WINNER!!!!

Okay, I didn't really win the lottery (I don't even play)...

And I realize that there's a lot of not so great things that can come from winning the lottery...but barring all of those bad things happening, if I had won the lottery, here's the positive side of what I would do.

After taxes it was what, a mere 385 million payout (just enough to live off of for a lifetime)...

1.  Tithe 10% = 38.5 million, but I'll round that puppy up to 40 million (God's blessed us quite a bit, I'd probably give WAY more than that actually).  Crosspoint's permanent home will be built (you're welcome all you peeps on the load-in and load-out teams).

2. I'd give a good chunk to the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation...I'm thinking that would help with making the life sustaining drugs and help find a cure for sure. Because there would be so much funding behind the drugs, it would decrease their cost for the consumer (BONUS) so they wouldn't be the most expensive drugs EVER!!!!  You're welcome CF peeps.

3.  Our adoption would be funded, and our non-profit organization to help others fund their adoptions would be funded as well.

4.  The Red Barn Retreat would be built and up and running.

5.  I would put in the rest of the new windows on the house, finish our basement, and add an awesome master suite, complete with HUGE walk-in closet, full bathroom with walk in shower, a scrapbook room for me, and a dj room for Chris with more speakers than he could possibly imagine (this room will also be sound proof ;0) ).

6.  I would buy us new cars.  4 of them to be exact.  2 practical cars for every day use.  A mustang for my Hot Husband, and a corvette for me ;0)

7.  I'd buy a new refrigerator...because I HATE the one I have.  Goodbye 1983 model with immovable shelves!  You know what, I'd probably replace all my appliances...and my kitchen.

8.  I'd pay off the house and student loans.

9.  Our parents, siblings, nieces and nephews would probably get some nice swag!

10.  Chris and I would go on some AMAZING vacations!!!!  We may take some friends and family along for the fun.

11.  I would go to the Container store...I'd probably buy some stuff ;0)  Currently Chris won't allow me to go to that store.  This isn't him being mean, he just knows my illogical LOVE for organizational supplies and is aware that sending me into this place would be like putting a crack whore in a room with all the drugs for the taking.  Come to think of it, he may be even more opposed to me going to the Container store if we'd won the lottery... 

12.  I'd probably still work, but it would be part time...I'd spend the rest of the time doing (insert Napoleon Dynamite here) whatever I want to do...GOSH!

But most of all, first and foremost, I would thank God for the amazing blessing of always providing for us....and giving us so much more than we could ever imagine.

65 Roses Adult Prom

It's funny how life can make a near complete circle at times...at least when it comes to people you've encountered.

This past weekend we held the first annual 65 Roses Adult Prom (a fundraiser to raise money for Cystic Fibrosis). 

*Note:  In case you didn't know this, many children (and adults, I'm sure, too) have a difficult time pronouncing Cystic Fibrosis, and it comes out sounding like 65 Roses.  There's your little, "you learn something new every day" fact...you're welcome ;0)

July 2011 I was sitting at the entrance to my garage, with my lovely little sister, reading my facebook feed when I was invited to an event to raise money for super cute Boston.  I click, I start reading, I'm curious because I do not recognize the name of the person that invited me  AT ALL.  Come to find out, MY high school junior prom date is Boston's Dad, and Boston was diagnosed with Cystic Fibrosis. 

What the?

So I immediately sent Josh a message to let him know that if there's anything they need or if they want someone to talk to (who lives out life with CF every stinkin day) to definitely hit me up.

Schedules got in the way but we were all finally able to get together in December.  We had a lovely dinner at Applebee's and chatted for hours...and so began the reconnect for he and I, my hot husbands new found friendship with Josh, and my new found friendship with his amazing wife Ashley.

Fast forward to this summer, and Josh and Ashley call us up and are all, "We want to do an adult prom to raise moolah for CF.  AND we want you two in on the planning of it.  Oh yeah, and we have like 3 months to plan it!" 

Our hard work paid off. 

Prom went off smashingly, and we had around 125 people show up, eat, dance, take silly pics, and raise money to help make CF stand for Cure Found!

