Tuesday, January 25, 2011

"Never Alone" T-Shirts!

Hello Everyone! I am so excited to be a part of the fundraising team, and have some exciting things planned. Our first new fundraiser is the "Never Alone" T-shirts! 


The T-Shirts come in Adult, Ladie's fit, and Youth sizes. 
The shirts are $20 and the shipping is FREE! 
To order a shirt, please e-mail me, Lindsay Adams, at lindsayadams12@me.com.
Please include your name, address, and t-shirt size you would like. 

 You can pay through paypal, or send a check to...
Lindsay Adams
6001 Rathbone Dr. 
Allen Texas, 75002

Please spread the word to your friends and family! If you have any questions, e-mail me at any time. I am a freshman in college, so I am up at all hours of the night studying. I should be able to e-mail you back quickly : )  I cannot wait to hear from all of you!! 

In His Grip, 
Lindsay 




Monday, January 24, 2011

Where We Are Now

I'm sure many of you are wondering where we are now in the process. We've now turned in all our paperwork for our dossier. It will be certified, authenticated, and then translated. I guess then it will go to China--ha, from China, then back to China again!-- and we'll have dossier to China!! I'll let you know when that official date happens.

I also have to tell you what has transpired here the past few days. We have been blessed big time!! It all began when we got up Friday morning and received an email from our agency saying they hadn't heard from us in awhile, wanted the rest of our dossier documents and about $3,000 as the next fees due. While these documents had been done for some time, we didn't want to turn them in knowing we just didn't have the money. We were working on some fund-raisers and were hoping our first grant would come in time before the next fees were due. We were waiting on our I-800A to come back anyway. I guess our agency knew it was due back anytime now and they wanted to finish up our dossier. Naturally, I was feeling a bit concerned about where this money was going to come from.

As you know, Lindsay has also joined our fund-raising team. I seriously and carefully considered whether or not to say anything as I REALLY didn't want her to feel any pressure. This is not in her hands, but His.

I did feel led to contact her and just find out where we were as I knew she had a few things in the works. I needed to know our options and where to go from here. She said someone had already pledged $1,000 and would do some more checking into things. She was delighted that I'd shared with her what our agency had asked for. Said that people told her she worked better under pressure anyway. I have to tell you--this is one amazing young lady!! Although my husband had read the email from the agency and knew what they wanted, he then had to go to the dentist. While he is away, in only a few short hours, when I talked again to Lindsay, she had the entire $3,000 pledged from this one individual. I was in tears. It is hard to put into words just how I felt. That someone who didn't really even know me..........would do that for us, for our daughter!! There just aren't words enough to thank them for their love and generosity for an orphan and their forever family!! I mean, what can I say except THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!!!

Not only that--if that isn't enough in itself!! She also has our next fee of about $2,700 coming due already pledged. Isn't that just awesome?!!!

Though none of us knew it--HE HAD A PLAN!! Valerie has been and continues to be there for us when we need her, but isn't it also AWESOME that He sent someone else along just at the right time to help with the fund-raisers?!! Isn't that just like HIM?!! At the perfect time, He sent Lindsay our way too! His timing is perfect! Now we have a team!! Valerie had a huge part to play in getting us where we are in our adoption process today and continues to help with the blog, and for that she deserves a HUGE THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU too!! We are feeling ohhhh sooooo blessed and doing some really happy dances here this week!! Won't you join us in celebration?!!

Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Blessings Of a New Year!

The New Year 2011 is in full swing with the Chinese New Year fast approaching. Which makes it a beautiful and perfect time to unveil a blossoming of Blessings A Hundred Fold!

I am excited to announce a new member of the fundraising team for The Rippee's Adoption Journey to their daughter. Lindsay Adams will be coming aboard to help with the continued fundraising efforts to bring Randy and Rita's little girl home to their arms! I will continue to help out on the website side of things but Lindsay will be overseeing the fundraising area going forward. She has many very cool ideas and will hopefully add so much of her energy and excitement to the project in a way that will spread the beauty and knowledge of adoption, and the heart behind it, to so many as well as to help raise the funds needed to finally bring the Rippee's daughter home.

When I first accepted Rita's offer to create this blogsite and start some sort of fundraising for their adoption back in May of 2010 little did I know the journey we were all embarking on! Had I known the journey would be long--very long--and full of ups and downs in so many areas and that we would be doing the majority of our fundraising all WITHOUT ever being able to picture or name who The Rippee's were adopting I surely would have ran half terrified for the woods. You see ... I'm a shy kinda gal ... the sort that even has a hard time helping fundraise for her own son's hockey team. I'm certainly not a bold, loud, outgoing person. In fact, I'm perhaps the last person who might come to mind when choosing up sides on this kinda of a thing ... but that is where the beauty in it all lies. In our weaknesses HE is strong. And I am so thankful that I was given just enough of what I needed to say "yes" to jumping on board with The Rippee's in this adventure.

If ANY of you feel a prompting in any way to make a fundraising suggestion or to host something in conjunction with this site or on your own for The Rippee's, PLEASE don't hestitate to contact Rita, Lindsay or myself! (emails will be listed on the sidebar shortly.) Rita and Randy are coming into a time when expenses will be coming due and funds are yet to be raised. If there is a prompting on your heart to do something, even if you think it is only a small thing, please still act on it. It is the amazing the things that can be done through many hands and giving hearts. Please help me welcome Lindsay to the team!