|
Feb 5, 2007
Alana is doing very well considering she has only been home 12 weeks now!
She was talking but has now stopped and is working hard learning how to walk better, run, climb and do somersaults. We are
told this is normal and when she has mastered these skills she will start work on talking again. Alana's doctor found she
had an ear infection and probably had it when we got her. It is normal with babies with the cleft pallet not repaired. Her
doctor has decided to go ahead with her surgery to repair it even tho she still isn't the weight we wanted. She doesn't want
her to get any more behind on her speech. Alana is such a happy baby we can't believe it considering all she has been
through. She now gets off my lap and as of this week will go play in the next room by her self!!! A big step for us! She saw
a speech specialist and physical therapist this week and we are told she really isn't that much behind (she is at 18 months) except
for her weight and that is changing fast! She will start in home speech and physical therapy next week. Alana has went from
12 month clothes to 2T's and 3 T's in this short time. She skipped 18 month. Once she got good food she just shot up,
now if only she will fill out! She is on the 3 percentile for her age! Any way I finally got time to scan her baby book we
were given at her orphanage and her finding add we were also given! THANK YOU HALF THE SKY for giving these children some
knowledge of their baby-hoods!!!Now at least they will have this! We go back to the doctor Monday and we will keep you update
as of the date of Alana's surgery. Keep her in your prayers please!!
Janurary 14, 2007,
Happy New Year everybody! It has been a wild and crazy few months for us but we are loving it! Alana is doing so great!
She is talking now and everyday she has new words to say. She is such a happy baby and has such a great sense of humor! She
is eating non stop but has not gained much weight but she has left size 12 month far behind and skipped 18 month. She is now
wearing 2T! And her feet have grown also, she can't fit the size 2 and 3 shoes and is now in 4's. She has shot up like
a weed now that she has good food. And she plays non stop at full speed! But she always has time for a hug and kiss for her
mommy and daddy. We are still dealing with her not letting me leave the room. She panicks every time even if it is only for
a second. We are taking one day at a time. She had a great Christmas and we spent the New Year with great friends. We are
looking forward to our first Valentines Day!
December 18, 2006,
We are all doing great as we head into the holidays. We are at week 5 of being at home and Alana now loves her BaBa and
can't wait until he gets home! She knows how to blow kisses and catch them. This last week she made some major break through.
She can now say, mama, here, come, hot, bye, hi, apple and a few more. When ask what Santa says she will say ha ha ha as her
ho ho ho's need some work! She is really enjoying the holidays and loves all the lights and sweets. She has become the best
little gift unwrapped! She has the sweetest sense of humor and it is so much fun seeing who she really is emerge! She had
her first picture and didn't like it but I will put up the pictures. Hope everyone has a great and BLESSED Christmas!
November 28, 2006
Ok everyone I know I have been very bad at keeping the site updated.
Well we are home but we have been very sick. Most of the people in our group got sick about 2 days after we all got home.
We have gotten better then it all started over again several times. Alana didn't catch it thank goodness! She is
doing wonderful. She has already bonded with both of us. It took awhile with Rick but now she is great and getting better
every day. We had a good thanksgiving. Alana got to meet a lot of new relatives. Aunt, Uncle, cousins, brother, sister, in
laws and grandma got to see her again. She missed her grandmother a lot! We would get dressed in the mornings and go
to her hotel room to wake her up everyday before breakfast on our trip! We are glad Alana's brother and sister got to come
home and meet her. Sean spent a lot of time with her and I think because he speaks Mandarin and talked to her a lot in Chinese
.She really loved being with him. She is eating well but has lost 3 pounds. We think it is because she is now very active
and not in the crib for most of the day. She seems to understand most of what we say to her but has only said MaMa a couple
of times and Hi and La La( the name the nanny's call her). But she now shakes her head no and yes, waves bye, gives kisses(some
times even when she isn't asked) gives hugs, and can take us by the hand and show us what she wants. She loves to play outside
in her play house, slide or on the swing. We have a swing set coming just got to get time to go get it. She has a car that
is pushed that she loves to go for a walk in. Today we spent the day decorating our Christmas tree and she loved doing it!
