Raffle Prize List

1.     $50 Gift Card to Madrones Restaurant

2.   Two rounds of golf with cart at Worthington Manor Golf course

3.   $50 Gift Card to City Magnolia Day Spa

4.   Silpada jewelry

5.    Set of 4 Pink & White Dot Martini Glasses with Strawberry Margarita Drink Mix (Pampered Chef)

6.   Brownie Pan, Mini Nylon Serving Spatula (Pampered Chef) and Ghirardelli Brownie Mix

7.    Snowmen Holiday Dots Platter & Red Snowflake Mini Bamboo Spoon (Pampered Chef)

8.   Free Dance/Fitness classes at To The Pointe Studio of Dance

9.   Fun Bus Party, 50% off

10.   $30 Credit to Peachy Pie Parties

11.   Size 4T peasant dress from Ps 139 Fearfully & Wonderfully Made

Pasta Dinner Fundraiser

We’d like to invite all of our friends, family, and adoption supporters to come out for a fun and yummy evening of pasta, salad and good company at the New Market Grange Hall on Thursday, October 24^th starting at 6:00pm. We would like to encourage ticket purchase prior to the event so we can make sure we have the right amount of food and we don’t go over the capacity of the grange hall. We’ll also be doing a raffle again as we did at the pancake breakfast.

Tickets are now on sale. Tickets are $10 for adults and $5 for children ages 3-10. Children ages 2 and under are free. Family price is capped at $35. We support big families! :) Also, you can purchase raffle ticket(s) for $1 per ticket. We’ll try to post a list of the prizes a week prior to the event if possible.

To purchase tickets online, click the link to the right that says "Donate" and pay with a paypal account or any major credit card. There will be a place to include a message for the recipient - please indicate here how many adult and child tickets you are purchasing. Or, if you simply wish to make a donation, just indicate that on the message.You can also purchase tickets from us in person and pay by cash or check made out to Sarah Hourigan with "pasta dinner" in the memo line.

We are dotting the I’s and crossing the T’s on our home study and hoping to be able to have our dossier put together and sent off before the year is through. In order to accomplish this we’ll be gathering and notarizing lots of paperwork. Fundraising is a huge part of us being able to move forward with our adoption. Please consider investing in the future of an Ethiopian child. We are forever grateful for your love and support!

-Patrick and Sarah Hourigan, Weston, Nellie & Trevor

 

Raffle Prize List

Raffle tickets are $1 each. Winners will be chosen Saturday evening. Enter to win any of these great prizes:

 

*Thirty One Bags, donated by Stacy Delisle

*Premiere Jewelry, donated by Kendra McDonald

*Paparazzi Jewelry, donated by Wendy Sloper

*Ps 139 Fearfully & Wonderfully Made Hand-sewn Children’s Clothing, donated by Stacy Delisle

 

*$50 gift certificate to Powell Craft USA, English Children’s clothing, donated by Jen & Tobin Lehman

*Anastyn’s Bowtique, handmade children’s accessories, donated by Heather Pocius

 

*50% off a Fun Bus party, donated by Robyn Wheat

*$75 gift card to Monocacy Crossing Restaurant

 

*Photo session with professional photographer, Kelly Hahn, valued at $200

*While She Sleeps handmade greeting cards, valued at $21, donated by Annie Kim

 

*Creative Memories scrapbooking album with pages, valued at $72.50, donated by Annie Kim

*Family names crossword design by Cindy Moskowitz

*Mary Kay gift basket, valued at $50, donated by Donna Batchellor



Pancakes!

UPDATE: We have established a $35 maximum ticket price per family for the breakfast. We support big families! :)
Also, if you are able to purchase tickets in advance, this will be extremely helpful to us, as we are fronting costs for the event. Thank you.

Tickets are now on sale for the Pancake Breakfast & Raffle Fundraiser, June 1, 8:30 - 11:00 am, at the New Market Grange. The Grange is located on eight alley, off of Main Street in New Market. Tickets are $10 for adults and $5 for children ages 3-10. Children ages 2 and under are free.

To purchase tickets online, click the link to the right that says "Donate" and pay with a paypal account or any major credit card. There will be a place to include a message for the recipient - please indicate here how many adult and child tickets you are purchasing. Or, if you simply wish to make a donation, just indicate that on the message.

You can also purchase tickets from us in person and pay by cash or check made out to Sarah Hourigan with "pancake breakfast" in the memo line.

