Pictures from BBQ Fundraiser

Us with all the pound cake and bread!

Me and Granny

Chad cooking all those wonderful green beans.

Here are the pictures I promised from our BBQ fundraiser for those of you who couldn't be here. I forgot my camera that day so Meagan saved the day with a couple pictures. I think she always has her camera! Thanks!!

We hope everyone has a safe and happy New Year's Eve night!!

Merry Christmas!

We hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas. Ours was great and the only thing that could have made it better would have been a phone call. We're optimistic that this was our last Christmas alone. My Mom is also confident! (Hince all the gifts for baby Pritchard!) We are very greatful for everything. It's less we will have to spend on baby items. Thanks Mom!! I look forward to that shopping trip after we're matched and find out pink or blue. We hope everyone enjoys their DVD!

We spent Christmas Eve with Chad's family this year. Everyone was doing much better just in time! We had finger foods and exchanged a few gifts. Everyone got to come except Tonya and her family.

Christmas Day was spent mostly with my Mom. She had baked all of her specialty finger foods. Granny and Aunt Josie brought over a cheese tray and two Red Velvet cakes. Needless to say we had plenty of food. The kids had a great time opening their gifts and showing us what Santa had brought the night before.

Alex, Sam, Emily, and Josh we thought about you and we miss you!!! You guys spoiled us last year being here during Christmas. Hope we can see you guys soon.

Let the Submitting Begin!

Our homestudy has been received by Amy at CAC. She will begin submitting us ASAP to adoption agencies! Now we just wait for a birthmom to choose us to parent her child.

In the meantime we are still looking for creative ways to raise money to help fund our adoption. Any suggestions or comments are welcome. Anyone can leave comments on our website by clicking on the word comments at the bottom of each post. It will have a number before the word showing how many comments have been posted.

Please keep us in your prayers while we drive ourselves crazy with wonder and excitement!

We are in business.......

our homestudy was in our mail box this afternoon. I hope that CAC has received their copy. They are closed for Christmas but told us we would still be submitted when it was received regardless of when it arrived. We are praying that our wait is short but we know that we have to be patient. That's the one thing I think we've been taught over the past three years. Let the submitting begin!

Paper Pregnant!

Our homestudy has been approved and we are waiting to receive it in the mail. Once it is received by our consultant she will then begin submitting us as a waiting family to agencies across the United States. We are now to the drive us crazy part where we just sit and wait on a phone call. Once the agencies that we have been submitted to find a situation that they think we may be interested in they will contact our consultant. She will then contact us for the approval to submit our information to the birthmom. We will continue with those steps until a birthmom decides we are the family she wishes to raise her baby. If the baby has already been born we would then begin the frantic packing event and jump on an airplane to pick up our child. If the birthmom is still pregnant then we will follow her to the end of her pregnancy and meet at delivery when our baby is born to assume custody. Sometimes this can go very quickly and sometimes this can take several months.

Everyone who knows us knows that I like to be prepared for anything and everything. If I have the slightest feeling it may happen I prepare for it. If I think it might happen I prepare for it. If I have a hunch it could happen I prepare for it. LOL! You get my point! Chad and I have agreed that it would be best to wait until we are matched to start buying major baby items like a crib, changing table, etc. That way we should know the sex of the baby and we won't have a completed nursery without a baby to put in it. This has really tested me because I KNOW it is going to happen and that we ARE going to become parents in God's time. My brain keeps asking, "Why not prepare the nursery?" and my heart keeps telling me to wait because it might be too painful to have an empty nursery. Chad is being my restraint system at this point!

Todd and Erine's Newest Addition.....

This was right before his feeding and diaper change.

He just didn't want to wake up!

Second feeding after being born.

Ethan having his first diaper change! Stinky boy!!

has arrived! We are the proud Aunt and Uncle of Ethan Myers Pritchard, who was born about 11:30 this morning. He weighed in at 6lbs and 14.9 ounces. Big Sister Madison had to show off her little brother immediately to Uncle Chad upon him entering the room with Mama's post delivery Mountain Dew. She took him by the hand straight to the nursery to introduce her little brother!

We went together for a visit after work and they all seemed to be doing ok. Erine was in a great deal of pain and they were both very tired from not getting any sleep during the night. Erine requested more Mountain Dew and some chocolate before we went home. Chad's Dad, who was up one floor, had requested a cheeseburger. We had our orders and were off to complete them. We choose Wendy's since it's a burger place and convenient store in one. We delivered the burger, chocolate, and drinks and left for the night. We hope everyone has a good night sleep!!

BBQ Equals Success!

Help Fund Our Adoption! December 9th
Barbeque Plate - $6 Each
Pickup at: Ashley’s Office World Parking Lot
2020 McCormick Drive, Tifton
Pickup Between: 11:00 AM and 1:00 PM
(Plate Includes: Barbeque, Green Beans, Potato Salad, Sliced Bread, and Pound Cake)

Friday night we picked up our 120 pounds of BBQ, the pound cakes, and Granny and headed back to our house to prepare for the next day. I don't think we've ever seen soo much cake at one time! It took Granny and me two hours to cut up 17 pound cakes for the BBQ. Needless to say we had plenty of cake and some leftover. Afterwards Chad and I headed up to Ashley's to set up for the event. We set up tables and transported non perishable items.

