RODS Racing

I just wanted to high light a ministry today and bring a little awareness to them from my blog. This wonderful ministry is the biggest earthyly reason we are able to bring our "Andrea" home. They have worked so hard for so many orphans over the last year, all inspired by their precious son who has Down syndrome. He works so hard through out the year and even when its exhausting and painstaking he pushes forward to bring one more home. Finances are by far the biggest obstacle in adoption, and his understanding of this, and deep desire to help those little ones who have a bleak future without adoption is such a blessing! We all have something to do while we are here, so find your passion and attack it with gusto! If you would like to read more about RODS racing you can follow the link HERE. What a great ministry to support of you are looking for something to bless. Enjoy looking at those cute faces on there!

Off and Running!

I am so excited to have news for you in this long overdue update! First of all, I want to thank everyone that came out to Juju Berries to support our adoption! I thought a few friends would come and we'd enjoy a little icecream but I was completley blown away by the amount of people that came in for icecream that night for us! Many even told us they were having their icecream before dinner, just so that they would have time to squeeze it in! :-) Sounds like a good plan to me. We were there for three hours and we never had a moment where there wasn't someone enjoying a sugar high for us. We again are so grateful for the wonderfully supportive community that has invested in us and our little girl.

Secondly in big news, OUR HOMESTUDY IS DONE!!!!!!!!!!!!! Whew! I feel like I could do a victory dance through the streets. Though it took much longer than expected we are beyond excited to be moving foward finally and are extremely grateful to all the hard work our social worker put in. When we signed our homestudy her and her husband let us know that they had prayed over our family that morning and that really touched us. Prayer is the biggest part of this process, and we are so thankful for all of those who are covering us in it. So now that the homestudy is done we feel like we are off and running! We submitted our USCIS application on friday and await their approval while we compile our dossier. Once both are done, we send it off to our girl's country and then we will be meeting her finally! This time is the most crucial time in fundraising for us. In a very short amount of time we have to raise the remainder of our adoption costs. God has provided exactly what we needed just in time so far and we know he is faithful to do the rest. We are extremely blessed by any little bit that you may feel led to send our way. Any amount donated will go towards dossier costs, fasciltator fees and legal fees. If you would like to donate find the paypal button located underneath the "thermometor" on the right. Between your generosity and our own savings over 15% of our adoption has been paid for! Once we recieve travel dates, all our remaining expenses are covered! This time in between is our crucial time for funding. Please pray with us that we will not encounter any delays as we raise the funds and finish the paper work. She is ready for her Mama.

And third, is the best news yet! We got a wonderful update (and some BEAUTIFUL pictures that I desperately wish I could share with you!) on our precious little girl. This sweet family is there right now meeting their own son for the first time. I am so happy for them and cannot wait to be in their shoes. She has been kind enough to spend some extra time with our little girl and give her some extra love from us. Apparently she is quite the chatter box and top dog of the orphanage. She is playful and made sure to instruct the other children when they were out of line! She is anxiously waiting our arrival and was walking around saying "Mama soon, mama soon!" Oh my heart completely aches to make "Mama soon" mean "Mama now". Regardless I am SOOOO grateful for this update. When we first started our adoption process we had learned that "Andrea" was barely speaking, with just a few syllables here and there and seemed to be struggling some. Each update since has been better and better. She is getting better services because of our committment, and this last one it seems she is just flourishing. Personality plus, and happy as a clam waiting for her Mama. What a good God we serve, to provide for her in such amazing ways, even before we've met her! 

So how fast can this Mama run? Lacing up those Nikes now, and with some help and support these next few months, we will be sprinting straight there!

Icecream for our girl!

A Little Bit Closer!

We had an amazing turn out for Little Miss as we hosted a big rummage at our home during our town's Rummage Days. We were so blessed by all the donations to our rummage and the amazing turn out! It was the biggest we've done and we've done a rummage every year! Normally our street doesn't get a lot of traffic and often we are the only rummage on our road. However, this year their were 3 other rummages right around us drawing in more traffic and we had so many items we had to go back for more tables! 

