Yay for Kind-hearted People!

I caught this facial expression of Jude the other night and thought it summed up this phase of life that he is in right now as a 3 year old. He gives me this look often if he thinks I've asked something ridiculous of him... you know, like if I've suggested it might be his nap time or time to come in from playing, or in this instance I had suggested that he play with a "girl" across the street! "Come on mom! You've gotta be kidding me?!"

That being said... I might just have had this facial expression a couple times myself here lately. But in a good way! Like when my neighbor, the same one who has the little girl that I suggested Jude play with, handed me a gift card for a one hour massage, just as a kind gesture! I mean, seriously?! (And I'll have you know that I literally had just told Joshua the night before how awesome it would be, that one day when we had a little extra money sitting around, a great way to show his undying love for me would be to buy me a massage package!) And when a complete stranger that came to our yard sale last week handed us her business card and said she was a photographer and would like to do our family photo's for free! What?! Really what this is, is the face of disbelief. That what you just heard seems almost silly because you didn't see it coming. I love moments like these because it once again reminds me how God works through other's and blesses us along the way.

So today is a good day in the Helms house because, #1 we had those free family photo's taken this morning by a new found friend, who generously offered her talent on our behalf! We'll be able to use these photo's too for our dossier! And I'd just like to add here how freeing it was to not drag around a tripod and set the timer on the camera while begging Jude to keep looking at the blinking light! Yes I love photography... but it's pretty darn nice to have someone else snapping away when I'm required to be in the picture! I'll post the pics once we get them, I'm excited!

Today is also a good day because #2,  I'm using that wonderful gift card for a massage in about an hour! Wahoo! I haven't had a massage since before Jude was born and I'm so looking forward to this! An hour of relaxation, here I come!

So a big thank you to kind hearted people that go out of their way to bless other's! Now my plan is to do the same for someone this week and pay it forward!

Hanging onto the "Rope"

Over the past three weeks, I've found myself, many times, feeling like Jude and Jake in this picture. Navigating my way through a spider web of paper chasing of documents for our dossier, organizing important fundraisers, home study requirements and meetings, and just LIFE! AND just like the boys, I've been hanging on for dear life hoping to make it through it all without falling flat on my face! The great news is.... it's all coming together! God is so good- He's totally been the "rope" I'm hanging on and trusting in this journey! When I've felt overwhelmed and like I was about to fall through a hole in the web, I've been continually reminded to just hang on! He's faithful and trustworthy and He's leading the way.

So here's where we're at in the process as of now...

Our home study report is being written up and hopefully we'll be able to review it and send it off to AGCI to be reviewed maybe by next week sometime?! Our in-home meeting with "B", our social worker, went really well! She is full of insightful information regarding children that are coming from an orphanage and the differences in raising Jude compared to our next child. And truthfully, while I feel somewhat ill equipped to know how to handle it all- I trust that God's grace is given according to need, and he will prepare Joshua and I along the way!

Our dossier is almost complete! We are waiting on our FBI prints to come back in. Because we had a heads up that the wait has been up to 14 weeks long, we tried to be ahead of the game and we mailed off our request at the beginning of August... so I'm hopeful that we'll have our prints back within a couple weeks! Also, we're waiting on our passports to come back in and I think that they should arrive around the same time as the FBI prints. Other than that, besides our two reference letters for our dossier (that are on the way) we have all the required documents collected! I have been one determined mama to knock this sucker out as quick as possible so I didn't have it hanging over my head! I've managed to collect it all in about 4 weeks... now I just need to wait to get the two documents back.

That being said... here's our next prayer request. Once our home study report is approved with AGCI we are then able to turn in our dossier. BUT we are also required to turn in our next chunk of money totaling $5,000 at that time too! I know, take a breath with me- it's a lot of money, I get that. We have paid all the fees for documents to be gathered so far for our dossier and we have paid our home study in full already, which leaves us with $1,473.08 in savings as of now. So our prayer request would be that the funding of the remaining $3,527 would come in in God's timing.

We continue to plan on doing our part in bringing in any extra income whenever and where ever we can and we continue to seek God's guidance in how we can do that! We plan on doing another yard sale at the end of October with the remaining items we had from this past weekend's sale and including any other donated items people might be willing to give. I just got an email yesterday asking if I'd be willing to lifeguard for the Toyota US Open Triathlon of the Life Time Fitness Triathlon Series coming up on October 10th. It pays $100 (which I probably would have done for free honestly because I get to work with the Coast Guard- how awesome is that?! I'm a dork when it comes to water safety if you haven't already figured that out), and so every little bit helps! We are still doing the Just Love Coffee fundraiser,  the Worthy of the Prize Auction, the Chosen Child T-shirts, the Chosen Child Band, and the Chosen Necklace sales as well.

