We're Having a Church-Sponsored Garage Sale!!

Our Church Family,  Grace Bible Church of Oxford is hosting a Garage Sale to benefit our adoption fund!

 Mark Your Calendars and Start Your Cleaning! Tell All Your Friends and Neighbors Too!

On February 28 - March 1, Grace Bible Church is hosting a Community Garage Sale in support of our adoption fundraising campaign. All proceeds from this garage sale will go towards our adoption expenses. Help us bring our little girl home!

Donate your items to the Community Garage Sale! We'll take just anything, such as: Clothing, Furniture, Kitchen Items, Toys, Athletic Items, CDs, DVDs, Electronics, Baby Items, Home Decor Items, Etc.

Drop-off at Grace Bible Church by appointment February 24-27th and any time before 3 on Friday, the 28th.

Contact: Mimi Shaw at mimishaw@gmail.com or email through the link in the sidebar of this blog.

Check out: adoptiveimperative.blogspot.com for more information and to follow their journey!

College Students, don't forget to tell your mom she doesn't have to make that trip to Goodwill she was planning or even mess with hosting her own garage sale only to end up tired and $40 richer. Tell her you'll bring it back to Oxford to benefit a good cause! Now, head home and LOAD UP YOUR CAR!!

I want to Volunteer!
Please contact Mimi Shaw or Jaime Briggs or FILL OUT THE FORM to sign up for a volunteer slot.
To see the list of volunteer opportunities still available, click HERE!
I can't Volunteer, but still want to help...
You can volunteer to donate a WalMart Gift Card, Grocery Bags, Garbage Bags, a roll of raffle tickets, paperware for snacks during set-up and sale, etc. Just email us! Or, if you have a business and want to post a flyer or even keep a stack near the register, we'd be happy to oblige. :)

How To Donate Items to Sell:
In order to make this event a HUGE success, we need LOTS of donations. Spring is in the air so do your spring cleaning! We so appreciate your donations of items. We can accommodate a few donations starting immediately (contact Mimi Shaw or Jaime Briggs) but have limited storage space. We will officially begin taking donations February 24-28th by appointment. When deciding what to donate, please consider donating DESIRABLE, not junky items. Please make sure clothing is not soiled, ripped, holey, etc… and that items are in working order. ;)

You may ask, “can I price my own items?” YOU BET!! That would actually be VERY helpful. Feel free to price all of your items or just a few. It is not mandatory to price anything however. When pricing, just remember garage sale prices. No need to price clothing unless you are packaging a complete outfit or donating coats.

Suggested Items to donate
Baby Items (clothing, toys, books, baby gear, etc.)
Children’s toys, games, and clothing.
Furniture
Sporting Goods
Books
Movies
Desirable household items
Adult clothing (not too outdated and no holes please ;)
Artwork
Anything else you feel someone would want to buy!

Cash Donations:

We are accepting cash donations to help cover costs of advertising, printing posters and other supplies needed for the event. If there are additional funds, they may be used to purchase items for the raffle or added to funds raised!! Cash donations are very appreciated. No amount is too little! Email thebriggsfam@gmail.com if you would like to help in this way.

I Live Out of Town and Want To Help!
Out of town friends and family can help by sending cash donations to help pay for advertising, printing color posters (that gets expensive) and all materials we need to purchase for this event. Any left over funds will be added directly to the adoption fund. To donate, use the "DONATE" button on the sidebar or sponsor a puzzle piece for $5 ea.

Please stay tuned for more details and information!

Lesson from a speedbump...

So, it's not a road block and it's far from a dead end, but we hit a speed-bump today and I know there are lessons God is teaching me/us in this small set back. I also know there will be more ahead. Plenty More.
We were, since starting this adoption journey with our agency, told that since the agency is in NC and we are in MS, that they would allow an independent licensed Social Worker (LSW) to perform our homestudy as long as they were licensed in MS. Our agency then, as a Hague Accredited agency, would basically sign off on the homestudy after a full review and we'd be good to go. We were put in touch with an amazing Christian woman in town, an LSW and mother of 3, all adopted internationally, that was excited and eager to help us complete this major piece of our adoption for drastically less than we would have to pay an agency for the same. HOWEVER, to cover all the bases, our agency requested that she find and remit the code in MS state law that expressly states it is allowable for an individual LSW to complete home studies (as opposed to having an agency do it). Well, after much research on the part of the LSW and several internet searches and phone inquiries on my part, it appears the law is very vague and the best thing to do to be certain all of our documents are legal and acceptable to move forward with the process is to pay an agency to send a Social Worker to complete the study. BUT, God is good. He is WAY bigger than a more expensive, less convenient home study; our speed-bump. He is WAY bigger than my idea of a timeline for all of this. He is constantly faithful. He hears our requests and answers... according to HIS perfect will.

