Thank you!

A huge "thank you" to whoever donated recently to our Reece's Rainbow donation fund!  Another $100 dollars!  What a blessing!  With all the planning and costs right now as we prepare to make our first trip to Joseph's country, we are SO appreciate the financial support!  There is just SO much that goes into international adoption...and having generous people help with raising the ransom takes one more obstacle out of our way as we do all that we need to do to bring Joseph home. 

We leave in 1 1/2 weeks to meet our sweet boy!  Please, if you feel called to help our family, we would greatly appreciate a donation to our Reece's Rainbow account.  The full cost of our adoption will be around $25,000.  So far, all the costs that we've listed on the left hand side of our blog (a little over $8,000) are costs that we've paid on our own.  We will be taking all of our donated money and using that for all our agency fees that we still need to pay as well as getting Joseph's visa (that alone is $230), food and lodging for us in-country etc.  Plus, we'll still have our second trip to pick up our little man and with that will come all the costs of flights, food, lodging etc.   Please know how grateful we are for each and every donation and that your generous donations are going to be put to the best use possible to bring our little boy home!

I guess I'm just trying to say thank you!  And please continue to donate or let others know about our need so that we can raise what we need to bring our little man home to his family!  I know there are lots of things to spend money on right now...but I can't think of anything more important than saving the life of a little boy who needs a family....just sayin'   ;)

Travel Dates!!!

We got our travel dates!!  We'll be in our little man's country in 2 weeks!!

I'll be back here with more information as soon as I can.  Lots to do around here to prepare :)

Please pray for us...we have a lot of expenses right now as we book flights during the Christmas season (our flights are a lot more expensive than they would be any other time of the year), pay for food and lodging in-country as well as payments to our agency.  If you feel called to help our family with any of these upcoming costs as we prepare to meet our little boy, we would be so appreciative!

We are so incredibly excited....nervous and overwhelmed, of course, but still very excited!

Can't believe we finally get to meet him...  :)

Coupaide fundraising...

Its getting to be that time of year!  People are making gifts or purchasing things for their family members, teachers, neighbors etc.  Want an option for gift shopping AND donating to help bring an orphan home all in one purchase? 

We've started up a new fundraiser that might be of interest to people trying to get their Christmas shopping done while helping bring an orphan home as well!

On the top right hand side of our blog, we have a button for Coupaide.  If you click on that button, you will be brought to our fundraising page with them.  There you can register and purchase a restaurant gift certificate for $20.  The best part is that you only spend $20 but you actually get a restaurant certificate for $50 !!  Isn't that pretty sweet?  It gets even better!  Out of the $20 you pay, Coupaide gives us $10 of that!  Can't get much better than that! 

So, if your looking to get a little something for someone during this upcoming Holy Season...please consider a Coupaide Restaurant gift certificate.  It's a great deal and it also helps "the least of these" while your at it!  We would be so thankful!

Blessings,
The Perrys

Nature hikes and fort building...

"The Sense of Beauty comes from Early Contact with Nature."

-Charlotte Mason  (Vol 1, II, Out-Of-Door Life For The Children, p.68 )

"Children should be made early intimate with the trees, too; should pick out half a dozen trees, oak, elm, ash, beech, in their winter nakedness, and take these to be their year-long friends."
- Charlotte Mason (Vol 1, II, Out-Of-Door Life For The Children, p.52)

These are some pictures from a nature hike/woods day we spent a week or two ago...
The kids and I tend to be terrible at identifying trees (bugs we're great at...trees, not so much :) ) so we tried to work on that skill while we were out on our hike.  It was great to be out with the kids, exploring and observing.  I need to remind myself, eventhough I'm getting quite big and pregnant, how very much we all enjoy days like these!
Hopefully tomorrow we can get out for another day like this one.

Post coming soon about my boys and their trophy winning chickens :)  Yup, they actually won several first place blue ribbons and even a trophy at their chicken auction!  So proud of my little farmers :)

Fundraising Breakfast follow-up!

