::Donated Auction Items NEEDED::

Homemakers, Etsy shop owners, crafters, boutiques, store companies.....

Interested in helping? We are currently seeking for donated auction items and if you are interested in being a part of this amazing story, feel free to e-mail me at SipekAdoption@gmail.com with the following info: image of item, item description (with measurements if applicable), retail value, and your shop details so we can share the love! Gift cards are also acceptable! 

Once we gather enough auction items, we will announce and post the date of our "Adopting A Sipek Online Auction" on Facebook. :)

We will be sending out our adoption donation request letters to stores/boutiques to see if they will be willing to provide assistance as well! Wish us luck! 

Thank you! 

Brooke & Brian

::In time, all things will fall right in place::

It has been over two months since we have updated our blog......

So, here's a long overdue post. 

Many things have happened. Here's our quick recap: we had our family vacation in New Smyrna Beach earlier in August (we had a grand time there!); Brooke started her coaching position for high school volleyball team (she loves it); Brooke took a trip to the emergency room due to health complications (she's perfectly well now); both of us returned to work when school started (busy bees, we are).  

Eventually, we got asked to do an interview for DeafNation 360 News with Joel Barish to discuss our adoption process with another couple who have adopted two deaf children from China. It was nice meeting the adoptive couple and we learned about their success and struggles on their adoption journey!

You can check out the video on http://deafnation.com/dn360/adopting-deaf-children/  (Captioning is available)

Update: our Colombia T-shirt fundraiser turned out well! We raised a total of $324.76 towards our adoption! Again, many thanks for those who purchased and supported our adoption. We loved how our friends posted pictures of them wearing the special tees... keep 'em coming please! :)

Now, what else.. 

Ah, yes, we do have something to share, but... (yes, there's a "but") 

We cannot have high hopes. We are TRYING not to. It is highly possible that we may have found our child.....a little deaf boy in Bogota. His birthday is today. He's two now. We only have one picture of him (certainly waiting for more!!). He's such a cutie. He is currently in a foster family right now and we received his file two weeks ago. We have been waiting to get further information on his medical background. So far, everything else has checked out except for one pending information. We have to be patient. Our agency says that if we are 100% matched with this child, then our next immediate step is to send a LOI (letter of intent) to confirm that we want to adopt this boy. 

We have to wait and be patient. One day at a time. Things will fall right in place if it's meant to be. 

We'll keep you posted once more information comes in.. for now, keep us in your thoughts.

-Brooke & Brian

::Kindness in giving creates LOVE::

This is a very much needed story to share with you all!

A while back, we received one of the most moving and uplifting emails from Violet. We didn't really know who Violet was until she expressed her inspiring story about a little boy, Theodore, from Africa. Violet mentioned that since we opened so much about our adoption and that she felt she needed to share her story with us, too. She's such a sweet soul!

Prepare to be inspired! Here's Violet's story below:

"I am a Social Work graduate student at Gallaudet doing internship in New Mexico— the very last thing to do before graduating in May!  I find time to travel in between my studies— I grab every opportunity to go abroad during summer, winter and spring breaks. Out of all the places I've been, it’s with no doubt that I emphasize my love for (Togo) Africa the most.  It’s true, Togo has my heart.  It’s home.  Two of the biggest reasons for my heart for it: my African family and Theodore. 

Long story short: I first went to Africa four summers ago as a volunteer teaching at a deaf school, and I stayed with a host family for 10 weeks.  The host family became my family— they took me in as if I was their daughter all along.  They made every effort as possible to truly know and love me in so little time.  At the same time, while I was teaching at the school, I fell in love with Theodore, who was 7 then.  He was a troubled boy to many, but he was loving to me.  Though he may be sneaky, stubborn and handy at times, he’s also smart, sweet and protective.  I don’t know how to explain this in a better way, but it felt like he belonged to me.  I made sure that he was fed well, understood how important giving is, and knows that there’s more to life than what he knows of it.  It torn me apart when it was time to leave.  I honestly almost panicked— I was this close to taking Theodore with me to America.  Seriously, how could I just leave him behind?  I loved him as if he was my own.  I felt helpless especially the fact that realistically, I may never see him again.  

