Garage Sale Update!

We have final information on our big garage sale!  Here goes:

Saturday, September 8th

7:00 am-1:00 pm

12083 South Aiden Ridge Drive (approx. 550 West)
Draper, Utah

We have awesome stuff from several neighborhoods, including furniture, electronics, toys, clothes, baby gear, exercise equipment, collectibles, lawnmowers, bbq's, and much, much more!  We will also be having a bake sale (which my kids are pretty darn excited to help run).  We hope you can come and spread the word!

P.S. Did you notice our pretty new Reece's Rainbow Family Sponsorship button!?  You can share it, if you feel so inclined!  Thanks!!

A Test of Patience

I am starting to get really anxious to go meet Meg!  I mean REALLY anxious!  It is an odd feeling to have a child on the other side of the world that you can't get to.  When you're pregnant you have to wait a long time to have the baby, but you know where they are and that they're being taken care of.  This kind of waiting, on the other hand, is starting to drive me insane!  I don't know who is caring for Meg.  Is she being held and loved?  Is she eating nutritional foods?  I know children with Down syndrome have low muscle tone...is she receiving any sort of early intervention or activity to stimulate her muscles?  Ugh!  This kind of thinking starts to really drive me crazy!  I just want her home! 
One of the most frustrating elements to this waiting game is that SO much of it is out of our control.  We've done all we can for our home study, now we're just waiting for it to be done (which it should be in the next week or so!!!!).  We've done the initial work on our dossier (the packet of paperwork that gets sent to the ministry of education in Meg's country notifying them of our interest in adopting her and from which they approve our request <hopefully> and give us travel dates) and are waiting to get edits back from our agency.  Our USCIS application (the United States Customs and Immigration application that gives us permission to adopt Meg and bring her into this country and become a US citizen) is printed and ready, we just need to attach a home study.  For this moment, all we can do is wait.  Patiently.  Or not so patiently.
Wait...and fund raise!  We have made good progress on our carnival fundraiser and hope tons of people come!  We also have lots of awesome donations for our garage sale, so we're hopeful that will be successful as well (we are still taking donations, so if you have anything, bring it on over!!)!  We have so much amazing support and love coming our way from friends, family, and even complete strangers!  Thanks to everyone for your kindness and love!  Meg's got a whole army of people waiting to love her!
And in the meantime, feel free to come to our garage sale!  It should be a good one-we've had donations from multiple neighborhoods!  It will be on September 8th in Draper.  I'll post more about the location soon.  Thanks, everyone!

Got Stuff?

Got junk  "treasures" that you don't want anymore?  My amazing sisters-in-law are throwing a garage sale to benefit Meg's adoption on September 8th.  If you have stuff you want to get rid of, either bring it over or we'll come pick it up from August 27th through September 7th!  (You can just comment here if we don't know each other.  We're happy to come pick it up, or give you an address for drop off).  AND, if you're interested in coming to this awesome garage sale, more details will be coming, but it will be on September 8th in Draper.  Thanks everyone!!

Reece's Rainbow Family: Utah Edition!

Last night we were extremely lucky to have a get together with most of the families in Utah that have adopted through Reece's Rainbow or are currently in the process of adopting.  Reece's Rainbow is a non-profit adoption ministry that advocates for the adoption of special needs children throughout the world (mostly in Eastern Europe, Asia, and some in South America).  Last year at this time, there were 3 families in Utah.  This year there are about 16!  Isn't that amazing!  We are in such great company!!  Playing with all these sweet children made me super excited to get our own baby girl home!  For more information about Reece's Rainbow, to donate to a family adopting (like ourselves, hint hint ;), or to look at the beautiful faces that are still available for adoption, visit http://www.reecesrainbow.org.  Who knows...maybe YOU'LL join us at our next meeting ;)

What a fun Reece's Rainbow family!

All the parents

The mommies

Thanks, everyone, for such a great night of encouragment, uplifting friends, amazing stories, and some of the cutest kids on earth!

