Garage Sale Adoption Fundraiser

Do you have anything that is cluttering your house? Are you ready to do some spring cleaning? Do you need someone to take some things off your hands?

Do you love to bake but you just can't eat it all?

More importantly, have you ever wanted to be a part of a life-changing endeavor?

If any of the above are true, you are invited to take part in the following:

WHAT: Garage Sale/Bake Sale

WHY: Raise funds for our Adoption

WHEN: Thursday, April 30

WHERE: Our House!

HOW CAN YOU HELP?
*Donate items to be sold (Please understand that there will be no returns.)
*Bake items to be sold
*Spread the word
*Come visit us on April 30!

Please call/e-mail me to let me know if you can help!

Spring Break Painting

Spring Break Project: Paint the living room (which included the hallway) and the kitchen/dining room (which included the other hall and the mudroom)!
Three days and sore fingers and hands later, here is the finished product. I am excited! It is great to have color again! Granted, they are the same colors as our old house, but hey!

Bow Party!

Last Saturday, we had our Bows for Brother party. The morning was such fun! We ate yummy breads, cookies and strawberries. We looked at the many, many adorable bows and hair accessories! We had a sweet time just spending a Saturday morning together.

It was such a success! Thank you, everyone who was able to come and those who ordered bows even though you couldn't come! We were so blessed by many of you. I heard from so many people who encouraged us in this adoption. We feel very loved!

Thank you, Kendra, for your donating your time and energies to help us in this way. You are a blessing!

Jackson's Perspective

I wanted to jot down a few things Jackson has said/done lately that have made our hearts giggle.

We went to parent/teacher conferences a couple of weeks ago. That was fun because both kids are doing great. Their teachers commended them on not only doing well academically but also showing high character. Yeah!

Then, Jackson's teacher showed us a sample of his work. One sample was especially amusing because the directions were to "Write your numbers, one to fifteen." This is what he wrote:

1 2 15


Then, the other night, Jackson was watching a basketball game with Chris. The announcer said about one of the players, "He is crafty!"

Jackson replied, "Does that mean he likes to do crafts?"

Bows for Brother!

Below is the invitation to our bow party. Everyone is invited! Come if you can!

Bows for Brother

Sound silly?

A friend, Kendra Neill, has graciously offered to donate all the proceeds

from a bow party to help us adopt our brother from Ethiopia.

You are invited!

What: A Bow Party

When: Saturday, March 14

Time: 10:00-11:30 a.m.

Where: 1204 Oak Ridge Circle, Goddard

Call 550-6255 for directions.

Check out Kendra's blog to see examples of her work and how all proceeds go toward funds for orphans:

http://www.sugarplumboutique.blogspot.com/

Adoption Update

O.K. I haven't communicated much about our adoption for the past few months. Well, in those months, this is what my dresser has looked like! It has become the spill zone for adoption papers, notebooks, books, assignments, dossiers, etc.! But, I feel like the days are not far away when I will see the top of my dresser again. We are two documents away from being able to start sending papers to different places. Soon, we will send two documents to the KS Secretary of State. Then, we will send our dossier (the collection of the documents which will represent us in Ethiopia) to Washington D.C. for authentication. After that, we will send it all off to Ethiopia!

Everyone (including us) wants to know what the time frame is for waiting. We are guessing that we will get to go in a year or so. Maybe it will be sooner--we'd love to go over Christmas!--or it could likely be later--hey, Spring Break or summer 2010 sounds great, too!

You can pray with us that our hearts would submit to God's timing as we wait for Him to provide everything needed for this to happen. It seems like adoption is an exercise in letting go of control. Oh boy! Here we go. . .

Family Fun Day

Last week, the kids were off for half of the week. It was so nice to have a vacation week! On Friday, Chris was also off, so we had a Family Fun Day. We went to have a lot of our documents notarized--more on the adoption update later--before eating lunch and going bowling. It was such a fun time of having fun together. The kids just loved cheering for each other.
Raegan liked feeling the fan blow on her!
Chris had to help Raegan, but she actually got three strikes! Yeah for bumpers!
It was fascinating waiting for the balls to pop up!

Sydney is starting to develop some form!

I actually had my best game ever! Of course, the bumpers didn't hurt. :)

Other fun times with Aunt Melli

When Aunt Melli was here, we also got to visit with Great Grandma and Great Grandpa Penner.
The kids also got to build a tent, courtesy of Daddy and Papa. They slept here for two nights. They loved it!

New Favorite Pasttime: Painting!

Raegan got some paints for Valentine's Day. She could paint every day, I think!

Aunt Melli Visits!

Aunt Melli came to visit on Friday the 13th! We absolutely loved our time with her. She is the easiest person to have around, and we are so thankful we get to have her for a chunk of time. She loves us all so well as she endures the busyness of our life. We watched Jackson win third place in his tournament. Here, Melli is helping Raegan to get a shot.
Reading books.

We got to sample Sydney's creation. It was yummy!
It was so hard to have her leave which is evidence to the quality of time we had when she was here. We all love you, Melli!

Super Bowl Sunday

We had our good friends over to watch the Super Bowl. Their son, Joshua, loved riding on the backs of Sydney and Jackson.