Hallelujah!! Thank you Jesus!!! Makes me wanna shout!!

So, why are we fundraising, you ask???

I felt the Lord leading me to write in our blog about why we are fundraising. It has been on my heart that some may think that every time we turn around we are having some type of fundraiser and "asking" for donations. For Steve and myself, this is not easy to do, but the Lord has laid peace on our hearts that it is the right thing to do. Believe me, if our dream of stroking one check had come true, we would do it. But the good Lord did not have that in his plans for us. But then that is where you guys come in. Fundraising invites our family, friends, church family and those we don't even know, into a bigger story. Our story becomes theirs as they become invested in, and changed by our fabulous journey!! Some may even decide to adopt and some may even give. By God's grace, many will understand the heart of Jesus and hear the gospel as they witness the miracle of adoption through our story.  We are doing this for the glory of God!!! We love him so much and thrive on learning so much more about our Savior and why he wants us to go on this journey. Now, you ask me, "Would you trade this for a $25,000 check to make things easier?" Absolutely not!! This experience is continuing to show us that we do serve a powerful and generous God and our faith is growing tremendously, so no we would not trade that for a $25,000 check. 

Upcoming Fundraisers:

We are currently doing a fundraiser with Ordinary Hero. This non profit organization was established by Kelly Putty in Tennessee. She has a fabulous and inspiring story. Check out her blog and the store and find out why she wanted to help so many in need including adopting a boy from Ethiopia!!! :) 

http://ordinaryheroblog.blogspot.com

www.ordinaryhero.org

Celebrating Home, Friday, August 12th. Jenny Nelson will be the host and is opening up her beautiful home to my family and friends. Super excited!!!

We will be participating in the Butter Bean Festival in Pinson on September 2nd & 3rd, Grace Life's Arts/Crafts Fair at Shadow Lake on October 1st and Homestead Hollow in Springville on October 7th, 8th and 9th. 

Steve is also planning a Boyd Adoption Golf Tournament at Timberline on Thursday, October 13th. Brother Joel Frederick and Robert Pelfrey will be speaking at this tournament!! PTL!! 

“The Bible tells us that God is writing a big story, a story centered on Jesus. If you’re in Christ, God is at work directing your little story to fit into the plot of the big story.” – R. Moore, Adopted for Life

Blessings and Love!!!

Steve and Julie

Yard Sale!!!

Just to give everyone an update as to how the Boyd Adoption Yardsale went, well after getting to bed Friday night or Saturday morning at 1:00 then up at 5:00, started yardsale at 6:30 and ended it at 3:30, finally got the yardsale cleaned up around 6:00. My feet are killing me!!! Through the short sleep time and the tired feet, God was so good!! He is a gracious God!! We set ourselves a goal, well me met our goal plus some more!! Wow!! Praise the Lord!! I just want to thank everyone that donated items and/or came out to support us!! We are so blessed and God gets the Glory!! How exciting!! Only getting closer to bringing home our China baby!! We have alot of stuff left so we have decided to have Round 2 Boyd Adoption Yard Sale which will be on Saturday, July 30th. My sweet sister will just have to look at that stuff in her basement for 2 more weeks!! Carson and Hailey had a great time at the yardsale! Hailey sold drinks and Carson did some, but fished alot!! 


Also, I will have my individual interview tomorrow. I am a little nervous about it because I am thinking in the back of my mind "INTERVIEW". Ugh!! Who likes interviews, not me!! But, then I think, it is all for the GLORY OF GOD!!! What an awesome God he is!! The joy never leaves either one of us! Steve and I both are just overflowing with joy and happiness throughout this process!! Prayers are much needed!! 


One more thing, we have signed up on Ordinary Hero to do a little fundraising there as well. They have some great stuff including jewelry, clothing, accessories and lots more. Check it out. www.ordinaryhero.org


I will update everyone as to the status of my interview and then Steve's interview when his time comes!! 


Blessings and Love,


Julie

Interview Time!!!

We made our first goal and made our first payment!! God provides and we are so thankful!! After making our first payment towards bringing home our China baby, we set up our initial interview with our social worker at Lifeline. We interviewed with her on Wednesday at 2:00. We left there around 4:30!! I was a little nervous going into speak with her and answer her questions. So, I thought I would be prepared and take my manual (227 pages) and my own binder that has copies of documents already provided to Lifeline. It helped somewhat, but knowing that when I prayed that God would be there for us and help us through this interview as he has lead us to this. Well he did and it was fine! God held our hands and kept us calm and relaxed. The questions were simple, yet broad and hard to answer. When you have to dig deep to talk about yourself, it is a little difficult to do. (Especially for me!) Steve did a great job and was complete security for me! I could not have done it without him sitting near me. We got through all the questions and then asked a few of our own questions. A few about the forms that we need to fill out and a few about the orphanage and waiting children. The last question was, " Is it difficult to arrange for our children to travel to China with us?" The answer was "No, absolutely not." Of course we will have to raise more money for them, but so far God has provided for everything and we have no doubt about raising money for them as well!! The social worker told us exactly what we were thinking, "Why wouldn't you want to take them?" Not only would they be getting a once in a lifetime trip, they would be meeting their new sibling and making memories along with their parents!! What a blessing to hear her say that was so reassuring to us!! God is so good and the joy that overwhelmed us both after the meeting was incredible!!! When we left there, we went home picked up the kiddos and went to church. We were able to talk about the visit with the social worker a little bit and discuss our upcoming individual interviews that will probably take place next week. Please keep us in your prayers. We need as much support as we can get from our wonderful family and friends of Christ!!!

On Saturday July 16th, we will be having a Boyd Adoption Yard Sale. If you have any items that you would like to donate for the yard sale, please let me know. We will gladly come and pick up. We pray that this yard sale will be a huge success and the Lord will provide!! We will continue to pray that prayer and leave it all in the hands of our Almighty God!! I will be posting pictures of our fundraising tshirt soon that will be available for purchase.

We just want you all to know that we love you dearly and appreciate the donations to our fund, to our yard sale and most of all the prayers!! God is so good to bless us with such wonderful family and friends!! I will update you all after our individual interviews and the outcome of the yardsale.

Blessings & Love,

Julie