Whirlwinds

This week has been a whirlwind of news, events, celebrations, and crazy happenings. 

P's birthday was Thursday so much of the week was spent prepping for that in the midst of our new adventure in HOMESCHOOL! Little did I know what fun was in store for the week besides P's bday celebration!

About two weeks ago my friend called to tell me that her school raised money just for a family adopting. And with the help of AdoptTogether, we were the family they selected. On Wednesday we got to meet the kids and teachers who donated and thank them for their support. How crazy that a school our kids don't even attend raised money to support our family?! I just can't believe it. 

Then, on Wednesday night, I laid in bed with P as the clock ticked over past midnight so I could sing her happy birthday. We laid there talking and giggling and she quickly fell back asleep. As I snuggled with my seven year old, I had this overwhelming urge to pray for protection for her, C, our house, our family. I think I laid there praying for protection for half an hour. I'm super good at worrying so going to sleep was difficult that night. 

We woke up very early Thursday morning to some scary happenings. Our car, garage, and at least 6 of our neighbors' cars were broken into overnight. All of our car doors were wide open as well as the garage door. The garage door remote that was in my car was also stolen. TERRIFYING. 

Thank goodness the house was not broken into and the items stolen from us are easily replaceable and we have insurance. But the feeling of being invaded is so yuck. But our family was very clearly protected. No one was hurt and nothing permanent was damaged. More gratitude.

We shut the doors, went back into the house and celebrated our oldest's birthday. It was the ultimate test of my ability to "fake it til I make it". We made cinnamon rolls, gave her presents, and enjoyed a couple of hours together as a family. Then P and I went to volunteer for a little while at Children's Hunger Fund and on to a little birthday tea together. 

Steven and C spent the day at Lowe's, on the phone with insurance, and filing police reports. Poor guys. Not nearly as fun.

By the time we were on our way to dinner to celebrate P, I was completely emotionally spent. Right as we pulled into the parking the garage Steven got a phone call from Vickie, turned it on speaker phone and handed it to me. I was beyond confused. She and my dad were at an event to tell my mom's story and her love for adoption. She then told me she was with Denise Lopez (of http://everydayministry.net/) and that Denise wanted to speak to me. Once Denise got on the phone, she explained that she was on stage in front of 500 women at an event and she had an update on our adoption grant request. While on speaker phone in front of all these women, Denise told us that our family has been awarded a grant for our adoption that will tremendously help with this urgent $10k due on November 30th. I was beyond surprised. I don't think I've ever been more speechless in all my life (just ask Steven, he can attest to this truth). 

Just the fact that they chose us and my whole family conspired to surprise me on P's birthday was phenomenal. And after such a scary morning. Whew. ALL THE FEELINGS. Every one of them. I haven't stopped crying tears of joy. 

These two babes of mine were very excited to celebrate such exciting news! 

And that means the $10k due November 30th is down to $3,783. I mean. You guys, it's so awkward and humbling to ask for financial support. This has been a season of launching two businesses (you know: very little income, lots of side jobs, becoming an uber driver, and tons of hustling to make ends meet) and lots of expenses; so, to be loved and carried and supported by our tribe is such a beautiful picture of humanity. Grateful, humbled, honored, astounded, and completely changed by you. 

On Monday, I will make the request to AdoptTogether to send any extra money in our account to our adoption agency. We are hoping and praying that this small gap of $3,783 will be filled just in time for the Nov 30th deadline. I've asked for far more than I deserve, but if you have felt any desire to help us bring our boy home now is the time. The finish line is close. The end is in sight. 

He will be in our arms so soon, but this money hurdle must be jumped first. Your love and support is making my family a possibility and I just can't begin to express how grateful I am for that. 

We are SO CLOSE. If you even have $1 to give, please follow this link and your donation will still be tax deductible. 

Seriously, I cannot thank everyone enough. Our family is growing because of you!

Finish line is close, folks! *UPDATED*

Ok, friends. We are soooooo close to finishing this fundraising business and hopping on a plane to get our little one. Obviously, I don't have a date, but paying the fees is a big hurdle.