A Birthday to Forget

We got our passports yesterday!!  We also started filling out (and got mostly done) our dossier paperwork (the set of documents that gets sent to Meg's country to notify them of our desire to adopt her.  It's quite extensive!)!!  Do you know what this means!?  It means we could be travelling to Meg's country fairly soon!  In the next month or two (or even three)!  We're SUPER excited!  This also means that of the $40,000 total we hope to raise, we need around $25,000 ASAP.  $23,000 is due to our agency BEFORE we first travel.  Aaahhh!  While we're excited as can be, we're also getting a little nervous!  If you feel so compelled, please consider giving to our adoption!  We have a fun giveaway going on right now!  For as little as $10, you could have a shot at your choice of one of the following prizes (see the post below for more details): A 3D TV, a new iPad, OR a $500 Amazon giftcard!  Thank you for the support!!!   

Moving on...we like birthdays around my house!  Big birthday bashes for every birthday are our norm.  August is Meg's birth month.  We don't know the exact day at this point, but we know she turns one this month.  It's my oldest daughter's birthday in August as well, so we were having a birthday discussion at lunch a few days ago.  I was telling my kids that it's Meg's first birthday this month, and they were wondering who would be celebrating with her.  My son said, "Who's going to throw her a party?  Will she even know it's her birthday!?  "I really don't know the answer to that" I told him.  We all got really sad and teary eyed for a minute, then my daughter enthusiastically says, "It's okay, we'll make every birthday for the rest of her life amazing and happy and maybe she won't even remember that she didn't get to celebrate her first!"  Good plan, E!  Good plan.  We'll make up for this first one, little love! 

E's first birthday cake, 2005

K's first birthday cake, 2008

L's first birthday cake, 2011



Save the Date + a Giveaway!

We are working feverishly on what should turn out to be an awesome carnival!  Come with your family and tell your friends about it!  It will be on Saturday, September 29th at the park behind the Skyline High School tennis courts.  We are hoping to have a large inflatable slide, clown, face painters, photo booth, dunking booth, sumo wrestling, silent auction, lots of fun carnival games and plenty of food!  If anyone knows of any businesses willing to donate products or services to our silent auction or giveaways, please let us know!  We can't wait to see you all there!!! Oh, and we would LOVE it if you would share this!  Keep reading after the carnival flier for the info on our giveaway! 

For our next order of business, we're excited to announce a giveaway!  One lucky person randomly chosen may select one of the following:

A 42" LG 3D TV (or equivalent)



A new iPad

OR a $500 Amazon gift card!!!

To be a part of this giveaway, simply make a donation.  You can donate $10 (2 opportunities), $25 (5 opportunities), $50 (12 opportunities), $100 (25 opportunities).  In addition to earning opportunities for donating, you can also earn them for sharing this!  Earn 1 opportunity the following ways (please feel free to do more than one.  1 opportunity per type of share!): share this on facebook, tweet about this, send an email to 10 contacts or more, blog about this, and share on Instagram.  Just leave us a message letting us know how many opportunities you're eligible for along with your contact information (none of this information will be published)!  If you want the "Save the Date" image from above to include, let me know and I'll email it to you!  Also, if you've already donated money (I can't even tell you how much I love you people!!!), we will give you those opportunities (I already entered your names, in fact!).  Feel free to use either the ChipIn button (NOT tax deductible) or the Reece's Rainbow button (tax deductible).  Either place you donate would be great!  This giveaway will end on the night of our carnival (September 29th) and the lucky one chosen will be notified shorty thereafter.  Thank you so much, everyone!!  Now. Ready, set, SHARE!!!

We are Family!

