This adoption has stretched us in so many ways and we want to always be honest and open with you. Finances are a ginormous part of adoption, no family just has $30K lying around, which is why many adoption families fundraise continuously to raise their child's ransom. Since saying "yes" to adopting Nikolai, we have raise over $7,000 that covered the costs of our Homestudy, finger prints, notarizing documents, apostilled documents, more finger prints, our second Homestudy when our first fell through, and so many other things. I'm still in shock that you have so generously donated $7000 to ransom Nikolai. God has blessed us so graciously, more than we ever deserved. God is so good.
But we need you to pray with us that God will work a ginormous miracle. We thought that the only funds we needed before the end of the month was the $1957 for our Dossier. But Yesterday morning we realized that there's a document that is required for our dossier and in order for us to travel to Nikolai's country, that is going to cost $975 which is practically another thousand that we need as soon as humanly possible. We owe you an explanation, we owe you an update, and this is it. This is the miracle that we need. We're working tirelessly to raise these funds, but if we are being completely honest with everyone, it is going to take a God sized miracle to raise this amount of money in 2 weeks.
Just a little bit ago I watched a video on Facebook, from a mom who is traveling to meet her little girl tomorrow morning (Congrats, guys!!), and in her video she said "When I ask for Miracles I make them happen, I give it to God, I work my tail off to do my part, and miracles happen." I love that. I love her positivity, I love her determination. What an inspiration she is to us. We have 4 different fundraisers currently running, and we're doing our part and giving it to God. We wont stop fighting, pushing, shouting, until he is home. "No" isn't an answer we'll accept from anyone, we want our baby home and we're determined to bring him HOME.
Pray with us friends,
we love every single one of you,
The Goodhues
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Friday, November 13, 2015
Monday, November 9, 2015
Tula Carrier Winner
Before I announce the winner, I would like to thank each and every person that entered our giveaway. We're weary and feeling discouraged, we need $2000 in 3 weeks in order to send out our Dossier. Before this fundraiser that number was over $2000, currently we only need $2015 to meet our dossier goal. Three weeks seems like such a short period of time, and to be honest...it is a short amount of time. I've heard and witnessed many stories where families have come down to the last day, still needing giant sums of money, and God has provided every dollar down to the last penny. We're hoping and praying that our story will look like that. We're fundraising with t-shirts, with this Tula, we're getting ready to locally auction off a brand new turkey frier (God provides in unique ways sometimes?), I have another giveaway in the works, we are trying friends. We're giving it our all and some days it feels like not enough.
The thought of not meeting our Dossier goal, the thought of not being able to bring Nikolai home, the thought of him waiting in an orphanage any longer, the thought of another family bringing home my little brother, is gut wrenching. I want nothing more than for him to come home. I'm forever grateful for those of you who have stuck around with us thus far, through the road blocks and set backs. We know it's been long, and hard these past few months, I know it seems like we continually need more money...and it's because we do. Which sounds selfish, but ransoming a child is so costly and taxing The money isn't for our family, it's for Nikolai, it's to ransom his very valuable life.
Now, onto the winner of the gorgeous Tula baby carrier! Drum roll please...
And the winner is...
Are you ready for it?
Kristen Carrier!!! Congratulations, Kristen!! Thank you, for participating!!
Again, we are grateful for every single one of you who have donated, shared, and prayed! It means the world!!
Sincerely,
The Goodhue Family
The thought of not meeting our Dossier goal, the thought of not being able to bring Nikolai home, the thought of him waiting in an orphanage any longer, the thought of another family bringing home my little brother, is gut wrenching. I want nothing more than for him to come home. I'm forever grateful for those of you who have stuck around with us thus far, through the road blocks and set backs. We know it's been long, and hard these past few months, I know it seems like we continually need more money...and it's because we do. Which sounds selfish, but ransoming a child is so costly and taxing The money isn't for our family, it's for Nikolai, it's to ransom his very valuable life.
Now, onto the winner of the gorgeous Tula baby carrier! Drum roll please...
And the winner is...
Are you ready for it?
Kristen Carrier!!! Congratulations, Kristen!! Thank you, for participating!!
