Garage Sale

Ryan and I have decided to have a garage sale as a fund raiser for our adoption. I have never been big on having garage sales (not big on all the prep work!!) but this is a good way to raise money. And the more we raise, the sooner we bring our sweet baby girl home! That makes it all worth it.

Our garage sale will be Friday, June 25th and Saturday, June 26th so spread the word! And, if you know anyone who has things that they want to get rid of...we will gladly take them off their hands for our sale! :) We would just need to know by the 24th.

Pray for good weather and a successful sale!

Precious Gems

About a month ago Ryan and I went to an adoption seminar. It is the first one we have been to and we heard a lot of useful information. One of the speakers talked about how precious our children are and how sometimes we need a reminder. They had these rocks available for us to take home as a remnider of the precious gems God has given us. I took one for each child...even baby girl!

I have these gems sitting on the bookcase in our bedroom. Each time I pass them they make me smile as I think about A1's love for Jesus and how he gets so excited to learn more about the Bible. Or when he chooses a sucker from the treat box at church for memorizing his Bible verse and instead of eating it himself, he gives it to his sister because he knows she will love it. He is such a sweet boy. I also think about A2 and how much fun I am having watching her take everything in. And how she loves to copy everything her big brother does. Or how I will just be sitting there and she will come up to me and say "I love my mommy". Makes my heart melt every time. Then I see the third gem and I can't help but smile. It makes me think of the days to come and how excited we are to bring our baby girl home and have these special moments with her too!!! They truly are precious gems and we have been so blessed.

Mother's Necklaces

A friend of ours makes jewelry and sells awesome Mother's necklaces. She is giving us 25% of all sales that go through our Etsy shop. Check it out at www.AdoptingAinsley.etsy.com. She does a great job on them and she will custom make them as well. Check out the site to see all of the options! Thanks for all of your support!!

Fundraiser

My sister Shanna is doing a fundraiser for us to raise money for our adoption. She is selling Scentsy and we will get 20% of the sales. The party will close on Monday, April 26th. For more information you can contact her at justfourshan@yahoo.com. You can also go to www.robyncombs.scentsy.com and order from my party!! Thanks for your support!!!

Seminar and New Babies

Ryan and I went to a seminar today about adoption. We got so much out of it and are really glad that we went. We have been in a little bit of a rut with all of the paperwork we have had to fill out and the fundraising we need to do. Going to this seminar really put us back on track.

Our 4 year old knew that we were going to a seminar about adoption and he had it in his mind that we were brining our baby girl home today. He was so worried about all of us. So on the way home we decided to stop at Toys R Us and get the kids both a baby that will look like our baby girl. That way they would have something to talk about and relate everything to. Can I just say that the selection of babies that we were looking for was very slim!! It was pretty frustrating because I began to think about when our little girl is 3 or 4 and wants a baby that looks like her...it just made me sad. I have never thought about it before.

Both of the kids were in love with their new babies. I told them that is what our baby girl will look like and neither one of them mentioned anything about her skin color...kids are so accepting! Big brother took right to taking care of his new baby...he said he is practicing for when his sister comes home to us. So sweet! Here are a few pictures...

He's not choking her...he is just loving on her...really tight! :)












She is so proud of her new baby!













Watching t.v. together. The funny thing is he never plays with his sister's baby dolls but he is so in love with this one and taking care of her. He is such a good big brother!










She is gonig to make such a good big sister too!

Overwhelmed

I knew there would be a ton of paperwork that we had to fill out for the adoption...I just didn't realize how overwhelming it would all be. There is SO much. Things have been crazy at work so I haven't been able to get as much done as I would have liked at this point. But things have slowed down and work and we are ready to jump in and get things moving again. Just thinking about our sweet girl is motivating. It is also comforting to know that we are on God's time and He is never late!! I will post a timeline soon so it is easier to follow everything that we are working on.

Blessed

We recently began telling our family and friends our exciting adoption news. I didn't really know what to expect. I figured people would be shocked at first because we have never talked about adoption before. I also thought we would get some hesitation about it from people. That hasn't happened at all. Everyone we have told has been SO supportive and encouraging. We have amazing family and friends. We know this process is going to be long but it helps knowing all of the support we have and how many people are anxious to get our baby girl home!!

Now it's time to get going on all of the paperwork...

Our Journey Begins

This is only the beginning...

After attending an auction for a friend of the family that is adopting, God layed his finger on my heart. I knew that we were supposed to adopt but I pushed it out of my mind because I have always wanted to have three kids of my own. That sounds awful but we only plan to have three kids and my second one hasn't been much of a "baby" but it didn't bother me because I knew that I would get to experience the baby stage one more time. Little did I know, God had other plans for us! I began following adoption blogs and reading books. The more I tried to get adoption out of my mind...the stronger the feeling was. Then of course there were several messages at church that were meant "just for me"...you know the ones! I became to realize that it is all about God's purpose, not my plan. So I talked to my husband and we decided to pray about it. So I prayed, and prayed. I also prayed that Ryan would have the same feelings about it that I did...that he would feel the same overwhelming, undescribable feelings that I had everytime I thought about adoption. After lots of prayer and talking wtih others, we realized that he didn't have to have the same feelings. That God placed this on my heart for a reason. At the end of January 2010 we decided that we would adopt a baby girl from Ethiopia. We know this is going to be a long process that will test our faith at times. But we are so excited to watch God work in our lives and help us meet our baby girl. It is so comforting to know that HE already knows who our baby girl will be...HE has picked the perfect princess to complete our family.

We begin this journey to a family of 5!!!