a raffle!

Last week my girlfriend introduced me to another adoptive mama on instagram and this mama raised almost $1,000 via a cute little raffle. So, over the past week I put together some of my favorite things and you can buy a $5 raffle ticket and win it all!

Here's what you'll win:
> canvas BEST DAY EVER tote bag
> pineapple and polkadots zippered pouch (obviously the inside fabric is ALSO polkadots)
> YAY embroidery
> GOOD MORNING mug (it's giant. i'm going back to get another for me.)
> $10 starbucks giftcard (GOOD MORNING, YAY, BEST DAY EVER INDEED)
> Chocolate (milk chocolate with caramel apples. i had to get it. how could i not?)


YAY!

Here's how to win:
Each "ticket" is $5. You can donate via our youcaring website. Just give $5 and I'll put you in the drawing! Probably once or twice I'll sit down (with a bottle of wine) and write out all the names and put them in a bucket and on March 18th I'll draw a winner! That sounds probably a little tedious and ridiculous but I've been thinking about this process so much over the past few days as I prepared for this, and I'm so just excited to take a night or two and sit down and really pray over this entire process and for each person who has prayed and donated and helped us on this journey. So, it's fine. One of my spiritual gifts is administration, so don't even worry about me. I'll find some cute stationary and be so in my element.

You can also buy more than one ticket if you'd like to increase your chance of winning! So, one ticket is $5, two are $10, three are $15, etc. etc. All of the money from the donations goes straight into our account for adoption and let me just say, we're LESS THAN three thousand dollars away from our ten thousand dollar goal! That's crazy and awesome and wonderful!

And just because this YAY hoop is maybe my new favorite (making myself one ASAP as possible) (ha! office fans, where you at?!), here's another picture of its preciousness!

UPDATE

I've been planning out this blog post since this afternoon and I still don't have adequate words to describe this past month in our adoption process.

So, here's a little update/refresh: We made a couple hundred dollars from our strawberry fundraiser + got to eat some delicious strawberries made by our friend Kira PLUS got to see people in person and thank them for donating to our adoption cause. That was so cool and so humbling. Then, a sweet friend of ours offered to match donations up to $2,000. If that goal was met, we'd raise $4,000 this month, which is just month two of our journey. And we did it. We made over $4,000 this month ALONE because today someone asked how much we had left in our match goal and then gave us the exact donation.

YEAH, THAT HAPPENED TODAY.

!!!!!!!!!!!

heart eyes and praise hands!

//I have to back up a second and tell one quick story about this because God is good. Last week we were just under $900 away from our match and I posted a quick something about that on my Facebook and we received a few extra donations but I didn't recheck our funds. I knew we were quite a bit away and as I was going to bed last night I just prayed over our adoption, over our funds, over this entire process. I felt from the initial correspondence with my girlfriend that we would meet this $4,000 goal but being a couple hundred dollars away on the second-to-last-day, I was like, "OKAY GOD. You're up!" I prayed against discouragement, as I knew I would be sad if we didn't meet our goal, but that he has greater things in mind for us. So, I prayed. And today I got that text asking how much we needed. He brings me to my knees again and again.

The first time Evan and I were going to Ethiopia, Evan was exactly $1,000 short of the required funds and the deadline was the following day. Evan got a $1,000 check in the mail that day and we all cried because raising money is stressful and challenging and humbling. I have never had something like that happen to me until this very week and I'm humbled again and again, every time I check my e-mail and see a donation.

Once again, my current verse (Gen 16:13) still applies, and now even more than ever. He is the God who sees us on this journey. We know this and we believe it, whole heartedly.

Maddox is also as cute as ever when it comes to talking about adoption. He asks where his brother or sister is all the day long. "Where are they?" He asks. He calls it "E-fee-oh-p-ia" or "E-p-oh-pyuh" and whenever I do anything from buying food to making something he asks, "Is that to bring my brother or sister home?" We talk about it all day long and he's totally on board and so ready to meet his brother or sister, we can't help but love and feed off his energy and encouragement. We love having this two-year-old perspective; it keeps things fresh and real and happy.

