NURSERY FURNITURE!

WE ARE HAVING SO MUCH FUN!

So, my dear friend, Connie, decided she better have a "baby intervention" with me. You see, we have only been waiting almost a month, but since becoming DTE, we have not really done anything toward our adoption. Okay, we have been praying and doing our t-shirt/water bottle FUNdraising, but we haven't made any big purchases.

Well, Connie did a great job of showing us just HOW MUCH preparation we have ahead of us for our son or children to come HOME! She put it in an email, and seeing the long list in writing helped awaken me ~ and allowed me to give myself permission to START DOING THE FUN STUFF!!! {giggles of excitement....can you hear them?}

Soooooo......we made some excellent progress this weekend! Jeff's parents, Grandma/Saytee and Dub/Grandpa bought our baby's crib! It is the Marquez family tradition to buy the grandchild's crib, and they are excited to continue this blessing! WE ARE MOST GRATEFUL, Saytee and Dub! Jeff and I also bought the dresser and chest of drawers to complete the nursery set! BABY DAILY even had the crib and dresser in stock! The other pieces will arrive in a few weeks. We wanted to take at least one piece home with us, and we could only fit the dresser into the Yukon, so we will go back one day this week to get the crib with a friend's truck.

OH. MY. GOSH!!!!! This REALLY IS going to happen! We are going to have a baby in our home! And maybe even TWO little ones! I told myself we had to wait until we were DTE to make any big purchases. Well, we are approaching a month of being DTE and we haven't bought anything since sending off our Dossier. WOW! The fun has begun! And I feel the excitement stir BIG within me (I'm giving it permission to surface!), and I see the excitement overflowing in Jeff as well. THANK YOU, GOD!!! We feel we have your green light to BELIEVE and proceed forward with our plans! WOOT! WOOT!

You have NO idea how MANY times I have gone into a baby store to buy something for a friend's or relative's baby (which was totally a joy and fun for me), but THIS time, we went into the baby store for OUR baby/babies!

INDESCRIBABLE JOY!

Well, I am including pics of our nursery set below, if you would like to share in the excitement!

These are the three pieces we purchased. In chocolate.

Here is a picture of a room with some of the pieces (only in black).

Can't wait to get all the pieces and get this room ready for you, baby/babies!!! I anticipate sitting in the rocker in your room dreaming of the day that YOU will be in my arms, YOU will be in this room, in our family. FOREVER!!!!! We love you!

AMAZING FRIENDS!

We are awed!

The love and support we are receiving from our friends and family has been amazing! So many are now wearing our shirts ~ and asking how to buy more! We cannot THANK YOU ENOUGH!!! Your excitement for us to become parents is such a sweet sweet gift! We love you guys! {sigh}

Speaking of gifts...........

We have to share a precious, AMAZING gift that came in the mail yesterday! A total surprise! One couple, whom we cherish and feel so lucky to have in our lives, sent us a package with such loving and encouraging words! They lavished us with their love and excitement for us to become parents, and with their confidence in God and His plan for our lives. I was moved to tears. Truth be known, Jeff's eyes were a bit moist as well!

Along with the beautiful words, they sent us this wonderful square art piece! It is so special to us! It says JOURNEY on the top (much like the journey we are on, and like the title of our blog!)...and it quotes JEREMIAH 29:11. This verse has been burrowed in my heart since God used it to speak to me one Sunday in my first year of college! My, oh my, the number of times I have clung to this verse! And now, together, Jeff and I have claimed this verse ~ both in our struggles with, and our excitement of becoming parents. This couple didn't know how precious this verse has been to us! I LOVE how God used them to remind us of the truth of these words!

"I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord,

"plans to prosper you and not to harm you,

plans to give you hope and a future."

Jeremiah 29:11

The love does not stop there.........

This couple also joined with their sister and her husband, and their mom and her husband, to gift us a check to put toward our adoption! We were shocked! That just shows the beauty in the hearts of these friends! Isn't that amazing!?

I mean, I've read of some people going to their mailbox and finding a sweet gift of money; but I never thought that WE would receive such a blessing! It always happens to someone else, right!? WRONG! Jeff and I THANK YOU guys from the bottom of our hearts for your generosity and kindness! We are blessed beyond words by your friendship, love and support!

We are SOOOOOOO very excited to become parents, but it means the WORLD to us to have such awesome support and excitement from our friends and family! We are all on this journey together!