Good news: Our friends and families helped us raise over $20,000!!!!!!! WHAT?!?!? That's freaking insane. I can hardly express my gratitude, it's huge. You guys are amazing, we are so spoiled rotten. From the very bottom of our hearts, THANK YOU!

Fun news: We only have $16,000 left to pay (plus some travel expenses when we get The Call). So we thought we'd have a little fun with this last bit.

So here's our idea. We're gonna "kickstarter" this thing. Different donations equal different prizes.

Here's the breakdown:

$25 donation gets you a hand drawn caricature created by P or C (most likely P, C doesn't really sit that still for that long) 

$50 donation gets you personalized outgoing voicemail message by C 

$75 donation gets you an ice cream date with P and C (LA residents only) 

$100 donation gets you a personalized 8"x10" print from my shop (you choose quote, style, color) 

$150 donation gets you an ice cream date with P, C, and the little one when we're all home together (LA residents only) 

$500 donation gets you a copy of our adoption photo album once things are finalized 

$1000 donation gets you a framed family photo once things are finalized 

GRAND PRIZE: $16,000 donation (like if you literally fund the whole thing), we will visit your home first (obviously, once adoption is finalized and we have settled into a routine as a family of five)

Once you've donated here, send me an email with the best way to reach you to discuss how to arrange your prize incentive!

We cannot thank you enough for all of your love and support during this crazy fun journey! We are eternally grateful!!!

Let's get this babe home!!!! Here's one last picture of P and C in their workspace where your prizes will be made. ;)

Not so good news

So, we got some disappointing news today about the little boy we're adopting. He's ok and we are still able to adopt him, but I can't disclose details at this time. 

We are working to get the home study updated (since we moved we have to update the homestudy) but of course, that’s thrown a delay in getting more paperwork submitted. 

Needless to say, I’m very frustrated and sad for him. The largest hurdle is paying the final $26k and with all the incredible fundraising my friends and family have helped with we are well on our way to being fully funded! We are waiting to hear (after August 8th) about a large grant for our family, but we've got to jump out in faith and do what we can to quickly pay the fees to get him home to us.

Please say a little prayer for him and if you feel so inclined to help support us financially in this, every $5 counts! Link to our profile is here: http://adopttogether.org/families/?fundraiser=farns

We are so incredibly grateful for all the love and support!!!

All the good news!

Friends!

It's been a whirlwind of fun for us the past few weeks for sure! I wanted to update all on what is going on and all the crazy fun changes!



It started with some danger in our old neighborhood. We loved our old house and enjoyed where we lived but over the past six months or so, things got kinda scary. Lots of shootings and police-involved activity. Now, I'm not easy to scare in that respect, but when we were stuck inside the house and couldn't leave because of a shooting that required multiple ambulances, firetrucks, and police cars (some actually parked in our driveway) that was the last straw. It felt unwise to continue to live there.

bye old house!

So we started looking and we walked through one house (yes, ONE!) and fell in love. Oh my gosh, it was crazy how amazing the house was and I was convinced there was no way we'd get it. It felt like far more than we deserved. But we persisted and within a month, we were moved in! And on top of getting to live in a MUCH safer space, we live near horse ranches (hello Oklahoma girl) and we are saving money by having our offices in our house as well as having a renter. I mean, it's just amazing. We are so grateful for the peace of mind and the fun and joy this house offers. So sorry for the terrible quality video, my tech support/film maker is out of town right now so this is what we get.

We also submitted {nearly} all of our paperwork to legally finalize our match with a certain little one and the clock has started for us to for real get to bring that one home. I'm so, so excited. And terrified that we forgot some major piece of paperwork or won't have the funds to finalize things. Moving so suddenly put a huge wrench in our finances but we took a giant leap of faith and felt that it was what was best for our family's future. But yikes, faith is freaking scary. We are over halfway to our fundraising goal but there are big chunks of change due in the next few weeks so if you're in need of any prints already in my shop or anything custom made, now's the time to order! Click here to order or create something custom together!

Let's get this babe home to us!

So that's where we're at in our journey. So many details to continue to stay on top of but there's just so much more swimming to be done (not so much by C, though. anyone want to come teach him what he refuses to learn from me!?)!

Racing to the finish!