Violet and Theodore

During my entire stay, I dreamt of growing money to take my family and Theodore home— every single night… on every single star.  I’m not kidding but his family actually gave me their blessing to take the little boy.  Don’t get this the wrong way— they sincerely love him and he’s well taken care of along with his three siblings, but they saw how much I cared for him, how he was with me and mainly, they knew that he would be given a much better life here.  I promised them that I would take it into serious considerations.  The fact that I was only 20 years old then didn’t matter, or the fact that I was still a college student didn’t either.  I was so determined I’d adopt Theodore somehow.  Words can’t explain how devastated I was to have found out that I had to be 30+ year old to adopt a child from Togo.  And obviously, I needed a lot of money.  I grew anger against the system for a while, how cruel they were to make people pay to have a child.  In my case, Theodore’s family wanted me to take him— why was that not enough?  Instead of adopting, however, I did three things: I raised money for Theodore’s family to get a motorbike so that my little school boy can have a better transportation to school and I wanted the best well-being for the family.  

Theodore's family

New motorbike for Theodore's family

I received donations in total of $1,366, a little more than what I needed, accomplished with the community’s help!  Secondly, I surprised everyone when I visited again last winter.  I had to fulfill at least a promise that I would go back, right?  It was until then that I realized that it was home— I had to always go back for as long as I live, even if that means saving money, making the time to go, and being patience with all the lost time together for a (very) long while.  But then again, nothing matters more than being in the arms of the people that you love with all of your heart in the end.  Thirdly, I have been celebrating Theodore’s birthday with a cake every year.  He’s now 11.  :)

I never get tired of sharing this story over and again.  It’s a bittersweet feeling, really— the whole thing.  My point of sharing this to complete strangers like you was to let you know that I have been following your blog for a while now, and again, you inspire me.  I admire your energy, determination and positivity throughout this whole process, so much that I don’t think you need my positive thoughts at all.  Though it’s with my hopes that you do realize that there are people like me out there that believes that you will take in your children as if they were yours forever like how my family did it.  This is a dream come true, and I wish I could make my own.  Whenever you feel frustrated and/or impatient at some point during the process, do take this as a reminder that you are going somewhere with the adoption compared to some who have failed to do so.  

 Remember my story.  It’s unfortunate but be happy for yourselves— obviously, this is meant for you. And lastly, the community is behind you all the way until the kids are in your arms.  I have never believed so much in the community until my experience, and you probably didn’t until you begun the adoption process, too." 

------------

My goodness! Doesn't her sweet email make you want to go out and sprinkle love on every child in need!? Yes! Awww. What Violet said about the unity in the community that contributed to meeting Theodore's needs really made the whole giving concept possible is very uplifting. You know the saying, kindness in giving creates love. :)

Thank you, Violet, for sharing your story with us. We appreciate people like you out there. 

Brooke & Brian

::Helping others is like helping yourself.::

Want to know my initial passion in helping others? How did I really get myself involved? You know the old cliche saying, "things happen for a reason.." Really, this was coincidental.

So, here.. I'm going to share my story. 

One afternoon (about a year or two ago), I was just stumbling across many DIY house renovation blogs because we love to do renovations around our house. We have done A LOT-- basically, flipping our house. It has been fun tackling so many house projects! Anyways, I happened to be reading my friend, Elisa's DIY blog; she posted about her brother, Alex and his wife, Alexa, who ran the Operation Deaf Orphans (ODO), which led me to read their blog as well. With my fascination and curiosity in reading more about ODO, I adored over the pictures of the deaf orphans in Africa and wanted to do something to help. I loved the fact that ODO helped to build fences around the deaf orphanage (Lance's Deaf Orphans) to prevent intruders and to increase the safety of the children and the staff there. ODO also raised sufficient funds to provide personal/medical essentials for the deaf orphans such as kitchenware, clean bed mattresses, clothes, water, and shoes. They even built a huge vegetable garden for the children to eat from and worked with an organization, "Humura House" to provide two baby cows to produce dairy for the children. After reading more about their stories, I even wanted to be there to help because I know with my crafty and handy skills (based on my house renovating experiences), I could build something functional for them, too! :) The whole concept of helping others was truly inspiring and uplifting. I felt like I was living through their journey by reading every single blog post and checking out all pictures of their mission in Africa. I've decided to donate funds to help ODO to provide more necessities for the deaf orphans. 

"Lance's Deaf Orphans has always been and still is the main organization that supports the orphans' needs. ODO gave them a boost, increased their monthly donations by $200, and brought a team twice with major projects/funding." - Alex. 
 

I also had this aspiration to check into adoption because the pictures of the children (from Lance's Deaf Orphans) said enough for me to bring them home! During that time, I checked into Lance's Deaf Orphans adoption information to read about eligibility. To my disappointment, I found out that I had to live in Kenya for 6 months in order to adopt one of the orphans, which at that time seemed to be unrealistically impossible for me. Instead, I donated some funds to make myself feel worthy knowing that I did something at least to help. Naturally, it made my heart warm. :) Giving is better than receiving. The sense of community compassion without expecting anything in return should be practiced everyday.

