Silent Auction Fundraiser

We have our first official fundraiser this Sunday. We will have a silent auction set up at house #3 on Beta Sigma Phi's Holiday Home Tour in Dallas Center. We've collected a bunch of great items donated by some AMAZING people and businesses in the area! Perfect for this gift giving season!! Please come out and support us!

You can still get discount tickets for $10 each at the Dallas Center Library or pick them up Sunday for $12 each. The tour and auction are  from 11:30-4:00. My mom and I do this every year, and it's always a fun time!

Here are a few of my favorites...

These are yummy Oreos disguised as adorable snowmen!!

This is a "just add ice cream" kit! My little guys would LOVE this one!!

And this is an ADORABLE advent calendar. A fun surprise for every day in December!

Meals From the Heartland

This Thanksgiving was full of delicious food and family, as always. However, Lately I can't help but have an empty spot in my heart for our little girl a half a world away. I long for the day when our family will be whole.

We had an opportunity to package meals for Meals From the Heartland this Thanksgiving. We didn't think twice...we were there! We felt this was a great opportunity to honor our daughter and the country she was born in, as the need for these meals there is huge. We've done this before but this time it was different...much different. It's hard to think there are people and children in this world struggling to survive because they have no food. I feel extremely thankful. God has given me so much! A warm and cozy home, food to fill our tummies, supportive friends and family, a great community, an amazing church, a devoted and hard-working husband, 4 amazing and healthy boys, and one sweet little girl. He is so good!!

Here we are in our lovely hairnets. 

We had to watch this guy because he liked "tasting" the rice. At one point we noticed a grain coming out of his nose...

Tucker and Jace were hard workers the entire time! 

Check, Check, and Check!

This has been a very good couple weeks! We have been busy checking more "to do's" off our lists!

Last Wednesday we completed our adoption physicals/paperwork for our home study and our dossier with our doctor. We also began our long list of immunizations for travel to Africa. This was a daunting task for one of us as HE is not a fan of needles. I won't say which of us it was! ;) Needless to say, we made it out alive and even enjoyed a good laugh over it! Not sure when would be a good time to mention that that was only round one...

We also applied for our passports Wednesday. As the lady pulled up her camera to take the picture I realized how much I had to smile about and let out a big cheesey grin. Should take about 4 to 6 weeks to get them in the mail. Amazing...we're going to Africa...to get our daughter.

Then, last night, we had our final home study visit. I was most nervous for this step in the process. We had a great case worker that made us feel super comfortable and it went great! Now we just wait for her to type it all up! She says a couple weeks! That was a huge step checked off the list!

Meanwhile, we are gathering all the documents needed for our dossier, which is the enormous stack of papers that we will send to the Ugandain government. Also, filing our I600A forms. When both of these are complete we will wait...wait for the call that will forever change our lives. 

Our Girls

As many of you already know, our good friends Lindsey and Nathan are adopting a little girl from Uganda as well! It has been great going through this journey with them. They are such an amazing family. Lindsey had these dolls made from Etsy. She gave me the one on the left! Aren't they sweet?! I love them, mostly because when I look at them it's like I'm looking at our girls. Follow Lindsey and Nathan's blog at Myloveinuganda.blogspot.com.


Our families are working together to raise money to bring our girls home with many different types of fundraisers. The first being a silent auction on December 2nd during the annual Dallas Center Holiday Home Tour (11:30-4:00).This is always a lot of fun! We can get you tickets if you'd like to come. They are $10 each.

Orphan Sunday

Today is Orphan Sunday. Did you know...

*Every 15 SECONDS another child becomes an AIDS orphan in Africa
*Every DAY 5,760 children become orphans
*Every YEAR 2,102,400 more children become orphans (in Africa alone)

This breaks my heart. These are real children, just like yours and mine.. Real little boys and girls without a mommy and a daddy. Without a place to call home. Without someone to tuck them in at night. Without hugs and kisses. Without someone to pick them up when they fall. Without a lot of things that we take for granted.

 I feel very fortunate that Nick and I were called to adopt one of His orphans. God loves these children the same as He loves us. They are just as valuable to Him as we are.

We can't wait to give our little girl a mommy and daddy, a place to call home and 4 brothers that (already) love her to pieces! We can't wait to tuck her in at night, hug and kiss her, pick her up when she falls, show her everyday how much we love her and most of all to teach her about the one who created her perfect in His image.

Please pray for the children around the world who have no mommys or daddys.

Moving forward

We have our first of two home study visits scheduled for Monday, November 5th!! Very excited to get to know our case worker. She seems like a fun and pretty down to earth kind of lady, which is good for us -you never know what's going to come out of the Kiley boys' mouths!!

We also made our appointments for our FBI fingerprinting (and hopefully apply for our passports) next week. These things may not seem like a big deal, but being able to check these off our ever growing lists of things to do and paperwork to fill out feels great!

So we are well on our way! We cannot wait to wrap our arms around our precious little girl and kiss her sweet little face. Until then, we'll stay busy checking things off our lists and filling out paperwork. This will all be MORE than worth it in the end!!

Love and Support

Nick and I are overwhelmed (in an awesome way) with the recent outpouring of love and support from so many of you!! The texts, the phone calls, the blog comments, the gifts and of course, the donations...they all mean so much! We are extremely blessed to have such a great group of family, friends and community. All the encouragement is just what we need to get through this crazy process.

My best friend gave me this ADORABLE bunny the other day. So cute! She will travel with us to Uganda when we go pick up our sweet baby girl. She's sure to love it! Thank you, Emilie. I love you and your family so much!