Co-Ed Incrediball Softball Tournament

My sweet friend Erica's husband Brian has organized a co-ed Incrediball softball tournament to help us bring Katie home!  Erica and I work together, and I have been a big fan of Brian since I met him.  He's hilarious, caring, a great husband and father, and has a huge heart.  He's a hard worker, generous, and fun.  He loves some baseball and softball, and he completely organized this on his own to help us.  We are so lucky to have such wonderful friends.

The tournament will be October 22, and will be at the Eagleville City Park.  The entry fee is $180 per team, and there will be a Home Run Derby ($5 per person) and a Cornhole Tournament ($25 per team).  Please email me if you'd like more information!

And I have to give a big thank you to our insurance agent at Shelter Insurance.  Blake Finney made a generous donation to sponsor our softball tournament - his donation will cover the purchase of the new balls needed for the tournament, which obviously allows us to get a greater profit from the fundraiser.  Blake is a great insurance agent - he answers any questions we have almost instantly, cares about his customers, and provides fabulous customer service.  If you're looking for insurance or a new agent, I would definitely recommend Blake!  

You've Got Mail!

Henry got a letter today from my friend Erin's first grade class.  I LOVE that we are partnering with her class for Coins for Katie - and the actual coins part is not why I love it so much.  Of course I am excited that they are helping us to raise money for Katie.  But, more than that, I am excited that these children are excited to help someone else.  That they can get a real understanding and appreciation for helping to change someone's life.  And that sounds so dramatic, but it's 100% true.

We got a wonderful letter from Erin's class.  I just love first grade writing!  Erin said her class was excited to send Henry a letter, and that one little boy even told her that his family was having a yard sale and that he and his brother were having a lemonade stand to raise money for Katie!  Again, I will say that the amazing generosity of people is incredible.

We are excited to send Flat Stanley and our journal to Erin's class, as well as a letter from Henry.  Our boys love getting mail, and I'm sure the friends in Erin's class do too.

And we can't wait to show Katie how hard our new friends worked to help us bring her home!

Run for Katie: Meet Adriana

This is my beautiful friend Adriana.

Seriously, this is really what she looks like.

I met Adriana, of all places, at the bank.

She works at our bank, which is also the bank we use at our office, so I see her nearly every day.

When I asked Adriana if she would help us with the Run for Katie, she said yes without hesitating.

Adriana has run several races, and she was excited to join our team.

Adriana, perhaps more than all of the people who have been involved with this journey to Katie, Adriana has a special reason for helping.

Adriana is adopted.

I liked Adriana from the moment I met her.

She is smart, funny, has a fabulous sense of humor, is outgoing, and loves the Twilight series.

Um, hello, team Jacob.

Did I mention she's beautiful?!  

She has two little sisters she loves like crazy, and I'm pretty sure she's probably the most fun big sister ever.

Adriana has been so supportive of our journey to Katie.  She has been a wonderful friend to me, and I'm so glad she's part of our Run for Katie!

Run for Katie Shirts!

I am SO excited about our Run for Katie shirts.  Our Run for Katie is in 10 days, and I will be honest that I didn't order our shirts until Sunday. . . I was getting nervous about them.  Custom shirts are not inexpensive, and obviously every shirt we order cuts into our profits from the race.  And, if I'm paying for these shirts, I want them to look good!

My friend Katie Jane posted on her blog way back in February about her friend Carrie's new business called For the Birds Couture.

Sunday when I was completely freaking out starting to get a bit nervous because I had not ordered shirts, I thought of Carrie.  Way back in February when KJ posted about Carrie, I "liked" For the Birds Couture on Facebook.  And I'll be honest - I probably hadn't looked at it since.  I don't know what made me think of it then, but I really wanted to get some shirts that were not the typical "race shirts".  Carrie is so cute, and has two adorable boys.  She also has some really, really cute designs for her products.  Some of my favorites are the following:

This one will be coming to our house for Christmas.
Three of them, actually! 

One reason I love, love, love Carrie's designs is because they're simple - simple is always better.

So Sunday I sent Carrie a slightly panicky message on Facebook asking her if an order of nearly 20 shirts was something she could design, print, and ship to me before October 13.  You know - 10 days later.  Carrie messaged me back almost instantly and said that she was pretty sure she would be able to do it.  We emailed back and forth talking about design, colors, etc.  And she read our blog to get some inspiration, learn about our family and Katie, and read about what we're doing.  And she designed the perfect shirt.  I was going to wait to post it, but I can't because I love it so much!

It is absolutely perfect.  I posted on Facebook about how much I loved our shirts and almost instantly had a friend ask if she could buy one.  Carrie has made these shirts available to purchase through her etsy site for $15.00.  Carrie's customer service is top notch, and she is the sweetest, easiest person to work with.  Please check out her website and support her business.  

And Carrie - thank you so, so much for making such amazing shirts for us.  You saved me!  

Flat Stanley Helps

Our oldest son David is in the second grade, and he loves the Flat Stanley books.  This week he has his own Flat Stanley, and he is to take photos of Flat Stanley with him throughout the week and journal about what Flat Stanley does with our family.  Well we put him to work counting and rolling some Coins for Katie!

I have a big glass jar in my office with Katie's picture on it.  It's between the two chairs that everyone in town sits in when they come to our office to chat, go to lunch, etc.  (We have a very social office!)  EVERYONE sees the jar, asks about Katie, and puts change in.  And I mean everyone - clients, the children of clients, attorneys, our process server, the guy trying to sell us a new credit card processing service. . . everyone.  The jar was a little more than half full last night, so I brought it home to count.