What a blessing!

  The best part was watching the kids really get excited about being a part of bringing their sister home. We baked together treat after treat and then they set up their own table and became awesome little salesmen! Tricia sang, danced, and bounced around saying "want to buy a cookie?" and everyone was smitten. :-) Brayden with his perfect charm carried around his money box accepting payment for the cookies. Truly, they were a huge help for their sister and I am so blessed to watch them learn a lesson in selflessness through this. A few people asked if the money was for them and with out missing a beat they told everyone it was to help bring their sister home. It never seemed to occur to them that they could have spent the money on themselvesand when the suggestion came up, they weren't interested. 
  It was afterall, for their sister. 

The highlight of my weekend was watching these two

We are still selling Kwagala Jewelry!

When we first announced that we were adopting, some expressed concerns about the impact that it would have on our biological kids. What about their rooms and personal space? What about their toys? What if we can't buy them as much stuff cause there is another child? What impact will a special needs child have on her "typical" siblings? Will they feel left out cause there is another child who may require a little extra attention? Some of the questions surprised me. Some of it seemed worth considering. After all this will have a tremendouse impact on our family. This wasn't just Dale and I's decision. This will forever alter how our entire family operates. I've been watching the impact a special needs child has on families for most of my life, and certainly in depth for the last ten years. And I have watched countless families adopt, and have been privilaged to story after story of the impact, the long term effect, both good and bad on families. 
Overwhelmingly, the lessons, the love, the effect on those around them is so GOOD! How many countless people have I seen serve God whole heartedly because they were inspired by someone they loved? How many children have I watched show extended compassion and grace to others because they have a special brother or sister that taught them more about grace than they ever learned in Sunday school? To learn to share, to value human beings above things, to see God's mercy and workmanship in the life of another? All first hand, in your own home? Those are the things my children are trading their extra toys and space for. 

Is it worth it? You betcha, and I say this confidently with every fiber of my being!

(Which by the way, Tricia is beyond thrilled to be sharing her room, and has been begging us to set up the bunk bed since she found out she was getting a sister.....and Brayden has been asking us to adopt a boy too so that things can even out, hehe. He even has a name picked out!) 

So today I am blessed to share with you what God did this weekend. What my kids learned.
 And where we go from here! :-) 
This weekend we raised a total of $642.44 including $55.60 from the kids' bake sale!
I am so proud of their hard work. This money will go towards our USCIS application, then onward to finishing our Dossier. We were about to sign our homestudy, but unfortunatly CIS asked for more info so we have to gather a few more documents. That is ok, we know adoptions are filled with delays and we trust that God has great purpose for each and every extra day of document gathering and fundraising.
Next up on the agenda? An ICECREAM fundraiser! 
You know you want to participate in that! :-) 

ORDINARY HERO

We have a Fun new fundraiser going on for Our little Andrea and I think you guys will love this one! These items are seriously SO CUTE and there is something for the whole family. Head over to Ordinary Hero and start shopping. When it's time to check out click on the Affiliate Drop box and enter my name "Carrie Bradford" and we will recieve part of the proceeds for our adoption. They also award monthly grants to affiliates!

We now also have a site set up to make your donations tax deductable. If you are not interested in making a purchase here, check out

 Funding Forever Families 

and you can make a donation that is tax deductable and will go directly towards adoption expenses. You can also create your own page and join my team to help get the word out. Another fantastic way to support if a donation is something you cannot do at this time. And if you cant give, under the donate button there is great opportunites to share so share away!
We are blessed by every little bit truly!

Ethical........

I only have a short minute so I will post my thoughts on these later this evening. Here are two women bringing up some pretty loaded topics and I have loved reading them, and the tight feeling it creates in my chest as I try to act and think with the wisdom from above instead of this world. (James). I'll link them here, both well said and now we have to start thinking....what does that mean practically.

First http://jenhatmaker.com/blog/2013/05/14/examining-adoption-ethics-part-one#.UZLMw9gH9FY.facebook

then read http://lalalablackbird.blogspot.com/

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!