Haven't Posted In Quite A While!

I apologize that I haven't posted in SO long!!! The fundraiser got over with, and then it seemed life was busy, and nothing huge was happening with the adoption, so I haven't posted!!

I have had a couple of people ask about the two birth moms that were to deliver in October. They both ended up keeping their babies. In one of the cases, it was a good thing! The couple ended up getting married. The other case, probably wasn't the best situation, so we pray for them daily.

Since then, nothing really has happened. We are just playing the waiting game I guess!!

As for the fundraiser, I want to thank everyone once again who helped out and donated! God has certainly blessed us with amazing people that we have come across in our lives, and you are all included in that! We ended up raising just about $2,000!! Praise Him! We still need to raise about $1,400 to have what we need to accept our referral. (Maybe that's why we haven't gotten the referral yet? LOL!) After that, we will have a little time (I think) but we will have to come up with the extra costs, like travel, lodging in Taiwan, baby's costs in Taiwan (medical, visa, passport, ect.). I know that the Lord WILL provide! I am SO excited to see how He does it! For now, I am going to start sewing like crazy again (Denice's Creations). I am going to try hard to get a bunch of things made to start my Etsy store at the beginning of the year. So watch for news of that! ;-)

So, thank you all who keep checking in for news. I promise that I will post anything important as soon as it happens!

On a really cool off-topic note...today is the 3 year anniversary of the end of our journey to our daughter Ana, who was adopted in Kazakhstan! Three years ago today, we touched down at SeaTac airport and she officially became a US citizen, and we were finally home as a family!!! It was such an exhausting, emotional day! But one we will never forget, and continually thank God for!!

Blessings to all!

And The Winners Are.....

(Ana mixing them up!)

(Hmmm...let's see...)

(Oooh! I know who won!)

(And the winner is!!!!!)

OK, just so you know, Ana drew ALL the names for the winners! We figured that would be the best bet for a couple of reasons. She can't read, therefore, no cheating! LOL!!! And she is also adopted, and since this was in support of her siblings adoption, it seemed to be appropriate!! (Not to mention, then I could take pictures!!) So her grandma helped her draw the names! She was SO excited to have this BIG job!!!

Now, on to the winners!!!

1. MercyMe singed CD/DVD ~~ Shannon Brietenfeld
2. MercyMe signed CD/DVD ~~ Roxanne Kudwa
3. MercyMe signed CD/DVD ~~ Sarah Lockwood
4. MercyMe signed CD/DVD ~~ Jenn Heckert
5. Custom made wall shelf ~~ Dana Chapman
6. Quilt (green and burgundy) ~~ Jessica Kidwell
7. Quilt (purplish/bluish and green) ~~ Resa Delany
8. Gift Basket ~~ George and Randi Delany
9. $50.00 American Express Gift Card ~~ Becky Gustafson
10. $25.00 Starbucks Gift Card ~~ Paula Zenobio
11. Party Lite "Change-O-Luminary" ~~ Donna Dimnet
12. Small Handbag ~~ Michelle Minner
13. Medium Handbag ~~ Tracy Cook

Congratulations!!! I will be contacting everyone by email!! If you see this and haven't heard from me, it might mean I haven't been able to get ahold of you! Please email me at gusfamily7@q.com.

Again, we can't thank you enough for all of your support!! God bless you all!!

Total!

We will draw the winners at about 9am Pacific Standard Time. We ended up with $1,935.00 with 30 generous people that donated! (we will take donations up to 9am!) We needed about $4,000 to accept a referral when it comes in, so now we'll only need a bit more than $2,000 (I guess I'd better get sewing like crazy to make some more money!! LOL!)

I just want to send a heartfelt THANK YOU to everyone that participated! I know economic times are hard, but there are some incredibly generous people out there!! Even those that could only donate $10 (and those that could donate nothing, but sent beautiful prayers and passed the word on to others!), it meant SO much to us!! It has really spoken volumes to me about the people we have in our life. God has truly blessed us with knowing some amazing people, and even those that we don't know all that well, but have supported us in this adoption, tells me so much about the hearts of all of you!! I thank all of you that are praying for this adoption and for our new child in Taiwan. I thank those of you that took a minute to spread the word to people that we don't even know.

I pray that God blesses everyone that stepped up and did one, or all, of those three things (gave, prayed, and passed the word on.). You are incredible people with incredible hearts! Our sweet child in Taiwan is one step closer to having a Forever Family, and we are one stop closer to being blessed abundantly by that child!!!

God bless!!!

LAST DAY!!!!!

(Better late than never! I finally got the pictures of the two quilts up!!!)

Today is the LAST DAY of hopefully our last fundraiser to raise the rest to be able to accept the referral of our baby (who could be born any time!!)

