An Encouraging Reminder...

I have no idea why really, but the last few days have been especially emotional for me regarding the adoption... today, especially... I can hardly talk about it without tearing up... and well, it's just emotional... no real reason why, except that I'm a Mama and my babies are around the world waiting to come home forever... I know that God has them in his hand, but sometimes (like today) it's emotional! We just completed another successful teacher luncheon... we fixed turkey, dressing, and all the fixin's.... for the minimum donation of $5.00... it was delicious (if I may say so myself!!) We made about $150.00 profit!!! yeah!!
Thanks Janet, Denette, Marilyn, My mom, and Robin for all your hardwork and for helping me with all this stuff so much!! I love you guys a ton!

My dear sweet husband forwarded the following message to me... (he had NO idea I was having such an emotional day!)

READ THE FIRST LINE CAREFULLY.

If God brings you to it, He will bring you through it.
Happy moments, praise God.
Difficult moments, seek God.
Quiet moments, worship God.
Painful moments, trust God.

Every moment, thank God.

If you'd like to order a cookbook.... see the previous post or the info. on the right of the blog....
Blessings always.....
Lanetta

Cookbooks are here!!!!

Below is an e-mail I sent out tonight to all our adoption contacts:

Hello to everyone tonight!!!
I have exciting news to report... We found out yesterday that we are first in line with our agency to be resubmitted to the consulate when they decide to start accepting dossiers again (when the reviews are completed!) We are so excited....

I also have other great news... the cookbooks are here.... all 10 boxes... over 500 pounds and 567 cookbooks... yes, you read that right!!! Wow!!! You should see the boxes of cookbooks in our hallway... LOTS of cookbooks...
So, if you want to increase your order that would be great... quite honestly we have a lot of people who receive these updates.. so if everyone would buy or help us sell less than 4 or 5, they'd all be gone in a matter of minutes... That would be SO awesome! When we (that is FAITH speaking) sell all 567 of these we will make over $3500.00 profit!!! They turned out very nice and we are VERY happy with them... (see picture of front cover on right of blog!)
So, if you preordered cookbooks.. thank you... but, remember you are welcome to up your order as much as you'd like.. there are plenty of extras.. We had orders for about 125 books.. and if you haven't ordered yet.... please do so if you'd like!

If you don't live close enough for me to deliver or you to get it from me personally, I will have to ship your cookbooks to you. I have tried to figure out a good way to charge for shipping, but haven't really came up with a good plan due to the various locations/states they are going out to... so here's what I figured out.... (PLEASE know that we don't want to make a profit on shipping.. but, only charge you what the shipping costs... I have no idea how to remain sane and do this except charge a flat rate... that means some of you will pay more than it actually costs... I am sorry!) This best shipping rate we (the post office lady and I) can come up with is as follows:
1 book : $3.00
then add an additional $2.00 per book..
2 = $5.00
3 = $7.00
4 = $9.00
5 = $11.00

If you are going to buy more than 5.. e-mail me case we can probably switch to a flat rate box and save you money!
Ok... the other question is how to pay...
You can either 1) mail a check or money order to us...

or 2) pay via the paypal account on the right of the blog.
Paying with the paypal account is fine with me... and I figured the shipping will cover the extra fee they charge.

If you have ANY questions, please call, e-mail or ask....
If you live close I'll be getting your cookbooks to you ASAP! Thank you so much to everyone who submitted recipes and to all of you who are helping us make this another great success!!!

Remember, Christmas is just around the corner.... what a great gift idea... while helping a baby find their forever family!

Blessings and love always~
Lanetta (and family)

"And the Lord answered me, "Write the vision... For still the vision awaits its appointed time; it hastens to the end - it will not lie. If it seems slow, WAIT for it; it will surely come; it will not delay!" Habakkuk 2:2-3

NEWS TO REPORT... NEWS TO REPORT... NEWS TO REPORT

YIPPEE!!!! I am so excited to have something to report... besides fundraiser updates!!!!
We received word from our agency AWAA that we are now first in line to be resubmitted once the consulate begins accepting dossiers again!!!! This is so exciting to us.. it makes us feel like maybe it will happen!
New breath and excitement is back!
Thank you Lord!!!!!!!!

I was so excited to be able to post some good news.... yeah...
AWAA still has no idea on the expected time frame of when the consulate will begin accepting dossiers again, but at least when they do we will be first in line!
Yeah...
Gobble babies we're still coming to get you.. it's just taking us longer than we thought it would.... hold tight, Rest in Jesus and know that Mama and Daddy love you so much! We'll be there soon!

Craft Fair Success!!!

Hello to everyone!!
Thanks so much to everyone who has e-mailed, called, or asked about the craft fair and I apologize in my slowness of posting about it... Brooklyn started getting sick on Sunday afternoon/evening and by Monday(middle of the night) was running a very high fever... She has had strep and Scarlett Fever... very scary combination! So, I've been babying my baby for 3 days now! She's napping now, and MUCH better today! Thank the Lord!

