Alright, ladies and gentlemen, we're almost at the end- we are having our LAST garage sale on Friday (5/30) and Saturday (5/31)!
We still have a ton of great stuff and a BUNCH of new stuff (especially baby stuff!) that's been recently donated. We have promises of even more big-ticket items on the way in the next few days as well, so mark your calendars! We are priced to sell- we will be pricing clothes and books by the bag, so there will be some REALLY great deals to be had. Even better, I will stop bugging you with garage sale-y posts!
1. If you have items to donate, please schedule this with us ASAP- we would love love love more donations, and we'll take anything up until the end.
2. We need grocery bags- over the last month, we've given out more than we've taken in, so we definitely won't make it through the weekend.
3. We need help manning specific areas, handing out bag, etc.- we have had INCREDIBLE helpers, but we're going to be (hopefully) very busy and we would like to get this squared away sooner rather than later.
4. We need to borrow tables, if you have them. The ones we've been using won't be available on Saturday.
5. We need SHOPPERS! Each time someone drives by without stopping, I am absolutely shocked- we have everything under the sun, so I can't imagine what they're not finding. Come see for yourself :)
HUGE thanks go out to everyone that has donated, purchased, encouraged, and helped at these events- we are so looking forward to being done, but it has been an enormous blessing! Please contact us if you're looking for anything specific or if you'd like to donate/help. I'll include Paul's Craigslist post later so you can see photos to the best of our abilities. Hopefully we'll see you on Friday and Saturday, 8 am -3 pm!!!
Updates: Our home study is undergoing some small revisions and is then being sent to our placing agency in Minnesota- one more step forward! Thank you for your encouragement and love- we love you all!
5/25/2014
5/18/2014
Support
It's been a while since I posted, mostly because May is a pretty hectic time of year for teachers and things have been bonkers.
Even more than the school year coming to a close, however, we have been busy fundraising- a task we could in no way accomplish on our own. Pictured is a group of friends we've gotten close to over the years- and while there are a few people missing, we're thankful to have this particular group of friends because they have been SO supportive in a variety of ways. This group (including a few notable others not seen here) have gone over and above with their outpouring of love for us and Baby J, so they're getting a dedication post. :)
These friends have helped at every.single.garage sale (and they've donated more than half of the stuff we've sold), they've donated financially, they've prayed for and encouraged us, they've brought meals and treats when we were exhausted, they've been our cheerleaders- there is nothing that hasn't been done by at least one of them. They've organized garage sale previews, listened when we were stressed, kept a good sense of humor when we've been down, and even started gifting for Baby J. (I also think two of them are going to paint the nursery for us- if you've ever seen me paint, you'd know what a huge blessing that is- we can't afford to replace the carpet.)
I mention this now mainly because we're in a holding pattern- we have had 3 of 5 garage sales and our garage is still PACKED- so we're trying to do what we can and raise funds with what we have in the meantime. Unfortunately, Paul works many Saturdays, and so thankfully, we've had these friends coming to help price, sell, and cover the sale throughout the day. We would definitely have not been successful without them, and we love them for it. We're waiting for our home study to be reviewed by both agencies, which means that we can't apply for grants yet, and so the focus has been on the sales in order to reach the fundraising goal for our next bill. (We need a completed home study to apply for most adoption grants.)
This is important to us in part because we know that not everyone is going to adopt, but everyone can support adoption in different ways. We have had a LOT of support, and we could write blogs for the next decade about each person that's helped us, both inside this group and outside, but these guys have been almost as involved in the fundraising process as we have been! We are so encouraged by people that help even if it's not their passion- because they've shown us that they're passionate about families in every sense of the word.
Updates:
I wish I could say that there were major updates, but we are just waiting for our home study to be approved. After that point, we will have more to share and hopefully a clearer view of the estimated timeline (although even that is a guess).
Until then, thanks for everything! Come visit us next Saturday (5/24) and the following Friday/Saturday (5/30-5/31) for our last garage sales- there's new stuff coming in every day! You're welcome to donate stuff as well if that comes up. Thank you and we love you all!
5/04/2014
Let's Talk About It
We knew that adopting- and writing a blog about our adoption- would open us up for conversations, both good and bad. Talking about adoption is simultaneously my favorite thing AND my least favorite thing. While it's something we're obviously super passionate about and some of the conversations are uplifting and lovely, there are also a lot of times when the conversation is at best untimely, and at worst, super offensive. Mostly, though, they're somewhere in-between… good and weird and slightly uncomfortable but worth it… kind of like adoption.
We are always happy to have these conversations, even the awkward ones. Most are pretty great, and we're glad that people care enough to ask. These are some of the common ones, good and bad.
