Merry Christmas!

I wasn't expecting to write a blog post on Christmas Day, but there is a short lull in the activity this afternoon.  Merry Christmas to all of our friends and family!

Big News?  Nope.
Sorry, there hasn't been any exciting adoption news as of late, but things have been very quiet.  We are getting a lot of practice in waiting on the Lord and trusting in his perfect timing for our family.  

Workin' Girl (one or two days per week)
I decided this Fall that I had better dip my feet into teaching again for a while.  I have started substituting with the public school district and the Catholic school district.  I have only had two days of work so far, and apparently, it can only get better from here.  They were two tough days, one taught without a sub plan.  My thought on returning to work was that I should teach again before we get a placement so that I don't totally lose touch with the profession.  I plan to be at home with our children, so once we get a placement I will be home for another 4-5 years at least.  I am hoping to really enjoy the subbing!

Christmas Fun
It has been a great Christmas season with lots of activity going on.   We've hosted our community group for a Christmas party, been skating on Cold Lake, had appetizers with our awesome neighbours, sang carols at our church Christmas Eve service, and are soon expecting friends to come over for appetizers and games with the kids!  We've opened our gifts to each other and feel incredibly blessed and spoiled. 

I really feel loved by my husband after receiving so many thoughtful gifts from him this year. He topped it off with a very special gift in my stocking: ANTI-CELLULITE body wash! Bahahahahaha! He swears that he didn't notice the anti-cellulite part written in huge letters on the top of the box.  Sure.  Not subtle, Ben.  Lol.

Just think of the cellulite you can dissolve with all 20 uses of this body wash filled sponge scrubber! 

We're heading to my mom and dad's place for Christmas celebrations with my extended family this weekend and I am guessing that less insulting gifts are in my future :)  I will be receiving the 'favourite things' of each of my sisters and mom, and they will all be given my 'favourite thing.'  This is a new gifting plan that we started last year and has been great so far!  I am guessing that anti-cellulite body wash won't be the favourite thing of any of those fine ladies.

Secretly, I can't wait to use it.  It sounds easier than exercising and dieting, haha.

Thank you
I also wanted to say thank you to a couple of dear friends who donated something towards our adoption agency silent auction fundraiser happening in March!  It really helps Ben and I to feel supported in this adoption endeavour and we are so grateful!

Merry Christmas, everyone!  We wish you the Lord's richest blessings in 2015!

Want to Help?

Recently, I joined a committee that is putting on a fundraiser for our adoption agency, Christian Adoption Services.  Why would our agency need a fundraiser, isn't it government funded?  Well, actually, our agency is a non-profit organization.  The costs of their programs/adoptions are covered by fees charged to adoptive families, fundraising, and donations.

The agency provides pre-adoption counselling to expectant mothers, often having several meetings over many months.  The social workers at the agency spend a lot of time helping to facilitate relationship building between expectant families and adoptive families, and they continue with counselling for birth mothers after placement.  

CAS is a registered charity.  Financial donations allow them to keep their costs to adoptive families as low as possible.  Donations also allow CAS to run extra programs such as training seminars, support groups, and special events.  Ben and I have already taken part in two training seminars and a dinner for adoptive families.

While less expensive than adopting internationally (mostly because of the additional travel), the cost of adopting domestically is quite a significant expense for most families.  The costs will be different in each case depending on the amount of counselling necessary, distances traveled, and accommodations, etc., but will range between 12,000 and 15,000 or so by the time the adoption is finalized.  This high cost makes adoption out of reach or financially straining for many families.  After spending a day last month at an adoption training seminar with other waiting families from CAS, the idea of helping with this fundraiser became more important and personal to me.  We met a family who had recently adopted twice.  When asked about how they came up with the funding (I was a little surprised when someone asked them that!), they said that they had taken out a line of credit on their home and borrowed from an uncle!  Another couple we spoke to had held fundraisers within their church.  Point is, people don't have this kind of money just sitting around.  If there is any chance that I can be a part of making adoption more affordable for families, I want to be a part of it! 

Check out the link below to see how the costs break down for adoptive families (there are no costs to birth families):
domestic adoption fees

So, the fundraiser!!!  

It is going to be a silent auction and will be held in Calgary in March 2015.  If any of my readers are from Calgary, you should go (info to follow in the new year)!  The reality for me is that we don't live close enough to Calgary to make it to the auction.  What we are planning to do for our contribution to the fundraiser is to collect as many item donations as possible.

If any of you feel called to help us raise money for the agency (and in turn help keep costs down for adoptive families), please consider donating something!  I think that gift cards for popular restaurants, clothing stores, grocery stores, itunes, or other stores would be easy to send and would garner lots of bids.  Or, if you have a home based business or crafting ability, donations of those items would be much appreciated as well!

Here is a peek at what I made for the auction.  I went through my fabric stash and made a few minky blankets.  I'm guessing that there will be a few expectant parents or grandparents at this auction :)

In James 1 verse 27, the Lord calls us to look after the needs of the widows and the orphans.  This act of caring for orphans looks different for all of us, but the call remains the same.  Some are meant to adopt, others are meant to foster, others are meant to sponsor children.  Are you able to help?  Throw something extra in with your Christmas shopping?

Please contact me if you would like to contribute.  Or, if you already have my address, send me your item by mail.  Thank you in advance to all who help!  Your support will help bring children home to their forever families.  We are so thankful for CAS and are excited to see how God will bless them through this event!  

I plan to give anything collected to the agency for the auction by January sometime.

             -Ali

New Profile Book!!!

I've learned a few things since creating our first adoption profile book last October (2013). Before I made our first book, I had looked at a lot of other people's books and had some great ideas.  I spent hours and hours on the first book, redoing pages, changing pictures and rewriting pretty much everything.  I actually really like to final product!

However, since I made the book, a year has now gone by.  I have been inspired by many other profile books, and have read more about what should be included.  Our family has changed a lot in that time as well.  Our Logan is no longer a baby or even a toddler, so pictures of him in those much earlier stages are a little confusing.

After viewing a profile book at the spring training seminar and noticing that they had included the baby's nursery, I wanted badly to work on our nursery and include it in our next book.  I thought that for birth families it would be neat to be able to picture the room that their child would sleep in and play in.

I think this book is more modern than the first one, and has many more current pictures. I focused on replacing the pictures that were dark or a little grainy, and made sure that the book represents our family as it is now.  It is important that when you meet a birth parent, you look pretty much how you do in your album.  I also rewrote most of the written aspects of the book.  Since spending the last year reading about adoption and receiving some training, our views on adoption have evolved and I wanted our profile to accurately express how we see open adoption.  

So, here is the updated album (about 2/3 of it anyways)!