Today is a difficult day. I'm not sure why, it started out the same as any other day, but today there seems to be a deeper ache in my soul. An aching and longing to hold my son in Africa just as I am holding Kipton now. My heart was not prepared for this sort of turmoil. To know that my second son is living half a world away without my hugs, encouragement and love is truly breaking my heart.
This adoption is so different than my pregnany with Kipton. He and I had a special bond from the moment he was conceived. I was comforted knowing that my body was keeping him alive and growing. He was warm and comfortable in my womb. He could be lulled to sleep by the thuds of my heartbeat and the muffled voices of his mom and dad. He was secure. We even had a timeline as to when we could expect to welcome him into our family. We prepared during those months of pregnancy to make sure he had everything he would need and more when he was born. It was predictable, comfortable and natural.
Kade's entrance is far from predictable and that doesn't make for a very comforted mama. I know that he is probably already born to a woman who won't be able to keep him. This woman will love my son without a doubt for he is her son too, but she'll have to make a great sacrafice to give him a chance at a better life. For whatever reason, be it severe poverty, sickness, AIDS, she will not be the one he calls mama. I will, but I do not know when that day will be. I do not know if he has the comforts of knowing the love of family or the luxury of a warm bed and full belly. I do not know if he will immediately form a special bond with me or if my voice will lull him to sleep, like Kipton. I do not know if he will find comfort in me. However, I do know that my heart wants to fly to Africa and hold every little boy who might could be mine and try to offer comfort and hope. I do know that no matter how long this process may seem with no end in sight, God sees the end. He knows the exact month, day, hour and second when Trey and I will lay eyes on Kade and embrace him as our son. He knows every single circumstance that is leading up to Kade's relinquishment from his birth mom and adoption into our family. He knows the longing of my heart and He is the only one who I can find comfort in.
He comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort others. When they are troubled, we will be able to give them the same comfort God has given us.
2 Corinthians 1:4
LORD, you know the hopes of the helpless. Surely you will hear their cries and comfort them.
Psalm 10:17
Do not be afraid or discouraged, for the LORD will personally go ahead of you. He will be with you; he will neither fail you nor abandon you.
Deuteronomy 31:8
Dear Kade,
Mommy, Daddy and Kipton think about you every day. We are constantly praying for your health, comfort, safety and quick arrival in your new family. It will be a joyous day when you are finally a Phillips. We love you more than you can imagine.
xoxo
Wednesday, December 7, 2011
Friday, December 2, 2011
December Giveaway & Holiday Ornaments
December is officially upon us! Let the giveaway begin!!
This months giveaway is Photo Session at any desired Charleston location with Christine Smith Photography! You can check out her work here. On top of having a free session fee at any location, you will also get a package of high quality prints. (one 11x14, one 8x10, and two 5x7's)
The photo session giveaway is $5 per entry. You can enter through the paypal "donate" button to your left. You can also gain additional entries by sharing the blog/giveaway on your Facebook, Twitter or your own blog. (Just make sure to let me know how you shared.)
The giveaway will end at midnight on December 20th and we will announce th winner on December 21st!
Here are some of our Christmas pictures Christine shot...
If you're outside of the Charleston area but would still like to help support our adoption, we are also selling holiday ornaments in December.
The ornaments have a variety of designs...
Adopt
Hope
Love
Joy
John 14:18
James 1:27
2011
Ho Ho Ho
...and more.
Africa is incorporated on each ornament and they are all adorned with a bow and tweed hanging hoop.
The ornaments are $5 each (additional $2.50 shipping). For each ornament sold $3 will benefit our adoption and $2 will be donated to UNICEF to help feed the children in the horn of Africa. So not only are you getting a beautiful custom ornament, you are also supporting adoption and UNICEF!
If you wish to purchase ornaments, you may do so through the paypal "donate" button. When you're checking out send a note with description of the ornaments you want along with shipping name & address.
Merry Christmas everyone!
