Year at End

Can you believe its almost 2010?!  We are amazed at the blessings and changes the past year has brought and can hardly wait to see what the new year will bring!!!!

Our last set of interviews went very well.  We really enjoy our time with our social worker, Rhonda.  She is a delight and so encouraging!  After our interviews, we were able to take advantage of Bethany's yearly open house and snoop around the office and Bethany house (housing for birthmothers who are in need).  We continue to be impressed by the staff and focus at Bethany - just another confirmation that we're working with the right people!

Now that our various Christmas travels are over, we have thrown ourselves into overdrive to prepare for our Home Safety Check on January 8.  Rhonda will come out to make sure our house is "safe" according to California's foster home checklist.  There are only a few "big" items that we need to carve time and money for (pool safety, fireplace screen, cleaning supplies/medication re-housing).  We are trying to take the opportunity to reorganize the house in general!  *whew*

Thank you to all our family who continue to express support and encouragement.  It is a joy to share our journey and we depend on your prayers!  Thank you thank you thank you!

Interviews On the Horizon

This Friday, Ben and I will be heading down to Modesto again for our last round of interviews!  Our last interview was joint, but these will be individual interviews lasting about 1.5-2 hours each...whew!  While the process is intense, we have really enjoyed working through some of the questions Bethany Christian Services is asking.  "What did you first notice about your spouse?  What attracted you to him/her?"  "How is your marriage different now that you're past the honeymoon stage?"  "What events in your life helped shape who you are?"  "What are your family goals?  What are your personal goals?"  Very thought-provoking and valuable areas for us to wander through after 6 years of marriage (almost....6 year on 12/27!).

As we mentioned, the other big praise is that we have all of the $2500 we need for our next deposit.  PRAISE THE LORD!  In fact, we had so many people spontaneously give out of their generosity, that we have some money to spare and set aside towards our next payment!  Our God is a BIG God.  Thank you for helping and supporting us.....

We'll keep you posted about how the interviews go this Friday.  Pray that the weather is clear enough for us to get out of our driveway (its still icy from Sunday night's storm!) and to drive the 1.5 hours safely to Modesto.  Pray for our birthmother as she may be conceiving our child any day now (doesn't that give you GOOSEBUMPS?).

Merry Christmas from the Cains!

MERRY CHRISTMAS! 

Thank you for supporting our family through this adoption journey.  We are thankful that the Lord has placed each of you in our life!  May our Gracious Father bless in the new year!

Love, Ben, Ashley, and Ethan

The Lord Provides

We are overwhelmed.
Things are coming together!  The checklist is getting smaller and our troop of prayer warriors is growing.  We sent out an update to ask people to pray as we tried to meet our next deadline on Dec. 11.  The biggest hurdle is that we need an additional $1000.
We shouldn't be surprised, but God has provided the money!  It is so humbling to receive such generosity from friends and family...THANK YOU!

Our home study should be complete by January.  Two exciting things about its completion: we will be an approved Bethany adoptive family (YAY!  we can get on the waiting list!) and we can begin applying for adoption grants!  While we will still need to pursue fundraising, we are praying that the grants will help us meet the next two financial deadlines.  They are quite a bit heftier than our previous deadlines so we are thankful for the option to use help!

Thank you for your prayers and support!  Keep praying....God is faithful and good!

Slowly but Surely

Praise the Lord for His goodness!
As we are preparing to celebrate Thanksgiving, we are overwhelmed with God's goodness to our family.  Thank you for being a part of that blessing through your encouragement, support, and prayers!

We turned in a slew of recycleables and added $70 to our adoption fund.  Thank you!  We are still collecting them and are happy to pick them up from your house if you'd like to donate.

Our fingerprinting is complete, although it depleted quite a bit of our adoption fund.  We are thankful to have the money on hand through God's provision!  DMV provided all our necessary paperwork and we are scheduled to take our CPR class in December (for free through a friend of a friend!).  We still need to take a First Aid class, however, so if you have any connections or information please let us know!

Ben and I are planning another fundraiser - a Family Game Night and Silent Auction in February.  Check back for more information with details sometime in the next few weeks!

Thank you for your prayers.  Please join us in asking our gracious Heavenly Father to protect our birthmother and unborn child...

