Mommy guilt...

For the past week we have been working on little projects to get ready for Carson's 3rd birthday! I know, I know, I can't believe it either. Were having a Mickey Mouse Clubhouse party and its going to be awesome! Aaron and I have had a ton of fun making a piñata, a Mickey centerpiece, and decorating water bottles. We still have cupcakes and other small decorative stuff to do before Sunday, plus we need to finish cleaning our house!

But with all the excitement this week I've been feeling really sad. Sad because we have a son across the world who is missing all of this; sad we can't just go pick him up to bring him home so his body and mind can start healing; sad we have no idea when we can actually go get him; sad that he has never had a chance to have a party like this or possibly any type of time focused just for him; sad we don't know his past; sad we've never seen him smile; and I'm just sad that our family is not complete. I don't like this one bit. Please pray for our paperwork to come through and for us to be planning our trip very soon!

We love our Son so much, even though we've never met him. We can't wait to get to him and become his parents (and protectors) and help him begin to heal. We believe that God has planned this for our family and we know that the plan is not our own. We knew the adoption process was a long crazy one, however we hope we're nearing the end of the waiting.

We are so excited to celebrate Carson's birthday this weekend. This weekend is about him and the wonderful little man he is becoming. We laugh everyday at the hilarious comments and statements  he makes. I love this age and am completely enjoying watching him grow-up. Some days I'm sad he won't stay this way forever, but every stage of his life has been more and more fun. I know we have a lot more laughter to come!

 I'm equally excited to see him become a big brother. He talks about his brother constantly. Just the other day he brought me the iPad and asked to watch videos of brother. It was so sweet! A funny story from a few months ago I have to share is......
Question: Carson what should we name brother?
Carson: "Tow Mater" (Cars is his all time favorite movie and he loves Mater!)
Q: How come we should name him Tow Mater?
Carson: Because he's brown. (Yep, he was pretty matter of fact. He is a very concrete thinker. So this really doesn't surprise me at all.)

We got a good laugh out of that one, and can't wait to share it with his brother someday. I know Carson will teach his brother all about Cars and we already have started him his own set of the die-cast cars. Since I know sharing those magnificent treasures may be a challenge. :)

So excited to see everyone who can make it this weekend to celebrate Carson. We are so blessed with amazing family and friends and we wouldn't be functioning with out you! So even though I have said this a million times, THANK YOU!!!  (I hope it never loses its meaning.)

Love, April

PS. a sneak peak of a party craft!!!

Last Weekend Garage Sale = Complete!

WooooHooooo! I am so happy to say that we are finished with Garage Sales! Aaron even made up a breakup song about garage sales (I'm pretty sure he borrowed most of the lyrics from Taylor Swift). I am also happy to announce that we added another $836.28 to our adoption account!! Praise the Lord!

Our thermometer over to the left of our blog is now up to $14,982!!!!!!!!!! I know I have said this a million times, but we are so greatful to all the people who have donated their stuff, time, and money to help us bring our son home. We are also extreamely greatful for all the prayers and support we have recieved during the past year. Garage sales have been the best fundraiser. We have raised over $10,000 just by working four long weekends this summer.

Although, I think the best part of having garage sales was sharing our story with everyone that came to score a deal. After trying to sell a nice man some items, I'm sure he didn't really need, we got to talking and told him our story and what we were doing this for. He right there gave us a $20 bill. He was so generous! Then as he walked away he found a small cooler that had a $3 tag on it. I told him just to take it, but he refused and handed me a $5 bill. I went to get him change and he just left. He yelled from his truck that he hoped our day was great and he was glad he could do a small thing to help us bring our son home! I'm am so in awe of people's generosity. I love having these stories to share with our son someday. He wont have a baby book, but he will have a Life Book and these stories of generous people will fill the pages!

Hopefully soon we will have some news to share about possible travel dates. I think the waiting and not knowing anything is killing me! But it's all going to happen in God's perfect timing! I just hope that's sooner than later.

Love, April & Aaron

Another Awesome Garage Sale!

At the last minute we decided to have our Garage Sale in our Yard. It was crazy! Our house is quite small and our neighbors thought we were selling everything and moving out. Our yard is small and it was packed full of stuff. We took over parts of our neighbors yards as well. But in all reality it was great to have it at home. We were able to share our story and meet all kinds of neighbors we hadn't met before.

