WOW! and sou cow

Some of you may know that we had a fundraiser this past weekend. We worked together with my parents to host a dinner and silent auction at their church in Cookeville. And when I say “we worked together”, I mean they worked their rears off and we did a few things. Seriously, they were awesome!

Let me start with Saturday morning, the morning of our event. We woke up to snow falling, a dusting covering the ground, and some slick spots on the roads.  Now, it was not much snow, but for Tennessee, it was enough to make me wonder if people might just stay in that night.

Then we got a phone call…the couple who was supposed to be our entertainment for the evening, the couple who so many were excited about seeing, had 3 inches of snow in their driveway. They live 4 hours east of Cookeville and could not make the drive. So within 1 hour of waking up, we were feeling discouraged and defeated.  

But God…

My parents called their pastor and asked if he might have any suggestions. His words were “do not worry about it; I will take care of it”. We called him at 8:30am and he managed to have something put together (including music) by that evening. We (my mom and me) were both crying. One, because after you plan for so long, it stinks to have something fall through last minute. We place NO blame whatsoever on the couple who were going to provide the entertainment. They stayed right where the needed to be. But it was hard to hear that news. And two, because they have a really awesome pastor who had just told us not to worry about it. This is a man who is preaching on Sunday morning and I am sure had much better things to do on Saturday. Complete coolness.

Oh, and the snow stopped about noon and the roads cleared soon after. Another praise.

Our event began at 5:30pm and it went GREAT! The decorations were wonderful, there were over 170 auction items, and Max (my parents’ pastor) was hilarious! I even met a couple who is thinking about adopting. I just love hearing about others who are considering this journey…so fun.

Now here is the reason part of the title is “WOW”…we had hopes to make around $2,000. That was our “pie in the sky” number. Do you know much God brought in?

$5,500!!!! 

Can you believe it? God is SO good. I know I have said this over and over again here, but PLEASE do not let the cost of adoption hold you back from it. If God has called you to it, HE will provide. 

And now for the other part of the title, we got a cow. Well, actually my granddad got the cow, several cows to be exact. We took a little field trip to his farm to pick out the perfect cow. We made a very educated decision based on how quickly she came when called and how she ate. And now my Granddad is going to fatten her up so we can eat her (sorry PETA). 

Here she is…

Her name is Chanel No.14. I would tell you the reason, but I am afraid you might not think it was as hysterical as we did, so I will just leave you to guess at how we arrived at that name :)

Cookeville – you don’t want to miss this!

We are gearing up for our (hopefully:)) LAST fundraiser! Fundraising has taught me numerous things, but it has mostly taught me to humble myself and ask others for help. Fundraising is NOT easy and it has taken many friends, family, and strangers to help us in our efforts.

The cost of adoption is a major hurdle for almost everyone who is called to adopt. It can be overwhelming to see the cost of an adoption and it is enough to turn some away.

But I know that God is bigger than any amount of money. He can and will provide. I have seen it over the last year as we have always had enough to cover our adoption expenses and I know I will continue to see it as more expenses become due.

Now for the fundraiser details…

We are having a dinner, silent auction, and “Love Story” at Cookeville United Methodist Church on February 11^th.  The silent auction will open at 5:30pm, dinner will be served at 6:00pm, and Woody and Lucy Adams will tell their love story beginning at 7:00pm.
Tickets are $12 and can be purchased on the right sidebar of this blog or by calling 931-372-8828. 

We have been overcome by the amount of love and support we have felt from the people in Cookeville. Silent auction donations have been POURING in and I am so excited to tell you about some of them here.