We finally had our Applebee's Fundraising Breakfast on Saturday!  This was definitely one of the most fruitful fundraisers we've done so far...we ended up raising a total of $1,212.00 at the breakfast!!
We were so thrilled!

Dan, the kids and I are so incredibly thankful.  To those that purchased tickets and came out to support us yesterday, to those that just bought tickets to help donate, to those that sold tickets for us or helped to promote our fundraiser...wow, we are just so blessed by you all!

Weekends are tough and everyone has busy schedules but there were many families with difficulties of their own that still made the time and effort to come out and support us.  And many families we had never even met that made the trip out to support this adoption.  Even those that not only bought tickets but donated extra to our adoption.  We could not be more thankful!  You all know who you are and we appreciate you all!

Our kids had such a great time waiting on tables and helping throughout the breakfast.  It was nice for them to have something concrete to do to help bring their brother home.  It was also nice to see so many people we hadn't seen in quite awhile as well as meet new people.

Here's a few pictures for Saturday...it was great that we were so packed with a great turnout and tons of running around and serving people but it also meant that we totally forgot to take our camera out until the last 15 min. or so of the breakfast.  So we were sad to not get pictures of all the families that came out...we would have liked to get more shots for an album for Joseph.   We'll just have to remember and tell him all about those that we didn't get pictures of ;)

 Here's a couple pictures at least...

Thank you again to all those that helped, purchased, volunteered, donated and prayed!
Adoption is so expensive and we couldn't do it without your help.  We thank God for all of you that helped make this breakfast a success.
God bless you!

donation and waiting...

Wanted to say "Thank you" to whoever the thoughtful person was that put another $50 in our Reece's Rainbow fund!  Thank you so very much for donating to this adoption.  We can't wait to get Joseph home and your donation will help with that.  Thank you for being so generous :)

Contacted our adoption agency contact yesterday and tried to find out why we haven't heard a single thing about our verbal referral.  Basically, we're still waiting.  Ugh.  Our agency was going to try contacting our in- country agency/facilitator (the agency and facilitator in Joseph's country) and at least get us an update of what's going on.  We'll see if we hear anything or not...

Our breakfast fundraiser in this Saturday...hoping to raise lots of funds to bring our little man home!
I'll post pictures and info. about how it went after the breakfast!

Thank you

A big "Thank you" to the person who recently donated to our Reece's Rainbow fund!
It is so great to look at our fund going up...we so appreciate every single donation!  Thank you for thinking of us and for sacrificing to help bring Joseph home.  You will be in our prayers.

We will be having our Applebee's Fundraising breakfast next Saturday...only a week away!  If anyone would like tickets, please email me.  We're hoping to sell even more in the next couple of days.

Have a very blessed weekend!

Loss

A special woman,  Barbara Curtis , has passed away.  We are praying for her soul and for comfort for her whole family right now.

Barbara was an extraordinary person...she wrote amazing Montessori teaching books, kept people up to date with political news on her blog and raised 12 children....4 of which were children with Down Syndrome (one she was blessed with naturally and three she adopted.)  She was an adoption and Down Syndrome advocate...I know this because we were blessed by her early on in our adoption journey in a way that was probably little to her but incredibly big to me.  She was the first person to donate to our adoption chip-in on our blog.  It was only $25 but to me it was the world.  Barbara Curtis, well known author, had cared enough to help with our adoption.  I was just a little bit awe struck that someone so well known would even know about us.  I didn't realize at the time that she was such a Reece's Rainbow supporter.  She encouraged us and gave us a great start to this adoption.  Her thoughtfulness moved me.  Her small act of kindness at the very start of this adoption and her kind words in a thoughtful email just seemed to bring us such hope and encouragement.  I can't really put how I feel into words.  I cried a lot yesterday...I've come to realize that that was just how she was...with so many people.  You need only read the comments and heartfelt sympathy notes to her family to realize she touched others' lives whenever she could.  She will be greatly missed.

I pray for all those that will greatly be feeling the loss of Barbara.  Please join our family in praying for her soul and for her beloved family that is mourning her loss.

May the souls of the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace.
Amen.