Convo #1: "Can you have your own kids?" First of all, my adoptive kid(s) will be my own. Also, yes, let's have the infertility conversation in this group of people, Ms. Perfect Stranger.
Convo #2: "(laughing) You're not going to adopt from Africa, are you?" (Yes, this was actually said to us. Really.) There are variations of this too, all making jokes about international adoption before people realize that we are, in fact, adopting internationally. There's no good way to respond to this, either, because there's so much that we want to say, but it's falling on deaf ears. Also in this: super racist comments that people don't think are racist. Yikes.
Convo #3: "Do you have kids?" This is no one's fault, but it's rough. I get asked that A LOT, and there was a time when it would have been worse, because we didn't know if we'd ever have kids and it's not the kind of question that a stranger expects you to cry about- but now, it's awkward because I don't know how to respond. I'm not pregnant, so we can't say yes yet, but we also are going to have a baby in the nearish future, so…………….? How do we respond? Yes? No? Sort of? I heard one adoptive mom that proudly adopted the term "expectant mother", but it's still a strange feeling. Especially with Mother's Day coming around, I'm not sure how to answer, but it comes up a lot.
Convo #4: "So do you have your baby yet?" I have a student that asked me this THE DAY AFTER he found out I was adopting. This is one of the funny ones- he clearly has no idea what's going on. Oddly enough, though, Paul's been asked this too- and not by children- and it reminds us that not everyone has gotten to see this process before. We probably said the same things before we watched our friends Chad and Courtney adopt, because we didn't know, but it still makes us laugh.
Convo #5: "When will you have your baby/ when are you leaving?" If only we knew, friend.
Updates: Our home study is being written right now! This will still take a bit to be finished, but we're done with education hours ad stuff for the moment.
Our garage sale yesterday was rained out, but our garage is filled to the max again, so we're having it next Saturday, rain or shine. Anyone interested in helping hang clothes on Friday should let me know- we're trying to stage as much as possible in the garage, so we'll be borrowing ladders and brooms to create makeshift clothes racks. We have TONS of new stuff, thanks to a handful of donations that have trickled in and an ENORMOUS donation from our amazing (former) neighbors- they let us raid their garage because they're downsizing and couldn't take everything with them. Join us next Saturday (10th) from 8am- 2pm!
As always, we love you and we're so thankful for your support!
We are always happy to have these conversations, even the awkward ones. Most are pretty great, and we're glad that people care enough to ask. These are some of the common ones, good and bad.
Convo #1: "Can you have your own kids?" First of all, my adoptive kid(s) will be my own. Also, yes, let's have the infertility conversation in this group of people, Ms. Perfect Stranger.
Convo #2: "(laughing) You're not going to adopt from Africa, are you?" (Yes, this was actually said to us. Really.) There are variations of this too, all making jokes about international adoption before people realize that we are, in fact, adopting internationally. There's no good way to respond to this, either, because there's so much that we want to say, but it's falling on deaf ears. Also in this: super racist comments that people don't think are racist. Yikes.
Convo #3: "Do you have kids?" This is no one's fault, but it's rough. I get asked that A LOT, and there was a time when it would have been worse, because we didn't know if we'd ever have kids and it's not the kind of question that a stranger expects you to cry about- but now, it's awkward because I don't know how to respond. I'm not pregnant, so we can't say yes yet, but we also are going to have a baby in the nearish future, so…………….? How do we respond? Yes? No? Sort of? I heard one adoptive mom that proudly adopted the term "expectant mother", but it's still a strange feeling. Especially with Mother's Day coming around, I'm not sure how to answer, but it comes up a lot.
Convo #4: "So do you have your baby yet?" I have a student that asked me this THE DAY AFTER he found out I was adopting. This is one of the funny ones- he clearly has no idea what's going on. Oddly enough, though, Paul's been asked this too- and not by children- and it reminds us that not everyone has gotten to see this process before. We probably said the same things before we watched our friends Chad and Courtney adopt, because we didn't know, but it still makes us laugh.
Convo #5: "When will you have your baby/ when are you leaving?" If only we knew, friend.
Updates: Our home study is being written right now! This will still take a bit to be finished, but we're done with education hours ad stuff for the moment.
Our garage sale yesterday was rained out, but our garage is filled to the max again, so we're having it next Saturday, rain or shine. Anyone interested in helping hang clothes on Friday should let me know- we're trying to stage as much as possible in the garage, so we'll be borrowing ladders and brooms to create makeshift clothes racks. We have TONS of new stuff, thanks to a handful of donations that have trickled in and an ENORMOUS donation from our amazing (former) neighbors- they let us raid their garage because they're downsizing and couldn't take everything with them. Join us next Saturday (10th) from 8am- 2pm!
As always, we love you and we're so thankful for your support!
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