HUG of July

School ended on June 16^th, and Craig and I have been busy, busy, busy preparing for our homestudy and finalizing paperwork. I want to thank the ladies at school for organizing an amazing raffle fundraiser for us, which brought in $320. People at school bought raffle tickets for $5 and there were over 15 different winners. I meant to take pictures, but I couldn’t find my camera! Friends from work were so generous in their raffle item donations, as well as purchasing the raffle tickets. I’m so lucky to work with such generous, fun, and positive people. Special thanks to Heather, Pinar, Gina, Sally, Sherry, Cindy, Stella, Sandy, Cynthia, and Rayme.

The day after school let out, I held a garage sale with donated items from friends and family. I want to especially thank Diane, from Columbia Credit Union for your half your storage unit and all those penguins!! Shopper after shopper kept buying up those penguins, and I couldn’t figure out why. Then I learned Mr. Popper's Penguins came out that weekend. What great timing! Also, thank you to Kelly Blankenship, Renee and Brooke Bernazzani, Mary Eterno, Debbie Wu, Michelle Bealle, JoAnn Engelbart, Pinar Aksoy, Sally Denkhe, Linda Martin, and Traci Johnson for your donations to our sale. Friday was a beautiful day, and we had lots of shoppers. Tate and Preston (my nephews – 6 yrs. and 4yrs.) were my helpers. They were so well behaved and great company. Our total for the day was $480. Wow! On Saturday, I spent about 2 hours setting up before sunrise, and just when everything was perfect, and I was ready for business, it started pouring. Heidi, Randy, and the boys came to help with the sale, but we decided to close for the day, as everything was getting soaked.

We repacked and organized the garage and decided to have another sale on Friday, July 15^th. If you’re reading this and you have anything you’d like to donate to our second sale, we’d love to take it off your hands! Please e-mail me if you’d like to arrange for a pick up or drop off.

Our homestudy is scheduled for this Sunday and Monday, July 10^th and 11^th. Our social worker’s name is Joann, and so far we've only talked to her via e-mail and phone. She's very helpful, has a great sense of humor, and is making me feel less nervous about the visit. Don’t get me wrong: My brother came over yesterday to frame out our fireplace, install shelving in our closets and pantry, and sand, stain, and seal other woodwork in our house. My sister came over today for several hours to help me clean out all cupboards, drawers, and storage in our kitchen. My mom and JoAnn are coming over tomorrow to help paint the Adirondack chairs my parents gave me for Christmas last year, as well as hang new window coverings and various other projects. Plus, Craig and I have organized and cleaned out every closet, nook, and cranny in our house. But at least I don't feel AS nervous. :)

Once the homestudy is complete, we just have to wait for approval from Gladney and send in another $2750. That will conclude all our agency fees, and we’ll (hopefully) get put on the wait list. We recently paid $750 for Gladney to review the homestudy. We still have about $750 in our adoption account, and we still need about $2000. The next chunk of money after that won't be due for another year and will go straight to Ethiopia, to help support the orphanage and make the adoption legal. I can't believe how far we've come. Thank you to everyone who has supported and encouraged us in this journey!

Our newest puzzle piece sponsors are Grandma and Grandpa Gutridge, Ashley McNutt, Molly Gutridge, Diego Gutridge, and Grandma Lorraine Iseli. We still have 158 (out of 500) puzzle pieces left. Please check out our puzzle piece fundraiser blog for more info.

And now, for this month's HUG earrings! They're 4th of July themed, which I realize is a little late, since it's now July 6th. But since I couldn't find my camera for so long, I had to have my sister take these on the 4th! I did, however, find my camera yesterday as I was organizing a hall closet. Whew!

Red Facetted Glass with surgical steel (non-allergenic) $5

Ivory Mother of Pearl with surgical steel (non-allergenic) $5

Gray/Blue Swarovski Glass Pearl with surgical steel (non-allergenic) $5

For ordering info, please e-mail me at haglagos@yahoo.com

Thank you!

Heather

Liberty, taking the word in it's concrete sense, consists in the ability to choose.

