We Have a Travel Date!!!!!!

SO EXCITED!!!!! The last few days have been a whirl-wind of business as we try to wrap our minds around this--we are finally going to travel to meet our sweet boy!!! To make matters more complicated, we are away from home, visiting with Family on the East Coast as we work out our travel plans. But that is OK--we are beyond thrilled to finally have our invitation to meet our Joshua and really get things moving with this adoption.

Who wants to know when we are going????


August 18th!!!!! In just a couple of weeks that I know will fly right by!

I hope to blog more soon, but just couldn't wait any longer to share this amazing news that we have been waiting for.

Mama and Daddy are coming, our Sweet Boy!

Winners Announced!!!

The Giveaway is officially over and we have drawn the winners!!!! Before I announce the names, I want to say a huge THANK YOU to everyone who participated in this fundraiser! We deeply appreciate every donation, every Facebook share and blog share. This fundraiser was a success because of everyone who stepped in to help us with the overwhelming task of raising enough funds to bring our sweet Joshua home.

The Giveaway Blog post received 888 views, 30 people donated, and an additional 21 others shared on facebook or on their blog. All together there was a total of 765 entries. Two of the generous friends who donated, did not even want to be entered into the giveaway.

We used random.org to create a randomized list of all the entries, and then used the random number generator to select the winners.

Through this giveaway, $2,155 was raised to help with adoption expenses!

Now, the winners:

Prize #1, the Kindle Fire goes to........Connie Lindquist!!! Congratulations, Connie!!!

Prize #2, $25 Target Gift Card..........Jay and Adair LeMaster

Prize #3, $15 Starbucks Gift Card.......Pat Addler

Prize #4, $15 Cold Stone Creamery Gift Card......Liz Blauer

Prize #5, $15 Bath and Body Works Gift Card.....Kathy Hackenberg

Prizes 6-10--The following each won a handmade bracelet: Julie Frank, Mary Singleton, Kari Termont, Rose Burpo, and Addie Talley

Prizes 11-15--The following people each won a handmade coffee sleeve: Tanna Smith, Jamie Carpenter, Justin Burpo, Rachel Kleinenberg, and Bonnie Blom

Prizes 16-20--The following people each won a handmade Key Fob Key chain: Natalie Krier, Katie Carpenter, Lori Mulkey, Daniel Carpenter, and Faye Reigert

Congratulation to everyone who won!!! If you won a key chain, coffee sleeve or bracelet, please email me or send me a message on Facebook, or comment on this post, to let me know your color preference, or special order. My email address is: heidihopkins0607@hotmail.com

Wait! There are a couple more Winners!!

I thought it would be fun to have a few "surprise" winners, so, here it goes!

First person to give goes to.......Addie Talley!

Last person to give goes to........Emily Riegert!

The person who shared the most often on Facebook.....Connie Lindquist!

The persons who most often "bumped" my post of RR group.....Jessica Gorrell and Lori Mulkey!

Then I chose two random numbers from the list of those who gave and shared......those lucky two are............Cindy Stevens and Heather Dismuke!

You will all receive a surprise from me! :) Thank you all for your love, prayers and support!

Last day of Giveaway!

This is it! Last day to enter the Kindle Fire Giveaway! The cut off to enter is midnight tonight. You can donate to Joshua's grant--tax deductable! Or donate using the chip-in. Either way, it all goes to help us bring home our sweet Joshua. You can get a free entry by sharing on your Face book page or blogging about our giveaway. Read here for all the giveaway details:

http://hopkinsfamilyadoption.blogspot.com/2012/05/kindle-fire-giveaway.html

Also--there will be a few additional **suprize** winners that will be announced on Monday as well! :)

Help us make this fundraiser as successful as possible!!

Blessing to you all!

One more week to go!

This is the final week for our Kindle Fire giveaway!! If you have been thinking about entering, but you have not gotten around to it--well, you had better do it now! We need everyone to share it with others on Facebook and your blogs (you get a free entry!), and to donate. Really, $10 can make a big difference, if enough people pitch in! Donations to Joshua's grant through Reece's Rainbow are tax-deductible, or you can donate through the Chip In and the funds will go directly to us. How great is that?! We are hoping that we will have travel news in about a week--maybe we will get to have that exciting news along with announcing winners! Wouldn't that be a fun announcement! Since it is peak travel time right now, our air fare is looking like it is going to be more than we were anticipating. It would be such a blessing to us if we knew there was enough money in Joshua's grant to fund our first trip--one less thing to worry about. Please consider being a part of our Journey to Joshua!

Go here for all the details of the giveaway:

http://hopkinsfamilyadoption.blogspot.com/2012/05/kindle-fire-giveaway.html

Kindle Fire Giveaway--10 more days!

