Fundraisers

I want to let everyone know that I will be placing an order for the t-shirts on Monday June 16th.  If you have already let me know that you want one but have not paid, please do that as soon as possible!  And if you would like one but haven't let us know yet then please order no later than Sunday June 15th!!!  Thank you so much to all who have participated in this fundraiser.  I will post a pic again just so you can see the shirt without having to go back through old posts looking for it:

Again, these shirt will be $20 each from toddler sizes-xl.  They are $22 each for 2xl or larger.   All proceeds go toward the adoption.

Our puzzle fundraiser continues as well!  We have now "sold"  88 pieces of the puzzle.  Some people have signed up on a form at our church in the last couple of days for t-shirts and puzzles and I haven't added those to the number or the picture yet.  You can donate through the paypal donate button right here on our blog if you would like to for the puzzle and type in the comment section how many you would like and what names you'd like on the pieces.  Here are some updated pics of the puzzle!  A friend of mine said the other day how she loves how as people buy the pieces, the picture comes together.  Sort of like how the whole process is..."one piece at a time":)

I love how you can see part of the child's face in this one!! 

And one last thing, don't forget we are hoping to have a HUGE YARD SALE in the coming months.  Donations are welcome at any time if you would like to help out with that.  We may wait until Sept when it's a little cooler to do that and give people some time to think about it and get things together. Let me know if you have any questions about that.

Thanks again for all the support and mostly for all of your prayers!!!!!!

Keepin it real!

I'm going to try and do my best to update this blog more often.  I usually just do adoption updates and since right now, we are just in the waiting period with that... I don't have a lot to post about.  We started this process September 23rd 2013.  So it's been a little over 8 mos now.   Wow!!  I can't believe it.  In some ways it seems like it's gone by really fast and in some ways it's dragging.  I will say that for some reason the past couple of weeks have been the hardest for me to wait since we started the process. I've just had a different feeling in my heart lately.  Many days, I feel like my heart literally aches.   I think it hit me most when I looked at our family pics from Easter.  As soon as I looked at them , I felt like something was missing.  In all reality.. it is!!  Our 3rd child.  Everyone told us in the beginning that this whole process would be a roller coaster of emotions.  Boy were they right.  Most of the time I just go about our daily life and try to just enjoy our family of 4 before we become a family of 5!  But there are times when I can't hardly stand the wait!!!!  Our family dealt with infertility before we had Jaxon so I know that feeling and that's the best way to describe it.  The only difference is that we DO know it will happen..just don't know when.  I told Bobby it's not even like a pregnancy because at least that way you know it will happen and pretty much know when. 

     On our adoption website there are adopting parent profiles for birthmoms to read and help give her an overview of each family.  Sometimes they choose a family just from that but sometimes they call the agency and mention a family that has caught their eye and want to see their entire profile (photo book, homestudy, etc).  I check the website pretty often to see if anyone has been matched or just new families added.  Since ours was added to the profile on April 1st, there have been 10 additional families added.  This is where some of the mixed emotions come in.  And just so you know these are REAL feelings here!!  Everytime I see a new family added; in this order I feel: 

(1) excited for them because they are beginning an awesome journey  

(2) I look over it and pretend I'm a birthmom and wonder if that family seems like a family I would choose if I were in their situation.

(3) I read ours again(everytime) and wonder if ours stands out among the others  (some of the families look amazing by the way and the profiles are great...

(4) Then I immediately feel a feeling of "man, more people added? How will anyone ever choose us if they keep adding other families?)  SELFISH I KNOW BUT I'M KEEPING IT REAL:(

(5)  But the amazing thing is that each time I have that feeling, I immediately have an overwhelming sense of peace come over me.  I have no doubt that God is just reminding me that it doesn't matter how many there are or how awesome I think they seem, but HE already has the perfect baby for our family. HE already knows who it is and when it will be.  So at that point I smile and go back to #1

See what I mean about a roller coaster!!!!!  Here are a couple of quotes I've run across recently when I was having one of "those days"

I love when God puts people and things in your life exactly when you need it most!  He's great at reminding us who's in control.  

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End of the school year!

