T-SHIRTS, T-sHiRtS, t-shirts

We are overjoyed to release our adoption t-shirts to the world!  As one of our main fundraising efforts we want to thank Ben Malley who played a huge role and spent many hours being our artist!  We gave him our ideas and he hit the ground running.  Thank you Ben, you have blessed us beyond words.  Our goal to sell 200 shirts seems overwhelming, but we know with your help we will be able to do this!  Each shirt cost us around $10 to make and we are asking for a $25 donation (or whatever you feel led to give--there are no restrictions on the donation!) per shirt.

American Apparel Grey Shirt!

American Apparel Blue Shirt!

To order a shirt copy and paste the below form into an email and send it to kelly.blomgren(@)gmail.com.
To pay, simply donate to our adoption by clicking on the give anonymously widget on the sidebar or send us a check (we'll email you back with our address)!  Thank you for helping bring our baby(s) home from S.Korea and for supporting orphans in need.

Name:
Address:
Paying by check: Yes or No
Grey Shirt: Tell us how many you want!
Size: Unisex small through extra large or women's small through extra large
Blue Shirt: Tell us how many you want!
Size: Unisex small through extra large or women's small through extra large

116 shirts sold as of July, 2011 -- Praise the Lord and let's keep it going!

Shirts still left to sell:

  Blue

    Women's: small or medium

    Unisex: small or medium

  Grey

    Women's: small (only one left!)

    Unisex: small (only one left!)

Christmas Happenings!

We hope each of you had a blessed Christmas with family and friends!  We were so blessed here Spokane and wanted to share about our special times with you.  And a few pictures, of course!  We are so thankful to have been invited and welcomed into our friend's parent's homes for Christmas Eve and Christmas day celebrations.  On Christmas Eve we were invited to the Hook's childhood church and then to Amy's parent's house for clam chowder, a few games and a Christmas story.  We had so much fun celebrating Jesus with the Hooks!

Norah in her adorable Christmas best.  I had to quick do her hair in the parking lot (it now fits into two pony tails in the back!)

 

 

It's hard to get a decent picture of two mom's with two little chicks under 2 years old :)

  

 Ethan, Amy & Jono winning the "blow the ping pong off the edge of the other side of the table" game

 And, the losing team :)
Dave, Tammy & David

 Jonathan & Clara, David & Norah

And, a bedtime story for the girls

On Christmas day we enjoyed celebrating with a smorgasbord of friends!  We were at the Randall's parent's house along with other friends from church and new military friends.

 Andi & Kelly

 Amy & Hollyn & Sue (our host)

 David & Erik (he goes with Andi)

 Parker (Amy's son) and Dan and Norah looking a little silly!

 We have a mistletoe in our house (of course!) and Norah LOVES to ring it's bell.  Merry Christmas with a kiss!

 

 And a cute picture of Nors as she chatted on the phone with her Nana today!  She's totally into mimicking us these days, and talking on the phone is no exception.

And finally, we are still slightly under the weather!  It's been a long two weeks here healing and feeling sick.  When Norah feels icky she just wants us to wear her around the house or hold her, so we do!  I think it's adorable.  So, this is a picture of just that... and a really messy kitchen which is just how it is when you're sick! *massive amounts of kleenex not pictured*

And the angel said unto them, 'Fear not: 'Behold I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people, Unto you is born this day a Savior which is Christ the Lord.  -Luke 2:11

Merry Christmas y'all!

My Amazing Cousin :)

My cousin, Kyleen, who was able to support me while I was in labor with Norah, had her second little babe!  Her birth story is pretty radical and I thought I would share how strong and courageous she was during her labor and delivery.  To hear more about Kyleen's story, and how and why she had Harley in the back seat of her car, click HERE!  Talk about a natural birth :)  Love it.

Under the Weather...

Sorry for the space in blogs.  We've been a little sick around the Blomgren house.  First I was sick, now Norah and David. We all seem to have different sicknesses.  No fun. We've also had a lot of fun festivities this week so we're trying to keep up.  Here's a rundown of what we've been keeping up with the last few days...

Our fun friend Heidi, (who is a lurker on the blog but never comments (are there more of you?!)) from back in our college days came to visit!  This was her second time at our house and our most visited guest!  We had a great time with her on Friday, clearly.

Snuggles with my little love.

Saturday morning I picked up our bountiful basket!  Something we've only done a few times.  It's a co-op and you pay $15 for a basket of 50% fruit and 50% veggies! The fun part, besides the price, is that you don't know what you will get.  The leaders of the co-op try to keep it as local as possible and every other week there is an option to get an organic basket.

 

 Since the snow melted and it's a warm 40ish degrees here Wrigley has been giddy!  He's all ready to play and let's us know by coming to the door with his toy.  Gotta love him.