Gift certificates from:

32 Frozen Yogurt Lounge

Bellacino's

Blue Coast Burrito

Borden Jewelry

Char Restaurant

Chili's

Cracker Barrel

Crawdaddy's

El Tapatio

Fazoli's

IHOP

Jersey Mike's

Logan's

Mae Pearls'

Mamma Rosas

Marble Slab

McDonald's

Copy, Pack and Ship

Deuel's Photography

Kroger

Olan Mills

Olive Garden

Papa Murphy

Red Lobster

RSG Prom and Pageant

Ruby Tuesday

Shoneys

Southern Traditions

Sun Tan Village

Other donors/items donated

Oil changes

Artwork

Courageous DVD

Cumberland Pet Grooming items

Delmonico basket

Hay - 100 square bales

Golf outings from Cookeville Golf Club, Ironwood, and White Plains

JJ Jax bracelet and necklace

Lollipop Shoppe backpack and lunch box

Karate for Kids 6 week program

Matilda Jane bag

Millie Moo's Children's Store sleeper

Photography by Amy Callahan

Visa gift card - $30.00

and many more...

In addition to these wonderful donation items, we have several people working behind the scenes to make this event one to remember. My mom has friends who are working hard to make the evening elegant and inviting, Grade A Catering will be providing a delicious entrée, and the Adams have worked hard to provide us with wonderful entertainment.

We hope that you will join us for this enjoyable and memorable evening!

“Road to Home” Adoption Event in Cookeville

If you have not heard (or read), we are adopting from Uganda!!

In order to raise money for our adoption, we are hosting an adoption fundraiser in Cookeville at the First United Methodist Church.

There will be a delicious dinner, silent auction, and Lucy and Woody Adams will present “Our Love Story”. Visit www.52hymns.com to learn more about the Adams.

Details:

• Held at Cookeville First United Methodist Church
• Saturday, February 11^th from 5:30-8:30
• The silent auction will begin at 5:30, dinner will be served at 6:00, and Lucy and Woody will present beginning at 7:00
• Tickets are $12 each and can be purchased on the right side bar or by calling 931-372-8828
• There will be tons of great silent auction items to bid on

For those of you who have not heard Woody and Lucy's story, it is truly inspirational and for those who have, it is well worth hearing again. 

Email me at lindseychenelle@yahoo.com or call 931-372-8828 if you have additional questions.

We are SO excited about this event. Hope to see you there!

Fundraising

It seems that I am becoming somewhat of an expert on fundraising because it plays such a  HUGE role in bringing our baby home. Mark and I are both dorky planners, so it was necessary for us to make an Excel spreadsheet outlining what we needed to save, what we needed to raise, and any ideas we had to cover the expenses. It was pretty intense…Mark loves him some Excel spreadsheets! 

We have sold t-shirts, hosted a parent’s night out, had 2 garage sales, put on a benefit concert and silent auction, done a baby bottle fundraiser, and a friend had a jewelry fundraiser for us.  

Each of these fundraisers was not possible without the help of lots of family and friends! We are always overwhelmed with gratitude from the support we receive. While we are so appreciative of all those who donate, there are a couple who have really stood out to us.

My parents teach a Sunday school class at their church. We did a baby bottle fundraiser with their class. Each couple received a baby bottle to fill with spare change over a few months time period. My parents brought back one of these bottles to us this past weekend. We are excited to get any bottles back, but this one was particularly special because of who had filled it up.

When the couple who had this bottle took it home their daughter, Lizzie, asked what it was for. They told her about us and our adoption and she responded that SHE wanted to use HER allowance money to fill it up. She is SIX!

When we announced that we were adopting, Kelly sent me a message that she wanted to help. Kelly was the coordinator of a mom’s group I used to be part of.  As part of the group, we might have hung out 5 times…so we hardly know one another. Despite this, she has donated items for our yard sale, made tutus for our silent auction, and hosted a jewelry party where a percentage of the profits went towards our adoption.

If you have fundraised before, you know that it is HARD. If you are like me, it is difficult to humble yourself and ask others for help. Having people like Lizzie and Kelly, people we hardly know, come behind us and help us get closer to our baby has been absolutely amazing!

giving thanks

My initial reason for this post was to share some wonderful news with you…yesterday we received a letter in the mail that made me so thankful.

