Quick Update

We are now on the waiting list for HoA. We have almost all of our documents in for our homestudy (waiting on a few referrence letters and our fingerprinting)  to complete our homestudy.
Because we have no idea when our match will be, we are pushing forward to make some of the funds that we will need to pay once we have a match. Please join us for our Stop and Shop, December 10th. I have some awesome items to sell. If you would like more information comment with your e-mail and I will send you the information. You can also support us by giving a holiday gift of coffee, just click the button on the sidebar to go right to the shop. This coffee is amazing and it makes a great, quick, easy gift that everyone appreciates! We also have a Thirty-One party going now.
We thank you for your prayers, positive thoughts and encouragements as we enter the waiting phase.

Many blessings this holiday week! May you and yours find many new things to be thankful for!
Love,
Sarah

Holiday Stop and Shop



You are invited to "Stop and Shop" at our Holiday Market. This event is helping at least 6 families to raise funds for adoption and missions.

Where: 4202 West Watrous Ave. Tampa, 33629

When: Saturday, December 10th. 1-5 p.m.

Items that will be available for your shopping pleasure:

Jewelry

Ethiopian Framed Photo Art

... Tee Shirts

Unique Items from Africa

Hair Flowers

Ornaments

Boutique Clothing

Tutu's

Bow Holders

Hairbows

Key Fobs

Camara Strap Covers

Edibles

Sugar Scrubs

Doll Diapers

Appliqued items

Stockings

-WithCherriesOnTop

-A Little Bit Of Pink

-Mary Kay

-At Home America

-Thirty One

And more!


Come, shop, eat some yummy cookies, sip some cidar and support adoption and missions this holiday season. Get your christmas list completed in one stop!



Hope to see you there!



Families that you will be supporting:

The Shubin Family ( with Lifebridge Church Missions )- http://www.blogger.com/goog_224053179

The Sobkowiak Family- http://zzpetals.blogspot.com/

The Carlson Family: http://alittlebitofpink.wordpress.com/

The Viera Family: http://anoceansizedlove.blogspot.com/

The Mills Family: http://learningtorejoice.blogspot.com/

The Shreeve FamilySee More

Wild Olive Tee's +Thirty One= Fundraising for our adoption

I love companies that have a heart for adoption! Wild Olive Tee's is supporting adoption by helping fundraising families through the sale of their beautiful tee's. Here are a few of my favorites:

Fear Not

Rooted

Chosen

A percent of every tee purchased will go towards our adoption fund. To make a purchase please enter our family code: VIERA0805 at checkout in the coupon code box. If you don't enter the code you will still be supporting a great company but it won't contribute towards our adoption fund:-)

You can also support our adoption by shopping Thirty One! My favorite blogger Erica is helping us out with this one. Get your teacher gift (they LOVE the lunch bags), your family gifts, a gift or two for you (wink) and support adoption too! I will try to close this out about November 15th to get every one's orders in plenty of time for Christmas gifts. Feel free to pass along the link to friends that love Thirty One!

Our homestudy paperwork is going in by Friday and our application is going with it. We will be preparing our adoption profile for the agency and getting ready to wait for a match. We have raised almost $1900 with the help of friends and family. We thank you all so much for your support. We truly need it! Adoption is a costly endeavor. Worth every struggle, penny and moment of work though.

Still an ocean sized love, just not an ocean sized distance.

If you ask any adoptive parent if their adoption journey was easy I am sure that their answer would be some variation of "no". Adoption is not easy. Adoption is not even close to easy.
We knew this going in this time around, of course. We knew that adopting internationally would prove to be an even bigger challenge than domestic adoption.
If you have followed my blog for a while you would know that coming to the decision to adopt from China was a very difficult choice. We started out wanting to adopt through the Foster/Adopt system. Then we considered China. Then we considered domestic African/Bi-racial adoption. There is a need for parents for all of those types of situations. We ended up deciding on China for a number of reasons, one of them being that a friend of ours started working for CCAI and I share her passion for orphans. I felt good about working with her to find our son.
We applied, were approved and started the process. We filled out some paper work. Fundraised. Waited. School began and what started out as an exciting adventure became a heart struggle. There were circumstances that made us re-think our plan to adopt from China.
I will not get into the intimate details of our choice to switch back to domestic. There were new challenges that we faced shortly after our journey to China began. Challenges that cleared our path, helped us to see what the right choice was with more clarity than before.
Many families are called to adopt in many different ways and I truly believe that no child is more deserving than the next. A journey to China would have been amazing, I'm sure. Perhaps someday we will make the journey. Right now though, we know that our son is a bit closer to home.
We are now trying to determine what agency/attorney to work with. We have our home-study update packet and plan on beginning the process right away. We will continue to fundraise and will continue to covet the prayers and support of our friends, old and new.
Our hope is to provide a loving home to a child who needs one, and gain a son, a child that we (our whole family) want so badly. If you know of any agencies/attorneys or resources for domestic adoption we would love for you to pass the information along.