-Simone Weil

HUG of June

When my mom and I first thought of "HUG of the month" as a fundraiser, I had no idea at the time it would actually feel like a big huge hug. After my last blog, I wrote that we needed $1550 in a few weeks to round out what we needed for the first half of our agency fee. The very next day, there was $490 in my paypal account from people all over the world. Mostly from friends and family, for which I thank you, thank you, thank you. And we also had people donate who we don't even know (from as far away as Saudi Arabia!) The remaining $1000 came from various jewelry sales and $5 earring sales. I am completely humbled and inspired by your love and involvement in this journey. We met our $2750 goal. I wish I could HUG every one of you!

For June, I am featuring 3 more pairs of $5 earrings.

For ordering:

E-mail me at haglagos@yahoo.com and tell me how many and of which style(s) you'd like.

Payment methods:

Credit/Debit- (Visa/MC/AmEx/Discover) - just send me your e-mail address, and I'll send you an invoice through paypal to pay securely online. a 4% charge is added for CC transactions, plus $1 for shipping.

Check - send a check to Heather Curry at

PO Box 871448

Vancouver, WA 98687

Here are the 3 styles:

Facetted Silver Glass bead suspended from surgical steel kidney wires (non-allergenic) $5

Mosaic Bead hanging from silver-plated french hooks $5

Fuchsia Freshwater Pearl suspended from silver-plated leverbacks

For $15, you can get all three!! A fellow teacher purchased 6 pairs of last month's earrings to give as graduation gifts. Do you have a graduate you need to purchase for? How about summer birthdays? End-of-the-year gifts for your child's teachers?

I want to give a big shout out to our latest puzzle piece sponsors. For more info. on this fundraiser, click on "Puzzle Piece Fundraiser" from February's blogs. Thank you to Omer Shami, Theresa O'Neill, Mom and Dad Gutridge, Paul Morrow, Mary and Bob Horton, Mary Ratzki, Aunt Sue and Uncle Jim Gravette, Martha Peterson, Liz (Loll) Nelson, Grandma Lorraine Iseli, and Grandma and Grandpa Bob Gutridge. Your support will be forever remembered. We love you.

UPCOMING EVENTS: We're having a garage sale on June 17-18. We have received TONS of donations from friends, family, and friends of friends and family. If you have anything you'd like to donate, we'd LOVE to sell your stuff. There is nothing too big or too small. We'll take anything! Just 1.5 weeks left. Please e-mail me if you'd like to coordinate for pick-ups. Also, e-mail me if you'd like to come shop. I'll give you all the info.

In addition to our garage sale, my good friends from work are doing a giveaway at school for me. People have donated hand-made purses, soaps, wallets, earrings, baklava, carmel popcorn, scentsy, and other cool stuff. We're doing a $5 raffle at school this week and next. Winners will be drawn at random next Wednesday. I'll be sure to take lots of pix and post how much it brings in. Thank you Heather, Pinar, Sandy, Cindy, Gina, Sherry, Kathy and Rayme! You guys ROCK.

Where we're at in the process:

Paperwork batch number one is DONE. Plus, we have the first half of our agency fee ready to mail out. We are currently working on the homestudy paperwork. Homestudy is paid for. We thought the homestudy would be finished by now, but that was before we knew about all the additional paperwork that needs to be filled out. So, without complaint or discouragement, we will jump through every hoop, cross every T and dot every I. Because as far as we're concerned, this baby is conceived and growing in our hearts (and most likely naturally somewhere, too), and there's nothing we won't do for her.

Our next goal:

$2750 - the second half of our Gladney agency fee

We hope to meet this goal by the end of summer (August 31)

I'd like to end with this quote:

We witness a miracle every time a child enters into life.
But those who make their journey home across time & miles,
growing within the hearts of those who wait to love them,
are carried on the wings of destiny and placed among us
by God's very own hands.
--- Kristi Larson

Hugs to all,

Heather

Paperwork Batch #1

My nephew, Tate, our newest puzzle piece sponsor.