Our grand total for the weekend is $1998.19!!!!!!!!! I have already added it to our thermometer on the main blog page. We have raised over $14,000. Wooohooo!!!! Thank you everyone! We are truly blessed with wonderful family and friends!

We are so thankful for all of our family and friends who came to help us out and who donated to our sale. We continued to get items all weekend and actually ended up still having about as much as we started with. Crazy Right???? We couldn't fathom just donating all of the stuff left, so we packed it up and were going to another 2 day sale this weekend. I know we said this would be our last sale, but with everything that was donated to us we knew we had to try to earn a little more money. We're going to set up our sale on Thursday and do it Friday and Saturday at my sisters.

Hopefully we can make another $1,000 or more towards our goal. After this one we are really done with garage sales, we are exhausted!

Love, The Marvin's

(The entire side of our yard is full of stuff, plus stuff in our basement and more to come from friends! )

A little something to get to know us....

This week some time (and may our small care package should be getting to our son in Africa. Another family was gracious and took our ziplock bag full of treasures on her trip to get her child. One of my favorite things we sent was a little t-shirt that was Carson's not very long ago. I'm hoping to get a picture of our son in his new shirt to judge his size a little better. I know the shirt won't stay his and that's okay, but I hope that he enjoys getting something for just him for a day. I also sent stickers, bracelets, cars, balls, a small book and a photo album of our family. I hope he enjoys sharing his treasures with his friends. I tried to send enough stickers and bracelets for him to share with all of the older kids.
I'm so excited that he will see photos of our family. I hope he enjoys seeing Carson playing and our extended family's photos. But in reality I know this is a very scary thing for him. The initial excitement (if he has any) will wear off and he will be left with so many questions and concerns about his life. In his little world we are going to be strange people coming to take him away from the place he has called home, from his "family" at the orphanage and his friends. I pray for all the strength, patience, and compassion in the world to help him heal from the trauma he has already faced in his little lifetime. I so am looking forward to our time in country to bond as a family. During that time I am sure I will be missing Carson like crazy, but I know how powerful the time will be spent focusing completely on our youngest son. Carson will be in the best hands while we are gone (Thanks to our Family!) and Aaron will come home to him after a few weeks and I'll stay in country until the adoption is complete. I'm pretty scared to be in country without Aaron and to travel back on my own, but I know God is in control. Please pray for us as we begin planning our adventure to Africa. We received some excellent news this week about our vaccinations.  We thought they would cost about $2000 and with our new insurance most of the vaccines are covered!! Woohooo!! Also, we're having our last Fundraising Garage Sale this weekend.  We are having it at our house and it's a crazy out there! Hopefully we can bring lots of people in to our sale, even though our house is not in the best location for a sale.
Thanks to everyone who have donated to our adoption fundraisers! We really couldn't be doing this without you.

Reminding myself to live life to the fullest.......

Yesterday Carson and I had the privilege to go down to see my baby sister (yes she's almost 19, but she's 11 years younger than me so I still see her as a baby) play soccer at her university. They won their game and she played quite a bit of it, so it was awesome to be there.  She's been away at college a few weeks now, since she is a fall athlete, but all the other students are finally moving in tomorrow. I look back to my college experience and think about the fun we had. I pray that she is able to make lasting friendships and find a career that she is passionate about.

My college experience was a little unconventional. I started at a community college and played soccer. Then I went to another community college to take some of my classes because it was closer to my house. I then played another year of soccer at community college before deciding in my final semester that second year to go down to a state school where all my friends were. After applying and getting in to the state school I was asked to play soccer at Warner Pacific College the following year. I wasn't quite sure what to do, so I decided to go try out the state school before committing. I actually had a ton of fun, but really didn't go outside of my comfort zone to meet any new people (I also don't drink or "party" so I didn't have many opportunities to do so). In the end, I decided a small Christian College was going to be a better fit for me.

I can say now that was the best decision of my life. Aaron was already at WPC playing mens soccer, so we met the first day of tryouts. I was in a relationship with someone else at the time, but we did become good friends.  Eventually after many life changes we fell in love and became the family we are today.  God definitely had a hand in my journey. The experiences I had shaped the person I have become, and Aaron and I would have never met had my story not unfolded the way it did.

