Big Thank You!

Here is a list of our donations and the donors for the auction we are having on Sunday night at 6pm at Christ Church in Santa Fe. Thank you everyone! If you want to come to the dinner and auction, leave a comment and I can tell you more about it.

Chef Danny Hernandez for cooking our meal

Santa Fe Baking Co. 200 brownies & iced tea for our meal

Christ Church Santa Fe for the building

Kokopelli Properties, 3 night stay in Angel Fire

Santa Fe Baby Rentals $200 worth of baby rentals

Chocolate Maven for 50 brownies for our meal

Glen Stock - Painting

Roark Griffin - Painting

George Stumpff – Painting

Jim Gensheer - Painting

Laura Herndon – Painting and handmade soap

Deborah Robinson - Paintings

Tim Wiford -  Sculpture

Santa Fe Web Programming 8 hours of web work

 Di Gibbs singing at our event

Anthony Bianchini singing at our event

Laura Herndon & Jason Couillard for singing at our event

 Derek Cunningham for Roadrunner Air Conditioning, Heating, 

and Refrigeration 1 yr swamp cooler service

Mommy’s Market presale passes

Sunoak Partin – Art

 Antigua – Collectables, Vintage, etc. for Mexican bracelet

 High Desert Angler half day 2 person fly fishing trip

The Feed Bin for bird feeding basket

Jason Reid for 2 Dallas Cowboys Tickets

Jared Carse for hotel accommodations for Cowboys tickets

Carol Bernal for handmade pillow cases

 Barb Ames for a print and a painting

Jason Couillard – Personal tax return

Donna Ware – Jewelry

Maggie Gensheer – Jewelry

Candyman Music Store for a guitar

Dirk and Carol Novosad - rug and lamps

Al and Melanie Dillard - purse, jewelry, silverware, and more

Starbucks for 3 bags of coffee

Chuck’s Nuts Confections for $65 gift certificate

Jinja Bar and Bistro for gift card

Jennifer Squires for pet sitting

Susan Hickok for fashion accessories

Jake Brenner for manual labor gift card

David and Pam Anderson for signed books

Alan Keohane for canvas photo

Bruce Silsby (Desert People) for Moroccan goods

Cynthia Bowers for painting

Linda Herndon for print

Andrew Grassmick for MadCap Coffee

MariAnne Ban for truffles

Maggie Gensheer for jewelry

Nancy Hooker for handmade baby blanket

Santa Fe Youth for serving us at the event

Let's Here It For Santa Fe Baking Company!!!

I was told today that Santa Fe Baking Company donated 200 brownies for our Silent Auction!!!! And iced tea for 200 people!! Who does that? If you are in the area, you should go check them out. Their address is 504 W Cordova in Santa Fe. And you can look at their website here. You can mention that you appreciate their support of local adoptions!!

Twisted, Ugly, Beautiful

I got a very exciting text from Heather at Adoptions Plus (our agency), today. She told me that Elsie and Ki's mom relinquished her parental rights yesterday! This means that she appeared before a judge and gave up her rights as a parent! And while I am really excited that we are moving in the right direction and that God is paving the way...I'm kind of sad too.
I'm sad for the mama. I'm not 100% sure yet, but I think she is doing this because she loves those kids. Can you imagine getting to that point? Can you imagine contemplating at night while the kids sleep how you are going to provide enough food for everyone and then coming to the conclusion that if you want all of them to live, you have got to give some of them away. And after hugging them close, walking them to an orphanage you've heard will take good care of them? Then, as if that nightmare isn't enough, having to appear in court before a judge and give away all your power over those children? That is what Mama U had to do over the past weeks and days. I hurt for her. I hurt for the other children in the family who don't have their baby brother and sister anymore.
I'm sad for those two precious babies too. They don't know exactly how their lives are changing but they know they are. And it is not what they want. They haven't seen their mama U for weeks now. And while they are getting more food, they ache for home. They loved that floor they used to crawl on. They long for those familiar voices singing and talking around them. They are waiting for her to come walking in. But she is not coming.
And the only good news in this whole deal is that we are coming. We all know I'm not going to look like mama U. And I'm not going to cook like mama U, or smell like mama U, or sound like her either. But, I'm coming. And I'm going to scoop those babies up and love them with all my heart. And I'm going to teach them all I know, and wipe away their tears, and give them my eyes, and provide for them the best I can. And they will get our name too. They are going to be Grassmicks very soon. The youngest of our clan. And not only do they get me and the best daddy in the universe, they will get big-sister-second-mommy Emma, and teach-them-the-rules Johnny, and I'll-make-you-smile Annie, and ya-wanna-save-the-world-with-me? Anderson. And we are going to be a family. A family that looks to Jesus to provide what we need and even what we want sometimes too.
I know a new family isn't what Elsie and Ki want right now. But it is what they need.
And at the end of a sad day for mama U, God is answering her selfless prayer. That there would be a family to take these beauties home and do with them what she can't. And I get to be apart of this twisted, ugly, beautiful story.

