Our Profile Book!!!

May 30th was the magical day that we entered the pool of waiting parents. We have a webpage on Lifetime Adoption's website you can check out: click here

We also have a profile book! (Check it out below!!)
There has been a lot of time and energy put into this book and we finally put our 50 copies in the mail today. This book will start getting dispersed to birth mothers and this is how they choose adoptive parents. If a birth mother likes our book/us, then she lets Lifetime know, who then lets us know there is someone interested. This doesn't mean we have been matched, but it gives us and the birth mother the chance to talk and see if it's good fit.

We have no idea how long we'll have to wait, but we'll keep everyone updated as things happen.

Fundraiser Totals

First, we want to say a huge thank you to everyone who was involved in our Garage Sale and Photo Shoot fundraiser. There is no way we could have pulled either of them off without your help, so THANK YOU! It has been a huge blessing to see so many people come together and we are so grateful for everything and everyone.

There have been a lot of people wondering how much we raised between the two fundraisers. Money is still trickling in for the garage sale because we're selling some items online, but here are the totals thus far...

Garage Sale: $5,651.64 (and counting)
Photo Shoot Fundraiser: $5,407.00
GRAND TOTAL OF $11,058.64!!!

With needing to raise about $30,000 for the adoption, we are amazed that the fundraisers brought in over 1/3 of what we need! Between the fundraisers, supporters and what we have put in personally, we are at about $23,000.

We are hoping grant money will help with some of the $7,000 we still have left to raise. Otherwise we might need to do another fundraiser. So if you have any good fundraiser ideas, please let us know.


YOU CAN NOW GIVE TOWARDS OUR ADOPTION AND GET A TAX WRITE-OFF!

We now have a profile with Adopt Together which is a non-profit that helps raise money to help couples adopt. We realize that many of you have already given and we are extremely grateful for that. For those that wish to give more or those who prefer to receive the tax benefit when giving, now's the time. Give at: https://www.adopttogether.org/veiladoption

Adoption Photos

This past Thursday, we had the privilege of working with Danica Donnelly (http://danicadonnelly.com) on our adoption photo shoot. She did an AMAZING job and we are excited to share some of the images with you!

One of the reasons we did this photo shoot is to celebrate this process we have been working on for the last 6 months. Many couples do maternity photos during a pregnancy to celebrate that process; this is our version of "maternity" photos you could say. With most of the paperwork done, we're excitedly moving forward into preparing to become parents.

Another reason for this photo shoot is to help fill our profile book with updated photos. The profile book is what gets sent to birth mothers to look through as they decide which family to place their child with. We've been told that many birth mothers make their decisions solely off of photos and we couldn't be more pleased with the skills of Danica Donnelly. Thank you SO much! Enjoy the photos everyone!

Garage sale was VERY epic!

The left-over items are packed and ready to be delivered to Salvation Army and the tents are coming down. It's no longer a FEMA site at Ryan's parent's house. The garage sale was a crazy success; lots of money was raised and there are numerous stories which will be shared over the coming days & weeks that left us feeling very blessed and loved by family & friends as well as complete strangers.

During the 3-day garage sale, $5,587.89 was raised. In addition to that, there are still several items of higher value that were kept aside to be sold later via Craigslist so that total will increase even higher.

We can't even begin to express our gratitude. The overwhelming support shown by people donating items to be sold and those giving tables/tarps/manpower to run the sale has been humbling and inspiring. The words "thank you" don't seem like enough, but seriously THANK YOU!

Here are a few pics of the madness known as Tent City

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