Baseball and Blessings

Our Star hitter

The Mets team

Brayden's fan club

Practice swing....which usually involves a 360 degree spin

First bat!

Hard to believe its almost May. We haven't had very much "spring like" weather with the exception of extreme amounts of rain, so today's 75 degrees felt like it came on rather suddenly. We are so ready for it though. Today we went to a "practice" game for Brayden's little league team! It was precious watching all the kids with the cute often too big uniforms, and best efforts at a real game. Brayden definatly has his own style of doing things on the ball field....its funny, it works, and I'm certainly glad to have a family that doesn't take itself too seriously. The only bad thing about today is the inescapable feeling that we are missing someone who should be sitting in the stand next to us. She was sound asleep (hopefully) while we were batting and cheering but I am so anxious for there to be 5 Bradfords during these times. Again, how do you miss someone you've never met? But it's how we feel and we just keep clinging to those pictures :-).
We have started on that tremendously tediously huge stack of paper work called our dossier, our homestudy should be ready for review this week, all our classes are completed, and the USCIS application is staring at us waiting for the fundraising to catch up! The ball is rolling!

Remember our $2000 goal. Well we are only $800 away from that first goal! Unbelievable how much God has provided. We have prayed 5 very intentional specific prayers through the process of this adoption thus far and God has answered EVERY SINGLE ONE. He has just been rocking our socks off as a dear Aunt would say and I am overwhelmed by it. In order to move forward we really need to start tackleing that goal again. Last saturday between your generous donations and our savings we were able to send off our first big chunk with our contract in the mail. It was a scary, yet an AMAZING feeling, but there is much yet to do.

So today I am listing our next sale. I do still have some lovely beads left if you are interested in those to help support our adoption. You can read deatils about them here. But I am adding some beautiful 8X10  prints for sale designed by two very talented Graphic Designers that compliment the journey God has taken us on quite nicely. I am looking forward to hanging one up in my own home. I will be selling these prints for $10.00 each. Will you consider helping us move forward with one of these purchases?
Thank you so much! Really, $7,000 is not a lot in the world of adoption.....I am blown away by how MUCH God has provided. I trust him to get us the rest of the way there! Leave me a comment if you would like to make a purchase. Thanks!

Next American Idol......;)

New Pictures!!

I gotta say, this weekend I was just really wanting to see her big time. What a blessing to find these and more in my e-mail this morning. I think by far the hardest part is not the  paperwork, or fundraising, but simply the waiting! It's so nice to see her bundled up in her little snow suit and boots. The irrational part of me keeps picturing her in that little green sundress in the middle of winter and thinking she needs to be warm! I remember obsessing over Patricia's temperature when she was born. I still always check their arms and heads to make sure they are dressed just right to go outside. And I can't go to bed without popping in, watching their chests rise and fall, and making sure the blankets are just right. Not knowing if someone else is doing those simple things for her is just super hard! But it keeps this Mama a praying Mama and I am grateful for that. According to our facilitator she is doing SUPER well. Lots of improvement in speech/language development, and she is participating wonderfully in all the activities especially the ones that involve music! We, as a music obsessed family LOVE that. We are discussing the possibility of making Dale's guitar a carry on so she can get to know her real Daddy right away. We are feeling very blessed today at the Bradford household, and thank God tons for inviting us on this journey. 

We have been studying James in bible study right now and it is evident James had a big heart for the poor and those in need. And throughout scripture it is clear God has a big heart for those without. In my lesson this  morning it led me to Proverbs 31:8-9.

"Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of all who are destitute. Speak up and judge fairly; defend the rights of the poor and needy."

I pray that all the areas of my life, my job, my ministries, the way I care for my family, and treat my neighbors will reflect that I care about the things that are close to the heart of God. 

And so onward waiting! We are coming to jam out with you little girl, as SOON as we can!

And the Winner is.........................

And the Winner of the Kindle Fire HD is...........

Sandra Shaw!!!

Our second place Prize goes to

Constance Reger

and finally our third place Prize goes to

Bonnie Emerick

We raised a total of $710 towards bringing our sweetie home. What a blessing. Yes, we didn't reach our goal, and that is OK! We are VERY grateful for any amount raised towards bringing our girl home and we know God is in ALL the details. He doesnt have to prove anything to us.....He asked to obey and that is all we need to know to step forward in faith. Keep your eyes peeled for somethings we will be selling to finish out our goal. 

And congratulations to the winners! 

The Grand Prize Spotlight

 

 

As I sit here enjoying a cup of hot cocoa, and reading a great novel on Carrie's Kindle, I realized we had not yet went into detail about our grand prize!

