Mary Kay Shop-A-Thon!

A very sweet and generous friend, Angie, has offered to donate her proceeds from her Mary Kay sales, for our twins!  Isn't that amazing?  YOU get great make-up and WE get $$ to help us bring our twins home!  It's a win-win!

Here is what you need to know- click on this linkWww.marykay.com/Arrington4u  Make sure add in the notes section "Perreca" or "Bring the Twins Home."  You can save on the shipping if you have it shipped to me- and I will deliver it to you.  If you want it shipped to you, then you pay a minimal shipping fee.

Mary Kay also has some excellent gift sets that would be a perfect for teachers, office assistants, aunts, etc.  Here is another way you can get ahead on your Christmas shopping and help 2 kids get their best Christmas ever- a forever family!

This online "party" will run through Sunday, November 10th at 6pm.  Share this with friends!

Ready - Set - SHOP!

Raffle #3- i9Sports!!

Are you ready for another awesome prize?  How about a season of i9sports?!?  Football, baseball, soccer, basketball, and cheerleading!  The winner will win a FREE season at any location sponsored by Jeff Kraft- thank you Jeff for this amazing donation!  This is good for any one season until the end of 2014.

{Both Adeline and Alden have participated in i9 and I have loved it!  They do an excellent job at teaching the kids how to play the sport- and that is the emphasis, learning/teaching- and they also focus on being good sports.  It's a great program!}

Please visit our GoFundMe site- on the right-hand side, click on our picture!  Buy raffle tickets, and you can also earn 1 free per day if you share this blogpost on FB- please make sure you tag me in it so I can make sure you get credit!

Thank you for being a part of us bringing our twins home!

The A Team

I know, I know.  You shouldn't force kids to dress alike.  Trust me- I lived a good hunk of my life matching my sisters.  Still, I like to think that this is a little different....  Each kid's name begins with A- and so for our first family picture, I want to show unity.  And how cool to look like Super Heroes?!?  A sweet and very talented friend made these shirts for the kids- and I may very well ask her to make shirts for Al and myself =-)

I can't believe that the next picture will be with sweet kiddos INSIDE the shirts!

31 Extravaganza! (aka, Chance to Finish Christmas Shopping)

Black and White Dot Little Carry All Caddy- $12

Small Lime-Green Thermal (lunch box)- $12

Small Zipper Pouch Lotsa Dot- $12

Flat Iron Case Lota Dot- $22

Organizing Ultility Tote, black and white dot- $30

This is your one-stop Christmas shopping spot!  Over $80 of 31 products are yours!  Make just about any teacher/aunt/friend happy, cross them off your Christmas list AND help us bring our twins home!  Buy raffle tickets by clicking on our family photo on the right-hand side and then on the Go Fund Me link!  This raffle will end Sunday, October 27, 2013, at 5pm.  Buy raffle tickets and also earn a FREE ticket (1 per day) for sharing this post on Facebook- please make sure you tag me in the sharing so I can keep track of it!

A huge thank-you goes to my super generous friends, Stephanie Hoppin, Melissa Newsom and Miranda McLaughlin for donating these products!

Ready!  Set!  Go buy tickets and share!

Details

Details.  Anyone who is even thinking about adoption needs to excel at these.  Al has done a wonderful job at keeping all the paperwork running smoothly (which is no small feat), but time and time again in this process, we have seen little God details, and that makes this whole process exciting and reassuring.  Here is one such example.

My sister, Rebecca, lives in Austria.  She runs a business that essentially helps business professionals refine and polish their business English.  One of her more recent customers/students/friends, is actually from Lithuania!  Given our recent life-changing events, this was a super cool connection!

It gets better.

It turns out that her friend is from THE town our twins live in.
She has not only been to their Baby House, but has WORKED there! (many years ago, before our twins where there, but still, how amazing?!)
She knows the director of the Baby House and considers her a friend.
She knows this is a great place- that they really work hard at exposing the kids to lots of experience, that they love the kids, that lots of the kids are there only temporarily (foster care).
She will be there, potentially when we will (around Christmas!).
She is happy to be a tour guide/translator for us!