Yay! We sent off our application to Agape Adoption Agency in Bellingham to do our homestudy. We had planned to do this in late April but we didn't realize we had to formally apply and send a big fat check ($1700), so we held off until we could pay that in addition to 1/2 of Gladney's fee ($2750). We also have to send $700 for Gladney to review the homestudy. That is a total of $5150. Right now we have $3600. So we need to raise $1550 in the next month. With our garage sale on June 17-18 and our $5 earring sale, plus what we'll be able to save in June, I think we'll come real close. (Click on our May blog "Hug of May" for information about our Hug of May earring sale.) We have sold 172 of our 500 puzzle pieces. Thanks so much to all who have donated!! If it is on your heart to sponsor a puzzle piece, they are $5 each and we'll write your name on the back of each piece you sponsor. We still have 328 pieces left. (Click on our February blog on "Puzzle Fundraiser" for more information.)

Our newest puzzle piece sponsor is my nephew Tate, Heidi's oldest sweetheart. He's 5 years old, going on 15. He loves Justin Beiber and rocks the purple high tops. Heidi and Randy have him and Preston doing chores to earn "commissions", an allowance system that teaches the kids to give, save, and spend. A few weeks ago, he called me and in his raspy voice said, "Auntie, you know how I've been doing my chores to get money, well . . . I'm going to give my "give money" to you for your baby." He sort of stutters on the phone, so I had him repeat what he'd said. Yes, he wanted to give his "give money" to us for our baby. Instant lump in my throat. The next time I saw him he gave me $4 in quarters with the biggest ear to ear grin on his face. I swooped him up and buried my face in his warm neck as I fought to hold back my tears. Heidi said he thought of that all on his own and had overheard us talking about fundraising ideas. Those $4 feel like $400.

I will tell you this . . . adoption is not for the faint of heart. There are 3 groups of paperwork that need to be sent to Gladney, and we're just now ready to send in group #1. When I heard there was a lot of paperwork, I thought, mmm . . . filling out forms, so what? I can do that. I had no idea that it meant making doctors appointments with lab results that have to be notarized, getting 5 reference letters, 3 of which have to be notarized, bank statements, proof of insurance of every kind (notarized), employment verification letters (notarized), a 9 page application (notarized), financial statements, all kinds of adoption risk waivers and domestic violence statements and arrest histories and questionnaires and service plan agreements. The list goes on. But we are ready to send in Paperwork Batch #1. The only thing left I need to do before we send that in is to arrange to meet my doctor with a notary present to sign off on our medical records. This will happen on Tuesday.

At times, this process feels so overwhelming. But it's for my baby. There's nothing a mother won't do for her baby.

I've had a few people ask me if we were to get pregnant, would we still go through with the adoption. The answer is yes. Yes, absolutely. Without a doubt, yes. I feel like my baby is over there, and if I were to not go through with this process, I would be abandoning my baby. This is not a Plan B for me. This is what God intended and had in the plans all along. I still believe we will have a little Craiglette someday, but our family will not be complete without our Ethiopian princess. I feel it down to my core, and it makes all the paperwork and fundraising bearable, as humbling as it is.

I'd like to end with this quote:

I have discovered in life there are ways of getting almost anywhere you want to go, if you really want to go. - Langston Hughes

I really want to go. To Ethiopia. Back to the land of Eden. To bring home our baby. Our beautiful baby girl. Who is loved by family, both God-given and biological. Who will change the world and break our hearts. We'll go to the end of the earth for you, Baby Girl. We love you. Sleep tight and know that we are coming.

Love,

Mommy

HUG of May

Over Spring break, Craig and I went to Texas for his best friend, Wally's, wedding. It was amazing and we had a fantastic time. My parents met us in Austin and while we were in the southwest, my mom and I found some really cool hand-made jewelry. I purchased a $5 pair of turquoise chip earrings. Really simple and super sweet. At first, I thought, how can this lady sell $5 earrings?!! The price of silver has almost quadrupled in the last 6 months. I'm NOT even exaggerating. I use a lot of silver in my jewelry pieces, so to me the price jump has been shocking. But they were very simple, had hardly any silver, but yet were so cool! Then it got me thinking . . . if I fashioned a very simple design that I could produce over and over again, this could be as successful of a fundraiser as our African bracelets! The bracelets were a huge success, and I want to thank everyone who bought them. So we started brainstorming, and my mom thought of an acronym: HUG OF the month. Help Us Grow Our Family. So, this month (a little late), I made 3 different styles of southwest inspired earrings to remind me of our trip to Texas and the start of this monthly fundraiser. Check back every month to see my new designs!

