I don't even know where to begin...

I don't even know where to begin . . . Last week I talked with my mom and she told me about one of their friends whose daughter was pregnant and thinking about adoption. She wanted to talk with us and it just so happened (amazingly enough) that Brandon and I were driving down to California to spend a week with my parents - so I told my mom that I would love to meet her while we were down there. I was really excited to be able to talk with a birthmother and get to see her side of adoption and maybe help her in anyway I could - my whole thought going into it was that I just hoped someone was helping our birthmother and being her friend through this.

I met with her by myself on Tuesday, May 18th. We went for a drive and had a good chat. With everything, I try not to get my hopes up too much - but I felt so comfortable with her and it was hard not to. Even now I can't even think straight about how it happened - this amazing young woman asked if we would like to adopt her baby. Words can't even describe how I felt - just shocked, but excited! We had parked at a little parking lot overlooking the ocean and when I went to start the truck up again - it wouldn't start. Yup, the battery was dead. It was actually kind of funny and luckily she called a friend and he came and jumped our truck - phew! Calm under pressure? Check!

What's amazing is how you can love someone that you have just met. She is giving us a gift that we never would be able to have without her. She will be a part of our family forever, no matter what happens. She says that she felt from the beginning that this baby belonged to someone else, how amazing is that? I never thought I could feel so many emotions at one time. With adoption, it all comes down to the baby and what is best for them - in our case, we are looking forward to an open adoption and that just brings more family to love this child.

Garage Sale - Take 2

We had another garage sale yesterday and it was a super success! It was at my brother's house (they were having a neighborhood yard sale) and although it wasn't as big as our last one, it was still a success. My nephews even sold cookies to donate to our adoption fund - It was a lot of fun! We just wanted to make enough money to put us at our halfway point money wise and...WE DID IT! We are officially just over halfway to our goal. It's been a lot of work and we still have much more work to get done, but we feel so blessed. We are continually in awe at how generous people can be.

It's been a stressful and emotional couple of weeks for myself. We have been waiting for our FBI background checks to come back and this is the last thing we are waiting for before our profile officially goes online. I have been worried that maybe the application was lost and we would have to start the process all over again. It feels like we are so close and I can almost see the finish line in the distance. Then, yesterday we got a letter from the FBI saying we had paid with the wrong form of payment - apparently you can't pay with personal check. oops! So tomorrow we will fax in our credit card information and hopefully (fingers crossed) the background checks will be sent back within the next two weeks.

For those that don't already know, Brandon and I are members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. We believe that families can be together not only in this life, but for the Eternities. We are looking forward to being together with our family forever. We printed out a picture similiar to the one posted below for our babies room - so we can always remember what we are striving for. We have to continue to strengthen each other and live to the fullest each day. We see those around us that are struggling with the loss of loved ones and we know that they will be able to see those they love again. Brandon and I are striving each day to become better people so we can be the best parents we know how to our baby.

Garage Sale/Bake Sale/Raffle

Our sale was a HUGE success. It was a bit overwhelming, but all in all, it was fun. We had started bringing stuff from our storage unit over to our house the week before and tried to get everything organized as we went, unfortunately though, I got really sick the Wednesday night before and went to the doctor on Thursday and I had a double ear infection - we were pretty worried at that point because I couldn't help very much, but Brandon really worked hard and by Friday night, he had pretty much done everything that we could up to that point. We had so much stuff to sell that we didn't have enough tables!

On Saturday the sale was to begin at 7 a.m., so we got up at 5 to start putting all the stuff out. I wasn't feeling that great, but I tried my hardest to push through it and my great friend, Katie, was a big help and came over early to help set up. By 6:30, people were already there trying to buy stuff and we didn't even have half of it set-up (we were using the inside of our garage and two drive-ways). It was all very overwhelming. Luckily, one of the first people there bought a TON of stuff and it helped us clear the way to set up more tables and get the rest of the stuff out. There were SO many people there, we couldn't believe it! We stayed fairly busy most of the day and sold a large majority of what we had. We were so impressed with the generosity of people. There were quite a few people that didn't even know us that donated items for the garage sale and donated money. I had made a sign that said "Adoption Fundraiser - Thank you for your support" and hung it up over where we were sitting taking the money. It was a great conversation started and a lot of people talked with us about the process and we met so many great people that were adopted or had adopted. It really does help you to not feel so alone. It's truly humbling to be surrounded by such amazing and unselfish people. We are grateful for all of you that donated your time, energy and those that gave us their kind words of encouragement. So many friends and family showed up to show their support and we truly appreciated it.

These 4 Young Women from church were helping practically the whole time - they really brought an energy to the sale and helped us out TREMENDOUSLY! Thank You Girls!

One of the Young Women (we'll call her M) and her mom made some yummy cinnamon rolls for breakfast - M helped us well after the sale was over and we enjoyed chatting with her and her mom afterwards, they are such wonderful people. We are trying to work out some arrangement to have M live with us and cook for us every day!

Our raffle was another RAGING success! Most everyone knows who my friend Katie is by now, but she is just amazing. A third of the money we made from the garage sale was from the raffle and it wouldn't have been possible without her. It was so cold in the morning and she was out there right in the cold wind - thank you!

In total, we DOUBLED what we already had in our adoption fund from this event, and we couldn't have done it without everyone's help. So again, a big THANK YOU!

"I Would Die For That"

$1 Raffle Ticket Baskets

You could win one of the following 5 baskets.

Each basket will include a $10 Gift Card to Atomic Bowl/Jokers PLUS one of the following: $25 Red Robin Gift Card, 2 Granny's Buffet Entrees, 2 Old Country Buffet Entrees, 2 IHOP Entrees or 2 Denny's Entrees.

$5 Raffle Ticket Baskets

You have your choice of which basket to buy a ticket for.

1. BBQ Basket - Famous Dave's Gift Certificate For A Feast For 2 ($40 value), Three BBQ cooking utensils, BBQ mitt, Jack Daniel's Steakhouse Marinade, Famous Dave's Rich & Sassy Sauce and Sweet & Zesty Sauce.

2. Golf Basket - Two 18 Hole Green Fees & One Cart @ Columbia Point Golf Course ($90 value), Golf Balls, Practice Balls and Tees.

3. Date Night Basket - $20 Gift Card to PF Chang's w/Free Appetizer, 2 Rounds of Mini-Golf @ Golf Universe, 2 Wine Glasses, 1 Bottle Sparkling Cider & Candles.

4. Dessert Basket (we have 4 of these baskets) - 2 Dairy Queen 12oz Blizzard Gift Certificates, 1 Dairy Queen Ice Cream Cake Gift Certificate, Pillsbury Cookie Mix, Pillsbury Brownie Mix and Ice Cream Cones.

5. Starbucks Basket - Gold Coast Blend X-Bold Whole Bean Coffee, Double Walled Stainless Steel Mug ($20 value), Dark Chocolate w/Caramel, Cinnamon Chewing Gum and Lindt Dark Chocolate.