Here's Josh and Ashley:

Here's my super HOT husband and me:

We completely spaced and didn't recreate the prom photo of Josh and I from Junior Prom (Ashley and I are kicking ourselves for that one).  Next time, FO SHO!!!!

But as much fun as Junior prom was, I must say, I enjoyed my Adult Prom date a whole lot more (sorry Josh, NO ONE can compare to Chris)!

Josh informed me yesterday that although I didn't win prom Queen, I did win Prom Princess.  I didn't get a crown, but an excerpt from my last blog post was the whole inside of the prom program (next to a pic of Boston, my friend Dawn, and one of me), so I do feel a bit special.  I can live without the crown I guess (at least for this year) ;0)


*A special thanks to Claire Olvey Photography and Jen D with Budget Florist for being so tremendously awesome and donating your time, energy and services to the prom.  Your support means the world to me.  Mwah!

Saltiness is Good!

I know I've kinda of gotten away from my regular blog posting since we've started the adoption journey.  But I think sometimes I just don't feel like I have much ado to blog about ;0) unless I think it's something deep and witty to relay to you all.

 

But this morning at church, one of the scripture passages kind of got to me, and I felt like I had something to say about it.

 

This blog post is of course intended for all my readers (thanks Mom and Heather), but more specifically for my friends with/or who live with CF on a daily basis. 

 

I would consider myself a pretty upbeat person.  I don't tend to let my CF get me down too often. 

 

I mean, don't get me wrong, I have my days. 

 

We all do.

 

When I cough for 4 hours straight and can't seem to get the bronchospasms to stop no matter what I do... 

 

3 percussion sessions in a row with the vest at night and 2 cough drops later, and I'm finally able to go back to sleep, just to have my alarm clock go off in 30 minutes to do my morning treatments...you can't blame me for letting my frustrations with it get to me.

 

I usually spend that ENTIRE time praying to God, just asking him to take the bronchospasms away and let me sleep. 

 

He does, though it may not be in the timing I want him to, He does answer.

 

Sometimes it makes me question why I had to be one of the 30,000 children and young adults in America that are living with this disease. 

 

Trust me, I was diagnosed at 5 days old, have lived with CF my whole life, I know what living with CF is. 

 

And as much as I hate the ups and downs of CF, I wouldn't wish it on anyone.

 

To be perfectly honest, as much as I hate the ups and downs of CF, I would gladly take on all the CF in the world if it meant no one else had to deal with it ever again.

 

I have NO concept of what my life would be like without CF in it.

 

So while I've accepted what I was handed when I was born, and most days I roll with the punches, and on those off days I know that it's just one bad day in a sea of more good days right now...sometimes I still question, "Why me?" Or for that matter, "Why me and all the other great people in my life affected by CF?"

 

And then Crosspoint happens...and out of nowhere (or so it would seem to me) just what I need to hear is said from the stage.

 

So...for me and all the other people living with CF (whether personally, or dealing with it via a family member, friend, spouse, whatever)...I hope this passage helps you, like it helped me today.

 

 

There are some groups of people that believe the reason a person is born with some type of affliction, disease, whatever, is because of past sins in their lives.

 

Some believe that if you have a disease or some "blemish" you can't do certain things, or hold certain status, or have certain jobs.

 

I've never believed any of that.  To be honest I think that's just more of Satan's lies meant to push us down. 

 

So when I saw this passage on the screen this morning, and I sat back and read it, I thought, "This just gives me further proof, in a way, that God created me just as I am.  He gave me purpose, even within my disease, and gosh darn it, he thinks I'm pretty special."

 

Matthew 5:13

The Message (MSG)

Salt and Light

¹³ “Let me tell you why you are here. You’re here to be salt-seasoning that brings out the God-flavors of this earth. If you lose your saltiness, how will people taste godliness? You’ve lost your usefulness and will end up in the garbage.

Now, I don't believe this passage is about people with CF specifically.  I don't think if there's a cure for CF that we're goign to "end up in the garbage."

