Fundraising Plans for Evan!

Hello everyone!  I wanted to share some fundraising plans that I have to help us bring Evan home!  Please comment if you are able to contribute in any way to these ideas, or if you have any other ideas!!  Also, I have officially ordered tons of "hand out" cards- here is the final, final designs! (Showing front & back) I'm not a graphic designer by any means, but they will do!

1.  March 21st is National Down Syndrome Day.  We would like to have a big bake sale at St. Francis Hospital!  (Still pending the OK from hospital administration on this.)  In fact, I would like to have a bake sale table anywhere, any week, any day!  I have lots of amazing desserts, pastries, cakes to sell that are fresh and yummy.  (I have lots of supporters in this department!)  Let me know if we can arrange something!

2.  The week of March 21st for Down Syndrome Week we will be having a "booth" at the UW campus also selling baked goods.

3.  August 20th we will be holding a HUUUUUGE yard sale- mark it on your calanders!  We most likely will be reserving a park area for this to ensure space.  But in the meantime we need donations!  If you are going to give your "stuff" away to good will- give to me instead so we can sell for Evan!  I can take off your hands now, or save the bigger items for us for when early August rolls around.  I will be mailing an official letter regarding this as well to my family and friends.  To help just comment on this post and I will get back to you via e-mail! :-)

4.  We will try to have our story in the paper/tv for Down Syndrome Day/week.  We will let you know where our story will be featured so you can keep a look out!

5.  I like the idea of doing a raffle at the yard sale.  If anyone has any large items or a service to offer please let me know!

Any more ideas that I can do?  Anyone able to help?  In addition to needing good will items for the yard sale, we will also be doing a bake sale and selling chips, pop, etc.  Volunteers are very welcome!

James and I want to thank you so much for your help, love, and support!  We could not bring Evan home if it wasn't for you!

Adopting Little Evan!

James and I have been praying for over a month now about adopting.  Not just adopting in general, but there is a little boy on the Reece's Rainbow that we have fallen in love with!

Meet Evan:

He is 2 and a half years old with Down Syndrome and lives in a Ukraine orphanage.  He is absolutely going to be apart of our family- and there is no question about it!

Tomorrow I am sending off the agreement form to the adoption agency so we can make an official committment to Evan.  Very shortly on the Reece's Rainbow website he will be "matched" with us and you will get to read a bio about our family!

Our social worker for the home study is this Saturday, so we are in the beginning stages of that. 

Just an FYI- if little Evan doesn't find a "Forever Family" by the time he turns 4- he will be sent to an institution because he has Down syndrome.  Most children don't make it past 2 years once they are placed there.  So we are truly saving Evan's life! 

We will keep everyone posted on our adoption journey!  Keep us in your prayers- we have a lot of money to raise to bring him home!   Donate here: http://reecesrainbow.org/evan-10

David's 13-month milestones

Here is some new things David is starting to do:
-David is taking steps on his own now!  I don't have to shift his weight or push out a foot for him, he'll do that on his own, all I have to do is hold his hand or waist to help stabilize him.
-Today we are working on tummy to hands down knees on the floor bent to sitting.  David has never done this before and what a good start!
-David is working on feeding him self with the spoon and fork (I will prep them first).  He is also eating big boy foods like banana chunks, cheese, dino nuggets, diced peaches, french fries, chicken... he is basically trying everything I give him and he is not choking!  :-) 
-About 2 weeks ago (I think I posted this on facebook) David signed "eat" when I signed it and asked him if he wanted food to "show mommy".  He did it several times deliberately.  But he has not done this since and we try everyday.  So odd..  Soon, he'll be signing away and talking!
-I haven't seen this myself (maybe my couches are too high), but when David is at Grandma's house he will roll "off" the couch to a standing position.  Apparently he'll do this over and over... I can't wait to see for myself.
-David has started a new playgroup! There is more children right at his age than the last group we went to.  I'm excited to take David to this one- and it's only 5 minutes from my home too!

If I think of anything else, I'll post more of what he's been up to this month!  I've been trying to take pictures on my hubby's phone since the quality is so great.  I'll have to "send" the pictures to my e-mail so I can upload some here.  Hopefully we'll have some updated pictures soon since the ones on the blog are from Christmastime.