Save The Date!!

The lesson I have learned so far in this adoption process is God is faithful and he provides!! Here are a few examples of how He has done so, so far:

1. Our Home study was completed at the end of September in only 5 weeks and a couple of weeks later we were officially approved!

2. God miraculously raised over $4000 from our yard sale in October despite the rain!

3. The latest provision is: We were one of the 5 families selected to participate in the 6th Annual Trot to Adopt 5K Fundraiser!!  Click the link to find out more about the race and see our community sponsors!

All donations / sponsorships of the race that are designated to us goes straight to our adoption costs. I will keep you posted on registration details when it gets closer to time! Just remember to sign up on "Team Ingham" so your proceeds will go towards our adoption fund!

***Don't forget to check out other fundraising opportunities on the right sidebar of this blog***

Answered Prayers!!

A big THANK YOU to everyone who participated in our Adoption yard sale last weekend! Whether you donated items to sell, came to shop, or helped at the sale, we are so grateful for your contribution to help make the yard sale a success! After about a month of collecting and pricing items, the weekend of the sale finally came.

We started setting up on Friday around noon, and decided to put a yard sale sign outside the neighborhood just to see if we could sell anything while we were setting up. We ended up selling about $500 just on Friday! We set up until dark and prayed for no rain on Saturday.

If you were in town last weekend, you know that on Saturday, there was a torrential downpour! I cried :(  I felt angry, sad, hopeless, and overwhelmed. I just thought what's the point after all this hard work and now for it to be ruined by a monsoon! Our first customer came around 5:50 am...(sale didn't start until 7)...Despite the weather there was a steady flow of people with their umbrellas, rain jackets, and flashlights. People were actually shopping and buying stuff in the rain. We did our best to keep things covered, but that didn't stop people at all. I was in disbelief. I was thinking "these are crazy yard sale people!"


My spirit was lifted as God comforted me by the fact that He promises to remain faithful and provide. I was so encouraged by so many familiar and unfamiliar faces coming to support us. I was comforted by seeing how God was still raising the money despite my plans, the thunderstorm, and my doubts.

Since it was so wet on Saturday, we were not able to put out a lot of our items, so we made a last minute decision to have another sale on Sunday. So we made new signs and had a last minute advertisement on Facebook and Craigslist and tried to sell as much as we could Sunday.  Praise God we made a total of $4000 from our Adoption Yardsale Fundraiser!! 

Busy Fall Happenings!

Wow! I cannot believe it is already October! I love that the leaves are changing colors, the air is a little cooler, and pumpkin everything abounds!

A lot has happened in the last 2 1/2 weeks! We have completed our interviews and our caseworker has written our Home study. She will send off our paperwork to her supervisor who will give the final stamp of approval. It could take up to a month to process and then we should hear something back.

Next Saturday, October 10, we will be having a Mega Yard Sale to help raise funds for the adoption. We are so grateful for the OVER 50 family & friends who have sacrificially donated items (you can see how full Michael's parents' garage is) and time to make this fundraiser possible. See more details about the sale here. Hope to see many of you there!

Below are a few other ways we are raising funds. We still have our Adopt Together Fundraising page. It is much like a Go Fund Me page, except this one is a non-profit and you can get a tax deduction for any donation. Secondly, we set up an Amazon Affiliates store. So if any of you love shopping on Amazon, click the icon below and bookmark that page. When you buy from our page, a few cents from every transaction will go toward our adoption. Lastly, our friend, Mo Parks, is a talented photographer and is going to donate a percentage of her proceeds to our adoption fund from those who book any type of photography session and mention that you were referred by the Inghams! Check out her work and book your photo session with her here: 

  Adopt Together: Ingham Family           Amazon Adoption Page               Mo Parks Photography

        

         

We have been learning so much about adoption as we have been on our own journey to adopt.  Here is another statistic about adoption. Pray for the over 150 million orphans in the world to find homes to call their own.

Home Study Underway! :)

We have been so overwhelmed by all of the love and support by friends and family. This encouragement has been so helpful as we have progressed through the adoption process.

The more we learn about adoption, the more convinced we become that this is a real need in the world. Hopefully, we can share some of the statistics and findings we learn about. Also, we want to be an open book so that if others are considering adoption, they will have their questions answered or know that they can come talk with us about it.