As I opened the letter my heart skipped a beat wondering what it entailed. I read the words “we are pleased to inform you that you have been awarded an adoption assistance grant in the amount of $3,000”.

We received a $3,000 grant from Show Hope! Praise the Lord!

Today, our Pastor spoke on thankfulness. He asked us to think of events in our lives from the past year, first joyous occasions and then times of struggle. At that point, he asked us to give thanks for the times of struggle.

Ephesians 5:20, reads “giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ”.
The words “always and for everything” struck me.

Yesterday, I had no problem praising God when we received the letter from Show Hope. I was joyful and words of thankfulness came easy. But for me to be thankful during trials is such a different story. Showing gratitude to God is the last thing I want to do when I am stressed or angry or sad. Nevertheless, isn’t that what God asks me to do?

Something I most definitely need to work on :)

wrapping it up…or at least trying to

Remember that silent auction we had about one month ago to raise money for our adoption? Remember how many awesome items we had donated? Well, we still have a few items left and I want to give you the opportunity to bid on them.  
Everything raised goes towards our adoption!

Here's how it works:

I am going to list the items, description, and value. There is NO minimum bid. Email me (lindseychenelle@yahoo.com) what you want to pay (keep it real though…like please don’t bid $1 on an item worth $150). If you are the only one to bid, then it is all yours.
Click on the item to go to the website. 

Need to get your hair did?

Shine the Salon – haircut with Sarah Shepard – value $55

Salon Salon – men’s or women’s haircut – value $30

Classic Sports Barber Shop – $20 gift card

Fun times for you and the kids...it is getting cold outside. 

A-Game Sportsplex– 5 laser tag passes and 5 ice skating passes – value $78

My Gym – Lifetime family membership and 1 month of classes - value $150

Goofballs – 12 admission and 12 attraction passes (I can split these up if you do not want them all) – value $10 per pass, $120 total

Mathnasium – assessment and 1 month of math education – value $285

Coco BonBons - $10 gift card

Getting fit...almost time for New Year's resolutions!!

Temple Fitness – 4 weeks of boot camp – value $209

Fleet Feet – product package including arm warmers, mug, and training program. Click here for more details on the training program, you can pick any…it sounds awesome! – value $150

Photography session (think Christmas cards) – value $250
Interior Design - value $150
Titans tickets - vs. Jacksonville Jaguars at LP filed, Saturday, Dec. 24th at noon - 2 tickets, Section 329, Row D, Seats 8 & 9 - value $120

Got questions? Want to bid? Email lindseychenelle@yahoo.com
Thanks y'all!

Love our neighbors!

We love our neighborhood for so many reasons; the friends we have made, all of the kids who we have grown to love, and the endless possibilities of play dates.
We are also grateful for how supportive they have been surrounding our adoption. One of our neighbors organized a fundraiser for us and another adoptive family in our neighborhood. All we had to do was show up and eat ice cream!

Since the 2 wonderful photographers who live in our neighborhood either forgot a camera or the battery ran out (ehem Tiffany and Diane), I was on camera duty. Out of about 100 shots, this is what I had to work with.

Thanks neighbors!

Hannah in the house

We are so excited to say that we have a third artist playing for our benefit concert. God has been so faithful to put amazing artists in our path who have a heart for adoption.

I first met Hannah Jeter at Sweet CeCe’s a few weeks ago. I was immediately drawn to her and her spirit for the Lord. A few days later, I found out she was an artist and knew that she would be an amazing talent to have at the concert.

We have already been so blessed by Hannah and I know that you all will be blessed by her music. You can find out more about Hannah here on her facebook music page. She will have music up by the end of summer.

