Another Fundraiser & a Gift!

God has been so good to us!  We are excited to report that the yard/bake sale was a tremendous success, and we were blessed beyond what we could have ever imagined! Our Pampered Chef fundraiser is also getting ready to come to a close, and we're very excited to tell you about a couple new fundraising events our friends and family up in Fulton are doing for us!

We are excited about a raffle event our friends and family are organizing for us to help with the fundraising efforts! Raffle tickets will cost $1 each or you can buy 6 for $5. Prizes will include gift certificates/cards or other great products. The cool thing about this fundraiser is that anyone can participate regardless where you're from! We'll be doing numerous drawings for several prizes so there are plenty of chances to win!  We'll share more details about this event as soon as the "nitty gritty" details get worked out. Additionally, a gospel sing is being coordinated and when more of those details are known we will share them here.

What we are needing at this point are people to donate gift cards (preferred) or product for the raffle. If you sell Pampered Chef, Scentsy, 31, or anything else like that this would be a great opportunity for you to get your business noticed! We will also be looking for people to donate gift cards from places like Wal-Mart, Target, Best Buy, restaurants, etc. If you'd like donate you can contact Glenda Smith (Cindy's mom), Joy Shawley, or one of us by Friday, June 8th.

Meet Edward! (or will it be Emma?)

On a random note... Baby Bennett got his/her first gift! Our friend, Kirsten, gave us this precious gift before she moved deep in the heart of Texas. Isn't it cute?! :)

Again, words cannot express the gratitude in our hearts right now. We have been abundantly blessed by your love and support as we continue this adoption journey. We can't wait to tell you more as it happens!

Love,

Josh & Cindy

Fundraiser Fun

This last Friday and Saturday, we held a garage/bake sale to kick off our fundraising efforts for Baby Bennett. Our amazing friends and family donated LOADS (and we literally mean LOADS) of stuff for us to sell. We kid you not, we could not fit everything in our garage! We had to set stuff out in our drive way, then hope & pray no one would walk off with it. Thankfully, there were no problems in that area. Our totally awesome friends and family also donated their time in helping us set up, price items, make signs, bake, and helped us out in different ways on both days of the garage sale. There are too many to name, but we thank you from the bottom of our hearts. You know who you are! With everyone's combined efforts, we were able to raise just shy of $1300 in two days. Praise God!! :)

Another cool thing about this garage sale was the number of people who came to the house and told us they were adopted or have been through adoption themselves. They certainly blessed and encouraged us with their stories. Thank you God for sending them our way!

Here are a few pics of some of the craziness that ensued during our garage sale:



We have a few other fundraisers in the works as well. We are selling coffee through Just Love Coffee and Adoption Bug T-shirts. You can click on our buttons over on the right hand side of this blog to visit our online stores. We will be given a percentage of the proceeds for our adoption. Some of you have asked about a t-shirt with the logo Cindy created - we are looking into this option and will let you know soon.

We are also using our Pampered Chef business to help us raise funds for the adoption. We have a Pampered Chef fundraiser going on for the month of May. Anyone can order (even if you are out of state) and have it shipped directly to you by clicking this link or by doing the following:

1. Go to http://www.pamperedchef.biz/cbennett
2. Click Shop Online.
3. Type in "Baby Bennett" for the host name in Option #1.
4. You're ready to shop! Make sure the page says something to the effect of "Bethany Christian Services, Baby Bennett" somewhere on the page.

We'll be submitting these orders some time by the end of the month. Please only give if you feel led to give. We do not want to take anything for granted, and we just sincerely appreciate your love and prayers as we go through this adoption process.

That's all for tonight! We'll post more updates here as they happen!

Our First Post

We can't wait for Baby Bennett!!

How ironic that our first post on this little ole adoption blog happens to be on Mother's Day! Over the last few years, my wife and I have dreaded these types of "holidays" because it was just another reminder that we are infertile and childless, while the rest of the world basked in the joy of parenthood. We often questioned God why this was happening to us and why we had to endure the heartache of disappointment after disappointment.  This year is different, however. This year we celebrate Mother's Day anticipating the arrival of our future son or daughter because we've completely embraced God's call to be adoptive parents.  It's going to be a long, hard journey, but we know it's going to be worth it all when we bring home Baby Bennett. We hope and pray you will walk with us as we go through our adoption journey. We will do our best to post pictures and updates on a regular basis.

Much love & blessings,

Cindy & Josh