Giving Tuesday 2015

Today is the first Tuesday after Thanksgiving. A day where many people will focus their money on a charity, or their time in helping others. It takes a village to bring a child home through adoption. I'm going to give you a few examples of how to be that village today!

1. We are accepting donations through PayPal. There's a nifty little button off to the right that is yellow and says "Donate" simply click it and you'll be given the opportunity to donate financially. Things your money will go to are: flight expenses, dog boarding fees, adoption fees, unexpected expenses in country etc... THANK YOU for partnering with us!

2. Give of your time. Love dogs? Have time to "house sit" for us while we're traveling? We would LOVE to not have to board our dogs this go around. They can't be around other dogs so you'll need to be just bringing yourself to our house and be ok walking them around our yard at 6am, 2pm, and 8:30pm (sometimes more cause they're needy, we can adjust schedule so you can manage it on a lunch break at work etc..)

3. Buy a t-shirt! Click here to purchase a super awesome T!!  

We receive about $10 from every shirt bought. We must sell 5 for them to print! Ends December 20th

 4. Buy an ornament! We're asking for a $5 (add $2 for shipping if needed) donation for these ornaments. We did these last year and they were a huge hit! We can make custom sizes and colors if you have a specific want too. Just donate to us via PayPal and add "ornament" in the comments of the donation! You'll need to email me your address when you are done at elizabeth.g.hoos@gmail.com

5. Pray for us. Give up a few minutes today sometime to pray for our journey. We have a long winding path ahead of us as a family and we appreciate your prayers more than you know! Simply comment on this post "Praying" when you pray so we know!

6. Interested in essential oils? Email me at elizabeth.g.hoos@gmail.com to learn more about Young Living Essential Oils OR follow this link to signup and change your life for the better today!! All the money I make in commissions is going directly into our adoption fund! Anytime you buy any essential oils you'll be helping us get closer to bring our son home!

7. Have a direct sales or home business? We would love to be the recipient of a fundraiser on our behalf. We've had people donate a % of their profits from a day. Donate all the commissions from a home party to our fund. Last adoption someone let us put a change jar on their store counter to collect for us.

That's 7 ways to help us. Some tangible, some not. All equally amazing and powerful. Any questions about those ways feel free to email me at elizabeth.g.hoos@gmail.com!!

Obligatory Adorable Photo of our Family!

Anxiety is for the...Adopting Parents

I have never really been an anxious person. All my life I just took things as they came and dusted off after my inevitable falls. Often times not even noticing the parts of me that were really hurting. I was a goal keeper in my younger years. For the sake of this post, i'm gonna brag. I was a GOOD goal keeper. To get to be good I had to practice constantly to remove any bad habits that had formed. One particularly bad habit I had was diving into the goalposts. I knew the minute I launched for a ball I was gonna ring that bell like it was noon. One particular run in with the sticks I so lovingly referred to as my "boyfriend" I got back up quick after saving our team from going down a point (I mean obviously I was the savior to the team every game, I did mention I was good right?). I stood up like a soldier who'd just single handedly knocked down an entire army, chest puffed out and all. The whole world watching knew I'd rang that bell, and began to erupt into laughter when I was more concerned about the dirt in my sock than the growing knot on my forehead. So you see, even with physical wounds, I was often more concerned about the little things and ignored the headaches forming.

This adoption process has ROCKED MY WORLD. I worry about every step. Why? I have thought about this so hard. The only possible conclusion is this: my child needs me. I may not know where they are or who they are, but their birth parents have entrusted me with the ability to FIGHT for our babies. Right now, our son waits in his orphanage and I think about him 24/7. Sleep? Yeah right. My baby boy is sleeping in a crib on the other side of the world. In a region being rocked by terrorism and fear. I need to get to him. We need to protect him. I can't let it slip. I can't ignore the hurting in my head any longer. I gotta do this. If something were to go wrong and I was ignoring it, I could never forgive myself.

So that's where I'm at. I had to write it all out. It's been bouncing around in my head for a few months now. So yeah, I'm gonna continue to be a freakball of worry and emotions until I am walking down that hall at Dayton International Airport and I step outside the secure area. It's all gonna flow then. Be prepared for lots of red faced bawling photos and my kids looking at me like I have 6 heads. "Kids" that sounds so lovely.

Family is MORE than BLOOD!

How true is that though? Growing up I amassed a group of girls I call "sisters". They are at times more "family" than my own extended family (not knocking my family at all). Family is MORE than BLOOD!

We started a T-shirt fundraiser yesterday to help us pay for our homestudy. The homestudy update costs $700. The T-shirts will get us to $200 if we sell all 25.

They are super versatile. I made them that way so more people could buy them and wear them! You know you want one! Have a friend who is family? Buy them one too! Step parent? They need one too! Everyone needs one these walking advertisements that family is not just relegated to DNA. It is so much more. It is LOVE!

Get your shirts here: Hoos Family "Family is MORE than BLOOD" T-shirts!

It's Been A Long While...

Well. Here's an update. I guess I thought if I didn't blog about it I wouldn't have to bring all the emotions up to the surface.

In December I started pushing our agency for an update on Koraline. Because that's what we pay them for! Well, they kept saying "we emailed our in country representative and he hasn't responded, as soon as he does we'll forward it to you." After nearly a month of waiting I found the in country rep and emailed him myself. HE RESPONDED THE SAME DAY. Our daughters birth mother had heard rumors of American families adopting babies and harvesting their organs (NO children have been legally adopted internationally for this purpose, it was a scare tactic from the DRC media to get the country against international adoption during the suspension). So she did what any mother would do hearing that, she scooped her daughter up and brought her home.

Our hearts still ache at the loss of our baby girl. We pray everyday she is well taken care of, we know she is loved. This all went down before Christmas. I didn't have the heart to pack away any of her stuff until February. So obviously we couldn't handle starting another adoption right away.

On mothers day Kevin gave me a gift. It was a coupon gift with coupons like free night without baby duty (Jack's STILL not sleeping all night), or a back rub. The last coupon brought me to shock and then tears. "I'm ready, let's adopt again."

So we started the process.

That's where we're at, starting the process. Homestudy update is underway and we're exploring our options. There's an opportunity right now we are exploring and I'll be able to share more once we have a solid answer on some things!

Be praying for us. I'm so scared we'll get a match and then the country will suspend exit letters.

We are also accepting donations to help us with the fees of getting our homestudy updated, once that's done we can apply for grants.

Stay tuned for some fundraising opportunities coming up!

Jack's First Birthday Picture