Back then when I first donated to ODO, I was getting their newsletters regarding their status with their missions to help deaf orphans. From there, it really pushed me to seek into helping others and the potential of adopting from somewhere else (and look at where we are now- in the process of adopting from Colombia!). 

I love how a random afternoon reading about house renovations would lead me to an amazing opportunity in helping others. Things do happen for a reason! 

 

::One Love, One Heart, One Destiny::

We just launched our new T-shirt fundraiser and it is on www.booster.com/AdoptingASipek! The last day for this fundraiser is on June 21st.  Again, we want to wholeheartedly THANK Jennifer Cavalcanti for her fantastic design! She worked diligently to capture the perfect picture to represent our adoption journey. We love it the design so much! :) If you want to order the t-shirt, please take a picture of you wearing it and hashtag it at #AdoptingASipek. We'd love to add all of your pictures to our adoption album!

Please share this fundraiser with everybody or via social media to reach a larger community to be a part of this story as well! :) Thank you soooo much! 

Much love,

Brooke & Brian

P.S. We are done with work for the summer (yesssss!!!), thus we will be able to update more information regarding our process soon!

::All about Colombia::

Some of you asked us about what's in Colombia?

We thought it'd be fun to share some intriguing tidbits about Colombia; our curiosity got us navigating through several websites about Colombia and discovered some awesome tidbits. Possibly we'll tempt you into traveling there someday? Anyways, we knew that coffee and futbol's popular there; what really surprised us was that Colombia (Bogota, specifically) has the most extensive network of cycle routes out of every city in Latin America and almost the world... considering the fact that we live here in Austin and there are a lot of bike routes around here. Lance Armstrong is from Austin, but Bogota topped it all! 

We have been to New Orleans' Mardi Gras (we lived in Louisiana for a year plus) events including their parades... but seems like Mardi Gras is nothing compared to Colombia's festivities since Colombia is the home to the world's second largest parade and carnival. Wow. We'll need to check out when the festivities are. It would be fun to catch one while we travel there. Who holds the world's largest carnival? Rio de Janiero (Brazil).

Our Austin is the home to many watering holes, but Colombia is the home to the world's most colorful river! Caño Cristales aka "The River of Seven Colors" or "The Liquid Rainbow" is located in Serranía de la Macarena, a small pueblo with less than 4,000 inhabitants. The "National Geographic-worthy" photos of the Caño Cristales river is beautiful! An explosion of natural colors are really from the river weeds in case you were wondering. Yes, they really do exist. Let's hope we'll be able to see this river when we go down to meet our forever child.. whenever that happens!

We were told that Bogota is a mix of New York City and California in one place including the skyscrapers and seaside mountains. Very true based on the photos. We didn't really realize that Bogota is one of the most "up and coming" countries in South America. The pictures say it all. Looks quite busy and crowded, yeah?

We are foodies. Well, kind of. Perhaps, we should ask Anthony Bourdain about his go-to eateries in Colombia. We'd be more than willing to taste a variety of Colombian food while we are down there. We Googled and narrowed down the most popular Colombian food: arepas are cornmeal cakes and commonly stuffed with fillings ranging from cheese and beans to pork or shrimp. Sounds a lot like a stuffed biscuit. We'll confirm once we taste them in Colombia!

Colombian empanadas sound really appealing... "In Colombia, empanadas are also sold outside of the churches. They are usually small and just have potato filling. Some make them with yellow corn meal, others with white corn meal, some make them with beef, others with chicken, with guiso (seasoned sauce), without guiso, with potato, without potato. But, they're all very tasty." Ok, it's on our "to-taste list"!

Ajiaco is a Colombian potato soup. "Ajiaco consists of a thick soup made from meat of different types (beef, pork, chicken) and tubers: potato, cassava, yams, green bananas, pumpkin, corn and of course chili." We are adding this on our list as well.

 

Okay, enough with the food. The photos are making us hungry. 

How big is Colombia? To be specific, the total area of Colombia is around 440,831 square miles, which is equivalent to the areas of Portugal, France, and Spain put together. Meaning Colombia is bigger than the state of Texas by 172,251 square miles. The bottom line is, Colombia is a decent size country.

One last thing... wanna know which animal represents Colombia? The terrifying, we mean.. majestic Andean Condor. Andean Condors are huge... one of the largest birds of prey in the world. Great. Their average wingspan is 10.5 feet. To really think about the size, their amazing length is longer than a famous former NBA player, Shaquille O'Neal's height. Yikes. So, here's a beautiful (well, maybe not so much..) up-close photo of the Andean Condor...

