A Challenge for the Prayer Warriors

For June most of our emphasis has been on fundraising.  Now for July and August, I would like to focus more heavily on "prayer" raising! :)  I just printed out blank copies of the months of July and August and I would love for you to help me fill EACH day up for BOTH months!  How can you do that?!  For July and August I would like to saturate each day with prayer.  Our family is daily praying, and now I would love it if you would join us in praying for Mommy D and her unborn child.  If you would be interested in joining our prayer team, please somehow respond and let me know.  I know that a lot of you have been praying already, but I'd love for you to specifically let me know that you would like to pray over these next two months.  If you are interested in praying, let me know how many days you would like to be assigned to pray during July and August.  I will then email you with the date that you have to pray.  I'm not asking that you pray all day long, but at least ONCE that day, if you could remember Mommy D, that would be amazing and I'm sure she would appreciate it!

Your name will also go on a puzzle piece as prayer is also VITAL in bringing our baby home.  Even if you have financially donated and received a puzzle piece, you will receive a puzzle piece with your name on it for each day that you requested to pray.

What can you pray for?
     *Health and safety of Mommy D
     *Health and safety in growth of baby
     *Relief of pain from the pressure of the sciatic nerve
     *That Mommy D will be faithful in reporting to her treatment center
     *That Mommy D's labor and delivery will go smoothly
     *That Mommy D will come to Christ if she hasn't already
     *That Mommy D will make wise decisions each day


Thank you for prayerfully considering joining us and being a part of our prayer team!  If you have any questions, or if what I have said is confusing, then please let me know and I'll do my best to better explain! :)

If you sign up to pray, I will do my best to let you know if something urgent comes along so that you can be able to pray more specifically.

Will you help us pray?!  Let's see how quickly we can fill up these last two months of her pregnancy! :)

A Day to Catch My Breath and Share An Update

Wow!  June is almost finished and am I ever thankful for that!  I feel like I have been running like crazy ever since the month has started and even though its been running for good things, I am honestly wearing down and ready for July to get here!

This week has been filled with swimming lessons in the mornings, babysitting all day/week and participating with VBS in the evenings.  Tomorrow I will be helping shoot another wedding.  Next week will be mostly the same of swimming lessons and babysitting.  In the midst of all the craziness, without going into details, we have been emotionally drained as we have had to make a very difficult and painful decision in regards to our family's personal life.  God is faithful and He is leading, but sometimes it isn't easy when we don't understand why and when it hurts so badly.  We covet your prayers as we make this transition.

Yesterday was another very active day for us in our adoption journey.  Our social worker called while I was with the kids at swimming lessons and let me know that Mommy D is no longer in jail.  She had been in the hospital with stomach pains, but she is now fine and the baby is continuing to do well.  She also wrote us another letter/poem, but I don't know what it says. :(  We were also informed that we needed to money gram her so that she could have some money for rent now that she is out of jail.  Then on the way home from swimming lessons, I was called twice more and we needed to money gram her NOW!  On the second call, we had a three way call with the social worker and Mommy D.  It was so good to talk with her!  The baby is causing her quite a bit of discomfort though as she is resting on her sciatic nerve. :(  She asked if we could get together with her soon and I told her we would try to get something worked out in July.  She then asks if we can get her some money, so that just added some more rush and pressure to hurry up.  I knew I needed to hurry as well because I was going to be babysitting and had to get back home in time for the girl to show up.  Anyway, I didn't have the savings checkbook with me so I rushed home to grab it and then rushed to WalMart to send her the money gram.   I get to WalMart and I am told that I can't pay by check, but it had to be by cash or debit.  Well, I didn't have time to grab cash and the debit card is only for the regular checking account, which is not where the adoption funds are kept.  Needless to say, I am about in tears, and the lady isn't being very kind about the whole thing.  I knew Mommy D knew when I was going to WalMart and so she was going to walk to the WalMart close to her so that she would be ready to get her money when it came.  So, I hauled the two younger kids back out to the van and wondered what I should do.  Did I have to go all the way across town to our bank and then come back?  I knew I somehow had to get the funds fast from the savings and I wasn't sure how to do it.  I sat in the WalMart parking lot thinking through options, and then decided to call our bank before I went across town to see what my options were!  Praise the Lord, I did that!  I was able to talk with a teller that knew us and she was willing to transfer funds for me while I sat at WalMart from the one account to the other and have it be instantly available so I could use my debit card.  So I quickly filled out the form I had been given and rushed back in to WalMart again with my kids and wait in line.  When I get up to the desk, the social worker called wanting to know what was going on and that Mommy D was waiting.  I quickly told her I was in progress of sending the money.   So we quickly finished up and then I called the social worker with the confirmation number.  The money gram situation was finally done!  So I quickly headed home so that I could get our kids lunch and get changed from their swimming suits (which they wore into WalMart), so we'd be ready by the time the little girl arrived.  As soon as I got home, I remembered I had forgotten to go by the bank to pick up our receipt for the transaction.  So we head back out to the van!   Somehow in the process of getting home, and getting out of the van, the kids took off their shoes, so I win the mommy of the year award for taking the children into the bank in their swimming suits without shoes. :)  Anyway, we quickly grabbed something for lunch and then headed home in time for us to meet our little girl.  By this time, my stomach is in knots from all of the excitement!