I can ask her where her Christmas tree is and she will point to it. We took her this last weekend to get her pictures took
at JC Pennys and that didn't go to well. We got one this is Ok but the rest she was screaming. Then we decided to get the
Santa thing out of the way so we wouldn't have to come back to the mall and she did great! Go figure !?? We got invited to
a little girls birthday party and Alana got to see a chocolate fountain and now she knows what she wants for Christmas! We
striped her down and let her go! She had a cookie in both hands and was dipping both at the same time. She loves chocolate!
Tonight she is sleeping in her room for the first time. She has been sleeping in a port a crib that is set up beside our bed.
Every night she reaches up and holds my hand until she falls asleep! It will be hard for me to go to sleep with out her close
but it will be good for Rick and I to finally get some adult time to watch TV. I am posting new pictures of Alana on the picture
link.
Oct. Sat. 28
HELLO FROM CHINA!!! WE MADE IT..
Japan was so beautiful. We had our first day of touring here in Beijing yesterday! We were so exhausted we skipped dinner
even tho we were starving. I almost fell out of my chair at the chinese acrobats show last night when I fell asleep! We started
the day out watching the pandas after breakfast at 7:00. We left there and went to the Summer palace. It was around a 5 hour
trip with walking the whole time. And for me there was a lot of climbing. We took the beautiful swan boat back. Then we left
for a lunch theater that was great. The food is nothing like what we are use to in the states. The first night we had dinner
with Julie and family when they got in and we all just looked at each other after we read the menu! I didn't know you could
eat some of that stuff! Any way, we left our lunch show and went to the Silk market and got to see how silk is made - worms
and all. Then we got to help make a silk quilt. Then a couple more floors of shopping then off the the Temple of Heaven! I
can't say enough about how beautiful both these places were. If at all possiable for other families adopting from here take
that extra day it is so worth it! The Temple is a place where the locals go in the evening to play cards, games,
dance, sing, talk, do plays, play musical instruments, wear customes, ect.. We enjoyed it so much! One elderly man
ask me to play this game that was simular to badmitten with him. Another older man wanted to sing chinese ballets
to me. But everybody be prepared to walk and walk and walk!! These places are massive and laid out with miles in between.
Ok after about 3 hours at the Temple we left to walk on to the pearl market and was taught how to tell the real things from
fakes! I am sorry to say when I was ask to pick the real from the fakes I pick the fakes as the real ones. So don't ever ask
me to go pearl shopping with you! Rick and I got Alana a set for her wedding day. Then can you believe they wanted to take
us to a place to watch Kong Fu fighting! We turned that down which was a good thing as we got stucked in traffic and only
had 10 minutes in our rooms before we had to leave for the Chinese circus show. It was well worth seeing but we were so tired
we could not even make it to get something to eat! Today( and boy am I sore) we head out in a few minutes for the Great Wall
and then on to Tian-anmen Square. And I believe we go shopping after that! Then we have a big dinner with everyone who is
with Great Wall . Tomorrow we fly out to Alana's provience. We are so close now! I am not sure if we will get her that day
or the next I need to check. I will post more pictures of Beijing as soon as I can. I put the ones from Japan on the link
on the first page of this site. We are having a very hard time putting pictures up from here. I am not sure you can see them.
We can't, but it says they are there. And I found out I can get to my Yahoo account but it is now in Chinese! Like that
helps! So I can't really email from here like we did in Japan. Anyway Kayla we are here and soon you will be coming for your
new sister too. Love ya all.
Oct. 20, 2006,
OK EVERY ONE HERE WE GO!!!
Remember to go to the link on the front page for photos of our trip! Keep your fingers crossed that we can get them up.
I have heard it both ways, some can - some can't.
OCT 11, 2006
We will be leaving for Tokyo Japan in a couple of weeks. Rick's mother always wanted to go there and as
we had a stop over anyway we decided to go a couple of days early so we could shop and tour. We will then go on to Beijing
a day early as we ended up with only one day there and there were to many things we wanted to see to fit it all into
1 day. We will they fly on to Hefei on the 29 and get our daughter on the 30! I am sure that is a day that will be with us
for the rest of our lives! The day we finally have her in our arms!! We will fly out on Nov. the 3rd and go to Guangzhou to
the American Consulate to finish up paper work and Alana will go to the doctor there to be checked out. We leave for home
on Nov. the 8th. There is an excited group who will be waiting for us at the IAH airport at 8:30 on the 8th at the terminal
A if anyone wants to join us.
