We met our Matching Grant!

As you have probably seen, we found out late Wednesday night that we met our matching grant! I cried, we praised the Lord and I (Alisha-just to clarify) cried some more - tears of joy and tears of gratefulness!!!!! The Lord provides in the most incredible ways and we are beyond thankful for His provision! So many people have supported us not only financially but emotionally and prayerfully along this journey and we could not be more grateful and humbled! 

So from here - we continue to raise money! We will need at least $30,000 to actually finalize on an adoption. BUT we now have enough that we can start applying to agencies! We will start next week with MORE paperwork and this time it is actually feeling REAL and so much CLOSER (although there is no timeline)!!!  We have chosen 4 agencies across the USA that we will be applying to with the help of CAC (Christian Adoption Consultants)! Most of those agencies waive any application fees for CAC families so this is another HUGE blessing!!! 

We have had so many people ask if we are still raising money and if they can help and the answer is YES followed by a HUGE HUG :)

We met the $10,000 matching grant but are still working on getting the remaining $4-6K needed to finalize on an adoption!!! Here is how::

*Give Online*

1. Go to www.lifesongfororphans.org/give/donate

2. Select 'Give to an Adoptive Family'

3. Complete the online form and fill in our familiy account number and family name!  (4335 / Forbis) This is very important!!!! Please make sure you note this on any donation given!!! 

*Please note that PayPal will charge an administrative fee (2.9% + $.30 USD per transaction). Your donation will be decreased by the amount of this fee.

*Please note that PayPal will charge an administrative fee (2.9% + $.30 USD per transaction). Your donation will be decreased by the 

*Give by Check*

Please make checks payable to Lifesong for Orphans

***Important!!! In the memo please make not your gift preference with our family account number and family name - (4335 / Forbis)***

Please mail checks to:

Lifesong for Orphans

PO Box 40

Gridley, IL  61744

Lifesong has been blessed with a partner that underwrites all US administrative fund-raising costs (TMG Foundation and other partners). That means that 100% of your donation will go directly to the need! 

Quick Update

Where does that leave us to date:: 

*Give Online*

1. Go to www.lifesongfororphans.org/give/donate

2. Select 'Give to an Adoptive Family'

3. Complete the online form and fill in our familiy account number and family name!  (4335 / Forbis) This is very important!!!! Please make sure you note this on any donation given!!! 

*Please note that PayPal will charge an administrative fee (2.9% + $.30 USD per transaction). Your donation will be decreased by the amount of this fee.

*Please note that PayPal will charge an administrative fee (2.9% + $.30 USD per transaction). Your donation will be decreased by the 

*Give by Check*

Please make checks payable to Lifesong for Orphans

***Important!!! In the memo please make not your gift preference with our family account number and family name - (4335 / Forbis)***

Please mail checks to:

Lifesong for Orphans

PO Box 40

Gridley, IL  61744

Lifesong has been blessed with a partner that underwrites all US administrative fund-raising costs (TMG Foundation and other partners). That means that 100% of your donation will go directly to the need! 

Two Week Countdown

The countdown has begun......

Two weeks from today our matching grant ends! To date we are sitting at $5,945! (for the grant)Our grant will be matched up to $10,000! 

We are praying that we will be able to get the full $10,000 which matched would be $20,000! 

Our total fundraising is currently at $16,235 of the total $30,000 needed to begin the application process! 

This absolutely blows me away - The Lord is providing in incredible ways and we could not be more grateful to see so many people wanting to be part of this baby's story! What a blessing it is! 

Its not too late to give and have your donation be doubled!!!!

*Give Online*

1. Go to www.lifesongfororphans.org/give/donate

2. Select 'Give to an Adoptive Family'

3. Complete the online form and fill in our familiy account number and family name!  (4335 / Forbis) This is very important!!!! Please make sure you note this on any donation given!!! 

*Please note that PayPal will charge an administrative fee (2.9% + $.30 USD per transaction). Your donation will be decreased by the amount of this fee.

*Please note that PayPal will charge an administrative fee (2.9% + $.30 USD per transaction). Your donation will be decreased by the 

*Give by Check*

Please make checks payable to Lifesong for Orphans

***Important!!! In the memo please make not your gift preference with our family account number and family name - (4335 / Forbis)***

Please mail checks to:

Lifesong for Orphans

PO Box 40

Gridley, IL  61744

Lifesong has been blessed with a partner that underwrites all US administrative fund-raising costs (TMG Foundation and other partners). That means that 100% of your donation will go directly to the need! 