Here is how you can order:

E-mail me at haglagos@yahoo.com and tell me how many of which style you'd like.

Payment methods:

Credit/Debit- (Visa/MC/AmEx/Discover) - just send me your e-mail and I'll send you an invoice through paypal to pay securely online. A 4% charge is added for CC transactions, plus $1 shipping, no matter how many pairs you order.

Check - send a check to Heather Curry at

PO Box 871448 Vancouver, WA 98687

Include $1 for shipping, no matter how many pairs you order.

Here are the three styles:

Turquoise w/silver plated earwires $5

Coral w/silver-plated earwires $5

Freshwater Pearl w/sterling earwire and gold headpin $5

And just think . . . for $15, you can get all three! These make great gifts, so check back each month to collect them all! We really appreciate your support. Tell a friend!

Tomorrow is Mother's Day, and it could very well be my last childless Mother's Day. There's a good chance next year at this time, we'll have our referral and will be planning our trip to Ethiopia to bring our baby girl home. This is so exciting to me, I can't even put it into words. Becoming a mother is like getting into this exclusive club for which I've always been an outsider. 1 year seems like forever at times, but I'm just thinking of our adoption process as an extremely long pregnancy, so I'm going to enjoy it as much as I can.

A huge shout out to my mom who is the most trusted confidant, tireless supporter, inspiration, friend, and mother one could ever hope for. She has taught me that you only have one life. Make it count. Live every day, and don't let anything get in the way of your dreams.

She's amazing. Happy Mother's Day, Mom.

Love,

Heather (Hank) :)

Givaway Winners

Happy Easter!

A huge thank you to all who participated in our giveaway. We had tremendous support, as well as more puzzle piece sponsors. We have raised and saved enough to send our first payment to Gladney ($2750). Woo-hoo! Our giveaway made $340. Thank you so much to all who donated items and those who donated financially. We are very, very thankful and had a lot of fun.

For Easter today, we headed out to Lewisville Park with all my family. My little nephews Tate, Mateo, Preston, and Diego drew the four winners. My niece Molly organized the boys and helped make everything "official". They were a great help. Here are the lucky winners.

Group #1 - Heather Sochacki

Heather is a 7th grade Language Arts teacher at my school. She's super funny, zany, and uber creative. I know she will enjoy the goods from Group #1.

Group #2 - Tracy Hanson

Tracy is a generous Etsian who made and donated the silver bracelet from Group #1. She is a huge adoption supporter, and her jewelry can be viewed at junkposse.etsy.com

Group #3 - Andra Wagner

Andra is my best friend's sister. She is the mother of a sweet, sweet little guy named Ian. Andra hosted a fundraiser party for us and raised $65 for us by selling wholesale cards. We will be selling the cards soon, too!

Group #4 - Debi Jenkins

Debi is another fellow Etsian who donated all the Africa shirts in each of the groups. She is also adopting a child from Ethiopia. She has great African craft items that can be viewed at http://www.etsy.com/shop/EthiopiaAdoption#

I wish there was a prize for everyone because you all were so, so generous. I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for participating and making this giveaway a great success.

Puzzle Piece Update-

Remember, each $5 donation writes the sponsor's name on the back of a puzzle piece. For more info., click on the entry titled: Puzzle Piece Fundraiser.

Our new sponsors are: Stacy and Avery Iseli and Anthony Serles, "Wally" and Shahana Wallace, Grandma and Grandpa Gutridge, Grandma Lorraine, Marci and Ray Solar, Melody and Josh Irvin, Tracy and David Cairo, and Dan and Diane Force. We're chipping away at the puzzle and can't wait to put it together! Thanks to all of you for joining with us on this journey.

Now for some things to look forward to:

Garage Sale: June 17-19

If you have any items you'd like to donate to our garage sale, please e-mail me at haglagos@yahoo.com and I will come pick them up from you! So far my principal's daughter has stuff for us from her storage unit. My co-workers, Pinar and Kelly, have offered stuff. My mom's best friend, JoAnn, is donating her mother's bed, dresser, and night stand. My aunt Sue and cousin Tracy have stuff they're going to donate. My grandma Lorraine has stuff for us. And we still have tons of African knick-knacky stuff we will sell. We hope to have the HUGEST garage sale ever!! We'd love to sell your stuff, too!

