Its Raffle Time!!!! Win a Wii here!!

Enter to win a Wii!!!( It comes with the console, and console stand, Wii remote, a Nunchuk, silicon cover for remote, Wii sports game, and a sensor bar, ABC adapter and cable.)

(retail value $249.99)

Its almost Christmas and this would be a wonderful present for anyone!

Do you know how hard it is to find a Wii in NC/SC?? Well, I had to call 20 stores ,I looked on the Web and finally the last place I called ,Toys R Us had 36 yesterday and 11 this morning. So, I had my dear husband make a detour to pick one up on his way to work!No one can keep then in and it will only get worse the closer to Christmas !

Every one likes to win a prize right?!

Tickets are :

1 for $2

3 for $5

7 for $10

You can purchase your tickets with the Pay Pal donate button on the right hand column, then email me to let me know you purchase tickets so I can give you your ticket #'s or if you would rather send a check please e-mail me @ karlton5@juno.com for my address.

Tickets can be purchased now until Nov 25th the Drawing will be held on the 26th (day before Thanksgiving) by a non- family member .

All Procedes will go toward paying for Sara Ava and Lilee's ADOPTIONS. ( Our left over expenses.)

We need your help!!! Please pass the word around about our Raffle By:

1.) posting our fundraising raffle on your blog or

2.) emailing the info (including our blog site) to all your family and friends , and you will recieve a FREE entry ticket.

3.) The person who buys the most tickets will get a free entry ticket. That will be given on the last day of the raffle.

Please leave a comment on here or email me so I know that you are helping us, for you to recieve a free entry ticket.

UPDATE** Praise The Lord we have made enough to pay for the Wii and the shipping (if need be) so thank you all for your prayers! Now we can start raising the funds to help pay on the girls adoption expenses. (That is why the fundraising themometer was set back to 0.)

GOOD LUCK!!!!!

GOD BLESS,

The Shrum Family

So what do you think about my new blog make over??

I thought it was time for a new look for this blog. So what do you think????
Nikki from blogs for a cause did it and the last one too. I just love it!!

Happy Birthday Dad ( and Paw Paw)

We Love You!

NEW Raffle Questions (Update)

I love the Wii idea too that a couple of you suggested. But here is were I need your help answering questions!! I would have to clear $300 for buying it, taxes, plus Shipping. Unless I did a gift card.

So here are my questions for you :
1. Do you think I would clear my money back?
2. Should I give a gift certificate or send the actual Wii Via Fed Ex?
3. How long should the Raffle be (Date wise)?
4. Would you be interested in helping me advertise? I would need all the help I could get!

Please answer these questions so I can get a good idea if I should do it or not. If I did I want to do it really soon.

THANK YOU!!!

Questions for a Raffle???

Ok a friend of mine is having a raffle to raise money for their last adoption and I thought this was a great idea to try and raise the rest of the money to pay off our adoption expenses. Since we are getting close to Christmas I thought this would be a great idea since people will be looking for Present ideas, plus everyone likes to win something right!?

So here is where I need your imput!! Please answer these following questions:
1. Would you participate in a raffle?
2. Do you think this is a good idea for us to raise the rest of the money needed?
3. What items would you think would make people want to buy raffle tickets?
4. Do you think gift certificates would be a good idea like Old Navy , Bath and Body, Childrens Place, Gap? If so how much ($20 or $25)?
5. How much should the raffle tickets be?

Ok please take the time and leave me a comment!!! You can also go check out my friend Carla's raffle too. You can check out her blog and raffle here! http://azhderianfamily.blogspot.com/
She is raffling off a really cute doll. This would be a great Christmas present for a little girl or a doll collector!




Thank You!

Update on our Adoption Credit Card!

Notice the thermometer..... it is rising!!! Praise God we have had another donation for $100. Please Keep praying it is working!

FFF!

Isn't she so cute in her little hat!! Lilee is getting to be a big girl , she went pee pee and poopy in the potty today! Yay Lilee!

Decorating Pumpkins for Fall!

PLEASE say a prayer for Joel today! He is home from school again with the throw ups. This is his 2nd time with them in 4 weeks. Joel had them first then 3 weeks past and Josiah had them, a week has past and now Joel has them again. Please pray that he gets healthy soon and that no one else will end up with them!!!! Joel has not missed a day of school until this year. Now he has missed 3 1/2 days already.



Joel decorating his pumkin.

Isn't his bear pumpkin almost a cute as he is?

The girls with the Big pig and their kitty and puppy pumpkins.

All the pumpkin critters.

Saturday we took the kids to the Boo Bash up in Charlotte were we spent all day. It is free so that is perfect for our family! The kids got to dress up( except Jordan) , they even got to pick out a free small pumpkin, be in the costume parade, get a few treats and there was alot of free samples of food and drink. But most importantly we spent the day together and had a great time even if it was FREEZING! I was soooooo upset because I forgot my camera! I had it sitting out ready to go but went right out the door with out it! GRRR!! So had had to compensate with taking some pictures today.

FFF's

Joel lost his other front tooth yesterday.


Josiah wanted me to take this picture of him all dressed and ready for church.

More pics. from the zoo/ our Guatemala get together. These monkeys were a trip!

Sara Ava and her friend.