Garage Sale!

I know no one really LOVES to have a garage sale, but I am one of those rare people who really thinks its fun! I also really love a challenge, so last Monday when we received the news about our $10,000 matching grant...I decided we would have a garage sale that coming weekend - I was ready to get going! I let a few friends know in case they had anything they wanted to donate! I made a last minute decision, without thinking through any of the details, that we would have it on Friday AND Saturday!!! 

I wish I could remember all of the details of the week and weekend but....

Here are a few of the things that were an absolute blessing::

A friend loaned us a truck for the entire weekend - what a life saver that was! 
Friends come to help price things and make signs for us! 
Friends baked for us so that we would have baked goods to sell! 
So many people donated things for us to sell - and kept donating up until 3 hours before the sale ended on Saturday!
People watched Miss E for us while we worked the sale! 
People we didn't even know walked up and handed us money just because they wanted to be part of adoption, had been touched by adoption, or just thought it was really cool what we are doing!
The weather was perfect!
A friend who is in marketing helped me think through how to best advertise the sale!

I believe all of this would not be possible without all of the prayers that so many were praying for us!

Although it was very last minute -the Lord provided in absolutely ONLY GOD ways!

We are still working on totals from this weekends garage sale (some of the donated items are being sold online), but as of now we raised $1,670 -- we are blown away!

God is so sweet in His provision!!! All of that will be doubled through our $10,000 matching grant funded by Legacy 685! What a blessing! 

Every dollar donated between now and April 28 will be doubled up to $10,000! That would mean we would almost be at our goal amount to bring our baby home!!!! Please consider giving NOW at the link below!!! Every dollar counts - TWICE

As we get the other things sold online, and get the totals of donations that have been made online - I will update you! 

Here is how you can give now!!

 ALL DONATIONS WILL BE MATCHED NOW THROUGH APRIL 28!!!!!! 

*Give by Check*

Please make checks payable to Lifesong for Orphans

***Important!!! In the memo please make note your gift preference with our family account number and family name - (4335 / Forbis)***

Please mail checks to:

Lifesong for Orphans

PO Box 40

Gridley, IL  61744

Lifesong has been blessed with a partner that underwrites all US administrative fund-raising costs (TMG Foundation and other partners). That means that 100% of your donation will go directly to the need! 

*Give Online*

1. Go to www.lifesongfororphans.org/give/donate

2. Select 'Give to an Adoptive Family'

3. Complete the online form and fill in our familiy account number and family name!  (4335 / Forbis) This is very important!!!! Please make sure you note this on any donation given!!! 

*Please note that PayPal will charge an administrative fee (2.9% + $.30 USD per transaction). Your donation will be decreased by the amount of this fee.

**CLICK THE LINK BELOW TO DONATE NOW!**

*Please note that PayPal will charge an administrative fee (2.9% + $.30 USD per transaction). Your donation will be decreased by the amount of this fee.

Big news in February!!!

Well this last few weeks have been CRAZY!!!! Our heart strings have been pulled! Our emotions have been crazy! And God has been faithful through it all!!! I am so thankful I can finally write a blog and update you on what's been going on! 

A couple weeks ago we heard of a situation that we very quickly became interested in! There was a birth mom due in March who was still in need of an adoptive family for her baby!!! We quickly gathered paperwork and began talking with the agency! We were told at the time that there were no other families even presenting to this birth mom. We prayed a lot for her and for that little baby boy and prayed for God's will and for our hearts to fully trust whatever the outcome was! 

We received a call today and found out that a wonderful family in Michigan was chosen! Although we were not chosen for this child, we are grateful for the opportunity to pray for him as if he was going to be our own and have so much peace that he will be placed with the family that is perfectly fit for him!! We are so grateful that the Lord has given us such peace about this situation - although we have both been a little emotional tonight, we rest fully in the plans the Lord has and are so grateful for the peace He has given us tonight!

Because of this situation, we were able to get some things moving with our grants! Had this been the baby for us, we would have had to come up with a lot of money in one week, so because of that we were able to get our paperwork expedited to the top for one of our grants and received some INCREDIBLY HUMBLING NEWS TODAY!!!!!

