My birthday was September 19th and I received a fun party from my wonderful coworkers!! This party included a fabulous cake and a birthday card. I opened the birthday card and to my surprise they had collected $400.00 to go towards our adoption fund!! How great is our God!! I am so blessed to work with such wonderful, caring people! It was a huge surprise to me and to Steve as well when I told him!! With the money that was donated we were able to make our next payment!!!!
As you could see from the last few posts, I posted some pictures of the new frames that we are making to sell to raise money as well. Well, Ordinary Hero, a non profit organization in Tennessee contacted us about making some frames for them. What a blessing it was to be able to package up 30 frames and mail them to Tennessee. God is so good and I hope that the joy I received from making them is also received by the purchaser!!!
The events in October so far have been such a huge blessing. I have told several people that we don't deserve all the blessings that God has given us. I want to share just a small dose of what has been going on....... October 1st, we attended the 1st Annual Adoption Craft Fair held by Grace Life Baptist Church at Shadow Lake. We worked so hard to prepare for it and we raised $650.00!!! It was such a blessing to be with our family, church family and friends. The blessings received from the fair was far bigger than we could imagine!!! The next weekend we participated in Valley Creek's Craft Fair. This was so fun for all of us. Steve grew up at Valley Creek and was baptized there. He enjoyed being there and spending time with Carson and Hailey. He was able to see lots of people he had not seen or talked to in a while. The kids were able to walk across the street with Steve to see the house that he grew up in and play in the field that he played in. His heart was happy!!
On Monday, October 3rd, what a great night it was!! We will never forget this day!! Carson and Hailey both accepted Jesus into their hearts!!! This was the happiest time to us! God is truly working in our families lives and it is so overwhelming and our hearts are so full of joy!! The kids were baptized at Shadow Lake the following Sunday, October 9th. What a glorious day it was to share these wonderful baptisms with our family, friends and church family. You can see God's lights shining down!!! We love these kiddos so very much!! We pray that we will continue to be the parent's that we need to be to raise Carson and Hailey the right ways!!! We also pray that for this child we are adopting that he or she will also be raised the best parents that we can be!!
The 1st Annual "Swing for Adoption" Golf Tournament was held this past Thursday. Steve planned and planned for this event and did such a great job!!! It went great!! We had 11 sponsors and 5 teams. Brother Joel Frederick and Robert Pelfrey spoke and did a fabulous job!! You could feel God wrapping his arms around everyone!! This day could not have been planned out any better. God had his hands in it for sure! I asked myself several times, "What is going to happen if it rains?" God told me really quickly, "I have it under control!" And guess what? He did!! It was amazing to me to watch the day go on. It rained while we ate lunch and cleared up just in time for Joel and Robert to speak then off to play golf. We raised $1500.00!! What a God thing it was to be able to do it this day!! We thank everyone for sponsoring a hole, playing on a team, praying for our journey and contributing to this day in anyway. We are thrilled that he has chosen us to take this journey with him!
So, what's next for us? Lots of fundraisers to come!!
Friday, October 21st - Thirty One Party
Sunday, November 6th - St. Aloysious Fall Festival
Friday, November 11th - Open House at our home
Saturday, November 12th - McAdory Middle School PTA Fall Festival
We are super excited about what is in store for us through the holidays! We are extremely excited to announce that we are almost half way to the midpoint of our goal! What a blessing that is, we never thought we would even make it to where we are now. With God anything is possible!!!
We are so thankful that God has put each and everyone of you in our lives! The joy is overflowing and we hope that it is shared with each of you. We have lots of hands in this journey and I want to thank you all!!
Blessings and Love,
Julie