Again, we are grateful for every single one of you who have donated, shared, and prayed! It means the world!!
Sincerely,
The Goodhue Family
Monday, October 5, 2015
TULA BABY CARRIER FUNDRAISER!
Operation Bring Nikolai Home is a go!
Since getting the news that we did, indeed, get our dossier deadline extension *insert happy dance*, we have been brainstorming fundraiser ideas to raise the money needed for our Dossier, which is where we got this idea! Now, we're not the first to do a fundraiser of this type, but it looks promising so we're gonna give it a shot! :)
SO! We're going to have a giveaway, and the prize will be...*drum roll* A Grey & White Chevron Tula Standard Baby Carrier! These retail at around $150, but you could win this carrier for $10! Great deal, right?
How It Works:
Entries are $10 each.
A $10 donation to our Youcaring (located at the bottom of this post, as well as the right hand side of the blog) will get you 1 entry into this giveaway.
So if you were to donate $50 you would be given 5 entries.
We will not draw a winner for this carrier until we reach or exceed $500. (Our Youcaring will read $7,328)
This means we will need at least 50 people to donate $10, or people to purchase multiple entries.
Once we reach $500 we will give a "grace period" for a few days to allow other entries to be bought.
Once we reach $500 we will give a "grace period" for a few days to allow other entries to be bought.
You can purchase as many or as little entries as you would like, naturally the more entries you purchase, the greater your chance at winning the carrier will be.
When you enter this giveaway you will be supporting our adoption of Nikolai, and we're so grateful for that! We still need $2,767 to reach our Dossier goal, before the end of November, so we're praying that this fundraiser is a success, as it will help cover some of that $2767.
Once we've reach and/or exceeded $500 we will draw winners using Random.org.
Please be sure to include your email with your donation, we will be using email to contact the winner! :)
You can receive one free entry if you share this fundraiser on your Facebook. You must comment on this blog post stating that you shared this post, or it will not count as a free entry.
Please, share with your friends and family! Encourage them to enter, and participate!
We are so grateful for all of you! Thank you, for playing a part in our journey! :)
Thursday, September 17, 2015
Adoption Update
Exhausted. It's a good word to describe how we're feeling. We have already had so many bumps in the process, and we're not even half way done. We were hoping to travel in November, but our first homestudy agency backed out, very last minute, like, the day we were supposed to have our completed homestudy in our hands, last minute....we were upset, and devastated. Luckily, we found another homestudy agency, and our new homestudy is just a few weeks (a month max!) away from being completed. Whew!
We do have a prayer request. I think it's important to be transparent with those of you who are supporting our adoption, either with your donations, or with your prayer, you should know everything that is going on. We want to be real. So. We have requested a dossier (the packet of documents that has to sent to Nikolai's country) deadline extension. With our first Homestudy agency backing out, and our second agency saying the quickest they could complete our HS was in two months time, we knew we wouldn't meet our Dossier deadline. Our deadline was on Saturday, the 13th, Our request was put in a good two weeks before our deadline, but we haven't heard from the team in Nikolai's country yet, so we're still waiting to hear whether we will get an extension or not. We're told the silence is a good sign. Will you pray that we're granted an extension? I'm trying to keep the mindset that God has brought us this far, He's provided funds when we needed them, provided another agency when we needed it, and I'm believing that He's using these bumps to show His power and glory... He's brought us this far, He'll carry us the rest of the way, right? We're anxious, but hopeful, and God is still good.
Adoption is not for the faint of heart, but if you're willing to endure the trials, to receive a priceless gift, a sweet life, then I urge you to step out in faith, and fight the good fight.
We love you all! Thank you, for sticking with us on this crazy journey!
