Praise God we are sending in our Dossier!!!!!!

Just moments ago I received an email from Lifesong for Orphans....we just received an anonymous $1,000 gift!!!!  Thank you to whomever you are anonymous giver.  We thank you and greatly appreciate your gift.  Praise God!!!  We have exactly enough funds to send in our Dossier!!!!!!

We had a successful Pampered Chef catalog party yesterday at Jason's work.  There were $250 of orders.  We receive 10% of sales for the adoption.  Thank you Dodson Elementary for your continued support!

We are still waiting on the closure of our consignment business (That Consignment Sale) to officially know the exact amount of money we can transfer to our adoption fund.  We pray for the quick sale of the business!!

Next step...

• We have requested the $1,200 that has been sent to Lifesong for Orphans to be sent to our adoption agency. 
• We will send in all of our Dossier paperwork and $5,000 to our adoption agency this week. 
• Once our agency receives the paperwork and all the monies, it gets authenticated in Washington and then off to the Republic of China!
• We could get a referral within 30 days that China receives our packet!
• Once we receive and accept a referral...we will travel in 3 to 6 months!

We are starting the third and final stage of fundraising!  It looks like we will need to raise $13,000 to complete the adoption process.  Below are the upcoming fundraisers.  An email and facebook message will be going out within the next two weeks requesting participation.

• Adoption Cookbooks!!!  Approximately $10 each.  Option for hardcopy or digital. Ordering them in September and they will be available mid October.  Great for Christmas gifts for family, friends, teachers and co-workers.  Approximately 50% of purchase price goes to our adoption fund.
• Pampered Chef party - Friday, September 21st - taking catalog orders!!!! 10% of orders go to adoption fund.
• Online or Check donations to our Lifesong for Orphans account (Taylor/#2866) - Lifesong for Orphans, Attn: Jane, PO Box 40, Gridley, IL 61744 or www.lifesongfororphans.org .  100% goes to our adoption fund (unless doing a paypal donation...there is a small percentage fee).
• Meal packs with Xango - you can purchase a small meal pack ($50) or large meal pack ($100) that will go to a child/family in a third world country.  If you cannot purchase a meal pack, you can donate money toward a meal pack.  Xango will donate 30% of donations and purchases to our adoption fund. 

This weekend (September 7-8) we will be participating in a large multi-mom yard sale.  All of what we sell will go to our adoption fund!

We are sending in a new application for an adoption grant within the next two weeks.  Deadline in the first of October and we will find out if we receive funds mid December. 

Thank you for your prayers and participation in our adoption adventure.  We give God all the praise!  He is our provider!  Jehovah Jirah!!!

Grant and fundraiser update! Prayers needed...

This week holds good news and not so good news for our family and the adoption.

That Consignment Sale (the consignment sale I started to raise money for our adoption) had its 2012 Fall/Winter sale during the week of August 16-18.  Our adoption fund raised $120 through this sale.  Because we are needing to come up with the funds to send in our Dossier and hopefully we will be traveling to China before the 2013 sale would occur, we have decided to sell That Consignment Sale.  We pray from the sell of the our business, we will be able to send in our Dossier and put the remainder in our adoption fund for the next $12,000 we will need to raise before we travel.  This was a hard decision because I LOVE my consignment business.  However, bringing Melanie home from China is more important!  Please pray that we sell our business quickly and for the amount we need to move forward and then some!!!

We did receive some great news from Lifesong for Orphans (our adoption fundraising account).  A family that is friends to us, has donated $200 to our adoption fund.  Thank you and Praise God!!!

We did receive some bad news this week and lost a four-legged member of our family this week.

We had to make the horrible decision to put down my cat Briley on Tuesday, August 21st. Briley was my main coon cat of 13 years that I rescued off of Briley Parkway 13 years ago this month.   He has been ill since May of this year and was suffering tremendously.  After multiple tests, vet visits, and being a nurse at home, we are not exactly sure why Briley got sick so fast.  It was narrowed down to either cancer in his abdomen/colon area or some sort of serious intestinal blockage.  I know he is not suffering anymore, but that was the single hardest decision I have ever made in my life and it has broken my heart.  I miss him so much!

The other bad news we received this week is in regards to our grant application to Show Hope.  We received a letter today stating that we were denied a grant from Show Hope.  This again is a huge set back because we were praying for this grant to send in our Dossier.  Earlier this year, I had contacted both Mary Beth Chapman and Stephen Curtis Chapman's booking agents to have them do an adoption benefit for our adoption.  We were turned down by both booking agents and strongly encouraged to apply for this grant.  Another door closed...

We have also heard back from the Gift of Adoption Grant program.  After our grant application was pushed back another month, I contacted them and asked why this keeps happening.  They pretty much said that if we do not have a referral or a travel date, we will not receive a grant.

We do have a few adoption fundraisers coming up...

1.  Adoption Cookbook - Monday is the deadline to email me recipes for the cookbook.  karlamtaylor@hotmail.com.  Unfortunately, we only have about 25 recipes.  In order for us to order the cookbook, we will need over 100 recipes.  Send us your recipes!!!

2.  Yard Sale - I will be participating in a Children's Yard Sale with a group of moms on Friday, Sept. 7th and Saturday, Sept. 8th.  Everything I sell will go to the adoption!!!

3.  Adoption Pampered Chef party - On Friday, September 21st, I will be having a Pampered Chef Adoption Fundraiser.  It will be at my home, but you can place a catalog order!

