Pizza Kit Fundraiser a success

I just got off the phone with our Adoption Agency and was asking questions about time frames and the wait process. I guess I didn't realize how long this was really going to take. I'm sure if we had the money right now, we would already have her, but that's not the case. If we send in our Dossier the end of January, we should get our referral in about 6 to 8 months. Ahhhh that's Summer! I was thinking more like Spring. I know God knows what he is doing and He already has our child hand picked for us, but why does it have to take so long??? On a good note...it gives us time to save more money.

Speaking of $$...Haley just finished her Pizza Kit Fundraiser and raised about $300. I'm so proud of her. On January 29, 2011 we are having another Fundraiser at Outback Steakhouse in Grandville, MI. Outback is blessing us by donating their time to help us out. Let me know if you would like to come...tickets are $15 a person.

Fundraisers

We are in full force with our Fundraisers for this adoption. Haley is selling Little Caesars Pizza Kits and is doing really well. This is our last week so if you want to help out, I'll post the link at the end of this post. In January we are having our Outback Steakhouse Fundraiser. More details will follow in the next couple of weeks. I have to admit that this is really hard for us...asking for help. Setting pride aside has been difficult at best however; we know the sooner we can save and raise the funds necessary- the sooner we can head to Africa to meet our daughter- this makes us push forward with vigor and excitement. Thanks for your prayers and assistance- we are grateful! Blessings to all of you.

http://www.pizzakit.com/product.aspx
Fundraiser ID #213448

I'm back

I'm back and ready to start writing. Sorry I took so long to post another entry. Many of you know it's been a little crazy here in the Simcox Home. My Dad was diagnosed with Stage 4 Rectal Cancer the end of July and had surgery to insert his port for Chemo and other details that I won't go into. My Dad and Mom drive down to Zion, IL to the Cancer Center for treatments once a month. He's there for 6 days and has 5 days of Chemo for 6 hours. I do have a little story I would like to share with you. After my Dad's surgery, the Dr. asked us to try and wake him up, so I asked him the names of his children and he named all four of us with no problem...I little bit of slurring, but that's to be expected. Then I asked him to name his grandchildren and he named all 5 kids. This is how he said it..."My Princess (Haley), Joshua, Caleb, Isaiah Charles and my little Ethiopian Grandchild." Even with his eyes closed he still remembered. That meant the world to me. It gave me the hope that he is strong enough to fight this. He wants so bad to be there for his grandchildren. My Haley adores her Papa. He takes her shopping and buys her gumballs, they go for long walks and look for golf balls and he likes to rub her feet when she sleeps over. Just last night she asked Brent to rub her feet, but stopped him because he wasn't doing it like Papa. Please pray for healing and that this tumor will dry up and blow away.

Our adoption is going well. We are finally all done with our Homestudy and now were just trying to finish our Dossier. Haley started a fundraiser selling pizza kits through Little Caesars and sold quite a few already. I will let everyone know when our Fundraiser is with Outback Steakhouse. Now that we have to go twice to Ethiopia, it's going to cost quite a bit more, but we are confident that God will provide. Continue to pray for our journey.

Blessings

Recently I've been reflecting on all the blessings we've had since our announcement on our adoption. Here's just a few...

-Garage Sale Success/Donations from Neighbors and Friends
-The little girl down the street who sat on my garage floor and emptied out her wallet in our donation jar
-The family down the street who gave from their hearts
-The friend who sent money with a personal note
-The friend who spent way too much money at our garage sale
-The constant reminders from friends and family that they are praying
-The friend who gave money from their garage sale
-The friend who walked over and put money in our donation jar
-The friend who donated her time and money

I am overwhelmed with tears. God Bless each and everyone of you. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Thoughts from Haley

I AM REALLY EXCITED ABOUT HAVING A LITTLE BABY GIRL IN THE HOUSE! I WISH TIME WOULD GO BY FAST SO THAT WE CAN HAVE A LITTLE BABY IN THE HOUSE! MY MOM AND DAD TELL ME IT IS A PROCESS IN TIME AND I TRUST IN JESUS TO PUT A BABY IN OUR HANDS! I TRUST THAT HE WILL MAKE THE BABY HEALTHY AND I TRUST IN HIM TO HELP US FIGURE OUT A NAME FOR THIS PRECIOUS BABY!!

THANK YOU FOR ALL THE TRUST AND COURAGE

HALEY!!!

Thoughts

My mind is racing right now and I'm starting to feel overwhelmed with all the paperwork that goes into the adoption process. Why does there have to be so much? It's like buying a house, except when you buy a house you get all the paperwork done within a matter of minutes, this is taking forever. Maybe it's because it's spread out. Will it ever end?