I hardly ever do a post about anything other than the adoption but I wanted to document this mostly for myself so I will always have it!  Last week was Jaxon's last day of 5th grade.  Anyone that knows me well, knows what I'm doing as I type this:)  It's been very emotional for me but I did pretty good.  Jaxon's only request when we came to his honors assembly and his "moving up" ceremony was for me  NOT to cry!!  And guess what... I did it!!  I was pretty proud of myself.  Now don't get me wrong, I cried before and after the program and many other times but not  AT the program.  Go me!!!  We are very proud of Jaxon of the young man he is becoming!  He is a smart boy and I have no doubt he is ready for middle school.  I'm the one that isn't ready but we all have to go through it and we are looking forward to a fun summer and a great year next year.  Here are some pics from his last day.

               His last time walking into elementary school

Mr. Monell

                                             Mrs. Milner

          Jaxon receiving his "Certificate of Completion"

Camden had a great year as well and is now officially a "2nd grader"  He's pretty excited about that except he LOVED his teacher and is a little nervous about having to start over with a different one.  However, I'm not worried at all because for some reason Camden is a different child at school and NEVER gets in trouble and ALWAYS does the right thing the first time he's asked.  Yeah, I wonder how things can be so different at home and at school.  I'm glad though because he can be quite the handful for us:)  I guess the saying is true "If they are going to misbehave, I'd rather it be at home"  No seriously Camden is a sweet boy and really is a people pleaser.  He tries real hard to make the right decisions.  This will be his last year at the primary school before moving on to the elementary school for 3rd-5th grade.  Here are a few pics of his last day of school picnic with his friends.  I rounded the corner and found him her with some of his "friends that are girls":)  He seemed to be hanging around the little blond right next to him quite a bit.  Ladies man maybe???

Libby, Hope, Madison, Maggie, Faith and Camden

                                                       
                                  Mrs. Bramlett and Camden

Moving right along!!

We wanted to update everyone on the progress of our puzzle fundraiser.  Right now we have "sold" 73 pieces!!  That's $730.00 that is going toward the adoption.  THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU to all who have helped us out with this so far!!  We appreciate it so much.  If your name is not on a puzzle piece, donate today and it will be put on there right away!   The first pic is from a couple of weeks ago and the next 3 are current!

There are still plenty of pieces left (427) to be exact and we could still use the help if you are willing.  I'm dying to get the puzzle complete and framed and see how it looks when it's all done!


We finally got our t-shirt proof in and we will be selling t-shirts for anyone who is interested!!  Who couldn't use a new t-shirt, and the money that you spend on the t-shirt will be helping us along the way.  The shirts will be $20 each and 2xl or larger will be $22.  We said at the beginning that we would love to sell a good many shirts and then at some point maybe do a BBQ cookout and have everyone wear their shirts and get some pictures:)  We are taking orders for the t-shirts now so if you'd like one and haven't already let me know, please do as soon as you can.  Here is a preview of the shirt!

                                                       Front

                                                       Back

Also, I spoke with our agency a couple of days ago and just asked her a few questions.  She said that she had 4 birthmoms that were already matched but are due any day now!!  I couldn't help but be super excited for those 4 families that will soon be getting their sweet little addition to their family.  One day that will be us!!!  She said that she's working with 7 birthmoms right now and they all have been matched.  I will be honest and say that to hear that, it made me a little disappointed:(  She also said not to be discouraged because she could have 5 more walk in tomorrow that are looking for adoptive parents.  She said that alot of moms will find a family by looking at the adoptive parent profiles on the adoption agency's website, and come in with a family already in mind just from reading the profile online.  I know things can change from day to day so we just continue to wait.  I have this verse as the background on my phone:

"Wait on the LORD: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the LORD."  Psalm 27:14 KJV

Sometimes I find myself getting a little impatient and when I read that verse, it really helps!!  I've said before and I know it's true that God's timing is ALWAYS PERFECT!!  So as I continue to wait, we continue to pray.

We also will be doing a HUGE (hopefully with your help) yard sale sometime in the next couple of months!!  We are asking everyone to go through all of your extra junk and donate it to our yard sale. What a great way to help out without even having to spend any money!  I know lots of people have things sitting around that they would be happy to get rid of but don't like doing yard sales themselves:)    Everything we make will go to the adoption fund!  We will be accepting anything that you are willing to donate.  You can start getting things together anytime.. we don't have a specific date yet but we can go ahead and start getting the things ready if we have them.   If you can't get the items to us, we will come to you!!