But I can't help but think that it's interesting that people with CF are a little extra salty...

And God says we are here to be the salt-seasoning that brings out the God-flavors of this earth.

There are plenty of other people who can bring out the saltiness for God, CF or not.

But I guess when I read a passage that talks about saltiness, and I'm a salty girl, and I've had a few days of extra coughing, and trying to figure out what the purpose of me dealing with this disease is, it kind of feels like it's been written just for me.

"Hey Holly, Let me tell you why you are here.  You're here to be the salt-seasoning (literally, tee hee) that brings out the God-flavors of this earth.  If you lose your saltiness, how will people taste godliness?"

CF makes me salty, and I'm here to be the salt-seasoning that brings out the God-flavors of this earth. 

And maybe God gave me CF because through it I can show others his love, his faithfulness, his grace, his blessings.  Because in spite of my CF, I can see all of those things that God is.

Maybe the salt crystals on my forehead when I sweat are supposed to be a physical reminder to me that I am here for a bigger reason. 

Maybe God recognized that while I live and breathe with a little more difficulty than everyone else,  I could show Him to others in a way that maybe someone who isn't quite so salty (in the same way as I am) couldn't.

So as a reminder to me, and to all my CF peeps...

God made us this way on purpose.

We are meant to be salty.

We are meant to show our saltiness to others.

And we are meant to be the salt-seasoning that brings out the God flavors of this earth.

We're getting closer...

Many of you know we've been in kind of a holding pattern with our Adoption process.

Holding pattern may not be the right word...we've purposely been holding off on signing off on our Homestudy. It was approved and once we sign off on it and pay our next fee we will be active.

We were holding off not because we didn't want to go active...we were waiting to raise some more money so we don't fully deplete all of our savings (we're very financially conscious in our house...which sounds sort of silly if you know how expensive adoption is).

This past weekend we had a garage sale and raised $700 more for our adoption fund.

Woo Hoo *hands waving in the air (clapping in sign language)

 

So...Where does this put us in the process?

Chris and I both feel we should wait until after our next pay day before we sign the next check.

You have no idea how hard it can be to write that huge of a check and hand it over... we are SO excited for where it's taking us, but like any big amount of money that leaves your bank account (no matter what it's for) it can kind of make you nauseous when you first hand it over.

We have been faithful in following the path that we feel God has asked us to take, and of course HE is always faithful and blesses us abundantly. We've definitely seen this in this past weekend. 

So, I can safely say that we will be active this month..and I will for sure let you all know the day our faces show up on the website ;0) * We'll be looking for them as soon as that check makes it to the agency.

Thank you for supporting us. Whether it's been financially or by prayer. We are without a doubt so thankful and blessed to have every single one of you supporting us along this crazy journey.

You can continue to support us by:

1. Praying for us and our adoption journey. Once we go active we can begin applying for grants and funding. We're also looking into some other fundraising opportunities (school starting has slowed down my pursuance of these opportunities, but now that I've gotten back into the school routine I can begin this process again). We'll keep you updated on all of this information as we know more.

2. Praying for our Birth Mom. We still don't know her yet, but odds are she could be pregnant now, and may be debating between keeping the baby or not (and I don't necessarily mean parenting vs. adoption here). We know God will bring us the perfect child for us, and it will be in his timing...we want that birth mom to be bathed in love and prayers from us and our family and friends. Please join Chris and I in praying for a woman that we don't even know yet, a woman who is facing some tough decisions, and the future of a baby who is already loved by so many.

3. Pray that we don't go crazy waiting to find out if we've been picked after we go active. Chris said to me not too long ago, "I'm not gonna lie, if we don't get picked soon after we go active, I'm gonna be kind of upset. Because we're pretty awesome!" I don't disagree with him. Again, we know things will happen in His timing, but that doesn't make it any easier when we have wants/expectations for our timing.

4. Check in with us periodically. Once we go active, it could be days, weeks, or months before we get picked...and so I may not have updates to post very often. Checking in with us, not only reminds us that we still have that support from our friends and family, but it helps us to remember to check in with the agency every once in a while too. 