Three friends......Maya, Sara Ava, and Lilee. ( The rest of the pictures are courtesy of Sophia)

Jordan and his little buddy Maria. My kids LOVE babies and are so good with them!

Maria looks pretty proud of her helper!


Isn't this the sweetest picture!

Wordless Wednesday

Yard Sale Update....

Another Update! 10/21/08
A man returned an item to me yesterday that he had bought for $20. Grrr! So now we are down to $451.69. Please keep praying until this credit card is paid off!!!

Update!!! 10/16/08
We had another donation given to us anonymously last night at church for $50. THANK YOU LORD!!!
Well after a battle with the on and off rain we still had our Yard Sale today! Praise the Lord!!
I want to thank everyone who prayed and held the rain off enough for us to have it! We set up some stuff last night and covered it but it still got a little wet. We had a few people to donate items to our sale, and a few donations were made, thank you all very much. I also want to Thank my mom for coming all the way here to help me. I wouldn't have made it by myself today!

Our Grand total for today was $421.69 New Grand total: $471.69
So we still have $3,528.31 to get that pesty adoption credit card paid off! Which is better then $4,000, Thank You Lord! People Please do not stop praying! I am still trusting and praying that the Lord will provide a miracle for us to have this credit card paid off before Christmas! (Psalms 37:4-7) " Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord; trust in him and he will do this: He will make your righteous shine like the dawn, the just of the cause like the noonday sun. Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him."

We took a trailer load full that did not sale to Christian Services. I said a prayer over everything that was took that it would go to people who really were in need and could use it, and that the Lord would bless them.

Thank You All and We Love You All!


*The $4,000 is only a small percentage of what we still owe on our adoptions. This is what we had left on the credit card, and I feel the need to pray for it to be paid off. The other $52,000
(is what we have left) was on our home equitiy loan that was consolidated into our mortgage so we will be paying for it for the next 29 years . I hope I explained all of this ok.

Prayer Request!

(Sara Ava home 2 years and Lilee home 1 year)

As most of you know we still have a huge left over amount from our adoptions ( and it was definately worth it !) But I am making it my mission to pray off the small amount on our (adoption) credit card. It is only $4000, but it needs to be paid off. I am asking everyone to please join in with us to pray that the Lord will provide all the money needed to pay this adoption credit card off before Christmas. That is not a long time away and to me that seems like a unlikely and over whelming task. But with God all things are possible!!! Right!!! To Him that is a small amount. To me it is a huge pest and worry.

Will you please join in with us and commit to praying with us until this is paid off??

I am planning on having a yard sale on Sat. if it does not rain again, and yes they are calling for rain! This is my second time trying to have it. Please pray that it does well and that it does not rain! This is my last attempt to try and raise money for our adoptions.

If you have any ideas to how to have a successful yard sale please let me know. I am open to any suggestions.

Philippians 4:6-7 "Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your request to God . And the peace of God that transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your mind in Christ Jesus."

I am borrowing this from a friends blog, because it really hits home! (but have put it in my own words.) We know that it says in the bible that God does not like debt and that debt is a curse and it is. But the bible also says Children are a reward from the Lord, and they are! And countless times to take care of the orphans! Which we try to do! That is why we have to get rid of this debt.

PLEASE LEAVE A MESSAGE SO THAT I KNOW YOU STOPPED BY AND READ THIS POST AND ARE PRAYING WITH US!!! Thank YOU!

How Lilee spent her 1st Gotcha Day!

We went to the Columbia, SC Zoo for Lilee's special day. We met up with 4 other Guatemala adoptive families all from SC.

Our Family

Our Crew

Mommy and the girls

Joel in front of the aquarium. Yes, Joel has lost another tooth!

Siah in front of the shark tank. He is sporting his new hat he got for his B/D.

Looking at the penguins.



We saw Flamingo's....

turtles.....

giraffe's.......


elephants....

and monkey's that do tricks.


The kids feed the birds......


and the giraffe's.

Jordan showing Lilee the Elephants.



Joel with the girls.


The girls with Maya and sweet little Maria.

The girls with their new friend Anna. Anna just came home from Guatemala 3 days before.


The girls with their new friends Sabrina and Amaya.

Happy 1st Gotcha Day Lilee!!!

One year ago today Lilee came home after a horrific 17 month wait. Today she has been home for a whole year. Alot has changed in a year. She has made a perfect fit into our family and into all our hearts. Lilee is a smart, beautiful, and funny little girl with a BIG attitude!She knows how to boss her daddy and brothers around already! She is talking in small sentences and she loves Hannah Montanna and Zack and Cody (from the suite life) , she also loves to sing and dance. She is a true girly girl (YAY!!!) and a little priss pot! We Love You Lilee and could not imagine life with out you! My heart ached for you to be home with your family where you belonged and now you are here!!

Here are some recent pictures I took of her in her Guatemala dresses, I bought her in Antigua on a few of my many trips over there.

Lilee one year ago waiting at the Westin patiently until time to leave for the airport.

All ready to go home in her home coming outfit leaving the hotel.

Having a little snack while waiting to board the plane.

Meeting her brother Joel for the first time. He was the only one that had not gotten to go to Guatemala to meet her.

One year ago all our5 kids were together and home for the 1st time!

Happy Birthday Nana!

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