Time for an update

Things have been crazy around here! A good kind of crazy though. We signed with our adoption agency and we put together a book all about our family. This book will be what birth mothers will look at when considering us as a potential family for their child. It is a very exciting feeling to be moving forward in this process. God has been so good and faithful to us during this journey. It's been a wonderful experience for our whole family so far!

We are really gearing up for our garage sale. We have been gathering donations like crazy. Terrance and I have been so blessed by the generosity we have experienced! Our garage is looking like something straight from a hoarders show but we could not be more thrilled. Check out this photo of our garage I took today. I think Terrance and I need to do some organizing this weekend!

Truthfully, it is impossible for us to have too many donations. The bigger our yard sale is the better. We are praying for great weather and lots of shoppers that day! We could still use more volunteers to help at the sale. Please let me know if you are interested in coming to help out (plus breakfast and coffee will be provided for those early morning helpers). And kids are invited to come hang out too.

Terrance and I were super shocked when we got an email from a sweet gal, Jamie, that we met at the Ramsey family's adoption fundraiser. Jamie has recently started up an adoption group here in Clarksville. It's goal is to provide information for those considering adoption and support for families who have adopted. Anyway, she emailed me to let us know that she was able to get a booth at the Rivers and Spires festival coming up in April. And get this, she wants to do a fundraiser for our family!!! How amazing is that?  If you are not familiar with Rivers and Spires it is a huge, free festival in downtown Clarksville. There are lots of family friendly activities and events. It's a lot of fun! The plan for the fundraiser at Rivers and Spires is to have a bake sale. All the proceeds made from this bake sale at the Clarksville Family Adoption Group's booth will go to support our adoption. Since Rivers and Spires is such a big event (over 3,000 people are expected this year) a ton of baked goods are going to be needed. If you have any interest in baking up some individually wrapped snacks or goodies for this event please let me know.

Like I said earlier, God has been so good to us. He has worked out so many details for us. It's amazing to me how much has come together so quickly. One more amazingly, wonderful thing the Lord has done: We met with a lawyer last week that was at the Ramsey's fundraiser. She has offered her services to us for free. Yes, FREE! We will be able to finalize the adoption in Tennessee and only pay the court fees. This has helped cut back on some of our expenses. Isn't God great?!?! We are on our way to being fully funded. I am excited to see what's around the next corner. Thank you for keeping us in your prayers.

-Mandy

Garage Sale Fundraiser

We’re having a garage sale!  On Friday, April 13 and Saturday, April 14 we will be firmly planted in our driveway and would love if you would join us! And of course, all proceeds from the sale will go to benefit the adoption.  We have already been steadily receiving donations (a big thank you shout out to all our wonderful donors!!!) and would love to help you get rid of some of your stuff, too.  So, if you have anything we are completely willing to take it off your hands.  Interested in volunteering your time?  We are also going to need help in other areas.

·         We need people to help set-up, tear-down, and work the sale. 

·         We will also be holding a bake sale in conjunction with our garage sale and will of course need baked goods. 

·         We will need tables, tables and more tables. If you have a one, two, or a few you could spare for a weekend we could use them!

·         Donations, donations, donations!!! I know we said it once, but we will say it again! We are filling up our garage and will be happy to take your stuff off your hands! J

If you would like to volunteer or donate you can email us at avery87@gmail.com or just leave a comment.

Terrance and Mandy

Tenfold

Hey everyone! Terrance here, just wanted to give you an update on the adoption.
We've had a few pretty big things happen for us over the last couple of weeks.  First, we found out this week that we have been accepted by a wonderful agency. We are one step closer in this long journey, praise the Lord!

Now for a ridiculously incredible story... 
On Valentines Day, Mandy and I went to a benefit dinner for a family here in Clarksville, the Ramsey's, who are adopting from Ethiopia (you can read about them here ).  The tickets to the dinner were $50 per person.  Why would we pay $100 to help someone out when we're trying to fund an adoption?? Well, we truly feel that if we believe we are called to adopt and want people to support us, then we should also support those in our situation.  During the dinner, another family shared their adoption experience (Jeremy and Kelly Bullock...wonderful people) and the Ramsey's also spoke about what brought them to their decision to adopt.  After their presentation, the MC started talking about a young couple who was just starting the whole adoption process.  The Ramsey's wanted to give them a bit of financial support, even though the whole point of the evening was for the Ramsey's to fund their own adoption.  The Ramsey's gave this young family $1,000 to aid in their adoption.  And wouldn't ya know it, that young family was US!!  We were completely taken by surprise!  It was a pretty amazing lesson in faithfulness. Kelly Bullock pointed out that the Lord blessed us tenfold!  We are beyond thankful to the Ramsey's are excited to see what else will amaze us during this whole process.