God has brought three amazing artists/bands for our benefit concert. It has been so wonderful to see how God is bringing this benefit together in His perfect way.

i heart Exodus

Our chiropractor, Dr. Josh, is awesome. He is awesome for the obvious reasons…our adjustments always feel great. He has helped our family get on a healthy living track. He even came to our house the day after Noah was born to give him an adjustment.

But here is what you may not know about Dr. Josh. He has a heart for orphans and for adoption. His company, Exodus, donated an iPad 2 for a door prize at our benefit concert and silent auction!! Dr. Josh also donated some of his fabulous cookbooks and DVD’s for our silent auction.

Thanks Dr. Josh!! You da man!

Tickets for the benefit concert and silent auction go on sale this Friday, July 1st!

Bidding starts at $5, can I get $5?

As you may know, we have been collecting items for our silent auction in October to raise money for our adoption.
Sun Tan City graciously sent us a gift certificate for 5 free visits to any location(worth $113)!!! However, the certificate expires on July 31st, 2011. So since it will be expired by the time we have our auction, I thought I would auction it off here.
The certificate is for 1 visit to each of the 5 levels of equipment (5 total).



I would like to start to bidding at $5. You can the bid in any increment, but please be sure it is higher than the bid before it. Leave a comment below with your bid and email. Happy bidding!!

The auction will close Sunday evening at 8pm.

Thanks friends!

Suggestions…

We are getting together the details for our benefit concert and silent auction. I need your help with something. Every person who attends the event will be entered to win a door prize. So far we have thought about an iPad2 or a mini vacation.


What would you want to win? Keep suggestions under $600, we don't want to get too crazy :)

the BIG one

Our family has already done several fundraisers that have gone wonderfully! When we started the adoption process, we knew that we needed to do LOTS of fundraising to bring our baby home. We expect our adoption costs to total around $30,000. Of that, God has already brought in $7,000! Pretty amazing, huh?

Now, it is time to start planning the BIG fundraiser. We are going to have a benefit concert and silent auction! It is going to be pretty awesome!

It is scheduled for October 15^th in Franklin, TN. The venue is HUGE and we want to fill it. So we need you, your family, your friends, your co-workers, your church, people you meet on the street, and anyone else you can think of to be there!

We already have 3 awesome artists who have agreed to play at the concert;  Allie Hays and Brandon Ingle, and the band Colorfire. I get all excited just thinking about it.

There are also some fabulous auction items that are rolling in!! This is one of those events that you just CANNOT miss.

Tickets will go on sale July 1^st, so look for more details then. But for now, you NEED get it on your calendar :)

God, gettin’ it done

Our adoption process is moving right along. We have completed 2 of the 3 sets of required paperwork. The third set, the Dossier, is the most extensive. We are ALMOST done. There are only a couple of things that we lack, all of which we have no control over. So basically, I have to wait on OTHER people (namely, the government) before our Dossier is complete (not one of my strong points).

With the completion of each set of paperwork, a fee comes due. Amazingly, God has provided EXACTLY what we need every time. One of the larger fees is the first adoption agency fee of $6,200, which is now due. Between what we saved and the donations we have received, we have exactly what we needed to cover this expense.

I was once told that “God funds what he favors”. There is not a doubt in my mind that God favors adoption. We have been able to see Him during this entire process.

If you feel the pull towards adoption, but worry about the cost, PLEASE don’t. God will provide what you need. Mark and I are both numbers people, so we like to see everything on paper. I still struggle with not knowing where all the money will come from for our adoption. But God has a plan and He has already proved faithful time and time again.

Adoption Yard Sale

Our neighborhood is having its spring garage sale on Saturday, May 14th. We are going to participate and ALL of the proceeds from our yard sale will go towards our adoption.

So….if you have ANYTHING that you no longer need or want, we would LOVE to come and pick it up. Email me at lindseychenelle@yahoo.com if you have anything to contribute.

OR if you just love a good yard sale, come and buy stuff!
8616 Altesse Way
Brentwood, TN 37027

Hope to see you there :)