Auction & Fun Run update!

We are 10 days away from the start of our Silent Auction!  Here is a run down of the items we've been able to put together so far – still some trickling in!

BEND/CENTRAL OREGON

• Photo Session with Brandi Ahrendt Photography
• BEND Tile by Paul Samuelson 
• 45-min Reiki Session with Lynne Connelley
• Juniper Springs Farm Tour
• Acupuncture/Chinese Medicine visit with Chelsea Phillips, L.Ac.
• Personalized Herbal Formulation Visit with Elyse Williams
• Naturopathic Doctor visit with Kerie Raymond, ND
• Naturopathic Doctor visit with Joshua Phillips, ND
• SaltWorks Photography 
• 2-hours of Childcare by Cynthia 
• 1-week of House Sitting by Cynthia
• Gift Basket from Country Financial
• Dutch Brothers Gift Basket 

PORTLAND, OREGON AREA

• 60-minute Massage at Saunte Wellness Center
• SaltWorks Photography
• T&R Boyd Photography mini-portrait session
• 2hrs of Wonderland Tattoos by Alice Kendall
• 10-pack Group Training - Animal Athletics 
• 60-minute Massage at Hosmer Chiropractic 1 of 2
• 60-minute Massage at Hosmer Chiropractic 2 of 2
• Float Shoppe 
• Dutch Brothers Gift Basket 

SALEM, OREGON

• SaltWorks Photography
• Simple Will by Stefyni Allen - Attorney
• Dutch Brothers Gift Basket 

ANYWHERE USA

• Imperial Jasper & Sterling Pendant - by Meridian Studio
• Mookaite Jasper & Sterling earrings - by Meridian Studio
• Apache Jasper & Sterling earrings - by Meridian Studio
• 12-24 month Romper by Trendy Kid Boutique
• 9 month body suit/blanket trio by Trendy Kid Boutique
• Race Entry - Rainshadow Running 
• 4.5oz Variety 6-pack of Trail Butter
• Dutch Brothers Gift Basket - OR/WA/ID/CA
• Spa items by Saunte Wellness Center

There is still time if you have an item/service you or someone you know would like to donate!

Fleet Feet of Bend is also busy putting together a Poker Run for us.  A date has been set, which will be the evening of Wednesday, July 9^th.  I will post more information as it comes available but please mark your calendars and share with your family and friends.  Everyone is welcome to join in the fun!

Oh! And last but not least...our documents were all translated in Ethiopia last week!!  We could get a referral at any time :) :)

~B & A <3

Auction update!

We've nailed down the week of June 20th - 27th, 2014 for our silent auction.  We have some amazing donations already and more coming in! 

We will use this blog to hold the auction. Every purchase will go through our Firstgiving website which will allow proceeds to be sent directly to our adoption agency and put towards our costs.  More details to come.

Meanwhile, a little preview...
 

Bend

Photo Session by Brandi Ahrendt

BEND Tile by Paul Samuelson

45-min Reiki Session

Juniper Springs Farm Tour

Visit with Naturopath - Kerie Raymond 

Visit with Naturopath - Joshua Phillips

SaltWorks Photography

Portland

Saunte Wellness Center

2hrs of Wonderland Tattoos by Alice Kendall

10 Pack Training - Animal Athletics 

60-minute Massage at Hosmer Chiropractic 

Available for Shipping

Gift Basket from Country Financial

Jewelry by Marina

Trendy Kid Boutique 12-24mo long sleeve romper

Trendy Kid Boutique 9mo body suit/blanket trio

Race Entry - Rainshadow Running 

6-pack Trail Butter Peanut Butter

the list goes on….

Fleet Feet of Bend is also putting on a family friendly race to help us raise money for little Haile! The date hasn't been nailed down yet, but it will likely be one of the first two weekends of July.  I will post more information as it comes available and we hope to see a bunch of you there!

We are trying to put together a small trail run in the Portland area as well. We have a friend (Thank you Jensen!) who will donate finisher’s T’s. If there is anyone in the Portland area who would like to help organize this event, we would LOVE the help and ideas you may have! Please reach out and we can start planning.  We’re planning to be in Portland the second weekend of August, so perhaps that would be a good weekend for a little run in Forest Park. :)

If you are donating, or planning to donate, please send me a photo or photos, description, and the retail value of the item you are donating. You can send them to bringinghailehome@gmail.com  I will be sure to include your website or facebook page on the auction page to help advertise for you too!

There is still time to donate! Please reach out to me here, via facebook or by the email address above and we can coordinate.

We want to send a heartfelt THANKS to all of you who continue to support us through this journey! It's life changing and truly magical.  The world becomes a much smaller and lovelier place as everyone comes together to support such a beautiful cause and soon to be beautiful little part of our family.

A few amazing pics from our recent sneak-away to CA..

The babymoon is over - therefore the baby should be on her way! ;)

Grass Lake

 

Wiskeytown Falls

 Mt. Shasta

~The Drakes xo 

Running the Numbers

It's all a subject we try to avoid, but in adoption, it's a necessary; an (almost) every day occurrence!

We sent off our BIG(gest) check along with the 3.5lbs of documents just over a week ago! Our agency double checked everything and over-nighted  them to Washington D.C. From there, they are on their way to Ethiopia to be translated and then registered in the system.  Once registered, we are ready for a match!  Our agency said the registration should be complete by about May 22nd!

So we spent the last few days celebrating this little accomplishment but it's time to get back on task!

Between generous givers and the income we've created from our vacation rental Drake's Place we are almost 20% to goal! I am amazed with the provisions He has blessed our family with! It's easy to go from amazement to uncertainty very quickly however, when you just get done sending off a large sum of money to turn around and see the next one staring you in the face.