 Thanks again for your support and for following our journey!!!

Puzzle Fundraiser

Well...sorry it's been so long since I posted.  I have almost done it several times, but there just isn't much going on right now.  We are now just in the waiting period!!  Here is where we stand... The homestudy is complete and our agency officially has all of our information for the homestudy. We have completed the info for our profile to go on our adoption agency's website.  She should have it on the website by next Friday.  I will do a post then and let everyone know how to view that if you'd like.    We have paid our first large amount due to our agency which was $5,500.  That was due upon completion of homestudy.  The next large amount will be $6,500 and that will be due upon match.  Which means as soon as a family chooses us and we are "matched" then we will pay that amount.  This could happen at any time and we have no idea when that will be.  Hopefully soon:) We have decided to go with an original idea that we had but haven't followed through with it yet.  It's a PUZZLE FUNDRAISER!!  
   

  Here is how it works:

---  We have purchased a 500 piece puzzle; each piece symbolizing someone that will be helping bring our baby home.

---  Each piece will be a donation of $10.00

--- You may choose to be one piece or several pieces of the puzzle. 

--- YOUR name will be written on each piece that you represent. 

After the puzzle is completed, we will frame the puzzle between 2 pieces of glass and hang it in the child's room.  This will be a great keepsake and we can't wait to be able to sit down and tell him/her the story of all of the people that helped them become a part of our family:)

 You can make your donation by clicking on the "DONATE" button to the right or if you would rather mail a check that will be fine too.. just email me for our address at ray0287@bellsouth.net   If you click the DONATE BUTTON (PAYPAL ACCT) , it will send us an email that we have received a donation and then we personally go on there and transfer the money into our adoption account that we have set up.  


Here is a picture of the puzzle we have chosen

                                                                     

We both fell in love with the picture but when I saw the "name" of the print,  I know it was the one.  It's called " Forever and Ever!"  We can't wait for this child to become a part of our family Forever and Ever!!!

 We think this sounds like so much fun and we are really excited about this fundraiser.  Thank you all in advance for your help!  It is appreciated more than you know!!!! 

We also have a t-shirt fundraiser coming up soon.  I know I mentioned it several months ago but we have come up with some ideas and the printing shop is working on a digital proof for us right now with the design we finally decided on.   We look forward to this fundraiser as well.  I mean who can't use a new t-shirt?  Especially when it's going towards a great cause:)

Moving forward one step at a time!!!

     It's been a couple of weeks since I posted so I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!  We had a great 2013!  I have no doubt that 2014 will be just as good if not better.
     I'm not sure if anyone noticed or not but I added a link to our adoption Facebook page.  Some of you just follow the blog and may not have known that we have a Facebook page as well.  Sometimes I will put something on Facebook that I don't post on here, so be sure to check them both out from time to time.
     I'm hoping to hear from our social worker sometime next week that she has our homestudy completed and sent to our agency.  Once that is done, we will be able to apply for some different grants to hopefully help out with some of the expenses.  Thank you to each one of you that has made a donation so far.  It's always exciting to watch our fundraising thermometer rise each time one is made!!
     I was able to get all of the corrections made on our profile book, reordered, and got them all back in the mail a couple of days ago.  I took the package to the post office earlier today and sent the books to our agency!!

This is a HUGE step for us!!!!!!  We are so excited to be moving forward.   This whole process is all about WAITING!  It's hard but I am learning to be patient and trust God's timing!  It just blows my mind when I think that God is unfolding his perfect plan day by day.  Sometimes I find myself trying to plan the perfect time for it all to happen.  Then I quickly have to remind myself that GOD is in control, NOT me!!  He already knows our needs before we even ask... For your father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him  Matthew 6:8 KJV   Please continue to pray that we will have the patience and faith that we must have during this waiting period!   Our strength will rise as we wait upon the Lord!

Just another update!!