The verse that filled my spirit as I began focusing on the speed-bump instead of the road ahead was:

Philippians 4:6 (NASB)

Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.

 So, I will make my requests known to God and I will pray "not my will but Yours, Lord". And I will be faithful in pursuing his blessing, just as Jacob was when he wrestled with God and would not let go until he had received His blessing. (Genesis 32:24-30)

The 50/50 Fundraiser!!! Survey, Please?!

Dear Friends,
I recently came across this new fundraiser idea and am hoping for lots of honest and detailed feedback from all of you! It is called the 50/50 Raffle because the winner splits the proceeds 50/50 with your organization (or in this case, our adoption fund). This fundraiser is easy to run and really requires only a roll of raffle tickets from the local office supply store. These raffles tend to go over big because the prize is generally what everyone wants – money!
The plan is to sell tickets for $10 each. There is no limit on how many any individual can purchase. PLEASE complete the 10 question survey below so that I can start planning and organizing it all as soon as possible with your the benefit of your collective input and (hopefully) support.

Create your free online surveys with SurveyMonkey , the world's leading questionnaire tool.

Adoption and The Gospel: A Calling to Care

Wow. I think I've filled out (what I can of) over 10 adoption grant applications in just the past two or three days. That's a LOT of paper. It's a lot of answering the same questions over and over and filling in all the basic information they need to know about us, our family and our adoption plans. But, you know what makes it all worth it? The little girl that I already love somewhere in Poland, who may or may not even be born yet, that we can bring home forever because we made the (comparatively) small effort it required to do so.

In all my searching for grants and funding, I've come across a lot of helpful information and a lot of inspirational stuff, but so far, this is what I'm really meditating on and giving thanks for. This is a perfect description of the heart He's placed in me through the decision process and now in the beginning stages of our adoption journey:

"One of the most wonderful truths we learn is that God’s gift of adoption means that he does not merely redeem us, but he also brings us into the warmth and love and gladness of his own family. He redeems us so that he might treat us and delight in us just the same as he treats and delights in his eternal Son. This is the story of adoption...

If any group of people should be easily mobilized to care for orphans, it should be those whom God has adopted, those who were at one time without home and hope in this world. No community of people in this world should be more attuned to the cries and groans of orphans than the dearly loved, adopted children of God. Therefore, we, of all people on earth, should lead the way in caring for orphans in their affliction."

(This quote is from Theology of Adoption by World Orphans that is found here: http://www.worldorphans.org/downloads/pdfs/TheologyOfAdoption.pdf  - an AMAZING article.)

I am not saying any of this to say everyone should or is called to adopt, but what a reminder of what we've been given in Christ! Adoption as sons!!

 

Why Poland?

The most common question so far has been "So, why Poland?" Most of us have friends, family, social network acquaintances, etc. who are adopting or have adopted, but I would dare to say that not many have heard of adopting from Poland. Well, here's the answer you've been waiting for...
Bobby and Meredith think singing kid songs in Polish is a fun bedtime routine.
Not what you were expecting, right?!


Just kidding.  The real reason is because Poland found us.  When we decided we both felt called to adopt, we attended an informational "Ask and Eat" presentation with an adoption agency in Tupelo, MS.  This particular agency dealt with domestic adoptions and international adoptions in both Poland and Taiwan.  Although our initial leaning was to adopt within the United States, we found out in this meeting that our particular situation did not lend itself to a stateside adoption. We are hoping to complete the adoption before we move to NY in 18 months and adoptions from Poland seem to move pretty quickly (as long as you keep up with the paperwork and fees, etc. on your end).
One of the primary reasons for children to become available for adoption in Poland is due to poverty. The orphans being referred to agencies in the U.S. were first available for adoption within Poland but for varying reasons are still orphaned and are therefore normally not "babies" anymore. We knew we weren't set on adopting a new born or even a "baby" but still want our adopted child to live with us as early in her life as possible. Most of the adoptions from Poland are of pre-school aged children, which was encouraging. (Most of the adoptions our agency carries out are of children ages 1 – 4.) We were encouraged to learn that Poland requires families to adopt children in birth order, which was at the top of our list of criteria too. We want whatever little girl God has chosen to be younger than the boys, falling in birth order and this way we know that will be the case. We walked away from this meeting with a lot of information and a strong desire to look further into adoptions in Poland. As we did, we felt a strong peace and excitement about adopting from this beautiful country.