This months giveaway is Photo Session at any desired Charleston location with Christine Smith Photography! You can check out her work here. On top of having a free session fee at any location, you will also get a package of high quality prints. (one 11x14, one 8x10, and two 5x7's)
The photo session giveaway is $5 per entry. You can enter through the paypal "donate" button to your left. You can also gain additional entries by sharing the blog/giveaway on your Facebook, Twitter or your own blog. (Just make sure to let me know how you shared.)
The giveaway will end at midnight on December 20th and we will announce th winner on December 21st!
Here are some of our Christmas pictures Christine shot...
If you're outside of the Charleston area but would still like to help support our adoption, we are also selling holiday ornaments in December.
The ornaments have a variety of designs...
Adopt
Hope
Love
Joy
John 14:18
James 1:27
2011
Ho Ho Ho
...and more.
Africa is incorporated on each ornament and they are all adorned with a bow and tweed hanging hoop.
If you wish to purchase ornaments, you may do so through the paypal "donate" button. When you're checking out send a note with description of the ornaments you want along with shipping name & address.
Merry Christmas everyone!
Monday, November 28, 2011
It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...
It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas! Notice I said "look" not "feel" because here in South Carolina it is still toasty warm. For example, todays high was 81°! Yikes!! I'm hoping it cools down before December is upon us because the current weather doesn't exactly induce the warm, giddy, giving feeling called Christmas Spirit. :)
I'm counting on that little thing called Christmas Spirit to move everyones hearts for the orphan and help make our events in December a success. I'm praying that through each event we are able to bring awareness to how much we have and how little our future son has. I pray that through the holiday season each person we encounter will appreciate the people that bless their lives more than the things they've acquired. In the end, our stuff is just stuff, but our families are the cornerstone to a truly rich life. For one little boy in Ethiopia, we will be that cornerstone. What a privilege! Just the thought of teaching Kipton and Kade the true reason for the season puts me in the spirit (despite the weather). :)
December Fundraisers:
3rd- Wrapping gifts at Barnes & Noble
10th- Benefit Dog Wash at All Is Well
18th & 23rd- Gift wrapping at Barnes & Noble
December Giveaway:
Photo Session with Christine Smith Photography!!
Christine is such a wonderful,talented photographer in the Charleston area. She will do a photo session at any Charleston location or at her home studio and beautiful garden.
The giveaway includes session fee and a package of high quality prints of your favorite shots!
If you're in the Charleston area, you really don't want to miss this. It'd be great for family photos, newborn shots, senior pictures, business photos, modeling portfolio, bridal/engagement shots, maternity pictures....everyone could take advantage of this deal!
http://www.easysite.com/christinesmithphotography
Giveaway starts Dec 1st and runs to Dec 20th. For a $5 donation you will get one entry, $10 two entries and so on. Also, for every time you share the giveaway on FB, Twitter or your own blog, that earns you another entry! Just make sure to post a comment with a link to how you shared. :)
I'm also working up one other December special. I'm very excited about this one because it has the potential for us to help another organization as well! I am striving very hard to not just be a consumer this year, but more of a contributer. I'll keep you updated as things pan out.
As we prepare for these events and giveaways, please pray for Gods provision to be at work.
I'm going to close with this little quote from a friends fb to make you think for a minute...
We are just tools in God's tool box. There is no glory in the wrench. The glory is in the hands that use it.
How are you going to be used for His glory this holiday season?
I'm counting on that little thing called Christmas Spirit to move everyones hearts for the orphan and help make our events in December a success. I'm praying that through each event we are able to bring awareness to how much we have and how little our future son has. I pray that through the holiday season each person we encounter will appreciate the people that bless their lives more than the things they've acquired. In the end, our stuff is just stuff, but our families are the cornerstone to a truly rich life. For one little boy in Ethiopia, we will be that cornerstone. What a privilege! Just the thought of teaching Kipton and Kade the true reason for the season puts me in the spirit (despite the weather). :)
December Fundraisers:
3rd- Wrapping gifts at Barnes & Noble
10th- Benefit Dog Wash at All Is Well
18th & 23rd- Gift wrapping at Barnes & Noble
December Giveaway:
Photo Session with Christine Smith Photography!!