The Goodhue Family
We do have a prayer request. I think it's important to be transparent with those of you who are supporting our adoption, either with your donations, or with your prayer, you should know everything that is going on. We want to be real. So. We have requested a dossier (the packet of documents that has to sent to Nikolai's country) deadline extension. With our first Homestudy agency backing out, and our second agency saying the quickest they could complete our HS was in two months time, we knew we wouldn't meet our Dossier deadline. Our deadline was on Saturday, the 13th, Our request was put in a good two weeks before our deadline, but we haven't heard from the team in Nikolai's country yet, so we're still waiting to hear whether we will get an extension or not. We're told the silence is a good sign. Will you pray that we're granted an extension? I'm trying to keep the mindset that God has brought us this far, He's provided funds when we needed them, provided another agency when we needed it, and I'm believing that He's using these bumps to show His power and glory... He's brought us this far, He'll carry us the rest of the way, right? We're anxious, but hopeful, and God is still good.
Adoption is not for the faint of heart, but if you're willing to endure the trials, to receive a priceless gift, a sweet life, then I urge you to step out in faith, and fight the good fight.
We love you all! Thank you, for sticking with us on this crazy journey!
The Goodhue Family
Wednesday, May 6, 2015
So. Where Are We?
So where are we at in the process?
Well we've had our physical exams done, our finger prints done, and we're raising the last bit of funds for our Homestudy. We raised nearly $500 through our Mother's Day t-shirt fundraiser, we raise over $300 through The Apparent Projects bracelets, we raise $140 through a Yard Sale, we have a t-shirt fundraiser running, and are planning/opening a giveaway with some AWESOME items. We've hit some mountains recently, but God is moving those mountains!
I must say that we have really seen God work in and through this adoption. He has tested our faith, trust, and hope in Him, He has shown His greatness multiple times and we're not even finished with our adoption! We love seeing God work, we love seeing the people around us care and donate, we are so thankful for every single person who has helped in some way! :)
Wednesday, April 15, 2015
Don't Turn Away: Life In An Orphanage
This won't be easy to read and you will probably leave this blog with a hurting heart. But I would just like you to remember that this is the everyday reality for these kids. They don't have the option to turn their eyes away, they can't pretend like it's not happening because they live it. So please, even when it hurts, don't turn away.
The life of orphans in other countries is far from what you may think. Most days are spent in their crib with no interaction, no toys; these kids are lucky if they get their diapers changed even twice a day. With nothing to their name, they live on borrowed time, waiting for something, or someone to come along and change their everyday routine. If the child is lucky they will get a caretaker who sees something special about them and pays a little more attention to them than the other kids. But most days are spent alone, in a crib, chewing their hands, or hitting their head trying to feel something, anything.
Feedings are scary to think about. I've heard stories and watched documentaries of feedings. The older kids have gruel shoveled into their mouths, so fast they don't have time to swallow. I wonder how many older kids dread feeding time for fear of choking? But yet they know that might be the last time they are allowed to eat for who knows how long. Babies and children who don't have the ability to sit up are laid on their back in a crib with the bottle propped up as this thick substance pours into their mouth faster than they can swallow. Not having time to breathe causing them to aspirate this thick gruel into their lungs, but since they cannot sit, they cannot cough it up, and often times get so sick from this.
Some children at the age of 4 their time runs out, and they are made to leave what's been their "home" for the past years. They are sent away to an adult mental institution where their heads are shaved, unneeded medicine is given to keep them quiet, and they are tied to a crib for hours on end. Statistics say that most children who are sent away to an institution won't last their first year, and I believe it. In most cases it's extremely hard to adopt children once they have been transferred because their institution directors don't see their value and don't see the point in letting families rescue them. But for other children, their life has always consisted of shaved heads, unneeded medicine (to keep them from crying.), and being tied to a crib to keep them from self harming (This self harming is from receiving no stimulation and attention, so the children bang their heads on the bars of the cribs, or chew their hands, or continually scratch behind their ears till they bleed).
When a child is born with a special need in other countries, they are deemed worthless, and parents are told that their child will never contribute anything to society. Or in some cases the families aren't able to provide the proper care for their child, and doctors *convince* them that the orphanages will be able to. I hurt for those parents, the ones who are trying to do what's best for their child, and have no clue what the orphanages are really like. Their child won't receive therapies or proper medical care. They will be malnourished, ignored, and beaten.