We could be 3 weeks, 3 months or a year out from a match! Obviously we would like the former, but the latter would give us more time to raise and save more money. Double edge sword.

That said, and let me digress for a moment...I know MONEY is a difficult subject for some. Me included.  But I feel I owe it to everyone to be as translucent as possible being that you've chosen and by god's will, been appointed, to follow along with our journey in many supportive ways, money being one of them.

We have had great success with our vacation rental here in Bend.  January and February we were full in the mid 20 night range, March all but 2 nights and April all but 3! May and the coming summer months are already booking up quickly! This was a blessing we had no idea was coming. As this has been a learning process for us however, we failed to take start up costs, maintenance fees, utilities and taxes out of our first earnings. So what we thought we could apply to the adoption was actually about 25% less than our initial thought. Nothing to get down about as every bit helps and we feel very lucky for the opportunity and success we've had with it! 

So I was hoping to see higher numbers on the Firstgiving website because of the rental, but once it donned on us we need to subtract these operating expenses, the numbers went down a bit.

That said, we are looking at other ways to help raise money for both the allotment we will owe once we're matched, as well as travel expenses. Both will hit right around the same time!

Where you can help...

We are looking to hold a Silent Auction that includes donated goods/services from family and friends.  We already have some wonderful donations and I will be reaching out to friends and family individually as well to ask if anyone may have some type of merchandise or service they could donate to the auction.  Or if they know any one who may want to donate too!

The items can be very creative...from massages, to farm tours to babysitting hours. The only requirement is the ability to provide the item to me before the auction or a gift certificate (which could be a simple email stating the item/service with your contact info). We are very excited about this as both you and I can benefit from some auction fun!

Simultaneously, we need to start planning for travel.  It's my understanding that once we accept a match, we depart pretty quickly.  We have some miles saved and recently learned about adoption airfare options from a guest who adopted 8 years ago.  I need to do some research but it sounds like there may be some discounts since we don't have a lot of notice on when we travel and we likely won't know our return date, etc.  I'd love to have references or hear about others experiences if any of you have any experience with this.  We are also happy to accept donated miles as well, since these tickets can range up to $2500/per person.

Thank you ALL for your continued support in our journey; we are forever grateful!

If you'd like to help with any of the above, or have any ideas of your own, please reach out.
xo -Angela

Step 1...? Check!

I’m not really sure where “Step 1” started, but we finally feel it’s complete and we certainly feel accomplished and filled with joy!

After arriving home from Salem Friday (which is 2.5 hours away) and having just authenticated several of the last (of the last) documents, we received the final USCIS document in the mail.  We could have been frustrated, but instead were doing the happy dance in our seats with the girlies giggling away and commenting on how they had never seen us soo excited!  Or maybe the giggling was from their dad's rhythm, or lack thereof, even when he creates his own. ;)

We couldn’t believe it had finally arrived and that it said we were approved for “2 children 0-3 yrs”.  NOW…I know we talked and talked about this...and it was included in the home study but, seeing it written on paper was quite exciting and a bit scary!

Rather than waiting 2 weeks for our next trip to Salem, we sent the document overnight to the Secretary of State’s office to have them authenticate it and overnight it back.

We received it Wednesday and I spent several hours last night scanning all the documents.  The agency needs the originals as well as a complete copy and we have to keep a copy for ourselves to take with us to Ethiopia. I then checked, re-checked, and maybe even triple checked ;) that we had everything notarized, authenticated and ready to send!

We wrote the checks today...(THELARGESTCHECKI’VEEVERWRITTENSECONDTOTHEDOWNPAYMENTONTHISHOUSECHECK!) and FedEx’d it all to the agency…all 3.5lbs.

Our agency will review the documents, then overnight them to someone in Washington D.C., who “get’s up really early in the morning to stand in line...” somewhere for the final authentication. (That’s all I remember about that conversation.)

 
This person better be responsible and treat these documents with the same TLC we have the last 5 ½ months!  Or heads may roll…

 

I’m not really sure how I’m going to spend my time now??  It likely will involve applying for grants (which I’m dreading the paperwork…), fundraising, tracking down what other paperwork we may still need to prepare ie. I received some strange document today regarding Visa’s and something about some paperwork sitting at the Embassy in Addis??  I’m not sure what that’s all about but need to figure it out and I know we need to look into immunizations and what we need in order to travel safely, etc. Not to mention TRAVEL! I need to round up our miles, figure out what we have, what we don't have, and on and on.

I guess besides patiently waiting for a match, we can patiently work through all these to-do's!

Speaking of patience, this may not be my best quality.  Being Type-A I generally know what I want, how to get it and don’t beat around the bush waiting for something to happen for or to me.  Adoption is a different beast however.  It sort of reminds me of my Ironman days and all the preparation I made towards the race. 

Months and months of preparation. Some days not really understanding the why or the when or the how, but knowing that if I keep putting one foot in front of the other, it WILL pay off, and it always did. 10 times over.

 

The fight to get there was quickly forgotten by the glory of the finish. 

I think this will hold true in the adoption as well.  Once that baby (or babies :) are in our arms, the months of hard work and constant reminders to be patient with the process for the glory of the finish WILL pay off!

I feel I have handled this fairly well up to this point but I get inpatient and anxious just thinking about the next steps and how I will handle patiently waiting for our match, and then patiently waiting to meet our little girl once we’ve seen her beautiful face.  It makes me inpatient and anxious just writing about it! So I go back to Romans 5:4 – and endurance produces character, and character produces hope.

xo ~Angela