Ben + Chelsa: Family Photos and a few Pom Poms for the Tree

As most of you know by now, we are well into the process of growing our family through adoption! I wanted to update our family photograph, since the kids have all grown so much in a year, but didn't want to do anything super fancy...I want to wait for our new baby to arrive and then we will do something really special ;) But for now...we got a good one for Christmas cards!

Crazy that Christmas is right around the corner! This year is coming to a close so quickly! By the time that 2015 comes to an end, we should be well into our waiting period. By this I mean waiting to hear just who our child in Tanzania is. It is so exciting, and yet feels SO far away.

NOVEMBER - did you know that the month of November is National Adoption Awareness Month? (Don't feel badly if you didn't, I just found out!). This is kind of the perfect time for us to kick off our Adoption Fundraiser. If you think adoption is really wonderful, we would like to invite you to be a part of our journey.

It turns out that we will have to take 3 trips over to Tanzania before we can officially bring our little one home to join our family. Agency costs, travel, obtaining documentation, paperwork fees, postage, all make the process quite long and expensive. Our adoption is going to be right around $50,000 USD. Our hope is that through fundraising and applying for adoption grants, that we can raise some funds to take some of the financial pressure off of our family. If you'd like to hear more keep reading!

The Love Tree for Tanzania!

We have been busy making these adorable Anthropologie (the sweet clothing and home store) inspired Pom Pom Christmas Tree Ornaments. Each one has a different number from 1-250. They are handmade by our family, even our kids enjoy making them!

Pick a donation amount - a number on the chart that hasn't been crossed off. And we will be sure to deliver an ornament from our tree to yours :) We will make sure to update photos of the chart so that it remains current. Follow us on Facebook or on Instagram to see how we are doing ;)

After making the numbered chart I realized that wow, that is a ton of squares. Kind of scary, but if it doesn't work out so well then we will have a lot of pom poms to decorate our own tree lol!

Donations :

For USA tax deductible receipts, you can donate to us here (5% will be used for credit card fees and administrative costs):

www.adopttogether.org/theschaefers

Other Ways to Donate:

If you don't need a tax receipt, you can also donate with a personal check, cash, or send money via Paypal to chelsaschaefer@gmail.com

Or Send Money to Our Adoption Agency:

Personal Check to :

European Adoption Consultants Inc.

12608 Alameda Drive

Strongsville, OH

44149

USA