We will try to post while we are in China and put up pictures. We hope it will work! Thanks again to all
who has taken this journey with us and to our family who has helped us in so many ways to change the life of this wonderful
child!
We couldn't have brought her home without you! And thank you Allison for house setting and baby sitting
our furry baby's for us while we are gone!
OK NOW WERE COOKING!!!
Great Wall got our TA today! We are official!! YEAH!!! We join the group at the end of Oct when China opens back up after
the trade show to get our Alana!!!
Rick's mother is coming tonight from Austin so we can go tomorrow to get our visa!
Sept
15, 2006
Our agency checked today to see if our TA was in
the batch coming and as of today it is not. They found out it is waiting another signature. So if it is not here by next weekend
(as Rick's mom is coming with paperwork next weekend so we can all get our Visa) Beth will just give us a date so we
can go ahead and get that done. Since we can't travel anyway because of the trade show in China it is not a big deal yet.
The next group allowed to travel is on Oct, 26. So we should have it by then as that is still several weeks away. So for now
we are not to worried. As the time gets closer and we still don't have it then we might not be so unconcerned about it.
Sep. 7, 2006
OK everybody is back and are agent called China and our TA will be in the next batch (about 2 weeks)!............But
that will put us in China the first week of Oct. and China does not allow adopters there during that time as it is one of
their biggest holidays. So if it works out that way we will have to WAIT again until the end of the month! Boy
do I hate waiting!!! But at least we have good news!!! I will update when we get our TA and appointment
to the consulate so we can leave!
CHINA HERE WE COME!!!
Your Not Going To Believe This!!!
Rick got an email from our adoption agent Wednesday.The day before
the person in China who is handling our file that was on vacation would finally be back at work and we were to finally find
out what China was doing and where our TA was the next day on Thursday. She wanted to let us know she was
going on vacation!!!!! So needless to say we didn't hear from them on the Thursday we were suppose to finally find out. This
is getting to be a joke. So now we are hoping to find out something this Thursday if no one else goes on vacation!
MAYBE I WILL, I need it!!
I Need A Vacation Too!!!
Our agency called Thursday to tell us the people who are working on our
file will be on vacation for 2 weeks. So we won't be getting our TA for another 2 weeks for sure! I just feel so sad for Alana
who is growing up in this orphanage and she needs food so badly so she can catch up on her weigh! This wait is really taking
a told on us also. On the bright side our agency told us that they think when the vacation is over it is going to come to
a head so they feel it won't go past this month. The head of our agency called on our behalf at talk to the head of
the TA room to make them aware of us and the situation so this might help! I hope.
Soon.......................?
I Can't Believe We Are Still Here!!!
STILL waiting for the TA to get here?? I don't think anybody is home in China! HELLO !! We need to go get our daughter!!
NOW!!! Ok now that I have that out of my system. We talked to the agency and were told Snow Wu will be calling the CCAA(China
Center for Adoption Affairs) in China and putting more nice pressure on them to send our TA(Travel Approval). Mean
while on the home front I have finished Alana's 100 good wishes quilt. Thanks everyone who send wishes! I have decided I am
not a very good quilter so I am saving all the rest of her squares and someday paying to have someone do her a better one!
But mine is done, it is just an basic pattern. And we picked up Alana's Birth Cross Stitch today. It is done, matted and framed!
I also am not a cross stitch-er!! It took me almost 2 years( I started it when we turned in the first of our payments to our
adoption agency Dec 2004. I guess I better choose another project to keep me busy or I will go nuts with this wait! Our agency
did say they are pretty sure we should have our TA before the end of this month! I sure hope so. It is going to be a long
wait until Thursday!!
