Approved!!

To say that yesterday was life changing would be a gross understatement. We received official approval of our home study. What does that mean? It means that we are now eligible for placement and could be selected by a birth family at any time. It could be a few days, weeks or months but we're here. We're in the mix. We've made the list.

We are beyond excited and a little nervous. While we knew this moment would come the fact that it has arrived brings all sorts of emotions. It brings us a sense of reality that we hadn't experienced. Until now, we had been living almost exclusively with hope, the belief that we "could" be parents at some point in the future. Now, while still having hope, we're working more with the feeling of being on the clock. This is no longer an abstract concept, this is reality!

Thank you for your continued prayers as we walk through this new door. We are humbled by your generosity and support. We will do our best to keep you updated with whatever happens next.

September Fundraisers

We took July and August off from any serious fundraising other than our own savings efforts and now in September we have three fundraisers going on! It's crazy around here!

1. Our friend Crystal has organized a Mary Kay cosmetics fundraiser for us. This fundraiser is going on through Sunday, September 20th. She's generously donating 100% of all profits to our adoption fund! To order online, go to her website. Be sure and write Andy & Mary Ann (Mary Ann) in the notes section so she'll know to put it towards our fundraiser. Mary Kay has lots of awesome products that would make great Christmas gifts for teachers, family and friends so be sure to check it out! They even have a men's line!

2. Our friend Kira is doing a Jamberry nails adoption fundraiser. To order, visit her website and at checkout select Mary Ann's Adoption Fundraiser from the drop down menu. Jamberry features awesome nail wraps that are super fun and more affordable than going to a salon! Again, these make awesome Christmas gifts! For local friends, Kira will be at my house to show you how to apply the nail wraps next Monday, September 21st at 7pm.

3. Our third fundraiser this month is another yard sale!!! Yay! This is our 3rd and last yard sale for the year. Our past yard sales have proven very productive in bringing in funds so we're eager to do this one last time this year! We have plenty of treasures left from our last sale so all we have to do is set it out! We also have a number of things that have recently been dropped off as well as products of our own decluttering (hello, turning-guest/craft room-into-nursery!!!). Yard sale will be held Saturday, September 26 from 7am-1pm or when people stop coming.

As always, we thank all of you for your support during this process! We truly couldn't do it without the prayers, help and support from our friends and family! We have already raised over 1/3 of the total amount needed to complete our adoption. Our goal is to be completely funded by the end of the year! Will it happen? We'll see!

Scripture Meditations

Adoption is a leap of faith. There are so many uncertainties, unanswered questions, what ifs and unknowns.

Through all of this, I've found it so helpful to fill my mind and heart with Scriptures that speak of God's character, His promises and His plans for His children.

This spring, I wrote out some well-known verses on index cards and began reading and meditating on them regularly. I kept them on the window sill above the kitchen sink and would read them as I washed dishes and worked in the kitchen. Sometimes I took them in my purse to work so I could read them during my lunch break and be reminded to trust God and not give in to thoughts of fear.

When life hasn't gone exactly as we've planned and circumstances have threatened to pull our eyes off Christ, the Holy Spirit has reminded me of these promises that have been marinating in my heart for so many months.

So what are these verses?

Philippians 4:6-7:
"Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. "

Philippians 4:19:
"And my God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus." 

Romans 8:28:
"And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose."

Proverbs 3:5-6:
"Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight." 

And I love the above verses from Proverbs in The Message:
"Trust God from the bottom of your heart; don't try to figure out everything on your own. Listen for God's voice in everything you do, everywhere you go; he's the one who will  keep you on track."

The underlying theme is trust. Trust. Trust. Trust. God's got every area of our lives whether we know what He's doing or not. He knows and we can trust Him. He has a great plan. He has promised to meet our needs. I can take Him at His Word.

What a day!!

On Saturday morning, we hosted our second fundraiser yard sale. If we thought our earlier yard sale was big, we were WRONG! This time we had received donations from no less than 12 households. Our driveway was FULL! So we got up early (really early), set up and opened for business just before 7:00 am. Thankfully, we had good help. My parents came in Friday night from Georgia with my 94 year old grandmother. Our precious friends who live just a few houses up were there at 5:30 am. Another dear friend came to help at about 6:30. The very responsible daughter of a couple from our church was dropped off around 7:30 to help with the sale, and she stayed ALL DAY! My cousins who live relatively close by came to visit with my grandmother and shop and help. And the shoppers came... and came... and came... until 2:00. For seven consecutive hours there was always someone shopping.

A friend, who stopped by about two weeks ago to drop off some donations, told me she was praying for a $1,000 sale. As ambitious as that sounded, I have learned not to question such things because I have been wrong for too often. And as I looked at the sheer abundance of things to sell $1,000 didn't seem unreasonable. We also had a donation jar on our payment table which we figured wold boost our bottom line. All of our advertising billed it at a fundraiser sale, so people were fully aware of what we were doing. As many people made their selections and paid for their purchases we were encouraged to "Keep the change." I also received an overly generous "paper handshake" from a friend late in the day.

