Birthday blues...

How do I even begin to explain the way that I feel...

I got my hopes up that we would be traveling to meet our little boy in June.  Miles turns 3 on June 25th and I was praying that we would get to be with him on his birthday.  It was unrealistic to hope for but I Momma can dream, right? We just got word that we will more than likely not travel until August or later. :( Supposedly the Ministry of Justice takes the entire month of August off so if we don't get a travel date prior to August we probably wont travel until late fall. Heavy heart but praying for a travel date before August. I long to meet our son so badly!!

Since we wont be able to love on our little guy on his birthday we sent him a package.  The adoption agency sends a package to Bulgaria every Friday so we packaged up a few things to send to our little man for his big day.  It kills me to know that I wont be able to be with him on his birthday. This will be the last birthday he will ever spend not knowing there is a family that loves him so much!! I have to rejoice in the fact that every birthday from this point forward we will all be together.

One day at a time, one day at a time.... This is the hardest thing I have ever done.  If we could DO something, if we could focus on something but instead we just have to wait.....

Philippians 4:13
I can do all this through him who gives me strength. (NIV)

Another Successful Saturday...

We were all about the yard sale this Saturday. Thank you so much for all the donations everyone.  We were able to raise enough to get to the half way point.  We put a $5000 goal on the yard sale fundraising goal for the summer.  We are HALF WAY there!! We have two weeks to get together more yard sale items.  We will be out June 22nd for the next yard sale. I will need to go back through all my stuff to restock the garage.  If you have any donations please let us know and we will come pick up the stuff!! We are feeling so accomplished even though we still have a long way to go but right now- WE ARE HALF WAY.  Rejoicing in all the little accomplishments.  :) Thank you to everyone who helped us get this far!!

My beautiful Family!

I can't wait til our little Miles (in the small photo below) can join our family in the large photo above.  I feel like this photo captures how we feel about the adoption right now.  We are so blessed and hopeful for our family to be all together but he feels so far away!  There is us here and him there!! Waiting for us all to be together is getting harder and harder!! Wish we could catch a flight right now and go be with him.  The only way we know to try and tell him how we feel is through prayer.  My heart bleeds for him to know that he has a family that loves him desperately.  We are a family through faith and we will unite soon.  I just wish he knew we are here, that we love him, and that we are doing everything in our power to come to him!! We love you Miles.  Please know that Mommy and Daddy are coming.....

Fundraising- Whoo Hooo!!

First Official Fundraiser=Success!!

We are feeling so overwhelmingly blessed tonight! We had our first official fundraiser and it was such a success.  We held a massive yard sale today from 7am-3pm.  We had so many wonderful families donate a ton of amazing stuff.  We were up late last night getting ready and up at the crack of dawn this morning to pull it all out and set up.  I was so nervous NO ONE would show up.  We were surprised by the overwhelming turnout.  People came because they follow our blog, some came cause they follow us on Facebook, some came cause they saw our ad on craigslist, some came because they saw our signs on the road.  Everyone was so supportive and we had such a successful day.  I am hoping a few people decide to start following our journey :).  We want to thank everyone who donated items, donated time, donated help, and came to the sale.  Your generosity amounted in a LARGE appreciation from our family and we raised enough money to BUY ONE TICKET TO BULGARIA!!!!! So AMAZING!!! We are getting so close to meeting our sweet little Miles. We will be out next Saturday with more stuff and hopefully earn enough for one more ticket to Bulgaria!!! Hope to see you there!!

We would be lost with out them and want to give a shout out to my little sister and her boyfriend.  Emmy and Dustin arrived at our house around 6pm last night.  They cooked us dinner, helped us get ready, stayed the night, woke up at 5am to help set up, stayed for the entire yard sale, helped us clean up and didn't leave here til close to 4pm today.  You guys are amazing!! We love you so much and are so blessed to have an Aunt and Uncle that love our son as much as we love him. Thank you so much for your help, support, love and dedication to our family!! We are forever grateful for all you do for us!!

Remember to visit our online store for all your coffee needs.  50% of whatever you buy is sent directly to our Adoption Agency to cover adoption fees.  Thank you so much!!
https://justlovecoffee.com/loveoutloud.hawley

Piles of paperwork

The overwhelming amount of paperwork!! There is a common saying in the adoption world that if you stop doing paperwork than you stop being pregnant.  It is very true!! Everyday you are pregnant you have to take care of that little one living inside of you.  When you are adopting the only way to get closer to that little one, the only thing you can do to keep the process moving, the only thing that is a constant is PAPERWORK!! We are at a little bit of a stand still with paperwork as we wait on Agencies, Government, NBC and the MOJ.  Standing still is way to hard for me so in order to feel like we are still progressing forward I have dove head first into Fundraising mode.  I have been amazed at how hard it is to fundraise when you are not a Nonprofit but that is NOT going to stop us.  I have been busy making flyer's, letters, announcement cards, yard sale signs, and much more.  Today I went a viewed a venue for the Night Out Event!! It is perfect and the lady who owns it is so great.  I am excited to get started planning that event.  Our 5k/10k run is coming along nicely.  We are almost ready to start collecting business sponsor for the t-shirts.  The yard sale pile is growing almost daily thanks to such amazing people.  We have had two WONDERFUL people purchase coffee on https://justlovecoffee.com/loveoutloud.hawley.  We are truly blessed to have such amazing people surrounding us and supporting us through this journey. THANK YOU!!

5K/10K RUN

Found out that the Latah County Fair is on Sept 7th so that wont work for our fundraising event.  New date will be Aug. 24th!!! More details to follow....