Awesome Day & A GIVEAWAY!

I am overwhelmed with excitement on this beautiful Monday!

Two major reasons for this:

1.) It is our wonderful, amazing, handsome, smart super cool son’s birthday today! Noah turns 2 today! And- what is even more amazing is that we have made it 2 whole years without him needing stitches or a cast! HAHA  Those of you that have met active little fella know this IS reason  to celebrate!

2.) We are ECSTATIC to announce that we have the privilege to partner with VILLAGE KEY !!! We are the very first fundraising effort partnering with Village Key and cannot believe the generosity of this AMAZING company in inviting us to partner with them to raise funds to bring home our child from Ethiopia.

If you have not heard of Village Key yet, you have got to check it out. It is the hottest business concept to hit the Michiana area in quite a while!  You have to check it out and get more information here: http://thevillagekey.com/rohde  Basically- instead of buying one “Daily Deal” like other companies that sell a discounted daily deal. You buy a plastic key (that goes on your keychain) that “unlocks” daily deals with shops, restaurants, golf courses etc and you get to use it for an entire year, as many times as you want!! The amazing part is that the key is only $20 and ALL of the participating shops are in our community!

I know that many of you in the South Bend/ Mishawaka/ Granger area are going to be picking one of these up anyway, so we would love it if you would simply make your purchase through our fundraising page! When you do, we get 50% (ten bucks!) of the cost of the key put into our adoption fundraising account!  Even if you don’t live in the Michiana area please share this with those you know who live here!

*Buy a key!

*Tell all your friends about Village Key!

*Share the link to our Village Key fundraising page on your facebook/ twitter/ whatever social media you use page so that all of your friends buy theirs AND help a good cause!

** When you buy your Village Key you must purchase it through our fundraising page in order for us to get the proceeds! Purchase here:  http://thevillagekey.com/rohde/

They say, “It takes a village to raise a child” We are taking this literally- purchase a key to the village to help us bring home our child!

The Giveaway!

Share this fundraising link via your facebook page or email to your friends and you will be entered into a drawing to win a $20 gift card to the restaurant of your choice.

Share the fundraising link AND purchase a Village Key through our site and you will get two entries into the drawing.

Simply send us a Facebook message or email us to let us know what you did to help and your name will go into a random drawing

Blessings,

Amber

I'm going to Ethiopia in the fall! (Trip 1 of 3) :0)

WOW, all I can say is wow! 

    So, in my first post about our family plans to adopt a little one from Ethiopia, I briefly mentioned wanting to serve her country of birth, get my hands dirty and do something to help! We want her to understand that we love her dearly but that we ALSO love where she will be from. The need for people to love and care for the widow and the orphan in Africa is astounding and I couldn't imagine proceeding with fundraising for this adoption without recognizing and aiding some of the widows and children that can't come stay at my house :)

    So, this September I will have the honor or serving for 10 days in Kechene, Ethiopia. I am seriously in AWE that this is happening. I honestly thought it would be a HUGE long shot to be able to go on this trip but the finances to go have been very generously provided. I should know better than to think ANYTHING is a "long shot" for God.  When I started telling people about needing to fundraise the 28,000 for adoption costs, which includes 2 trips to Ethiopia, one for court and one to bring her home. I almost felt guilty explaining that I also wanted to go to Africa for a third trip to serve widows and children and that would add about $2,800 to the fundraising efforts. However, now it is done and taken care of. I will have the opportunity to serve, and now, the fundraising efforts 100% focus on the adoption :)

  AAHH! (can you tell how exuberant I am?) It is difficult to put into words really.... but I am flooded with gratitude and am humbled that this gift has been given for me to be able to go.

   If you don't know about the organization Awake & Alive yet- YOU SHOULD! Learn more about the awesome work they are doing here: http://www.awakeandalive.org/ There is a link to their blog on the web site- you have to check that out too! Through reading the blog you really get the opportunity to see the heart of two amazing women, Jolene & Danielle, who started Awake & Alive. These are the folks I will be traveling to Ethiopia with in the fall.

Before I go- I wanted to thank everyone who has donated books for us to sell as our first fundraiser (see previous post). We are in the process of sorting through them and seeing what can and can't be listed/sold. We also have another VERY cool fundraiser coming up (hopefully Monday) that a good friend is offering to us through his AWESOME business that you will definitely want to be a part of! (stay tuned.....)  Until then- if you find a suitcase laying around filled with extra money that  somebody didn't have a use for- let us know :) 

Let's bring Noah's sister home!!

Blessings!

Amber

Books into CASH!!

Hey there friends!!

