Great ending to March Fundraisers!!!

What a great ending to March!! Our adoption fundraisers ended with a huge bang!! The Pampered Chef party was a huge success, over $500.00 in orders, sold 32 "Jesus Told Me To" adoption shirts, 91 pairs of flip flops, seasonal art and a very successful month at Encore Resales in Pelham with Jeri Conger Boyd!! Oh my gravy!! I am so excited and it just adds a few more steps to Ruthie Grace!! Thank you to everyone that purchased and prayed for us!! We are forever grateful for our friends, family and church family that have stood by us through this entire process and trusted in our God to see us through!! The outcome is so much greater and I thank God for this journey!!! To God Be The Glory!!! Ruthie Grace will be home soon!! 


We are currently on day 33 waiting for our LOA (letter of acceptance) from China!! We are hoping to receive our LOA in mid to end April. If that happens, then we could possibly travel in July!! Fingers crossed, we will travel in July!! We are so ready to bring Ruthie home! 


Love and Blessings!!!
Julie

We are just waiting...but still fundraising!!

So, we have had a few fundraisers this month and also have a booth at Encore Resales in Pelham, Al with some great stuff in it. We have had yet another great month with the silent auction and the yard sale! We raised about 1400.00 at the yard sale!! Woohoo!! Now we are selling our tshirts that are below. Adults are $20.00 and Children $18.00. These are the tshirts that we would like for everyone to wear if they purchase one at our "Airport Party" in a few months!! Woohoo!! I can not believe it has been an entire year since we have prayed and decided to take on this journey!! God has truly blessed us!

We are also currently fundraising through Flip Flop 2 Adopt!! Who does not love flip flops?? We most certainly do! I have already picked out several pairs for myself and Hailey. If you are interested, please send me an email or message me with our email address and I will forward to you the flyers.

We will be having a pampered chef party next week as well!! What fun will that be!! Next month brings more fun things to do and sell!!

God bless you all for your thoughts and prayers!! God is so good and we can not wait to bring Ruthie Grace home and share her with you all!!

Blessings and Love,

Julie

Silent Auction Winners!!

This was copied from my sweet dear friend Bevin's blog that she created for our silent auction!! What a huge success it was!!! 

First of all, thank you to all who donated and bid! Your generosity is greatly appreciated! Steve and Julie are now a little bit closer to bringing Ruthie home! Praise God! 

Winners are listed below. Please pay for your item through Steve's and Julie's paypal account (button is on the right of the blog), or, if you wish, you can mail a check for the amount. If you would like to mail a check, email jlstv4630(at)bellsouth(dot)net for the address. If the item is custom made, the item's donor will be contacting you for your preferences for colors, fabrics, sizes, etc. After the payment is received, the item will be shipped to you or hand delivered. 

If we haven't received your payment by Wednesday March 14th, I'll send a reminder. If we don't receive it by March 18th, the item will go to the next highest bidder. Also, if you aren't contacted by the item's donor regarding custom made products, please email me and I'll remind the donor. 

If you didn't win the item of your choice (or didn't bid), a donation to their adoption fund would still be greatly appreciated! 

Ladies

Monogrammed spa wrap and bag set - Alabama - Rachel Fleming, $30

Monogrammed spa wrap and bag set - pink - Sara Schmidtke, $30

Salon Services and Products - Donna Keene, $45

Girls

Pillowcase Dress 1 - Bevin Tomlin, $20

Monogrammed Pillowcase Dress 2 - Amanda Counts, $30

Monogrammed Pillowcase Dress 3 - Sarah LeBlac, $18

Monogrammed Pillowcase Dress 4 - Katy Wallace, $10

A-line, Reversible Dress - Cindy Short, $20

Smocked Baby Dress - Gina Mason, $25

Bow Holder - Misty Decker, $10

Boys

Hand-knitted Romper

For the Home

Scentsy Basket - Regina Allison, $80

Willow House Door Hanger - Jeri Boyd, $30

Christmas Wreath - Leena Peterson, $25

Hot Pink / Zebra Print Wreath - Regina Allison, $25

Spring Door Hanger, Christy Belue, $18

Picture Frame 1 - Jeanne Collins, $7

Picture Frame 2 - Bevin Tomlin, $5

Alabama Collectibles

Autographed 315 Framed Poster - Going on eBay

Inaugural SEC Championship Game Program - Betty Hardin, $25

1992 Championship Season Magazine - Betty Hardin, $20

Remember Bear Magazine - Betty Hardin, $20

Remembering Bear Newspaper - Going on eBay

100 Years of Crimson Tide Football Newspaper - Going on eBay

Sports Illustrated Special Edition - Alabama - Going on eBay

1993 Alabama vs. Arkansas Program - Going on eBay

Gift Certificates

Shula's - Kimi Gilliland, $35

Photo Session - Maria Reed, $46

Louise's Cake N Things - Sara Schmidtke, $25

HJ Quality Cleaners - Bevin Tomlin, $25

X-Fitness - Kimi Gilliland, $35

Miscellaneous

Small Pot Luck Cover - Kelli Parsons, $14

Medium Pot Luck Cover - Natalie Cooper, $15

Large Pot Luck Cover - Kelli Parsons, $14

Marilyn Montgomery Cake 1 - Amy Pyper, $30

Marilyn Montgomery Cake 2 - Renee Green, $25

Marilyn Montgomery Cake 3 - Jennifer Slye, $25

eBook Cover

Again, thank you to everyone who donated and bid. We raised almost $800 to help bring Ruthie home! I pray between potentially extra donations and selling the rest of the Alabama stuff on eBay, we get well over $1000 for this precious family!