I've been feeling very very crafty lately!  It's so much fun.  I've been searching on do it yourself home crafts and have been adding new items to my list here and there.  A new fun thing I discovered was fabric paint.  I got creative and made a cat eye onesie for Norah and a fun bag for me (I used a doily as a stencil as seen on another blog).  Fun huh?!

Why are you fundraising?

Though many have not asked this question, we know many are thinking it!  I, too, often wondered why people who were adopting were asking for support---that was before I (David) knew how financially challenging it can be to adopt!  We thought hard about whether or not to do this post, but we decided it is best to be open and transparent since we are seeking support from others.

Unfortunately, it can be very costly to adopt...often preventing those who want to help give a child a loving home from being able to do so.  Overseas adoptions typically cost around $25,000---South Korea happens to be significantly more.  One of the biggest, if not biggest, concern for us when we were thinking and praying about adoption was the cost.  In the end, we decided that you cannot place a price on adoption and trusted that God would provide the resources for us to move forward and would challenge us to live more frugally.

The Body of Christ is called to care for the orphans and widows of this world, both corporately and individually, and we know that it will be the Body that will not only help us bring our baby(s) home but help raise him/her in a loving environment.  Just as many are called to support overseas ministries and help sponsor a child, it is a call to corporately provide a Christ-centered roof over an orphan's head.

While we have been saving for adoption for over 3 years, that money only paid for approximately a third of our expenses.  We are certainly not afraid to go into debt for this cause, but we are hoping not to.  We are currently pursuing no-interest loans and grants, and are doing some fundraising efforts to help offset the costs that are quickly coming upon us.  Our next major payment of around $8,000 is due in April and  we are counting on the rest of our adoption savings, fundraisers, and possibly grants to bring us all the way to our payment.  

In the end, we hope to raise at least $5,000---if we meet this goal, our out of pocket expenses will be much more manageable, especially if the adoption tax credit continues for the next few years.  Of course, we don't want to pressure any of our friends and family in our fundraising efforts, but we will be forever grateful for whatever people give.  If you do feel inclined to give, there are numerous ways to do so:

1. We have recently ordered 125 sweet t-shirts that were designed by Kelly's cousin, Ben, which will be sold for a suggested donation of $25 (coming next week!);
2. You can purchase coffee here, and we receive $5 per bag; and
3. You can donate through our Give Anonymously widget on our blog.

We hope this helped answer why we need your help to bring our baby(s) home!

Find other FAQ's here.

Remembering

One year ago this week we remember a seriously joyful day!  Praise God for bringing our military home safe and sound to their waiting families.  Thank you David for your service to our country, everyday.

     

His first glimpse of Norah, in person!

Why Adoption?

We have already been asked a handful of times, why adoption?  We are an open book and will happily answer any questions you all have!  For quite some time now, both of us have  felt our hearts be pulled to adoption.  As we grow in more awareness of God and what He desires for us as a family, and as our eyes are opened to the need for stability for so many children, we want to respond! 

When we met in Nepal in 2001, we each already had a desire to set the lonely in families through adopting a child in need of a home.  As our relationship grew, so did the call that we were someday going to bring an orphan into our family!  Our motivation for adoption also stems from our stance on the importance of life.  In response to our belief and support of mothers who do not want their unborn child or cannot support their unborn, we feel adoption is standing in the gap for that child’s right to life.  Adoption is literally life-giving for some babies--without the option of adoption, they may not live.

We believe strongly that God’s heart is for adoption.  After all, we are adopted into His family.  We have loved the sermon by John Piper entitled Adoption: the Heart of the Gospel.  Piper talks about how our adoption into God’s family relates to the adoption of a child.  If you have a few minutes, check out the script or listen to it online--it’s great!

God asks us to seek justice and love mercy, to care for the orphans and widows.  Our call--the Blomgren’s--is to fulfill that call through adoption.  There are many ways for people to carry out justice and love for these orphans and widows of the world: serve in your community, support local and global ministries/organizations, volunteer at your church or a women’s clinic, go on or financially support mission trips and other humanitarian work. 

We are really excited for this adventure.  It took a lot of prayer and we know that the road to adoption and the road after we receive our child will not always be easy.  But we are thrilled for this journey that God has led us on and eagerly await the next few steps.

God places lonely people in families. He leads prisoners out of prison into productive lives, but rebellious people must live in an unproductive land. - Psalm 68:6

Where's the Diversity?

Norah and I stopped by Wal-mart really quick today (no I do not shop there but honestly, Target is 30 minutes away!).  We took a quick stroll down the doll aisle so I could hear Norah say, "didi," her word for baby, over and over again!  There were two full aisles of dolls and Barbies and ALL BUT ONE were WHITE!  I mean c'mon this is the US of A...we have so many different races and cultures to represent and so many heritages to give credit to.  Why do these companies not see this?  I guess we'll stick with the one "didi" we have at home and maybe embark on some more diverse options in the future!

Norah is smart & happy!

We love this video! It was taken over a month ago so things have developed a little since :)