As we finish up our Home Study reading, I'm starting to think about the money. Why does it have to be so expensive? How many fundraisers will we have to do? Will people actually come to our fundraisers? I feel excited and scared all at the same time. I can only trust that God will take care of the details.

Race...why does it have to be an issue? Yes, my child will be black. I am white and I have so many friends who are not. To me, color is beautiful. What would this world be like if it was just one color? Boring. God loves color and that's why our world is so beautiful. I used to sing this song growing up and some of the words are... "red and yellow, black and white we are all precious in His sight." I never knew what that really meant until just recently. My little girl, my precious angel will be the most beautiful little girl and she will be embraced with so much love that her heart will be overflowing. I love her so much and I haven't even met her yet. It breaks my heart that people look at the color of someones skin rather than their heart. I'm sure God is disappointed at how the world has turned out and I think He is sad at the fact that the people/human beings He has created made race/color an issue. I know that sin is a huge part of why this world is falling apart, but I think it's OK to still desire peace and love between all people. My passion and desire in life is to please my Lord and Savior, so that when I am standing before Him, He says..."Well done."

"May God hold you in His hand until I can be with you.
I promise you, my darling, I'm doing all that I can do."

Matthew 18:5
And whoever welcomes a little child like this in my name welcomes me.

Psalm 68:6
God sets the lonely in families.

Fundraiser ideas

"God will provide all of our needs." That is what I keep telling myself as we journey into this new adventure. We have been talking about how to raise funds for this adoption and we've come up with several ideas. We are having an Adoption Garage Sale this weekend and if anyone is willing to donate items you can please email me at as4u2praise@yahoo.com. We are also thinking about a silent auction later in the summer, a car wash and our last idea is a fundraiser through a local restaurant. This is going to be a very busy summer for the Simcox Family. Already I find myself not sleeping at night because I'm thinking too much about what we have to do. The devil loves to tell me that "it's not going to work out, your family won't support you, you're in way over your head, you're never going to have a baby, what are you thinking" and etc. Everyday I have to pray to get those thoughts out of my head because I know that my God is good and that adoption is part of His plan for us. God will supply all of our needs, we do have the support of family and friends, I am not in way over my head because God is in control, God has already chosen a child for our family, and I know exactly what I am thinking. I know that God designed me to be a Mom and that even though having a baby on our own is very difficult, God knows what's best for me and He knows the desires of my heart. I trust my God and I am so excited to see what God is going to do.

So our Journey begins

I remember as a child wondering what my children would look like and how many I would have. I couldn't wait to get pregnant so that I could feel the baby move inside of me. I never dreamed that I would have problems conceiving a child, because childhood dreams never reveal infertility and disappointments. I married the man of my dreams in 1992 and in 1995 I started infertility treatments. I gave up in 1998 thinking I would never conceive a child and then surprise! In 1999, our beautiful daughter Haley was born. I enjoyed every second of my pregnancy knowing that I had waited so long to feel this baby. 1 year after she was born, I never imagined that my infertility would start all over again. It's been 10 years now and my journey with infertility, doctors and surgery is over. My body can't do it anymore and the disappointments are too great. I have always thought about adoption, but was too scared to talk about it. I knew I would have more children, so I decided I was going to wait for the miracle, but not long after I decided to wait, adoption was brought up again and my heart started to feel different. Brent has always known my desire to fill our home, so he agreed to learn more about the adoption process. After months of meetings and talking with friends who have adopted and praying for wisdom, we both felt lead to an African/American Adoption. Our friends Chris and Lynnae adopted a beautiful little girl from Ethiopia and while visiting with them, we fell in love. After leaving their house we looked at each other and we both knew what the other was thinking. Ethiopia! We thought..."how can we do this?" We had our minds made up and now our plans were going in a totally different direction. What was God doing? Why Ethiopia? Were we ready for this? After praying and talking together, we knew that this was where God was leading. We sat down with Haley and shared what God was doing and she was thrilled. The first thing she said was..."Can I go?" She has walked this journey with us for so long; holding my hand during a procedure, crying with me when it didn't work and giving me words of wisdom that only a child could give. Of course she could go. We are TEAM SIMCOX and we will walk this journey together.

In March with our hearts beating with excitement and our hands shaking, we sent in our official paperwork for adoption and on April 28 we turned in our Formal Home Study Application. This new adventure is very scary, but exciting. One of the agents at the adoption agency said that this process will be like a paper pregnancy. Same feelings, but without the stretch marks. For fun, I put hangers in the baby's room and I felt that same feeling when I was pregnant with Haley. It was wonderful. My God is so good. He knows what's best for me and He knew that I would love this baby even though she didn't come from me.

We are looking forward to what God has in store for us and to see the miracles that He is going to do.

We are praying for our little girl, that she will be born healthy, we are praying for our financial adoption needs and we are praying for a smooth transition.