I guess the reason for this story is this.... God has a plan. He is helping our story unfold every step of the way. We may not always know in the moment why things are happening the way they do, but God is in control.

I needed to be reminded of my own story this week. I have been stressing myself out worrying and wondering about our adoption. I have so many questions floating around my head about paperwork, vaccines, visas, plane tickets, travel itinerary, timelines, money, how our son is doing (we just want him home), food in country, etc. the list could go on and on!  

I needed this reminder to help me remember to surrender my fears and worries to God.  I need to remember that God has brought us to this place, He called us to adopt, He has provided for our needs. He has given us a child, He will calm our fears, and He will be there with us every step of the way. His timing is the perfect timing, even if it doesn't match my own.

Adoption is a journey that takes time and lots of patience. This is all a part of my story and someday I will look back on this time as a gift. I will have learned a great deal and will hopefully get to share our journey with other adopting families to help them get through. I'm so thankful for all the adoptive/ing families I've met online and in person. This whole process would be soooo much harder if it weren't for them!

As I think of all the unknowns in our lifetime, I am worried about what's to come. I just can't let those fears hold me back from the life I am supposed to lead or keep me from living in the moment.

For we live by faith, not by sight. (2nd Corinthians 5:7)

God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear.. (Psalm 46:1-2)

Hope your all having a wonderful day with the ones you love!

Love, April

Hanging out at the fair!

I'm sitting here at the fair in our booth for our business while Aaron and Carson are out watching the Monster Trucks. It's all they've talked about all week. Aaron got Carson so pumped up about going that we came even though he's not been feeling so good. And he's been missing daddy like crazy. So I decided he needed some daddy time!

Aaron has spent pretty much all of the last 10 days at the fair trying to get new business. Hopefully we get some jobs for all his hard work! The Fair was really great 2 years ago, but last year he only got a few small jobs out of it. That's how running your own business goes though. Some months are crazy and others your searching for work! While the fairs been going on my father in law, who is Aaron's business partner, has been working long hours trying to get a remodel job done in 4 days! These men are so talented and wonderful examples of hard work and dedication!
I'm proud to be a part of our business and I love talking with clients after jobs are done because they always love these two awesome men!
-April

Great things happening....

We had such a wonderful opportunity this weekend to get together with a few families from our agency.  We feel so lucky to be with a new agency and to have our new son's case moving along. We really don't know what's happening with our paperwork, but we know it is in good hands!

If you take a look on the left side of the blog you see a few things:
1. There is a ticker showing how long we've been in this process. Today we are just over the 1 year mark. I can't believe how much we've been through since the start of this process. If you would have asked me a year ago where we would be at at this point I'd say we were getting ready to travel. If we had stayed with our original agency that would not be even close to true, but now I can say it is true! We hope to travel in the next few months! We can't wait to meet our son in person. God has really brought our family to this place, and we are so thankful for his grace and love.

2. Our fundraising thermometer! I was able to make another change to the thermometer today. I also changed the final goal to $20,000. We have 12,078.92 right now, AMAZING RIGHT???  I changed it to reflect the total amount we need before we travel,  counting our plane tickets, visas, vaccines, lodging, lawyer fees, in country fees, taxi fares, salary for everyone who will help us there, and much more. That estimate could change depending on when we travel, how long we are there, etc., but hopefully everything works out in our favor and we need no more that that! We have sold a bunch of puzzle pieces recently, but still have lots more to sell. Let us know if you would like to buy one!

We are doing everything we can to save money and to fundraise. We are so thankful for everyone who have donated so far. With the way this new agency works we are going to paying out almost all our money right before we travel. This is a good thing since it's allowing us more time to save, but it's a bad thing because we don't want to fall short right as were getting ready to travel.

So again, Thank you everyone for your love and support. I know I say this a lot, but we can't do this without you! We are so in love already with our little man, we can't wait to share him with you!

Love, April

P.S. Yes, we are still taking donations for our final garage sale of the summer. We are planning it for the end of August or the beginning of September. Let me know if you want us to come pick something up.