The first step in the adoption process is to complete a series of 5 interviews called a HOME STUDY.  So far we have completed 2 of the 5 interviews. The first one was an orientation interview where our case worker, Libby, made sure there were no red flags that would disqualify us from continuing the process. We passed :)  There are no red flags and we have the privilege of continuing through the interview process!

 Prior to our second interview we had to gather a ton of paperwork, such as marriage licenses, birth certificates, tax returns, pay stubs, employment verification letters, licenses, proof of rabies vaccination for our dog, Lucas, back ground checks, medical examinations, and so much more! Thankfully we have a file cabinet that organized most of this paperwork so we knew exactly where to find most of those things!

Another thing we had to do to prepare for this interview was to individually take a marriage/ relationship survey called "Prepare and Enrich" online in which the results revealed strengths and weaknesses and relationship dynamics. Our caseworker reviewed these results with us during the interview. Lifeline adoption agency values healthy Christian marriages because they believe that that environment will be best for a child to flourish in. If there are any areas in a marriage that are lacking or need growth, they provide resources and support to build up and strengthen those areas.

Also, during this home study interview, Libby toured our home and made sure there was adequate living space and made sure we have working smoke alarms and a fire extinguisher.

It seems like we have accomplished ALOT in such a short amount of time. 2 interviews down, 3 to go! Our ultimate financial Goal for the adoption is $25,000, but thankfully it is not due all at once.
This is where we can use YOUR HELP! By the 5th Homestudy interview we will have had to pay $2000. We are asking you to prayerfully consider donating on our Adopt Together fundraiser to help us meet this need by October 1st! Looking forward to how God will provide!

New Fundraising Ideas!

Just wanted to share about some fundraising ideas we have set up...

(1) One way is thru a yard sale we are having on Saturday October 10th. If you have any items
      to donate, please let us know :) or if you wanna come shopping, you can!  See the details below -

• What: Adoption Fundraising Yard Sale
• Where: 581 Fox Hunt Lane, Evans, GA 30809 (house of Nick & Donna Ingham)
• When: October 10th, 2015 from 7am - until…

Ways to contribute:

• Come shop and donate to a good cause!
• Donate items to our sale that we could sell for this cause!
• Tell your friends or share this flyer on social media to get the word out!

** If you have any items you would like to donate to the yard sale, please call or contact us for pick up or drop off details.**

Corrie Ingham - 706.836.1345, cingham10@gmail.com
Michael Ingham - 706.631.7711, mfingham@gmail.com
Donna Ingham - 706.288.5970, donnaingham@gmail.com
___________

(2) We have set up an online account to raise funds through AdoptTogether.org.... this site it
    much like GoFundMe with a few differences. See below for some of the perks of giving this way :)

**Some more of our story is on this site at 

• As you go on there to give, also share / repost on your social media account. We could use all the networking help you are willing to give :)

_____________

(3) Lastly, my mom is pretty crafty and has been making decorative wreaths for folks for the last few 

     years. If you are interested and would want one (for your football team, for upcoming holidays - 

     Fall, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, etc), then please message me or her and she could 

     make one for you.

Here are some pics of her recent work... And here is a link to her FB page where you can message her!

Thanks again to you all who are blessing us with your friendship and support! 

Love, 

                          Mike & Corrie

Exciting News

So it has been a long time since we have updated you so it's time to catch up!
In July, We celebrated our 5th Anniversary! We had the opportunity to go to Vancouver,  British Columbia and Seattle, WA. It was our first time to the Northwest, and we had a blast! Here are a few highlights from our trip:

Enjoying the sights of Mt. Rainer 

Bike ride in Stanley Park, Vancouver

 Exploring Pike Place Market, Seattle

This month, we have some VERY EXCITING news!!

As I mentioned earlier, we just celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary. I cannot believe it has already been 5 years! Early on in our marriage, we talked about our desire for children, biologically and through adoption. In our 3rd year of marriage we were ready to start trying to have children. So after 2 years of trying to start a family and having some tests only confirm that nothing is medically wrong, we have prayerfully decided to start the process of adoption. 

We have decided to pursue a domestic infant adoption through Lifeline adoption agency, which is based out of Birmingham, AL. To learn more about this adoption agency here is a link to their website: Lifeline Adoption

So far we have applied and completed our orientation interview with our social worker Libby. Now, we are collecting a lot of paperwork to get ready for our next meeting which will be our 1st Home study Interview.