{YARD SALE}

Our yard sale was VERY successful yesterday. We made $528.00 for our adoption fund!!! We had a very long day. We opened at 7 am, which means I was up at 5 am preparing to open the doors by 7 am. We had a great turnout of people and finally closed up and cleaned up by 5:30pm last night. There are so many people to thank for the success of this yard sale!!!

The list...
The Bowers Family
The Otis Family
The Johnston Family
The Chambers Family
The Ugrin-Smith Family
The Fisher Family
Elaine Sweeney (our niece)
The Davidson Family
Mike's Parents
My Parents
Our Children
and all the wonderful shoppers...

THANK YOU to all of you!!!! We feel so blessed to have each and everyone of you in our lives.

















Missi really wanted to have a BAKE SALE to help earn money for the adoption and she made $22 selling cookies, lemonade, red vines, and bottled water. She worked so hard...Thank you Missi:)































THE END OF THE DAY and we are wiped out!!! Off to shower and sleep!

{FINDS}

Ooops, I Forgot To Post...
On May 23 we went to a Yard Sale and hit the JACKPOT!!! We found the most adorable rocking chair and Mission style bed for Makayla's room and they were both just $2o, we were so excited!!!!!! It has wood side rails too. I will post a picture when her bed is all together. We brought them both home and started sanding the bed, we are going to re-paint the bed white. The rocking chair was in mint condition, so that got a good scrubbin and put right in to her room. Here are the pictures...

{APPROVED}

..."With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible." Matthew 20:26
















{these are my favorite flowers in my flower bed}

YA!!! YA!!! We finally received word from Jessa (yesterday) that our Home Study is APPROVED!!!! We will now receive 4 original copies from Nora. We will keep one for our records, one goes with our I800A application, one goes to be authenticated for our dossier, and the last one I am unsure of and will hopefully find out tomorrow. We now wait for Nora to finalize everything on her end, then Jessa is sending a cover letter for the home studies and we will be sending in the I800A!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Is there a light at the end of this paper tunnel??? YES:) I am off to bed now, but will keep you filled in as we know.

Oh, wait....I also wanted to show you a picture of the end table my Mother in law made me for my birthday. She is very much into stained glass right now and asked me what I wanted...so, I told her and it turned out FABULOUS!!!! It is the Chinese symbol for LOVE...isn't is beautiful! Thank You Charlotte:)
















I wanted to finish with this scripture...I love this one!


When we hope, be joyful.
When we suffer, be patient.
When we pray, be faithful.
Romans 12:12

This just says so much!!!!

{update}

It has been a bit since my last post...I wanted to let you know we finally got Mikes clearances back from California, (thank you Lord) he was cleared! We knew that would be the case, but the wait was crazy! I am so glad our caseworker, Nora, sent in our Home Study without that date! Our Home Study was finalized on 4-23-09 and sent to Jessa at GWCA. I was told it would be about 2 weeks to get that reviewed and sent back to Nora. Well, that finally happened yesterday, 5-14-09...so, that is around 4 weeks! We have 3 things to fix or rather add to and then it goes back to Jessa again. Not sure how long the wait could be this time. We are suppose to go in to a different wait line...this seems to be the slowest process yet, except for the CA clearances for Mike. As soon as the home study is finished, we can file our I-800A. We are almost finished with the paperwork!!!!

We did attend the webinar with GWCA, " Hope Camp Kids" and gained a lot of information, that was the best part. We did not see a little girl that made our hearts stop, so we took that as a sign Makayla was not here yet. We are not sad or disappointed, we are just waiting for God's timing. I am sure He would allow me to have any child I pursued, but we want the blessing He has waiting for us. Too many times in my life I have taken over and finished what I thought was His plan and learned some valuable lessons. I know God is good and His plan will be the best and more fulfilling than anything I could ever do. We will continue to wait.

We still have some money to raise. We are still working on the last part to GWCA, which we are about $1, 000 shy of hitting and then we save for our trip and orphanage donation. The donation to the orphanage is $5,000 and the trip will be around $10-$15, 000. We are planning to take our family, so it will be more expensive than normal. We have several things in line that we are working on to bring in some dollars, I will keep you posted on the dates and places if you would like to attend any or all of the events. Here is our list... yard sale, jewelery, cook book, BINGO night and silent auction.

Please continue to keep us in your prayers, we need all the divine intervention we can get right now!

Thank you,
The Sweeney's

"Those who wait on the Lord will gain renewed strength;
They will mount up with wings like eagles,
They will run and not get tired,
The will walk and not become weary".
Isaiah 40:31

~NEWS~

Just checking in to let you know a little bit of news!!! We heard today that out home study is up for review and should be finished by the end of this week or early next week!!! We are so excited...it has been pretty quiet around here. Mike seems to think that this is the calm before the storm! heehee The other bit of news is we are now registered for the Waiting Child "Camp Hope" webinar on May 11th, 2009. This was for the children who went to the Beijing Camp Hope and were NOT placed with a forever family. We have the opportunity to be at the webinar and find out a little more information than normal at this point. From what I understand...we do not have to have our dossier to China to request one of the children. We don't know for sure if our Makayla is there or if we will continue to wait for Gods timing. Either way this is a very exciting opportunity!!!

Here is what Jessa had to say:

Our hope, and our goal, is to now find families for these children. I will be presenting information on each of the children who are still waiting to find their families. A brief description of their special needs will be provided, however, I will focus more on telling you about their personalities and my interactions with them.

Because I will be providing photos and confidential information about the children, this webinar will be limited to only families who have a Waiting Child application on file. Once you register and I am able to verify your application, I will provide you with a password to log-in.

Isn't this AWESOME!!! We could be seeing MAKAYLA!!! We will keep you posted! Please keep us and Makayla in your prayers...Thank you for stopping by:) Have a blessed day!