We have received a $10,000 matching grant that will be funded by Legacy 685!!!!!! 

We are blown away by His goodness in this gift and are now ready to hit it hard with fundraising!!! 

As you can imagine we have been very emotional this last few weeks as we have seen pictures of sonograms of the baby that we thought we might get to bring home in just a few short weeks, but we know that this was all part of the plan that God had in place for us to be able to get moving a little quicker on things that have been at a stand still for what feels like an eternity to a waiting mommy and family! 

So with that being said....we want to invite you to be a part in joyfully partnering with us by financially helping bring our baby home! 

Gifts given between now and April 28, 2014 will be matched up to $10,000!!!! We are praying that through this matching grant we will be able to meet our goal and will be able to bring home our baby!!!!! 

Check out below ways that you can give!! 

*Give by Check*

Please make checks payable to Lifesong for Orphans

***Important!!! In the memo please make not your gift preference with our family account number and family name - (4335 / Forbis)***

Please mail checks to:

Lifesong for Orphans

PO Box 40

Gridley, IL  61744

Lifesong has been blessed with a partner that underwrites all US administrative fund-raising costs (TMG Foundation and other partners). That means that 100% of your donation will go directly to the need! 

*Give Online*

1. Go to www.lifesongfororphans.org/give/donate

2. Select 'Give to an Adoptive Family'

3. Complete the online form and fill in our familiy account number and family name!  (4335 / Forbis) This is very important!!!! Please make sure you note this on any donation given!!! 

*Please note that PayPal will charge an administrative fee (2.9% + $.30 USD per transaction). Your donation will be decreased by the amount of this fee.

**CLICK THE LINK BELOW TO DONATE NOW!**

*Please note that PayPal will charge an administrative fee (2.9% + $.30 USD per transaction). Your donation will be decreased by the amount of this fee.

January Adoption Update

I don't have much to update on the adoption front. We are still waiting. We have applied for 3 grants so far and have to wait 8-10 weeks to hear back on those...... It took close to that to get the applications filled out :/ There is a LOT of paperwork involved in anything to do with adoption I have learned and Lots of waiting. A friend, who is also adopting, walked in one day last week and heard our printer going and said "Adoption?" These are things only adoptive parents can understand - the amount of work, prayers, worry, love, thought, anxiety, love, paperwork, love and more paperwork that it takes to adopt. Once the Lord provides the money for our adoption there will be more paperwork as we will begin applying to agencies across the US! 

At this point we are waiting to hear from the grants as we pray and trust the Lord that IN HIS time, He will provide exactly what we need to grow our family! 

Pray for our grants! That the Lord would lay it on the hearts of those processing our applications to give generously to our adoption! 

We have not stopped hoping and praying for miracles as we KNOW God will provide for us! 

Big sis in training!!

As we wait we are enjoying every second with our sweet girl who is becoming more and more fun everyday! We are so thankful for her and the PURE JOY she has for life! 

***READ ALL ABOUT OUR ADOPTION HERE***

HOME STUDY FINISHED

We finally received our completed home study today!!!!! It seems like it took forever but it is finally finished!!!!!!!! This is a HUGE step in the adoption process!!!! This means that we have been interviewed about every personal thing you can imagine, we have been observed in our home and with Emery, we have completed almost 30 pages of questions and our home has been approved as a home that is not only ready for a new baby but it has been determined that we are ready to bring another child into our home and would be able to provide the love, care and support for our new baby!!! PRAISE THE LORD!!!!!!!!!!!!

So what's next? Now that we have the complete home study, we can start applying for grants!

This also means that as soon as the funds are in, we can start applying with agencies which could go really quickly once we get to that point! 

We continue to pray and ask God to provide for us! We know that He will be faithful!

Our race is this weekend and after that is done we will have a better idea of where we stand financially! I daily have to press into the Lord and remember His faithfulness throughout my life and remember that HE will provide in HIS timing and as HE sees perfect for us!

We are anxious, excited, and hopeful! We pray often for the baby, which realistically could already be conceived! We pray for the family and pray for opportunities to know them and love them!


As I seem to get anxious often these days just thinking about this baby, ready to know when we will get to meet and wishing that I could hurry things up.... The Lord has reminded me often of this verse:

^{Exodus 14:14} The Lord will fight for you, and you have only to be silent.”

