Big P, little p, what begins with P?

One of big-sister-to-be MaeLynn’s favorite books is a Dr. Seuss ABC book that has every letter in the context of “Big ___, little ___, what begins with ___”  Clint and I both have it memorized.  I felt like it was fitting this time, all of my updates start with P.

Patience-We got a call from Pauquettes about 1 ½ months ago saying they were ready to move us off of the waiting list and into the home-study process.  It’s great news, but we realized we need to be a little more financially prepared before we start the process.  I told Lynn that we were still hoping to be ready for placement in October so we agreed to plan for our home-study in June—if we had saved enough by then.

Promotion-After getting the call from Pauquettes, it really motivated me to get a promotion with Wildtree.  If there was something else I could do to make sure we stayed on schedule to bring our son or daughter home in a timely fashion I wanted to do it!  I called my up-line leader and started working on a plan so I could promote to team leader.  So far it’s involved some extra training and stepping out of my comfort zone.  I need two months of strong sales and recruiting to do it.  For a while it was looking like I was on track to make my numbers this month but if all else fails I’ll keep trying!

Praises-God has been blessing us financially in a couple different ways.  First of all the His Kids Sale on April 5^th went well. We had a good turnout, thank you to everyone who helped, attended or donated rummage sale items!  A shout out to Diana Ugoretz and Aimee Clay for going above and beyond the call of duty to make this event a success.  Overall it raised $2,600 to be divided between the His Kids Fund and MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers).  We plan on asking for some of the money raised to go towards our adoption.  We are planning on making this an annual event in hopes that it will make adoption a reality for more families.  We have been blessed with a couple unique financial opportunities these past couple months.  As I type this Clint is hard at work on the sound system for a wedding at church.  Two times in March I was asked to judge 4H speaking or drama events—both of which I got paid for.  As a result of that too I now hold an official 4H fair judge license.  Hopefully this will provide me with more opportunities to judge this summer while adding a little here and there to our adoption fund.  Also for the first time since we have been married, we received a tax refund—enough to pay off what we had lingering in credit card debt and add to the adoption fund.  Thank you Heavenly Father for how you are working in our finances!

Plans-I started writing the draft of this blog about a week ago.  Not long after that I realized our schedules are filling up and if we were going to do our home-study soon we better get it scheduled.  After looking at Clint’s teaching schedule I realized June wouldn’t actually work so we have the two parts of our homestudy scheduled for the last two Tuesdays in May.  OH MY GOSH THIS JUST GOT MORE REAL!  And so begins the first of many moments where I will question, “Did I do this right?” and “I hope we look like responsible people.” For anyone who has adopted in the past, we’d love your words of wisdom on preparing for home-studies.

Prayer points

• ·   the biological parents of our child-for their health and well being
• ·         for our upcoming homestudy
• ·         Our finances: that we would be wise in our spending and that God would provide extra money for us to put away to pay for the adoption

How you can help

• ·         Pray for us
• ·         Make a delicious meal!  Buy Wildtree products or host a Wildtree party.  With a possible promotion in sight, now is a great time!  All of the proceeds from my sales continue to go directly into our adoption fund.  Thank you so much for those of you who have already purchased from me!  If you enjoy the products, tell your friends!  For more information, or to order, go to www.mywildtree.com/lizgosse  

And the winner is...

Well after much searching and speculation we have chosen an agency to work with.  This process took a little while--as is evident by the nearly 3 month gap in posts.  We met face to face with two agencies, talked to another one over the phone and then also did some searching online.  There are some amazing agencies out there working hard every day to get kids placed in loving homes.  When it all came down to it, we needed to find the one that fit us and our situation.  The agency we decided to go with is Pauquettes.

In late January we submitted a sheet requesting to be on their waiting list—while it was a simple sheet of paper I think it’s probably the most excited I have ever been to write on a sheet of paper!  On it we indicated that we would be open to a child of any race up to about 12 months of age.  We also said that we would be ready for placement beginning in October.  Only the Lord knows the real time table involved here but we felt from our perspective that this would give us enough time to get our house and finances ready.  Of course too this just means that that is when our profiles start being shown to birth families, it could take many months after that for someone to pick us.

In other news we have set the date and started work on a fundraiser to be held at North Ridge Church called the His Kids Sale.  Held April 5^th 9:00 am to 2:00 pm, this event will include vendors and crafters from around the area, a silent auction, a bake sale and a garage/rummage sale.  It will be held at North Ridge Church, 1021 W. McMillan Street in Marshfield.  Three quarters of the money raised will go into the His Kids Adoption Fund (a fund at our church that helps families offset the cost of adoptions) and the other quarter will go to the local MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers) chapter.  We are hoping to receive some of the money raised at this event to put towards our adoption.  If it’s a success I’d love to make this an annual event and bless as many pre-adoptive families as possible.

In addition to planning the event we are also working on hammering out some education hours or should I say working on figuring out how to hammer out our education hours.  The state of Wisconsin requires about 20 hours of education during the adoption process.  I was supposed to do a couple hours via webinar a few weeks ago but it got cancelled due to the presenter having a family emergency; it has yet to be rescheduled. 

Beyond that we are just listening—listening to the stories of adoptive families and trying to get a feel for what to expect.  If you have a story to share we’d love to hear it.

All I know for sure is an adventure awaits us!

