Adoption Pancake Breakfast and Yard Sale

It's hard to believe a week has flown by since the event and my posting about it has been lacking! Our gratitude is definitely not lacking though!!  We received overwhelmingly generous support and gifts that the yard sale and pancake breakfast alone raised enough to cover a round trip ticket to Taiwan! We are excited to announce that we raised almost $2,300! We are so very thankful to everyone who came out, bought treasures, and ate pancakes with us!! It was such a fun event and something we have never done before. We had yard sale items coming out of everywhere both outside and inside. I was inside helping run the pancake breakfast most of the time but was able to snap a few pictures on my phone from the event.

The Lord is so faithful and provided above what we imagined financially and also through sweet friends who helped us set up and take down the event! With the help of a really special lady, Mrs. Shirl, the yard sale went very smoothly. She went above and beyond to help us with everything! We are so thankful for her, our church family, and friends that came out to help the day of the sale. We would not have been able to do it without their help!

We also found out more exciting news this week!!

We have been waiting on dates to meet our new little guy on Skype. Well, we found out this past Tuesday that our first of three Skype visits will be the first week of August!! We are so excited to be able to 'meet' and talk with him on Skype. I am so, so excited to see his sweet little face 'live' that I can hardly stand it!!

We are still waiting on a court date and will hopefully find out about that within the next few months. 

Will you please pray for our little man as he waits and the transition he will be going through? Thank you so much for following along with us on our journey to Taiwan. We cannot wait to see what The Lord has in store. 

Beautiful Mess

The Yard Sale and Pancake Breakfast fundraiser is THIS WEEKEND!!! 

We have been blown away by the generosity of so many people donating items to be sold at the sale. I am so very thankful for all of the donations and especially for sweet friends helping get the word out! We have even had many people donate whom we had never met before and it has been so encouraging to see their love for children in hard places. I have also made connections with other adoptive mommas who have have kiddos from other asian countries. I love how the Lord works in all aspects of adoption. It is so amazing to step back and see all that he is doing!

For the past few weeks we have been cleaning, tagging, and boxing items. My house and garage are bursting at the seams with this beautiful mess. Im not gonna lie, if someone came and took pictures of the inside of our house, you would think we were prime candidates for one of the hoarders shows. Every morning when I wake up, I walk out of my room and almost freak out because a). My brain doesn't function in the morning and b). I seem to forget every single morning that during this preparation stage my house is a hot mess. I am so thankful for that hot mess and cannot wait to see how the Lord uses a garage sale and pancake breakfast to help bring our sweet little guy home! 

ALSO! We found out yesterday that Lifesong has allowed us to go through them so that our supporters will be able to write checks tax-deductible! This is a huge blessing! So if any of you out there would love to help give financially, you will be able to do so tax deductible.  We are in the process to raise money for the rest of our agency fee ($2,500) and our round-trip plane tickets to Taiwan ($8,000 estimate) and are praying that the Yard Sale and Pancake breakfast will help put a good dent in these costs. 

If you would like to give, here are some guidelines we received on how to do so:

• Checks should be payable to “Lifesong for Orphans. In the memo, note Lovett #4703 to assure it goes to the correct account. Please mail to Lifesong for Orphans, PO Box 40, Gridley, IL 61744. Lifesong has been blessed with a partner that underwrites all U.S. administrative and fund-raising costs (TMG Foundation and other partners). That means 100% of your donation will go directly to the adoption. 

• To pay online go to www.lifesongfororphans.org/give/donate. Select “Give to an Adoptive Family.” Complete the online form and fill in “Family Account Number” (#4703) and “Family Name” (Lovett) fields. Note PayPal charges an administrative fee (about 2.9%). Your donation will be decreased by the amount of this fee.

• NOTE: In following IRS guidelines, your donation is to the named non-profit organization. This organization retains full discretion over its use, but intends to honor the donor’s suggested use. “Individual donations $250 or more and yearly donations totaling $250 or more will receive a tax-deductible receipt. Receipts for donations under $250 will gladly be sent upon request. Lifesong is a 501(c)3 tax exempt organization.