Please pray for an email that I will be sending out the first week of September.  Some people have asked how they can help in the adoption process.  We will be sending out an email of four different ways people can help with our adoption expenses.  It will include the cookbook, the pampered chef party, a way that you can purchase meal packs for orphans while 30% will go to the adoption, and our fundraising account with Lifesong for Orphans where people can donate a tax-deductible gift.

Please continue to pray for our adoption.  It seems like we are running into many road blocks.  We still believe that God is in control!!!

Show Hope and Gift of Adoption grant update and fundraiser next week!

Well we just found out from Show Hope that our grant review as been pushed back another month.  We will not know anything until the first of September. 

We also just found out that the Gift of Adoption grant review has been pushed back until September.

Grant update:
Gift of Adoption grant review is in September - pray we get approved!!!
Show Hope Grant review is in the next two weeks and we will know some the first of Sept. - pray we get approved!!!

It looks like it will be another month before we can send in our Dossier paperwork.  There are deadlines to adoption paperwork (Dossier) getting to China.  They have to be within a specific window of time or we have to do them over again...or get an "update".  This would delay our adoption process even more.  Please pray for the funding to come through so we can send in our Dossier. 

We are having our Children's and Ladies consignment sale next week (Aug 16-18) - That Consignment Sale.  The reason we started the sale was to raise money for our adoption and hopefully continue it after Melanie arrives for extra income.  Please pray that we raise the remaining $1200 needed to send in the Dossier with our consignment sale next week!!!!!!  Come shop for some great Children's and Ladies items....clothing, accessories, toys, equipment, books, costumes, coats, and more!!!!  I know that it may seem easy to raise this money with our sale since it has been successful, however, the expences with having a small business drains a large portion of the proceeds.  This is thanks to all the rules and taxes put on a small businesses.  Please pray that this sale is a HUGE success and we can send in at least $1200 to get Melanie home!!!!

So we need prayer for funding to come in and a successful consignment sale fundraiser!!!

YoGo Mix Fundraiser results!

The results are in! We had our YoGo Mix adoption fundraiser in Hendersonville  during the week of July 16-22, 2012.  YoGo Mix is donating $50 to our adoption agency for our adoption process.  Thank you to everyone that supported us in this fundraiser!  Thank you to YoGo Mix.

We are somewhat closer to our goal to send in our Dossier.  After our personal contribution, selling a bookshelf, and the YoGo Mix fundriaser, we still need $1,240 to send in the Dossier.

One of our next fundraisers is our consignment sale:  That Consignment Sale.  The sale dates are the week of August 12 - 18, 2012.  The other fundraiser will be a cookbook.  I will be asking friends and family to donate their favorite receipes to put in a cookbook that I will be selling this Fall to raise money for our adoption.

There are also three items on Girlfriend's Trading Post (Facebook) that we are selling to raise money for the adoption. A tall bookshelf, a new wedding dress that someone donated to us, and the Your Baby Can Read DVD and book combo set.

Keep praying!!  We have faith that God will provide!

Still keep praying...this week's fundriaser!

Well it is official that we will not be receiving the matching grant from Lifesong.  They called last week to say they would keep the file open hoping to get money for us.  Tuesday they called and said there was no money to give us!  Bummer!!!  They were kind to set up a fundraiser account for us so anyone that wants to make a tax deductable donation to our adoption can do so.  If you are interested, please let us know.

Keep praying...we should hear back about one grant by the end of this month and the other in August!

This week is our Yogo Mix fundraiser!!!  Go to Yogo Mix in Hendersonville (Streets of Indian Lake) between July 16-22 and they will donate 25% of your purchase to our adoption.  Just hand them a flyer!  You can get a flyer by emailing me at karlamtaylor@hotmail.com.  There is even a coupon for a free yogo mix yogurt on the flyer for you to go next week. 

Thank you for your continued prayer and support!!!  Cohen prayed the sweetest prayer today...Please God bring Melanie home for Christmas! 

We need prayer!!

Well it has been over a month since my last post.  I am understanding more and more that hurry and wait concept in the adoption world.  Hurry to get paperwork ordered, signed...and then wait.

We are definitely in the waiting part of our adoption process!!!

The US has approved (I800A) us to adoption outside the US.  Now we are waiting on adoption grant approval.  We have applied for three adoption grants.  One is a matching grant where the organization will match donations up to a certain amount, while the other two are regular adoption grants (they donate the money for your adoption and it does not have to be paid back).  Below is the update on our grants:

The matching grant was scheduled to be approved a month ago.  However, it is still in the review stage with no known approval date.

The ShoHope grant will be approved during the month of July. 

The other grant was to be approved in June and has been postponed until August.

Please pray for these grants to be approved.  We are needing $2000 to send in our Dossier so that we are able to receive referrals from China.  We know that God is still in control and pray for His will.

Our next fundriaser will be the week of July 16 - 22.  YoGo Mix in Hendersonville will donate 25% of the purchase price of anyone who brings in a fundraiser flyer to our adoption agency.  Please email me if you would like a flyer karlamtaylor@hotmail.com.

The USA has approved us to adopt outside of the states!!!

Praise God...today we received our letter that we can adopt outside the USA.  The USA government has now approved us to adopt.  Praises!!!!!  This is a HUGE step in getting our Dossier submitted. 

Praise God...we have officially received 1/2 of the monies needed for our adoption ($15,000) from donations and fundraising!!

We have now received feedback from two of the adoption organizations where we have applied for grants.  The organization for the matching grant (Lifesong for Orphans) will be finalizing how much they will match within the next week and a half.  The other organization will be reviewing our adoption grant application after June 15th. 

Please pray...we need $1,500 to submit our Dossier!!!!!  We know that God will provide!!!