So this, my friends, is why we're adopting Nikolai and why we fight for these kids. This is their reality, their fate, and without advocates and willing families these kids will die in the hands of people who could care less about them. Without you and me, these kids will pass away without ever knowing what it's like to feel love, or to have mommy snuggles, and a daddy to wrestle with. They will know nothing other than the lies that have been fed to them over the years. They will believe the lies that they are worthless, unwanted, a burden, and have no purpose. You and I know that those things aren't true and we know that they have potential and are wanted. The little boy pictured above, Keith was adopted from Bulgaria 3 years ago. When he came home at 5 years old, he weighed 10lb (Yes, 10 POUNDS) and could fit in an infant car seat (the one you would bring your NEWBORN home in). These conditions are treacherous, horrendous, unbelievably inhumane, I've seen animals who have better living conditions. So this is my question to you...will you fight with us? Will you join us, and help end this horrible injustice? In the words of Eric Ludy "We will rescue these little ones"
The life of orphans in other countries is far from what you may think. Most days are spent in their crib with no interaction, no toys; these kids are lucky if they get their diapers changed even twice a day. With nothing to their name, they live on borrowed time, waiting for something, or someone to come along and change their everyday routine. If the child is lucky they will get a caretaker who sees something special about them and pays a little more attention to them than the other kids. But most days are spent alone, in a crib, chewing their hands, or hitting their head trying to feel something, anything.
Please, don't stop reading, don't turn away. Remember, this is their life that they cannot escape from.
 |
Please, don't stop reading, don't turn away. Remember, this is their life that they cannot escape from.
Some children at the age of 4 their time runs out, and they are made to leave what's been their "home" for the past years. They are sent away to an adult mental institution where their heads are shaved, unneeded medicine is given to keep them quiet, and they are tied to a crib for hours on end. Statistics say that most children who are sent away to an institution won't last their first year, and I believe it. In most cases it's extremely hard to adopt children once they have been transferred because their institution directors don't see their value and don't see the point in letting families rescue them. But for other children, their life has always consisted of shaved heads, unneeded medicine (to keep them from crying.), and being tied to a crib to keep them from self harming (This self harming is from receiving no stimulation and attention, so the children bang their heads on the bars of the cribs, or chew their hands, or continually scratch behind their ears till they bleed).
When a child is born with a special need in other countries, they are deemed worthless, and parents are told that their child will never contribute anything to society. Or in some cases the families aren't able to provide the proper care for their child, and doctors *convince* them that the orphanages will be able to. I hurt for those parents, the ones who are trying to do what's best for their child, and have no clue what the orphanages are really like. Their child won't receive therapies or proper medical care. They will be malnourished, ignored, and beaten.
So this, my friends, is why we're adopting Nikolai and why we fight for these kids. This is their reality, their fate, and without advocates and willing families these kids will die in the hands of people who could care less about them. Without you and me, these kids will pass away without ever knowing what it's like to feel love, or to have mommy snuggles, and a daddy to wrestle with. They will know nothing other than the lies that have been fed to them over the years. They will believe the lies that they are worthless, unwanted, a burden, and have no purpose. You and I know that those things aren't true and we know that they have potential and are wanted. The little boy pictured above, Keith was adopted from Bulgaria 3 years ago. When he came home at 5 years old, he weighed 10lb (Yes, 10 POUNDS) and could fit in an infant car seat (the one you would bring your NEWBORN home in). These conditions are treacherous, horrendous, unbelievably inhumane, I've seen animals who have better living conditions. So this is my question to you...will you fight with us? Will you join us, and help end this horrible injustice? In the words of Eric Ludy "We will rescue these little ones"
**Thank you, to all of the mommas who let me use before and after pictures of their kiddos. All of the children pictured above were adopted from Bulgaria**
Tuesday, April 14, 2015
More Fund-Raising: Yard Sale
This past weekend we held a yard sale to raise more funds, I think the total amount we made was $130. So many local "friends" took the time to donate their unwanted clutter to our yard sale, and though I(Alyssa) personally am not a fan of yard sales, we got up at 6am (well mom and dad got up at 5am), poured our coffee and got to work! We sold quite a bit of the stuff and had a wonderful morning sitting outside chatting with each other, as well as friends that stopped by to say 'Hello!'.
