One Step Closer Today

Today we got some great news... we have been APPROVED after part 1 of our application.  Now the next step, complete the online orientation workshop which is pretty informative and helpful but also quite long and then we will be mailed part 2 of the application which I have been told is pretty extensive.  If we didn't have to get up so early in the morning to work we would most definitely be staying up all night doing the workshop because we are so anxious to get this ball rolling but if we can get 1 or 2 topics covered tonight it will be a good start.

I am also excited for some upcoming events we have going on.  This Saturday I am meeting with a very sweet girl named Rachel who is a mom of 4, soon to be 5 as they are getting ready to bring their daughter Aamina home from Ethiopia in the next couple months.  We are both so excited to meet in person finally (after everyone in our town telling us about each other) and have someone else to share our passion for adoption and Ethiopia

We are also planning a few more fundraisers that are very exciting!!! First is I have contacted my sorority from college, Tridelts and mentioned what we are doing and to see if they would be interested in helping us with our t-shirt fundraiser.  I know when I was in college anything that had my sorority letters on it I would buy at the drop of a hat so I thought how cute would our burn-out t-shirts be with Delta Delta Delta on the back.  It's a BIG hope but if we are able to do it I would love to get the shirts to other campuses too or even other sororities if they were interested.  We won't know more info about this September 23rd when the new girls officially join Tridelts and the weekly chapter meeting begin but I am still very excited!

 Second is our upcoming garage sale.  We have actually been planning this for months now, it was one of the first ideas we wanted to do when we decided we would be adopting but after speaking to one of our pastors at church they informed us that Ada has a big festival every year centered around ECU's homecoming and if we could wait it out we could have our garage sale at the church.  This was the best news ever because our church is right on Main St where many people will be walking around and a parade will be taking place so advertising for it will be quite easy!  If you are in the area and have something you would like to donate just let me know.  Our garage is cleaned out and organized to accommodate storage of items until the sale which will be Saturday, Oct 9th!

Lastly (for now) is our online auction.  A friend of a friend emailed me back in May to tell me about something cool they did to raise money for their adoption, an online auction that raised $7000 (big wow, I know!)  You can check theirs out at Nikolas Adoption Auction  With our t-shirts and garage sale I wasn't planning on doing this until next year but then got a message from a good friend from high school that wanted to help us by knitting some adorable baby items for the garage sale.  I know how great her work is (see below what she made Jalen before he was born) and thought that would be perfect to have on the online auction so we will be sending out more information on it later but if you already have an idea of something you want to contribute feel free to email me or contact me on here.  My plan is to have the auction towards the end of November in hopes that we will have some cool Christmas gifts available to purchase :) 

Thank you to everyone who has been contributing in one way or another, your generosity, heart and support mean the world to us and we are so excited to get working on a project we have planned to incorporate each and every one of you into to always remember how we were able to begin what will be a life-long mission in life for us.
With Love,
The O'Neals