David, Flat Stanley, and I all got busy counting our coins and rolling them.  I know something like Coinstar would be faster and easier, but the counting and rolling is part of the process for us.  I believe it helps the boys to see how change - literally something people drop on the ground and don't pick up - adds up to so much money.  I really want them to have an understanding of what we're doing with Coins for Katie.  They understand that Katie's adoption is expensive.  (Hello - David told his counselor at summer camp, "Thanks for the fun.  We're getting a new sister and it's really expensive.  Once we're done paying for her adoption I probably can't come back next summer."  Um, he reached that conclusion on his own, and he will be back at camp!)  But I want them to be part of the counting, rolling, and depositing at the bank to get a real understanding of this process.  So we counted.  And we rolled.  And we talked about coins and who was on them.  And we talked about all of the people who have filled the jar.  And we talked about all of the things we need to do with the money.  David talks a lot. . . We counted $100.57 from the jar in my office!  We added that to the big jar at our house and have $275 we'll be depositing today at the bank!  Anyone who thinks that Coins for Katie isn't going to be great for us is wrong - these coins are adding up QUICK!

Sarah's Surprise Coins for Katie Jar

I woke up this morning very late.  8:30, which is unheard of for me.  Our children never, ever permit me to wake that late, and I really don't like to.  I feel like I waste a lot of the day when I sleep late.  And I'm a morning person - I'm productive in the morning.  However, our next door neighbors had a car alarm that went off at 4:00 this morning.  And didn't stop until I called the police and they went next door and did the "cop knock" on the door to get them up. . . . So Christopher generously let me sleep in today.

After I woke up and did a few things (including loving on my muffins and getting some snuggles) I settled down with a cup of coffee to read some blogs.  (This, by the way, is one of my favorite things about the weekend!)  I have a list of regular suspects I read all the time.  Imagine my surprise when I clicked onto Sarah's blog and saw this:

You  must read Sarah's blog.  She was born on 8-9-89, and on her 21st birthday her parents opened a quilt store in Ohio where she and her family live.  Sarah works at the quilt store and makes quilts and pillowcases for children.  She is a huge Buckeyes fan.  She has two brothers.  She blogs, plays the piano and the drums.  She likes to sing and dance.  And she has Down syndrome.  

I think most people talk about what people with Down syndrome can't do.  Sarah's parents focused on what Sarah can do.  This is a lesson that people can stand to learn. . . If Chris and I parent our children - all of our children - by focusing on the things that they can do, rather than the things that they can't, I think we'll all be OK.  Sarah is a great inspiration for us on our journey to Katie.  We want Katie to feel loved, wanted, important, valued, and special.  But not special because she has "special needs".  Special because she is - she will be a special part of our family.  The only girl.  The child we have chosen.  The child we, and all of our friends and family, have worked so hard to bring home.  The child that complete strangers to us are working hard to bring home.  

Thank you Sarah.  Thank you for raising money to help us bring Katie home.  Thank you for loving these children from Reece's Rainbow that have been unloved for too long.  Thank you for your blog that I enjoy so much.  And thank you for being such a good role model for Katie, and for showing a lot of people that life isn't about what you cannot do, but about what you can.

Super Saturday Post

• We got our apostilled marriage certificates in the mail today!  Thank you, Lt. Governor of Hawaii for not dragging your elected feet.  Now?  We are only waiting for two more documents - our apostilled FBI clearance letters to come back from Washington D.C. and our USCIS golden ticket! We are SO SO close to sending our documents to Katie's country.  Then what?  Then we wait for a travel date to meet this sweet girl.
• I got a very special note yesterday.  (Delivered to me at work, which forced me to close my office door and cry like a small child. . . )  For those who don't know me in real life, BWM (the attorney I work for) and I are, in addition to working together, very good friends.  He has become literally like a brother to me.  His dad passed away in July, pretty unexpectedly.  The note I got was from another attorney in town, who has been friends with BWM for several years.  Her note was so thoughtful and said that she had thought long and hard about making a donation in memory of BWM's dad after he passed away, and that she wanted to donate to something that was dear to BWM's heart.  She included a check for us, and said that she couldn't think of anyplace else that BWM would want her to send her money.  I am literally crying as I type this.  It was such a heartfelt, sincere note and it means so much to me that she thinks that we will use the money she donated as a testament to BWM and his memories of his dad.  
• We sent our pancake breakfast emails out this week.  We have had a HUGE response!  I can't wait for the breakfast to see how many people show up.  Since I've sent the email, we already got a $100.00 donation from one of my client's to our Reece's Rainbow fund, and have sold 4 breakfast tickets.
• I've also gotten some great donations for our silent auction!  We got this cute cake box from Paige's Pantry.  She's donated a gift certificate (worth $30.00) to a parent and child cupcake class.  So fun!

•  One of my favorite clients, who works for Dr. Walter Chitwood, also donated this fun gift set.  It has a travel mug, a notepad, a pen, a little lunchbox cooler, and - the best part - a gift certificate for ZOOM! Teeth Whitening!  This is worth $495.00!

• We also got a card from our friend Jenny with the final total from her party.  Are you ready for this?  $1,300.00.  And that made me cry at the mailbox.  $1,300 from one single day, which all came from this little jar.

• The softball tournament I mentioned will be held October 22nd.  There are already six teams signed up.  There will also be a home run derby and a cornhole tournament.  If you're local and interested in either playing or attending, email me and let me know.  I'd love to see you there!