God has blessed us immensely thus far into our adoption, and we're all so anxious to see Him provide throughout the rest of our adoption. I didn't take many pictures on Saturday, but I did snap a few so that you all could see our efforts. :)
God has blessed us immensely thus far into our adoption, and we're all so anxious to see Him provide throughout the rest of our adoption. I didn't take many pictures on Saturday, but I did snap a few so that you all could see our efforts. :)
Friday, April 3, 2015
Updates Are Fun
Writers block...it's the worst. I (Alyssa) have tried to write this post about 5 times now...but I open the blank page to write and all creativity and inspiration escapes me. It's really unfortunate, but here I am tackling this much needed update!
Our Heart Attack For Charlie, which can be found over here on my blog, has claimed the walls of our dinning room, part of our kitchen, and a section of our formal living room. There are 1,203 hearts on our walls, and that isn't even all of them! We have more hearts to cut out, write on, and hang up, which will probably happen this weekend. I snapped some pictures yesterday of our walls, I apologize for the orange-ish tint on the photos (artificial lighting, yuck!) but these photos show case the unconditional love that we have received from each and everyone of you who have donated! God has blessed my family with an extremely generous support group, we wouldn't be able to bring Nikolai home (we chose a name did you miss the brief post? Name Reveal) without all of you!
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Beautiful right? Speaking of beautiful, we have bracelets! Through the Apparent Project we have (or better yet 'had' we've sold a few) 150 bracelets handmade by Haitian mothers and fathers working to provide for their families. These are crafted out of cereal boxes and did I mention that they're gorgeous? We are selling these for $10 + $1 shipping (if you're not local), $5 goes to a family in Haiti, the other $5 goes towards our adoption of Nikolai. Supporting two awesome causes, plus you get a stylin, handmade bracelet. I say it's worth the purchase! ;) If you're interested in buying one of these bracelets you can email me: AlyssaGoodhue@hotmail.com and I'll help you buy one (or two, maybe seven?).
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We ALSO have t-shirts (we're selling so many things, I know, I know), which support our adoption of Nikolai! They are a very beautiful blue, just in time for spring! ;) The shirts read '147 Million, Minus One' referencing the 147 Million orphans in the world and the one less orphan that there will be when Nikolai comes home forever. These shirts are available through the weekend, this fundraiser ends on Monday (4/6/2015)! https://www.bonfirefunds.com/147-million-minus-one
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I'm probably forgetting something, but for now I'm gonna say that this is all! Nikolai says thank you, and so do we. You all are such a blessing.
Our Heart Attack For Charlie, which can be found over here on my blog, has claimed the walls of our dinning room, part of our kitchen, and a section of our formal living room. There are 1,203 hearts on our walls, and that isn't even all of them! We have more hearts to cut out, write on, and hang up, which will probably happen this weekend. I snapped some pictures yesterday of our walls, I apologize for the orange-ish tint on the photos (artificial lighting, yuck!) but these photos show case the unconditional love that we have received from each and everyone of you who have donated! God has blessed my family with an extremely generous support group, we wouldn't be able to bring Nikolai home (we chose a name did you miss the brief post? Name Reveal) without all of you!
Beautiful right? Speaking of beautiful, we have bracelets! Through the Apparent Project we have (or better yet 'had' we've sold a few) 150 bracelets handmade by Haitian mothers and fathers working to provide for their families. These are crafted out of cereal boxes and did I mention that they're gorgeous? We are selling these for $10 + $1 shipping (if you're not local), $5 goes to a family in Haiti, the other $5 goes towards our adoption of Nikolai. Supporting two awesome causes, plus you get a stylin, handmade bracelet. I say it's worth the purchase! ;) If you're interested in buying one of these bracelets you can email me: AlyssaGoodhue@hotmail.com and I'll help you buy one (or two, maybe seven?).
