Thirty-one Fundraiser

Hello Everyone,

I want to let everyone know about one very specific way that you can help us raise money for our adoption.

A little while back, one of my college friends was telling our story to an online friend of hers. This woman, whose name is Shannon was very touched by our story, because she has a teenage son with Down Syndrome. Shannon is a consultant for Thirty-one gifts, and decided to do a Thirty-one party and donate her entire commission to Isabelle and Hallie's adoption. We were shocked and thrilled that a complete stranger would want to help us in this way. My sister-in-law, Maegan agreed to host the party for us, and they chose yesterday for the event. They raised more than seventy dollars for our adoption. For those who don't live in the greater Pittsburgh area, but would still like to participate in this fundraiser, Shannon has set up an on-line event. Follow the link to her page http://www.mythirtyone.com/srizzo. Then click on either "My parties" or "Place an Order." Both of these take you to a list of her parties. The hostess is Maegan Godwin, and the event name is Godwin adoption fundraiser. Twenty-five percent of anything spent as part of this event will go directly to our adoption. If you (or someone on your Christmas list) likes purses, totes, or organizational supplies, check it out. Shannon will leave this event active until November 24th.

Our updates might not be very regular over the next few weeks. My parents leave for China this Friday to bring home their two newest children, and we will be living at their house taking care of their fourteen children who still live at home. Several of those children are teenagers and are very mature, so we will have help taking care of the little ones. We are excited to have the extra time to spend with them, but we know things are going to be even busier than usual. We are going to try to continue updating everyone on our process, but if we seem very quite, that is why. We would greatly appreciate your prayers during this time!

Thanks,

Kristie

Just a little bit of news

As the title of this post indicates, we don't have much to share at this point. We do have a few items of praise.

#1. We now have a location for our fundraising event on December 8th. It will be held at Community Christian Church in Fairfield Township. I have never had any connection to this church before, but both the head pastor and executive pastor have been as gracious and accommodating as they could possibly be. We have been surprised and touched by the warmth of their interaction with us.

#2. God has continued to provide funds, and we were able to make another payment to our agency this month.

#3. We have already gotten our fingerprinting appointment for our USCIS approval. For those of you who are not familiar with all the steps of an adoption, one of the pieces that is always necessary for an international adoption is approval from the US department of Immigration. First, you submit a form and fee to the department. Then they send the form to the part of the department that actually processes it. (We still can't figure out why they won't let us send the form directly to the correct part of the department, but that is just the way that it works.) Then you get a letter from the department with an appointment to get fingerprinted. Often the appointment is as much as three weeks to a month away, but ours was only a week out. Once they have your fingerprints, the department processes your request and sends you a letter of approval. That letter (the 797) is a really big deal, and usually the last piece you wait for before sending in your dossier. We are very thankful to have our appointment scheduled, and much, much sooner than we thought would be the case.

#4. We have our first coffee buyer! Thanks to their purchase, Isabelle and Hallie's adoption fund now has five dollars in it. We bought some of the Just Love Coffee through a friend's store front, and we can tell you that it is very good. We tried their Sumatra, and were quite impressed.

We also have some prayer requests.

#1. Please pray that God will bless our fundraising efforts. We have submitted another grant, are working hard to plan this silent auction fundraiser, and are still trying to spread the word about our wristbands and coffee store front. We also have a Thirty-one gifts sale scheduled for November 10th. If you live in the Pittsburgh area and would like to attend, let me know, and I will have an invitation sent to you. If you live anywhere else, the Facebook page is now active, so you can participate there. Just let me know that you would like an invitation, and I will send you one.

#2. Please pray for us as we work on our dossier. The two most challenging parts at this point are our medical exams and employment letters. Because I am self-employed, mine must be written by a CPA, and that can be challenging. Pray that God will enable us to gather all the needed pieces.

#3. Pray about our fingerprinting appointment. My fingerprints have been rejected in the past, especially in the winter time, because my hands get so dry that my fingers crack. I am using lots of lotion, and praying that the prints will be accepted this time around.

#4. Pray for Hallie tomorrow. November 3rd is her birthday, and it makes us very sad to think about how far away she is with no one to celebrate with her. She will be three years old.

Wow, I guess we had more to share than I realized. I expected this to be a much shorter post. Sometimes it is good for me to sit down and write out everything that is going on, because it reminds me how much God is working in our story.

Thanks,

Kristie