Debby
| People Sent Wishes |
|
|
| From All Over The World!!! It Was Great! |
| Alana's Book Of Wishes |
|
|
| Thanks Everyone For All the Sweet Wishes! |
| I Had To Learn |
|
|
| Scrapbooking! |
| It Was Fun |
|
|
| Creating All The Pages. |
| It Took Me |
|
|
| Almost 2 years!! |
| Alana's Danielle's |
|
|
| Birth Cross Stitch |
JULY 24,2006
Waiting, waiting, waiting....
Nothing new with our TA. We had a baby shower(thanks everyone for all the great gifts!) It was great! It is such a special
thing to celebrate with everyone who loves us and Alana!
But who knows what this week will bring....?
JULY 7, 2006
we are still waiting for our TA(travel approval) to China.
There are 2 other before us with a Feb date and 1 other with the same date as us. Either Feb. will get sent by them self or
we will all go together. We are planning on going on Aug. 17 2006. Now if China would just cooperate and send us our TA!!!
I hate the waiting.....
June 11,2006
We are still waiting for our TA(travel approval) from China. I was told there are some on their way and should get to
the agency's by this Monday! I pray Alana's is in there ! We need this baby home! Keeping busy with baby showers and finishing
up her ladybug quilt. Hopefully we will have good news soon!
Debby
May 24, 2006
we are still waiting for China to send us our TA(Travel Approval). Rick, Mom and I, have
been slowly getting everything we will need for the trip. Medicines,foods, and baby items
ect. We are hoping to get the call this week or next. We are still trying to save the last of the money we will need. We found
someone else who took their little girl Lian, who was adopted from the same orphanage, back last year in March 2004 to
see where she came from. Lian is around 10 now. Any way they posted the pictures of their trip on the Chuzhou Orphanage
Yahoo group and when I was looking at her pictures I noticed there was a baby Lian always had in her arms. Then I saw a close
up of just the baby and realized I was looking at my daughter at 6 months old! I tracked down this lady and asked questions
and I was right it was Alana!!! So we now have pictures of her at a younger age. I am still working on leads to get more pictures
of her! I have been Lucky twice now. I have been told most people never get to know what their child looked like as a baby!
I will put the new pictures of Lian and Alana on. One of the pictures was of the nanny who has taken care of Alana since she
first got to the orphanage. I know she will be very sad when Alana is gone. We are getting a package ready to send to China
to the orphanage with stuff for Alana and a gift for her nanny. They are very poor there so they don't have even the basics!
So I am sending her lotion and chap lip balm. We will take other thing for her when we go. Mom had a Dollar store donate stuff
animals to take to the children! That was so nice of the store in Austin. We are so thankful! That's all for now.
Debby
May 1,2006
We are so excited about getting our referral! I was a little sad we may not ever
know what Alana looked like as a baby tho! So I decided to start posting to parents who have been to the same orphanage from
2004 to now! I figured I couldn't hurt. Someday our daughter will want to know what she looked like as a baby. How sad to
have to say I don't know! I wanted to be able to tell her I had tried every thing to find out so I posted every where. I told
her name and orphanage. Then Saturday morning when I got on I had an email and GUESS WHAT!! You got it. Someone had read my
post and had not only pictures but information!! We will always be so grateful to this person for helping us! Alana was so
cute just learning to set up. And one day she will be so glad to see that for herself!
Debby
April 10
Sorry I have not posted for all of you who know what has been going on with
our adoption. As everyone who is going thorough it also knows China is looking hard at everything in our applications. I have
had emails from so many who were turned down and have had their applications returned to their agency. I talked to one lady
who had been in the process for 7 months, she was one month ahead of us. She had her nursery done and then one day got the
call their application had been returned. She was heart broken. She said she felt like she had had a miscarriage. I felt so
bad for her! But this phase has been very stressful for us. You will all be happy
to know Rick is still in one piece even tho I know I am driving him nuts!! The stress is definitely getting to me more!!
Well to make a long story short the phone rang last Monday and I picked it up not knowing that the bottom was about to drop
out of our world! You guessed it. It was our agency calling to say that the CCAA wanted more information before they
would go on reviewing us! So back to the doctor we went and he wasn't very glad to see us either! He couldn't believe they
wanted another letter!! Well I guess if this is the path that God has chosen for us it is time for us to just trust Him
to get us through. So remember us in your prayers!
