Garage Sale is SET UP!

After weeks / months of collecting items we finally started setting up for the garage sale! 6 carports, 2 tents, and about 20 tables later, we completely filled up the space and realized we only have about half of the stuff out! (And this isn't counting the garage full of furniture items).

We are really excited for the garage sale to start, when we were setting up earlier tonight, we actually had people come and buy things... the sale hasn't even started yet and we've sold items. This is crazy!

We seriously couldn't have done this without you! A HUGE thank you to everyone who helped us out today, it was extremely amazing and we feel so blessed.

Here are some pictures so far.

Hope to see you there, and please don't forget to spread the word!

THANKS
Ryan & Allie

Garage Sale: NEXT WEEK!!

The garage sale is less than a week away!

PART 1: COLLECTING
First of all, THANK YOU, THANK YOU to everyone who has helped us. We have received so many donations (see below)!! Our garage and four seasons porch is filled and we are finishing up the last minute details. If you have items you're still looking to get rid of, let us know. We are certainly still collecting items. 

PART 2: SELLING

1. Please help us spread the word! It has been really amazing to see so many people donate items, but it doesn't do much good if people don't show up to the sale. 
2. If you have tarps or tables that we can borrow, please let us know. 
3. We will be setting up this Wednesday (April 30), Garage Sale Thurs - Sat (May 1-3), and tearing down Saturday night. If you want/are available to help, let us know.

Details:
May 1-3
9am - 7pm
THE SALE IS NOT AT OUR HOUSE!!
2965 117th Ave NW
Coon Rapids, MN 55433

Rain or Shine, the sale will be happening!

Furniture, household items, books, baby items, a ping pong table, exercise equipment, AND SO MUCH MORE!

Learning about infants

A few weeks ago Allie & I had the opportunity to go visit our good friends Brent & Katie in CA. #thankyouforcreditcardswithmiles #freeflight Both Brent & Katie have been good friends of mine for 10 years or more. Brent & I stood up in each others' weddings and he was a huge part of the beginnings of Studio Veil. Now, that's reason enough to go and visit someone but there was yet another reason that stole the trip. In July, Brent & Katie were blessed with this little guy pictured below, Owen.

Allie & I had such an amazing time visiting with friends and getting to know Owen. His cry reminded us more of a sad dog who sees his treat on the counter top but can't get to it than it did of an upset child. It was so cute we had to stop ourselves from giggling to go find out what was wrong! We enjoyed several days playing peek-a-boo and snuggling with Owen. As we left to come back home, Allie & I both realized that was probably the longest single period of time we had been around an infant in our lives! Here are some things we learned....

1. no baby toys can hold a match to the simplicity of an empty gatorade bottle or remote control
2. a mother making silly noises in the back seat stops a child from crying (for a while)
3. Babys R Us is an intimidating store
4. home made baby food is easier to make than home made adult food
5. changing tables are a waste of money. Never once did Owen complain about not being changed on a table!
6. I'm not sure what's under area rugs but it's much more interesting than what's on top of them
7. sometimes babies don't poop for a day or two, and that's ok!
8. Target has great deals on diapers
9. baby swings don't just go back and forth anymore! They go side to side, diagonal, zig-zag, valley motion, and so many more
10. unrelated to babies but still something we learned, Yonannas turns frozen bananas into the consistency of ice cream but much to Katie's dismay, not the flavor of ice cream

All that is to say that we thoroughly enjoyed our time with Brent, Katie, & Owen and now more than ever we are excited to become parents. If only this adoption process didn't take so much time, energy, and money, we'd actually get to focus on preparing for a child more!

Ryan & Allie

Home Study Update

We are excited to say the home study is almost done! Our paperwork and background check were approved and we had our first meeting with the social worker on March 27th. We answered a bunch of questions about our personalities, our relationship as a couple and how we plan to parent. We have our second meeting on April 10th which will be at our house. No, we don't need to deep clean or anything, they just want to make sure we don't live in a box. After that meeting, the social worker will write up our home study and we will be good to go!

What does this mean? 
Well, first of all you have to have a current home study complete before adopting a child. So it's one more thing checked off our list. Also, having the home study allows us to apply for grants.

What's next?

1. Obviously, as I stated above, we will be starting to apply for grants. 
2. We are pushing our fundraisers that I'm sure everyone knows about by now. If you're interested in signing up for the photo fundraiser click here. We are also currently collecting (any) donations for our Mammoth Garage Sale which is May 1-3. 
3. The other thing we need to start working on is our profile. This is essentially a shutterfly book with pictures and information about us. These profiles get shown to birth mothers once we get in the pool of adoptive parents. (We'll get in the pool once our funds are in which will be mid June).

BIG Prayer Requests:

1. $30,000 is a lot of money to raise! We are really praying that we will be awarded grant money to help with the cost.
2. To piggy back off our first prayer request, we'd love prayer for our fundraisers. It would be amazing to see the photo shoot slots get filled, so if you know anyone that could benefit from professional family, kids, couples photography, please send them our way. And prayers for our garage sale, that it really does become "mammoth" and weather, details and everything else we aren't thinking of all comes together.

 We just want to thank everyone for all the prayer and support! It has been a crazy journey already and we have so far to go.

We are blessed.
Ryan & Allie