Thankful and Overwhelmed

We have been so busy with adoption things in the past few weeks! We handed in the initial application back in late June and these were our excited face about that:

After our application (and the $5000 that went with the application) was processed, the agency sent us a PILE of other paper work we needed to do. I cried when I was first going through it because it seems like such a steep mountain with so many hoops! But the best thing to do is just to start tackling it. Jon is in fully swing with camp, and we have very limited wi-fi so that makes things tough! But I was able to get us all organized and then methodically work our way through the massive list. We just last week were able to send it all away! Now we just have three more things we need to do, but those are more personal things that we need to send, and not just filling out forms. Our references were all contacted and they all got their  forms handed back in promptly! THANK YOU for that you guys! We love you!!! Now, it will take a few weeks for them to process everything, and then hopefully the actual Home Study can start!!!

After we handed in the application and the $5000, I felt pretty apprehensive. We are borrowing the money and making payments, and that just weighed heavy on me. I go back and forth through all of this from feeling like I've let go, and I know its all out of my control and thats okay, to feeling like we've taken on too much and there's no way this will ever happen. Apparently the roller coaster that I mentioned before really doesn't stop :) It's just called life and this is our journey.

The really cool thing to mention here is the total and complete peace and excitement that Jon and I both feel. We feel like this is the best decision for us, and we are already dreaming about the baby out there who we will get to call our own. I've reached out to a few different people that we know that have also adopted privately, and it's really encouraging to hear their stories, and to be able to ask the questions that we need to ask. Each child just has such a unique story and its a privilege to hear those stories. Our daughter has her own birth story that we tell her, and it is her own and she loves hearing it. I look forward to the day when I can tell our adopted baby their story, and the bravery and love that comes with it. All of this, the planning, the paperwork, the dreaming, the stressing.... its all a part of their story and one day I will be able to tell them just how badly we wanted them and how loved they were before they even came to be. God is so good, even when we can't see the road ahead.

We also were able to get the auction all together and we were OVERWHELMED by the amount of donations!! I actually cried (yep just me being emotional ALL THE TIME) two days before it started, because I felt like we just had so many things, and people were so generous, and I was worried about how it would all go, and if we would have enough people to bid on things. Jon assured me gently (as he always does) that we just need to move forward and plan it all, and then see how it goes and not set too many expectations. So that's what we did. You guys, we ended up with SIXTY-ONE donations! INCREDIBLE!!! The auction started with a bang, and the momentum kept up the entire week!! Each night, I kept track of the items and the bids on a spread sheet, and Jon and I were amazed by what we saw unfolding. People were excited, and eager to participate, and there was no shortage of bidders!

It ended on Saturday, and today is Tuesday, and all the people who bid on items have paid except for two! That in itself is amazing! THANK YOU for your promptness and for helping us wrap this all up! Looking at our YouCaring account, and then taking into account a few people who e-transferred us instead of using the site, and the two that haven't paid yet, our total is incredible. 

For this fundraiser, we raised a total of $4 552. Yep, you read that right!!! WOW!!! WePay from the YouCaring site will take a very small portion of that (2% I believe), but the rest goes right into our adoption fund!!! I am beyond amazed. I struggle to even find the words to express our gratitude. I am once again feeling very overwhelmed, but in the best way possible. We feel so loved and so supported, and just so thankful. This little baby is so loved already by the best community of people a kid could ask for. Thank you for your generosity and your kind words and your excitement about this fundraiser! We will start brainstorming again and do another fundraiser in the late fall! (if you are reading this, and you are also in the adoption process, and want to do an auction, contact me! It took a LOT of work and organizing and I have some good tips for you!)

Thank you a million times over. Our family is just so grateful. This money will be well spent, and we do not take this process lightly. You have enabled us to move into our Home Study feeling confident, secure, and ready, without the burden of a big debt hanging over us. We love you all so very much. 

Love, The Lampards