Sponsored.

Hi there! Hope your weekend was as festive as ours.

This was last weekend at the Troy vs. Savannah State game, but I thought it was cute. :) We have fun together and that's good.

LOOK AT ALL THESE AWESOME PEOPLE WHO ALREADY LOVE ERIC!! We have been overwhelmed by the amazing gifts people are sending to us and Eric. It's amazing. We don't know how to so thank you, but we KNOW God will bless. 

We got to see these awesome people this weekend. The Morgans love the Dobsons! :) 

My sweet Nanny and Pawpaw have continued their crazy journey to health. Pawpaw contracted aspiration pneumonia and had to go back to the hospital after a few days in rehab.  He got a new fire in him, started walking around on his command, and will hopefully be heading BACK to a rehab facility today! YAY! Want that man to get better... he's the BEST I know. 

Parker's birthday party was this weekend... since we have basically to be part of the Knick family, we got to go! :) and BATMAN showed up!! BATMAN, aka one of our youth who is obsessed with dressing up like Batman, made this 4-year-old's dream come true!! :) 

B.A.T.M.A.N.

Saturday night was Andrew's party with his family! He is an old man... the big 3-0! 

Happy birthday Knick boys! 

Now... onto something that blew my mind and spoke to my heart -

Jacob and I are filling out our VERY LAST PAPERWORK set for adoption!!! O thank the good Lord! One of these forms, the i864, is for the sponsorship of Eric into the USA. We are filling in the blanks that Jacob is the initial sponsor for Eric to come home. We have to fill out ALL our financial information, every penny and asset, DEBT, etc. accounted for on this form. 

So... SO much during this adoption process has reminded me of Christ's amazing love and adoption of us.  This form hit me... to the point of near tears - 

Jesus Christ is our sponsor, like Jacob is Eric's sponsor. Jesus signed His name saying that He was taking responsibility of our entrance and right into His kingdom... just like Jacob is taking full responsibility for all that Eric is and his citizenship here.  Jesus looked at our SIN, our debt, our assets, our NOTHING... and decided that He would pay our debt, He would take all of our past, our future, our family lineage, our orphan-state, and bring us into a forever home... accounted for in His family.  This form shows that we are taking ALL of Eric - his past, his orphan-state, his life - and claims that WE WANT HIM as ours!! Jesus did this for us in a much larger way.  He sponsors us to enter heaven. He stands in our place and says... "I take responsibility for this man/woman's wrongdoings... he/she is mine. I know them well." YES! We are sponsored! We are adopted! We are forever a part of His family. We get a NEW life. A NEW balance... FORGIVEN! He looks at us, with even more love in His eyes than an adoptive family could imagine and says "I WANT YOU! YOU ARE MINE!" 

Oh... what a Savior we a have! 

Also... a lyric in an old song spoke to my heart yesterday morning: 

Mold me and make me

After THY will

While I am WAITING

YIELDED and STILL

Yes... this is my prayer. While we are waiting. Completely still. Completely yielded to His moving us... I am begging that He refine us into His image. For us to learn what He is teaching us. For us to be the parents, son/daughter, friends, ministers, employees, prayer warriors that we have been made to be. 

ONE LAST PUSH - ADOPTION!

Happy weekend! 

So... we got word this week that we are JUST waiting on our referral... THAT'S ALL!! The referral is our pictures of our Eric (and maybe Ziggy), the medical records, education level, and TRAVEL DATES!!!!! Woo hoo!!! We are expecting this ANY day... please note that "any day" could mean tomorrow... or in two months... we are at the mercy of the Belizean government. 

Either way... we want to be prepared.  Thanks to our AWESOME God and you amazing people, we have the funds for the last payment for the actual adoption.  We are still raising money for the travel fees.  


Travel fees include:
2 round trip flights to Belize = around $1,700
1 ONE-WAY flight from Belize (for Eric... oh happy day) = around $500
Hotel cost
Transportation in country
and everything else that goes into traveling... 


