One Step Closer

We are happy to announce that we submitted to PAIR last week!  This is a new process in Ethiopia that we have to get through in order to receive a court date.  We are not sure how long this will take, but estimates are around 2 to 4 months (I think)!  Once we receive our PAIR letter, we will receive a court date.  The court date could be anywhere from 1 to 3 weeks from the PAIR letter date, so we will possibly have to travel fairly quickly after receiving this letter.  The first trip will be to meet Jackson and go to court.  We will not be bringing him home on our first trip. 

How can you help?!  Buy a T SHIRT!  We have a few t shirts left.  Send an email to  allyson_barden@hotmail.com if you would like to purchase one.  Short sleeve are $15 and long sleeve are $17.  I will list sizes available below.  Send me your RECIPES! Some very good friends of ours are working on a cook book and we need recipes!  You can email them to me at the email above.  I will post more when I know information about ordering the books.  PRAY!  Here are some specific prayer requests:

1. That Jackson will begin to learn who we are to make the transition easier when we bring him home (he will be receiving his first care package next week which includes an album with all of our pictures in it). 
2.  That we will be able to raise the money needed to make the two trips to bring him home. 
3.  That our paperwork will go through all of the processes without any hiccups!
4.  That God will give us peace in our wait.  This wait is very hard as we long to meet and hold our son! 
5.  That God will work out timing of our travel as it relates to jobs and the kids being taken care of here.

There are so many more, but these are the specific ones that come to mind right now.  Thank you for your continued support.  We are overwhelmed by God's grace carrying us through this process and how He has placed so many people in our path to help us on this journey!

In Him,
Justin and Allyson

T shirts available: Short Sleeve - 4 M, 2 L, 3 XL;  Long Sleeve - 1 M, 2 L

It has been three years since I last posted on our blog!  Those three years have been extremely busy for us!  As we began to see that the wait for Jackson would be long, we felt God telling us to go ahead and have another child biologically.  We had our third child, Deacon, in May of 2013.  Justin began a new job as Assistant Principal at Dickson Middle School in July of 2013.  This meant a move to a new city for us.  We moved into a rental house until our house in Milan sold.  In April of 2014 our house in Milan sold and we were able to begin looking for a new house in Dickson.  We bought a house in Dickson in June of 2014 and were able to move in during the short time Justin has off in the summer.

After many years of waiting for a referral, (and having another baby), we felt that God was leading us to an older child.  When our social worker came in July to do our home study update, we told her that we wanted to increase our age range.  On August 21, Justin and I got "the call"!!  We received a referral for a precious little three-year old boy!  We were in love with him immediately!  We cannot share much about him at this time due to confidentiality concerns, but we can tell you that he has the best smile in the world!
We are so very grateful for the support that we have received throughout this process.  Please pray for us through the remainder of this journey.  We have two trips to make before we get to bring him home to his forever family.  We are so excited to be in the final stages of this journey.  We have seen God's hand over and over again throughout this process and we know this is just the beginning of what He will do.  Thank you for your continued support.  We will hopefully have more updates soon!!

T Shirts

Our T Shirts are in!!!  We are selling t-shirts to help raise money for our adoption.  We have long and short sleeve shirts available.  Prices are as follows:  Short Sleeve - $20 for one or $35 for two.  Long Sleeve - $22.50 for one or $40 for two.  Add $2 for shipping. You can email me at allyson_barden@hotmail.com if you would like to order a shirt or shirts!  We would love to see people all over Jackson and surrounding areas wearing our shirts!!  If we don't have your size, we will be making another order soon, and we can order it then :)  Thank you for your continued support in helping us bring our child(ren) home!

It's There!!!!!

Our Dossier was sent by America World on August 11, 2011 to Ethiopia.  That is very special because it is also Baylee's birthday!  Our actual DTE (Dossier to Ethiopia) date is August 12, 2011.  I'm not sure why this is, but that is what I was told.  Apparently, DTE dates are always on Fridays.  I was sent an email the day it was sent explaining and the stops it would likely make along the way, along with the tracking number for FedEx so that we could track it.  I got online this morning to see where it might be, and it is there!  It was delivered at 4:00 AM this morning.  We are continuing to be amazed at how God is working in this process.  This is going more quickly than we ever imagined!  Please continue to pray for us in this journey!  Now we WAIT!!

Allyson

PS.  Don't forget to order your "Thirty One" item this week or next for 15% off and help with our adoption!  Email if you have questions.  allyson_barden@hotmail.com

On It's Way!

We officially mailed our Dossier to America World on Friday, August 5, 2011!  It arrived safely on Monday morning.  Barring any unforseen circumstances it will be heading to Ethiopia this Friday, August 12!  That will be our "DTE" date (Dossier to Ethiopia).  Once it arrives in Ethiopia, the wait begins!!  We are so excited and completely amazed at how fast this process has gone. 

In other news...
We are having a "Thirty One" Adoption Fundraiser from now through August 26.  The actual party will be Tuesday, August 23 from 5:00 until 8:30 (come and go).  My aunt is graciously giving us the majority of her earnings from this party toward our adoption.  If you are interested in ordering you can contact me for a catalog, or you can go to www.mythirtyone.com/malesadyer.  Click on "My Events" and then find my name.  You can also come on Tuesday, August 23 and see the products and enjoy some time of snacks and fellowship! 

We will also be pre-selling our t-shirts very soon.  The design is almost finished.  We are just waiting for some finishing touches! 

Thank you for your support in our adoption.  Please keep us in your prayers as we continue this journey.  We are constantly amazed at what God is doing!

Allyson

Amazed

We went last Monday, July 18, to have our Biometrics (fingerprinting) done in Memphis.  It took about ten minutes for the both of us including wait time, and then Justin and I were able to enjoy some time in Memphis childless (thanks to my wonderful mother!) 

After this, we wait for USCIS approval which comes in the mail as a form.  We completely expected to wait at least two months for this approval letter.  HOWEVER, the approval came today!!  We are completely in shock and can once again feel God's hand on our adoption!  Praise Him! 

We should be set to send of our Dossier next week!  More to come on this!

Yard Sale #2

Our first Yard Sale was a HUGE Success!  We were able to raise a significant amount toward the next installment that we owe.  God blessed us beyond our imagination through the last sale! 
We plan to have another yard sale the weekend of July 9th at our house in Milan to try and sell what we have left.  Thank you to all of you who donated to our sale and came out and bought things.  We are so blessed!  We do have some larger items left if anyone is interested.  You can email allyon_barden@hotmail.com to inquire about the following items!

Set of French Doors
Electric Guitar
Entertainment Center
Coffee Table
2 Elliptical Machines
Old Sewing table w/ sewing machine
4-drawer Filing Cabinet
Books, Books, and More Books
TV stand