THE ULTIMATE GIVEAWAY/BABY SHOWER!!!

Note: Before you read any further....please not that all of my daily blog posts will be posted in the tab at the top of my blog title "Daily Posts".  I'm leaving the giveaway/baby shower as the main page from now until we are fully funded for our adoption. Thanks!


WE ARE SO CLOSE TO BEING ABLE TO SAVE THESE GIRLS FROM A LIFE THAT I AM SURE THEY OFTEN WONDER IF THEY WILL EVER ESCAPE! WE EXPECT TO TRAVEL IN AROUND 12 WEEKS FROM NOW! WHILE 12 WEEKS MAY SEEM LIKE PLENTY OF TIME....IT IS NOT AS MUCH TIME WHEN YOU CONSIDER WE HAVE a minimum estimation of  $8,670 (as of the start of this giveaway) TO COME UP WITH TO BRING THESE GIRLS HOME!!!

You're are being invited to a baby shower they may be a one of a kind for you! These "babies" are not actually "babies"! They have been waiting for many years to be brought into a world where they can be cared for and loved as every child has the right to be! You will find that on our registry, there will be no gifts of clothing, toys, supplies, cute little gadgets, or any other thing you would typically see on a baby shower registry. Instead you will see things like, donations for flights, meals, medical visits, apartment stays, etc. These are the things that are necessary for us to bring them home. Once they are home we can shower them with love, attention, and goodies. However, for now....our focus has to be on getting them here and without you all....this can't happen!

We are asking that you treat this invitation a little more serious than you might a random invitation from an acquaintance or friend because truly....two lives are depending on this!!!!! Please help us bring them home and save them from what is inevitable if we don't get funded!

THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH!  Oh...and how could I forget, haha! After all I did tell you this might be a one of a kind shower for you ;)

There are some MAJOR prizes involved for donors!!!! Not just door prizes that you might find at your typical shower! I'm talking REAL prizes!!! Check it out and please continue to keep us in your prayers as well as support us as you can!

Our Adoption Registry

WHEN THE BOX ABOVE HAS COMPLETELY BEEN FILLED WITH DONATIONS AND IS COMPLETE....WE WILL WITHIN 24 HOURS HOST A DRAWING THAT WILL BE DONE BY RANDOM.ORG ! 

THE WINNER WILL RECEIVE A BRAND NEW IPAD or $500 CASH !!!!!!

 

Can you believe it? All you have to do is donate to the box above and you will be entered into the drawing! This is how it will work....

PLEASE KEEP IN MIND THAT YOU CAN DONATE ANY AMOUNT AND IT WILL GO TOWARD THE OVERALL GOAL. AN ACTUAL ENTRY BEGINS AT $10.00 !!!!

$10 Donation= 1 entry

$25 Donation= 5 entries

$50 Donation= 10 entries

Anything below $50 that you donate will be reserved until the next person and so on comes along to donate enough for us to cross out one of the $50 blocks. You may donate more than $50 ...each additional $10 past $50 will gain you an additional entry!

You may also share this post on facebook, twitter, etc for one free entry per week :)

Its that easy!!! You give someone a gift for their shower...you help to save/change two lives, and possibly win an IPAD or $500 CASH!!!!

_________________________________________________________________________________

WHEN THIS BOX ABOVE HAS COMPLETELY BEEN FILLED WITH DONATIONS AND IS COMPLETE....WE WILL WITHIN 24 HOURS HOST A DRAWING THAT WILL BE DONE BY RANDOM.ORG ! 

THE WINNER WILL RECEIVE A BRAND NEW  VIZIO 32" HDTV

WITH A BRAND NEW Vizio 3D Blu-ray Disc Player with WiFi

THE RULES REGARDING ENTRIES ARE THE SAME AS STATED ABOVE FOR THE PREVIOUS PRIZE (IPAD/CASH GIVEAWAY). THIS PRIZE CAN ALSO BE REPLACED FOR CASH VALUE!

_________________________________________________________________________________

WHEN BOTH BOXES (FLIGHT FOR GIRLS ONE WAY TRIP BACK AND ALL APARTMENT BLOCKS) ABOVE COMPLETELY BEEN FILLED WITH DONATIONS AND IS COMPLETE....WE WILL WITHIN 24 HOURS HOST A DRAWING THAT WILL BE DONE BY RANDOM.ORG ! 

