Wow! All I can say is THANK YOU!!! We have had such an amazing response to our blog and fundraising ideas and have been shown such amazing support! If you only knew the strength and the courage it took for us to take the step and make it public ----we felt so many emotions over the last several months and as timid as we were to ask for help, we knew we had to take some action to make our dream of being parents possible!

As some of you know we had set up our baby room with crib, swing, toys, books, clothes, (everything you could need!) etc. at the end of June. 

And wanting to be supportive and happy for all those around us having baby showers and sweet little ones join their family was/is quite trying. There have been a ton of hard days with doubt, fear, sadness, anger, jealousy, and of course the dooming question "Why me? Why us?". There were many days of keeping the baby room closed and many days of sitting in the room wanting sweet giggles and laughter to fill the room. And then there was the question of, well, what do we do, should we take it all down and pack it away? Of course we knew we had to work through our grieving period and see the light at the end of the tunnel. While there are still moments of brief sadness here and there, there is now hope, desire, passion, and promise! We finally got around to decorating for Christmas (but missed Halloween and Thanksgiving). We did pack up some of the baby things (after Thanksgiving) for now like the bedding and toys and stuffed animals, but the crib and swing are still in tact. We have been dealt our cards, but we are now ready to prepare our hearts to meet the little one that is meant for us! 

We started fundraising the week of Thanksgiving 2013. It's been about 3-4 weeks and we have sold several t-shirts on our etsy link and have had several donations! Our total is now $465.00. So, only $19,535 left to go!!! 

On the side, I have a Teachers Pay Teachers account where I sell teaching items and have earned $226 this year which went to purchasing the 48 t-shirts ($330). I will continue to put what I earn into our adoption account. And we have decided to cancel our cable for the next new year saving about $200-250 a month starting in January. And those of you who know me, know I love to get books for my classroom. Over the last two booksales I have volunteered for, I have been getting books for the future bambino ;-) So far we have a pretty good collection of baby and toddler board books. Such fun!!! Here are some of Patrick's favorites:

And here are some of my favorites:

We know this journey may be long and trying at times, but we have hope in our hearts and our desire is strong! Thank you so much for supporting us and our adoption. Thank you for encouraging us and lifting us up! Thank you for making a difference in our lives and for helping us have a great start to our journey!!!
Hopefully on a Christmas Day in the future, we can see our little one dressed up and ready for Santa ;-) Can't wait!