     Well we finally have our last homestudy visit tomorrow! Bobby will be meeting with our social worker for his individual interview.  She says after this, it will take about 3 weeks to get everything typed up and sent to our agency.  YAY!!
     I finally finished our profile book and ordered them.  When I got them in the mail a few days ago, I immediately noticed a couple of spelling mistakes:(   I was so frustrated because I have worked so hard to get this done and really thought that I hadn't missed anything.  On the page that I had to work with, the writing was so small and it was really hard to see any mistakes.  When I spoke with our adoption agency, she recommended that we correct the mistakes and have another book printed.  We printed 3 books... one for us, one for the agency to keep and mail out if need be, and one for them to show birthmoms.  I knew then, that would mean that I would have to pay for the 3 books to be reprinted again.  I really didn't want to have to do that since I had just 5 days before paid for 3 books!!!  I decided to call Snapfish.com and ask tell them the situation and see what they could do.  My moms motto is "It never hurts to ask", and I'm so glad I did! The nice lady said that she would credit me the amount I originally paid and I could make the changes and order the new ones at no additional cost.  What a blessing!!!  So, hopefully tomorrow I will get those new ones ordered and as soon as we get them, I can send that to our agency.  I just found out that once they receive that, if they have a birthmom and we meet her criteria and vice versa, they will start to show it!!!  If someone happened to be interested in us before they receive our completed homestudy, they would still be able to contact our social worker and get the approval.  I can't believe we are getting so close to being able to have our profile shown!!  It's hard because we are all ready NOW but we know God's timing is perfect and this will all fall into place when HE is ready.  Thank you so much for all of your prayers.
     Also, we are trying to figure out the last few details about selling t-shirts.  Hopefully sometime in January we will be able to get that fundraiser going.  Bobby is hoping that we can sell a good many and then he would like to have another fundraiser where we sell BBQ plates and everyone that has a t-shirt can wear it to the BBQ!! Sounds fun huh:)  We have a design in mind for the shirt and it will have a bible verse about adoption on it.  We will try and post pics of the design sometime after Christmas.

Thankfulness & sweet boys!!

Happy Thanksgiving!! We all have so much to be thankful for.  At the beginning of November we decided when we do our nightly devotion with the kids that we would all name something we were thankful for and we have written it down each day.  We plan to read over them all today around the table and remember again just how blessed we are.  Our lists were very different between the kids and us but the kids even caught on after a couple of days and started looking deeper than just family and friends.  We have everything from our church, our pastor, friends, family, heat in the winter, a/c in the summer, shoes, a bed, food, salvation, the Bible, families that raised us in church, spouses, the opportunity to adopt,  God, children, health, xbox, electricity, our home, job schedule, good renters, dishwasher, different seasons, clean sheets, Friday paychecks, well you get the point... but I could go on and on!  It really made us think each day and try to come up with something different than what someone else had mentioned.  The boys both mentioned the adoption and the baby several times.  They can't hardly wait for all of this to really happen.
      I have to say that both of my boys have such sweet hearts.  They have been saying for the last few days that they wanted to give some money towards the adoption. We both told them that they didn't need to give their money for that.  They have both been saving for certain things and I like for them to know the value of money by saving and then actually seeing how it's spent ( and how fast it goes:)  Well a couple of days ago, Jaxon asked me if I had an empty jar anywhere.  I told him yes and where it was.  The next thing I know, this is what I see in my living room.

Camden made the sign on the left ( I love it) and Jaxon on the right.  They emptied their piggy banks and gave some of their cash.  We counted and it was $29.55.  They were so excited.  I told them again that they didn't have to do that and they both said "We WANT to do it mama, this is our baby too"  They absolutely melt my heart! I love that they thought this out and knew this is what they wanted to do.  Now they want all of our spare change will go in there so that's what we will be doing.  Great idea kids!
    I know it's a long waiting process for them. It is for us too but we are all waiting patiently and maybe it will happen sooner than we think.  Camden is so excited that when we finally get to take the baby home from the hospital, we will get to stay in a hotel with it.  HAHA!! I'm not sure why that's so exciting to him but he talks about it all the time!  We will have to stay in the state of South Carolina (that's the state we are going through) for 7-14 days until the ICPC is complete.  The Interstate Compact for the Placement of Children is something that controls the movement of a child from one state to another.  Both GA and SC will have to approve the child's movement in writing before you can take the child across state lines.  From what I understand, it can sometimes be closer to the 14 days.  Yikes!!!
After that though, we will be able to bring our sweet baby HOME!!

