Jimmy John's Fundraiser - March 12

As we mentioned in our last update, we are having a Jimmy John's fundraiser on Tuesday, March 12th. Please help us by spreading the word and stopping by if there is any way that you can. The manager who has been helping us is extremely nice and compassionate, and he worked hard to get this fundraiser approved for us. His supervisors are concerned about our ability to spread the word and get people involved, so we are really praying for a good turn-out. It seems like that might make the supervisors more willing to approve these sorts of events in the future.

The important information about this fundraiser is

- The event will run from 5pm-9pm on March 12th.

- 20% of participating sales will go directly to Isabelle and Hallie's adoption.

- All types of purchases count - dine-in, carry-out, drive through, and delivery.

- Three different locations are participating:
Springdale - 11493 Princeton Pike
Bridgewater Falls - 3335 Princeton Rd.
Hamilton - 1388 Main St.

- You must bring a flyer with you if you want a portion of your purchase to benefit our adoptions. You can click on the links below to download the correct flyer.

Hamilton

Bridgewater Falls

Springdale

New Pictures!

We were so surprised today to get new pictures of the girls. We didn't expect to get any new information of any kind before we traveled, especially about Isabelle. Hallie is in the yellow shirt, and she hasn't changed very much since her last picture. Isabelle is in the pink, and we can't believe how much she has grown up. We can't wait to get these two little ones home!

A lot of good news

I can't believe how long it has been since Greg and I have updated our blog. We have been busy as usual with the adoption and with life, and on top of that, we have all been sick twice in the last month and a half. Fortunately, we only had colds, and not some of the nastier bugs that have been going around, but even so, it has been difficult to keep up with everything that we need to do.

Our dossier is finally done!!! Yay!! -- We had all of the documents together by the end of December, and mailed them off to a courier service in Washington D.C. to get the Federal certifications and Chinese Embassy seals. Unfortunately, when they arrived here in mid January, we found a mistake in one form. We had an extra copy without the mistake, but all of the certifications had to be redone. We mailed that form back to D.C., and sent the rest of our documents to our agency in California. Unfortunately, they discovered at the beginning of this month that a different form also needed to be redone. We completed it, had it notarized, county certified, state certified and set it back to D.C. as well. Our agency now has all of our forms, and they think that they look good now. I am not sure if they have mailed our dossier to China yet or not, because they are trying to time it so that it arrives right as Chinese New Year is ending so that it won't end up buried at the bottom of a pile on someone's desk. As long as the Chinese adoption authorities don't reject any of our forms, then we are essentially done with our paperwork for this adoption. There will be a few more short forms for us to fill out, sign, and return at a few points along the way, but we think the hardest part is finally behind us. Please pray that this is the case.

We also have some wonderful news about out fundraising. As you know, God did provide everything that we needed for our dossier submission. We were incredibly thankful for that, but we knew that we would owe our agency between $10,000 and $12,000 once we reached the next phase of our adoption, and we didn't have any idea where that money was going to come from. We did not receive any of the other grants that we had applied for. But by God's amazing grace, we already have everything we need for this next step! Friends and family members have continued to send donations in for our adoption, and a family that we barely even know contributed a donation more generous than anything we had ever hoped for. As a result of these gifts, there is currently more than $16,000 available in the girls adoption fund! That will cover everything we need until travel time. We cannot even find words to express our gratitude and joy!

We have now raised nearly $35,000 for the girls' adoption, and that is incredible. When we travel, we will need just over $20,000 more, so we can't stop our fundraising efforts yet. Toward that end, we will be doing a Jimmy Johns fundraiser on March 12, and a fundraiser at the Cone, probably in May. We will be providing more details about both of those soon.

Thank you always for all of your support.

Kristie

Fund-Raising News!

If, based on the title of this post, you guessed that we have good news to share about our fund-raising, then you'd be absolutely right. We mentioned just before Christmas that we had been approved for a matching grant of a potential total of $8,000 and that we were really praying that God would supply that full amount to go along with what is already in our girls' account with The Shepherd's Crook. A couple of our family members contributed to the matching grant over Christmas, and that was a huge encouragement to us. But, with the deadline coming up next Friday, earlier this week we were starting to feel a bit discouraged about all of this. As we were leaving our small group Bible study on Tuesday evening, some of our friends asked us how the matching grant was coming along. At that point, we were still roughly $3,500 short of the $4,000 that HANDinHAND could match for us, but we were still praying that some how, God would provide all of that, because that would allow us to submit our dossier to China right away, which would keep the process moving. Well, a couple of hours later, He showed us what He was doing.