I've got big things planned for the next few months and something I'm super excited about for March, so keep your eyes peeled! We're one month (and so close to my first goal of $10,000) away from our application and once that's in, things will really get rolling. Please continue to pray for our family and especially this week as Evan and I are headed to SoCal and Maddox is staying with his grandparents. Protection all around as well as less worry from this mama bear ;]

Peace and blessings and love and heart eyes and kindness and unending things,
>>L

Just a little update

Well, we're one month and a week into this and we've been blown away so many times, I can't even keep track of all of the blessings that have been poured out on us. So many people have blessed us with their talents and finances and prayers and encouragement and we've been overwhelmed in the best way. It's always a struggle for me to ask for help because I'm independent and hate the thought that I'm burdening another person. So yes, this has been incredibly humbling and has been a lesson in not doing everything myself, even when I'm able. My bible study girls, my tribe, they always say to me, "Let's bring our baby home," and I fight back tears every time I hear it because that is exactly what Evan and I wanted when we started this and envisioned our adoption journey. We want to use this as a ministry to change lives and we want people to partner with us because how lonely life is when it's not lived together?

We've got about a month and a half left to raise the rest of our first goal and we're close, but we're still a couple thousand away. If you'd like to donate, you can through our youcaring website. We had some incredibly generous friends offer to match up to $2,000 through the month of February (again, more tears) and this brings us so, so close to our goal. So, we'll get there, I know it! And, Billings friends! If you donate in February, I'll throw you in a drawing for a free family/couple/selfie/whatever photoshoot!

Also, our (first) t-shirt fundraiser ended in mid-January and we raised over $1,000 and we were definitely blown away by that! We loveee love love seeing pictures of everyone in their shirts AND a friend of ours even was wearing her shirt when she got engaged! (heart explosion) We'll have another one in a few months, but we don't have anymore of these. So, if you wanted to get in on this, so sorry that you missed it, but I promise the next design will be even better! Pinky swear.

I still need to create a prayer request page, but I also have a sink full of dishes, loads of laundry and a sneaky two-year-old who refuses to nap unless I cuddle him, among about 50 more pages of things to do. So, it's coming. For now, we would love prayer for our health! I've personally been battling a never-ending sinus infection since the beginning of January (which seems to be on the out, so pray that it stays out!) and Evan and Maddox have had a handful of other things and we're just over it all. I always joke that when you live with other people, you just pass your sicknesses back and forth BUT IT'S SO TRUE. We passed pink eye around for an entire weekend and after I bleached my entire house I must have missed a spot because Evan woke up with it (again) a few weeks later. Winter is always rough when there's no vitamin D to help boost that immune system, but please just pray that our health would return (and stay). Exhaustion is a huge struggle for me when I'm sick and I've found myself with low energy and no motivation, which means I've had so many things I want to do and have yet to do them. We covet your prayers and thank you so much for partnering with us and covering us with them.

Peace and blessings and love and heart eyes and kindness and unending thanks,
>>larissa

Embroidery Fundraiser

If you know me even a little bit, I'm sure that you know that I love to craft. My house is always a mess of the 400 crafts I'm currently working on and Evan is forever picking up after me. Bless him. I've had these four embroidery hoops in my stash of supplies forever and decided to whip out four embroideries. I already had the supplies on hand (craft supply hoarder) and so this cost me absolutely nothing. All proceeds will go towards our fundraiser to bring home our baby!

We have raised a couple thousand dollars in the past week since we announced and we are so blessed and thankful for every prayer, every t-shirt purchased, every print purchased and every donation. So, thank you, thank you! Since Etsy takes a percentage of every sale, I'm attempting to sell these hoops here first. If they're not sold by Sunday night, I'll move them to Etsy. But, if you're a Billings native, I'll deliver to you for no extra charge! If you're not, shipping is $3. Thank you so much for your support! We could not ask for a better village.

///RULES: to purchase, please e-mail me at youandusforever[at]gmail[dot]com. I'll send you a PayPal invoice and you must pay within 12-hours. If you're local, you can pay me at pickup! 


1. YAY!: four-inch hoop with pink and cream floral fabric///$10--SOLD

2. Love: six-inch hoop with vintage blue floral fabric///$16--SOLD
[ps. the red dots are not stitches, that's part of the fabric]

3. Happy heart: nine-inch hoop with polka dot fabric///$25---SOLD

4. Tune my heart: ten-inch hoop with cream and gold fabric and lace///$25---SOLD

I always wanted to be a dad

From the time I was a young boy, I knew that I wanted to be a father. I remember watching my dad love my mom and I so well, all while running his business. One of my first memories is sitting at the foot of his chair, listening to him and my mom talk about their days. I’m sure it was a pretty basic conversation, I don’t remember the specifics. What I do remember is looking at my father and thinking about how amazing I thought he was. He was so big, strong, imposing and when he spoke, you couldn’t help but listen.

