Happy Birthday

Well today starts my last year as a 30 something.  This time next year - I will be an official 40 year old adult.  In your 30's - you can still make some mistakes - but 40 sounds so unforgiving and grown-up.

So many things....

Hi to all our Blog readers!  So much has happened in the last 2 weeks - I'm sorry that we have been slow in getting our blog updated. 

1. We moved.  We sold the house, packed everything and everybody up, and moved across town.  It is a little smaller house but a much bigger yard and we are really loving it.  All of our fears of downsizing our space have slowly diminished as we enjoy our new home.  Thanks to everyone who helped paint and move our stuff.  We now need to have a huge garage sale.

2. Our Pancake breakfast and Silent Auction was a huge success and so much fun.  I highly recommend these Applebee's Pancake breakfasts for anyone in need of a fundraiser.  God provided over $1000 that day and since it was part of the matching grant we had received - that meant it totalled over $2000!!!  We were amazed (once again).  Thank you to everyone who donated items for the auction and who volunteered their time to wait tables.  What a great group of friends and family!

3. Our dossier is on it's way.  We mailed our completed dossier to Oregon 2 days ago.  There, our Holt team will translate it into Chinese and send it over to China.  So now, as long as Holt approves everything - we wait.............................  All the many months of paperwork are completed.  Thank you, Lord, for letting us get past this step in the adoption process.  Even though it was daunting and seemed impossible at times - YOU saw us through.  We stand amazed.

A visit with Lori

So many of you ask about Lori and what we know about her, so I thought I would share this today.  We were recently blessed to find out that a group from South Carolina were going to China and were planning on making a visit to our orphanage.  We were able to send over pictures of us and a few toys for Lori.  Here is the email we recieved today telling us more about our sweet girl....

Dear Camille,


We just returned home from our trip to China and wanted to let you know that Lori's gift's were safely delivered! She sat on the floor and enjoyed looking at her photo album!! She is a beautiful little girl and I hope you get to travel real soon to bring her home!! We loved our visit to HH. All the kids are so loved and well cared for what an incredible blessing they are in the lives of these kids. They had just woken from naps and Lori was very shy with us so we kept our distance. She loved her Nanny and played well with the other kids!

Gold Parties & Fundraising: A Great Combination!

We have joined forces with a great  Jeweler from Arkansas and are helping set up Gold Parties in an effort to add to our Adoption Fund.  With Gold and Silver at record highs, it is a great time for jewelers to pay for old and unused gold and silver items. And rather than customers coming to them, the jeweler and their representatives now go to the people.  We are trying to schedule Gold Parties from now until the end of the year - these parties are great because your guests don't BUY anthing - they actually leave with MONEY!  You simply ask the friends and family you invite to bring their old or unused gold and sterling silver (platinum, too) jewelry, flatware, coins, etc. and we will buy it.  Then the Jeweler we are working with can melt it down and reuse it or sell it to other jewelers who need it.

For everyone that schedules a gold party with us from now until the end of August *(this is a change from the original plan), the host will earn 10% of the total amount purchased by the jeweler AND a matching 10% will go the the Lancaster Adoption Fund.  And we are not limiting ourselves to Sikeston.  We would love to have parties hosted all throughout Southeast Missouri including Dexter, New Madrid, Charleston and Cape Girardeau.  We also hope to branch into Southern Illinois and Western Kentucky.

You can also Host a Fundraiser party of your own and let the 10% normally earned by the hostess go toward your adoption, your youth group, or your charitable organization.  What a great, fun way to raise funds for something that you're passionate about.

We are excited about this opportunity, and hope you will join in our fun and help us raise funds for Lori at the same time!

For questions or to schedule a party, call Camille at 573-380-5557 or Jay at 573-380-7641.  Or you can email us at thelancasterfamily@yahoo.com.

Pancakes and Pedicures

Tomorrow is the Pancake Breakfast and Silent Auction.  Hope to see you all at Applebee's between 8-10.  We are still selling tickets at the door and have some amazing donations for our Silent Auction.  You don't want to miss it!!

St. Louis, State Certification, and God's Provision...

Well, we finally got our last document...the long awaited I-797 form from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Department. We got it this past Wednesday in the mail two weeks early as a result of us walking in the prior week to get our fingerprinting done. With our July 22nd deadline quickly approaching, we decided it was best to make the trip to the closest branch office of the Secretary of State...downtown St. Louis. So, Thursday morning, at 6am, Camille and I, along with five in tow...headed north on Interstate 55.

We got to downtown StL around 9am, and entered the interesting labyrinth of one-way streets. One of my biggest fears about driving in downtown St. Louis is turning the wrong way onto a one-way street. Well...it happened. And there were no warning signs! I turned right onto 7th street to face a lady in a mercedes heading straight for us. I was panic-stricken. I quickly pulled right into the parking lane, and then quickly made a U-turn...even stopping everyone so we could backup some, since there wasn't enough room for Big Blue to make the U turn. It was embarrassing. But we pressed on.