*****THE WINNER WILL RECEIVE A $500 GIFT CERTIFICATE TO WHATEVER DEPARTMENT STORE THEY WOULD LIKE OR $500 CASH TO DO WHATEVER THEY WOULD LIKE WITH IT! THIS COULD REALLY COME IN HANDY FOR BACK TO SCHOOL SHOPPING, YOUR OWN ADOPTION GRANT, OR ANYTHING!

_________________________________________________________________________________

WHEN THE FOUR BOXES ABOVE (TRANSPORTATION, MEDICAL VISITS, VISAS, AND MEALS) HAVE COMPLETELY BEEN FILLED WITH DONATIONS AND IS COMPLETE....WE WILL WITHIN 24 HOURS HOST A DRAWING THAT WILL BE DONE BY RANDOM.ORG ! 

THE WINNER WILL RECEIVE A BRAND NEW Nikon COOLPIX S4300 16MP Digital Camera w/ 6x Optical Zoom Lens, 3" LCD Display, HD Video, Image Stabilization

OR

A BRAND NEW KEURIG

OR

A BRAND NEW Apple iPod touch 8GB (4th Gen), White

_________________________________________________________________________________

AS YOU CAN SEE....THIS IS ONE BABY SHOWER YOU DO NOT WANT TO MISS OUT ON!  

We need funding desperately and we are willing to do the hard work it takes to get it!!! These girls are worth anything and everything we have!

Thank you all so much and GOOD LUCK!!!

~AWESOME UPDATE & THE NEW ULTIMATE GIVEAWAY / BABY SHOWER...to get us fully funded!!!!~

I have to start with the best news we have received throughout this process! We got our invitation to fingerprint at USCIS! Even better news....its only three weeks away!!! Even better news...I'm going to call and ask if we can come in even sooner than that!

So what does this mean for us? This means that once the fingerprinting has taken place we will be waiting for the I-171H (approval to travel and adopt our children) form. Families have told me this came for them as little as two days later and some wait many many days. During our first adoption we only waited a week maybe.  Most families I have been talking to have been getting their approval very quickly so I am optimistic that things will move quickly :)  

After the approval comes in the mail, we will have it notarized, certified, and apostilled. Then we will add it to our complete dossier and mail it to our girl's country!!! Then we wait for submission and then a travel date. I think we are looking at about a 12 week time frame (maximum) before we are leaving the country for our girls!!! That being said..........WE NEED SOME MAJOR HELP WITH OUR FUNDING!

As I have said before, we have came so so far with our fundraising and none of it would have been possible without God bringing you all into our lives and you all helping! We have also worked like crazy to do anything and every thing we could to earn every penny of any donation that helps bring our girls home. We will continue to do so...I promise you that!

Now to introduce to you THE ULTIMATE GIVEAWAY / BABY SHOWER!!!! Go to the top of our blog and click on the tab beside of the "home" tab that refers to the giveaway and baby shower! YOU WILL NOT REGRET IT!

Not only is this giveaway outrageously awesome but it serves as our baby shower, saves two lives, and GETS US FULLY FUNDED!!!!!!!!!!

YOU DON'T WANT TO MISS IT!

Thanks everyone and good luck!

~Hard Work, a little bit of "venting" & the introduction to our newest fundraiser~

When we started this process I knew that we were taking a BIG risk by fundraising for the cost of the adoption! This is something we did not have to do for Gabby's adoption (our first adoption) because we gave all of our savings up for it as well as took out an equity loan for the difference! We really weren't aware at the time that there were tons and tons of families who fundraised for adoption costs. When we found out, the more we thought about it, the more it made sense! These families are saving the lives of children and by fundraising, people are donating to save a life just as they would be if they were donating to any other life saving charity that is out there! Sometimes you will hear the ignorant argument, "if you can't afford the child(ren) you don't need them". That is as stupid as saying if you can't afford to pay cash for a house or car then you don't need them...knowing that the majority of people in the world finance these high priced items out of necessity! Are pregnant women asked to not give birth or to give their child away if they can't pay $20,000 or more when they find out they are pregnant? I think not! People need to realize...these are human lives! Lives that need saving and that actually matter! The reality is...adoption is not FREE! There are alot of people unwilling or not able to adopt and so when a family comes along to save these children, stepout into faith, and do the hard work that is required to get them home and safe....others should either help them by prayers, words of encouragement, emotional support, and/or financial support or keep their ugly and for lack of better words, ignorant comments to themselves and support something that is meaningful to them. Pshewwww...I feel better now :)

