A HUGE Thanks!!!

Saturday was an amazing night.  I am so very thankful for all who came out to show us support and offer prayers for our little man.  We are so blessed to have each of you in our lives.  Thanks from the bottom of my heart.  Special thanks to Heather Osborn who was able to capture some picture of the evening.

We had about 115 people there on Saturday night!

Thanks to my friends who helped me shop for the food and actually prepared and served it all evening long.  You are the best Katherine, Becki, Christy and Kim   (Not pictured-Kim).  The food was fantastic and we didn't even have very many leftovers!

Hannah did a great job setting up the raffle table full of over 40 items that people could put their names in to try and win.

Here's another picture of the raffle table and the items so nicely placed.  Also, this is our son, David and the little guy on the right is Emily and David's little brother.  

The band, "Lord's Light" was a HUGE blessing to our family and played some amazing songs.  Everyone I talked to LOVED listening to them.

My favorite song they played was "How Great is Our God" because that really sums up this whole adoption process.  God is amazing and this was a night filled with praising the Lord for choosing us to be Z's parents.  God is SO great and we give Him ALL the glory for this adoption. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DvXweftb7UU

At the end of the night, all of our kids helped hand out prized from the raffle.  Hannah had a great time entertaining everyone with her goofy commentary while she drew names and the other kids were busy running around handing out the prizes.  

Little Z... You have SO many people who love you already.  You have so many people praying for you.  I know you don't know it yet, but soon you will be welcomed by not only mom and dad, sisters and brother... but some awesome friends!  You are coming home soon little guy and soon you will know the Lord and be able to praise Him just like we did on Saturday.  

And thanks to everyone who came out.  The total raised was.... are you ready for this?  

$1,969

We still owe the foundation in Z's country approximately (due to exchange rates) $7,000.  These fees will be due before we travel in June or July.  We also still owe our placing agency here in the U.S. $3500.  Then both Dave and I will be traveling to visit him in June or July and last I checked airline tickets are running $1350 round trip per person.  We have to pay these fees twice for 2 trips, plus on the pick up trip we will need to buy Z a one way ticket (approximately $750) of course.  This means we still owe a total of about $16,650 not including the hotel and food for both trips.  

The amount that has been paid so far has been $1850 for the homestudy, $81 for FBI fingerprints to be taken and sent in plus $51 to get a federal seals on them, $890 for the immigration filing fees, $3,700 in placing agency fees, $1200 for post placement that had to be prepaid, $145 for required training courses, and a few other odds and end things like passports, medical exams, state appostilles etc. Approximate total paid so far is $7,917.

As you can see, we still have some really big fees coming up so if you weren't able to make in on Saturday but would still like to donate, feel free to donate on the right hand side.  Or if you want to make a tax deductible donation you can go to http://forallfoundation.com// and make a donation there.  100% of your donations through the For All Foundation or on this website will go directly to bringing little Z home.

If you know of any other cool ideas on ways we can raise money, please let us know.  My good friend Susan called me the other day and offered to help with a bake sale this summer.  Cool idea and I am so thankful for her help (Since you all know that I can't bake LOL).  My friend and I are planning to have a garage sale down in Ohio in a month or so (When she brings her twins home from the same country Z is in). Then what doesn't sell, will come back up here and we will have one here.  So, if you have anything that you want to get rid of, what better way than to donate it for our adoption :-).  Let me know.   

We know that God is leading this.   "And my God will supply all yours needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus". (Phil. 4:19)  God clearly called us to step out in faith and trust HIM.  I will be honest, the $ amount is very haunting and down right scary.  But we serve an awesome God and I am continuously reminding myself that He will provide.  Z is our son and God has moved mountains for us this far.  We will trust that our needs will be met.

To God be the Glory!