Debby
March 26
We found out last week our file is being read this week and next. I hope we pass through the review process quickly
and move on the the matching room!!
Pray for our application to make it through!!
There has been many turned down and sent back to their agency's lately for many
different reasons!
Thanks everybody for all the great squares and wishes!! Getting
ready to start the first one which is ladybugs as that is the symbol of adoption from China. I will be doing another one with
the rest of the wonderful squares so it's not to late to send to us if you still haven't gotten to it yet.
The Journey Home
Far away across the sea
A child’s life begans
The other way across the water
A parents sorrow ends.
Our
journey to you is extra hard
The wait so very long
But the joy that your sweet laughter brings
Will fill our hearts with song.
So hurry home my little one
Let time take wings and fly
I’m sure the day we see your face
With joy I know we’ll cry
Holding you close we’ll kiss your cheeks
And hug you so very tight
The day God gave us the gift of you
Our world finally became just right
Debby Blasingame
Friday March 17, 2006
We found out August and Sept LID groups are
being reviewed now. Some of our friends with the Sept
LID(logged in date) have been called with
question from the CCAA! We are getting there. The CCAA is now done reviewing the month of July and has matched all of May
and are working in June. We will know soon
how much of June the got matched! I am told August and Sept are small groups and that is why they are doing them together.
Wednesday Feb. 1, 2006
We made it to the Review room in China!
Hello September DTC Families,
If you are part of the September
2005 DTC Group, you have now reached the Review
Room. Your documents have been translated to Chinese and are being organized and coded for review later.
Congratulations again,
The Referral Education Team
YEAH!!!
Jan. 29, 2006
We are still waiting to be moved up to the review room. I think we are already there but have not been notifyed offically
yet. The month of June has now been reviewed and May is almost matched. We are DTC the month of Sept. So we have 3 months
at least before they get to us. We are now 6 months into our wait.
December 18
Merry Christmas everyone!
I hope everyone has a Happy and Blessed Holiday Season! We are still
trying to cope with not having 3 months til referral after Christmas. Instead, we don't know when we will get our
referral! We are guessing June. Bummer!! To keep busy I would like to start doing a 100 good wishes quilt. Anyone who would
like to donate a 7 inch square I would appriciate it! You send your 7 inch square and a small piece of the same cloth glued
to a greeting card that has a little something about your self and family, where you are from, and what your wish is
for Alana and our family. If you are a family member, write who you are to Alana, where you are from, and what your wish
is for the child and family. The card goes into a book with your matching sample square. When Alana grows up, she can look
at her blanket and then go to the book, find the matching sample, know who sent that square, and what they wanted
her to know. It is a great ideal. My address is Debra Blasingame 20534 Perryoak Dr. Humble, Texas 77346
I am excited about this ideal and am ready to get started!! So spread the word to everyone you know
and I look forward to meeting new people and making new friends! If you are also adopting, ask me to send you my squares for
your 100 good wish blanket!
Debby (I am excited and think this will help pass the extra wait time quickly!)
P.S. If you would like you can include a picture of you and your family in the card!
November 20
I am sure most of you have heard
by now. The Chinese government has decided to change the length of time it takes to adopt. They want to make the wait
1 year instead of the 6 months it was.We were very upset to be told instead of the 4 months we had left we now will have around
8! We will not be getting our referral in March/April instead it will now be sometime in June/July!
Sooooooooooo the wait goes on!
November 12 2005
This weekend we had Dim Sum (Chinese
lunch) with our adoption agent. All is well and on track. We have the family coming in for Thanksgiving and with the holidays
coming that will help the wait speed up.(I hope) I am not a good waiter! We made a new friend this week. Our web site was
added on a site called Personal Adoption China Stories
and a couple who is also adopting was
reading our web site and realised that we only lives a few miles away from each other. They are using the same adoption agency
GreatWall and their DTC (Date To China) is only 2 months behind us. So our daughters will be only a few months apart
if not the same age. We met for lunch this weekend and enjoyed each other so much we took Rick shopping at
the mall for baby clothes!! Rick just loved it :) NOT!!! But we did! She has 3 wonderful kids who are very excited to
be getting a baby sister!! (Hi Tabatha and Kids! )She told us there are 2 other couples who are getting waiting kids
who are older (around 2) who also live near by. So we are planning to start a play group when all our kids are home around
July 2006. One of the couples adopting the waiting kids got their referral this week and it was a boy. Very unusual. So we
will have a boy in our group. Any way we hope everybody has a great Holiday Season that is fast approaching us! That's all
for now.