Thanks-Sarah

Just a bit busy

People have been so sweet and encouraging in regards to our fundraising and our adoption in general! I wish I had more updates for you all! I have been in over my head as usual with back to school. I am working on getting all of the auction winners their items and trying to figure out how much more we need to get to our goal for our first agency fee : $3500.
As soon as I have some time I will be working more on our paper work and setting up the next fundraiser. My lovely sister has made some amazing jewelry for us to sell and it should all be up soon!
I will give a better update soon!
Thanks so much for all of your support and care!
-Sarah

Giveaway Winner!

Congratulations Jennifer Chase! You are our winner. I will contact you later today with details on how to claim your prizes! 

Thanks to everyone who donated and helped to spread the word!

- Sarah

Thank you and all of the winners!

Thank you so much to all of you who participated in our auction and giveaway! We could not have done this without the many wonderful donations and our awesome friends who bid and helped to spread the word.

Below is a list of all of the auction items and the winning bidder. If you would like to make a check payment please comment and let me know so I can get you our address. Otherwise you can just click on the donate Paypal button and donate the winning bid. For custom items I will be e-mailing you with details and contact information to help you get your item(s).

Uganda Necklace- Kristin Lemus. Winning bid: $10.
Dinner Done $25 gift certificate- Amber Gonzales. Winning bid: $15
Where You Live Tee- Adoption Mission: Possible. Winning bid $21
King Sheet Set- Darbi. Winning bid: $40
Queen Sheet Set- Elizabeth Sobkowiak. Winning bid $30
Ethiopian Cross Pendent- Jessica Ann. Winning bid $6
Fish Purse- Tara. Winning bid $15
Caiti Belle Dress- Tera Tichy. Winning bid $100
Two Dozen Cupcakes by Amber- Dawn G. Winning bid:$18
Darcy's Botanicals- Kiersten. Winning bid $35
Daisy Girls Doll- Tracy Hanson. Winning bid $25
Chartrouse Hair Flower- Cydnee. Winning bid $5
Red Fabric Flower - Cydnee. Winning bid $4
Pink Hairflower- Kristin Lemus. Winning bid $4
Flower with feather- Jenn Wright. Winning bid $10
"M" pony-0- Cydnee. Winning bid $2
"E" pony-o- Cydnee. Winning bid $1
"L" pony-o- Franny Tough. Winning bid $1
"K" Pony-o- Kiersten. Winning bid $2
"E" Pony-o Adoption Mission: Possible. Winning bid $5
"M" Pony-o- Cydnee. Winning bid $1
African Safari- Jen chase. Winning bid $25
Snowman Pillowcase Dress- Krisin VdB. Winning bid $10
All Tangled Up- RB. Winning bid $10
All Tangled Up Jewelry-Jessica Ann. Winning bid $8
Cherry Blossom Hat- Stacy. Winning bid $10
Cherry Blossom Hat- Lisa. Winning bid $8
Purple Flower Earings- Deborah. Winning bid $7
Ethiopian Art by Canvas Heart- Toni Lee. Winning bid $50
Bieber Necklace- Raquel Blair. Winning bid $4
Mickey Mouse Necklace- Cydnee. Winning bid $4
Red Thread Bracelet- Tera Cox. Winning bid $5
House Rules- Christy. Winning bid $125
Two Prince Bakery Cookies. Franny. Winning bid $8
Mommy's The Lucky One- Adoption Mission: Impossible. Winning bid $30
Dark Cycle Octopus Tee- Jonathan. Winning bid $50
Dark Cycle Dino Tee. Sherry. Winning bid $20
Meeting Momma Print. Adoption Mission: Possible. Winning bid $10
Plush Owl. Amber Gonzales. Winning bid $20
Adoption is the new Pregnant Tee.. Tera Cox. Winning bid $10
Adoption is the new Pregnant. Jen Chase. Winning bid $10
Jars of Pie. Franny. Winning bid $12



Update: If there is a line through your name that means I have record of your donation. I am shipping items out today for those of you who bid on items in my possession. I have also contacted the donors for winning bids that are being shipped from donors. If you have any questions about your items, or making a donation please e-mail me at sarahviera@yahoo.com and I will do my best to get back with you within a day. Thank you!-Sarah