 We checked airbnb.com for housing in Bogota to get a better picture of the cost for us to stay when we travel to pick up our child. The hotels are ridiculously expensive?! There are some hotels designated for adoptive families, but the prices are crazy as well. We figured that it may be budget-wise for us to rent a place during our stay there. We are required to stay approximately 6-8 weeks in Bogota to finalize our adoption process. So, we are thinking far ahead to gather information to get our expenses ready. Although, it would be really nice and preferable if we stay with a host family. We shall see when time's much closer. We truly cannot wait to travel to Colombia someday!

Colombia 101 is complete. You may be dismissed. :)

::Do Small Things with Great Love::

Apologies all around for our month-long hiatus from blogging, our plates have been really full and getting piled up on with ARD/IEP (only teachers can relate) meetings, end of year testing, and so on... our lives as teachers towards the end of the school year is quite overwhelming! We are looking forward to June 6th when our summer officially begins! Hooray! By then, we'll be able to focus on our adoption process with paperwork for our dossier wrap-up. 

Our adoption agency just informed us a while ago that they will be affiliated with another orphanage in Colombia, which is a great opportunity for us because they have seen Deaf children from there many times in the past. Fingers crossed. Until then, our focus is to get in line for ICBF (Instituto Colombiano de Bienestar Familiar) approval.  This approval is in order to speed up the process of getting matched to  a potential child.  Other than this, there's nothing else new to report at this moment. 

We want to update you on our two recent fundraisers with Subsidy Shades and Noonday Collection; both fundraisers were a success! THANK YOU!

For Subsidy Shades, we raised $152.87; Noonday Collection $216. Each penny earned, counts! :)

We will have another T-shirt drive in June and wanted to reveal the shirt design now! All proceeds will go towards our adoption to bring our little Sipek home someday! We want to give special thanks to Jennifer Cavalcanti for her innovative design and support towards our adoption process! You can see that the Texas and Colombia flags are incorporated in the heart sign; how cool is that?! We will share further information regarding the T-shirt drive soon.

Here's the last, but not least news about Brooke's Bits & Pieces via Etsy shop and there will be new items coming soon this summer! We will keep you informed!

We are a part of a Yahoo! adoption discussion group, which covers many adoption-related discussions and wanted to share some fundraising ideas for you all who are interested in adopting. Check out the links at the bottom of this blog. We want to give you an honest heads up that fundraising isn't easy, but requires a full effort to raise funds for an adoption. Why, you may ask? It depends on how clear you are on your mission behind the fundraiser and how to reach a larger community to support your mission. Using social media is one thing, but you really need to share your story out there to increase visbility and supporters. We know we are not like the Burdens family who raised $35k in 4 amazing months. Patience and persistence will pay off for us. We will reach our goal someday. Currently, we have approximately $12-15k (we're about halfway) left to pay our entire adoption. We applied for two adoption grants a while ago and one of the grants will be reviewed soon in June... hopefully, we will get lucky with a grant! Fingers crossed. 

Someone contacted us regarding a community fundraising event (similar to crowd-funding) where our other supporters fundraise for us. It takes a village to make a huge difference, ultimately. Admittedly, we are... let's say, too humble or modest to ask for volunteers because of one main reason- we are not even sure if volunteers out there are willing to put the effort in gathering funds for us- especially for those who do not really know us. However, we will try and take a leap of faith in this to see what happens. We will create a Facebook page for volunteers by asking close friends/families all over America to share ideas on how everybody could contribute to the funding such as hosting a bake sale, selling handmade items, hosting a community spaghetti dinner, running a lemonade stand, etc. To assure the volunteers that their efforts will be greatly appreciated and for us to show you that our purpose is legit and credible; the donations will be directly donated to our adoption agency or via AdoptTogether. Your honest thoughts? Feel free to comment below. We want positive feedbacks, please. We are constantly seeking innovative ways to raise funds.

For prospective adoptive families, here are some fundraiser ideas:

http://showhope.org/3-ways-fundraise-adoption/

http://yestoadoption.blogspot.com/2010/12/adoption-fundraising-ideas.html

http://www.addingaburden.com/2012/08/adoption-fundraising-advice.html

http://whenatlast.com/2013/01/07/fundraising/

http://mycrazyadoption.org/crazy-fundraiser-for-a-mission-trip/

http://mercyfoundministries.com/blog/10creativefundraisingideas/

We personally would love to do all those awesome ideas, but as just two people to work, we cannot do them all! If we were able to grow 20 more arms and hands, that might work. Where's the genie in a bottle to grant us a wish? :)

We promise to update as soon as we are done with the school year!

Much love, 

Brooke & Brian