Raffle tickets are sold seperately and are $1 each. We will hold the raffle drawing at the end of the breakfast, but you do not need to be present to win. We will post the list of raffle prizes soon.

Frequently Asked Questions

First, I would like to say that Pat and I feel overwhelmingly blessed and grateful for the many positive and encouraging responses we have had to our adoption announcement. It is a privilege to belong to such a loving and supportive community. In talking with people who read our blog post, several questions continue to come up and so we thought it might be helpful to answer those here.

Q: Why are you adopting internationally when there are children in the US who need homes?
Short Answer: Because that is what God has called us to do.
Long Answer: When God first laid on our hearts to begin researching adoption, we looked at many possibilities, including foster care and domestic infant adoption. It was our understanding that in the case of domestic infant adoption, the pregnant mother chooses the family who adopts her child through a profile-viewing system. We felt that most of these mothers would be more likely to pick an infertile couple, or a family with only 1 child, rather than us. We understand this completely. In terms of foster care, we did not decide to pursue this because we felt that God was calling us to add an orphaned child to our family permanently. The goal of foster care is reunification with biological family, and we wholeheartedly support this. Foster care is an amazing way to serve the Lord and serve needy children and families in our community and we have great respect for individuals who choose to do this. It is not, however, what God has called us to do at this time.

Q: Why are you adopting a baby when there are so many more older children who need homes?
Short Answer: Because that is what God has called us to do.
Long Answer: There are two main reasons why we feel that adopting an older child would not be in the best interests of our family. First of all, we felt that it would be wise to keep birth order in our family, and not upset Weston's place as our firstborn. Because Weston is only 3, and adopting an infant through our agency means a child between 0 and 2, we could not move up to the next age range, which would be adopting a child between 3 and 5. Second, Pat and I have no experience parenting a child over the age of 3. We know babies and are fully entrenched in that season of life. It is where I feel most comfortable, having done it 3 times now. Yes, there are many children of all ages, all around the world, who are orphaned and in need of loving, Christian homes. Perhaps one day Pat and I will be able to offer a home to one of those children, but that is not what God has called us to at this time.

Q: So what happened with Trevor's birth?
Short Answer: None of your business!
Long Answer: I was quite surprised that THIS was the detail that nearly every woman I know was curious about and latched onto. Truly I am sorry that I ever wrote that in the first post. I have no intention of divulging any details about what I was referring to. But I will say this....Trevor is 100% healthy and I am grateful to the Lord for that. I am not suffering anything life-threatening, and I can, and do, live my life normally. My midwife was fantastic and is in NO WAY at fault for anything that happened. I cherish her as a dear friend and would never do or say anything to malign her character or reputation. I do not regret having a homebirth; on the contrary, I am even more grateful that I did.

Q: Are you guys planning to have any more biological children?
Short Answer: We hope so, but it depends on the Lord's will for us.
Long Answer: The Lord changed our beliefs about family planning several years ago and so we never claim to know what will happen in the future. We do not have a number of kids that we are hoping to "get to" or "stop after." We desire a large family, and have a heart for that. By the world's standards our family is already large, but we hope that it will be much larger. I think that I would be very sad if I were never to be pregnant or give birth again.  That being said, we do not know what the future holds and we will be faithful to the Lord, as we always have, to seek Him in prayer and counsel after our adoption is finalized and we have all adjusted to see what He would have us do next.

Q: So you will prevent pregnancy while you are adopting? How will you do that?
Answer: At this time, no, we are not planning a pregnancy, but again, we will continue to seek the Lord in this. We specifically chose an adoption agency and program that would not require us to put our adoption on hold in the event of a pregnancy.

Q: Do you have a name for your adopted daughter?
Answer: Yes, we have a name that we love, but are not quite ready to announce it yet. Pat has trouble committing to names so early :)

Q: Where are you now in the process? How long will it take?
Answer: We have applied and been accepted to a child-placing agency. We have applied to, and are waiting on more details from, an agency that is licensed in MD to do our homestudy. Our next step is to complete our homestudy, which will take 2-3 months. Our best estimate is that the entire process will take 18 months - 2 years.

