Yard Sale and Fundraising

Well I wanted to remind everyone about our adoption yard sale coming up next weekend. May 4-5 (that is a Friday and Saturday). It will start at 7 and end when it starts slacking off! We have gathered up a lot of things but still would love to have more! If you have ANYTHING that you would like to get rid of please consider donating it to our adoption yard sale! We will be having the yard sale in Kinston at the home of one of our church members, (who are so awesome for letting us have it there!). It is right off Hwy 52 near the Big Little (for all you local people!) I know that everyone who reads this cannot come to our yard sale because of distance or stuff going on, but would you consider giving towards our adoption in another way??

Great way to lead into my next bit of news. We will be starting fundraising through a non profit called Ordinary Hero. They are AWESOME! I got to meet the founder at the adoption retreat I attended in March who is also an adoptive mom to a child from Ethiopia. They not only help adoptive families fundraise but they help children get adopted and actually go overseas to minister to people. (more on that in a sec).
They have a store on their website www.ordinaryherostore.org where they sell very cool tshirts, coffee mugs, etc. But the coolest thing that they sell are donations for items taken to people IN Africa. The example she gave us was you can actually buy a donkey (by buying a donation). Part of the money will go to us and the donkey is given to lets say a woman who for a living carries firewood up a mountain everyday on her back. This donkey enables her to keep doing what she does just in a better way. YEAH AWESOME! So in that way you are not only helping us bring Kristian home but ministering to a family in Africa. When you go to their store and buy things, at checkout you will see a drop box for fundraising affiliates. There you will click on that and find my name (Tori Posey) and click on it so that the money from whatever you buy goes to me. 40% from each item purchased goes towards our adoption and the rest goes back to Ordinary Hero so that they can continue to make products that go towards helping adoptive families. PLEASE share with everyone about this because they make great gifts and great ways to minister in a tangible way to people in another country, and it helps us out too!
I am going to try to figure out how to create a button where you can click on that to go to their website but for now you can click on www.ordinaryherostore.org and go to the store and check it out!

Again, thank you for all of your prayers and support as we continue on in this adoption process. Pray for us as we send in our dossier in the next couple of weeks, as we continue to raise the funds to pay for the adoption, as we WAIT A LONG TIME FOR OUR SON TO BE HERE!, and as we await the arrival of our second son, Asher, who will be here in August. Lots going on for us this year but we know that God is with us through it all and that He is so good. We praise Him for allowing us to be parents to soon to be three boys!

Long time no hear!!! Lots to catch up on!!!

Wow, wow, wow! I have not blogged since November!!! I'm horrible at this! Too much has happened to blog everything, but most of you know a lot about it anyway. First of all God's plans are so much bigger than mine could ever be. We started the adoption process thinking that we wouldn't try to have another biological child until after the adoption. haha yeah right God says. On December 12, Gabe's birthday I found out that I was 5 weeks pregnant. So I screamed for Ben and then as you could probably guess I went and told my entire family: NOT!!! I immediately called my social worker of all people!!! Praise the Lord we went with the adoption agency that we did because they now have a program called concurrent family building, which means if you get pregnant during the process you can keep going and not have to quit! I am praising God for my surprise little boy, Asher, because our wait time just for a referral (picture and medical info) is 18-24 months at this point in time. I will have plenty to keep me busy while we wait for Kristian (our baby boy from Ethiopia).

As far as adoption paperwork we are down to like literally two or three pieces of paperwork. I'm not waiting on anyone except me! (argg, exactly what I didn't want to happen). This pregnancy has literally thrown me for a loop! I truly believe that we will be DTE (have our dossier sent to Ethiopia)in the next two or three weeks. Woo hoo!!!!!!!!! Once that happens we will officially be on the wait list.

I was able to go to an adoption retreat a few weeks ago where I got to meet hundreds of ladies who have the same passion that I do. The Lord taught me so much through that retreat. His timing is perfect is a big reminder that I received. And I'm learning through experience that it is. It is absolutely perfect. Our verse for the weekend was Ecclesiastes 3:11. "He has made everything beautiful in its time." I'm also thankful that I got to spend some time with my friend and former pastor's wife, Cole. I got just as much encouragement out of the drive there and back as I did at the actual conference. Thanks Cole!

Last thing I am going to post about today is that we are going to be having an Adoption yard sale/bake sale. I am most likely going to have it on a Friday and a Saturday. May 4 and 5. Location still is up in the air. If you would join me in praying for this yard sale I would be grateful. Because of so many of you and many others we already have the money to send off our dossier to Ethiopia. But once we do our adoption account will be pretty much depleted. We will have to pay an equally big amount once we accept a referral. If you would like to donate any items towards our yard sale please message me on facebook or email me at toriram52@hotmail.com
I am also about to officially start another tshirt sale. I know a lot of you have expressed interest in ordering one (or however many!). And some of you have already paid me for another shirt. I have not forgotten you! Our plate has been pretty full lately! lol I will post another blog in the next few weeks officially starting tshirt sign up.
Thanks again for all of your prayers and encouragement! We love each and every one of you and we thank God for you and your support!
P.S.  Be on the lookout for an AWESOME fundraising opportunity that we have very soon. We will be going through an organization called Ordinary Hero. Really really great stuff!