I respected my dad. I loved my dad.

           

In high school, we had our disagreements like most sixteen-year-old boys and their dads. He thought I stayed out too late and that my hair was too long. (He didn’t appreciate the magnificence of the curl.) In those years and the years that followed, I kind of became a momma’s boy. She let me get away with way more. She was more lenient when it came to curfews and every limit that there was, she let me push it a little further. I think that in those times, I started to lose my appreciation for my father. Not because of anything that he did, but because of my own selfishness.

But, I still respected my dad. I still loved my dad.

Through years of dating Larissa, my dad was always steadily giving me advice. “Open her door,” he would instruct me. “Always make sure she gets home safely.”

At the time, it was almost an annoyance. I knew how to date. I didn’t need his input. However, I did everything that he told me to. You know why? He was right, and…

I still respected my dad. I still loved my dad.

In the summer of 2012, my wife walked into our bedroom and told me that she was pregnant. I would love to say that I jumped with joy and that I swung her around the room. I didn’t. I smiled the weakest smile that any man has ever smiled; I sat in silence and then hugged my beautiful bride and told her how excited I was.

However, in all honesty, I wasn’t excited. I was terrified. This wasn’t the plan. The plan was to wait until we were 25 before we even had the conversation. The plan was to continue going to third world countries because we had zero obligations at home. The plan was to adopt from one of those countries before we had any children of our own. The plan was to travel and be in love and not let anything get in our way. This got in our way, this baby, this unplanned inconvenience was IN OUR WAY.

It took me days to come to grips that our lives were changing forever. My emotions would go from angry to terrified to absolute jubilance. The Lord was working on my heart constantly to help me understand the magnitude of what was going to happen in just a few short months. He knew that Maddox Oliver would be one the greatest gifts I would ever be given. Eventually, I was consistently in a place of joy, I had always wanted to be a dad. I just didn’t think it was going to happen so soon and I didn’t think it was going to happen in this way.

One of the best parts of Larissa’s early pregnancy was thinking of ways to tell our parents. We debated on several different ways and decided to have them all over for dinner. We gave them cards that had a little poem on them. My brother and his wife had also just recently announced their pregnancy, so ours read.

“Roses are red

Violets are blue

Stan and Kalcy are pregnant

And we are too.”

Cheesy I know, but we thought we were cute.

If there was any question of whether or not I should have been excited, it ended in that moment. I watched my dad leap from the table and embrace my mom. I saw tears in his eyes and saw him mouth the words “thank you” to the heavens.

I respect my dad. I love my dad.

With the help of Christ, he changed me that day. He doesn’t even know it. I don’t know that I even knew it until I began to type this out. He in that moment and so many others has been an incredible father. He makes me want to be one too.

Over the last three years, I have watched my father become an amazing grandfather. He loves my son so well. He runs around and wrestles. He screams and yells ridiculous sounds and gives him ungodly amounts of snacks.

My son respects his granddad. My son loves his granddad.

This idea of adoption has been something that has been on our hearts for year. Since before we were even married. Yet, I would be lying if I didn’t say I have hesitations or worries. I would be lying if I said that I wasn’t terrified. I would be lying if I said I didn’t think about the fact that I was going to take a little boy or girl that isn’t my blood and try to raise them as my own. To give them a family.

But you know what? Thirty years ago, my dad fell in love with a single mom. He decided that he wanted to marry her and raise her son as his own. He wanted to give him a family. Now, my older brother and my dad will both admit that he made mistakes. They both did. However, he courageously stepped into parenting a child that was not his own. I cannot wait to wrap my arms around my new son or daughter. There are a million reasons why I can’t wait to be the dad of another child. You want to know what one of the main ones is?

I respect my dad. I love my dad.

I want to be my dad. 