So here's the deal.. it might just turn out that we have an approved home study and completed dossier sitting in front of us, BUT that we can't turn it in because the funds aren't there to accompany it. And while that sucks truthfully... I have to be okay with that and trust that it's God's timing. He has been faithful to provide for each step along the way so far in His perfect timing, so I trust Him again with this. The hardest part about the thought of not being able to turn everything in is the fact that we can't be put on the wait list until it is. As of now, the timeframe we've been given from AGCI from wait list until referral (for a boy 0-12 months old) is 10 months minimum. So obviously the sooner we're able to be put on the list, the better. It's the whole "hurry up and wait" thing really. So... once again, I lay over any agenda I might  have and trust that God's got this thing figured out. But you're prayers that funding would be there around the same time that the dossier and home study are complete would be much appreciated! (o;

So, that's that in the Helms house as of now! Our prayer is that God would continue to get the glory through out this journey and that we would be obedient and faithful along the way! Thank you for your encouragement and support!

Garage Sale Success!!!

Setting up at 5AM on Friday in the dark

My amazing mama, up bright and early to help... thank you!

Jeff (our neighbor) earned some major points in our book for coming outside at 5AM to help set up! We owe you big time Jeff! 

All the kids toys lined up on the sidewalk

Daylight! My partner in crime... LOVE him! Joshua secretly must work in retail, because he was selling clothes like a mad man! 

From about 6:45AM until 11:15AM the people just kept pouring in! 

My wonderful parents were such a help!

The next morning we woke up at 6:30AM to pouring rain and we were sure no one would show up, BUT we were wrong!  6:45AM rolled around and we had our first faithful buyer! We left everything inside the garage just the way we had pulled it all in from the night before and we just let people rummage through boxes. They didn't seem to care a bit! Notice my sweet hubby... he would go meet people at their car with an umbrella and walk them in- such a gentleman! 

I looked out the front door at one point and saw this! The guy literally drove off with this couch hanging out of his car just like this! I'm pretty sure he probably got pulled over at some point! 

Alright, are you ready for this?! Even with one day being rainy all day long we managed to bring in $2121 total in Yard Sale Proceeds!!! Can you believe this?! Such a blessing! We were amazed at the turn out and the success! We want to thank everyone again who donated items for the sale, gave of their time, purchased items at the sale, and stopped by to show their support! We couldn't have done this without ya'll! 


On another note, we had our in-home home study on Sunday and it went super well! I'll post next about that! Stay tuned!

The Time Has Come! Our Adoption Yard Sale is HERE!

I just put Jude down for his afternoon nap and I have a split second to write, before getting back to pricing and organizing the last load of things that was just dropped off for the Yard Sale! Guess what?!... The time has come to get this ball rolling!!! So much generosity, preparation, organization,  and time have been put into this sale and tomorrow and Saturday we're praying it pays off! Just incase you've been living under a rock and haven't heard my many annoying updates- This weekend, Friday 24th and Saturday 25th, starting at 7AM on both days, at 8205 Sonnet Drive McKinney TX 75071, we're going to be selling a ton of donated items and 100% of the proceeds are going towards our adoption costs! 

We have already been blessed by early "buyers" off of Craigslist and have made a profit of $555 before the sale even begins!!! We've taken some of that money and put it back into the yard sale to have donuts, coffee, hot dogs, and drinks at the sale along with the some of the costs in making the signs & cards. But seriously, what a great start!

My prayer is that God would just show up this weekend! In ways that I can't imagine. I pray that He shows up in conversations with strangers, and that we would represent Him well. I pray for generous hearts and that He would provide in amazing ways, like He did in multiplying the fish and bread for the five thousand in Matthew 14.  I pray that hearts might be opened to adoption and the truth of God's love for the orphans would be evident. I pray that the items we're selling would bless others in need and come as an answered prayer to them as well. I pray for awesome weather! I pray that ultimately we would tell the story He is writing in lives well and that He would get the glory in it all. 

We would be so grateful for your prayers as well! It's going to be two pretty early mornings, the game plan is to be up by 4AM and setting stuff out by 5AM... so pray that we don't fall asleep! Oh how wonderful it would be if we were able to sell EVERYTHING!?!

To top off an already super busy weekend, we have our Home Study meeting on Sunday afternoon where our caseworker, "B",  is coming to our house- so after the sale, some serious cleaning and baby proofing is going to be going down in the Helms house! Say a little prayer for Joshua because he's not super enthusiastic about cleaning and I'm hoping he choses to have a happy heart about it all! (o;

How it's unfolding- His timeline thus far!

So I have a "timeline" page on the side of the blog that I highly doubt anyone ever notices or looks at... I wish I could have a different layout for our blog design where I could put tabs at the top to direct people to the main "umph" of this journey, but I can't. So for now, the hard to notice, "How it's unfolding so far" link will have to do. BUT... just to catch everyone up real quick on only the factual milestones we've hit so far, here you have it! Keep in mind our calendar is chalked full of all the emotional blessings we've received and all the details of generosity as well! That being said, even just looking at the nitty gritty met requirements and paperwork turned in bring me to tears as it's so stinking evident God is unfolding this story right before our eyes!