 Now, back to the point :)

We have come so far with the help of family, friends, and even total strangers in regards to our funding. We are now halfway funded which is AWESOME!!! However, and not to be a downer but just to be real...this only means we have halfway to go still yet! Thats totally fine though because I have full faith that with God, there are many many people who are going to see to it that we get these girls home! I am so happy to have supporters who are sticking this out with us. We have had those who started out really interested and were supporters (which we are greatful for) and then we have those who have stuck it out with us! These are the ones who keep up with the blog, the ones who not only read it but will comment or message me with words of encouragement, the ones who will pray for us, the ones who will ask how they can help, the ones who will help us fundraise with every fundraiser, the ones who will financially support us (even if its $1) with every fundraiser, the ones who we will never forget! Thank you all for understanding this process or taking the time to learn it and for always being there for us! We are so appreciative and will never forget your compassion and generosity and we have no doubt that you will be very blessed for being the people you are!

We are working so hard and let me tell you....we are earning every penny of our funding to save the lives of two of those faces at the top of the screen! We are continously gathering paperwork and completing it, going to the notary, certifying something, apostilling something, shipping something, sewing something, doing our regular jobs, maintaining a household, coming up with new fundraisers, spending tons of time to see those fundraisers through, etc, etc, etc.... I say this so that you see that our fundraising and adoption is not as easy as saying "we are adopting and will you help us with funding". We are doing all we know to do to get this done and we are willing to do all we need to do to get it done. We also take the time to read about the other families who are adopting/fundraising and we tithe to these families as well!  I hope you are starting to get (if you didn't get it before) an idea of just how hard we are working and doing our part to make a difference in this world and in the lives of the children we are trying to bring home.

We are asking if you are a supporter that you join us in this next effort of fundrasing. Whether it be by praying for the success of our fundraiser, spreading the word, or helping financially (all which are very much needed), we appreciate it so much!

Now, on to the introduction of our newest fundraiser!!! :)

Our newest fundraiser is listed at the top of our blog in the tab located beside of the "home" tab. This fundraiser is the Eastern European Paintings Giveaway and Sale! This fundraiser can make a BIG difference in our funding and can help tremendously! PLEASE take the time to click on the tab related to the fundraiser at the top of our blog and see how you can participate.

THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH!

UPDATE: Fundraiser cancelled! Making changes to the fundraiser and combining the paintings as gifts to donors who donate toward the final funding of our adoption. Please ignore anything regarding the paintings up to this point. Thank you! 

~giveaway winners announcement~

I know you all have been waiting today to find out who the winners of our giveaway are. I had to get confirmation from the winners that I could post there names before I made this post. I have received confirmation from the first and second place winner but not the third place winner yet.

I have to say as I was putting the numbers into random.org (the site that randomly choose the selection of numbers that picks the winning numbers) I was shocked. We had a lot of people to enter the giveaway!!! We had over 1500 entries (not donors)!!!! I was overwhelmed with gratitude as I awaited for the sequence of numbers to come up!

I was absolutely stunned to see who the first place winner was!

LEILA MILLER!!!! (1st place winner, number 11)

Most of you I am sure know Leila from her blog "orphan report" or "my little catholic bubble." I was introduced to Leila through a common friend that I also met online. Since then, Leila haddock been one of our biggest supporters. Not only did Leila gain many entries into this giveaway by donating but she shared our giveaway via her own Facebook, the RR Facebook forum, and on her blogs!!!! She shared many many times!!! This gave her many many entries! I knew when her number came up on top that God was blessing her just like she had blessed us and so many other families! Congrats Leila!!! Take your choice...an iPad or $500 cash :)

The second place winning number was 1423! This number belonged to a donor who would like to be named by initials D.T. Congrats!!!! You've won $100!!!

The third place winning number was 987! I haven't received confirmation to be allowed to post the name of this donor but I am confident initials would be fine (I'll update by name with permission). The 3rd place winner is J.D.

Congrats to all the winners and thank you all for entering and supporting our adoption!

I am planning an auction that will be coming soon so if you have anything you would like to contribute to our auction please email me at jagamiddleton@gmail.com

Until then, please remember that we are still only half way funded for our adoption of TWO children and we could use all of the help we can get! Thank you all!!!!