Oct 29,2005
We are finally in the translating room in China!! Next stop is the Review
Room ! Such a long process but we are getting there!!
Sept. 12, 2005
Our DTC Date (Date To China) has arrived; it is September 12, 2005! According to our agency we should be in the translating room in October. Then on to the CCAA for
the review room then the matching room. We are moving right along!!.
August 25,2005
We did it!! Today we turned in our adoption paperwork! Rick picked it up from the last stop at the Chinese embassy in
Houston on Tuesday and we drove to Austin that night. We stayed with mom and hand delivered it to Great Wall adoption agency.
We had the pleasure of meeting everyone who works there. We met Lacee who processed our paper work on the spot! She was great!
On Friday it will be on it's way to China. Our DTC(Date To China) date will be Sept. On the day China logs us in they will
mark that date DTC date and our 6 months will start from that date. The agency estimates our referral date to be late Feb.
early March and we will travel to China 6 to 8 weeks from then. God has been good to us. We have been so surprised that the
money has always been there when we need it! We are now working on the last $4,000 we need for the donation to the orphanage,
baby passport and Visa. If we get twins then we will need $5,000 extra. We will deal with that when we cross that bridge.
Rick's mom has decided to go with us to China when we go. We are very glad to know she will be there with us! It's is
going to be a long 6 months until we get our referral! But I am sure it will pass quickly due to the holidays. Sean is now
at Texas Tech and just did his first week of law school. He said it was a very tuff week. Miranda and Andy is in Washington
D.C. and had their first week of law school and they said the same thing. Miranda just got her notice that she graduated from
U.H. and she graduated with'magna cum laude' (with high honors)!!! We are very proud of her!! With all the
kids gone it is quite on the home front! We are glad Sean's "wife to be" Dipti, is here and we get to see her every once
in awhile. We will keep you all updated when we hear any thing!
June 18,2005
We got our finger prints done last Monday. We are waiting for everything to get back here
so we can get it out to be authenticated. Last stop before we have it translated. Almost there.
May 20,2005
Hello everybody. We are still at it. We have finished the
homestudy and been aproved for twins. The paperwork has all been notarized. We passed our phsyicals and the doctor recommened
us for adoption. Finished our biographies and passed the criminal record check. We have sent our paperwork off two weeks
ago to the US Certification & Immigration Services. They said it would take about 4 to 8 weeks. We are getting ready
to send another set off to be authenticated. That will only take 2 weeks. We should be sent our appointment for fingerprinting
in the next few days. We had wanted to be done and sending the paperwork of to be translater by the end of May. It doesn't
look like we are going to make it. Maybe by a prayer. Other than all this we have been moving Sean and getting him settled
in at Law school in Texas Tech in Lubbock, Tx. Sean & Depti (his wife to be) and Mandy & Andy (her new husband), both
graduated this month. Sean, Mandy and Andy are all going on to law school. Mandy and Andy have been accepted at a Law
School in Washington D.C. They are very excited. Depti is going on to P. A. school (physican assistance). Sean leaves this
weekend to Texas Tech to get a head start. This is my first summer without him and I am a little sad! I will miss him.
Rick and I have been working all the extra jobs we can get ( seven days a week) to get the money to bring Alana home. We will
be so glad when this paper part is done. We have had so many people helping us with the baby items! It has been overwhelming.
The nursery is pretty much done (I am putting the pictures up on here) for now until we find out if we get twins. Then we
will have a whole other room to get ready and another baby to get ready for. If it is a girl it won't be so bad. If
it is a boy we will have a lot of work and only 6 weeks to finish. Well that's about all with us for now. We will keep
you posted.