Such a sweet reminder that HE has us, in all situations I just have to be still! What a sweet reminder, especially on the days that I think 'if I could just do more then things would go quicker' -- ALL IN HIS TIME! So thankful for His constant love and care for His children!

Week 32

I cannot believe it is already week 32! 

A HUGE majority of people are voting BOY, but I am still thinking girl!  

{I have even had people tell me they pray for our baby by our boy name - so sweet}

 Here is a sneak peak at a few of the things we have been working on in the nursery:: 

We are making most of the stuff for the nursery, including the bedding - I cannot wait for it to all be done! 

I am hoping by the end of this week to be almost fully done with the nursery!!!!! 

guest room

All of our family lives out of town, so we have guests often, but this just wasn't cutting it:

We added some color and got rid of the brown tapestry curtain::

This window is a fun place to write 'welcome' to whoever is staying with us, using dry erase! Ive had a lot of fun with that! 

This pic is super blurry, but you can see how just adding a shelf (from a garage sale - $1.00 & spray painted black), and a few other things to the wall really made a difference.

Now this room is becoming a nursery and we are turning our office into a guest bedroom! I am so excited for our nursery and cannot wait to see it all come together! 

COLOR IN THE KITCHEN

Once these two projects were done (bar, cabinets), I was again ready for another! Ready to get some color on the walls! But I had a really hard time deciding on what color. After MULTIPLE samples, we finally decided on a good neutral color that complimented the dining room well, was simple, and looked really pretty with the cabinets!

The thing we learned in the long search for color was to think outside the box. I knew I wanted something in the green family (to compliment the color of the dining room) but after a long day of frustrating samples realized that was not working. We started looking in the grey/brown family and finally found Clay Pebble by Behr - a very earthy color with just a slight green undertone. It wound up being the perfect color - FINALLY!!!

Just a small example of the amount of samples we tried - eeks! 

Before

During

And after 

Because of the lighting in the kitchen, it is hard to get a good picture, but you get the idea! 

Adding color always makes things feel a lot more cozy and more like home! 

and because I cannot just stop after one project, next will be making curtains for that window :)

Book Shelf

New item!! I love this book shelf! Has tons of room for display and great storage! Lots of character and beautiful!!! 

72" tall

19" deep

30" wide

Book Shelf

85.00 SOLD

Check out all the completed projects HERE!!

a simple can of paint

A simple can of paint can do wonders to a room:: here was our guest bathroom before: 

{plus a few paint samples on the wall}

 All of the decorations I had in there were just things that I had when we first moved in! I was ready for a small make over in that department too! 

And the after....ahhhh COLOR.... so much better!!! 

We used a high gloss paint in here. I normally dont like gloss, but thought it would look nice and be a fun change for the bathroom! 

I used some other things I had to decorate with for now...soon there will be a lot of baby stuff in the bathroom I am guessing :)

Small and simple

  I bought these beauties for 1.00 Each knowing they had potential! 

I kept the matting, but got rid of the lovely stitch work and painted the frames grey! I had some post cards from when I traveled in London and had never known exactly where to put them, but they fit perfectly and the colors were exactly what we needed to finish off the bathroom! 

The lamp adds soft light which I love! My mother-in-law had given us the lamp and we bought shade at Wal-Mart! 

bathroom make over in an evening

Our bathroom has felt kinda boring since we moved in. I wanted it to be peaceful and after putting about 5 samples on the walls for color, I decided to keep the walls the color they were originally! Our bedroom is full of color and finding something to compliment it without going over board just wasn't working! I did however, want to tie in those same colors! {teal, grey, yellow, and white}

It all started all started with a stop by an estate sale on the way home from work one Friday afternoon, where I picked up a few stitch work pieces, a vase, a small metal box and lots of craft paints - all for under $4.00 - I began planning and by the time John got home, I was ready to take on the bathroom! 

We had picked up 2 pallets off the road a few weeks before and I decided that between my estate sale finds and those pallets we could have us a bathroom in an evening! 

Before

After

{How to::Shelf}

Before

 After
{How to: Bless the Lord painting}

Before

 After
{Making the frames:: Small and Simple}

 the projects can be found below::


Bless the Lord painting


Shelf


Frames

And that was it - we were done! It was a fun evening with my sweet husband and we have really enjoyed the way it turned out!