Adoption Fundraiser - Thirty-One

Our first Adoption Fundraiser kicked off yesterday and runs through September 20th. Our friend Alison is a consultant for Thirty-One. She graciously offered to donate 25% of all retail sales to our adoption fund!! This is a great opportunity to get some early Christmas shopping done. Everyone needs a bag for something; a work bag, gym bag, beach bag, diaper bag, sports bag, a bag to put all your "junk" in. I mean who doesn't love a cute personalized bag? Don't shy away guys, your wife, mom, grandma, girlfriend, sister, or any other special lady in your life would LOVE a personalized bag from you!! The September SPECIAL is: For every $35 you spend you get an All Day Organizing Tote for just $15 (regularly $45)!!! That is an amazing deal, not only are you getting something cute but you are also donating to help bring our baby home to us. If you have any questions please feel free to contact either myself or Alison. Go to our Thirty-One Adoption Fundraiser to help us reach our goal.

How cute are these new fall prints? I adore all of them but my absolute favorite is the owls!! Nothings screams fall like cute little owls.

Here is a look at some of the new products that were just released in the new Fall 2014 catalog.

Thank you to everyone who has supported us by either sharing or donating to our fund!! It means so much to us that all of you believe in us!

Welcome to the world Lily Marie

On Monday August 25th our best friends welcomed their 1st baby, Lily Marie Morrell into the world. Babies aren't born often here in GTMO and to make it even more rare, Lily was born during our 1st hurricane of the year. It started out as a tropical storm but the storm was upgraded to a hurricane as it was passing over us. The power went out all over base and the hospital was running on a generator.

She is absolutely beautiful and perfect in every way!! She weighed 8lbs 6oz and was 19.25 inches long.

We have a great community here on base, whenever there is a new baby born the community gets together and schedules dates to take them a meal. Our scheduled date was Monday August 25th which is the day this little beauty decided to make her way into the world. So we rescheduled for Saturday so they could get home and settled. We made Beef Enchiladas, Strawberry Cheesecake Muffins, and Brownies!!

We can't wait to watch this little beauty grow!! We are definitely proud to be her GTMO Auntie and Uncle.

Help Us Grow Our Family

I have to admit this is scary, exciting but scary.  Adoption has always been on our hearts, even when we were hopeful of having a biological child.  We always knew that we wanted to adopt and give a child a life that they otherwise might not have.  So here we are opening up our lives and our journey to all of you.  We hope that you will join forces with us and help us make our dream come true.  We are still in the very early stages of the adoption process. Adoption is not cheap, the road to adoption is full of ups and downs and filled with many challenges, adoption is pouring your heart and soul into something and BELIEVING it will happen, but, most of all adoption is LOVE.  We ask that you consider helping us spread the word throughout our journey.  We ask that you bare with us and be understanding of our consistent need to raise money.  We have never asked for money from anyone and we would not be asking now if it was not needed.  Although the goal amount may seem incredibly high to you, it is actually only half of what a domestic adoption from a legal adoption agency in the United States costs.  If we can raise even half the cost it would be a tremendous help,   we are hoping to start a family without going into a substantial amount of debt.  We have been brain storming ways to fund-raise and have come up with a few ideas.  If you are looking for a way to help aside from making a donation you could consider some of these ideas:

*Bake Sale - Get your kids involved, they LOVE to help.  Make it a family fun event.  Bake some cupcakes, cookies, muffins, cinnamon rolls, brownies, ect and then package them up individually.  Consider selling them for a donation at your local sporting events, churches, groups, organizations.

*Candy Bar Sale - Consider purchasing a package of candy bars from a bulk store (Sam's Club or Costco) and then selling them for donations.  This is great to do in the office!! Everyone is always looking for a mid afternoon pick me up.

*Lemon-aide Stand - Again the kids LOVE this type of thing.

*Pie Sale - The holiday season is quickly approaching.  Consider baking pies and selling them for a donation.  Let's face it, everyone is so busy this time of year.  Friends and Family will love you for doing the work for them.  All they have to do is make a donation and they walk away with a delicious pie and feel good about donating to an amazing cause.

*Frozen cookie dough - This is another great fundraiser for the holiday season.  Do you love to bake but don't want to put on weight by eating all of those delicious treats?  Consider putting your love for baking to good use by making cookie dough.  Here is an example of what can be done:

For $3.50, you can buy a pound of peanut butter cookie dough or a pound of snickerdoodle cookie dough(or whatever you choose to make).  If you buy two pounds of either kind (or one of each), it's just $6.00

For $4.00, you can buy a pound of chocolate chip cookie dough or a pound of oatmeal cookie dough ( or whatever you choose to make).  If you buy two pounds of either (or one of each) , its just $7.00

for $4.50, you can buy a pound of chocolate chip with nuts or a pound of oatmeal with nuts.  And guess what? If you buy two pounds of either kind (or one of each), its just $8.00 

*Do you know someone who is crafty and makes things?  Consider asking them to put their creativity to good use and donate items to be auctioned off. 

*Do you have a bunch of things cluttering up your home? Consider having a yard sale or adding items to craigslist and then donate the money to our fund. If you live in GTMO please feel free to drop any items at Villimar 2159A, we plan to have a yard-sale in the future. 

*Are you or anyone you know a consultant for a company? (Thirty-One, Jamberry, Scentsy, Stampin up) Consider allowing us to host an online party and then donating a percent of the profits made to our adoption fund.  

*Photography Session - Are you or anyone you know a photographer?  Consider hosting a mini session event or just a general photo shoot and donate all or a portion of the fee to our adoption fund.  

We are open to any and all ideas, if you think of anything please let us know!!   Every penny counts.  We hope you will follow along as we post updates on our family blog throughout our journey.  Thank you from the bottom of our hearts for all your love, support, and encouragement!! It means the world to us, YOU are our biggest motivators!!