Son (or children!) you are so very dearly loved already. By SO MANY! We dream of what your face(s) look like. What characteristics God blessed your personality with. We long to hear your laughter. Know this........we are ALL so excited to finally meet you and surround you with our love. FOREVER!!!!

Our Fischer is Back on Track!

THANKS to all who have prayed for our sweet Fischer. He is healing well from his surgery and our Vet, Reed, gives him a clean bill of health! His tumor site looks good and all is well with that, and his paw/nails are healing fine (it will be a long time before they fully grow back).

It is so good to see his activity level return to normal,

and to watch him and Kastle (sounds like Nestle with a "K") play together!

Thought I would show you how good he is feeling! {smile}

Fischer and Kastle back to playing FETCH together!

Fischer going full speed ahead of Kastle! He's feelin' GOOD!

Our Fischey Bear is back on track! Look at that smile!

HERE COMES THE SUN.......

Some of you know (from a past Facebook post where I asked for prayers) that my dear friend has a son who is fighting a wicked battle against cancer. This beast is a stubborn relentless bugger, and Eli is doing a stellar job of keeping up the fight. With many, many chemo treatments, this tumor has not even shrunk in the least...........UNTIL NOW!!!!! This family has gone to Seattle for specialty care and are now back in Honolulu, where Eli lives, trying other options ~ the specialist's treatments did not work. In Hawaii, the doctors have recommended radiation and other alternative treatments, and there is evidence of the tumor shrinking in size a bit. Not a ton, but this is BIG compared to other treatments! I pray this tumor and surrounding tumors continue to SHRINK!

I post this today to celebrate a small step of progress! As my friend says, it is a welcomed ray of sunshine in their dark storm. As they celebrate this little victory, and allow it to lift them up and refresh them for continued battle, I beckon each one of you to PLEASE get on your knees for Eli! This is their first ~ of many needed ~ steps toward VICTORY!

Will you PLEASE join us in praying that God will allow this ray of sunshine to BURST into the most amazing sunrise that OVERTAKES the sky with outrageous beauty? Chasing away all the dark and wind and storm! Eli is tired, but still fighting a good fight. Maril (my dear friend), is hopeful, yet tired of seeing her son suffer.

THEY ARE READY FOR A MIRACLE!!!!

I can't help but have the Beatles tune, "Here Comes the Sun" in my head! I am posting the youtube video, in case you forgot the tune. May you carry it in your heart and head, as a reminder to include Eli in your prayers. Today. And every day. Until God wins this battle for Eli!

May this be the coming of more than mere sunshine in their lives, but the coming of God's SON to bring Eli healing!

As many of us take the journey to Ethiopia to be joined with our son(s) and/or daughter(s), Maril walks this difficult journey alongside her son. May you join Jeff and me, in keep them in your prayers......

Dear Lord,

We lay this at your feet, and ask you to hold both Eli and Maril in the palm of your hand. We know that you are a loving God, and that your plans for them are good. May You continue to shower Your love on this family. May it be Your will to allow a healing miracle to take place. Today! Help the tumor and surrounding tumors to continue to shrink. Shrink. shrink. To nothing. At least shrink enough to implement whatever treatments You deam best ~ to finish this battle. Please, Lord, we believe in your healing POWER! We pray that You bring Eli to a Victorious finish! Uphold them when they feel weak. Fill them with your peace when they feel battered. Grant them Your strength and endurance to continue in this fight. Cover them with your protection, Lord. May your will be done. And may they feel your presence every step of the way, as they continue to walk this out. In Jesus' name we pray, AMEN.

(scroll to bottom of blog to pause my playlist; then click play on video)

T-SHIRTS HAVE BEEN SHIPPED!

We are EXCITED to say that your t-shirts left our house TODAY!

(okay, I will skip the rhyming and stick with my day job! Ha!)

They should be arriving at your house toward the end of this week!

The water bottles have not yet arrived, but should by the end of this week. We will ship them out to you immediately upon receiving them as well! Plan on getting them next week.

We SOOOO hope that you like them as much as we do!

May these shirts and water bottles help each of us remember to pray for ALL children needing adoption; while also providing us opportunity to increase the awareness of the need for adoption!

WOW! DID GOD EVER SHOW UP!

Jeff and I cannot THANK YOU enough for your excitement, participation and support of our t-shirt/water bottle FUNdraiser! It was a big success and we are excited for the shirts and bottles to arrive later this week! We will turn them right around to you as soon as we get them!

