A Little Break

In case you haven't noticed I've taken just a little break from blogging. The past few weeks have been a little chaotic and there really hasn't been much time to do a lot of blogging. I have a few blog posts in my brain that will eventually be typed out and posted. One of the posts that I am working on is a Christian perspective on racial issues. I guess it's more about my perspective on racial issues and since I happen to be a Christian as well...well you get the idea; it's more about my opinion.

We are in need of some help! This is something that is really hard for me to ask for. Both my husband and I are very independent people and have a hard time asking others for help. We are just a little over halfway to our home study goal. We have $1260 in already and need another $1240 to be able to continue onto the next step in the adoption process.

There are a few ways you can help us out. There are two links off to the right. One is a donate button for those who just wish to donate to us directly. The other button is for our coffee fundraiser. This button will take you directly to our coffee page where you can shop for some fantastic coffee. We get $5 for every bag of coffee that is purchased. I have it on good authority (my dad) that the coffee is excellent. I would like to point out that my father worked for a coffee company for 20+ years, and he thinks it's great coffee. Also, they have really fast shipping.

The other way you can help is if you attend church with us you can donate to the adoption fund that has been set up. This adoption fund is not necessarily just for us, however, we are the only ones right now that are going through the process.

If you can think of other ways you can be of help to us please let us know. Perhaps you would like to donate goods that we can sell, or maybe host a fundraiser. We are open to all kinds of ideas.

Thanks for praying for us!

Blessings

Early last week I was a little bit discouraged, $30,000 is such a huge amount of money. I kept thinking about it as the big picture and it just kept getting me down. I will let you in on a secret about myself...I am a worrier. I worry about everything. This past week God has challenged me to give over my worries and fears to Him. One of the verses He brought to mind is:

The Lord is the one who goes ahead of you, He will be with you, He will not fail you or forsake you. Do not fear or be dismayed. - Deuteronomy 31:8

After I confessed my sin of worry to the Lord blessings came pouring in! Saturday we received the first donation to our adoption fund. This donation came from a very unexpected source and when I opened up the envelope I cried. The person who gave us this money doesn't have much to give. It was a great sacrifice on their part.

Yesterday we received a rather large donation that we were not expecting. With that donation we are now halfway to paying for our home study, which is $2500. We now have $1250 towards our adoption! Also yesterday it was mentioned to us that our church has set up an Adoption Assistance fund to help with those who need assistance with adoption. This is exciting because it is there to help with anyone in the congregation who has chosen to adopt.

My husband and I are humbled by those who are willing to help us out, whether it be by donation of money or time. The Lord is teaching us so much through this process. I am truly excited to see what else God has in store for us. It is only through Him that all things are possible no matter how small or large they may be!

Five Years Ago...

....I married the most wonderful and amazing man. On October 29, 2005 at 2pm in the afternoon I married my best friend. We had met just 9 months previous, started dating 3 months after meeting. He professed his undying love for me just 10 days after we started dating. We were married just under 6 months later.

If you were a guest at our wedding you will recall how short the ceremony was; 10 minutes. I walked down the aisle at 2pm and we walked back up the aisle as Mr. and Mrs. at 2:10pm. If you were just a few minutes late, you missed it :). We had several comments that it was the shortest wedding that one had ever been to.

Since we have been married I have fallen more in love with my husband. We really didn't know each other all that well and it has been a great joy learning and getting to know my husband on a much deeper level. I am truly grateful for my husband and the way he challenges me to grow and to try out new things. Most of all I am grateful to the Lord for allowing such a wonderful man be apart of my life.

October is Almost Over

Can you believe it? Where has this month gone? Matter of fact where has 2010 gone? Doesn't it seem that when one gets older time seems to fly by more quickly? October is my most favorite month out of the other 11. (February is my second because it is the coldest, followed by December because of the holidays.) I love the cooler temps, I love pulling out my sweaters and buying new ones. Although this year has been unseasonably warm, I am hoping that means February is unseasonably cold! (You can call me crazy but I LOVE winter and the cold!)

This October has been a busy one for us in the Barker household. There has just been so much going on. Most of it revolves around an upcoming family wedding, I love fall weddings, and an upcoming wedding which I am doing flowers for. I have to say that decorating for weddings in the fall is sooooo much fun! Everything else has been pretty much adoption stuff.

Speaking of adoption stuff, here is a quick update on how things are going. I am stalking bulletin boards reading all about how other people are travelling to get their cute little babies. My husband could have TB (long story) but probably doesn't and the doctors "just want to be sure." We plan on finishing the rest of our initial paperwork tomorrow and send that off. We would like to start our home study before Christmas. I added a "donate" button off to the right of this post, so it's even easier for you to donate to our adoption. Two fundraisers are in the works in addition to the coffee fundraiser...once again the button is to the right of this post. I personally like the coffee fundraiser because you get great coffee and we get $5/bag of coffee sold. Check them out and help us bring home baby Barker. There are also a couple of blog posts in works for raising awareness about international adoption and the costs associated with it as well as some info about the country of South Korea.