~Winners~

Just wanted to let everyone know that the winners of the giveaway have been selected by random.org and I have emailed them! I am waiting to here a response back from them as to which prizes they would like and if I can publish their names!! I will update as soon as I hear from them. Thank you all so so much! Our giveaway was a success and of course as posted previously, we received a very generous matching grant of $1,000 as a result of this! I can't thank you all enough. We can now say we are officially half way funded for our adoption! While this is good news it still means we have half way to go! Please continue to support out family to try to save these two girls!!! They are worth it, they deserve more, and they have been waiting far too long!!!! I will of course continue to put all of my time and effort into making this happen and I will continue to bring you all awesome fundraisers that you can use and benefit from as a gratitude for your support of our adoptions!!!

~We met our goal!~ Giveaway Ends Tonight!!!! Enter while you can!!!

Notice I said in the title "we" met our goal!!! I don't just mean our family! I'm talking about a whole crew of ladies who helped us to meet this goal!!! Some adoptive families, some wanting to adopt, some who are advocates of adoption!!!! These ladies pulled together and made sure we were not missing out on our goal or our $1,000 matching grant!!!! So shortly, you will see our grant go up $1,000 more dollars thanks to Sue (the donor) and all of the ladies who have helped me this entire time! I am so grateful that God has given me these new wonderful people to share out experiences with and to go through this process together with! That being said, let me be clear that while we have came a long, long way....we are not finished. We are just now getting half way funded when I count the grant and the return of promise trust fees in the end. We. Still have right at $9,000 to go before I could say we are fully funded! I am completely shocked to be honest that we are already half way funded but I am trying to remember and to relay to the best of my ability that we still need everyone who has helped to please, if you can, continue to do so! As you know, we are adopting TWO children now and we need this funding to come in desperately and we are working so hard to fundraise and do anything we can to ensure we are funded to bring these girls home. Both of them!!!! I will not stop working to get these girls home until they are here! I hope you all will stick this out with us and please continue to support us in our efforts of saving these sweet girls! If you know of anyone else who would be willing to do matching grants please let us know, they can get tax deductions through RR for this! Now back to the giveaway! Our giveaway is still going but only through the night! It will end as scheduled originally (tonight at 11:59 p.m. pacific time). I will announce the winner shortly after that. The winner will be picked using random.org just as with the iPad on our first giveaway. Like I said above, even though we met our goal for the matching grant that doesn't mean we are finished! We are only half there! Please donate and don't miss your chances to win an iPad or $500 cash (your choice)!!! There are other perks too!!! Please go to the top of my blog and click the tab beside of the "home" tab that pertains to the giveaway. There you will find details!!! Thank you all so much and good luck!!!

~Will you help our girls gain their freedom?~

I am requesting that if you enjoyed and appreciated your freedom this independence day as much as I did to please give our these precious girls the chance to experience their own freedom/independence!!!

We have a giveaway going on right now that we hope to end on 7-6-12 (Friday) if we meet our goal of $2,500.

We are only $238 Away from meeting that goal!!!!

The giveaway has awesome prizes including $500 cash or an iPad!!!! There are second and third place prizes as well!!! There are also free gifts with donations of $35 or more!

The best part is that meeting our goal gives us an extra $1,000 due to a donor who has committed to donating $1,000 of we meet our goal!

Remember, only $238 more to go!!!!!!! We can do this easily if everyone will just pitch in something.

With us adopting two children shortly after adopting one,.....we need these funds! We also need to meet our goal quickly so we can move on to further fundraising to ensure we can bring both girls home!!!

Find more information about our giveaway by clicking the tab at the top of my blog that refers to the iPad/cash giveaway! It's beside of the "home" tab!

Thanks everyone!!!

~MUCH NEEDED FUNDING OPPORTUNITY...we are getting closer~

THANKFULLY and recently, we had a wonderful and extremely generous lady to visit our blog, Sue.  Sue has offered a $1,000 donation to us if we can raise $2,500 on our current fundraiser which is an ipad or cash giveaway (read more by clicking the tab at the top of my blog beside of the "home" tab)!  This $1,000 would make such a difference in our adoption and it is greatly needed! We have already raised $1,962 of the $2,500 leaving just $538 to be raised. WE NEED YOUR HELP!!!

CAN YOU PLEASE donate any amount to our fsp or chip in to help us meet our goal! While it is true that most of us do not have $1,000 to spare....donating now would be kind of like donating $1,000 because it is going to take your donations for us to meet our goal and thus gaining us the $1,000 donation from Sue.