I feel the need to share my heart with you regarding this whole blessing. You see, I found it fun to purchase others' fundraiser tees, bags, jewelry, etc. I also found it interesting to see how creative other families were being in their fundraising. I even enjoyed hearing the success stories of funds raised to help bring a child home to their forever families.

I just never thought WE would fundraise. Not because I looked down on it ~ I actually enjoy them! Not because I'm lazy ~ even though fundraising DOES take a lot of time in planning. I guess I just never personalized the fundraising to our family.

Until God had a "Come to Jesus" moment (or momentS) with us! {THANK YOU,GOD!}

As we neared the end of our paperchase, and we could do nothing to move things forward but wait, I began to think about fundraising. I shrugged my shoulders and brushed it off, thinking I would just continue in the fun of others' fundraisers. That is, until God started stirring my creative side (which doesn't usually have a strong presence) and I began to brainstorm t-shirt ideas. My thoughts started going more and more toward designs, even though I never thought we would actually make our own. We weren't doing fundraising, right!?

Well, I kept dragging my feet so God had to arrange to meet me ~ which He did ~ at a couple of other blogs. Oh how I wish I could remember which two blogs they were! Being the blog addict that I have become, I can find myself WAAAAY off my radar of blogs I normally follow at times, and I have no idea where I read these blog posts!

Anyway, back to my God-meeting. So, I had been feeling God stirring my heart with excitement about t-shirt designs (yes, the ones I was never going to create), but wasn't moving forward with it. So God led me to two different blogs, one night after the other, that were normally written by the wife, but these posts were written by the husband. And the topic was FUNDRAISING FOR THEIR ADOPTION!!!! Coincidence? I thought maybe, after reading the first one, but knew that God was trying to get a point across to me after reading a second one the very next night! (Sometimes it takes me a few times to really "get it" when God tries to teach me something)

Bless these guys and their willingness to post with such honesty. Each one spoke of their reluctance to fundraise for their adoption. They desired to bring their child home on their own. "GO, GUYS!" I cheered as I read. Each one of them had a "God moment" where they realized that God didn't want them to do things on their own. God wanted the opportunity to show up. He wanted his glory to be seen amidst their journey to their children. He wanted these families to stop relying on themselves and lean on Him for this adoption. He wanted these families to provide the opportunity for others to act on their own calling to support adoptive families. God reminded them that many are not called to adopt, but are moved to support those families who ARE called to adopt!....and they do this via fundraising!

OUCH! This really hit home. Especially after reading this similar message two nights in a row!

I realized that I was reverting back into my tendency to rely on myself more than God. I was letting my pride get in the way, I guess, even though I did not see fundraising as a negative. I wanted to bring our child/ren home in our own strength. Unknowingly, I was shutting God out.

Upon realizing this, I took my deep breath and shared my experiences with Jeff and, together, we agreed to FUNdraise! My designs really WERE going to get made! It took us some time, but with my mind-pictures and Jeff's technical know-how, we developed our two designs. We fell in love with them and are SO HAPPY so many of you did too!

We opened the door for others to contribute, and for God's glory to shine. What a brilliant shine it is! We sold 249 items!!!! That is a total of $6225 in sales! Not profit, mind you, but WOW! God really showed up BIG! This was such a GREAT reminder for me that God is right in the middle of our journey to parenthood! He is not only blessing us with a child (children?), but He wants to bless us along the journey! God is SO GOOD! ALL of the time!

So, again, we THANK each and every one of you for your love and support! I think it would be so FUN to receive pictures of each of you wearing the shirts or using the water bottles, so I could add them to our baby book! I am going to include our email with a request of just that with each delivery. Please feel welcome, but certainly not obligated, to participate! I just don't ever want to forget this life lesson of letting God show up, rather than relying on ourselves; and I think our son/children would find it fun to see the many people who contributed to bringing him/them home!

BLESSINGS to each one of you! May you be allowing God to show up BIG in your daily life too. Afterall, He really does want to bless us abundantly. Every one of us!

If we let Him.

POOR BUDDY!

Poor Fisher! We found some blood on his hind paw, and with a closer look, we discovered two of his nails were split to the nail bed. I don't think he did it during our recent backpacking trip with me, the dogs and Lisa; so it must have been our hike up TableRock the other day!