We want to include you on this last piece... leaving a personal touch on bringing our boy(s) home! We started this fundraiser last year, but I have not done a good job of following through with it, so NOW'S THE TIME! 

It's the PUZZLE FUNDRAISER!!! Our LAST push for our adoption funding!!! HALLELUJAH!!! Here's the deal:

We probably have about 400 puzzle pieces left

Once you 'purchase' a puzzle piece (see directions below), we will write your name, friend/family member's name, or family name on the back of the puzzle piece. Once it is completed we will hang it in one of the clear picture frames so you can see the front and back. It will hang in our Eric's room as a reminder of all the people that helped to bring him home. Plus it will give us a lasting record of who helped make this possible.

 Step 1: buy a piece of the puzzle for $10 (or more whatever you like!) just click on the donate button above to purchase or contact us for other methods of payment, then we'll write your name on the back of the piece. 

When you pay through PayPal, you can enter the name you want on the piece in the comment box! 

Our goal is NOW 400 pieces which would be a HUGE step in raising our travel fees - $4,000!

 

Step 2: once it is completed we will hang it in our Eric's room in a double sided frame so you can see the back with all the names of the people that helped to bring him home! How awesome will it be for Eric to see all of the people who have loved him before they even knew him! 

Step 3: spread the word! I'm having a hard time thinking of 400 people I know!

Here's what the completed puzzle will look like: 

So... would you help us get Eric home? 

I can't wait to show you all the pictures of our beautiful boy when we get them!!!!! Be on the look out!!! :) Let's keep praying him home! Our God is faithful and He hears our prayers! 

It's good to be TWENTY-FIVE!!

It's good to be 25! 

Before this year... before this summer... I was kinda dreading it because it's basically 30! When you round up... definitely THIRTY!! I don't like that. 30 is basically 50 which is pretty much 100... so just take me to the home!  Okay... I'm a bit dramatic, but 25 was a big step in my mind... but never as important in my mind as it truly is in our lives this year.

You see... for our adoption of ERIC at least 1 (one) of us has to be 25! Well... I took one for the team! But... one of us also has to be at least 12 years older! ME AGAIN! because... you see... Eric will turn 13 before Jacob is 25... and that wouldn't work.  How crazy is it that God knew... even before I was born... that he was creating a crazy girl that would want a 12/13 year old son named Eric when she was 25! He lined my birthday up exactly in the right place for Eric to become our son!! He made sure Eric was born at the perfect time so that he could become a Morgan!! WHAT?!?! I know... He is blowing my mind too! ...And it's just the beginning I'm sure! 

He knew that this girl...

when she turned 25... would be in the process of adopting the most beautiful, wonderful, and already so loved little boy from Belize.  

God is crazy. God is good. He is faithful. He knows what He's doing. 

Happy 25th Birthday to me! :)

Want to get me a present? haha! Well... buy a clock or a puzzle piece and help us get Eric home! :) That's what I want most! 

Adoption... Humor!

FIRST... Buy a CLOCK or a PUZZLE PIECE... or just DONATE (PayPal button) to help BRING ERIC HOME!

So... Adoption isn't ALL about paperwork and money.  Jacob and I have had some fun along the way. Some funnies happened this weekend... wanna read about them? Okay... 3 stories here...

#1 So Friday we had to go get our medical exams for the adoption paperwork.  Our sweet doc friend saw us after hours to help us out! (so thankful). So we go and are getting stuff checked out... we're healthy as larks! Then we had to get blood work done... sounded fun.  We go over to the tech guy and get ready to give our cells.  He starts making fun of people who pass out while giving blood.  He said he likes to take pictures of the passed out people and post them on Facebook (funny). Then he said but everyone he has told that to hasn't passed out because people are more scared of facebook than needles...
So... Jacob goes first. He has perfect veins apparently and gets the blood out like a champ. Then it's my turn.
My veins are pretty good now... very blue and veiny.  He got the needle in there pretty easily and was getting some redness in the tubes.  Then... he started saying that the flow was slowing down and he started mashing on my vein to get the blood to come out.  Okay... not cool.  So, I had a stress ball in my hand to help... so I started pumped my hand as hard as I could because I was feeling a bit dizzy... 
He kept mashing around and I got dizzier and dizzier.  My head was getting heavier... so I said, "I'm feeling a bit dizzy..."  I was trying to convince myself that I didn't need to pass out.  Jacob's response was, "You aren't gonna pass out are ya?"...
I said, "I'm trying not to..." THEN I PASSED OUT with the needle still in my arm! The stress ball hit the floor! The tech freaked out.  Jacob went into camp counselor mode! And I was out! BAHAHAHA!
I woke up and Jacob was fanning me. Tech guy was a little frazzled. And I wasn't feeling so good.