September 20: Mailed off Power of Attorney to get state certified. Mailed off application for passports.

September 17: Notarized our Power of Attorney

September 16: Notarized copies of our birth cert's for HS. Met with "B" our home study social worker and handed over all the important doc's she needed to start our home study! LOVED her! 

September 13: Dossier Walk-thru webinar

September 12: Passport pictures taken

September 10: Hilary's doctor appointment needed for dossier, notarized

September 9: Bright Dreams International home study agency finally was approved as a cooperating agency with AGCI, we can move forward!

September 8: Ordered Birth Certificates

September 7: Ordered marriage license

August 31: Purchased the required online education courses, cost: $172

August 30: Heard from AGCI, still working on getting Bright Dreams International approved as a cooperating agency. Can't do our dossier run-through call until that is taken care of. Praying.

August 29: Began our required education "Eyes Wide Open" workbook... it's gonna take awhile!

August 27: Received Adoption Planner (aka The Big Hefty): Includes everything we need to gather for our dossier and allows us to begin the paper chase!

August 25: AGCI Received our Orientation Packet/Contract and it's all good!

August 23: Mailed in all our notarized Orientation Packet/Contract to AGCI with our $7390 check

August 21: Got all Orientation Paperwork notarized

August 20: Had our AGCI Orientation call

August 16: Orientation Packet Arrived!

August 11: Found out we needed to change home study agencies. Hoping for Bright                                   Dreams International- the two agencies are getting the paperwork together to see if they can make Bright Dreams a cooperating agency.

August 5: Officially Approved with AGCI

August 4: Mailed in FBI fingerprints

August 3: Joshua and I got our FBI fingerprints taken

July 30: Mailed in our Official Application with AGCI with $300 application fee

July 29: Met our goal of having $6000 in savings in order to start the process!

All of June: Raised money

May 10: Sent out update letters letting other's know what God was doing in our lives

April 14: Asked AGCI how much we should have saved up before turning in official application. Recommended over $6k. Start thinking creatively on how to come up with that kind of money!

April 8: AGCI approval for the pre-application

March 25:  Joshua and I both felt like God laid Adoption on our hearts at the same time on this night.

Check this out!!!!

I almost forgot to tell you about this awesome Adoption Auction that Worthy of the Prize is hosting for it's adopting families that it partners with!!! Check it out... it'll be just in time for Christmas purchases! 

Seeing the light at the end of the tunnel!

It's a week before our mega Adoption Yard Sale and you want to hear something awesome?!?.... We've already made $470 before the sale even begins! Wahoo! I decided to post the sale on several online free classifieds late last week, Craigslist being one of them. Well just from that post, we were able to sell an armoire, fridge, lawn mower, and kid's rocking chair = $470!!! Which also means less stuff for us to have to drag out on the mornings of the sale! A true blessing if you ask Joshua! Oh but don't fret, we still have some great things for the sale! A gas dryer, tons of kids toys and necessities, clothes (from baby to adult), poker table, home decor, bikes... yadda yadda- the list goes on!

Another pretty cool thing that has come of this are the people we've met who have bought the stuff! Truly, it's been a blessing to have incredible people buy the things we've sold so far! We've been encouraged and blessed by our encounters with complete strangers! We're getting ready to meet a gal today actually who is dropping off several totes worth of home decor for our sale. She saw our post promoting the yard sale on Craigslist and said she wanted to help and donate some things in support of our adoption! LOVE this! God is using strangers to bring this kiddo home!

On the paper chase side of things, everything is coming along! We were able to get our power of attorney notarized yesterday and I'll send one of the copies off to get state certified on Monday. We filled out our passport applications today and will get those in the mail too. I met with "B" our home study social worker on Thursday and I LOVE her! I was able to have my first little interview with her and hand over all the documents she was needing for the home study. She'll be coming out to our place next Sunday to meet the whole family, including my mom, dad and sis! I genuinely am looking forward to meetings with her- there is something very therapeutic about her that I just love (it might be the fact that she has an awesome South African accent that I truly could listen to all day long!). I'm going to be bummed when our home study is complete and we're not required to meet with her! (o; We're still knocking out our required education one night at time, The Eyes Wide Open workbook will not get the best of us.. just our aching hands! We have one more online course to finish up and we'll be done with that!

So it looks like we almost have everything checked off the list that we have to order and take care of when it comes to our dossier documents! Joshua still needs to get in for his physical and have it notarized, but other than that, it's just waiting on getting back the things we've requested... our recommendation letters, copies of our birth certificates, state certified power of attorney, and our FBI checks to come back! I just sighed because I actually see the light at the end of the tunnel!

I'm still praying for balance in it all because the juggling act of life, adoption, and fundraising is still a bit tricky. I keep telling myself that this is just for a season of our lives and once we have our home study and dossier turned in and are put on the wait list I will be able to breathe again!