Christmas auction time!!

During the end of our first auction in October, Dawn's sister sent us three large boxes filled with TONS of brand new toys and electronic equipment. So, just in time for the holidays, we are having Auction, Round 2! We know that you will love the great selection of items listed on our FB page from now until Sat, Dec 1. And remember, you don't need a FB to bid on any of the items you see. Simply comment on this post listing the item and price you would like to bid and I will be sure to include it in the bids!!

https://www.facebook.com/ShreeveAdoptionAuction

Happy Bidding and greatest holiday blessings,

Dawn

Surprise!!

Yesterday at church my friend Kathleen Potts approched me and asked if I wanted to do another Thirty-One fundraiser now that everyone is thinking holiday gifts!! I was thrilled to say yes and with great November speicals, we are ready for round two!!!

For those of you who are not familiar with Thirty-One products they are quality products, customizable and super cute. Check out the direct link to our online party

http://www.mythirtyone.com/shop/eventhome.aspx?eventId=E2491658&from=DIRECTLINK


Right now through November 26 you can get any medium utility tote (great for hauling lots of little things around!) for $5 when you spend $35. And to make it even better, when you buy any medium utility tote Thirty-One will donate a thermal tote to Operation Home Front , a great project helping our injured warriors in times of need!!!!

Click on the link above and then "Shop Now" on the bottom left of the page to check our these great products. I know you will be impressed. Any remember, 50% of all proceeds from the sale go to bringing our son home :D)


Blessings,

Dawn

A few steps closer...

In case you all have wondered if I fell off the face of the earth, No, but the month of October was probably one of the busiest ever. Between, a birthday party for Mirabelle, a potluck at our house, our online auction, Tabetha starting dance, 5 trips to Tampa, a flea market, a home study, several doctor's appointments and several other things that I can't even think of at the moment, I'm sooo glad that October is over, LOL!!

Despite the fact that the holidays are coming up, I'm pretty sure the next few months will be calmer. We are planning on a trip to visit Michael's family in North Georgia during Christmas time, but Thanksgiving we are laying low.

In addition, we are a few steps closer to bringing our son home from Ecuador. Our last home study visit as well as fingerprint day is this coming Thursday, November 8. We are hoping that all of our paperwork and immigration form will be ready to submit before Christmas. We are wrapping up our online auction and getting ready for round 2! Several itmes were donated toward the very end of our first auction and hopefully will be popular items for Christmas. So stay tuned for new items to be up for grabs closer to Thanksgiving! And don't forget our Just Love Coffee Roasters fundraiser. Great coffee from a great company!

Fun fact:  Our son had his third birthday on October 4 (I'm already buying clothes for him, :DP) although we can't post any pics yet, I will assure you, he's a cutie!!

Time is running out!!

October 19, 2012

Life has been super busy around our house!!! We had two parties last weekend and as we speak I am preparing baby items for sale at a flea market tomorrow. You would not believe all the things in my garage!

In addtion, our auction is quickly coming to a close in only 2.5 days!!! Bidding will end on 9am Monday, October 22 and yes, there are still items that I will add between now and then. So keep checking back. Thank you for all your support!!!

https://www.facebook.com/ShreeveAdoptionAuction

Blessings,

Dawn

New Auction Items!

October 14, 2012

New items have been added to our online auction. Target gift cards, salon gift certificates, musical clocks and and video games are just a few items on the list. Many previously listed item are also available for bid. Check it out at https://www.facebook.com/ShreeveAdoptionAuction Thanks for your support!


Blessings,

Dawn

The Auction is On!!

October 8, 2012

Be sure to check out our online adoption auction that runs from October 8-22!  All sorts of really cool items including adoption items, gift cards, accessories, art and jewelry just to name a few. Check out our adoption Facebook book page www.facebook.com/ShreeveAdoptionAuction. If you do not have a FB page, you can still see all of the items on our auction page and can place your bid on any items in the comment section below. Be sure to list the item you are interested in, your bid and your email address. Thank you for our support as we work to bring our son home!

Blessings,

Dawn

Light at the end of the tunnel!

Anyone who's known me long, knows I've always wanted to adopt. I grew up with a Korean cousin, just 32 days younger than me, who was adopted when he was 18 months old. As long as I can remember, he's been around. I also have another cousin who was adopted as an infant. Adoption has always been a part of my family and as I grew up knew that I wanted it for my own family as well. God says in his word that Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world. (James 1:27, NIV) As most of you know, we have been walking the journey of our second adoption for almost a year now. But what most of you don't know is how hard it's been. For the most part, we have kept to ourselves the "drama" we have endured within the past eight months. Our first profile showing was in Feburary and since then we have been shown to four different birth moms and one DCF rep, all with no match. We have also been "one of two famlies" twice within that time frame. Needless to say it's been hard and after awhile you don't want to say anything to anyone because not everyone understands the roller coaster of adoption. We have also done a few fundraisers, all of which produced little result.