     Josh and I are pumped to announce our first fundraising endeavor to start raising the money needed to adopt the next member of our family from Ethiopia! And the great news-- YOU can help without spending a single penny!! That's right, you can help with this particular fundraising effort without spending a dime! Here is how:

    Okay, so I know many of you are nerdy like me (Amber) and have tons of books! Many I am sure you have enjoyed, but now don't know what to do with them. Some of your books you haven't read, but  they have been sitting on a shelf for a year or two and you know that the likelihood of you actually reading them is zilch! So, we are asking that you send your books our direction!! We will take almost anything! (NO porno or books on witchcraft please!) Fiction, non fiction, textbooks etc.

   Students- consider donating your textbooks for a semester instead of participating in a book buy back program. Non-students, clean out those bookshelves to make room for your next trip to Barnes & Noble! 

   What we will be doing, is selling the donated books online for a reduced price to help them sell and then 100% of the profit goes into our fundraising account! One hundred percent people! That is huge in the land of fundraising!

   If there are books that are donated that do not sell over the course of 12 months, we will donate them to a different good cause so the books continue to bless others.

 Won't you please consider helping us out?? We are so grateful for your prayer support and the kind words sent our direction after making the "announcement" to adopt.

   If you are interested in donating books please email me at arohde@epic-church.org and we will work together to get the books to my house. My mom has already secured about FIVE boxes of gently used books to get us started! (Insert Kudos to my mom for coming up with this fundraising idea!)  Anyway, tell everyone you know & get us your books!

Blessings,

Amber

P.S.  

Just a little something to think about: to adopt a child from Ethiopia, we will be raising support to the amount of $28,000. That looks like a HUGE amount of money; however about 180 of our friends & family read the blog post about our announcement to adopt- that could potentially break the $28,000 down to about $155 bucks a person if everyone who read it donated! Donating $155 could come from giving up a latte 1x a week for one year!  This doesn't make the $28,000 so impossible anymore does it?? :)  If you are attached to your books and want to help us with a cash donation instead; feel free to email me about that too!

Big News!!

Big news coming from the Rohde house today! Before we get to that however, I would be negligent if I didn’t mention something about my mother-in-law, the beautiful Jeri Lee Rohde. We were planning on making this announcement last Monday but apparently the Lord had other plans. Instead, on Monday we spent the day rejoicing in Jeri’s “new birthday” as we laid her earthly body to rest and celebrated her transition to her new home in heaven. It was difficult to think about how long to wait before coming out with this news because I didn’t want to take away from the beauty of celebrating her life as well as the sting of pain for those of us left behind. However, the urgency we feel in regard to this matter does not deserve to be put on hold simply because we are sad in her passing. If anything, I hope that pressing forward will honor Jeri and be a testimony to the greatness of Christ as she taught all of her children to diligently pursue. So…. without much further ado….

Josh, Noah and I are beginning a long journey of bringing our next beloved child home to us. Lord willing, we will be adopting a little girl from Ethiopia. There is a lot that leads up to this announcement, and I (Amber) could not possibly fit everything in our hearts into a single blog post to explain how we got to this point. So, in the coming weeks I will continue writing and sharing more and more about this long process, and the journey we are about to embark on.

We want to love and serve the people of Africa and adoption is just one of the ways we are going to do so. I (Amber) am also hoping to go on a service trip to Ethiopia this September for 10 days with the AMAZING organization called “Awake & Alive” (I’ll write more about this in a later blog post) We want our little angel to know that we love her country of birth and genuinely care for the people living there who are struggling to survive.

We are at the beginning friends, and I am sure this blog post leaves many questions unanswered. If you have any immediate questions feel free to email me at arohde@epicmishawaka.org

How you can help!

1.) Right now we covet your prayers and emotional support! We fully know that we cannot do this alone and would love for some of you to commit to come along on this journey with us in praying with/for us and Baby Girl Rohde.

2.) Start brainstorming!! We are going to need some of you creative folks to help us with fundraising ideas. As most of you know, international adoption is extremely expensive. Joshua and I do not have the means to do this on our own, so we are going to be doing a lot of fundraising to help pay all of the fees and travel costs associated with international adoption. The total cost (covering EVERYTHING start to finish) from the initial home study, all the U.S. government paperwork, adoption agency costs, Ethiopian government costs, travel costs etc is approximately $28,000. When you think of fundraising ideas, send them our direction! We will consider anything (short of sin) to bring our baby home.

3.) If you know people who have had success with getting adoption grants to help pay for international adoption put us in contact with them. The process can be a bit overwhelming!