I laid down and got some color back in my face... and we laughed LOTS! But... guess what?! No one took pictures of me!! Hip hip hooray! :)

Sad news... the doc called and said Jacob's blood work came back great but guess who has to go get hers done again because they didn't get enough blood... ME!!!!!! AHH!!! What am I going to do!!!! golly... super humorous!! or not...

#2 The parentals/future grandparents came down this weekend for birthday celebrations... and we put them to work on clocks! We had a great day - yummy food, good convos, and CLOCKS! We made about 25 clocks this weekend! WOO HOO! But it was so humorous to me... all of us woman wallowing around on the cement floor painting these wooden clocks... with the majority of the paint getting on our clothes and faces than the actual clocks!! We laughed at ourselves a lot! :) It's SOOOOOO good (not a strong enough word) that we have parents... and Eric has grandparents who are willing to get dirty and messy and worn out to help us!

FYI - their grandparent names are Big D and Grammy (Jacob's parents) and my mom's name is Grann! :) That was decided this week... I looked up what grandma was in Creole (which is what they speak in Belize... English and Creole).  I like it! GRANN! And my dad's name is PawPaw (decided by Ava!) :)


#3 So.. Tuesday we went to Atlanta for a Lifeline Children's Services (our homestudy agency) seminar called "ADOPT WITHOUT DEBT" (YES PLEASE!).  We had a great time just being in the car together... away for Troy and the chaos. We REALLY enjoy the seminar.  Most of the information was taken from this book...
because the author was the presenter! Julie was great!! We got lots more ideas, met other couples in the adoption process, and got to spend the night together.  Well... after the seminar was done... my brain was just whirling with different ideas.  We both had to use the restroom before heading back to Troy...
So, I was just talkin' away... not paying attention... and I followed Jacob RIGHT INTO THE MEN'S BATHROOM!!!!! bahahahaha!! He turned around (I still didn't know what I had done) and said, "Ummm.... you know you are in the men's bathroom, right?" hahaha.  So I scampered out. THANK GOD no one was standing at the urinal at the time!!!!

So... adoption is quite humorous... it does crazy things to your mind and heart! :) Hope you had some laughs.

Bringing Eric Home... all the pieces of the puzzle

We are still working on raising money to BRING ERIC HOME!! Read our story here if you don't know it! 

Pieces of the Puzzle:

Our goal is to have 500 pieces purchased. Which would be a HUGE step toward adoption - $5000! So you buy a puzzle piece for $10 (wanna buy more than one? that's cool too). We will write your name, friend/family member's name, or family name on the back of the puzzle piece. Once it is completed we will hang it in one of the clear picture frames so you can see the front and back. It will hang in our Eric's room as a reminder of all the people that helped to bring him home. Plus it will give us a lasting record of who helped make this possible.

This is a picture of the acutal puzzle we have that is a fundraiser to help bring home Eric! - Belize-ish... beach-y with some ocean life! 

Here's how it works: 

Step 1: buy a piece of the puzzle for $10 (or more whatever you like!) just click on the donate button above to purchase or contact us for other methods of payment, then we'll write your name on the back of the piece. Our goal is around 500 pieces which would be a HUGE step forward in getting started - $5,000! 

Step 2: once it is completed we will hang it in our childs room in a double sided frame so you can see the back with all the names of the people that helped to bring him/her home! 

Step 3: spread the word! I'm having a hard time thinking of 500 people I know!