Arteriosclerosis I do NOT have!

Today's been one of those days that stretches my faith. 

Sometimes it's hard to believe in the decency of God's people when you encounter those who, by the way they treat you, make it clear that they are not people of God. 

 Even outside of whether you are or are not a Christ follower, there is still such a thing as treating others with dignity and respect. 

I may not always be in the happiest of moods, I may have a bad day or be frustrated, but I hope I never make another person feel the way I was made to feel today, or speak to another person the way I was spoken to.  And if I ever do, I hope I have the decency to tell them that I was wrong in doing so, apologize, and tell them that in no way did they ever deserve for me to treat them like they were nothing. 

Update on the process

I'm sorry it took me a few weeks to update you on our Home Visit...

Today was the first day of School (for students, I've been back in my office a few days), so I've been a smidge busy getting the end of summer tied up, hobbling along on my still healing foot, and getting prepared for the start of another school year.

Our home visit went well.

We answered the same questions we'd already answered twice, AGAIN.

Chris gave her a tour of our home (I wasn't walking very well yet when she came).

It was nothing like we were expecting...

I mean, they told us they weren't going to come in wearing a white glove and check for dust on furniture.

And to be honest, with my undiagnosed OCD, I (Chris does a great job as well) keep the house picked up pretty well.

But, Chris said she didn't even step off the last step when he showed her the basement, and she barely set one foot into each room when he took her down the hall.

Now, I know we have no major safety concerns going on in our house.  I didn't worry that she was going to walk in and say, "OH my gosh, there is no way on earth I'm going to permit a child in this home."  But I figured she'd at least walk into the rooms and look around a bit. 

Whatever, it's done, it went well, and as of last Friday we received an email that our whole Home study was approved!

WOO HOO!!!!!

What does that mean?

It means that once we get our last few background checks done, and turn in those papers, sign off on the home study and send in a check, we are active.

Active = our biography (which turned out SUPER CUTE by the way) will be shown to possible birth moms.

And then we'll get picked...hopefully soon.

Let's face it, we're pretty awesome.  How could we not get picked soon?  ;0)

So that's the scoop.

Please continue to pray...

Pray for:

1. Us: We know a lot of people who have gone through this process.  We know it can have ups and downs, and the waiting part can be one of the hardest parts.  And we know that some parts of the process can strain a relationship.  So just pray for us and the continued process to go smoothly, with as few bumps as possible.

2. The birth mom:  Again, we don't know her yet, and she may just be finding out she's pregnant, or she may have been struggling with this decision for a while.  Whatever the case may be, we know that God is present in the situation, even if she isn't aware of his presence.

3.  That God will continue to provide the money to help us fund our adoption.  We are being very choosey about what we say we will do/be a part of/spend money on right now.  We know we have to tighten our budget some, and we know God will provide for what we need.  We have some fun(d)-raisers coming up soon, and I'll let you know as those approach what they are...but until then, I'm still scrapbooking to raise money, and I'm still willing to do other crafty projects for people as well. 

 I'll try to keep you updated as soon as we go active.

Thanks for all of your support.

Where we're at...

We've been super busy the past few months getting ready for our home visit. 

Most all the paperwork we had to fill out is in...just waiting on a few extra pieces of info.

Our home visit is tomorrow morning at 8:30am.

I shouldn't be nervous...but I'm not gonna lie, I am a little. 

After my recent foot injury I haven't been up and moving as fast as I usually am, and as I want.  So I haven't been able to get all the things done that I want too.

No matter, it will go great.  Our house is never really that messy (thanks to my OCD), and Mom came over and helped me clean yesterday.

So that's the update. 

They said 4-6 weeks after our home visit is when the home study is usually finished and approved.  At that point they will start showing our profile/biography to birth moms.

I'll probably have more to update you on then.

Please pray for us tomorrow morning as we answer questions we've already anwered and as we have our house looked at to make sure it's safe for a baby.

Again, thanks for all of your support.  Chris and I are so blessed.