Golf Event

Unfortunately we had to cancel the golf event today. There were many of us who put in a great deal of time to make this a successful event. However, we did not have enough people register to make it possible. Thanks to everyone who has helped us with trying to make this a success.

The Final Count is in

Well we did it. We managed to clear our garage of the MULTITUDE of items donated by friends, friends of friends, and family, just one week shy of our moving day. Thank you to ALL of you who were involved in donating and gathering items for our sale. You rallied together and quickly overwhelmed us by filling our garage.

A special thanks to Azure, Alisa, Abiee, Jenni, and Julie (and the kids) for jumping into the trenches and helping me with the tremendous task of sorting and organizing everything. You girls rock! Your support held me up and helped me keep going when it would have been easy to quit. Azure, your crazy suggestion to hold onto a portion of the stuff for one more month and travel to New Prague for a final sale was awesome. Thank you for sacrificing your home, garage, time with your kids, and SLEEP to keep pushing me a little longer!

All of the donations and your support have paid off. The final count for the summer is $1100! We are excited to keep watching the total grow!

Next up: Devin's Golf Event. www.golf4adoption.com for more information. It will be a fun day for all involved. Players of all levels are welcome. I am currently working on building up a couple 'non-golfer' foursomes to join me in playing for fun. I won't be able to compete for 1st place, but I am bound and determined to have a good time! Golf, food and prizes involved.

Bad News...

We received a letter in the mail stating they are denying us the opportunity to move forward with the adoption process. This decision was mostly in relation to the fact that we are doing the right things in preparing for a family. Nae and I are in marriage counseling. Not because we have severe issues, but so we are able to communicate and parent better. Along with that, I have been seeing a doctor for my Bi-polar. I recently started a mood stabilizer to help control it a little better. I am far from the severe state of this disorder and we were trying some medications to see how they would affect me. Bethany has stated they wanted to see 1 year of stabilized behavior before they would consider us as a possible candidate. Folks, this is ridiculous. We would not be lousy parents...most of you already know that. Seems ironic that any 16 year old who hasn't finished high school, doesn't have a job, does drugs, drinks, smokes, and who knows what else can have a baby at will. Yet here we are trying to spend thousands of dollars to help fulfill our family and to make a birth parent happy knowing their child is going to a great home. Seems quite unfair and very depriving. However, we will keep moving forward. We will be checking into other agencies once our move to Shoreview is over. Thanks for keeping us in your prayers.

Nae and I have been frustrated of late with Bethany's communication process. We finished the preformal paperwork quite awhile back and have not heard anything further about if we are able to move on to the formal application. We have spoken with them recently and they told us they were reviewing some stuff medically related and that they would get back to us soon. I emailed a few days back saying how frustrated we were that we still have not heard anything from anyone. This is the response I received:

"I touched base with my supervisor who is reviewing your paperwork and she said that she is going to be putting a letter in the mail to you tomorrow in response to your preformal paperwork."

Maybe it is just me, but that notification doesn't sound all that positive. In the beginning we were told that once the preliminary application was approved we would have access to the formal one online. I have this gut feeling it wasn't approved as we still don't have access to the forms. Please pray that all goes well and I will keep everyone updated.

The golf event site is fully up

Our golf event is alive and kicking. All the information should be available on the website now...www.golf4adoption.com. Feel free to ask any questions, invite friends, or just come along to hang out and say hi. We appreciate everyone's support no matter how it is given. :)

Site up and running...kind of

Thanks to my co-worker, Angie, the site is now hosted and a temporary image is posted. Soon, Aaron will be working on getting the web page developed and we will have on-line registration available. Thanks everyone for the help!

http://www.golf4adoption.com is the site...take a look.

Price will be $85 and the hope is to get at least 32 golfers signed up. $30 goes to the golf course, $10 to food, $20 to prize money, and $25 to us. With 32 golfers we would end up with an extra $800 towards the adoption. More importantly we have the opportunity to connect with family and friends and enjoy a day together.

Golfing...

It is 98% offical...the golf event will be August 22nd at 4pm. It will be at Eagle Valley in Woodbury. Food will be served at 2:30pm. For $85 you will get 9 holes of golf, a cart, free range balls, and free food from Donatelli's ( my fav!). We will have prizes for a raffle and for longest drive, closest to pin, shortest drive, etc. We will also have prizes or cash for the 1st, 2nd, and possibly 3rd place teams. Registration will be online at www.golf4adoption.com. It is not up and running quite yet...give us a few days. There you can pay via paypal or send a check to our residence. We do have to have a firm count 10 days in advance. Therefore, we have a deadline of August 11th for registration. Feel free to bring friends and family. Anyone 10 and over can play in the event. Ladies are encouraged to come and play. It is all for fun and the opportunity for us to share our story and socialize with our friends...you guys! Hopefully Nae will play but she might want to stay back with all the others that don't want to play...we will see. :) Thanks everyone.

Golf Tournament Fundraiser

Nae and I are working on a small golf tournament that will raise a little bit of money. It will be fun for everyone involved. It will be 9 holes, a cart, and free lunch for somewhere around $80. There will be prizes for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place along with some raffles, a putting contest, etc. It should be a good time for everyone involved. We are working on a date and time along with a registration website and brochure. Updates to follow soon.

Garage sale totals

$372.95 was the total from this weekend. Didn't quite make the goal of $500 but it still is money towards the end goal. We appreciate all the donations everyone offered us. Special thanks to Azure for help setting up the sale and running it throughout the weekend. Nae is going to do a smaller one again in August down in New Prague.

Garage sale one more time

Yesterday and today (Sat.) we are doing one more garage sale. It will be open until 2pm today if anyone wants to stop by and visit.

On a side note I am thinking about doing a golf tournament to support the cause. I want to work on getting donations of gift cards, product, etc. from local businesses. I plan to do a scramble style tournament with an entry fee based on the golfing fee (~$45), the prize money (~$20), and towards the adoption (~$20). So that should be about $80 a person with the hopes of getting about 8 teams of 4...or more. Prizes would go to 1st and 2nd at least and possibly 3rd depending on what we get for donations. Nae's friend Azure has offered to be our "go-getter" and find people/companies willing to donate. She is good at that kind of thing so we are thinking she will be pretty successful. Feel free to spread the word to friends and family. It should be a good time! This probably will happen on a weekday, as most courses don't allow tournaments on the weekend. I am going to go to Eagle Valley, where I used to work and see if they can give me some sort of deal for the golf. Once more details are known, I will make a formal announcement and start sending out emails, posting it on Facebook, etc. If anyone reading this has access to companies willing to donate prizes for a good cause, we would really appreciate it. Have a good weekend everyone!