Movie Night Fundraiser Recap

Gracious, I am still trying to recover from the fun weekend we had. Our movie night fundraiser was a huge success and so much fun! Thank you to everyone who came out. We loved seeing each and every one of you. We were so very overwhelmed by the people who came. It was awesome to see family, old friends, and make new friends. As I saw each of you walk through the door, my heart was just so thankful and filled with such humbleness, that God has brought you to love and encourage us and support our family for the sake of Maverick.

While we were initially so sad that the night had to be moved indoors to the YMCA due to rain, I honestly am thankful that we did move it. I think being able to be inside without mosquitoes and sloppy grass was a bonus. Although a couple of us may have turned into popsicles from the A/C being a little too friendly:) God was faithful and allowed our event to still take place, and he brought each of you out that night. He always amazes me...always!

I want to take a minute and give a HUGE thank you to our small group. These guys worked their tails off to make this night happen. They planned it without us even knowing, just to bless us. Their love and support throughout this whole process has been UNREAL! While some of them are actually family members (hey cousins), they are all like family to us. I am reminded time and time again how awesome it is to be a part of an amazing faith community. I am so thankful to be a part of our church, who has supported and loved us from day 1.

To all of the people who volunteered your time to help set up, tear down or work the event, THANK YOU! It would not have happened without you. There was a lot of work to be done and you made it run smoothly. If you baked goodies beforehand, thank you, I gained 5 more pounds!

To everyone who donated a raffle prize, you are awesome! We had some GREAT raffle items. Over 2o items went home with people. I heard compliments about all of them and the winners were pretty excited!

What a night! I think all of the kids had fun and I hope the adults did too! We will NEVER forget this event. Thank you to everyone who bought shirts, food, raffles and just donated. We are so grateful to you!

We came out making $2,350.52! That amount will be added to our adoption expenses for Maverick. God provides y'all!

THANK YOU ALL! Here are a few pictures from the event...

Just 10 questions

We were able to request an update on Maverick a couple of weeks ago. We can only request updates every 3 months, and we are allowed to ask only 10 questions. This is wonderful and hard all at the same time. As his soon to be family, we want to know EVERYTHING there is about him, every little detail of who he is, what he likes, what he does etc. However, we only get 10 questions for now. We'll take what we can get:)

Here is what we found out about our little guy:

• He is currently in a foster home with a family that consists of a mom, dad, grandma and 2 other foster brothers. He has been with this family for a year. This is great news! This gives us hope that he has been every well cared for and is more likely to be able to attach because he has had steady caregivers, family and siblings. With there being only 3 children in the home, we are hoping he gets plenty of attention and love. Hopefully this will help him transition into our family a little easier. This is also hard. It saddens me to think of having to pull him from his foster family. Obviously, they could not adopt him, but they are what he knows as family. This hurts my heart for our boy and for the foster family. I am sure leaving will be very hard on both of them. I will forever be grateful for this family who cared for him. I only wish that I could meet them and thank them. 

• His favorite drink is milk, which if he drinks too fast, will come out of his nose due to his cleft palate. That would be the case with any drink and possibly food. 

• His favorite toy is a scooter.

• He is happy when he gets something that he likes :) (Imagine that!)

• He always shares well with children younger than him and when he is happy, he will sometimes share with children older them him. (Uh oh...with 3 older siblings, this should be interesting.)

• The best way to comfort him when he is upset is to hold him and talk to him. If another child did something wrong to him, it makes him happy if you correct that child. (Sounds like he likes justice. This also sounds like my Savannah who is currently the baby of the family. She and Mav will be only 2 months apart. I wonder how their roles in the family will play out together. We might have 2 spicy littles.)

• He wakes up every morning at 7 a.m. and goes to bed at 8:30 (Sounds like he will adjust well to our schedule.)

• They described his personality as outgoing and strong character. (We can't wait to see how he fits into our family)

It is so comforting to know these little bits and pieces of his life. We can't wait to learn and discover who he is once he is here. In the mean time, these little updates help us to hold on, help to remind us that this is real, that our boy who we have prayed for all these years is out there, and he will be home soon.