A family from our previous church (the sending church for the church plant that we are a part of now) had contacted us shortly before Christmas to ask how our adoptions and our fund-raising were going. They said that they wanted to make a donation, but it would have to wait until after the new year and they weren't sure yet how much it would be. We were really touched at their interest in Isabelle and Hallie's story. (On a side note, that has been an enormous and humbling blessing throughout this journey; our girls' stories have reached more people than we ever could have dreamed, and it has been astonishing to watch God work over this past year. He has been bringing people into our lives that we didn't know or hadn't heard from in a long time, and we are deeply grateful for His work and for everyone who has gotten involved along the way.) Late Tuesday night, they e-mailed us to say that they would cover the remainder of what was needed for the matching grant, and maybe even a little bit more! We were floored when we read that! We didn't expect God to work in this way, but this news was a HUGE answer to prayer, and we are overjoyed at this. We still can't quite believe it all. This means that we'll be able to send our dossier to China in the next few weeks, which means that we could be traveling in June. That would be another answer to prayer, as Isabelle will turn 4 in early June, and we want to be there with her by her birthday. Things will have to move quickly from this point, but it seems possible right now. So stay tuned, and we'll see what God does in the next few months!

Greg

A very quick update

Hello everyone,

We just want to let you know that we did not go back to Columbus today. I called the Warren County Probate Court and explained the situation, and asked if they could redo the form. The woman was very nice, but explained that the judge was out today, and they would be closed Monday and Tuesday, so the earliest I could get the form would be Wednesday, and it was very likely that I couldn't have it until Thursday. We were disappointed, but also a little relieved to have this completely taken out of our hands and know that we can just relax and enjoy Christmas. I got a call at the very end of the day from the Probate Court, and the woman told me that to her very great surprise, the form was already done, and I could pick it up whenever I wanted to on Wednesday. That is perfect, because I have to drive right past the court office for another errand on Wednesday morning, and Greg and I have to drive right through Columbus to visit his family on Thursday. Please pray that the form will be perfect this time, and that everything will work out. If it does, it won't add more than about half an hour to our trip.

We had a wonderful and relaxing day today with our kids, and we are very thankful for that. We even got a few presents wrapped. We did learn today that HANDinHAND has not received any donations yet for our matching grant. That is a bit disappointing, but we are still trusting that God will bring it all in His perfect time.

Kristie

We made it to Columbus but...

Thank you all for your prayers and support as we have worked to gather the documents for our dossier. As many of you know, we have had most of the pieces for over a week now, and we have been hoping to go to Columbus to get the state certifications that we need as our next step. We thought we were going to be able to go up last Friday, but then discovered that our medical forms had to be redone again. Fortunately, our doctor's office was very understanding and willing to help us, and both doctors patiently filled out the forms three different times so that they met all of the requirements for China. We are very thankful to them! We were finally able to pick those up yesterday, so we planned to get their county certifications this morning, and then go up to Columbus this afternoon. Then, as we were getting ready to leave this morning, Greg noticed that our local police checks had our names written as Greg and Kristen Goodwin instead of Godwin. I can't believe I missed that! I read over those forms several times and thought that I had checked everything. I called the woman at the sheriff's department, and she agreed to fix the mistake and print them out again for us right away. So we left our house about 9:45 this morning, and headed nearly an hour south east to get the county certifications for our medical forms. Then we drove back up to Hamilton to pick up our police checks, and Greg took the kids to my parents' house while I got the county certifications for those (They were from a different county than the medical forms, so they had to be done in a different office). Once the kids were settled in, he came back and picked me up, we grabbed lunch, and set off for Columbus. I started this post while we were sitting in the Secretary of State's office, waiting while they processed all our forms. I was in the process of explaining that, if there are no mistakes, we would send these documents off tomorrow to a courier service that will get the federal certifications and the certifications from the Chinese Embassy. As I was typing all of that, the man at the Secretary of State's office came out to tell us that they had successfully processed thirteen of our fourteen documents. We couldn't believe it! Our marriage license has to be redone! Certified copies of marriage licenses (at least in Ohio) are signed by the Deputy Clerk at the judge's office. But now, the Secretary of State will not attach the necessary certification unless they are signed by the judge himself. This is a new rule, and we didn't have any idea. We are going to call tomorrow and find out if the judge will be available to sign our form in the morning, and if he is, we will go back to Columbus tomorrow afternoon and try again. We were very, very discouraged at first, but feel calm and peaceful now. We know that God will bring our daughters home to us in His perfect timing, and we are content to trust Him. We would appreciate your prayers during the day tomorrow.

Thanks,
Kristie

Craft Items for Sale

As most of you know, we had a large fundraising event last Saturday, and although the turn-out was smaller than we had hoped, it was still a time of great encouragement for us and our friends. Some friends of ours are having a Christmas party tonight, and they have offered to let us continue the fundraiser there and try to auction off some of the items that did not sell the first time around. In addition, we are selling many of the craft items online through facebook. We have decided to sell them for low prices rather than holding an online auction, partly because we think people might want to use these for Christmas presents, and since it is getting so close to Christmas, we want them to be able to order them and get them right away without waiting a week or so to find out if they have the winning bid. We have the items in several different albums - Dog coats, hats, and misc. craft items. Check them out, and please share the link with anyone you think might be interested. All proceeds will be split between our adoption and the Brewer's adoption. Thanks!

Kristie

www.facebook.com/BrewerGodwinAdoptions - For some reason I cannot get this to work as a link. If you copy and paste it to your browser, it does take you to the right place. I will keep working on it, but in the meantime, that will at least allow you to see the items we have for sale if you are interested.