Sorry for the rabbit trail....I was talking about October...

Another thing that I love about October is that my husband and I were married in October. Yes coming up on October 29th we will celebrate our 5th wedding anniversary. I seriously can't believe how fast time flies. In case you were wondering we aren't doing anything for our anniversary, funds are tight right now with the adoption. We might make it out to dinner to Jimmy John's since that seems to be our favorite place to eat right now, probably because it's good and fairly cheap. I know, we are soooo romantic.

I would be remiss if I didn't mention one of the best things about October...Halloween CANDY!! I could eat a pound of candy corn if given the opportunity. It's a good thing I am not allowed such opportunity, plus it might be a little bit awkward if I was at someones house and I ate ALL of their candy corn.


What are some of your favorite things about October?

First Fundraiser

Sorry to be talking about adoption all the time, but it just so happens that is what's on my mind. So in an effort not to bore you I will make this post short and right to the point.

We have started our first fundraiser! It's really easy. If you love coffee please hop on over to here or click on the the icon to the right and buy some. We get a portion from the sale of whatever you buy. Seriously, how easy is that?

Adoption Update

I am going to try to post an adoption update at least once a week; the key word is try. We got our packet of paperwork from the adoption agency at the beginning of last week. We've already gotten through most of it. We have to submit this round of paperwork for home study. They will review the paperwork and then we can go forward with our home study.

Last Friday we got our fingerprints for our FBI background check. We mailed those off right away because it takes about 8 weeks for the government to pry into our not so sordid past. We also went last week to get our physicals done, we are still waiting for some test results for that to be all completed.

Next up on the list is to finish all the essay questions, we started on it last Saturday, but there are so many and after about an hour my head hurt. We will try and get this completed by the time our test results come back from our physicals. Once we get our paperwork completed we will wait for our background checks to come back as well as attend some parenting classes. I am hoping to schedule our home study for sometime in December, but it will probably be January since we have to pay for the home study before we can schedule it. I don't think that we will have the money until after Christmas.

Speaking of money... I have come up with some fundraising ideas so check back in about a week or so to see how you can help!

I think that is about it for the time being. If you have any questions about the adoption let me know, I'm more than happy to talk about it. Also if you would like to help us out please let me know; any type of help is greatly appreciated.

A New Adventure: An Announcement

Oh my goodness! Can I just tell you how busy we have been? It's a rhetorical question, I'm gonna tell you whether or not you give me permission. We've been super busy. I suppose I won't go into detail and list off all the things that have made us busy. Not that I'm complaining (okay maybe I am just a little bit) but I am a person who likes to take one thing at a time, get half done and move onto the next thing. Being busy is just not that conducive to me being a procrastinator and being able to read whole books in one weekend.

Remember last month when I said that I would like to lead a more simple life? Well I can tell you right now that simple life will probably never happen. I know by now that most of you think that our (my husband's and mine) big announcement is that I'm probably pregnant, well you would only be partially right. The big announcement is.....we are ADOPTING a child from South Korea! At least we hope to adopt a child from South Korea, we might get swallowed up by all the paperwork to never be heard from again.

We have started the paperwork process and hope to get that completed in the next 2 months. Then we will have a home study where we are asked all kinds of personal questions and someone comes to "inspect" our house(eeek!). After our home study we wait, and then wait a little bit more before a child is referred to us. Then we have to come up with a massive amount of money if we accept the referred child. After we accept the referred child he's ours, only we have to wait some more before we can go and bring him back to the States.

I'm referring to our child as "him" as the child referred to us will most likely be a boy around the age of 9 months when we finally arrive home with him.

There are still many unknowns for us like MONEY. We cannot afford the hefty price tag on our own. We will be applying for grants, doing some fund raisers, praying and probably a little bit of begging and pleading. But I do want all of you to know that both my husband and I feel 100% confident that this what God has in store for us. We know that He will provide the money even though we cannot seem to comprehend how.

We are already praying for our child. We do not know if he is born yet, or if he has even been conceived. We are praying for him, his birth parents and his foster parents. We are praying that he will be healthy and that his birth mom will have a good pregnancy. We are also praying that he will have loving foster parents who will be attentive and see to his needs. We are praying that we might be a testimony to his foster parents when we go to South Korea to meet our little one for the first time.

I plan on sharing more information, especially fund raising info, in near future. In the meantime we would appreciate your prayers.