Today is the Day To Partially Celebrate

So today is a day to partially celebrate.  Why partially celebrate? 

Because we got our official home study, completed and approved!  So now we can legal start an adoption process in the state of SC. 

It's awesome! It's amazing!  It lifts a bit of stress off our shoulders, because this means that there is legal proof that we are approved to be parents.

And yet, I still want to cry in exhaustion and discouragement.  We are facing a long journey, one that won't necessarily be finished in the next few months.  I mean, it has been almost a year since we announced our intentions to adopt, and we only just got our homestudy completed.  

I'm tired, and I'm hoping and praying that everything else in this process will go off without a hitch, but in reality, adoption doesn't always work the way our society portrays it. One of my friends, who has been trying to adopt for almost 10 years, compared adoption to be like being pregnant for years straight without a child.  The up and downs, the stress (and this is not normal stress), and the constant what ifs of adoption will drive you crazy if you let it.

So today, we are going to celebrate a little.  And then, later, when we finally reach the finish line, and hold our children in our arms, we will celebrate a lot!

Cana
#FindingOurCrayons

Update: Yard Sale

So, as you know, we had our yard sale on Saturday.  

This is about 2.5 hours into the yard sale... a few things sold

We didn't sell much by the end of the yard sale, but we did make about $64 day of.  Plus with a few things sold outside of the yard sale, by the end of the week, we should have over $100.  

Not bad for our first official adoption yard sale!  Especially when you consider how we live in a rural area.  

Rest assure, we will be having more yard sales.  We still have a lot of items still left over from this yard sale, and we will be continuing to sell all these items until we either get the money together or we sell it all.  Whichever happens first.  

We really appreciate all your help, prayers, and donations.  We couldn't have done it without y'all!

Mike & Cana
#FindingOurCrayons

#FindingOurCrayons

Hello to everyone!

Today isn't a post about what we are thinking, how we are feeling, but rather, an update on something we are doing to share our journey.

You have probably seen it on our Facebook group, and on our blog, but we have been using a new hashtag: #FindingOurCrayons.  We are working sharing our journey of our adoption to the world, and one of the best ways is by using a hashtag.

So if you search for us with this hashtag, or share our hashtag, you and anyone else will be able to see our journey!

Again, we love all of you, and are so thankful for all the support and encouragement that you share with us.

Mike & Cana
#FindingOurCrayons

Happy Anniversary (And an Update)

Today is our wedding anniversary! And we have had a lot of changes in the last year. 

Besides the obvious (getting married), we have bought a house in a different town, moving a lovely 20 minutes away from Anderson, SC.  Cana changed jobs, leaving one that she had been at for almost a decade.  And we started saving up money for our adoption.  

At this point in the process of just saving for the adoption, we have been saving and gathering funds now since Mid-June.  We are at a whopping 28% towards our goal in just 3 months!  Part of that was using from former job paying out my  PTO, but some of that was from our loving friends and family!  As you know, we have already started with some basic fundraisers (t-shirt sales and and gathering items for the yard sale) and Mike trying to shave his head if we raise $1,000 before September 30th, but stay on the look out for the other fundraising events we will be starting after the new year.  

We want to thank all of you that are helping us, both financially and with the love and encouragement that y'all share with us. 

Mike & Cana
#FindingOurCrayons