Ten more days to enter in the Kindle Fire giveaway! We are hoping that our grant for Joshua will get to the $5,000 mark with this giveaway. We have $550 left to go. Each $10 can add up and make a difference! Please consider this opportunity to help us bring Joshua home, and at the same time, you have a chance at willing some really great prizes! See here for details:

http://hopkinsfamilyadoption.blogspot.com/2012/05/kindle-fire-giveaway.html

So, just the other night, I was adding up what the total cost for the adoption was going to be and--yikes!! Looks like it is going to be quite a bit more than we were expecting. Part of this is because airfare is really high right now, and so hopefully our 2nd and 3rd trips will be more reasonable as far as plane tickets.

We are officially registered and waiting out the 10 day period as the officials in Joshua's country go over all our paperwork and decide if they need any additional information. We are praying that they will be satisfied with what they have and that they would then invite us to travel!

15 Days, Fingerprints and a Llittle Family Fun!

It is 15 days into the month of June. We are 15 days into our Kindle Fire giveaway. 15 days left to join in! So far we have had a couple of generous donations, lots of shares on Facebook, and a couple of blog links. We have a long way to go to make our goal for this fundraiser, but it is so very possible! We are hoping and praying that we will be making plans soon for buying visas and plane tickets to meet our precious boy. Please help our Joshua grant to grow as we move closer to the time that we will be traveling to meet him! Your donation of $10 really can make a big difference! For all the details for the giveaway, please see here:

http://hopkinsfamilyadoption.blogspot.com/2012/05/kindle-fire-giveaway.html

Yesterday morning we had to be in Fargo, ND to be fingerprinted by the FBI for immigration. We have submitted all the paperwork, so now we wait for the approval letter from Homeland Security, allowing us to bring Joshua into our country. We need to have this approval before we have our court date in Joshua's country, but not before our first trip to meet him.

Since we had to be in Fargo bright and early, we drove down the night before (we are about 3 hours away). Our fingerprinting appointment went well and we were in and out of the office quickly. So we took the kids to the Red River Zoo where we spent the rest of the of the beautiful morning. Freddie had so much fun seeing the animals. He especially loved the armadillo, the meercats, and the peacocks with their little chicks. Valerie had fun pushing around her stroller, and they both enjoyed a ride on the carousel.

Kindle Fire Giveaway!!!

I am so excited to announce our Kindle Fire Giveaway fundraiser! It is going to be so much fun! And, I hope and pray that it will move our grant fund for Joshua up, up, up, and bring us that much closer to bringing him HOME. Keep reading for the exciting details!!

Why are we fundraising? Let me tell you--it is hard! It is hard to ask for help from others. It is humbling to admit that we need others to be involved in our lives and in our adoption process. But it is good! And God is good. All the time. God has lead us to pursue this adoption, and we are joyfully walking in obedience to what He has called us. We are stepping out in faith that God will meet all our needs, as He has promised.

"And God will meet all your needs according to His glorious richness which is in Christ Jesus." Philippians 4:19.

International adoption is very costly. There are agency fees, homestudy fees, country fees, visas, immigration fees, travel expenses for the multiple trips required for Joshua's adoption. We are estimating that the total adoption expenses for Joshua's adoption will be about $40,000. This seems like an impossible mountain to overcome!

"The mountains melt like wax before the Lord, before the lord of all the earth." Psalm 97:5

We have already been so blessed by the love and generosity that has been poured on us and on our sweet Joshua. We are SO THANKFUL for those who are eagerly waiting with us for Joshua to come home. We are so excited to see how God is going to move and how He is going to provide. We are ready to see some mountains melting!

Now, on the the details of the Giveaway!

The giveaway will run for the month on June, beginning June 1st, and ending on June 30th. The winners will be announced here on the blog on July 2nd.

How to enter the Giveaway:

There are two ways to enter the giveaway--DONATE and SHARE

DONATE:

*** All donations through the Reece's Rainbow grant (on the right) are tax-deductible!

$10 = 1 entry

$25 = 5 entries
$50 = 20 entries
$100 = 50 entries

Share:

Help us spread the word about our giveaway!

Share on Facebook, Twitter, etc. = 1 entry

Blog about our giveaway = 1 entry

PLEASE be sure to leave a comment/send me an email to let me know that you have donated/shared so that I can enter you! Please let me know the amount that you donated so that I can give you the correct amount of entries.

Winners will be randomly selected and will be announced on the blog on July 2nd.

Here are the FABULOUS prizes!!

First Prize = Brand New Kindle Fire!

Second Prize = $25 Target Gift Card

Third Prize = $15 Starbucks Gift Card

Fourth Prize = $15 Cold Stone Creamery Gift Card

Fifth Prize = $15 Bath & Body Works Gift Card

Prizes 6-10 = Handmade Bead Bracelet

Prizes 11-15 = Handmade Coffee Sleeves

Prizes 16-20 = Handmade Key Chains

This will be so much fun! And we will have 20 winners! Please DONATE and share, share, share! We are hoping and praying that this will MELT SOME MOUNTAINS!!!