We ALSO have t-shirts (we're selling so many things, I know, I know), which support our adoption of Nikolai! They are a very beautiful blue, just in time for spring! ;) The shirts read '147 Million, Minus One' referencing the 147 Million orphans in the world and the one less orphan that there will be when Nikolai comes home forever. These shirts are available through the weekend, this fundraiser ends on Monday (4/6/2015)! https://www.bonfirefunds.com/147-million-minus-one
I'm probably forgetting something, but for now I'm gonna say that this is all! Nikolai says thank you, and so do we. You all are such a blessing.
Monday, March 23, 2015
Amazed at the love we have received!
I guess it's time for an update!
We were hard pressed this past weekend to raise over $2000 for initial fees and wouldn't you know it...God took care of it. I was stressed and worried that we'd have to release our Charlie. Our sweet friend, Amanda came to our rescue and helped with an auction and helped rally many, many people to help us raise the money that we needed.
I am always amazed how the Lord takes care of every situation that our family faces. I don't know why I get all worked up when I know He's got this! I cannot express the gratitude and humbleness and love we feel because of the many friends and strangers that graciously gave to help us. We pray that each of you will see God multiply your gift to us and that He will show you favor. We know that for many it was a step of faith to give.
We created a Facebook page dedicated to our adoption of Charlie https://www.facebook.com/OurFamily92?ref=aymt_homepage_panel .
Another exciting thing that happened...we now have our Family Sponorship Page (FSP) up on Reece's Rainbow! Please stop over and take a look.
http://reecesrainbow.org/89421/sponsorgoodhue
We have several fundraisers in mind for the next few months so keep watching our Facebook page and here on our blog!
We were hard pressed this past weekend to raise over $2000 for initial fees and wouldn't you know it...God took care of it. I was stressed and worried that we'd have to release our Charlie. Our sweet friend, Amanda came to our rescue and helped with an auction and helped rally many, many people to help us raise the money that we needed.
I am always amazed how the Lord takes care of every situation that our family faces. I don't know why I get all worked up when I know He's got this! I cannot express the gratitude and humbleness and love we feel because of the many friends and strangers that graciously gave to help us. We pray that each of you will see God multiply your gift to us and that He will show you favor. We know that for many it was a step of faith to give.
We created a Facebook page dedicated to our adoption of Charlie https://www.facebook.com/OurFamily92?ref=aymt_homepage_panel .
Another exciting thing that happened...we now have our Family Sponorship Page (FSP) up on Reece's Rainbow! Please stop over and take a look.
http://reecesrainbow.org/89421/sponsorgoodhue
We have several fundraisers in mind for the next few months so keep watching our Facebook page and here on our blog!
Thursday, March 5, 2015
Another Goodhue Blessing!
As many of you know, we are just beginning the adoption journey to bring home the newest addition to our family! I am honestly in shock and can't believe WE are joining so many of our friends in this exciting adventure!
Meet "Charlie" ~
He is two years old just like Oliver so we will have our set of twins. :) There is a little something extra special about "Charlie". He was born with Down syndrome. Those of you that know Alyssa's (our daughter) heart and passion will understand just how special that is. Through her, I have come to meet several families that have adopted a child or children with Down syndrome and have learned just how un-scary it really is and what a blessing it is to have this special part included in your family.
This adoption journey will come with its challenges but we trust that God will help us work through each step. We will be coming up with creative ways to raise funds and hope that some of you will join us.
We've included the link to our YouCaring page along the right hand side for those of you that would like to help our family that way. We covet your prayers as this is going to take some mighty big blessings to bring Charlie home.
Thank you for loving our family,
The Goodhue Clan
Meet "Charlie" ~
He is two years old just like Oliver so we will have our set of twins. :) There is a little something extra special about "Charlie". He was born with Down syndrome. Those of you that know Alyssa's (our daughter) heart and passion will understand just how special that is. Through her, I have come to meet several families that have adopted a child or children with Down syndrome and have learned just how un-scary it really is and what a blessing it is to have this special part included in your family.
This adoption journey will come with its challenges but we trust that God will help us work through each step. We will be coming up with creative ways to raise funds and hope that some of you will join us.
We've included the link to our YouCaring page along the right hand side for those of you that would like to help our family that way. We covet your prayers as this is going to take some mighty big blessings to bring Charlie home.
Thank you for loving our family,
The Goodhue Clan
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