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!

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

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

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!

POPCORN FUNDRAISER!!!

Hey Friends & Family,
Michael & I are happy to announce that we are launching a popcorn fundraiser starting April 1st to April 20th! We need people to help us sell as well as buyers of this delicious product! If you are interested in helping us sell or purchasing popcorn, please shoot an email to togethermc@gmail.com and we will get you setup to sell or take your order! Thanks!