The Kindness of Strangers

So as I sat watching my Real Salt Lake team play last night, I received a text message from a girl I work with. Let me set up the story.

Amanda (girl I work with) works at the Salt Lake Temple each Saturday for a few hours. While working there she has shared my story about my quest. 

One of the sisters heart was touched while hearing this story and yesterday gave Amanda an envelope for me. The sister told Amanda that I sound like a great mother and she wanted to support. She also said "It's not much, but I want to give her something". It was $30. 

$30 from someone who has never met me, never seen me and may never know me in person. My heart sank as I took in what this beautiful stranger (to me) had done. I am touched daily with the giving of so many people. People I know, and now people I don't. Thank you Amanda for sharing Kayleen's Kid Quest.

Thank you to everyone who believes in what I am doing, supports me both emotionally, through donations, and financially. I do know how blessed I am to have you in my life, and am so thankful to be able to share these stories with you. 

Kayleen's Kid Quest continues......

Looks like we made it

In the words of the great Barry Manilow......Looks Like We Made It!!!!! (you know you were singing it in your head as you read that). With the last donation (see "Overwhelmed" blog) and what we had ready to deposit, we made it past the required amount needed to move forward. What an amazing feeling I have knowing so many people believe in this dream I have and are willing to help so selflessly.

I have forwarded the documents to my social worker and the adoption agency and now wait to hear what the next step will be for me so we can get everything submitted to the Haitian government for approval. I have most of the needed notarized documents listed on my dossier so as soon as I hear back from the social worker I will forward those to her for review to make sure we have everything together. What an amazing year and few months this journey has been. Ups, downs, questions, doubts, but I wouldn't change one thing about it. All these emotions have made me a better person and I think helped me find emotions I have had hidden that just may help be a better mom.

While I am not sure exactly what happens next, be assured it will be written here as I find out. This has been such a great way of getting my thoughts and feelings down about certain things as they happen. I must thank Natalie Dansie for getting me on this whole blogging thing. She has really helped me grow in ways I never wanted to

While I have the amount needed at this point in the process, I still need to raise money for other aspects of the adoption. Travel fees (mine and his), court costs, his passport/visa fees, and the like. This being said, I will still be doing recycle runs for aluminum cans and scrap metal, so please let me know if you are willing to donate any of those. I will come pick them up if needed or you can drop them off at the house.

Thank you again for all of your support. I see it, I feel it and I definitely hear it. Thank you for the prayers said on my behalf, the facebook posts, the text messages and the phone calls with your support and love. I cannot believe how lucky I am to have so many great people in my life, from the past and those I have just created friendships with. Everyone of you have supported in your own awesome way.

Kayleen's kid quest continues.............

Overwhelmed

So today is my birthday, no big deal, I have had lots of them over the years. For me, birthdays have become just another day for me. I don't have a husband or kids to share the day with so it's just something that comes and goes. I actually prefer to ride under the radar on this day. So I am totally ok with not hearing "Happy Birthday" or the like on this day each year. As a single person, it's just something that you get used to and just kind of move forward with life. This all changed today for me....... I had the most incredible birthday.....EVER.

It all started with someone at work, wishing they could do more to help with my adoption quest and another thinking I needed something more than "just another day" kind of birthday. With those thoughts, a plan was born. For two weeks, there were little meetings and whisperings throughout the office. A tiny group gathered, discussing things that would suddenly go quiet as I came around the corner. It was beginning to irritate me to be honest, but they would just tell me "You're going to love it". I was going to love no more secrets and whispers is what I was "going to love".

This morning as everyone in the office gathered around my desk to give me a birthday present. I knew I was in trouble as the owner struggled to get through his explanation of the great sacrifice made and the gift I was about to receive. As tears filled almost everyone's eye, including my own, an envelope (a very thick envelope) was handed to me. I opened the card to find the following gift inside:



As most of you know, I only needed $700 to move on to the next phase of this adoption. So you can imagine the blank stare on my face as I tried to grasp what this awesome group of people had done for me.

I fought back the tears and struggled to say thank you and hug each one of them without my voice cracking (can we say unsuccessful). After everyone went back to work. Paige and Amanda stayed to explain what went down. Over the two weeks of whispering and stopped conversations, this incredible group put together a bake sale/car wash this last Saturday. Almost everyone of them showed up to work on a Saturday with home baked goodies, car washing gear, posters, fliers and spent most of the day doing a fundraiser for me WITHOUT ME KNOWING ANYTHING ABOUT IT. They raised $600 for my kid quest. Talk about feeling the love. Those who couldn't make it, donated cash to help out as well.

They already bring in cans every week and save them for me at work, they always ask how the adoption is going and have supported me more than I ever could imagine a group of co-workers doing. Vitality Medical is an incredible place to work with the most giving people imaginable. I am blessed to be a part of this great company.

After they had explained how everything went down, I had to go outside to compose myself. This birthday has been one of the best birthdays I have had in a long time. This is the day that I will look back on for years and find that it was the beginning of how differently I look at my birthdays. With a overwhelmed heart, I try to figure out how to properly say thank you to an incredible group of people who believe in this adoption and my ability to be a mom as much as I do. Thank you all my Vitality Medical family.

www.vitalitymedical.com

Success

   There are many things in life to succeed in, and you can only succeed if you actually try at something. This weekend I succeeded in a couple of different areas but I am only sharing one publicly. The other success is very special to me, so I don't want to ruin that by sharing. When something great comes out of the blue, and you step way outside of your comfort zone to grasp on to it with just a prayer in your heart that it will be worth it, it is a success in my book.   

   Yard sale was a HUGE SUCCESS. I doubled what my goal was. Thank you so much to everyone who donated. I have a couple of big items I wasn't willing to just give away, so I will put them on KSL.com (classifieds) and see if I can get their worth out of them. I have a wet bar, a poker table and may have a roll top desk within a day or so. I planned to have the sale from 7-1 pm on Saturday and as many of you know, we have had rain on and off for a week. I cannot begin to tell you how hard I prayed for good weather. (It started to downpour at 1:05) I am truly blessed. I must thank my sister for coming over to help me, I couldn't have done this without someone there to help. Thank you Kris Lewis. 

   I had a couple of people stop by just to donate money to the cause, I can't even begin to thank them for their thoughtfulness. My heart is so full with the love I am shown through this process. I also had some friends stop in just to give me moral support. How grateful I am that they care enough to just be here for me and wish my luck. My best friend Natalie (who is crazy busy soccer mom, especially on Saturdays) squeezed time in to stop and see how I was doing. She even took a picture with me. It was awesome. Two of the girls I work with Amanda and Paige also came over to support me.Amanda has been to a couple of them to support me in my quest. Paige (and her hubby Kelly) brought quite a few items to donate and then stayed for a while to chat with me. It makes me so happy they would take time out of their Saturday to come out just to be here for me. Thank you Amanda and Paige. 

   As I sit here and ponder just how close it is getting, I get goose bumps. Is this how an expectant mother feels when she realizes how close her time is to becoming a mom? I know I am ready, but the nerves settle in as I think about the reality of being a mom. I AM SOOOOO EXCITED.