Tuesday, September 25, 2007

Paper Baby is in Ethiopia!

The paper baby, weighing in at 9 lbs 9 oz, has arrived in Ethiopia. I love this FedEx tracker!

We should be able to tell when Girmachew, the in country representative, picks it up.

I think I'll print this page for the baby's and the big brother's books.

A note on the t-shirts...thanks to the PayPal button to the right, we have the money in for the first 12 shirts. As soon as the payments for the next 12 come (I know some are on their way, via mail) we will put in the order. Thanks for all of the support! I know I've said that a lot, but I want to keep saying it. :)

Sunday, September 23, 2007

Paper Baby on Its Way to ET!

Our dossier, aka "paper baby" it on its way to Ethiopia, via FedEx!!!! Praise the Lord! I'll keep you posted on its journey.

Also, thank you so much for your response to the T-shirt fundraiser! I added a PayPal button to the right where you can pay for them instantly and email us your order. We have to have the money for at least 24 shirts before we can put in our order. Hopefully that will be very soon!

As much as the t-shirts will help us financially, our hope it that as you wear them in your communities, it will bring more awareness to adoption and the need in Ethiopia. Thanks!

That's all for now......ciao!

ETA: I just looked at the FedEx tracker. Paper Baby made it to Frankfurt!! Got there this morning...it's sort of back home. It is now in transit. Keep going, baby, you're almost there!

Sunday, September 16, 2007

Let's Raise Some Moo-Lah! (And look stylish!)

Hello! As we have now entered the Great Wait stage of our adoption, we are looking for ways to stay busy and raise funds toward the rest of our adoption expenses. The Lord is so faithful and has already provided abundantly.

Because of the response to the previous post, we've decided to go for it with the Ethiopia Adoption T-shirt fundraiser. The front of the shirt says Mission Threads: Ethiopia Adoption Project and the back includes John 14:18, 'I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. The artwork is on the previous post below.

We are asking for a minimum donation of $20 per shirt.

Let us know the size you would like as well as Mens, Womens or Childrens. The ladies shirts are a little slimmer cut with a shorter sleeve then a regular mens' tee. The mens' shirts are the regular t-shirt cut.

So please, tell your friends and neighbors that you know a family that has been called by God to adopt two precious boys from Ethiopia, Africa. And you have a way to help them bring those boys home! We especially appreciate your prayers even if a t-shirt is not your cup of tea (and if it is!).

We'll keep you posted through this blog. Thank you for your support!! Feel free to forward this on. Send requests/orders to marshallandjill@hotmail.com . We can give you our address to send payment after you make an order. Don't forget to give us your address too, so we can ship those cool shirts right to your door.

Love in Christ,marshall & jill

Tuesday, September 11, 2007

Poll Time!

OK, now we're throwing fundraising ideas around for this adoption while we wait for the referral. Because, let's face it, it's expensive. The Lord has provided abundantly for us and will continue...we know that. We have scrimped and saved and will continue, but it would be nice to have some savings left when this is finished.

Recently another adoptive family has shared an idea that has worked well for them and will allow us to use that same idea.....T-shirts! My question is, how many of you would enjoy a fundraiser like this? The shirts would be really cool...the same ones we used for our missions trip this summer and would go for a minimun donation of $20.
We just want to make sure it would go over well before we commit to it. So, would you like a t-shirt? Here is a picture of the back of the shirt:

The verse is John 14:16, "I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you."
And this is the front of the shirt:We would really like to hear from you. Please send us an e-mail so we can get a feel for whether or not this is the way we should go. marshallandjill@hotmail.com

The other thing we have done is set up an account with our adoption agency that allows people to give directly to our adoption through them so you can get a tax receipt and claim your gift on your taxes. That works out well for everyone. We are limited in the amount we can raise through that account. Any overflow goes to other families in need. We can raise up to $4000 more through that avenue (that would benefit our family), so if you're interested in that, let us know too through the same email. Easy squeezy!

Most of all, we appreciate your prayers through this journey. We continue to need them as we wait and our boys continue to need them as they are not home yet. Thank you for your love and support!!

Sunday, September 9, 2007

No news

Hello faithful readers! Not much to update, but I had to give you something new. I emailed our family coordinator on Friday and she said that our dossier should be authenticated this week and then sent on to Ethiopia. The machine that prints their checks was broken, thus the delay.

So, nothing really exciting around here.

Several people have asked how long we will wait now that we are officially waiting. That answer varies. It could be a couple of months or several months. We are praying that it is before Christmas that our boys come home. Will you pray with us?

All I want for Christmas is my two sweet boys....I may have to write a little song....