I thought I was prepared for a big day and to handle a large amount of money. And as things were going along throughout the day I didn't give too much thought to the total. That being said, once we finished and packed up the leftovers, I sat down to get a rough count. That first count was over $1100. Then some more friends dropped by and left a generous donation. Then we sold another item or two yesterday. I am still working on the final, official total, but it's going to be close to $1300 if not a little more. Just when I think I have been utterly and completely humbled by what God has done through people on our behalf, God outdoes Himself, AGAIN.

In other news, our photo shoot fundraiser, which took place just over a week ago, was another huge success! We received $500 from that effort and the few preview images we've seen are more precious than we could have ever imagined. When our photographer posts about it on her blog we'll be sure to post a link.

Thank you all for your continued support and prayers as we walk through this process.

Rolling Along

As we get a little deeper into the month of June, there isn't too much new to report. We are still waiting to hear that our references have gone out and come back. Then our home study can begin. Funding continues to come in steadily. We say it to each other every time a donation arrives, but it is so humbling to see and feel the support of our friends.

Our fundraising efforts continue to press along. We currently have a Tastefully Simple fundraiser in progress which will run throughout the month. And this weekend our photo shoot fundraiser will take place. I know those who have booked sessions will be greatly blessed by our friends' skill and effort. And, on our end, we are grateful for the support it will generate.

God continues to take us deeper into this process each day. And we are actually growing in excitement. Yes, there are a lot of details. Yes, there is a lot of information to take in. Yes, there is SO MUCH hurry up and wait. But, in the end, what a great reward!

Month of May Recap

The month of May saw the launch of multiple fundraising efforts toward our adoption. The first of these efforts was a fundraiser featuring DOVE CHOCOLATE!! Who doesn't love chocolate, right? And when it's DOVE, well that just puts it right over the top. Thanks to a great friend, who also happens to be a Dove Chocolate Discoveries consultant, we were able to make a sweet addition to our fund AND enjoy some delicious Dove Chocolate in the process.

May also brought about numerous personal donations. It goes without saying that these are humbling. The generosity of our friends has overwhelmed us and shown us a beautiful picture of God's provision. Our YouCaring page has proven to be a perfect gateway for people to get involved with our process. And the good old US mail has been faithful to deliver a number of surprises over the past month,

I also landed a part time job in May to help with fundraising on our end. I am making deliveries for our local Honeybaked Ham cafe. It's an "on call" position which I am thoroughly enjoying. It allows me to see areas of our community that are new to me, even after 17 years. I've even seen a full scale 3D printed R2-D2 while making a delivery. What can I say? Life is good!

As we have now reached the month of June, we have a whole line of fundraisers active or waiting in the wings. We'll talk more about them in another post.

Our First Fundraiser!

One fact about the adoption process is that it is not cheap! 

We have been saving money wherever we can and God has been providing abundantly already in this process. 

We were planning to have our regular annual yard sale this spring anyways. About a month before the sale, we realized that we didn't have a huge amount of stuff to sell and some of our first adoption fees were coming up. 

We told a few people (our adoption plans weren't public yet) that we were planning a yard sale and if they had anything to donate we would gladly accept! 

And donate they did! A few days before the sale, my living room looked like this. We had everything from baby clothes to children's toys to household items to golf clubs...

A friend knocked on our door at 5:20 on the morning of the sale to see if she could help us set up. She's so not a morning person, yet she sacrificed sleep to help us. We were so thankful! Even with 3 of us setting up, and having done a lot of organizing before, it still took an hour and a half to get it all ready!

Our yard sale drew a huge crowd. The day was great for a sale. We sold and sold and sold stuff. All of the larger items went and at least 50% of the smaller items. 

At the end, we made $560.76! Thank you, Lord! 

We're planning to do another larger fundraising sale soon. So stay tuned!

In The Adoption Process

After years of praying about adoption and months of knowing now is the time to pursue it, we are actually in the adoption process!

It is exciting and terrifying. All at the same time.

We chose to go with Bethany Christian Services and feel really comfortable with our choice. They are a reputable adoption agency, have been around a long time and seem to be really great to work with!

We submitted our preliminary application in January, attended the information meeting and submitted our formal application in March, completed our pre-study documents (LOTS and LOTS of stuff; a thick packet!) and attended our adoption training in April.

What's next?

Well, once the reference papers are back, we'll be ready to start the home study.

Yay!

Let's do this!

Welcome!

Hello! Welcome to "Shepherd's Little Lamb." Here you'll be able to follow our adoption journey, hopefully, step by step. Why "Shepherd's Little Lamb?" Because our rather distinct and seemingly foreign last name easily translates to English as "Shepherd." So, rather than twist your brain, we made it simple. Now a little about us.

We, Andy & Mary Ann, have been married for 10 years. Along with our cherished dog, Rock, we are embarking on this journey after tremendous prayer and believe that now is the time. We have seen God do many miraculous things over the last 10 years, and we believe this will be no exception. Thanks for riding along with us!