Long overdue post!

I have been meaning to write a post for the last couple of weeks and have just been so busy that when I think of it, it's so late that I'm just ready to crash.  We had our second home study visit a couple of weeks ago and it went well.  She gathered some more paperwork, made sure we had gotten the fire extinguisher, locks for cabinets, moved medicines out of reach, had working smoke alarms, etc....  Then she sat down with me for about 45 minutes and we just talked.  She asked me to go into a little more detail about some of the questions that I had on my autobiographical questionnaire.  We had a nice visit and the Lord actually allowed me an opportunity to tell her about when my Daddy got saved several years ago.  It's a long story how we got to that.. but it was perfect!! I think we both shed a few tears:)
She will meet with Bobby in the next week or so for their individual meeting and then we will be close to the end of the homestudy.  It will all be sent to our adoption agency to be approved after the meeting. I have been diligently working on our profile book.  No kidding, I bet I have put at least 15 or more hours into it.  There is so much more to it than I realized.  It's been alot of fun to do, just time consuming.  We know it will all be worth it in the end though and we can't hardly wait!!
     I've had a few people ask me about the donate button on the blog and how it works.  As you see, we have a fundraising thermometer there for you to see when we receive donations or raise money through a fundraiser.  If you click the "Donate" button, it goes to a paypal account that we have set up.  After a donation is made, it sends me an email letting me know and then I have to personally go to the account and move the money to a savings account that we have set up specifically for the adoption.  Then I will go in and update the thermometer each time a donation is made!  I have to say again that we are overwhelmed at the amount of people that have been so supportive of this adoption.  We have so many wonderful friends and family that we know are behind us 100% and pray for us daily.  Thank you so much!!!!!!!
     Also, we are trying to get a t-shirt fundraiser together soon.  We wish we were already doing it but these last couple of weeks have been so busy with the last bit of paperwork, the profile book and the education.  We each are required to have 12 hours of adoption education.  We are reading and listening to radio interviews on a website and then taking quizzes for a certificate.  It's all been very interesting and we have learned so much!

Two Posts in one day!!

I know this is the second post today but I have to add this.  I was looking up a few things about adoption today and I ran across this...

                                LEGACY OF AN ADOPTED CHILD

Once there were two women who never knew each other
One you do not remember, the other you call Mother

Two different lives shaped to make you one
One became your guiding star, the other became your sun

The first one gave you life, and the second taught you to live it
The first gave you a need for love, the second was there to give it

One gave you a nationality, the other gave you a name
One gave you a talent, the other gave you aim

One gave you emotions, the other calmed your fears
One saw your first sweet smile, the other dried you tears

One made an adoption plan, that was all that she could do
The other prayed for a child, and God led her straight to you.

Now, which of these two women, Are you the product of?
Both, my darling, Both, Just two different types of love.

- Unknown

I can honestly say from the bottom of my heart that I am already in love with this little one that God has chosen for our family.  I never dreamed that you could love someone so much that you don't even know yet.  It's truly amazing and we both know that God is all over this.  We pray daily for the birthparents.  Even our children are specific in what we pray for each of them.  I can't wait to meet this special little one and add them to our family.  I never realized our family wasn't complete.  So thankful for a God who knows better than we do!! Thanks again for following our journey!

BBQ

Well this weekend we had our first "non official" BBQ fundraiser.  Bobby was originally just going to cook one boston butt on friday night and use it to make some brunswick stew.   A friend of mine said that her dad wanted to buy one if Bobby would cook an extra.  Then she said that her mother in law would like one too.  So I decided to put a little post on our facebook page and see if anyone else would be interested in buying one.  I told everyone that all proceeds would go toward the adoption.  It was so last minute that we really needed to know within a few hours who would want to participate.  We ended up having a great response and between the BBQ sales and a couple of unexpected donations, we were able to raise $300 for our adoption fund!!

                                               Before

                                               
                                                            After

 It was very exciting to see our fundraising thermometer rise again!!  Our first donation was from the paypal donate button for $50.00.   We can't even express how thankful we are for all of our friends that have been so supportive of our decision to adopt!!  Right now we are trying to get a T-shirt fundraiser together hopefully real soon.  We are so excited about this one and already have something in mind for it.