About two months ago I began to wonder "Are we in the right place? Are we rowing the wrong boat so to speak?"  On top of this I kept saying to myself "I want an orphan, an actual orphan. One that is sitting in an orphanage, just waiting for someone to come and take him home." As I began praying and talking to Michael, I just couldn't get over that feeling. But at the same time, we LOVE the people at our agency and we know they would do anything to support us because they have in the past. I mean how many social workers would ask a personal friend to let a couple stay in their house for free for an unknown about of time while this little girl, born 12 weeks early, is in NICU? How could we ever think about leaving them?  At that point we started calling on close friends and adoption resources for advice. It's funny how God works when you are simply brave to enough to ask what's on your heart! We truly believe, through a simple conversation with the people at
Woven Basket, one week ago, God heard our heart.

We are very pleased to say that with the blessing and guidance of our agency, Woven Bakset Christian Adoption Services in Tampa, we have decided to make the switch to an international adoption. We will be using Joshua Tree Adoptions in Clearwater, one of two agencies in the country who offer adoption in the country of Ecuador. We have been "unoffically" matched (mostly because we just started paperwork today) with a three year old little boy with limb deficiences. The past few days we have taken time to pray, do research and ask lots of questions about his needs, both now and in the future. We are so over-the-top excited about not only having the blessing of Woven Basket, but also having them ask if they could walk though this with us!!

 I spoke with the Director of Joshua Tree, a woman with FIVE Ecuadorian children, today and she sounds wonderful!! So, as it turns out, we weren't rowing the wrong boat, the boat was just taking us to another boat that will take us to brand new place!! Thank you for your prayers and support!!

I will post more details as we know them.


Blessings,

Dawn

Check out our new pictures!!

Since our family is now bigger, we decided it would be a great time to update our family pictures. They turned out great and are excited to show them off!

 

Our family of five!

 

All of our girls!

 

I so love this shirt! It was a fundraiser for a friend's adoption!

 

 

 

Tab really wanted to eat this lollypop!!

 

 

 

 

 

Also be sure to check out our new "Support Us" tab at the top of the page. Here will will list several of our fundraisers and all the items for our silent auction coming soon!

 

 

Blessings,

 

 

Dawn

 

 

 

Now a family of five!

Our second exchange student Barbara (from Brazil) arrived on August 11. Her arrival was much easier (that is wasn't in the middle of the night, LOL) and the whole family was able to greet her at the Sarasota airport.

Since her arrival we have been taking care of all of her doctor's appointments, shopping, etc. She seems to be settling into life in our home and with her new friend Mirabelle. I know that Mirabelle is really enjoying having another girl her age around.

Tomorrow we will be going to the school to pick their classes and on Monday school starts! In the mean time, we are doing all we can to get them off to a great year!!

A big thank you to those of you who have supported our adoption fundraising. We've made progress but we still have a long way to go!!! The silent auction has been postponed for a few weeks until after the girls get the school year going. So stay tuned in the next few weeks for a lot of great items to be for sale here on our website.


Sweetest Blessings,



Dawn

I think Mirabelle and Barbara are enjoying each other's company!

Mirabelle is here!!

Well, it took several long hours of hanging out in the cell phone waiting lot at Tampa International, but Mirabelle make it here early Friday, July 27th! When she saw me she was so excited she ran to hug me!!

After over 24 hours of solid travel, our Chinese "daughter" is here to spend her entire Junior year at North Port High School. Over the past few days she been doing a lot of sleeping, trying new foods, bought her first pair on sunglasses and is tuning her ear to the English language. At the moment, she depends on me to clairfy everything she is hearing (I guess all that studying of English language learners in grad school is paying off), but her spoken English is getting better every day! She is  very excited to meet other American teenagers, LOVES playing with Gena and even gave Tabetha a bath last night.

Last night I helped her set up her own FB page, which she chose to have in English, not Chinese! So if you are on FB look her up, Mirabelle Wu, NPHS Class of 2014. She would love to have more friends! This week we are headed to get her an American cell phone, buy some school clothes, and hopefully get her enrolled in classes, wish us luck!!!


Blessings,

Dawn

Our Thirty-one Fundraiser is Here!!

Our friend Kathleen Potts, a Thirty-One Consultant, has graciously agreed to donate 50% of all her proceeds to our adoption fund!! We are very excited to be offering these great products, from a great company to our friends and family.

If you are not familiar wih Thirty-One products, they make a adorable, and practical line of thermal totes, bags, and purses, all which you can personalize however you like. And this month, when you spend $31, you can get any personalization for only $5!!! Both Tabetha and I have their thermal lunch bags and they are way cute and keep things cold! These are great items for Back-to-School time as well as any other outing.

