could be boys or a boy-girl group since we will have more bedrooms available.
It has been a roller coaster ride, but we know it will all be worth it in the end! God is continuing to mold and shape us into the parents that He wants us to be. We can’t wait to see what He has in store for us!
Love you all!
Carey & Michael
P.S. Please continue to pray for the boys in Ukraine! Pray that our agency will find them a forever family that will love them to the ends of the Earth. Thanks guys!
Now for the bad news ~ We received a call from our agency and they have decided to look for another family to take the boys. Since the orphanage is closing, they really need someone that has the funding ready to go and that is not us. I did not take the news well at first, but then I realized that this was an answer to prayer. I was extremely stressed about how everything was going to work out by July or August and how we were going to raise that much money so quickly. We wanted to do right by these boys and even considered taking out a loan, but something just didn’t sit right in our spirit. We knew from Dave Ramsey that we shouldn’t go into debt, but we were also talking about 2 precious little lives. We decided to pray over the matter and wait as long as we could before we made a decision. Within a couple of weeks, we received the phone call, so we know that this was of God even though it is hard to let these boys go!
So what does that mean? Good question! Michael and I have decided to use the time to better our circumstances so that we are in the best place possible when our kiddos arrive. Basically, we are searching for a new job for Michael that will boost our income and also shopping for a new home. We know that we need more room than our apartment can provide and it would be better for the kids if we move before they come rather than making them go through another adjustment after already going through so much turmoil. As far as the adoption is concerned, we are going to continue fundraising like crazy. Once Michael has a new job, then we can finish our home study and start applying for grants. Our agency has also encouraged us to research countries that are open to U.S. adoptions and to choose our top 3 based on the criteria that is most important to us! We can go anywhere we want because we can do the home study through our agency and then work with another agency for the placement of our kiddos, so that has been fun. I’ve been daydreaming about how beautiful our children’s country will be and seeing their smiling faces for the first time! Even though we are not adopting the boys, we are still hopeful to adopt a sibling group, but it could be boys or a boy-girl group since we will have more bedrooms available.
It has been a roller coaster ride, but we know it will all be worth it in the end! God is continuing to mold and shape us into the parents that He wants us to be. We can’t wait to see what He has in store for us!
Love you all!
Carey & Michael
P.S. Please continue to pray for the boys in Ukraine! Pray that our agency will find them a forever family that will love them to the ends of the Earth. Thanks guys!
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