Cupcakes for our Cupcake

My friend Tori shared with me a link today about a writer named Julie Gumm. She wrote a book called Four Plus More. This book shows you how to adopt debt free. If you may or may not know adoption is not cheap and in this day and age every penny counts. Did you know that adoption can cost in between the range of $20,000 to $30,000 to adopt domestically? Insurances do not help with adoption planning like they do with maternity or family planning, but the government does give a 1 time $13,100 tax credit for adoption per child. Dave Ramsey interviewed Julie Gumm about her book and she gave some great advice in her interview. Here is the link if you would like to read it. One of her ideas is a fund raiser. That got my wheels turning. What can I do to fund raise? Where can I use my skill set to help offset costs?

With that being said, Jonathan and I were talking tonight about this. We started tossing back ideas and he came up with a glorious idea. Cupcakes for Our Cupcake. Well, I added the "our" part. ;) Had to throw that in. Its in the beginning stage of development, but basically since I can not legally sale cupcakes out of our house; sanitation and safety problems, we would take orders for cupcakes and accept donations for them. I have asked a few peoples advice on it and also asked for some help for web marketing, but we will see if this will be a fruitful endeavor. Maybe it will, maybe it will not, but at least I will be having fun making cupcakes.

Do I have any volunteers for making cupcakes? These will be your basic chocolate, vanilla, strawberry, red velvet etc cupcakes with icing. If you want to add more flair that up to you. We would be grateful for any volunteers wishing to help or anyone who would like to donate their time to help make cupcakes.

Please leave me your feedback on the subject. I would love to hear your opinions on the subject.

Til next time!

Change

There are a lot of changes that people can got through during life. Changes from child to adult, change of clothes, change cars, and maybe even change friends. Jonathan and I have had this bucket in our room, well really its an old milk jug that has part of the top cut off. Somehow it turned into the "change bucket". I have always tossed pennies, nickels and such into when I find money while cleaning over the years. I have never really looked into the change bucket. I looked into it on Saturday and realized that there is actually a lot of money in there. Some quarters, some nickels, but lots of pennies. LOTS of pennies. Some people may think that pennies do not add up to a lot, but they really can. Over time, and if we continue to feed the bucket, it will add up. Every spare penny, dime, nickel or quarter I have I throw in that bucket. You never know it could add up to a lot just when we really need it. I just had a random thought this morning about it while getting ready for work, I wonder how much will be in that change bucket by this time next year?

Patience

Patience is the greatest of all virtues. -Cato the Elder

I hate to admit this, but I am an impatient person. I am sure most of us are, but when something exciting and new comes along I cant help but jump for joy and get immediate satisfaction. Are we not all that way? Maybe, but I for one need to learn to be patient during this time. I was reading another persons blog about her adoption process and on one of her children she called it the "conception" period. Conception meaning from start of adoption; IE applications and meetings, to placement of the baby. Her "conception" period for her first child was 19 months. WHOA! That sounds like a long time right? Not really in the eyes of adoption agencies. We are doing a private infant adoption which can take awhile to be matched. By awhile I mean 12-24 months. I am going to pray for a quicker match but I understand that patience is a virtue.

The next step is to get the application back to the agency. I am hoping that the application is in the mailbox when I get home. I will work on that this weekend and send it back on Monday.

We are working on the house to get it ready for the home study we will have to do eventually. Jonathan has been hard at work on the living room. He has been painting and making it beautiful. I need to clean out the closets and get rid of a lot of stuff. Organization will be key and I need to get organized. GO US! ;)

I promise to update this blog with information as soon as we receive it and I will email you all when I do make an update so you can check in with us.

Pictures needed

One of the many things we have to have ready is a family album. This is for the birth mother to aid her in finding the right family for the baby. I am working on this album this week and I sent out emails to the people I would like to add in the book.

Other items that will be included in our book are hobbies, our other babies (Harley, Hatchet and Chaos), pictures of our house, the park near our house and our church.

I am so excited to start working on this tonight. Please get those pictures to me as soon as possible.

Til next time!

The Process

The process... well Dictionary.com defines process as a systematic series of actions directed to some end.

When we first started talking about adoption I was very much against it. I felt like I wanted a biological child first. I very much resisted the whole adoption process as anyone can probably tell you. I was not walking around screaming it from the roof tops, but I was very open about my feelings on the subject. That is until about 2 weeks ago when my life totally changed. My Grandmother called to tell me that my 8 year old cousin, whom I have never met, was in Child Protective Services because my aunt could no longer care for him. My heart ached for this little boy, who we will call "P" from here on out for his privacy, whom I have never even met let alone sent a birthday card or Christmas card too. I really did not even know he exsisted until 2 weeks ago. Something in me changed. God really was talking to me and I needed to listen. My heart really softened to the idea of adoption. There are so many children out there who need good homes, and Jonathan and I can give a child a really good home. I found this Psalms quote on another blog and I thought it was beautiful: He settles the childless woman in her home as a happy mother of children. Praise the LORD. Psalms 113:19 I read the bible every night. At least a chapter or two. I have read this before, but I never put it into the context it was meant to be in. How beautiful and fitting for me right now.

After speaking with family members and case workers regarding "P", it is not reasonable for Jonathan and I to foster him. This is due to his circumstances and his parents. We have said that we would like to be contacted should he be put up for adoption, but the case worker seems to think that he will most likely be reunited with his birth father. That is awesome and I wish him the best. For now, Jonathan and I will resume with the adoption process.

This leads me back to that word process again. I have looked into 5 adoption agencies across Texas. 2 have told me they are not accepting new infant adoption applications due to the huge demand for infant adoptions. I narrowed it down to 2 agencies. One in Waco and one in Austin. I am praying for God to tell me which one is best for us. The adoption process has really been a pleasant experience thus far. I have started reading adoption books for families, and really started to be vocal about our plans. Please keep us in your prayers and check back often. I will update as often as I can. This is a first for me. I have never blogged about anything before. This should be a blast.