Christine is such a wonderful,talented photographer in the Charleston area. She will do a photo session at any Charleston location or at her home studio and beautiful garden.
The giveaway includes session fee and a package of high quality prints of your favorite shots!
If you're in the Charleston area, you really don't want to miss this. It'd be great for family photos, newborn shots, senior pictures, business photos, modeling portfolio, bridal/engagement shots, maternity pictures....everyone could take advantage of this deal!
http://www.easysite.com/christinesmithphotography
Giveaway starts Dec 1st and runs to Dec 20th. For a $5 donation you will get one entry, $10 two entries and so on. Also, for every time you share the giveaway on FB, Twitter or your own blog, that earns you another entry! Just make sure to post a comment with a link to how you shared. :)
I'm also working up one other December special. I'm very excited about this one because it has the potential for us to help another organization as well! I am striving very hard to not just be a consumer this year, but more of a contributer. I'll keep you updated as things pan out.
As we prepare for these events and giveaways, please pray for Gods provision to be at work.
I'm going to close with this little quote from a friends fb to make you think for a minute...
We are just tools in God's tool box. There is no glory in the wrench. The glory is in the hands that use it.
How are you going to be used for His glory this holiday season?
Thursday, November 17, 2011
Agency Orientation & Home Visit
We had our agency orientation with Brittney, our case worker from Lifeline, last Friday. Since our agency is based out of Kentucky, we did our orientation over the phone. It was scheduled perfectly so it would be during Kiptons nap time and a time when Trey could take a break from work. :) We were on the phone for just over an hour. Our conversation consisted of reviewing our Ethiopia adoption manual, talking about our education requirements (a lot of requirements), home study agency, dossier prep, fees, what happens at the time of our referal (!!!!), medical conditions, travel, and more about our adorable future son. Brittney also had to verify we weren't addicted to drugs/alcohol, in an abusive relationship or mentally insane. Just precautionary. ;) We had all of our questions answered and were offered good advice for different stages of the process. Overall, it was a great orientation! I am so excited about working with Lifeline and thankful the Lord led me to them. They are a strong Christian agency and I know they will be a huge blessing. Both the ladies who are in charge of the Ethiopia program are adoptive mamas of Ethiopian children. The fact that they have been in our shoes before us is very inspiriting.
Another big step forward for our adoption happened this morning...our first home study visit. Our social worker, Teresa Smith- a wonderful Christian woman, who is oh so kind- came to our house to "interview" to us. I have to admit I was prepared for an in depth scrutiny of our home, intense questions that would make us severely uncomfortable and a couple more worries I won't even mention. ;) To my surprise, it wasn't intimidating at all. Teresa was super personable and our entire conversation was very relaxed. (Plus, she is a fellow dog lover so we got along just fine...because we have four!) We talked about our families, schooling, church support, our daily lives and decided what specifications we wanted to put about the child we will accept. We decided that for our home study we will be open to 0-4 years of age, male or female and up to two children. We'll be more specific with our agency, boy from 0-2yrs, but we left our home study open that way if we change our minds or if by some chance our baby boy has an older sibling! Yes, I said sibling!! That's a slim chance because supposively young sibling groups are rare, but should that occur we are definitely open to 2 babes. :) Imagine going from a family of 3 to a family of 5. Wow. Ok, now I'm going to contain myself and just focus on 1 little boy coming home to our family.
Ok, back to our home study...you see how easily my mind wanders. After our interview with Teresa, she did a quick-and I do mean quick-walk through of our home. It was so much simpler than I had imagined, but I love simple, especially in this very unsimple process called adoption. We then wrote a check to the home study agency for the first big home study fee...$875...ouch. Our final visit is scheduled for Nov. 29th. After that visit Teresa will type up our complete home study for us to review. Once that's done and we've paid $1100 more (which we're still working on) our home study will be sent to DSS for approval. So far, everything is progressing nice and smooth. I know the sole reason for our progression thus far is that we have the one and only Almighty God on our side. We owe all the glory to Him.
Here are some lyrics from a song we sang Tuesday at Genesis:
God is able
He will never fail!
God is with us
He is on our side
He will make a way!