Even when we bring the twins home to the US, we will have a connection to their home town!  We will potentially get to see the best that their town has to offer from someone who knows it and love it.

How incredible is this?!?  I love that God is in the details!

Speedy Paperwork

Today the official paperwork arrived on the twins!  It is really amazing at how quickly this is all falling into place- kinda makes me think that God wants these twins in our home sooner rather than later!

Here is how "fast" this is happening.  We received the email referral on Thursday, October 3rd.  October 10th all paperwork arrived at the Lithuanian lawyer's office- they stated it would take a week to a month for this to happen.  Today, October 16th, all documents arrived, fully translated.  That's SUPER fast to translate all these documents AND get it to Michigan!  What a huge blessing!

We have composed and sent in our official acceptance.

What does this mean?

It means that potentially tomorrow, Friday, October 17th, Asher and Annalise will learn that after 4.5 years, they finally have a family that wants them.  If they don't learn it Friday, they should be told on Monday.

I can't even imagine what their reaction will be.  They have lived in this Baby House their entire lives.  That is all they know.  BUT We have been told that kids are VERY excited to be given a family- that at 4 1/2, they understand what a big deal this is, and it tends to be a rather exciting time for them.  I so wish I could be there, but I can't.  Instead, we will send a care package to them.  It has things that we have been told they enjoy- water colors, a doll, and a coloring book for Annalise; matchbox car, Legos, and a coloring book for Asher.  Also included is a book full of pictures of us for them.  There is also a ton of little plastic key-chain monkeys for them to share with all their friends.  Little things- but things that I hope they treasure and know that are sent with lots of love!  We can now also send weekly emails and pictures via email!

We are SO excited!  Please continue to pray that things go smoothly and quickly.  Pray that we can sell lots of raffle tickets as the final $10,000 is getting super close, super fast!

Care package ready to be mailed!

Raffle Time- Round One- Katie Kraft Photography!

Time is quickly approaching when our twins will be coming home!  Yay!  Friends have been incredibly generous in wanting to be a part of helping to bring them home.  

Now it's YOUR turn to help!  The best part- we BOTH win!

Each week, for the next few weeks, we will raffle off one prize.  This week- a mini photo session with the amazingly talented Katie Kraft!  Next week, a collection of 31 products- think of it as all your one-stop-Christmas shopping for teachers/moms/daughters/girl friends!  The following week, an entire season of i9 sports!

Details about Katie Kraft Photography:
The mini session can either be family or child, will be an outdoor session for 20 minutes, for up to 5 people, will include 5 high resolution images, expires end of 2014. Samples of her photos can be seen at: http://katiekraft.com

How will this work?

DONATE to our adoption fund through our WEPAY account in the right hand sidebar- just click the embedded link that essentially our beautiful faces!

FOR $10 you get 2 entries.

FOR $25 you get 7 entries.                  

FOR $50 you get 15 entries.

 You can also share for 1 FREE ENTRY PER DAY until the raffle closes on Saturday, October 19 2013 at 5pm ET.  

So share on Facebook!  No more than one free entry a day (so that’s a possible 9 free entries for this amazing deal), but you will still get major props from me if you blast it from all of your social media outlets or share on your blog 4 million times a day. 

Referral

It came today!  The best news so far!  A sweet email stating that our request to adopt our twins was granted!

What does this mean?  It means we wait for the official paperwork from Lithuania (birth certificates, proof of orphan-ness, etc).  Once we have that we will send it, along with our form (i800), to the USCIS (which is still open and working since they are paid by fees and not the federal government, whew!).  They will look over the documents and forms and send us another form.  This new form we send to Lithuania and a judge will set a court date.  Once that date is set, we will know when we will get to travel- squeal!

We are boldly praying for Christmas- to have our family of 6 under one roof.  It may be January, but December is most certainly a possibility!