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Adoption Update #7 - Immediate Need

We've signed our contract (Praise God!) with Lifetime Adoption Center and now we need our Homestudy completed so we can actually bring a baby home!

The total cost of our Homestudy will end up being around $8,000.  We need $2,000 of that to get us started and get our Homestudy report completed.  We are resting in God's perfect timing and provision as we wait for Him to provide...and we have NO DOUBT that He will!  Joyful in that!

We have 300 chocolate bars left out of our original 3,024!  Would you like some delish chocolate and help us get one step closer to reaching our $2,000 immediate need??

Thank you!  We praise God for who He has used to get us this far!  The Body of Christ is beautiful and we are beyond humbled to be a part of it, due to God's gift of grace and mercy in our lives!

Adoption Update #6 - Contract Time!

You know that feeling when God opens a door that you thought was closed for awhile longer??  That feeling of excitement, humility, PRAISE, and in awe of God?  Well, that's what we're experiencing this evening.

Today God opened the door for us to sign our contract with Lifetime Adoption Center at a huge discount!  A $6,000 discount!  We jumped at the opportunity.  So after electronically signing our contract and emptying out our Adoption Fund, we are now officially a "waiting family".

Last week we took a step of faith and decided to start our homestudy in order to apply for grants to help offset our adoption costs, and today God provided us this discount (equivalent to receiving a couple of grants!).

We still have much more money to raise and we'll continue to sell our delish chocolate bars to help with that.  Chocolate anyone?!  :)  Our fundraising goal is still $20,000...of which we have already received $8,000!  This $8,000 went directly to Lifetime Adoption Center. (To see a breakdown of our adoption costs, click HERE.)

So now we work to get our homestudy done, prepare our 50+ "Dear Birthmother" packets to show how fabulous we are (insert gleaming smile!), and wait to be "matched" with our birthmom.  This is now the busy phase!  Tons of paperwork and mailings!  All totally worth it!  :)

We're one step closer to meeting the next child God has planned for us and we're thrilled.  Completely thrilled!

Adoption Update #5 - Moving Forward

After much prayer and lots of research, we have decided to move forward and get our Homestudy completed!  God has beautifully provided the money needed for this first step and we are excited!

There are tons of grants available to waiting adoptive families to assist in the adoption costs.  But, you must have a current & approved homestudy.  So once our homestudy is complete, we will fill out as many grant applications as possible and see how God might provide!

If you are interested in adoption, here are some available grant options that we've discovered.  I will add to this list when I come across more.  These are both Christian and non-Christian foundations.  If you know of an adoption fund that's not listed here, we would love to know about it!  Please comment below or email us at sweetdreams.tami@gmail.com!  Thank you!

Show Hope
Gift of Adoption Fund
Cade Foundation - Supporting Families Overcoming Infertility
Karen Kingsbury's One Chance Foundation
Affording Adoption
Help Us Adopt
iAdopt - An extensive list of different grant & loan programs
Rescued Adoption Fund
JSC Foundation
Because of Isaac

Adoption Update #4

I just got to change the amount on our fundraising thermometer...see it there on the right??  I am moved to tears this morning as I reflect on this huge blessing!!

God used a blessed couple to double...yes, DOUBLE, the amount in our Adoption Fund!!!  This dear couple saved up this money just to present it to us & all for GOD'S GLORY!  This gift is totally from God!  We are speechless, moved to tears, humbled, joyful, and excited!  God is working and we get to watch His plan unfold!!

We now have $7,000 in our Adoption Fund!  Only $6,500 more til we can sign our contract with Lifetime Adoption Center if that's what God has planned for us!

"'For I know the plans I have for you', declares the Lord, 'plans to prosper you 

and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.'"

~  Jeremiah 29:11 ~

Creativity with Chocolate Bars!

Here and there we are hearing stories from our friends as to how people are responding to our adoption story via our chocolate bar sales!  All for God's glory!  And this story is no different!  Read on...

A friend of ours, who lives in Alaska, bought 50 chocolate bars from us (what a blessing!) and she made 50 copies of our adoption flyer and attached them to each bar.  She then had her kids hand them out at their high school as an anti-abortion message!  Creative!  I love it!!  :)

Will you join me in praying for those high schoolers and that if God wills, their lives be changed because they ate a candy bar with a message attached?

When we first started our fundraising, the impatient side of me wished we could get a loan and quickly move forward...in MY timing!  But 1,000 times over we've been blessed by waiting on God's timing.  We are blessed every day by a story, a candy bar being bought, a check arriving in the mail, and having strangers bless the socks off of us!  It's slow and I have days where I struggle with trusting in God's timing as we ache to hold ALL our kids.  But God is leading and we are following.  If God leads us to take a loan out, then we'll obey....but for today, we wait on God to use others to provide & be a precious part of our adoption story!

As of today we have $3,400 in our Adoption Fund!  Praising God!

Italian Food...yummmm

We've been blessed by this opportunity: for every order over $20, the Famighetti Italian Pantry will donate $5 towards our Adoption Fund!!! Celebrate Father's Day with some amazing Italian food & coffee! :)  Thank you Pete!!

www.italianpantry.com