We still have a long way to go before we meet our overall fundraising goal.  Mandy and I feel that we are supposed to do this thing debt-free so we will need all the help and support we can get.  It sounds ridiculous, but if nothing else, we've learned to rely on the Lord for provision.  With that being said, if you have any spectacular fundraising ideas, feel free to pass that information along.  We have a few things coming up (mainly our garage sale this spring) and can't tell you how much appreciate all the support and prayer we've already received.

-Terrance

A Great Week

What a wonderful week it was in the Avery home. Our  home study was completed on Wednesday! Hallelujah!!!!! It was the perfect 25th birthday present for my birthday on Thursday.  I can hardly begin to count my blessings from the past year and I can only imagine what God has in store for year 25.

We also were able to set up a new fundraiser for the adoption this week. It is www.justlovecoffee.com/averyfamilyadoption. This amazing coffee company was founded by a couple who adopted and wanted to create a way to ease the financial burden on adoptive families and make a difference in the villages where this coffee is produced. With every purchase from the link above, a portion goes to our adoption and back into the villages for clean drinking water. How cool is that? Below is a video explaining a little more of what they are all about.

Thank you all the love and support we have received so far. We are truly blessed beyond measure!

Love, Mandy



The Heart of Coffee from Just Love Coffee Roasters on Vimeo.

A Little Birthday Fun!

In honor of my 25th birthday I am offering up the coupon code HAPPY25 for 25% off my etsy shop. This will be available for 24 hours, so hurry!!! This is good for custom orders too. Don't forget that all proceeds go to fund our adoption!

www.etsy.com/shop/averydesignboutique

Here we go...

Welcome to the Avery family blog!!!  We are so excited to get this blog started and to share some really exciting news with everyone.  WE ARE ADOPTING!!!!!  Yes, you heard right.  ADOPTING!  Let me start from the beginning. A few months ago both Terrance and I felt that God had laid it on our hearts to look into the adoption process.  We started researching and we soon found that the God was making it abundantly clear to us that adoption wasn’t just something to look into for some time in the future. We felt that He was urging us to move forward with the process NOW.

                Fast forward two months and here we are. Terrance and I are totally in awe of how quickly this process has come together for us. Lucas is beyond excited to have a new baby brother or sister as well! We are currently in the home study process and are praying over which adoption agency or facilitator to use.  We truthfully thought the beginning steps would take much longer, but God has been faithful in opening doors for us (and closing them when necessary).  The biggest obstacle we thought we would face was finding an agency or facilitator that would be willing to work with a military family, as many are wary of the deployment schedule for the majority of military families.  We have been so blessed to be in contact with several facilitators and agencies that are more than willing to work with us.  As of right now one has stood out from the rest, but we have chosen to wait until the home study is finished to officially choose who we will work with.  Since we legally cannot move forward with an adoption until the home study is done, we feel that it is the perfect opportunity to pray over our choices before decision time.

                Outside of choosing an agency or facilitator, perhaps one of the most important (and potentially our biggest obstacle) is to obtain the funds we will need to make all this happen.  We are trusting God to provide for our every need and have already been so amazed and blessed with how things have been working out for us.  There are numerous non-profit agencies out there that give grants to adopting parents, and we plan to apply for as many of those as possible.  I have been busy making hair clips and headbands for my Esty shop (www.etsy.com/shop/averydesignboutique).  My mom has also donating her time and talents to the shop by making some jewelry and crocheted items for us to sell.  There is also a link at the top right of this page that you can use to donate directly to the cause if you feel led to do so. We understand that not everyone is called to give financially, but we do feel like we can ask all those near and dear to us to pray.  If you’re here and reading this and will keep us in your prayers it would mean a tremendous amount to both Terrance and myself.  We truly believe God will provide if we remain faithful and diligent throughout this process. 

                 We cannot express to you enough how excited we are to be sharing this journey with you all. We know that God has some very amazing things in store for our family in 2012 and we can’t wait to share it!

Love,

Mandy