Prayer points

• the biological parents of our child-for their health and well being
• The His Kids sale, that vendors and crafters would come forward, that we would get a good amount of donations for the garage sale part of it
• Our finances: that we would be wise in our spending and that God would provide extra money for us to put away to pay for the adoption

How you can help

• Pray for us
• Do some spring cleaning—if you have any unwanted items that we could use in the garage/rummage sale we’d be happy to take it off your hands for you
• If you are a vendor or crafter have a table at the His Kids Sale or donate something for the silent auction or bake sale
• Come to the His Kids Sale.  Here is the Facebook link to it:  https://www.facebook.com/events/342472275895254/
• Buy a puzzle piece, the price is up to you.  If interested please email me at Elizabeth.gosse@gmail.com
• Make a delicious meal!  Buy Wildtree products or host a Wildtree party.  All of the proceeds from my sales continue to go directly into our adoption fund.  Thank you so much for those of you who have already purchased from me!  If you enjoy the products, tell your friends!  For more information, or to order, go to www.mywildtree.com/lizgosse  

All I want for Christmas is a winning lottery ticket

Last Wednesday we took a two hour road trip to Portage to visit Pauquette’s adoption agency.  I’m not sure what I was expecting; all I knew was that I had really psyched myself up for it.  I had psyched myself up in good reason too, after all this was the most serious adoption action we’d ever taken.  This meant my dream was getting closer to becoming a reality *cue the happy dance*

We met with a fantastic woman named Lynn.  She explained the process to us in more detail along with the cost and what to expect along the way.  She told us that their Interstate program worked with agencies in Alabama, Louisiana, Texas and Chicago among several others and that most of the babies adopted out of these programs are not white.  Lynn was very knowledgeable in all things adoption related and her heart for adopted children and transracial families was evident.  It was a pleasure meeting her. 

We decided that we’ll look at another agency or two.  While we both really liked Pauquette’s and have heard excellent things about them, we want to make sure we are getting the best fit our family and our needs.  In the meantime I think we might start working on our 18 hours of required education.

The financial aspect of this whole process still discourages me and scares me sometimes.  I look at where we are at and think that we have so far to go.  “At this rate MaeLynn will be 5 years old before she gets a little brother or sister,” I think to myself.  Alas I have to remember God’s goodness, faithfulness and timing—it’ll all work out in His time.  He is already working in amazing ways and we have been able to save more than we had anticipated.  Regardless, it would be really convenient right now if His plan and timing involved a winning lottery ticket or something of the sorts.  Tis the season right?

Prayer points

• Guidance in picking an agency that meets our needs
• the biological parents of our child-for their health and well being
• Guidance in planning a potential craft/garage sale fundraiser in the spring
• Our finances: that we would be wise in our spending and that God would provide extra money for us to put away to pay for the adoption

How you can help

• Pray for us
•  Buy a puzzle piece, the price is up to you.  If interested please email me at Elizabeth.gosse@gmail.com
• Make a delicious meal!  Buy Wildtree products or host a Wildtree party.  All of the money I make with Wildtree after taxes and supplies will go into our adoption fund.  Go to www.mywildtree.com/lizgosse 

Thank you everyone for your outpouring of support and prayers.  We are truly grateful.

Our journey begins!

They say the journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.  Well this is step 2 or 3 out of what could be a million steps.  Our journey could take 6 months or it could take 6 years.  I’m not sure what God has in store for us.  All I know is one thing:

We want to adopt a child

There, I made it cyberspace official.   In our hearts we long to bring an infant into our home that would otherwise not have a home or worse yet, not have been born at all.  We know there are people struggling out there with unexpected pregnancies.  Our desire is to come along side one and provide a home for their child—a child in the United States, perhaps of a different race.  Idealistic?  Sure.  Possible?  Absolutely!

We titled our blog “Piecing together the Gosses” because in essence that’s what we are doing in the coming months and years.  In each post you’ll see the progress we are making on our adoption fund through our puzzle.  We purchased a puzzle with 500 pieces in it, each piece representing another addition of money to our adoption fund.  An average adoption ends up costing $20,000-$30,000.

In addition to the picture on the front of the puzzle a different picture will develop on the back side of the puzzle.  On each piece we plan to write down where the money came from-from who, where or what.  This gives our adoptive child a story.  They will know what it took to bring them into our family-all 500 pieces of the story.

When you think about it an adoptive family is a lot like a puzzle.  Each person or piece comes from a different part in the box (in my case Massachusetts, in Clint and MaeLynn’s cases Wisconsin) yet is made by the same Creator.  Each person or piece looks slightly different and when all of the pieces come together they make a beautiful picture.

We invite you to come on this journey with us as we piece together our family!

How you can help

• Pray for us
•  Buy a puzzle piece, the price is up to you.  If interested please email me at Elizabeth.gosse@gmail.com
• Make a delicious meal!  Buy Wildtree products or host a Wildtree party.  All of the money I make with Wildtree after taxes and supplies will go into our adoption fund.  Go to www.mywildtree.com/lizgosse

Prayer points

• the biological parents of our child-for their health and wellbeing
•  Our meeting at Pauquette’s adoption agency on November 21^st: patience in waiting for it and guidance with how to proceeds
• Our finances: that we would be wise in our spending and that God would provide extra money for us to put away to pay for the adoption