So far we've had 28 people donate, with a total of $1,735.00! Thank you SO much to those who have donated already!!! (The odds are still pretty good that you might win something if you donate!!!!! ;-)

If you happen to be on Facebook, we have an "events" page set up that you can visit and "invite" your contacts as well! We appreciate you getting the word out, we have some great things to give away!!!

Here's the info about the fundraiser again:

Here's what we are going to do! On Monday, Sept. 28th through Wednesday, Sept. 30th, we are going to have a "Power Fundraiser!" And here's the great part, everyone that donates has a chance to receive an awesome gift!! Here's the great gifts we have to give away so far (I hope to be adding pictures of these gifts sometime this week!):

• 4 of MercyMe's 10 CD/DVD ~ signed by the group! (Their latest release commemorating 10 years of great hits!)
  
• 2 beautiful handmade quilts!
• A beautiful gift basket filled with wonderful items from Montana by Western Country Gift Baskets! (retail $45.00)
  
• A $50 American Express Gift Card donated by Send Out Cards!
• A gorgeous, rustic wall shelf (retail $40.00)
• A beautiful "Change-O-Luminary" (from Terrie Owen's Party Lite website) plus 6 Holiday Spice votives to go with it! (retail $32.00)
  
• 2 of my custom made bags from Denice's Creations! (1 medium ~ retail $49.00. 1 small ~ retail $39.00)
  
• $20 gift card from Starbucks!

That's a total of 13 items we will be giving away!!! Pretty good odds!!!

Here's how it's going to work! ~

• Donate $10 ~ you get one chance to win one of these wonderful prizes!
• Donate $50 ~ you get seven chances to win!
• Donate $100 ~ you get 15 chances to win!

We will be announcing the lucky people that have been drawn Thursday morning, October 1st, here!

Blessings! And thank you for your continued prayers! Remember, pass the word about the great things we are giving away!!!

Blessed Beyond Words!

We recently received a beautiful handmade card from a sweet girl named Trinity. Trinity is one my dearest friend's daughters. They live in the mountains of Colorado (we miss them terribly!!!).

This summer, Trinity and her cousin Jarod (the two children in the middle), put up a Kool-Aid stand this summer on their extremely quiet road that goes through their small "town". (I put town in quotes because it is small! Most people who have homes there are seasonal. Infact, this is funny, I just googled the population of their town, and the first site I came up with said 7! I know that's not true...my girlfriend has 6 kids, plus her and her husband! Plus, I know of a few others that call the town home too! The next two sites I found said 108 and 149. I'd say somewhere in there! So, like I said, small! I wished I lived there!!)

They put their stand up on a Tuesday (you would think a very quiet day for traffic!) and I understand they were out there for about five hours, and guess what? A total of about 30 cars stopped by!!!!! Why am I telling you about this Kool-Aid stand that our adorable little friend Trinity and her cousin Jarod put up? Because they donated the money they made to go towards our adoption! They earned $91.03!!!! Unbelievable!!!

When I opened it up and read her card and saw the check, I have to admit, I was extremely choked up (well, I'd have to say I was MORE than choked up!!) I still get choked up when I think of what a sweet, generous thing these kids did! That's a lot of money, would have each gotten a lot! But they chose to donate it to help our baby in Taiwan get a "forever family". I pray that God blesses these children beyond belief!

Interestingly, our last adoption, we also had a child donate. His name is Ben, and it was on his heart to take $100 out of his savings account to help us bring Ana home! I remember just being blown away! Kids are SO awesome, aren't they? They have such wonderful, giving, pure hearts!!! I so want to be like that always!!

"I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven." Matt. 18:3

Anyway, just had to share what awesome kids we know! ;-)

Last Ditch Fundraiser Extravaganza!!!

OK, we are really close to having what we need to finish up this adoption!!! I'm feeling a push to try to raise the rest soon. We will need to submit our last big chunk of money when we accept a referral (we only need about $4000 more!). The rumor is, there are a couple of birth mom's due the first week of October! One of those two babies could be ours!! So I'm trying to raise the last bit that we will need to complete this journey!!

Here's what we are going to do! On Monday, Sept. 28th through Wednesday, Sept. 30th, we are going to have a "Power Fundraiser!" And here's the great part, everyone that donates has a chance to receive an awesome gift!! Here's the great gifts we have to give away so far (I hope to be adding pictures of these gifts sometime this week!):

• 4 of MercyMe's 10 CD/DVD ~ signed by the group! (Their latest release commemorating 10 years of great hits!)
  
• 2 beautiful handmade quilts!
• A beautiful gift basket filled with wonderful items from Montana by Western Country Gift Baskets! (retail $45.00)
  
• A $50 American Express Gift Card donated by Send Out Cards!
• A gorgeous, rustic wall shelf (retail $40.00)
  
• 2 of my custom made bags from Denice's Creations! (1 medium ~ retail $49.00. 1 small ~ retail $39.00)
  
• $20 gift card from Starbucks!