4.) Please pray specifically for our precious little girl. This whole process is in God’s timing- not ours! We will share however, that when talking it through, we are hoping for the fundraising process to be no more than one year then the adoption process is approximately one year. If that timetable is close to reality, our little blessing may be growing in her birth mommy’s belly right now! Please pray that her birth mother discovers that she is expecting and that she possibly finds some form of prenatal care. My heart breaks for our little girl and her birth mother- children in Ethiopia (and all around the world) are orphaned for a variety of reasons and only God knows the circumstances; but please be in prayer, not only us, but for them as well. Starting now!

Thank you in advance for your prayers and support…. Stay tuned J

Dear Abandoned Blog

So at least I know I am not the only one out there terrible at updating blogs in "blogworld."  When I logged in, I noticed the few blogs I follow haven't been updated in quite some time as well. (shew)

Anyway, several updates here at the Rohde house! I'm not sure where to start but just know that I'll have this blog up and running again soon-

The last post in here was about starting a running program. That was a gigantic FAIL!. Not because I chickened out and stopped, but because a few days after that blog post I broke my foot in a nasty spot and have been "benched." Here we are 8 months later and it still isn't working right. A recent MRI and a new Ortho specialist should have me jogging within the next 4-6 weeks (at least that is the latest news as of this week.)  I still feel this strong urge and leading from the Lord to work feverishly to take good care of my body and get stronger. I have no clue what for.... but feel like I am needing to prepare for something. Not sure what for yet but am okay with waiting on God's .

Oh- and even though my foot was being a big meanie, I lost about 35 pounds :)  yahoo! So the road to health and wellness is off to a good start.
More to come.....

Blessings

I did it!! (sort of)

Short post:
I completed my first session in the couch to 5k program (yeah, I may have forgotten to mention that I decided to give it a whirl) Anyway... I did it!!  I didn't puke, pass out or cry my eyes out! Let me be clear- I came very close to doing all three of those things...at the same time. But none less, I finished.
Will I go on to session 2... after today I'm crossing my fingers I don't chicken out.
In other headlining news here at our house- Amber is in the worst shape of her life! Pretty sure anyone who drove by got a good laugh at my attempt at running. But hey- I suppose you gotta start somewhere?
 Right??

After the podcast finished, regular music came on the ipod- random Goo Goo dolls song "iris" came on. I didn't pay too much attention as I gasped for air in the cool down walk back to the house but at the end of the song when it repeats, "I just want you to know who I am." I almost got a little teary. As completely cheesy as it may sound, I felt a little nudge from the Big Guy..you know, THE Big Guy in Heaven. Giving me some nudge like.."did you hear that? I just want you to know who I am."    You see- I have NO IDEA why I am starting this running program when I literally hate running *HATE* it (not a word I toss around lightly)  But I just feel like I'm supposed to do it. Oh Lord- where are you leading?? sigh....

Let's see if I can walk in the morning....

Much Love

To Run or not to run...

So Josh and I have had a conversation or two as to how we can take better care of ourselves in all aspects of life. Mostly to be an example to our son, but to also do it for our health and the longevity of our lives. Ironically this past Sunday Pastor Jeremy's sermon was titled "running" in his new series Surrender. It was awesome- you can check it (and any other previous sermons) at www.Epic-Church.org if you have a few extra minutes.
Anyway... his sermon was obviously much more spiritual than this post but it was about running from God. I'm not talking about running from God here today... I'm going to talk a moment about running from... running!!!

Josh started playing in the Bremen Summer Tennis league this past Monday, something he really enjoys doing every summer. Let me start off by saying that he played AWESOME for having not played since last year's tennis league!!  However, he mentioned being just a bit winded that day.  Then last night he says he has been thinking about starting up running. Like... outside....in the heat, getting up at 5:30am or some other nonsense hour of the day and go RUNNING!!  When he said that, my stomach turned and eyes bulged a bit as if he was telling me he wanted to dye his hair blue and start wearing kilts to work everyday.  I LOATHE running. I'd even go as far as to say.. I HATE running.

But then there is this small part of me that is tempted to give it a whirl. You see- I STINK at running. Always have...always. I don't enjoy it like some of you freakaziods that find it "fun" and "freeing" being out there on the pavement.  But I have heard from friends that once you get going and get through the initial "oh my- I want to die" feeling that it is awesome. Is this true?? Or is this some mass  attempt by all you runner types to get us non-runners in on your self-torturous cult??

So, I'm seriously considering running.... not willing to post some kind of "I'm committed to running even if it kills me" post and ask you all to track my progress. No no no no... Just sharing that I'm thinking about it... hahaha

Anyway... thoughts? Words of wisdom? Advice?


Much Love