Online Silent Auction!!!

My sweet sweet friend Bevin Keene Tomlin set up this online auction for us to help raise money to bring Ruthie home!! Please check out this silent auction and bid generously!! The auction ends midnight March 10th!!! Also, thanks to everyone that donated!!


The blog is http://www.adoption-auction.blogspot.com/2012/02/adoption-auction-for-boyds.html


We are super excited about this silent auction and so thankful for everyone that has donated!! God is so good! Let's bring Ruthie Grace home!!


Blessings,


Julie

PA, Happy Leap Year to US!!!!

Hallelujah!! We received our PA (pre-approval) today from China!! This means that we are now officially the parents of Mao Si Dan, which we are going to name her Ruthie Grace!! She is our daughter!! I am now a mom of 2 girls and 1 boy!! She turned one (1) on February 2. She is a beautiful little baby girl and loves to play!! She does have cleft lip and palate, which will be fixed when we come back from China. She is playful and knows how to pull up and play with her toys!!

We ordered a care package today to be sent to her, which consisted of a toy, a soft album that will have pictures of Steve, myself, Carson and Hailey, blanket, 2 outfits, shoes, hair barrettes and a stuffed giraffe. What a blessing it is to be trusted by the Lord to take this amazing journey!! Hopefully, we will get some updated pics and information on little Ruthie!!

We are so excited and could not wait to share this wonderful news with everyone!!!

God Bless you all and please continue to keep us in your prayers as we still have a long road ahead of us!!

For this child I prayed and the Lord has granted me my petition which I asked of Him. 1 Samuel 1:27

Blessings and Joy,

Julie

LID!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

What an exciting Monday!!! We are officially logged in to China!! Woohoo!!! What a huge relief it was to see that email come this morning. It is so exciting knowing that we are just another step closer to bringing home our sweet baby from China! All day I thought about what it is going to be like with a third child and oh the joy!! So, what are the next steps??? Well, we have received a referral of a precious child and have accepted!!! :) I can not post pictures until we receive our PA (Pre-Approval) from China, but I can promise you that you will love our sweet baby!!! Hopefully, in the next week or so, we will have our PA!!! I can not wait to the day that we can reveal the beautiful picture!!! This baby is going to be so loved by so many folks and it just melts my heart!! So while we are waiting on our next few steps, we have several fundraisers coming up!

A very sweet and dear friend of mine has put together a silent auction starting this Saturday! I just finished looking at the items that have been made and boy am I so stinkin' excited!! I will post the link this weekend if you would like to bid on something. We are so blessed to have such wonderful friends and family to walk with us on this journey. We are overwhelmed by all of your love and support!! The silent auction will last from March 3rd through March 10th! So, get ready for my emails and posts on Facebook!!

On March 17th we will be having a yard sale with lots of great things!! If you have anything that you would like to donate, please let me know, we will gladly come and pick up!!

We are also going to be starting a fundraiser called Flip Flop 2 Adopt. Can you guess what it might be??? Yes, flip flops!! They are so cute and very reasonably priced! I can not wait to get a pair for me and my family. This fundraiser will start the end of March through April.

We just want to thank everyone for all of your support, prayers and love!! God is so good and has provided so much to us and has entrusted us on this journey!! We are so thankful and grateful for Him!!

Blessings and Love,

Julie

Dossier in China!!!

Just wanted to share some really quick news with everyone!!! Our dossier was mailed to China on Friday via DHL!! Today I looked at the tracking number and it went from Birmingham to Cincinatti to Hong Kong!!! Woohoo!! Can not wait to finally get our LID!!! Which means log in date and when we finally get that date, hopefully, it will be time to find out who God has planned for us to bring home!! So exciting!!!

Today at church the sweet RA's and GA's held a fundraiser to benefit the Adoption Fund at Grace Life Baptist Church. They worked so hard and were so sweet! These kiddos have such a big heart for the Lord and it shines!!! I am so proud of them all for all that they do and the many questions that they ask!! It just means they are listening to what we tell them and take it all to heart!!

I hope to be sharing some more news soon about our dossier in China!! We will be having a silent auction next month with some really exciting items!! I will post it soon after we get it started!! Thanks so much for all your love, support and prayers!!

Blessings and Love,

Julie