I also have a couple of other items that people are working on possibly donating as well! Our goal is to have at least a dozen items (or more!!) to give away!! If you have ANY ideas of other items, or you could donate an item, please contact me at gusfamily7@q.com .

Here's how it's going to work! ~

• Donate $10 ~ you get one chance to win one of these wonderful prizes!
• Donate $50 ~ you get seven chances to win!
• Donate $100 ~ you get 15 chances to win!

Prizes will be drawn and announced Thursday morning, October 1st, here!

I will be having a reminder for this event a couple of days ahead of time. Please mark your calendars!!!

Blessings! And thank you for your continued prayers!

"If You Don't Mind Me Asking...."

Throughout this adoption, and Ana's adoption, we had many people, friends and family, ask, "If you don't mind me asking, how much is the adoption going to cost?" Or, "How on earth can you afford that?" OR some have said to me, "I think it would be so great to adopt, we could never afford it though."

Those are all valid questions and concerns. I don't mind one bit when people ask us! We are a single income (have been for 19 years!), military family! How have we been able to do it??

The Lord has provided.

Yes, we have sold things (but didn't the Lord provide us with our "stuff" in the first place?). We have had some wonderful people donate to our cause, and even those that could only donate $10, they were prompted by (and then obeyed!) the Lord to donate! We have even humbly "inherited" some money that was to be used for our adoption, but the Lord also lead that person to leave it for that cause. ALL the glory goes to God, without Him, no, we couldn't afford to adopt!

But the Lord's heart is FOR adoption! He is the "Father to the fatherless..." I know that this fallen world we live in breaks our Lord's heart. He doesn't want these sweet, precious children of His to go without a family to love them and care for them! He has adopted each of us through Jesus Christ. Therefore, why wouldn't He provide for His people to adopt these children of His into our families? The answer is, He does!! We just need to trust in Him and step out in faith and just do it.

That's not easy.

Both of our adoptions have been huge lessons for us in that area!! We seriously went into Ana's adoption with our eyes blinded by the Lord as to how much the adoption was going to be. We had started out in another country that was going to cost about half of what Kazakhstan did. I know, without a doubt, if we would have realized just how much it was going to cost, we would have panicked!! I know what you are thinking, how on earth could you go into something like that and not realize how much it was going to be? Good question... I know it was the Lord's doing. And since He did blind us to the total cost, we were able to experience a miracle! When we needed large chunks of money for the adoption, miraculously, it was there! We would sell something (vehicle, boat, etc.) and people were lined up to pay full price!! (If you know us, that doesn't usually happen to us!!). Tax return came in unusually high, at the exact amount that we needed at that time! So many more examples, but you get the idea!

There have been times during this adoption that I have gotten down about the fact that I come across all these other people that have tons of friends, family, and strangers financially supporting their adoption. The Lord has gently reminded me that first of all, I need to be extremely happy for those people! ;-) But more importantly, I need to remember that if I'm down about that, then I'm placing my trust in mere people, and not completely trusting my Provider! Please forgive me, Lord!

The reason I wrote this post is because this topic has really been on my heart a lot lately. I don't want people thinking that we are so good to adopt twice (big deal! I know of MANY families that have adopted five times that many kids!!), or that we are sacrificing so much of ourselves by adopting (No way! We aren't sacrificing...we are being blessed beyond words!).

I just want to share with others the wonderful, miraculous way that Lord is once again providing for us. I want to encourage others who have ever even remotely thought about adopting to take that huge leap of faith and do it!! If you have been called by God, then He won't disappoint you!

I have come across quite a few people lately that have stepped out in faith to adopt (that also can't afford it.) I struggle with the feeling that the Lord wants me to give to their causes. "But Lord, I have my own cause going on here!" LOL!! He clearly told me that He could take my $20 multiply it greatly. Cool!! Besides, didn't the Lord provide me with that original $20 anyway? (I need to always remind myself of that!!) ;-)

A friend of mine (that has been a huge supporter of our adoption! Thanks J!!) told me about a blog post called "Single? Married? Exactly How To Pay For An Adoption?" that she had read about this very topic. I went and read it and really couldn't believe how it was almost word-for-word what has been on my heart lately!! I know that it will encourage you, humble you, and inspire you! Please take the time to read it! I so want to be the kind of Christian that doesn't just sit back all comfortable (like I so often do!), but one that gives of my life sacrificially to others by honoring and glorifying our Almighty God!!

I hope that if any of you are straddling that line of whether or not to take that leap of faith to adopt, please know that the Lord will provide!! Be inspired! The Lord has great things planned for you! ;-)

May you trust in Him always!! Remember, He can move mountains!