Besides babysitting, I had a few hours to get ready for our fundraiser last night that was downtown.  I quickly made a sign and tried to get things all gathered up for that.  Thankfully a friend was coming with me to sell some of her Thirty-One bags.  It would also be nice to have someone there to help pass the time (we left about 4:00 and didn't leave the fundraiser until 9:00 p.m.).  The weather wasn't bad last night, but it sure was windy.  So while we are setting up I start seeing some of my things start to fly away and go down below where I couldn't get it.  Should I laugh or cry after the day I had had?!  Thankfully nothing too terribly important blew away.  Where we set up we were able to be in the midst of quite a bit of traffic.  We were definitely given some opportunities to be an example for Jesus!  One lady even asked if my friend and I were adopting this baby together as a gay couple!!  Oh my!  Unfortunately, our sign (seen below) caused some of the confusion. It would have been helpful if the rest of the family could've been there, but they were finishing up the last night of VBS.  We ended the evening with $36.00 in donations and selling one of her Thirty-One bags.  Overall, it wasn't too bad of an evening.  But by the end I was drained!  Needless to say, today, I spent the day babysitting in the morning and then tried to not do much of anything at all in an attempt to recoup.

 Tomorrow makes it 2 months until the baby is due!  Hopefully within the next week or so we will be able to share with you that we have a fun date planned with Mommy D.  She is wanting to do ice cream and swimming so will see what actually happens.  We pray for her that now that she is out of jail that she will make wise choices!  Thank you for praying!

Tomorrow is also special because it will be our Forever Family Day!  On 6/22/07, Adia forever became a Snell! What a blessing she has been to our family!  I love to see how her love for Jesus is growing!

The Garage Sale Was a Success!

THANK YOU so very much to all of you who prayed or helped contribute donations towards our garage sale.  We are praising the Lord for how successful it was!  Not only was the weather beautiful, we were able to share our heart for adoption and hear stories from others and how their lives have been impacted by adoption!  The estimated total of our garage sale sales and donations came to about $909.59!!!  I say "estimated" because the first deposit we made was $50 more than what we had counted, TWICE.  Apparently, we were a bit tired when we counted. :)  Anyway, thank you so much for praying! 

Busy, Busy June

Wow!  What a whirlwind we have been in for the past couple of weeks and it won't be stopping anytime soon!  This past weekend I helped take pictures for a wedding.  I am thankful for the payment that came from that as we were able to apply that to the adoption funds.  I was also able to pawn one of my rings that I no longer wear for some extra money as well.  Skeeter was also able to get a 2 day side job from some friends of ours and after getting caught up on some bills, we were able to apply some to the adoption fund as well!  God is good!

We are closing out the Tupperware party today, and I want to thank all of you who participated. 

Our next big event is this week.  On Thursday - Saturday, we will be having our garage sale (June 6-8).  I am not sure if there will be a story in the paper or not.  I emailed the editor back and asked about it and he said he would have to check with the reporter he gave the information to and I haven't heard anything since.  It was approved to be in the calendar of events so it will show up there.  I have called a radio station and they will air the announcement for 2 days and I have called the paper to put the ad in the classifieds as well as another local paper.  We have had 2 businesses donate some baked goods to the sale, which is a blessing!  We have also had a couple of other families donate some items towards our sale.  We have made signs and will put those up.  Why am I saying all of this?  To remind myself that we have worked hard and have done our best and now I have to leave the results of the sale to Jesus! 

After the garage sale, on Thursday, June 13, we will be having a Thirty-One Party.  The consultant and I are also working towards getting our booth approved so that we can sell some more Thirty-One products as a fundraiser at the downtown Third Thursday event on June 20.

On June 22, I will be helping take pictures at another wedding, so am looking forward to that as well. 

In between all of this, we have VBS and 2 weeks of swimming lessons. 

I am so grateful for all the opportunities the Lord is giving to help raise some money.  After June is finished, however, things will definitely come to a slower pace as far as the fundraising goes.  So humanly speaking, that can be stressful as I don't know if with these activities if that will be enough.  But I know that Jesus will provide one way or the other!!

As I close I would like to share with you a drawing that Mommy D did (I put a digital frame around what she drew)!  We are praying so hard for her and the baby and wish we could have communication with her.  But in order to visit her in jail, she may have to find out what our last name is and that is something we are not wanting to have happen.  So the best we can do is pray and email letters to our social worker and hope she takes them to her when she goes to visit.

Thank you for all of you who have donated and prayed for us!  The fundraiser goal at the top (on the right side of the blog), through the youcaring website is what has come in from that site alone.  The thermometer below is what has come in for the TOTAL amount.  I try to mention it to each one, but for those of you who have donated, your name is already on a puzzle piece! :)

Please pray for strength for us as June will be extremely busy!  I am trying to remind myself that I need to take each day at a time and that Jesus will give me the strength that I need for THAT day!  He never runs out of strength even when we do!  On the other hand, keeping busy should help the time go faster, right?! :)