Have you ever had the thought, "My family is seriously crazy!"?  I think most of us have felt this at one time or another as we observe the nuances of our individual families.  I think as people get married, too, that you see odd behaviors in each others' families and think, "Seriously, what have I gotten myself into!?"  Some families are not very supportive, others are so in your face you feel like you can't breathe.  Some don't care so much what's going on in your life, others call you 50 times a day.  Some grandparents are super involved and go to every little league game and preschool program, while others see their grandkids only on major holidays and send impersonal cards for their birthdays. 
All through my life, I've heard people complain about their families.  They annoy us, they demand of us, they neglect us, and they have scarred us for this reason or that reason.  Yes.  It's true.  Families can be such a pain!
But when you take a step back and think about it, families are the foundation of who we all are.  They fed us, clothed us, helped us with our homework.  Taught us to ride a bike, made us do chores, took us on vacations.  We learned how to fight, how to share, how to love.  We were hugged when we got hurt and punished when we were in trouble.  We were taught to do our best, not fight with our siblings, and brush our teeth.  We knew that if we really needed something, all we had to do was ask, because our families had our backs.  We wouldn't be who we are without our families.  They are the foundation of our lives. 
It seems such an intrinsic right to have a family that it is shocking to think about how life would be without a family.  Who would take care of you when you're sick or make sure you eat your vegetables?  Who would bathe you, play with you, protect you?  Who would change your diapers when they needed to be changed and make sure you were hitting all your developmental milestones?  Who would show you the world?  Teach you animal sounds and colors?  Help you pet a dog and take you to sit on Santa's lap at Christmas time?  To be put in a crib and left alone all day every day seems too cruel a fate to imagine.  With no one responding to your cries, you would eventually stop crying.  If you couldn't get enough to eat, you wouldn't grow.  With no stimulation, your brain wouldn't develop.  Without someone to cuddle and kiss you, you wouldn't learn love.  You would never know what it was like to be adored and unconditionally loved.  You would never learn values and ethics and how to be happy.  Everything in life would be about surviving, but nothing about thriving.
Yes, every child deserves a family.  It doesn't seem much of a life at all without one, especially as a child.  I feel deeply grateful that we can help one child find her forever family.  We can't get to our baby girl soon enough!  And in the meantime, I hope everyone that reads this can feel gratitude for the family they have been blessed with.  Because despite the good, the bad, and the ugly, we are family, and we are pretty darn lucky to have one at all!!

WHY are you doing this!?

So, we've been asked this question a lot.  Like a lot.  How did you get to this point?  How did you make the decision to adopt a special needs child from Eastern Europe?  How did you even find out about these children!?  Well, the story begins 15 months ago with the Cox family. I have been acquaintences with Kecia for much of my life (long story). We weren't exactly friends, but we have several connections and I saw links to her blog all over Facebook. Curious what this odd journey was all about, I started following their blog and was instantly hooked!!!(To view ABC's coverage of their adoption story, watch this!  Much more uplifting than the last video ;) As I watched their story unfold, I had this strange feeling that this would someday be our story.  That someday we could go rescue an orphan as well!  I didn't mention this feeling to Quin.  I, in fact, didn't say anything about it to anyone.  A few months ago, I was getting ready for bed and was feeling very blessed and happy this particular night.  I said out of the blue to Quin, "Do you think we will do foster care or something to help other kids when our own kids get a little older?" He looked at me and said, "No, I always assumed we would adopt a child with Down syndrome from Eastern Europe." I couldn't believe my ears!  "YOU DID!?!?" Was my response.  We didn't talk much more about it that night, but from that time on, it was on our minds frequently.  We casually mentioned to both of our families that this was in our plans for someday a few years down the road.  They were so great about it and more than supportive.  What a relief!  I started to think about it more and more as the weeks passed, and it started to feel very pressing.  It got to the point that I felt like I couldn't breathe anymore and it was constantly on my mind.  I had to make a decision.  Is this what we were supposed to do now, like RIGHT NOW!?  Prayer and pondering became my constant companion for a few days, and I knew my answer.  Yes.  NOW!  We felt such a sense of urgency and know beyond a doubt that this is what we are supposed to be doing right when we're supposed to be doing it. That is why we are going to go rescue beautiful little Meg (the name we have chosen for her and what she will be called when she comes home).  We can be her family. We can love her unconditionally and help her reach her full potential.  We can help her have a healthy, happy, wonderful life and keep her from a life hidden away in the white walls of an institution.
As I've debated this internally, I know it's true. The words to the song, "Because I Have Been Given Much I Too Must Give" have been constantly running through my head. Also the scripture found in Doctrine and Covenants 18:10 "Remember the worth of souls is great in the sight of God." Heavenly Father loves every one of His children. He too wants them to have a family and someone to love and teach them. We are so abundantly blessed, and we know that though this journey and adoption are difficult, having Meg as part of our family is yet another amazing blessing in our lives.
While scanning through all the beautiful little faces on the "waiting children" page of the Reece's Rainbow website, there were several that grabbed our attention. After much praying and pondering and studying faces and inquiring about many, it is clear to us that little "Victoria" (the nickname Reece's Rainbow gave her) is meant to be a part our family.  Her Reece's Rainbow "profile" got moved on Tuesday from the "waiting children" category to the "my family found me" category, and I haven't stopped crying since.  We found her!  We did!  There is nothing more satisfying than seeing her adorable little face with the words "my family found me" under it.  This little girl is WHY we are doing this..because we are her family!!  Here we go!!!