African Nation: No Kissing

I was doing my nightly check of Yahoo! tonight while we were watching the Olympics. I came across this news article. The title grabbed my attention: African Nation: No Kissing. When I clicked on it, I saw the name Uganda almost immediately. The next word I saw was Ebola. My stomach sank.
14 people have died from Ebola in Uganda over the past several weeks. They are getting it by basic human contact: handshaking, kissing, or in my mind: being held by someone and then sucking your thumb. My babies are in an orphanage in the capital city of Kampala. One victim of the disease was taken to a major hospital in Kampala. They are trying to control this. They have 24 workers that are in "isolation" because they may have come in contact with the virus. Please pray that this would not spread and that it won't take any more lives. And you know what I'm thinking...pray that it will stay far away from Elsie and Ki.
Lord, keep our babies safe tonight, and tomorrow, and the day after that...until we bring them home. Protect them. Hide them in You. Kill this virus, I know it is not of You. Bless Elsie and Ki with health and love and hope. Thank You for loving them more than I do.

Alan Keohane at Still Images

An amazing silent auction donation!! This one is from Alan Keohane at Still Images. You can check out more of his work here. He graciously donated this piece to help us raise money for this adoption. He have only met him once before. Thank you Alan!

Ait Haddidou girl with tattoo and make up

This photo is 3.5 feet by 4.5 feet and is on stretched canvas. 

Alan sells this piece for $1,200. Our starting bid will be $350.

If you are interested or know someone who might be, please send them our way. You can bid by leaving a comment below or by sending me an email. If you win the item, and are not local, you will be responsible for the shipping charges. The online bidding will end August 11 at midnight mountain time. We will announce the winner on Monday, August 13. Happy Bidding!

Thrice Gracious

What a difference a day makes! So, many amazing things are happening.

First of all, about 15 minutes after my soul-bearing post yesterday we got a call from someone near and dear to us asking if they could give us a $10,000 loan until after our scheduled August 12 fundraiser. Shocking. The stress of the day melted away. Getting this money ASAP means that my babies won't have to spend an extra day or an extra three weeks in an orphanage. What a load off. This one is the most amazing of the three and the best evidence that God is working to bring these babies here.

Men's and Kid's shirts

Women's fitted shirts

Second exciting thing is that several people that our adopting from Honduras are placing orders for our leftover Honduras Adoption t shirts...that we had just bought! We probably have close to 200 left, so if you are interested, let us know.  We are selling them at a reduced price and will pay the shipping. $15 a shirt and feel free to buy as many as you want. Someone said that they were going to give them as Christmas gifts! And if you want to buy the rest of what we have, we will sell them to you at an even more reduced price ($8 per shirt). It makes a great fundraiser. You can sell for $20 each which means you profit $12 per shirt. And you are promoting adoption!


The third, and the most feel good thing that has happened is that we just got our babies birthdays and names!!! The little girl actually only has a birth month documented so far. Maybe after some digging, the orphanage will be able to give us a day but as of now we know she was born in August 2010. And the little boy was born July 19, 2011. And before I spill the names, I'll give you a tiny bit of background just so I can drag this out a little smidge longer. :) From the beginning of the adoption process Jonathan and I were very open to keeping the kids' given names as long as they weren't really hard to pronounce. And we were always committed to keeping part of their names as a first or middle name. And after hearing their names we are going to keep both first names!!!! And we will figure out their middle names later. Our new little girl's name is Elsie!!!! Precious. It means Consecrated to God. And our youngest kid's name is Hezekiah. :) Which means God Gives Strength. We love them both. We aren't sure yet, but we are naturally name shorteners and we think we might call our son Ki (long i sound). So, we have Emma, Johnny, Annie, Anderson, Elsie, and Ki. Yeah!

So, we still need to keep praying for these babes. We want them to be safe and well fed and loved on often. Don't stop.

Duh

Miracles still do happen. Just sayin'.