Click on the link below and check out all of the great products that Thirty-One has to offer!!

Thank you for your support as we waiting to bring our next miracle home. With sweet blessings!

Dawn



http://www.mythirtyone.com/shop/eventhome.aspx?eventId=E2027042&custId=15497585&from=INVITATION&verify=true

And here we go!!

Yesterday we got the email we've been looking forward to for months! Our Chinese exchange student, Mirabelle, will be here Thursday, July 26th!! We're are very excited to meet her and she is excited to get to the US!

Off the coat tails of our staycation last week, this week is all about getting the house put back together. The completion of our floors (They look great!) has been delayed by a few days, but everything should be complete by the end of today. Then it's all about getting cleaned up and moving things back. Not only is Tabetha getting her new big girl room, but I'm putting our teenagers' room together as well! It's almost like I'm nesting all over again, LOL!!

Because next week will be so crazy, I'm doing what I can now to get our online silent auction up and running within the next few weeks. But, we are still very much in need of more items to put on the auction. Please let me know if you would be willing to donate any new items or services so we can get a little closer to our fundraising goal of $13,000 (Yep, adoption is way expensive!) We know that God owns the cattle on a thousand hills, so this amount is nothing to him!!!

Also, don't forget to check out all of the fundraisers that we have (or will have soon) going on. Because we know that not everyone is interested in some of the products, we are doing a little something for everyone. Here's the run down of current or "coming soon" fundraisers...

1.Just Love Coffee Roasters-Current-see the link on the right side of this page.
2.Online Silent Auction- Coming in the next few weeks, right here on our website!
3.Thirty-one consultant Kathleen Potts, Back-to School fundraising party-First  few weeks in August, link posted on FB and right here!
4.Loose Change Fundraiser-North Port area. Contact me for details.
5.For This Child I prayed necklace via Kelli Wild at Adoption Delights.com- TBD.



I also included some pics from the last few crazy weeks in the Shreeve family! More to come soon!!

With Abundant Blessings,

Dawn
Eph 3:20

The new floors in our bedrooms! LOVE!!!!!!

Tabetha running through the town fountains in Celebration, FL

Nothing like a staycation!

This week we are vacationing in Orlando. For most people that means Disney, but as always, we strive to be different. In efforts to escape all of the craziness in our house, we decided to drive the long 2 hours to see what else Orlando has to offer.

Most of the week we have simply hung out at the time share, letting Tabetha discover her "inner fish" but yesterday we explored the Orlando Science Center. Last week we bought a family membership(Florida educator price of $40, ((score)) ) to Gwiz in Sarasota which comes with the ability to get into many other places as well. Not only did we go to Gwiz last week but we also visited the MOTE Aquarium. (We are planning on going again in September when the girls are with us because then it's FREE!)  So we've hit two science centers and one aquarium within the last week and we are planning on stopping at MOSI in Tampa on the way home!

With all this,  Tabetha seems to be having a great time exploring all of the new things and I can almost hear Michael praying under his breath that God will give Tab a love of science, LOL!! That WOULD be cool, I gotta say.

Blessings,

Dawn

Tabetha in her happy place at the pool.

Tabetha at the MOTE Aquarium in Sarasota.

Sneak peek!!

As I mentioned earlier this month, we are going to be having a online silent auction to help raise adoption funds in the later part of July. One item, that we quite stumbled on by accident, arrived in the mail today and I just had to give you all a sneak peak!! Also, lined up for the auction are Mary Kay products and hair cuts from our dear friend Kim Montgomery!! We are still gathering donations so if you know of anyone who would be willing to donate services or new items please let me know.

 Blessings,

Dawn

Let the crazy commence!

June has been pretty calm around our house. It has been nice to have time to go through closets and spend more time with Tabetha. In fact when I had my own classroom I had (and still have somewhere in a box in the garage) a plaque that says, "Three reasons for teaching, June, July and August". I love the freedom that my profession offers! However July is coming, and that is where my "summer" ends.

 As many of you know, we are preparing for new hardwood floors to be  laid in all of our bedrooms as well as painting in our guest room and bathroom; all of which will be done while we are on our "staycation" in Orlando.  For months now we have been moving things around  and thinking about what will go were when it's all done. Because I can't resist a good sale, we have already bought a second set of baby furniture for whenever K2 (Michael's term) joins our family and we've had a pile of hardwood flooring stacked up in our living room since March. Right now our house looks a little like a furniture store((hair pulling)) but in 3 weeks it will all be over!!! Well, the home renovation part that is......

Earlier this year we also signed up to host a 16 year old from China named Mirabelle. She will be joining us for her entire junior year here at North Port High School. We've been in touch with her for a couple of months now and we are very excited for her to join our family! Her arrival date has not been confirmed yet, but she has told us she will be here at the end of July. The idea that I will be "parenting" a teenager is quite surreal.