Our First Home Study Visit!!!

Today was the THE day!!  Our first home study visit.  I will have to say I was very excited about the visit but I was pretty nervous as well.  As it turns out, I had absolutely no reason to be nervous.  It went just as smooth as silk!  She got here about 3:30 and the first thing she did was "interview" my boys.  She really just asked them a few questions like.. Do you know what I'm here for, Do you know what it means to adopt, How do you feel about adoption, Are you excited about getting a baby brother/sister, Do you think your parents are good parents, and finally... How are you disciplined when you do something you aren't supposed to do?  Thankfully both boys understood and answered all of her questions. Our social worker seemed satisfied with all of their answers and after about 5 min with them,  their Mimi got them and they went to the park and to get dinner.  They had much more fun getting out of the house rather than sitting here for the next few hours trying to be quiet.  The whole visit was about 2 1/2  hours so it would have been a nightmare for them to be here the whole time. Ha!!  First she sat down with us and we went over all of the paperwork that we have been getting together for the last couple of weeks.  She answered some questions we had and gave great advice about several things to help us finish up with the paperwork.  Then she asked us a few questions about how we decided to adopt, how did we think parenting an adopted child would be different than parenting a biological child ( Hard question), and how would we manage parenting if this child was different than our biological children.  She went over some safety things with us that we need to make sure we have.  You have to have a fire extinguisher, a smoke detector on each level of the house,  you have to have a separate safe for ammunition and guns, medicines up high enough so a child can't reach it, cleaning supplies behind a childproof lock...etc.  Most of these we already have so that's good!  Then lastly she walked through the house.  That's all.. just walked through.  She didn't look in any closets, cabinets, drawers.  I had no idea what all she would do but I was just under the impression that it was going to be alot more "intimidating" than it was.  So all that nervousness was for nothing:)  Now she will meet with me in a couple weeks by myself and then with Bobby a couple weeks later by himself and by then hopefully we will have the FBI fingerprints back and can move forward and get all of this to our agency!!  I know this seems like alot of  info but I want to be able to look back at this one day if I forget and also who knows who else may run across this blog and be wondering what a home study is like:)

A Football weekend

We have had a great weekend!!  Friday night we went to the Eastside homecoming game to see our niece who was on the homecoming court for her sophomore class.  She was beautiful!  The kids had a great time watching the game and spending time with friends and cousins.

 Saturday started our cold and raining but that didn't keep us from heading out to our church for our last flag football game of the season.  All of the kids had a blast playing in the rain.  The adults...not so much:)  Thankfully it only rained the first few minutes and both boys teams won their games.  Bobby's team finally pulled off their first win of the season.  He was coaching 4-7 yr olds and most of them had never played before but had a great time learning.  Bobby was great with the kids and really enjoyed every minute of coaching them.  After the game, we had our awards ceremony and all of the kids got trophies.  Camden was extra thrilled because this was his first trophy!!  He was so proud of it!  Jaxon has had others in the past but was excited about this one too!

 Saturday night we went to my parents house for homemade chicken enchiladas and got to spend time with my sweet sweet grandmother.  She is the most amazing lady in the world!! She is my last grandparent living and just adores my boys.  It's so sweet to watch her with them and I know how much they love her too.  Then today of course was church.  We had a great service and some sweet friend had their precious baby dedicated to the Lord this morning.  It brought tears to my eyes (but what doesn't:)) as I sat there thinking that we will get to do that again one day!! When we got home Bobby said that as he watched the dedication, he was imagining our family up there doing that very same thing again one day and that he couldn't wait!!  I'm so thankful to have such a wonderful, Godly husband that is on the same page with me about the adoption.

First fundraising opportunity

YAY!!! We finally got our Donate button added to the blog!!  I am including our fundraising letter so that each of you could understand a little more about how we got to this point and the adoption process as a whole.

 Dear friends and family,

     Hello from Bobby and Tiffany Ray.  We write with great joy and big news to share… We're adopting!!  About 2 months ago we began a journey of faith to bring a child into our family through adoption.  The possibility of adopting had been on our minds for years but even more in the past several months.   About a year ago, I asked Bobby how does someone know if they are being called by God to do something.  He said "well it would be something that you had on your mind all the time and couldn't get away from it no matter how hard you tried."  I immediately began to cry and knew from that moment on that God was calling our family to adoption.  