If you know me, you know I like to by busssssy! However, the past few weeks have been an actual sprint marathon! We've reached major milestones in our professional and personal lives and I'm worn out! 

As far as personal milestones, it's been quite the whirlwind. Some days bleed together so much I'm not sure what's what. The adoption process has been moving along quite nicely; we completed our homestudy this weekend! And three hours later had an epic Star Wars bday party for a certain little boy! 

All of the fun food labels I made are in my etsy shop for sale now, grab em while they're hot!

Here's the scary part to say out loud now: we are adopting from South Korea and they have a required maximum weight on the adoptive parents. I have never been "skinny" or what one would call athletically-inclined. And I have tried and failed about 3.7 million times to lose weight consistently. I've also sort-of-half-way-lazily tried and failed as well. I'm thinking the last 3.7 million times might be in that category. So this is an extremely daunting task for me to hit a certain weight (don't even get me started on how I actually feel about the rule, I'm just in it to bring my baby home). I've always eaten very little and exercised minimally. It seems I've been "starving" myself in the weirdest of ways. And in the past when I would try to lose weight I'd focus on one or the other. This year, I decided to change it. I eat ALL the time. And I eat really good food! Tons of protein and veggies. And I cheat! I'm also swimming like a maniac. 2-3 miles a week! So I'm pretty tired a lot too, but the good, I worked hard for this bed, tired. It's almost the end of March and I've kept up a pretty good routine so I'm thinking this is the thing to stick for me. 

Oh, and I've lost over 20lbs and 8 inches. SUCCESS! Finally! 

But I'm still not at the required weight for Korea. So I will keep going until I am. Feel free to hold me accountable. And pray that the progress they see is sufficient proof that I'm doing all it takes to meet their policies. 

Also, since the homestudy is complete (YAY!) that means its time for our next big hurdle of $25,175 in fees to be paid to finalize things so we can travel to go get our babe! Yikes, super super scary, isn't it?! That's a BIG number. We've got lots of extra odd jobs we're working on, goodies for sale in my etsy shop, t-shirts for sale, and we have some amazing friends who have some fun fundraisers planned, but we still need so much help to get to the finish line. 

It's so daunting to ask for help like this, but it's just not possible for us to adopt without help, our village is carrying us through this for sure and we could not be more grateful! The last time I asked for help we exceeded our goal in less than a week. If you'd like to help (even $1 is amazing!), you can find our adoption profile here where you can donate. We are so thankful for this tribe, we wouldn't be who we are without you!! Thank you for helping us expand our family!

Feeling the LOVE!

You guys are AMAZING!

I am beyond overwhelmed and grateful for your support in kind words and finances. Oh my gosh, I cannot wait to bring home this babe!

In just 36 hours since I opened up to my tribe, $4,940 was donated. I mean. I'm rarely at a loss for words, but I sure am now.

So, THANK YOU! From the bottom of my toes to the top of my head THANK YOU!!

Also, our amazingly creative friend designed shirts for us to sell as a fundraiser as well. You can purchase those here: https://www.booster.com/farns-fam-adoption-fund.

Wow wow wow wow wow wow wow wow wow!

Love you all!!

PS: I'm working towards keeping up with this little bloggy up to date more often. Sign up to get alerts when I write super profound things. :)

Full Disclosure + a BIG ask!

Friends! We've gotten to the point in our adoption process where 87% of the paperwork has been submitted and approved.

You know what that means!?!? Money time.

Yikes.

Not gonna lie, guys, I'm freaking out a little a LOT. Basically the next hurdle is $6,300 in fees in order to schedule the home study. And then $25,500 will be due sixty days later when the home study is approved. Dang. That's a ton of cash. It feels insurmountable on our own.

So far, we've paid a few thousand dollars already, but this is a big chunk of change. Plus we will cover all of our travel costs when we get to go get our newest little nugget (EEK!!!!!)! And I am super awkward (in most things) when asking for help of any kind. But, man, we cannot get through this financial mountain to bring our little home without our friends' help. Gosh, this is so uncomfortable to ask for. You've all done so much for us already. I am so grateful for our tribe. The ask I have is small, can you help me with just $5, $10, or $20? Here's some math to show you how quickly just a small amount can add up:

If 200 of my friends donates $10 each = $2,000
If 100 of those people tell 15 people and they donate $10 each = $15,000
If 50 of those friends tell 10 people and they donate $10 each = $5000

That's $22,000!!! In just $10 donations! Wowzers, so amazing!