$5 monthly earring sale

Every month I will be featuring 3 varieties of $5 featured earrings. They will be simple, so I can make several at once, but they will still be of great quality and very stylish. Our Africa bracelets were such a huge success, I had to come up with something new! Here is a sneak peak at what's coming for May. *Info on how to order will be in next week's blog

Again, a HUGE thank you to all who participated in our giveaway. We love you!

-Heather

$5 Giveaway

Ok, here we have it! Our first on-line giveaway! All you have to do is go to "donate", and for every $5 donation, we'll enter your name into a drawing to win one of 4 grand prizes! Go to entries titled: Group 1, Group 2, Group 3, and Group 4 to view the prizes.

What do I win? A collection of hand-made goods from very generous Etsy owners! There is a brief description about each item in each group (there are 4 total), and the websites of each Etsy owner's shop. Please take a moment to check out the shops that interest you. The Etsy community is so generous and tight knit. I am so thankful for all the people who donated. You are helping us bring a little girl home whose life and ours will be changed forever. Thank you.

When? March 27-April 24th. Winners will be announced April 26th. There will be 4 winners, one for each grand prize.

Why? To raise money for our Ethiopian adoption.

How? Just go to "Donate" and donate any amount! For each $5 donation, we will enter your name in a drawing to win! So, if you donate $10, your name will be entered twice. $15 - three times, etc. If you prefer to send a check, please mail to Heather Curry P.O. Box 871448 Vancouver, Wa 98687. For an extra (free) entry, just repost our giveaway on your Facebook, Twitter, or blog! E-mail me to let me know when you've reposted it (or leave a comment on the bottom of this page-it's kind of a pain!). haglagos@yahoo.com. If you prefer to sponsor a puzzle piece when donating, please write "puzzle" in the message section.

Based on what we've heard from others who have done giveaways, our goal is $500. To view prizes, go to entries titled, Group 1, Group 2, Group 3, and Group 4. Thank you so much. Please help us spread the word!

We will be doing our homestudy later next month, so we will definitely give updates on that. Wish us luck!

Our newest puzzle piece sponsors are: Grandma Iseli, Heidi Davis, Leslie Vannini, Pam Baxter, Joni Stallings, Allison Duggan, and Irina Neagu. Thank you so, so much. We love you!

Sincerely,

Heather

Group 1

These are from my shop MissionMommyhood.etsy.com Hand-made sterling silver hooks with freshwater pearls.

www.junkposse.etsy.com This has been one of my favorite etsy shops for a long time, and the seller was kind enough to donate this sterling silver bracelet for our giveaway. The heart charm says "love" on it. You must check out her shop for other cool adoption themed jewelry. I aspire one day to be as talented as her and have as successful of a shop. My sincerest thanks, Junkposse!!

Here's a little glass angel made and donated by nivenglassoriginals.etsy.com. She is so sweet! This seller also donated another glass angel featured in another group. Please check out her shop!

Hoo! Hoo! GoldenImpressions.etsy.com donated this scrabble tile pendant. Great gift for teens! (or keep for yourself. :) I'd wear it!!)

You will receive the cupcake keychain from this picture. They are durable and high quality. Made and donated by preppyinpink.etsy.com.

How cute is this little doll? She is even wearing African traditional wear. She was lovingly made and donated by etsy.com/shop/kevinlaura Go to their website to find the link to their adoption blog.

This Africa ornament was donated by 4theleastofthese.etsy.com. The heart marks where Ethiopia is located!

This is a man's adoption awareness shirt in a size XL. The Jenkins family is also adopting from Ethiopia. I think this must be Mr. Jenkins. :) http://www.etsy.com/people/EthiopiaAdoption.

This shirt was made and donated by http://www.etsy.com/shop/isamaisa. She makes the coolest clothing by recycling old clothes! Patchworky and quarky. LOVE the shop. This is a girl's size large.

What better way to mark your garden rows than with old antiqued silverware? These were made and donated by vivianstreasure.etsy.com. The prices are great in her shop!