Both Hands Project

We have just been accepted for a helping grant by Lifesong For Orphans. It's called Both Hands and the way it works is this... We find a widow who's house we can fix up for her. We assemble a team of people to spend one Saturday fixing up her home. These people and other helpers will send out letters to their friends, families and churches asking for sponsorship for them to work on the house. We then fix up the widow's home and all the money raised goes to our Adoption Fund. All donations are made through Lifesong in a Fund set up for us and they are tax-deductible!

To watch a short video and learn more about the Both Hands organization and project, click play:

We have found a widow; my good friend, Judy Valentich, who is a member of our church. She is wheelchair bound and on oxygen, so it's hard for her to get around. We are going to help her by weeding her yard, doing light painting and some cleaning. We haven't finalized the date yet; waiting on the hubby to see what Saturday he can be off work.

Our proposal to everyone is this: if you can paint, do light landscaping, mail letters, help administratively, and/or PRAY, please let me know how you can help! We will need a team of 15+ people to work on that day, as well as volunteers who can help stuff envelopes and get the word out. We will be having an envelope stuffing party in the next few weeks and everyone who comes gets free pizza! I'll keep y'all updated on the dates for the party, mailing letters deadline, and for the actual event fixing up the widow's home!  :)

Please email me at: hurley_adoption@gmx.com  for more information and to let me know how you can help!!

Our God is an AWESOME providing God and we know He will provide all the funds we need when we need them!  :)

Thanks and please keep us in your prayers!

Exciting Monday!

So, this adoption journey has been up and down for the past few months. First we find an agency we might be able to work with; then no such luck. Then we find a birthmom and apply for her and NM doesn't return their phone calls.

However, last Monday; I woke up feeling a bit discouraged about not being able to find an agency or birthmom yet. And so, I prayed. About 10 minutes later, the phone rang. It was a faith-based, non-profit agency here in NM!! They have been so busy and hadn't had a chance to call or email me from when I requested information in early May. Well, she explained to me that they have more birthmoms than adoptive parents right now AND since we have our homestudy done, we can be put on the waiting list as soon as our application is approved! So, I prayed about it. When the hubby got off work that night, we talked about it and prayed about it together and separately the next day. We decided to apply; and since Wednesday was a holiday, we had to wait until Thursday to mail it. Well, I started working on Our Family Profile book (view it by clicking on that link!) that gets shown to potential birthmoms right away and we ordered it last Tuesday. This opportunity seems like a great one; and we are still applying for grants to help finance it!

Today, I went to our PO box to get the mail, and found that we had a package waiting for us behind the counter. I went to get it, and it was our Family Profile book! It's done and looks so great!! Then, I went to my sister's store to get coffee and check my email and found an email from the Agency saying they got our application this morning. It is on the director's desk and we should expect a call in the next couple days. WOW! What an amazing start to the week  :-)

Then, I get another email about a couple of girls in the NM foster care system that we inquired about in May as well and they want to give us some more information about them! So, we are going to be talking with their caseworkers and will see what comes of all this!

So, again, we are back to waiting. But I can see God's hand in the whole thing and I'm excited to see where this all leads!  :-)

Please keep us in your prayers and we will keep you all updated when we know more!!!  :-)

Rummage Sale!

 

(Poster designed by my mom!)

We are having a Rummage Sale for our Adoption Fund. It will be on Saturday, June 30th, so if you are in the area, please stop by! We have LOTS of clothes, shoes, 4 TVs, awesome baked goods and lots more!! ALL the proceeds go to our Adoption Fund so it's a great cause!! Please let everyone you know, know about it!!  :-) 
Thanks so much!!

VBS!!

So it's been a crazy couple of weeks. Worked super hard to get to my next level in Leadership with Avon and.....

I DID IT!!!  I get some bonus money from Avon for moving up as well as making more money overall! I'm so excited and the hubby is proud of me.

VBS is going on this week and it has been so fun (and tiring)!! Spent a lot of time the last few weeks ordering prizes, decorations and figuring out how I was gonna teach. This was my first year teaching and it has been great   :-)   My classroom is the Ancient Laboratory and we are learning about Obeying with the 5th commandment.

Here are some pictures of our classroom (big thanks to my sister, Kristi Krohn; as well as my teacher helper, Kristi Bailey!!):

Our backdrop

(Outlined, then colored with chalk)

Walking into our Laboratory

Books on the walls and our "Lab Coats" hanging

up by the table

Most of the Laboratory

Our Bookshelf and "window"

Our Memory Verse puzzle (that took me awhile;

but the kids love it, so it's worth it!)

Our Rules of the Lab, puzzle and commandment

Tomorrow is the last day of VBS and it has been a blast teaching!! The last 2 years I was a teacher assistant, so it was great to be able to be the teacher this year (with Kristi Bailey as my assistant!)!!