I jotted these down during worship because they really spoke to my heart. They are ringing true more than ever. :) HOPEFUL
On a very differnt note...
I'm typing out this post from a theater seat while waiting for the midnight premier of Breaking Dawn. Shout out to all the other Twilight fans!
Another big step forward for our adoption happened this morning...our first home study visit. Our social worker, Teresa Smith- a wonderful Christian woman, who is oh so kind- came to our house to "interview" to us. I have to admit I was prepared for an in depth scrutiny of our home, intense questions that would make us severely uncomfortable and a couple more worries I won't even mention. ;) To my surprise, it wasn't intimidating at all. Teresa was super personable and our entire conversation was very relaxed. (Plus, she is a fellow dog lover so we got along just fine...because we have four!) We talked about our families, schooling, church support, our daily lives and decided what specifications we wanted to put about the child we will accept. We decided that for our home study we will be open to 0-4 years of age, male or female and up to two children. We'll be more specific with our agency, boy from 0-2yrs, but we left our home study open that way if we change our minds or if by some chance our baby boy has an older sibling! Yes, I said sibling!! That's a slim chance because supposively young sibling groups are rare, but should that occur we are definitely open to 2 babes. :) Imagine going from a family of 3 to a family of 5. Wow. Ok, now I'm going to contain myself and just focus on 1 little boy coming home to our family.
Ok, back to our home study...you see how easily my mind wanders. After our interview with Teresa, she did a quick-and I do mean quick-walk through of our home. It was so much simpler than I had imagined, but I love simple, especially in this very unsimple process called adoption. We then wrote a check to the home study agency for the first big home study fee...$875...ouch. Our final visit is scheduled for Nov. 29th. After that visit Teresa will type up our complete home study for us to review. Once that's done and we've paid $1100 more (which we're still working on) our home study will be sent to DSS for approval. So far, everything is progressing nice and smooth. I know the sole reason for our progression thus far is that we have the one and only Almighty God on our side. We owe all the glory to Him.
Here are some lyrics from a song we sang Tuesday at Genesis:
God is able
He will never fail!
God is with us
He is on our side
He will make a way!
I jotted these down during worship because they really spoke to my heart. They are ringing true more than ever. :) HOPEFUL
On a very differnt note...
I'm typing out this post from a theater seat while waiting for the midnight premier of Breaking Dawn. Shout out to all the other Twilight fans!
Monday, November 7, 2011
Our 1st Yard Sale
After a month of collecting donations from friends, family and overly generous strangers, we were finally prepared for our first yard sale. The Saturday before the sale we recruited our best friends, Kelsey and Tyler, to come help us sort and organize all the donations. As we began sorting and pricing in our garage (with the garage door open) passing cars began to stop. They thought we were having a sale then! Of course we couldn't turn them away. :) So throughout the few hours we sorted we had a mini, unannounced garage sale. That mini unannounced sale brought in $230!! Pretty good for not actually being the actual sale. :)
We held the real yard sale this past Saturday and Sunday in the parking lot of Trey's business. His business is on a main road and we were hoping this would play to our advantage. :) We had so much stuff! Furniture, sporting goods, household items, collectibles, purses, kids toys, books, and clothes, clothes, clothes. We set up early Saturday morning with the help of 8 amazing volunteers. All day Saturday there was a steady flow of customers shopping for good deals. We met so many nice people and were able to spread awareness of adoption to some skeptics. We had so much fun meeting these people and selling them awesome items to benefit our adoption. After 6 hours of intense sales, we packed up for the day. (Saturday evening, we passed out...pure exhaustion!) We were back at it again Sunday morning. Sunday was slower than the past day, but we still had a good crowd show up toward the end. Here are some pictures from the first of our yard sales.
The yard sale weekend was a blast and a huge success in my eyes. I am so grateful to every single person who donated, volunteered, shopped, prayed, bought a raffle ticket or shared our event with others.