I can honestly say for a full year, it was in my thoughts constantly I tried hard to run from the idea. While we were filled with excitement, at the same time we were filled with fear.  We felt comfortable with our life now and wondered how would this change our lives as a whole. What about our plan for our life?  Our kids are 10 and 7.  They are both in the "easier" stage of life and we all know each others routine.  This seemed so much out of MY comfort zone! We also wondered.. could we afford another child?  Better yet, how could we afford adoption at all?  As the year passed, I still had it on my mind a lot, although it wasn't something that we discussed often at all.  As a matter of fact, NOT at all.  One day I had been overwhelmed with the feeling and had prayed and cried about adoption all day.  When Bobby got home that day, I told him that later I had something I needed to talk to him about.  He immediately walked over to me, hugged me and said "It's about adoption isn't it?  I asked him how in the world he knew that and he let me know that it had been on his mind as well and he would LOVE to pursue it!! I am typically not a person of change and we realized this would be a HUGE change!  We realized then that God was calling us out of our comfort zone.  I read somewhere that God doesn't call the qualified, he qualifies the called!!!

Through all of our fears, we felt God graciously guiding the way.  All in his perfect timing, he led us to the right articles and books, allowed us to speak with others who have recently been down this road, and to spend time in heartfelt prayer, seeking his perfect will.  In September of this year, we filled out an application and were approved with an adoption agency.  The adoption process is completed at different stages.  First we are required to have a home study.  The home study is tons of paperwork and 3 visits done by a social worker that will determine if we are suitable to be parents.  At this time, we are in the middle of doing our homestudy.  During this time we are required to prepare a "Dear Birthmother" letter and a profile book with photos and captions that tell all about our family.   When our home study is complete, our profile book will be sent to the agency and at that time we will be put out there to be "matched" with a birthmom. The process could take up to a year or more but we are praying for less time than that.  Isn't it awesome that God already knows who, and when:)  Bobby and I feel so honored that God has chosen our family to raise a child that otherwise may not have a loving, Christian home. 

 

This is the reason we are writing this letter: would you pray about how you can help bring this little one home to join our family?  The domestic adoption process is very expensive and we knew from the beginning that we couldn't do it on our own.  We also know that If God calls us to do something, he will provide!!  Between the home study, agency fees, travel, hotel expenses and attorney fees, the cost will be about $25,000.  

We plan to cover the cost in a few ways:  first we are living frugally and plan to save as much of our income as we possibly can for the adoption.  Second, after our home study is complete, we can apply for adoption grants, Also after the adoption is complete we will apply for a federal tax credit which will equal about $12,000.  And finally, we will be fundraising and asking for donations.

Would you be willing to help us bring our child home?  We are asking for any donation that you may be able to give.  No amount is too small.  We are humbled and appreciative of your gifts in any amount.  Also, donations are tax deductible.  You can also find out about upcoming fundraisers and follow our adoption journey at our website  www.fourwantingmore.blogspot.com   

Most importantly we are asking you pray for us and our child.  The adoption process is filled with both joy and anxiety.  Our ultimate prayer is that through our adoption, God's glory will be made known.  Please pray that we will trust and obey God through every step of this journey.  

Thank you in advance for your love and support, 

Bobby and Tiffany Ray

A New Beginning

Well here it goes! My first attempt at blogging. All I can say is I'm not making any promises:)  The reason we created this blog is to keep track of our journey to adoption and for other people to be able to follow our journey as well.  Bobby and I feel like God has been calling our family to adoption for several years now. It's something that has been brought up many times between the two of us but we always just "talked" about it.  About 2 mos ago, I began to realize that I could no longer run from the calling and we both prayed about it and decided it was time to follow the call.  On Sept. 23, 2013, we filled out our application for adoption with Nightlight Christian Adoptions.  Since then, we have filled out paperwork, and more paperwork, and more paperwork.  No really...it's a ton of paperwork.  We are in the middle of our homestudy now and we have a social worker coming out next week to start the homestudy meetings.  We are absolutely ecstatic about this next step in our life and our boys are thrilled too.  Recently several of our friends have had babies and our boys are getting in some pretty good practice!!