Now comes the super crazy part!My husband once said "You will eventually give us to death, but what a way to go!" Maybe it's the teacher in me or just the fact that God gave me the desire to help out whenever I can, but today we signed up to host a second 16 year student from Brazil named Barbara!! I just couldn't get over that "tug" on my heart. Some of the greatest things in my life have come from that "tug"and God has taught me not to ignore it.

So.....that means, in a month I will have two teenage "daughters", a two year old that thinks she's sixteen, four cats, a dog, a husband who's work has required a lot of travel lately, AND..........an open adoption profile in which we could receive not one but TWO children!!!! And as our friend Loryn says, "God has a great sense of humor", that means I could possibly have 5 children living in my house at any point during the school year.

Yep, we are that crazy!!!!


Blessings,

Dawn

Let the fundraiser begin!

Thanks to Dawn's mom, we have partnered with Just Love Coffee Roasters to help raise funds for our next adoption!! The owners of the company are fellow adoptive parents and started the company to help families like us as well as families with special needs children and schools. For every 13 oz bag of coffee sold, we will receive $5. They not only have coffee, but other great products as well!

 We are very excited to be entering into this part of our adoption journey! I beleive we will have the chance to see God work through our need and carve an amazing story out of this just like he did for Tabetha's enterance into our family.

There will be lots of excitement and activity in our family in the next few months, so be sure to subscribe to our blog so can can receive automatic updates directly to your email!!!!

With Richest Blessings,

Dawn

Coming Soon......

As you might be able to see, I've made some changes to our blog in the last few days. After a year, I've finally fiqured out how to manage it! LOL!  But seriously, I've spent some serious time learning by trial and error (and crying a few tears) how this whole thing works.  Not having to work or go to class has helped but mostly thanks to the Florida summer rains that have kept us the house the majority of the week.

All of this has got me thinking about fundraiser ideas for our upcoming adoption. It is no secret that adotpion is expensive and although we have been able to set some money aside the last year or so, we still have a long way to go.  Right now we are leaning toward doing a silent auction here on our blog. So, right now we are in "gathering" phase for donated items and services. So if you or anyone you know has a business (Pampered Chef, Thirty-One, Etc) or items they would like to donate for the auction, please let me know. I am thinking about starting the auction sometime in July.

We also have a new "Donate" button to the right on the page where you can make a donation using PayPal or major credit card. This was our first step to setting up the blog for the upcoming auction.

Thanks for walking this jouney with us,

Dawn

Waiting, Waiting....

Waiting is never fun. Not when you are a kid or an adult. Unfortunately, waiting is often and longest and worst part of adoption.

We have been considered a "wating and available" family since Novemeber, and really, it's not that long. It's just seems that way. When we went through this is first time we were waiting for four months before we were matched. Currently it has been six months. But it's been a long six months for some reason.
We have been blessed to be associated with the best adoption agengy in the world! (Yes, I'm a bit bias!) We have built such an amazing level of comfort and trust with them that we even financially support the ministry and do whatever else we can to help. (I'm sure our family and friends want to run away sometimes when we start talking about it). All this to say, we by no means ever want to "jump ship" but honsetly it is tempting when we see pictures and hear stories of other little boys and girls that need families. It's our own impatience that messes with us more than anything else.

Last week at this time we got a phone call informing us that we were one of two couples that would be considered for a Africian American 3 month old that was being released from NICU where he had been since birth. Long story short, it was not our match. And since then we have found out some addtional details that prove to us, it was not the match for us. Even still, it's somewhat depressing.

This time around has been quite different than the first in the sense that last time, we had no idea how many birth moms viewed our profile before choosing our family. This time we have been up for match four times(that we know of) in the past four months, and that certainly makes things harder. That "pins and needles" feeling is awful.  And honestly, I can't help but think that it's going to be awhile before we are matched.

 As I was laying in bed the other night thinking about this, a verse I have known for what seems like forever ran through my head with new emphasis.  Proverbs 3:5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own undertstanding (NIV). If there is one thing I have learned in my 22 year jouney with God, he NEVER does things the way you think he will. Just because you think you have it fiqured out means nothing to him or his calendar. This coupled with my favorite verse which also popped in my head at the same time, Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine....( Ephesians 3: 20, NIV) tells me he must have something quite specific and special in mind for us. Although the waiting in driving us nuts, we are sure that years from now we will look back and see God's hand every little step of this journey.

In the mean time, keep praying for us. Tabetha is going to be getting a "big sister" in August as we are hosting a 16 year old exhange student named Mirabelle from China this next school year. So we will be busier than ever this coming year!!

Blessings to All,


Dawn