We held the real yard sale this past Saturday and Sunday in the parking lot of Trey's business. His business is on a main road and we were hoping this would play to our advantage. :) We had so much stuff! Furniture, sporting goods, household items, collectibles, purses, kids toys, books, and clothes, clothes, clothes. We set up early Saturday morning with the help of 8 amazing volunteers. All day Saturday there was a steady flow of customers shopping for good deals. We met so many nice people and were able to spread awareness of adoption to some skeptics. We had so much fun meeting these people and selling them awesome items to benefit our adoption. After 6 hours of intense sales, we packed up for the day. (Saturday evening, we passed out...pure exhaustion!) We were back at it again Sunday morning. Sunday was slower than the past day, but we still had a good crowd show up toward the end. Here are some pictures from the first of our yard sales.
Here is the breakdown of our sales:
Pre-sale sorting day: $230
Day 1- Saturday: $1,072!
Day 2-Sunday: $641.58
Total Yard Sale Earning = $1,943.58
AMAZING!!!!
Thank you Lord for providing for us. You are so good.
One step closer to sweet Kade!
(We're only $300 away from our first agency fee.)
Wednesday, November 2, 2011
Kindle Winner
The winner of the Kindle giveaway is......
BARBARA!
You know who you are! The Kindle is waiting for you at Barfields Appliance. Congrats on your new Kindle and thanks for your support!
Keep following our blog for a new givaway soon!
BARBARA!
You know who you are! The Kindle is waiting for you at Barfields Appliance. Congrats on your new Kindle and thanks for your support!
Keep following our blog for a new givaway soon!
Friday, October 28, 2011
Fall Festival Fun
Last weekend was jam packed with Fall Festivities!
On Friday night, two awesome ladies came over with their awesome baking skills and helped me make delicious treats for our bake sale at the Faith Family Fun Fair.
Saturday we volunteered at our community fall festival. We walked around the festival selling raffle tickets. (Really Kelsey sold the raffle tickets. I learned that Trey and I are horrible sales people. Thank goodness we brought Kelsey along...lifesaver!) All proceeds from the festivities went to Helping Hands and the local food bank. It was definitely a good cause and I'm glad we were able to be a part of it.
After that festival we were off to prepare for the Faith Family Fun Fair. We had a booth for Treys business (Barfields Appliance & Parts) and we were raising money and awareness for our adoption. We participated at the festival both Saturday and Sunday evening. It was a blast! We did a bake sale, sold Kindle tickets and had an appliance smash off. :) The smash off was the biggest hit. For each donation a person gave they got 2 hits on a variety of appliances. The boys were loving it, even some girls!
Between donations, festival earnings and selling our garage fridge, we ended up raising $1,000 last week!! I'd say that's a successful week. Thank you Lord for providing!!
We now have enough to pay for our agency application and home study!! Yay yay yay! I am actually mailing our application today and will be dropping off our completed home study paperwork on Monday! God is so good! One step closer to Kade.
Our next fee of $2,416.33 will be due upon acceptance of our application. So that will be very soon. Please pray that the funds will be provided quickly. We have faith!
On Friday night, two awesome ladies came over with their awesome baking skills and helped me make delicious treats for our bake sale at the Faith Family Fun Fair.
Saturday we volunteered at our community fall festival. We walked around the festival selling raffle tickets. (Really Kelsey sold the raffle tickets. I learned that Trey and I are horrible sales people. Thank goodness we brought Kelsey along...lifesaver!) All proceeds from the festivities went to Helping Hands and the local food bank. It was definitely a good cause and I'm glad we were able to be a part of it.
We had wonderful volunteers to help!
Thanks you guys!
Even the cutest Spiderman ever came out to help raise money for baby Kade!
We also had our tree at the event. It's starting to bloom with fingerprints!
Between donations, festival earnings and selling our garage fridge, we ended up raising $1,000 last week!! I'd say that's a successful week. Thank you Lord for providing!!
We now have enough to pay for our agency application and home study!! Yay yay yay! I am actually mailing our application today and will be dropping off our completed home study paperwork on Monday! God is so good! One step closer to Kade.
Thank you for reading my blog! I would love to hear how you found the blog and any thoughts you have about the adoption. I absolutely love reading your comments, so feel free to leave them. :)
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