He's a SHE???

So, it's about time I tell the exciting story.  We had just had a super cute little gentleman's shower the night before for Malachi. So, keep in mind that I have received monogrammed stuff, boys clothing, and had a Malachi puzzle as well.  Our birth mom had had a Dr's appointment the day before, so I was just waiting to hear how her appt went.  At some point I looked down at my phone and saw that I had a missed call with a voicemail.  It was from the attorney's office.  In the message she said she had something to tell me but just added "All I'm gonna say is, I hope you didn't buy blue paint."  At this point I was in total shock. Did she say what I thought she said?  I called Casey immediately and told him what the message said. I kept trying to call her back and didn't get an answer. Was this true, could it really be a girl and not a boy.  I was hyperventilating, in case you were wondering. :) I did eventually get in touch with her and confirm that we were talking about the same birth mom and that the Dr also confirmed that it was indeed a girl! So, back to the store I went and exchanged all the blue for pink and can I tell you how much fun it is to buy girl's clothing? I had a blast. I took all the monogramming off the blankets and such and bought a new puzzle. So, we are now in girl mode. We are frantically trying to get her nursery done in these next 5 weeks before she is born. We'll see if we can do it.  So Malachi Davis is now Eden Elise, and we can't wait to have her in our arms.

We also had an awesome garage/rummage sale where we made over 3,632 dollars.  Such a blessing.  We have mailed our August check and only have to pay for one more month. We are in the home stretch.

Ethiopian adoption news.  It has been an incredible month of referrals for Ethiopia. We should get our new wait list number tonight and should move a lot of spots. Will let you know asap what that number is when we know.

Thank you to everyone that has prayed and supported us through this amazing adventure of adoption.

The Houghs

Be A Piece Of Malachi's Puzzle

So this is the puzzle we decided on for Malachi. Now let me tell you how this works. The pieces cost $10. For every piece that you buy we will right your name on the back. After all the pieces are sold and we have put the puzzle together we will frame it in a glass frame in Malachi's room and we will be able to tell him that all these people prayed for him and helped bring him home. 

The puzzle is 252 pieces. We are trusting that we can sell all of them. We have a pretty big deadline at the beginning of August, so we are praying that we can sell quite a few. We ask that you would prayerfully consider donating just $10. 

We will periodically post pictures of how the puzzle is coming along. And friends, please feel free to share this blog with anyone and everyone you know. :) 

You can simply click the Help Bring Our Children Home button on the right side to donate. Just leave in the comment section the name you would like on the puzzle piece :)

Thanks, the Houghs

Thirty-One fundraiser party

A sweet friend is hosting a Thirty-One party for us to raise money for our adoption of Malachi. She is giving us all the commission from the party. So sweet of her.  Any ways if you want to order they have some really neat stuff.  If we weren't trying to save every penny I would definitely be buying something. But you should check it out. Here's the info. 

To view a catalog please visit www.mythirtyone.com/rachelpenwell 

To order directly online for this event please visit www.mythirtyone.com/rachelpenwell click on "My Parties" and "Shop Now" under the Hough Adoption Fundraiser link. Or you can place your order directly through Hannah Hough. Please make note that online ordering DOES NOT open till Monday, July 1st. 

The party will go till July 15, so get your order in. 

We appreciate you so much for contributing. You are helping us more than we know. 

May Number

Our new number for the month of May. We thought we would only move one spot so we were very thankful to find out that it was four. This month I really had a peace about waiting. I think I have gotten used to this wait list thing. Hah! Remind me of this in 10 months when I'm pulling my hair out about the wait time. We are working on our 3rd month on the waiting list right now.  We received a check last week from a friend for $5000. Wow. The Lord is moving in the hearts of His people for orphans and for our child/children.  Praise God! We have raised most of what we need for one child, but we put on our application that we would be happy with two kids, so we are going to continue to raise support. We feel like the fact that the Lord has raised what we need for one child so quickly that maybe He has two in mind for us. Who knows?  If we only get one child what will we do with the rest of the money, you ask? Well, we are planning to adopt a waiting child from China after our Ethiopian adoption is complete, so if we only get one child then we will use what we have left to start our second adoption.

We are still selling the large and small Africa bracelets, and we have more tshirts on the way and will have children's sizes again for anyone interested in those.  We are also planning to have  5K walk/run on June 1st. More details will be coming on that soon.

Just wanted to share one little fun story from Carter this past week. I bribed him to try to ride his bike without training wheels last week. I told him if he would do it that I would go buy him a treat from Walmart. Well, when we were pulling up to Walmart he tells me "Mom, don't you dare use any of Willow's money to buy my treat.  That is her money and we need to save it!" Love that sweet boy. He loves her so much already. Needless to say, I told him that we aren't using her money for anything and that we had our own money to buy his treat.

Show Hope Grant

We received a $5000 grant from Show Hope for our adoption. We were blown away by the amount considering we didn't think we would get anything.  The Lord is making a way to bring our daughter home. We have $11,000 more to raise to be able to complete our adoption. Please pray for us as we have about a year to raise the remaining funds. We know the Lord will provide.

We have our big garage sale/bake sale this Friday and Saturday and we are hoping to raise $1000 from all the donations that we have received.  Thanks so much to our friends and family that have donated. We are so blessed by your generosity.  It has been a lot of work, but we know it will be worth it.  It's amazing how supportive you have all been.  

Please specifically pray for me, that I would have patience.  This process is so long and hard. Pray that I will seek His face and trust His timing.  

My prayer this week is "Lord, help me to wait well and trust your timing to bring Our Girl home"

Hannah


A song that has encouraged me this week.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=EufaligPigU