 

 

As many of you know we are giving away a Kindle Fire HD, but one thing we haven't mentioned is included with the Kindle is a Kindle PowerFast wall charger.  This will allow you to charge your Fire anyplace there is an outlet. So feel free to leave the laptops at home! Below are the details on the Kindle Fire HD and PowerFast charger straight from Amazon's site.

 

Kindle Fire HD Specifications:

1280x800 HD display with polarizing filter and anti-glare technology for rich color and deep contrast from any viewing angle Exclusive Dolby audio and dual-driver stereo speakers for immersive, virtual surround sound World's first tablet with dual-band, dual-antenna Wi-Fi for over 35% faster downloads and streaming High performance 1.2 Ghz dual-core processor with Imagination PowerVR 3D graphics core for fast and fluid performance Over 23 million movies, TV shows, songs, magazines, books, audiobooks, and popular apps and games such as Facebook, Netflix, Twitter, HBO GO, Pandora, and Angry Birds Space Integrated support for Facebook, Twitter, Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo! and more, as well as Exchange calendar, contacts, and email Front-facing HD camera for taking photos or making video calls using Skype, Facebook, and other apps Free unlimited cloud storage for all your Amazon content Kindle FreeTime - a free, personalized tablet experience just for kids on the Kindle Fire HD. Set daily screen limits, and give access to appropriate content for each child

 

Kindle PowerFast for Accelerated Charging Specifications:

• Official Amazon 9W, 1.8A adapter charges Kindle Fire HD 8.9" in under 5 hours, Kindle Fire HD 7" in under 4 hours, and Kindle Fire in under 3 hours
• Optimized for Kindle tablets: PowerFast is a 9W charger and will charge your Kindle tablets faster than the white 5W Kindle charger will. (Note Kindle e-readers will charge at the same rate regardless of if you use a 5W or 9W charger)
• Designed for use with the black micro USB cable included with the new Kindle Fire or Kindle Fire HD devices.
• What's in the Box: PowerFast Charger & quick start guide
• Adapter's prongs conveniently fold for storage and travel

Carrie and I have been so blessed with the generosity we have witnessed thus far, and know that God will continue to move in enormous ways to bring our little girl home! We have a week left to go in the fundraiser and we still have 1500 dollars to raise in order to reach our goal of 2000 dollars.  Wow the fundraiser has been going on for a week and already God has blessed us with 500.00, and we are confident he isn't done yet!

In addition to the Kindle Fire, is the build a bear 25 dollar gift card, and the beautiful jewelry donated to us by The Paper Rose. If you want to know how to enter into the giveaway you can click here for more details. After you enter into our contest don't forget to visit this site for even more chances to win!
Again thank you all who have donated, and Carrie and I can hardly wait to have Andrea sitting between us on the flight home!



1 Week Left!

Dale is already picturing the excitement the new kindle owner will get when he/she is able to sit down with a piping hot cup of tea and a favorite book. Hopefully the winner will have sense enough not to wear their sunglasses while reading and choose a cup of adequate size....however, the thought is there!

Speaking of the giveaway.....we are $1500 away from our goal! Wow, we are so grateful for the generosity you have shown us and are so excited we are closer to bringing our little girl home! There is one week left so if you haven't had a chance to enter our little giveaway now's your chance. Please visit http://brad4dadoptionjourney.blogspot.com/2013/03/kindle-fire-hd-giveaway.html for information on how to enter. And don't forget to visit http://lagringajoya.blogspot.com/ for even more winning opportunities!

A closer look at the giveaway..............

Of course I would love to show you the very cool Kindle HD, but I am keeping it safely

hostage in its origional packaging so it's nice and new for the winner.

Since this is all about a sweet little girl, it stands to reason a prize should involve a fun

trip with your own little sweetie.

Perfect phrase for this adoption, and a beautiful set from The Paper Rose. She comes up

with amazing things this crafty friend! Check it out for yourself.

How to enter?

 Our goal is to reach $2,000 and we are so grateful for your prayers, donations and involvement! To enter simply click on the paypal link on the right (underneath the thermometer). Donate, then comment on here whether or not you donated. Be sure to include whether or not you shared on your paypal button so that I can give you your extra entry! If you share on facebook, please direct people to comment on the origional post so that I can keep track of the entries. If you post on your blog (which counts too!) please instruct people to leave comments on my blog! Thanks so much for helping bring her home!

Also be sure to check out Sweet Blessedness for an oppurtunity to win even more!