We were up Saturday morning at 7:30 and the heating of our 120lbs of BBQ began! We didn't get off to a good start but Granny and Mama came around 8:30 and saved the day. We had only started two pans in the oven on low heat but once Granny and Mama arrived that was all over. We had two pans in the oven, two pans on the stove top, and a bowl in the microwave. Anything that would heat was being taken advantage of at this point. I was beginning to worry that we wouldn't have enough time to get all the BBQ heated. After we got things moving a little faster we were done with heating and putting it into the coolers and were on the way up to the office to begin the assembly line.

A big THANKS to Granny, Mama, Cliff, Nisa, Mama Elaine, Todd, Bobby, Meagan, Dewayne, Kristy, Wendy, Sue, and Faye for helping to make our fundraiser a success. We would also like to thank everyone who donated, bought tickets, and helped sell tickets. We raised a total of $2060 through donations and selling BBQ tickets! The event wouldn't have been such a success without ALL of your help!

Hope to post pictures soon!

BBQ Preparation.......

has went fairly smoothly thus far! The potato salad is ready and has been picked up thanks to my Granny. Savannah went with Granny to Sam's and I believe she thoroughly enjoyed the outing. She got lots of new clothes!

Mama called earlier in the week with news that the bread man was going to donate all the bread needed for the function. YAY!! Big help! She is scheduled to pick it up Friday afternoon.

Things are underway! We've got lots of work to do over the next two days but it will be well worth every minute of it!

Last Visit Complete

Our last homestudy visit was completed yesterday (Dec 4th). It lasted only about 15 minutes. She basically just looked around, checked our smoke detectors, asked to see our fire extinguisher, and got to meet Sassy the ferocious dog. We should receive our completed paperwork in the mail shortly. One more step down!

Ticket Sales Look Good!

Last night we figured up our BBQ ticket sales and things are looking good! We printed 400 tickets and we have sold 350 tickets. We will turn in for 400 and try to sale the rest between now and the event. If we have tickets left we will have them available during pickup. We are extremely thankful to everyone that has helped with sales. We could not have gotten this far without everyone's help. We look forward to everyone helping out to make the pickup just as successful!

A Little Disappointed

As I was leaving to head home for our last homestudy visit my cell phone rings. Our visit was rescheduled for Monday at 4:30 PM. We were really looking forward to having it completed! Dani has another couple here in Tifton and wants to complete both visits in one trip since she's coming from Atlanta. We understand but we were excited that it would be behind us. Chad has been threatened with his life if the house gets dirty! LOL!

Preparing for Our Last Visit!

Dani will come to our home on Tuesday to deem it safe for a child. We spent the entire day yesterday cleaning and decorating for Christmas. We still have a few things to finish up with tonight. We still have to purchase that fire extinguisher, check those smoke detectors, and screw down the locks on the hot tub cover. We never wait to the last minute like this. I pray we don't run into any problems!

Second Homestudy Visit

We had our second visit with Danielle on November 15, 2006. She called us back at seperate times to discuss our individual childhoods and our hopes for the future with our child. At this time she asked us to describe our Mother and Father with three words per person. No we won't share those words with you guys! She also wanted to know where our siblings were currently in their lives and how they felt about us adopting. We also had open discussion for any questions we had. Through this process we have learned that for any question we may have there are literally 50 different answers (one for each state)! We scheduled our last visit for our homestudy which, will be held at our home. One more to go!

First Homestudy Visit

Whew that was easy! We drove to Atlanta for our first visit on November 10, 2006. It was more like a get to know you session. We were there for about an hour answering general questions about our home and our marriage. We now have one visit down and two to go!

Contacted Homestudy Agency

On November 3, 2006 I placed a call to Options 4 Adoptions for our homestudy. The receptionist proceeded to explain that we should begin on the packet of paperwork we received from the conference and wanted to set up the first of our three visits. I was speachless and didn't realize things would be that easy. I called her back on Monday, November 6, and scheduled two of our three visits. Things are underway!

Signed on to get started!

On October 25 we mailed off all of the necessary paperwork to Amy Young with Christian Adoption Consultants to get started! We are soo excited and feel like we have new found hope of becoming a family.

Conference Day

On September 16, 2006 we attended an adoption conference for Christian Adoption Consultants in Canton, GA. CAC is owned by Malcolm and Amy Young and is operated through their local church. Malcolm and Amy are adoptive parents who realized the huge need for such services. After completing their adoption Amy was compelled to start her own consulting agency to assist couples who wish to adopt. It was an awesome conference! We gained tons of information to assist us with becoming parents. We initially attended the conference for only informational purposes for the future but realized we shouldn't have to wait for the family we've longed for! We left VERY excited and READY to proceed!! We spent the entire car ride home racking our brains for ways to begin. We can hardly wait!