Fundraising...Just One Piece

Now that we've announced our adoption plans, we have to secure the funds to continue on to the next step, sending in our agreement to the adoption agency along with the agency fee. I am praying that we can send the agreement in by the 1st of February!
We have several fundraisers planned over the course of this journey, if needed, but fully trust God to provide the needed funds at the appropriate time and are not relying on our own abilities or pleas for help. We do not want at any time to make anyone feel awkward or pressured. We only want you to give money if you feel that is what you are supposed to be giving of the money God has entrusted to you. We know He may choose to use some of you to help support us financially, but others to be prayer warriors on our behalf or both.
He has spoken a peace into my heart that "He alone is sufficient. He not only possesses all the riches of this world, but is rich in love, rich in wisdom, rich in Grace and we can trust Him to provide completely in this process."
Our God is awesome. Our God is rich. He is our provider. We will trust in Him.
Our agency agreement paperwork is signed and ready. When the funds arrive, we will continue on to the next phase of this journey towards our little girl.

So, in our first fundraiser, Just One Piece, you can sponsor a puzzle piece (or several) for $5 (each). We have purchased a 1,000 piece puzzle of Old Port, Gdansk, Poland made by a Polish puzzle company, Castorland. On the back of the puzzle we will write the name of each puzzle piece sponsor. When we bring our little girl home, the completed puzzle will hang in her room as a reminder to us that we did not travel this road alone, that we were carried through with your love and prayerful as well as financial support. It will hang in her room as proof to her that countless people cared enough to give so that she could come home, to live here, with her forever family.
We are using a  secure and completely free fundraising site to facilitate this project. Please visit www.youcaring.com/justonepiece to check it out!

Adoptive Imperative Introduction

Friends, Family and Blog visitors,

We have exciting news to share with all of you and it's news we wish we could share with each of you in person or at least over the phone, but that seems a bit impossible as God has greatly blessed us through several moves with friends and family that span the globe…
We are planning to adopt a daughter from Poland! Our calling to adopt a child developed through prayer, research, and a desire to complete our family. Thus, we would like to welcome you to join us as we answer the call and make this journey: The Briggs' Family Adoptive Imperative.

Choosing to adopt is a radical decision. Add the fact that we are planning to adopt internationally AND that we are adopting for a 4^th child and it just seems just plain illogical. Well, it is. There is not a lot of logic going on here. The truth is, God has called us all to a certain place for a certain reason and we are following in faith that this is all part of His plan. We cannot explain to you, we cannot rationalize our desire to have another child and in such an “unconventional” way; we can tell you that we pray every day and every night that He would give us the desires of His heart and this is where our hearts are leading. Sometimes not even we can believe this is really happening. As far as we know, we are still perfectly capable of having children biologically, and yet our desire is to adopt our 4^th child, our youngest daughter.

If you’ve never felt the call to adopt, as we have not fully until recently, it is exceedingly difficult to imagine the feeling of desire and expectation for a child you already love, have never met and is not yours biologically or by relation.

Most importantly, we believe that deciding to be a parent at all means deciding to accept whatever may come; that any child, biological or adopted, can be born with or develop any number of issues whether medical, mental or emotional and that as a parent, your role is to love and support them come what may.

Our adopted daughter may not make the honor roll ever, she may not be the best reader in her Kindergarten class, she may not be a tennis-pro or even a satisfactory swimmer, but she might be. She may not cure cancer, fight injustice from a courtroom, fight for our freedom or balance the company books, but she might. Whatever God has for her, we’re thrilled about already. She’ll be herself and she’ll be ours and that will be our dream come true.

We have put this adventure in God’s hands. Adoption is costly in a lot of ways. Adoption requires a lot of money, paperwork, prayer, preparation and most importantly, support. We will have to do fundraising, we will have social workers calling and asking some of you about us as parents and as a family unit, we will be emotional at times during the process when things are uncertain. As our initial application to adopt from Poland has just been accepted, we are prayerfully preparing for the next step, which is submitting our agreement contract to Saint Mary Adoptions in Charlotte, NC along with the contract fee. We will proceed with that step once the required funds are secured and not before, though we are anxious to proceed. Part of surrendering this journey in adoption means waiting and watching for His provision and timing and not relying on your own.

Jaime is going to do her best to keep everyone updated on progress and fundraising efforts through our newly created blog adoptiveimperative.blogspot.com. But, as she is obviously busy with the three little ones we have already, there may be times you feel out of the loop or wonder where things stand. We’d be so comforted and honored to know you care! Call us, send a text or post a comment. We would LOVE to chat anytime.

Love,

Bobby and Jaime