It's so easy to donate; go to our profile page at www.adopttogether.org/farns and it's all right there. Super fast and tax deductible!

So, what do you say? Wanna help us bring home our babe?

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I'm sure you have some questions:

"What else are you doing to earn some extra cash?"
- I've got this cute little Etsy shop with some fun things for sale. Check it out here to purchase something fun that helps us out: https://www.etsy.com/shop/mildredtpeabody. Custom orders are always accepted. I also do some freelance writing on the side, so if you have a gig, send it my way here: farnsworth.sara@gmail.com.
- We are having some little FUNdraisers over the next few months to help with costs. Karaoke night at our house Feb 18th, Mini-photo shoot on April 22nd, and an art workshop coming soon! If you are interested in partaking in any of these FUN activities, email me as well!

"What are you going to do if you don't get any money fundraised for the adoption?"
- I'm going to march around town, resumes in hand, and get myself a part time job while the kids are in school. We will bust our rears to make it happen financially while still pushing our production company and StageHunters (more on that one later) into financial success.

"What happens if you get the initial $6,300 raised, but not the $25,500? Will you just quit?"
- Oh, heck no, we won't! See above, we're going to work it out for sure.

"Why aren't you doing those things right now instead of asking us for money?"
- Good question. I've wrestled with this myself quite a bit. In fact, we put a big chunk of money into our new business (StageHunters), and I'm feeling a little guilt about that one. The reality is that starting a business from scratch is super scary, but is part of a long term plan for our family's financial future. I am working on it almost full time, but taking no salary so my time is filled with the beginnings of a successful company, but since it's barely a year old, we aren't there yet (this is really hard to admit, by the way; feeling a little vulnerable). Also, I've learned in this past year that one of the truest old sayings "it takes a village" has been my reality more than I ever noticed and I wouldn't change it for the world. There's just something magical about adding to our family with the help of our people. It's humbling and empowering at the same time. I'm honored and grateful for the support we've been given thus far and hopefully will receive in the future.

"Why is it so expensive to adopt a child?"
- Um, that's a long rant for another day. Basically, I have no control of the cost, which sucks. It's a hindrance for so many kids looking for a forever home. If I ever run for political office, that'll be the first thing I champion to change. (#saraforpresident)

"Why don't you just get pregnant again, you're capable of that?"
- Yikes. We've always wanted to adopt. To grow our family through adoption is one of the most powerful and impactful things I can think of. I am who I am because my parents adopted. I learned a different level of empathy, love, respect for all nationalities and cultures, and gratitude for a family who loves all.

Thanks for hanging in there through this looooooooooong post! :)

Here's to risks and adding to our family!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Friends! It's 2017?!! I cannot believe it! 2016 was one of the most difficult years of my life, but I feel like the growth that's come out of it is a big surprise.

Anyways, we are back from our super fun trip to Hawaii for Christmas! Definitely want to do that every year from now on. Here's a little vid the husband put together from our trip:

And then we rang in the new year!

Low quality photos, high quality crazies!

Now, here we are, waiting for our beautiful children to just go back to school already start school again! Love them; ready for a routine again.

My word for the year is Design: adaptation of a means to a pre-conceived end. 

Basically, I'm trying to fine-tune and design my life around the things I'm working towards. Here's just some of the areas of my life this means change and effort:

• Design a fundraising/income earning strategy for our adoption

• Design my work life to fit better into my mom/wife life

• Design a schedule where our kids can enjoy extracurricular activities but not feel too overwhelmed and busy by those demands

• And even design some storage options for all of my creative supplies! (I actually completed this task yesterday! YAY!)

My hope for this year is to find some peace and fun in the middle of crazy chaotic life. I love to be busy and I truly enjoy being involved in a million activities. Now the goal is to design a daily life that will allow me to accomplish all the things I want to accomplish. 

Who's with me?!