On another note, I'm almost done with our Birthmom profile/scrapbook. I will post it as soon as it's done!!  :-)

Birthday Weekend!

So, very adventurous weekend  haha.
The hubby and I headed up to Albuquerque to get a "new" engine for his Volvo station wagon. It's been dead for over a year now.
On the way, we took a detour through Bosque Del Apache. We pulled over to look at some pretty yellow daisies, and:

 He picked me flowers! Isn't he sweet  :-)

Then, we got to Albuquerque and went to a u-pull junkyard to get an engine cheaper than elsewhere. Spent most of the day Saturday in the hot sun finding all the volvos we could and which engine was still in the best shape. Found the one we wanted and spent about 4 hours getting the engine out of the car. Those volvo makers really like their wires and twisting them ALL around the engine!! It was a hard day, but we got it out and loaded in the truck. That night we got Chinese food from Panda Express (LOVE that place!!) and watched part of a movie on tv. We went to bed at like 9:30 which is early for us! We were so worn out. Got up Sunday and made our way to Santa Fe. Thought about going through the Plaza but all the historic places including most of the shops around the plaza were closed. Oh well, we had fun driving at least. Headed back to Albuquerque and went to the Aquarium. That was fun!

 My favorite: bottlenose dolphins!!

That was a lot of fun! I love oceans and sea-life. We spent a few hours there and then headed south to Ruidoso. We were gonna go from Carrizozo to Ruidoso through Hwy 37 but it was a little blocked:

The smoke from the Little Bear Fire could be seen miles away. It's beautiful and tragic at the same time. I feel bad for the people that have lost homes. The smoke made beautiful pictures:

These are the sun through the smoke. On the bottom left of some of the pics you can see blue - that's the sky, the rest is smoke!

We had dinner in Ruidoso for my bday and stayed the night there. Monday morning, we went to Cloudcroft and stopped by the Railroad Trestle that they've helped refurbish. We both love railroads and the history behind it so it was fun to see. They have some info now and you can look out over a ledge at the Trestle:

Beautiful Trestle!

Part of an old Trestle

We got home Monday and I walked into our house to find this: 

and this:

My brother and mom are so sneaky  ;-)  They came over to feed our pups that morning and decorated the house as well  :)

Well, it was a tiring but fun weekend! Not much more to report on the adoption front. We are still waiting for a birthmother and in the meantime, we are just trying to raise money for the Adoption Fund. Sorry if I'm bugging you all with different fundraisers, I just want to have a variety of options about how you can help us if you'd like to. Thanks so much for all your help!!

Scentsy Fundraiser

We have started another Adoption Fundraiser. My awesome friend, Kristin Birge, is a Scentsy rep and she is donating 25% of the sales of our Scentsy party to our Fund!!!  :-)  If you're interested, I am having a small party tomorrow (Friday, 6/8) at 3pm (text, email, or call me for the address) and I'll be showing off a bunch of samples as well as some different scents like Sunkist Citrus and Pomegranate  :)   Please let me know if you'd like to come. It will probably be going on for a couple hours. We will have some food and drinks available too! Join us for the fun!
If you can't make the party (or are out of town), go to: useyourscents.scentsy.us and click on the Hurley Family Fundraiser to shop online! (If you're in the area and want to save on shipping, email or text me your order and I will deliver it to ya!)

We are trying to have different kinds of fundraisers so that everyone can participate how they'd like to  :)

Thanks again for supporting our Adoption!

On another note, the hubby and I are heading out of town for the weekend. FINALLY getting an engine for our poor Volvo station wagon that's been dead for a little over a year! Plus, he's taking me to a movie and dinner for my birthday monday!!  :)  Very excited to get out of town for a mini vacation! Special thanks to my brother for helping us out and watching our pups while we are gone!!

Well, I'll probably post more next week...

Puzzles

We got the puzzles in the mail a couple days ago!

I was so excited to start putting them together, so we started on the Bunny Babies puzzle since it was only 300 pieces. Here's the progress on it:

I convinced Caleb to help me:

 

  He doesn't like being in pictures much. 

But he even admitted that he had fun helping me put the puzzle together!  :-)

Much better picture  :-)

Not a great picture of me, but oh well  :-P

Kinda blurry, but you can still see it

Blazey wanted to help put the puzzle together too  :-)

ALL DONE!

We have 15 puzzle pieces sponsored so far. I have glued the puzzle together and am going to write all the names on the back of all the sponsors! Let me know if you'd like to sponsor this puzzle or the giraffe one!

So, I realized as I opened the giraffe puzzle that the entire thing is MANY different shades of brown! Set all the pieces out and this is gonna be a challenge!!

I started with the border today:

We have about 20 pieces sponsored of this puzzle so far! Such a great start!! :-)  Please let me know if you'd like to sponsor our puzzles. All amounts go into our Adoption Fund!