Hoop Jumping

Digging into more paperwork and checking as many boxes as we can!  We have scheduled our fingerprinting appointments and made an appointment at DMV to get some paperwork we need.  Our doctors have graciously filled out our physical forms and even included positive comments about our adoption.  We may have even found a friend of a friend willing to teach us a CPR class for free!  So exciting to see how the Lord provides!!!

We are also trying to gear up for another round of fundraising.  Pray for us as we coordinate a silent auction, family dinner, and family game night (not sure if we'll do all three...still working it out).  Keep checking back for more information/dates soon!

Thank you to those of you who have donated recyclables.  Amazing how quickly those add up!  We're cashing them in this week so we'll let you know our new adoption fund count soon!  We are happy to come pick up any more bottles or cans you may have.  This part of our fund raising will continue until we reach our goal!

Thank you also for those of you who have contacted us about having family portraits taken through Cain Photography.  100% of our income through the photography business goes towards our adoption fund.  Please check out the website and contact us to schedule a portrait session!  www.cainphotography.blogspot.com

Praise the Lord for His goodness, grace, and provision.  We are so excited to see Him glorify Himself through our journey.

Intake Interviews

Ben and Ashley headed down to Bethany in Modesto for our first round of interviews (Ethan stayed home and played with Mimi and Papa!).  The "intake interview" was the two of us with our social worker, Rhonda (who is fantastic!), for about 2 hours.  Rhonda is so relaxed and open - we are truly blessed to be working with her.  After talking about everything from "why adoption" to "how did you meet," we got our next round of paperwork to complete (fingerprinting and a personal survey are the big things).  Also excited because we scheduled our next round of interviews (individual) and our home safety check!  After these two visits are done we can get our names in "the book" and wait to be chosen by a birthmom!

The big things to pray for:
1.  We need to $2500 by December 11 when we go in for our individual interviews.  The Lord IS providing and we are excited to see how and where He continues to brings the funds in so we can meet our new little one!
2.  Clear heads and time to complete the last big round of paperwork.

3.  Our birthmother and our unborn child - safety and strength.

Ongoing Fundraising

We have two ongoing fundraisers.  First, we are collecting recyclables...its amazing how quickly a few bags of bottles and cans add up!  If you have some recyclables you would be willing to donate, we would be happy to come by and pick them up for you!  Secondly, 100% of the profits from our photography business are for our adoption.  Check out Ashley's photo blog for more information:  www.cainphotography.blogspot.com  If you'd like to schedule a portrait session, contact us at iamacain@gmail.com!
Thank you for your continued support, prayers, and encouragement!

Yard Sale Success

THANK YOU to everyone who donated items to our Yard Sale or came by to encourage and support us. We are so thankful for the extended network of friends and family we have! The yard sale was a great success. We now how a little over $1200 in our adoption fund!

We are brainstorming about our next fundraiser as we wait for our interviews at the end of October. Please continue to pray for us, our birthmother we have yet to meet, and our unborn child!

Yard Sale/Fundraiser

Tomorrow is the yard sale! So many families in our area have donated items for us to sell and help us inch closer to bringing home the new member of our family. Thank you for everyone for your donations!!!

Pass the word and come join us tomorrow for the yard sale:

Cain Family Yard Sale
Adoption Fundraiser
Saturday, Oct. 10
8:00AM - 1:00PM
2721 N Shingle Rd, Shingle Springs

References & Interviews

Bethany has now sent out forms to our personal references.  We are so thankful for friends who are willing to fill out these forms for us!  On Oct. 30, we will drive down to Modesto to have our first round of interviews with our social worker, Rhonda.  In the meantime, we're still planning our fundraising garage sale on the 10th!

Let the Journey Begin

Last week, we mailed in our preliminary adoption application...quite a feat considering how many pages and how much information it entailed!  It was a challenge and a blessing to work through some of the spiritual questions and re-visit some of the basics of our Christian faith.

Two days after mailing in the first application, we received a second, online application to complete.  It was a bit more indepth, but not overly taxing considering we had already pulled out most of the information for the first round.

Now we are waiting to hear back from Bethany Christian Services to schedule our intake interviews!  In the meantime, we are brainstorming and scheduling fundraising events.  Our first event will be a garage sale on Oct. 10.  If you have any items you would like to donate to this event, please contact us!  Our photography business, Cain Photography, is also a huge source of fundraising for us.  100% of the income from the photo business goes to support our adoption!