Birthmother's Day

The Saturday before Mother's Day traditionally is Birthmother's Day.  A day to recognize that special woman, who looked beyond her own pain, and made a choice to make an adoption plan.  Often, it's because of this choice that many of us were able to celebrate our first Mother's Day, I know that was the case for me.

Today I think of Isaac's birthmother, I wonder how she's doing, if anyone is recognizing her today.  Hugging her, telling her they love, her, honoring the love that she had for a little boy she never held.  I hope so.  I know that our family is thinking of her, praying for her, loving her from afar. 

Pure Charity + Give1Save1

Sooo... in case you haven't figured it out yet, we've teamed up with Pure Charity to make fundraising more transparent, easier to share, and well... also cooler looking. Here's what sold me on it, and I'm hoping you're going to fall in love with it too. I mean, it's your dollars we're using here, so I want you to love it.

• Money donated through Pure Charity is tax deductible. 
• Money donated goes directly to the agency of the adopting family. 
• The fundraising family gets to keep more of the funds. Paypal takes quite the little chunk. 
• The WIDGET! Ok, this is the total geek in me here, but I LOVE the widget like a spaz. Each family gets a widget that can be embedded on this blog, (but here's my favorite part) and also YOUR blog. That's right! You get to play a bigger part in this by smacking that widget in your  post each week. Any time any donation is made it's updated and you get to watch this little bar go higher and higher. I think this is really going to equal more sharing and giving and that's what we're all about, right? 
• You can also donate to your favorite adoption just like you would your favorite charity, by shopping. I'm sure you can guess how I feel about that. 

So, this next week we're going to test drive our first family with Pure Charity. I bet you might be able to figure out who they are if you head on over and create your account.... :)

And, by the way, you'll want to do that. Your going to need to make an account to give or receive funds, but it's easy peasy and looks super classy. Also, if you're hoping to apply to be a Give1 family, just look for our tab on there. You'll be able to send us an application straight from the site. It'll be our first week, so be patient and definitely let us know if there are any kinks, but the Pure Charity folks are pros and I think it's going to be smooth as silk. So what are you waiting for?! If you plan on supporting adoptions and are a regular Give1... um, giver (?) just head over the Pure Charity and make sure you have an account. If you plan on setting up your own fundraiser or applying to be a Give1 featured family, head this way. And that's it. You've got all weekend. I hope it's a good one. We'll meet you back here Monday morning to get this party started. 

 

 

Pure Charity

We would like to share with you a short note from our founder, Beth!

Hey guys, I've got some really exciting news to share with you about Pure Charity. Tomorrow we'll talk about how it's going to help you. And me too. But today let's start with the basics. What is Pure Charity?




OK, so how cool is that?! So today's assignment is to simply go and create an account. Install the plug-in if you do some online shopping. It's so easy, I could do it. And the phrase "install the plug-in" makes me almost nauseous. But it was easy. I've even done a bit of shopping on it and grew my giving fund. So just create your account and poke around the site a bit. Trust me, you'll want to do this! I'll tell you why tomorrow...

Celebrations

Have you visited our featured family of the week's story?  Pastor Eric and Connie are raising funds to adopt a baby, hopefully very soon!  Bounce over to their post, watch their fun video, and donate a dollar!  

Though I think of Isaac's birth parents often, it always seems that they are on my mind more often around holidays, and this weekend is no different.  I always make sure that we've got a good picture of the event's of that day to send to them, with his shirt pressed, and a smile (or as close as I can get to one!) on his face.  I'm sure they appreciate those photos, but as I was reminded today, that is not every day life.  

In our life, some day's we play in pajamas all day.  Sometimes you'll catch him covered in chalk from drawing on the sidewalks outside.  My recent favorite picture of him, is him in his car seat, with a pointer finger up each side of his nose.  Not glamorous, sorta gross, but totally him.  

I was reminded that since these were my favorite pictures, because it show's the true personality of him, then likely, his birthparents treasure these pictures too.  Of course the perfectly planned, posed, executed pictures are nice, but they are staged.  They aren't our life, and if the purpose of sending pictures to them is to show him, and our life with him, then what better way then to show the candid pictures that I take day to day, most often with my phone.   I've made a deliberate effort  to make sure that I upload those pictures to my computer often, so I can print them and send them in the letters.   Because really, this picture can't help but make you smile!  Boys!

 

Feature Family of the Week: The Hullstrom Family

I'd like to introduce you to Pastor Eric and Connie.  They are currently in the process of a domestic infant adoption, and are waiting for the child that God had planned for them. 

As you will see in the video, Pastor Eric has a passion for the children in his church, and blogs at Adopted As An Heir.  Connie is a nurse, and spends her days helping pregnant woman and babies. 

First and foremost, they ask for prayers as they are going through this process.  They recently experienced a failed match, but through it have been strong and state that "God is indeed good".  Please pray for them as they continue to travel the path that has been laid out for them as they build their family.




Please take a moment to say a prayer for the Hullstrom family, share their story, and then click below and donate $1.00!

 

 

Featured Family of the Week: The Dowdy family

The Dowdy family is growing their family with another brother!

After being married for several years, and strugging with infertility, Keith and Anja adopted Ezekiel, who was 2 1/2.  The love having an open adoption with his birth parents, and are excited to be matched with a little boy due in May.

They have two blogs to share their amazing story, 

their adoption story and a fundraising one, 

you can go check them out over there and see a ton more cute pictures of Ezekiel!

Like I said earlier, they are currently matched with a brother for Ezekiel, who is due in May, so they are doing a huge push right now as that's right around the corner.  

Click the button below to donate to the Dowdy family, every dollar helps!

Featured Family of the Week: The Schoenecke Family

We would like to introduce to you our new featured family of the week, Bryan and Samantha Schoenecke.  

I'll let Samantha tell you a little about their story:

In the fall of 2011 when we had been married for about a year and a half, we both felt like God was speaking to us that it was time to begin having a family.  The timing didn't make complete sense as I had been having some health problems, and we thought that a move might be in our near future, but we trusted God that His timing was/is perfect.  By the summer of 2012, we had had 3 miscarriages and really began to pray about where God would have us go from there.  We saw a specialist wondering if maybe we should do some medical testing, but God made it really evident that we were not to pursue any further testing, at least for right now.  About this same time, a friend of a friend asked us to adopt her beautiful newborn son.  We said, "Yes!" and were so excited to welcome him into our family!  Sadly, after we had loved this sweet boy as our son for 11 days, his mom changed her mind and decided to parent him.  We were heartbroken.  Our time with him did really stir our hearts for domestic adoption though, and after much prayer, we began the home study process officially.  In November 2012, we were matched with a birth mom who was expecting a baby girl.  We spent many long hours getting to know her over the phone and over Skype.  We even made two trips across the country to visit her in person.  After two months, she let us know that she too had changed her mind about her decision.  Now we are waiting to be matched again, and hopeful that our next match will be our precious firstborn baby!  

Even though it has not been an easy journey, God has been so faithful!  This process has really strengthened our marriage and united us as teammates.  We've also both grown so much in our relationships with the Lord and are learning to place our hope in Him rather than in the hope of growing our family.

As the Schoenecke's wait for their match, let's show them love, dollar by dollar.