--evan

The Plan

Top questions anyone asks us about adoption:

1. Isn't it expensive?
2. Are you adopting from the orphanage you've been to in Ethiopia?
3. Girl or boy?
__________

1. Um, yes.
2. No, they are not adoptable.
3. Unknown, as per usj.
__________

Adoption is crazy expensive. It's intimidating to think that we'll have to pay thousands of dollars for a child in need. It's frustrating but definitely not a deal breaker for us. There are plenty of fundraising ideas we've got our eyes on and organizations that help with adoption and interest-free loans and we'll make it happen. The first two fundraisers we have are t-shirts and prints.

Our t-shirt campaign will last for 21-days (until January 20th, 2016), and you can purchase one here! We'll make over $10 on each t-shirt that's purchased and all proceeds will go directly to our adoption fund.

Our prints are instant download for $5 each. You can purchase them directly from our Etsy account and print at your convenience.

We also have a YouCaring account where we can accept donations. We're not looking for a handout, which is why we're selling t-shirts and prints. But if t-shirts and prints aren't your thing, and you still want to donate, you can give on our YouCaring page.

We also covet your prayers. Please check out our prayer requests page to see the specific areas and things you can pray for. We can't do this without being covered in prayer for our journey, our family and the people of Ethiopia.

We are hoping to have the first $10,000 raised by March so that we can officially apply to our agency. We've been pre-approved but the director of intake has advised us to have six to ten thousand dollars ready to make the first few payments. Having this money readily available will help us to not be slowed down by lack of funds and be able to move forward quickly.

We've prayerfully chosen Ethiopia as our country. We feel connected to Ethiopia because of our past trips to this country. We know the culture and the people and the stats. Ethiopia is twice the size of Texas and there are over 4-million orphans there alone. We have fallen in love with the orphanage in our tiny little town of Ambo/Gouder and we can't imagine starting our adoption journey anywhere else.

Because Maddox is our first born, we're respecting his place in our family and we don't care the age or sex of our child as long as he or she is younger than Maddox. Realistically, we're probably looking at a child five or under, although we could have a faster adoption due to the medical needs of our child.

We're walking into a big unknown but we're so excited to move forward. It's going to be a good year!

You are the God who sees me

In the fall of 2012, my friend was bringing home two precious babies from Ethiopia. My mom was traveling back to the orphanage where Evan and I have been three times. And I was a few months pregnant with our first child. I remember the anger and disappointment that I was not bringing home a child from Africa or even in Africa at all. Our situation was completely different than what I had planned for us. We had planned to adopt first. We had planned on maybe not even having biological children. We had planned on being 25 before children were even an idea in our minds. I remember many long and aggressive talks with God on my drives to and from work. I wasn't praying, no. I was arguing and upset. I let Evan in on my complaints and my feelings and until I felt those first flutters of baby kicks on Thanksgiving (how appropriate God's timing truly is), I was still ungrateful for the new life that was being knit together in my womb. And then our baby was born, a perfect boy we named Maddox. And on his birthday, I found redemption. I found that biological children and adoption are not mutually exclusive. I found that God's timing is greater and His plans are generous and they work for the good of those who love Him (Romans 8:28).

I've been keeping track of all the verses that apply to our adoption. I have a list of verses to rely on when I'll undoubtedly feel the stress and pain of the waiting. But one that I continually fall back on is Genesis 16:13. It says, "You are the God who sees me." I think about the emotional roller coaster I rode while pregnant. Some of it was hormones, most of it was insanity. And through it all, in the midst of my pain and sorrow and mourning the loss of what I thought I wanted, what I thought was best, was my faithful God who caught every tear, who heard every word, who never turned His back. He saw me. He is the God who sees me and hears every cry, every prayer, every joyful noise. And in that I put my trust because He is the God who heard my plea for adoption and for orphans and who has answered my prayer in perfect timing.

As we begin this new season of life, we are feeling every emotion and praying continuously. We're venturing into the unknown but relying heavily on our adoption life verses and continuous support from our friends and families. This entire adventure could not happen without the people who have stepped behind us and become our village. It's full of prayer warriors and people who stop by with bottles of wine just to catch up and pray and people who give and send encouragement through hugs and texts and e-mails. We're so thankful for our tribe of people and we're holding on tight as we take the first steps into the unknown.

Thank you to everyone who has come along side of us as we prepare to announce our adoption. Thank you to everyone who has shrieked in excitement over our news (we've told most of our dearest friends in person). Thank you to everyone who has prayed for us and shared in this excitement. We can't wait for this new adventure and our new addition.