Sue has confirmed that she will donate the $1,000 as soon as I contact her with the news that we have raised the $2,500! While she has given us until July 31st, it would be so wonderful if we could have our goal met before this Friday!  This would ensure not only faster funding but would allow us to move on to other fundraisers which are much needed and very necessary to bring home BOTH girls in the end of this long and emotionally draining process home!

I am calling out to all family members, friends, bloggers, families who have adopted in the past, families currently adopting, etc to please pitch in and make this happen for us!  Did I say, families currently adopting? Yes I did.  Something I learned for myself is that when you give you receive! I am a part of an adoption forum on fb that is for families adopting special needs children. One thing I noticed fairly quick is that most of the families help each other! You would think it wouldn't make sense that if we couldn't fund our own adoption we couldn't donate to other adoptions, but it doesn't necessarily! At one point or another we all have $1, $5, $10, $20 etc that we could all spare and not really miss. That doesn't mean we have thousands available for our own adoption or another family's adoption.  However, if we all just when we had it to spare would share it with another family, as I have seen done many times....then all of our grants would continuously be making progress. Plus, I can tell you from experience that when you trust your heart and give, even if you don't think you have it to give...you will be blessed greatly! Please pass the word along and please consider entering our giveaway and helping us meet our goal.

Again, you can read more about the giveaway by clicking the tab at the top of my blog that refers to the ipad or cash giveaway. It is beside of my "home" tab.  Your first place prize is an ipad or $500 cash! There are also second and third place prizes as well as free gifts involved! Check it out.

Remember, we are just $538 away from meeting our goal for this fundraiser and receiving the extra $1,000 donation as a result of meeting our goal, working so hard, and most importantly committing to yet another child but one that is older and had been forgotten by many for so long until now!!!!

One more quick note: We recently decided to take our blog to "private view." The reason for this is because there are people in the blogging world who do not agree with adopting children internationally with special needs and they post and say ugly things on adoptive family blogs. To make it short and sweet, I eliminated the option for this with our blog :)

Thank you all so much for continuing this journey with us and sticking it out until the end. We had alot of people to show interest at first and then they somehow thought that once we had a couple of thousand in our grant that we must have enough for a $20,000 plus adoption.  I appreciate everyone's support but I beg that if you start the journey with us, please finish it. That doesn't mean you have to donate all the time or even ever again, but please continue to comment and show words of encouragement and support. Also, your prayers are greatly appreciated and very necessary to bless this adoption to have all it needs to make it possible!

Thanks again, Sylvia

Notice anything different?

If not, you should!!!!! There is an additional face at the top of our blog! A face that LORD WILLING will be coming home with us and Ava in the near future! YES, you read correctly! We are adopting 2 children!!!

Before I continue on this long post, please note that at the bottom of this post is information containing our current giveaway/fundraiser. Please read this!

Back to our wonderful news! The newest addition to our family is an older child (older than Gabby and Ava). She is referred to on RR's website as "Elaine" although this is not her name. We haven't decided the name she will be given yet but we have decided that just like Gabby and like we decided for Ava as well, that her name that was given to her in her birth country at birth, will also be kept. Being she is older, which name she goes by/is called, will be her decision :) ! We are so excited to finally be able to announce this decision.
Thank you to everyone that made it possible for us to commit to Elaine a couple of nights ago. The way you all came together to support our efforts of committing to another child to save a life was incredible! I am now asking you to please stick with us through this journey so we can get these kids home! We are now searching for anyone (family, friends, advocates, families already funded, families already back, just anyone) to help us coordinate fundraisers or ways to bring these girls home quickly!

We have already applied to USCIS and we are awaiting approval as of 6-21-12, after that it is time to submit the dossier and wait for a travel date! We need to move quickly!

I am asking that all of those people who fight so hard for to find families to commit to children (especially older ones), now fight just as hard to help a family bring them home once they have committed! Please message me, comment, or email me at jsgamiddleton@gmail.com if you have any ideas or anything you can do to help!!!

Right now we have a current iPad or $500 cash giveaway going on that includes second and third places prizes as well. Also free gifts are included! We also have a donor willing to donate $1,000 if we meet our $2,500 goal! We have currently made $1,941 of our goal...that leaves only $559 to meet our goal! Please consider entering!!! This extra donation of $1,000 is so needed and will not be received if we don't reach our goal!You can find the details of the giveaway by clicking the tab at the top of my blog that refers to the giveaway (its right beside of the "home" tab).

Again, THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH and I hope you will continue to follow and support our adoption!!!