Guest Blogger: Garage Sale!

Hey,
I am excited to have our first guest blogger! My friend Megan (one of our biggest supporters) is hosting a garage sale. Or I should say "Aunt Megan". We are so lucky to have her and Brian and her awesome adorable son Eli! I am so glad to have her as our first guest on here.

-Kristin

Hello all!

We will be having a garage sale to help raise adoption funds. It will be on July 10th starting at 7:00-?. This is not only a good way to help you get motivated to do some spring cleaning, but also a great opportunity to help the Brown's raise money to adopt their little one! Donations can be anything from clothing to furniture to baked goods or drinks, etc...

You may contact either:
Kristin by email kabrown62@gmail.com or
Megan by phone 336-403-1103 or email mquint@wfubmc.edu

I will be collecting the donations at my home, please call me if you would like to set up a time to bring them by.

If anyone would like to help us price items and set up, that would be greatly appreciated as well!

-Megan Quint

Hey,
Wow it has been a looong time since I have posted anything. Basically what happened was about 3/4 of the way through our long orentation at Gladney my brain said ok that's enough and shut down. I was completly miserable to Chris and was not really excited to talk about it. I know I was just so overwhelmed. And there was that weird aspect that we are so close to getting what we have prayed and wanted for so long that it is kind of scary! What strange creatures we are.

Anyway, I am back on track and super excited. A lot has been happening in the past few weeks. I was just offered a job at Wake Forest Medical Center! Full-time, benefits... I will be scheduling patients for the vascular lab. I am so sad to leave my job at Penney's (I works with the best people) and will miss seeing "my boys" a few times a week (although I see a lot of pool trips and macaroni picnics in the future). But this is awesome news for our family. It is another answered prayer.

Hmm, now that I am back I have so much to say I don't know where to begin. Well first off Gladney is AWESOME!! I am so amazed by their agency and so proud to become a part of the "Gladney Famliy". It has been a bumpy road from Uganda to Ethiopia, to end up in TX! And although I am sure we have some bumps ahead I am so grateful God led us here.

I came out of there (albeit a little crazy) with a totally changed heart and perspective for the birth mothers. I will not go into detail bc I think this deserves its own post. Let's just say when we walked into the room and there were tissue boxes on every table all the women looked at each other and said "oh no"! And I will point out that they were heavily used. At least by the women.

Glad to be back. More to follow.

-Kristin

Texas

Our trip to Texas was great. The hotel was very nice, however it was also close to an hour away from Gladney. So of course we were worried about being late, especially with the crazy Texas interstate system and traffic in Forth Worth(which we were told was bad). Equiped with GPS we left with an hour and 45 minutes to make the 50 minute drive. After much stress and worring about being late we arrived 45 minutes early.
Kristin and I were very impressed with Gladney. We received a ton of information and heard a lot of great stories. At one point there was a birth mother panel, with 5 women who had or are going to give their baby up for adoption. It was really interesting hearing their perspective. What a difficult and selfless decision. We did purchase the application. There is a ton of paper work that needs to be completed. This is the part that I'm dreading. I'm not really a paper work kind of guy. With teachers having the summer off and only having basketball camp on my schedule right now I'm not sure how to talk Kristin into completing all of it. If anyone has any suggestions please text me.
The other part of the trip that I was excited about was trying some Texas BBQ. If I couldn't get Texas BBQ I at least wanted something common or popular in the area. The three places that we at in order were Chic-Fil-A, Pastazio's(a NY style pizza place), and Five Guys. None of which were remotely Texan. It is okay though. We plan on going back at least two more times.

What a long day

Hey!
This will b short we are so tired and basically completly zoning. Lot of good info. A complete attitude change toward birthmothers! Will update soon.

-Kristin

Airport

Hey!
We are here at the airport. Other than being incredibly tired I am so excited! I keep thinking about the next time we come (to pick up the baby) I think I will be bouncing with excitement (which I never do) and possible bursting into tears! Happy tears of course.

One of the bizzare things that seems to be happening is that I am not nervous (it be the first time in my life;-) ans chris is kind of freaking out! Total role reversal. I do feel the need to mention that I am a little nervous about the flight. Can't quit worrying cold turkey!

Thanks for all your prayers! Keep it up God has already worked miracles and I can't hardly wait to see what is next.

Also I special thanks to michelle (and all the people who offered) for driving to the airport.

-Kristin

P.S. In working on praying expectantly I have been specifically praying that our profile (which is what the birth parents look through to choose) is only in for 1 day before we are chosen! Also praying that our baby/babies are as someone put it "already cooking"!!

Just thought I should post a blog, since I haven't done so since we started the new blog. Kristin has done a great job in my absence. I just wanted to say thank you to Michele and Alex for wanting to drive us to the airport in Charlotte at 4:30 AM and then pick us up on Saturday. It is very generous and much appreciated. I am really excited and nervous about the orientation on Friday. However, I feel it is going to be an awesome experience.

Hey,
I was just thinking about the things I have been saying when talking about the adoption. Especially since choosing Gladney. I have only been talking about and praying for the birth mothers. Why is the birth father so easily forgotten? I am sure it must be just as difficult for him and in some cases more so due to the lack of birth fathers rights. So if you would pray fir them and for me to have as much consideration for them as well.

- Thanks

T-minus 2 days until TX!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hey,
Well it is 2 days until we go to TX for orentation at Gladney. I think I should have packed way back when I wanted to cause now I am running out of time! I realize that I am working 3 jobs tomorrow and 2 on Wed. I start both days at 6:00am and end both at 10:00pm! Did I mention that our flight leaves from Charlotte at 7:35AM! There is a little bit of downtime in between but not much. So this evening was my main time to get things done. Of course in the middle of it the power went out! The washer and dryer works so much better with power.

Well now that I have vented all that I will say that we are soooo excited! It has just really hit us what is coming up and the chain of events this will set into motion! Hopefully events that move really fast.

One of our concerns is that we will get so overwhelmed by the information that we will not really enjoy and get what we need to out of the orentation. Please pray that we will go into this with a clear head and an open heart. We know that God is with us, but sometimes it is easy to get so caught up in yourself that we push him back.

Well I suppose I should stop stalling and get to packing!

-Kristin

Countdown

Hey!
Well it is almost officially a week until we go to TX. Soon I can legitimately start packing:-)

God pulled another one of his awesome money tricks on Sun. I had just requested prayer from our church staff for me to trust in God that we will be approved and all things finance related. And then Chris sees an envelope with our name on it. There was money inside! We now can pay for the application and put sone towards the homestudy acceptance fee. So a special thank you to our anonyomous contributors. We are blessed by the faithful support of such wonderful brothers and sisters in Christ. The greatest blessing is the many prayers.

-Kristin