PRAISE: This Saturday our church and community held a benefit day for our Minister of Music, who just had a liver transplant. This morning they announce they had collected around $30,000, yes, you read that correctly - $30,000.00! Our church has a saying "God is Good - All the Time and All the Time - God is Good!" Praise the Lord for people that are so willing to step up and care for one of His blessed ministers!
This week will be my week to stalk the mailbox! In the adoption world, stalking the mailbox is a frequently enjoyed past-time for families with long awaited news expected soon. For our family - Tuesday marks three weeks since USCIS told us our I600A approval or a request for more information would arrive in about "3 weeks". Approval gives us advanced approval to adopt an orphan from oversees and is supposed to speed the paperwork process to bring our girl home once we have been matched with a referral!
Also, this week begins the first of two weeks of intense YARD SALE preparations! Pending the weather outlook our adoption fundraising sale will be held May 1st. We have had some wonderful families donate items to our sale and I have been cleaning out like nobody's business! In addition to a vast array of furniture, toys, collectable dishes, clothes, etc, we will have our knitted hats available, and our oldest will have a refreshment stand with bottled water, homemade cookies, and featuring fresh "Just Love" coffee, which you can taste, then go home and order a package on-line for your every morning pleasure!
On Friday, April 23rd at 7:00pm in the Youth Building of Hillcrest Baptist Church there will be a free benefit concert for Heath and Paige Wilson (Adopting from Ethiopia). A love offering will be taken to raise funds for their adoption. A friend of theirs will be highlighting songs from here new CD for sale and Kelly Putty with the organization Ordinary Hero will be there to share her adoption story. If you live near Hopkinsville, KY and don't have plans that night I would encourage you to drop by!
Friday, April 23rd will also mark four months since we were added to the list to wait for a referral for our little girl...not that I am counting or anything :) God has so richly blessed our family in so many ways, I am humbled and it just overwhelms me to consider that He would choose our family for such a special gift and to experience the awesome journey of adoption. I pray I always remember the lessons He has brought us and the love we have experienced!
Prayers for the week:
- Our I600A will arrive in the mail this week!
- Great weather for May 1st
- A huge attendance and offering for Heath & Paige Wilson
- A great sell out event at our Yard Sale
- Oh, and a referral would be great too!
As soon as I charge my camera I will post some pictures of the great Knitted Hats that have busily been in production at our house. For all of you that commented on how nice they were and wonder why I never use the term "I or me" when discussing them...well, I cannot take credit for the wonderful hats...another adult in our house, who totally is okay with me taking the credit is the actual knitter. I of course am happily working on the more practical "pot scrubbers"! :) How great God matches the "free spirits" and the "nerds" in marital bliss!
Anyway...we have already sold three, completed two for additional orders, so I will post a full preview of those that will be available May 1st with prices, in case anyone is interested! They are really warm and would be great early Christmas gift purchases!
Stay tuned, later in the week I have news of a fabulous giveaway! Of course I need to charge my camera for pictures of the loot! Get your recipe boxes out and find some "original" and/or "family" gems (recipes)! They might just earn you some great stuff...you'll want to share this with your friends!Thanks for stopping by and have a very blessed week!
The Ragsdales
Hope your 1-600a comes THIS WEEK! We're just getting ready to send ours in this week. Maybe we can be in Korea at the same time. Wouldn't that be awesome??
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