I took him to our wonderful vet, Reed, and poor Fischey had to be sedated so that Reed could take off ALL of the hard part of both nails! While sedated, Reed also removed a wart on the top of his head (that kept growing slowly)......and then he found a TUMOR! NOT a wart! A tumor! UGH! It gave Reed no reason to believe it was cancer, and he was confident that he got all of the tumor. Praise God!

ALL TUMORS BE GONE!

I had my little chat with Fischey, reminding him that he needs to stay healthy so that he can stick around for a long, long time......he has a little one (or two) coming to play with him someday soon! Can't you just picture it!?!?

So, I couldn't resist this photo. Poor guy was still out of it when he got home. He just zonked! I loved on him and talked to him until he fell asleep. He slept with his tongue hanging out!

He will be feeling better and on the run in no time......once the meds wear off and some healing occurs! Like below, which was just a few weeks ago!

WE LOVE YOU, BUDDY!

T-SHIRT/WATER BOTTLE SALE THROUGH SUNDAY!

WE CAN ACTUALLY CONTINUE OUR T-SHIRT AND WATER BOTTLE SALE FOR TWO MORE DAYS! YOU NOW HAVE UNTIL SUNDAY TO MAKE A PURCHASE!

THANK YOU FOR YOUR EXCITEMENT AND SUPPORT! IT HAS BEEN AMAZING!

Tracking Our Dossier

Oh, how FUN is THIS! We get to track the travels of our Dossier, via Fed Ex!

It landed in Paris yesterday, and is already in Dubai, AE!

Movin', Movin'..........just keep Movin', Movin'...........almost there!!!!!

WE ARE DTE!!!!

I FEEL LIKE WE HAVE BEEN TOLD THAT WE ARE PREGNANT!!!!

This is REALLY going to happen! You tend to wonder when you are buried in paperwork and interviews and doctor appointments for 5 months! But it is here! It is happening!

YES! We are DTE (Dossier To Ethiopia)! As we had hoped, America World was able to send ALL of our paperwork (Dossier) off to Ethiopia Friday, July 30th! We have been provided a tracking number so we can follow our Dossier on its travels to our son's/children's birth home!

THIS MEANS OUR 4 TO 6 MONTHS OF WAITING TO SEE WHO GOD HAS CHOSEN FOR OUR FAMILY BEGAN JULY 30th!!!

As exciting as this news is, I am posting it two days later because I was traveling to the Sawtooth Mountains for a weekend of backpacking with my friend, Lisa, when we received the news! I am back now, refreshed from girl time and awe-striking views of God's country!...Joyously posting our latest great news! I did get to talk with Jeff before heading into the mountains so we could read the email together: me, on my phone and Jeff at his computer. What a GREAT way to start our weekend! {sigh}

Our Dossier is a compilation of very hard work that we have diligently been working on for over five months! We are now FREE of paperwork for a while! Yay, Yay, YAY!!!!! Many have asked what our Dossier contains, so I will outline some of its contents for you below:

1. 4 Pages of family and home photos

2. Updated Passports (copies - I had to update mine, as it had my maiden name)

3. Power of Attorney (this gives our representative in ET legal right to help represent us) - notarized and certified by Secretary of State

4. Application Letter ~ stating our desire to adopt and our final child request (siblings - one child 0 to 6 mos; the other 0 to 3 years; or an infant boy 0 to 6 mos old....EITHER would make us EXSTATIC!!!!!)

5. Both of our Birth Certificates

6. Marriage License

7. Physical Exams ~ notarized

8. Physician Letter ~ clarifying no past surgeries would hinder our ability to parent a child

9. Proof of Medical Insurance ~ notarized

10. Proof of Life Insurance ~ notarized

11. Financial Statement ~ notarized

12. Jeff's Employment Verification Letter ~ notarized

13. Debb's Employment Verification Letter ~ notarized

14. Home Study (three months of personal interviews, a home visit, and reading 4 books and writing book reports for each book)

15. 3 Letters of Reference ~ each notarized

16. Both of our Police Reports ~ showing our fingerprints were clear of any issues

17. USCIS Approval ~ that all-important I-171H form giving us US approval to bring an international child into the States forever

18. Certificates of completion for 8 hours of Hague Adoption training

Won't you PLEASE join us in praying that our Dossier travels swiftly and easily to Ethiopia and is placed in the proper hands in a timely manner.......we'll keep you posted!