Unveiling the T SHIRTS!

It is time!

I have been very excited about the t shirt fundraiser and it is finally launching RIGHT NOW!

First of all, I'll end the suspense (that I just KNOW you have building inside) and show you the shirt before I get to all the ordering details!

Here is is:

The shirt is our new favorite quote: "Love recognizes no barriers. It jumps hurdles, leaps fences, penetrates walls to arrive at its destination full of HOPE" ~Maya Angelou

Ready for more AWESOME news?? We will be offering the shirt in Adult sizes AND youth sizes! (The smallest we will be able to offer is 2T) So sizes available are:
Youth: 2T through (youth) large
Adult: (adult) small through XXL

So, how can you get your hands on one (or two or three) of these awesome shirts? Well my friends, I am glad you asked!

1.) email us at rohdeadoption@yahoo.com with the following information:
           Your name
           Mailing address
           Phone number
           Quantity and shirt size (make sure to specify if adult or youth size)

2.) Our fundraiser shirts will cost $20 each for adult sizes and $18 each for youth sizes.
     You have a variety of payment options for your shirt order:
* You can pay by cash or check if you see us in person
* You can mail a check to our home through USPS (just email us for our home address-
   we did not want to include that on the public blog!)
* You can pay with credit/debit card through our paypal link right here on the blog. Just  
   make sure to note in your PayPal payment that it is for shirts so we can make sure to
   separate it from the other cash donations.
*A note about PayPal: Just an FYI, if you can pay by cash or check that is great because we get more of the proceeds that way. If you pay through PayPal, they keep a small percentage of the money. However, if PayPal is easier for you PLEASE feel free to use it!! It will still greatly help us with our fundraising to bring our precious little one home. We just want to inform people of this info in case you are on the fence of how you want to pay. :)

Other important stuff you wanna know:
We will be collecting orders & payment for the next several weeks (4-6 weeks depending on how sales go) and then we will submit the order to the printer

Once we submit the order to the printer, your shirts will be available in approximately 2 weeks

If you do not live in the area we will gladly mail the shirt to you. If you know your shirt will have to be mailed, it would be great to stick and extra dollar or two in your payment to help us out with mailing costs. If you are local, we will try to get your shirts to you in person to save us on shipping costs.

Shout out and many thanks to St. Claire Apparel in South Bend for helping turn this idea into a concrete design! They have been absolutely wonderful to work with thus far and I highly recommend them for all your printing needs! (and no, I didn't get a discount for saying that- I really mean it!)

Hmmm- I think that is about it! We can't wait to see everybody in their "Shirts of HOPE!"

If I forgot anything or you have any questions feel free to leave it in a comment here or email us!

Blessings,
Amber, Josh & Noah

P.S. I have no clue how/why the spacing in my posts get all goofy between writing and publishing the post. (If you know how to fix this fill me in!)  :)

Answering YOUR most popular questions! Question 3: Do you know who she is??

It is that time again! Time to tackle one of our most commonly received questions.

Today's question: I hear you guys talk about "her," have you been matched with your adoptive daughter?

Answer: We have not yet been matched with our wonderful, beautiful adoptive daughter. Frankly, this is a relief to me at this point in our fundraising. I could not imagine getting an email announcing that we have been matched with a child in Ethiopia who needs a family and then not be able to go and get her because we are not far enough along in fundraising. Very few things rock parents deep to the core, and not being able to "provide" for your children would be one of them. I couldn't imagine the emotional toil Josh and I would experience looking at our daughter's picture, knowing that she was waiting for us on the other side of the world, but not having the money to go and get her. So, for this reason we have decided to engage in a full out fundraising phase of adoption first. Then, when we are about 3/4 of the way to our goal we will begin the home study, paperwork and application portion of the adoption. This is when we get on the list to be matched with a waiting child.

When I talk about "her" it is because Josh and I will be applying to adopt a female who is 0-12 months old. It feels more personal to say "her" than "our future child." Using that terminology helps us pray for her. It also is nice to talk to Noah about his "little sister", instead of his "future sibling."

I think that is about it for that question! :)  Short and sweet this time.

Please keep praying with us, specifically for patience, a reassurance in God's timing and praying against discouragement. We are so grateful for you all who support us with your prayers and your resources.

Blessings!

oh- and don't forget! We are still rockin' the Village Key fundraiser! Tell your friends in the Michiana area to get one Here: http://thevillagekey.com/rohde

Praying for our daughter and questions answered by Noah

To our future daughter,
    I woke up this morning thinking about you and your birth mommy. When I think about you, it is usually easy for me to get anxious about how the two of you are doing and worry about the fundraising; but not today. Today, your brother Noah and I took time out to talk about you and pray for you. Noah loooves babies, so I asked him a couple questions about how he feels about this whole process:

Me: Noah do you like babies?
Noah: "aaahh babies yesh"

Me: Do you want us to have a baby in the house
Noah: "yesh babies yesh"

Me: Would you be gentle with a little sister?
Noah: *Having some practice in being gentle with his cousin Violet he (whispered)
           "pat pat baby" as he gently patted his hand on my arm (seriously-did your heart  
           melt?!?)

Me: What would you feed the baby?
Noah: 'kay cake a-wup" (that is how he says pancake and syrup)

Me: Would you share your Buzz (lightyear) with the baby?
Noah: furrowed brow.....followed by stare  (HA)

So, my dear sweet daughter, wherever you are, Noah and I are praying for you this morning. He will be an amazing big brother (even if he doesn't want to share his Buzz Lightyear).


Have a blessed day everyone!