Q: How much will your adoption cost? How are you going to afford it? How can I help?
Answer: Our best estimate is that our adoption will cost approximately $27,000. We honestly do not know how we will afford it...we trust the Lord will provide and equip us for what He has called us to do. I am currently doing a 31 bags fundraiser on Facebook through a friend who is a consultant. Please let me know if you are interested in ordering and I will give you the link. We are also planning a Pancake Breakfast fundraiser to be held at the New Market Grange on Saturday, June 1. We will begin selling tickets for this event sometime in the next few weeks. We are looking for volunteers to help on this day and to help us sell advanced tickets. Please let me know if you are interested in that. We are possibly going to do a raffle or silent auction on the same day as the breakfast, and will be seeking donated prizes for that. Pat and I are also both looking for part time work opportunities on evening and weekends, and for additional fundraising ideas and opportunities. Please contact us if you have anything to share. We would gratefully accept gifts/donations of any kind or amount.

We hope you had a blessed Easter season!

An Introduction

Hello and welcome to our blog. Here we hope to share with you our journey to adoption. This is our story...so far :)

Pat and I met at Mountain View Community Church when we were in high school. I (Sarah) knew fairly immediately that I was going to marry him...it took Pat a little longer to come around ;) We went to several high school dances together, and were very good friends, but didn't start dating until I went away to college. Once we were "official" things got serious pretty quick, and we were engaged in May of 2006. I graduated college an entire year early so that we could get married sooner. June 10, 2007 was our beautiful, perfect wedding. We settled into married life easily and just loved being together every day. We always knew we wanted kids, but weren't sure exactly when or exactly how many. We didn't wait long before we started trying and found out that I was pregnant on March 1, 2008. Tragically I miscarried that baby on April 13, 2008. We named her Macy and long for the day that we will meet her again in heaven. It was a very sorrowful season of life for us as we grieved the loss of our baby, but the Lord never left us, and we didn't know then how He had planned to bless us beyond our wildest dreams. I gave birth to Weston James on July 29, 2009, Nellie Joy on January 25, 2011, and Trevor Luke on July 15, 2012. Three beautiful, healthy, sweet babies to fill my arms :)

As our family has grown, so have our hearts. After each baby was born, we would pray and ask the Lord to reveal to us if we should have another child and when. Always our hearts have been opened to joyfully accept the blessing of another child and we are so grateful for how the Lord has answered our prayers.

After Trevor was born, I found myself for the first time in a place of not feeling sure if I wanted to do this again. Three back-to-back pregnancies and 4 1/2 years straight of being pregnant or nursing had really taken a toll on me physically and emotionally. Caring for 3 children under 3 is not for the faint of heart...to say that I am tired most days would be an understatement. And yet I look at my life, and I look into the eyes of my children each morning and feel so confident that I am just where the Lord wants me to be. He has called me to motherhood, a noble profession in His eyes, and I desire to serve Him in all things. In my heart I felt a deep desire to be a Mommy again and continue to grow our family, while at the same time my body was shouting to me "NO, PLEASE, DO NOT GET PREGNANT AGAIN!"

On the evening of February 27th we attended a Concert of Prayer at our church. The Lord spoke to my heart in a new way on this night. Pastor Tim Nester while leading us in prayer for our world said something like "If you have a passion for orphans, pray about that..." and so I did. And suddenly it was so clear to me. We were going to have another baby. But I was not going to be pregnant. The Lord was calling us to adopt. Pat and I had talked about adoption before, but always in a far off sense, as something we would do "later", when we had "more money", when we were "done" having our own babies. Suddenly it felt to me that none of those reasons were good enough to put it off. Why not now? We have room now! I shared my heart change with Pat the next day and he didn't share my feelings immediately...but then two days later he went off to pray alone in the woods and he too felt the call to adopt. He read in James 1:27: Religion that God our Fatehr accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.

And so here we are, starting the journey to adoption! We have chosen an agency, filled out the application, and made the decision to adopt an infant girl from Ethiopia. We didn't feel any particular call to that country, but given our ages, the ages of our biological children and our current living situation, Ethiopia was the best fit for us. We have two boys and one girl currently, so it made sense for us to adopt another girl. I am pretty thrilled to have another daughter- though someone will have to teach me how to do her hair :)

I know this journey will be difficult and will stretch and grow our family in ways that may not always feel good. But the Lord has spoken, and we must obey. We have room for one more baby. We have room in our home, in our hearts and in our family. We share our story with you, our family and dear friends, in the hopes that you will join us through your support, encouragement and prayers.