The craft fair was awesome!!! We quickly discoved when arriving that a 10 X 10 space was not big enough for all the stuff we had... ha ha...
and rearranged the tables, etc... a good 6 times... (thanks Robin, Janet and Crystal!!!! You guys rock!!!) We finally got it all set up and worked till they threw us out of the building... we were back at the first moment we could get in the building to start pricing items... The fair started at 10 am... and at about 9:50am.. the lady in charge (whom I know) walks by and whispers to me that the person beside us was a NO SHOW and that she was giving us their 10X10 spot for FREE!!!!!! Thank you Jesus!!!! So, after much stress... we decided we needed to rearrange quickly.... Thanks again to all my good help... we jumped in and opened up the booth to include that spot as well.... and we were ready for business by about 10:15!!! It was so much better!!! We were rejoicing and thanking God for his favor....
So many amazing friendships were made... we made great friendships with the fellow venders around us... we had so many people stop by and visit... others who have adopted... others who were adopted... etc. etc.. My mom said she prayed that their would be a glow around our booth, and there was!! It was amaizng and cool and wonderful!
We did not sell even 1/3 of the items we had... and we aren't sure of the total amount of money we made... we had several hundreds dollars invested in all the items, booth rental, etc... and we know we made that back plus a few hundred dollars. We had a company who gave us books, toys, cookbooks, crafty items, etc. to mark up a little and sell... and we have not paid them yet, therefore aren't sure of a total amount we made.... We have signed up for another craft fair this coming Sat. though... much smaller at a small town close by.... but, every penny we make will be total profit!!! We are praying for much success there.... we have hundreds of dollars of stuff left... we just need to find the people who want/need it! LOL!
So, overall the craftfair was a great success... no, we didn't make $5,000.00, but yes, we did get our names out and yes, we did share with others about our awesome Lord and Savior! I love to share the statistics about 143 million orphans in the world and that if 7% of Christians would take one in there would be NONE!!! People are amazed and just DO NOT know the statistics!! We feel that part of what God called us to do was through our story show others that you can do this... even if you don't have tons of money... if you are obedient to God, HE will provide!!
There were 2 ladies in particular that shared with me that they secretly want to adopt so badly, but their husbands are not willing... I was able to agree with them that we would agree together in prayer that God would speak to them and that they would begin to see and hear the awesome things regarding adoption!

One lady began to cry after entering out booth and quickly asked for more information... I began to share... and it wasn't long until she said, that the day before she'd prayed that God would show her where to give a huge chunk of their income tax return... she said, she immediatly knew when walking into our booth that our babies and adoption was the answer!!! Thank you Jesus!

Our girls LOVED the craft fair so much... we had prayer cards and flyers about our adoption that we handed out... and the girls stood in the isle and handed them out.. telling people that God spoke to our hearts to adopt an orphan or 2.. and that our booth was a fundraiser to bring their brothers home!!!! Talk about making others cry including their parents and Nana!!! We received so many compliments on the girls and I am just so thankful that they also feel the passion and I know they are going to do awesome things regarding adoption/orphans for the rest of their lives! Thank you Lord!!!
We did snap a few pictures, but my camera batteries ran out... so there is only a few.... and I just realized that we got NO pictures after we moved into the 2nd space as well... so these look really cramped, but it was MUCH better than it looked... I can't believe we didn't get a picture of it all spread out.. oh well... WAY to much going on to grab the camera, I guess...

These first few pictures were just after we'd gotten all the stuff hauled in there... what a mess... as you can see it SLOWLY came together....






Here are some pictures of some of the stuff we had in the booth.... we made the pictures...

ONE YEAR!!!!

Wow...
today marks the one year anniversary of when our application for adoption was approved at America World (AWAA)! Wow! I will NEVER forget this day one year ago.... we were frantically getting ready for our first fundraiser... the yard sale... We had been working so hard and had made yet another run back to Perkins to pick up more garage sale items that had been donated... Tammy and I decided to stop by the post office... just to see if we'd heard anything from the agency... (you see we were going ahead in FAITH and having the yard sale, but inside I had major doubts... Lord, will we qualify, will our finances be enough, will they accept us??? etc... etc...) So, we stopped and there is an envelope from AWAA in the PO box... wow! I was shaking... I open the envelope and Tammy and I just about burst into tears!!! What a great moment! We were so excited and that was the official beginning to this journey we've been on the past year....

wow... would I have ever thought we'd still be in practically the same spot one year later? NO, but, it's ok... because this is the spot God has us at as of today..... and you know what is truly amazing to me? On the eve and the day of this one year anniversary.. we are yet again in DEEP preparation for a major fundraiser!!! LOL! Cycles seem to repeat... ha ha... we are frantically getting ready for the craft fair... and can hardly wait... we are going to have a HUGE booth full of stuff.... everything from hair bows, to pictures, to jewelry, to kids toys, to bulletin boards.... and large selection...
We are so excited and KNOW that God will use this amazing opportunity to witness to others and to share about how when you are obedient to God he will provide!!!!

Please keep us in your prayers this weekend... our main prayer focus is not to make tons of money, but to reach SOMEONE for Jesus! We hope that through our story and being in the public with our adoption that someone will see Jesus shining through us and want to know more about our AWESOME LORD and Savior!!

Here's to another AWESOME emotional year on this fun adventurous and journey we are on..... hummmmmm.... wonder if I'll be on the eve of another MAJOR fundraiser on Nov. 5, 2009???? Only time will tell... and you know what... God KNOWS... and His timing is perfect!!!! (still fundraising.. or holding our boys???? His timing is perfect!)
Blessings... and have a great day!
Lanetta