Feb. 13/2005
We have been sooo busy finishing all the projects we have started since we have moved in the new
house. We are getting ready for the home study. I will be really glad when it is over! We do have good news! We have several
newspapers who may be interested in doing a story on our adoption!!! I am now doing children blankets and hoping to sell some
from the paper. We are still crocheting baby blankets also. I have a wonderful friend Linda who is helping with that.
We are getting ready for the paper work to really get started. We can't wait!! Alana's room is all done and we will be putting
pictures of it up soon.
December 6,2004:
Well everybody we have survived our birthdays, mine Nov. 21 and Rick's Dec. 4. We are a year older,
definitely a year wiser and a lot more tired! But the good side of that is that we are doing great. Our check went out
today for the cookbook we are publishing. They should be ready in Feb 2005. Hopefully in time for Valentines day! We have
done great with the Christmas baskets, wisks, baby blankets and candy jars. We have set up a table once and made $200.00 doing
it. We had someone donate a money jar they had sitting around their house and I spent a whole day rolling it and it came to
$200.00. Thank you! I was hoping it would be at least $50.00. Funny how change doesn't look like $200.00! We are now
approaching $2000.00 and are hoping for another $1,000.00 soon as we will be making another $3000.00 payment in January.
God has been so good to us. It seems like whenever a payment comes up the money somehow comes in when we have no clue where
it will come from. Thank all of you who have been donating and help. Thanks Linda " She has just started helping me crochet
baby blankets and pot holders". I don't know what we would do without so many good friends and family. Just when I think I
can't get everything done someone comes along and ask what they can do to help! Thanks Disa for the box of Arbornne products
you donated for us to sell! That will really help out! We are looking forward to a break at Christmas and getting to
spend time with our family. It is really going to be a tight Christmas though "Sorry Sean & Mandy"! Mandy's wedding is
coming up real fast! January! I will be the mother of the bride! Sean and Dipti are also planning on getting married
in May if they can find a grad school where they both can attend together. Sean is starting law school and Dipti
will go to PA school or teach science, she is still deciding. Mandy and Andy are planning on going to Washington DC
to attend law school. Mandy and Sean will both graduate in May as will Andy and Dipti. Well that's about all on the homefront!
After Christmas the people who have offered to make donations will probably have them in (thank all of you so much) and I
will do a total then and adjust the fundraising chart and let you all know the total. God bless
and have a wonderful Christmas!!
November 3: Just a quick update. Things have been
moving right along. We are so busy Rick and I hardly even see each other. God has been doing great things for us. We have
recieved several donations! So we will have a new total soon. Also we have been asked by a couple of churches if they could
help us! GOD BLESS YOU!!! And thank you. The Teddy Bears are in and we just started selling 2005 calendars last week and we
are doing good. If you go to the fund raiser page you can read about the cookbooks a group of us are doing. I have been
working a lot of late nights designing it. We have had a church offer us a place to do a spaghetti dinner so after the first
of the year we will start making plans to do that. Thank you for that support!! Any body who would like to help in those
plans I need you!! We have also had someone offer to help us get what ever we need but don't have when we are done
fund raising and saving. Thank You!!
God Bless you all and thank you so very much from the bottom of our hearts for all your love,
support and help!
Rick & Debby
PS.. One of the ladies who is also fund raising for her adoption came up with
a great thank you Ideal for everyone who helps. We are getting pages for a baby book for Alana that will contain a page from
each person who donates money or time so that some day she will remember everybody who cared enought to help in the process
of bringing her home to her forever family!
October 29: We just got our first Donation today!!!! Thank you so
much!
Sold a baby blanket to a very sweet new mother. Thank you for your help! God bless you and
your beautiful son!
October 20,2004
All is well on the home front right now. Rick is working a lot of hours so we can get as much extra money as we can for
the adoption. I, in the mean time have been working everyday building this web site, researching fundraisers,
creating fliers, putting together donation letters, trying to figure which businesses to target, getting addresses
and researching the adoption bank fund providers. We are trying some new churches. Second Baptist has been great!
We are keeping the door open to make sure that is where God want's us. We bought our first fundraiser this week.
Teddy Bears !! We are having a "Adopt a Bear donation". So get ready everybody here
we come!!
Love you all,
Rick&Debby
P.S. I will update this site as we go.
|
