Raffle Drawings Delayed...

Generous Friends,

I know I was supposed to draw the winning raffle tickets on Tuesday...

I know today is Thursday!

I had a few last entries and I wanted to make sure that I was able to accomodate everyone who wanted to contribute to the cause...

So...

I will be drawing the winning tickets tomorrow morning - FRIDAY!  So if you still want to enter the raffles, email me TODAY at helpmattandmolly@gmail.com!

I wanted to verify that I have recorded everyone who pledged to contribute.  Please review the lists below and let me know if I have missed your name!

Quilt Raffle:
Janet S. - 10 tickets
Bri M. - 5 tickets
Laura B. - 10 tickets
Michelle B. - 11 tickets
Elizabeth S. - 10 tickets
Andrea T. - 10 tickets
Kellie M. - 5 tickets
Melissa N. - 5 tickets
Barbara S. - 5 tickets
Susan D. - 25 tickets
Lori L. - 11 tickets

Carpet Cleaning Raffle:
Bri M. - 5 tickets
Michelle B. - 10 tickets

Thanks in advance to everyone who is helping the cause...

GOOD LUCK and I promise to post winners tomorrow!

Danielle

They appealed

Well, this morning Matt got a phone call from our lawyer Kevin.  Kevin said that he was so disappointed to see the motion to appeal on his desk because he has a bottle of champagne that he bought and is saving to drink when this is all done.  He was hoping to open that up tonight.  I thought that was a pretty sweet sentiment from him.  We have such a bottle of champagne too.   It's pink.

So we have ten days to file our response.  This is basically just a chance for us to make our arguments one last time.  I THINK (think being the operative word, our lawyer was in court this morning and will talk to us later today to go over details) that after our response is filed the supreme court of Kansas looks over the arguments and then decides if they are going to hear the case or not.  How long they have to do that and the steps that are taken from there are things I'm not entirely sure of so will not speak to right now.

We are mostly sad because there was such a clear view of finish line at the end of the process and now we are back into it for at least a little while longer.  We hadn't really settled into winning the last appeal because as long as someone is trying to take your daughter you will not relax.  We had just hoped this would be it.  Wavybel turns two in June and I so badly want to be finished by then.  Now I don't know if that is possible or not.  The other hard thing is of course now more legal costs.  I am trying very hard not to be furious that we are paying so much while they are paying nothing.

We will post more of the details later. Right now we are just going to try to shake off the weariness and disappointment.  And eat thai food.  Because that always helps.

Love,
Molly

the pictures that go with the last post

holding our breath and praying hard

Dear friends who read this blog,
I (Molly) am out of town and am not able to post the great pictures of Wavybel that I wanted to with this post. A close friend of ours gave Harper a Barbie Kawasaki ATV last weekend.  Harper was thrilled and Wave was beside herself.  We took it out in the front yard and Harper rode it first in her ski coat, a pink ballerina dress AND a pink tutu, black sparkly flats, and a huge flower head band.  Wavy went crazy on the front porch waiting her turn.  She had no fear as Matt put her on and showed her how to make it go by pressing her little foot on the gas pedal. He was laughing and chasing her across the yard as she laughed gleefully with him trying to spot her so she wouldn't fall off.  It was one of those moments that I want to remember forever -- my two girls, the princess and the adventurer having a total experience and loving every moment of it. 
I keep getting choked up thinking about it because I am so ready to just put this all behind us and just enjoy those happy moments for what they are without feeling the full weight of those moments squeezing my chest and making it hard to breathe.  Monday at midnight.  That is how much longer we have to wait.  Two days after all of this time and it could all be over.  Or it could all start right back up again.  Thank you so much for continuing to follow this journey.  The end could really be here.  I am hoping desperately that it is. Only two more days.
Love,
Molly

Almost THERE...

This is Danielle posting...

Friends & Faithful Followers,

Believe it or not... "we" are almost there!  The 30 day timeframe in which the birth father can file his final appeal expires on...

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 22nd!

Let's pull together ONCE MORE (God willing) and pray that this journey will forever come to an END next week!

***

Please be sure to check out the newly added Fundraisers... both of which will expire on TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 23rd.  God willing, I will be able to send M&M and a final "Congratulations" gift in the form of additional funds to help eliminate their legal bills once and for ALL!

Click for details on the Quilt Raffle

Click for details on the Carpet Cleaning Raffle

***

And just in case you didn't see it...

be sure to read Molly's post here! 

It says it ALL!

A Very Crafty Fundraiser!

A Very "Crafty" Fundraiser!

Need a unique gift?

How about something beautiful for your walls?

What about an interesting table topper for your dining table?

This gorgeous 45" * 45" quilt was "made with love" by a WavyBel friend and follower!

And she is generously raffling it off!

100% of the proceeds will go to the "Help Matt & Molly" Fund!

It is machine pieced and quilted from 100% cotton fabrics and batting.

Made of beautiful Spring colors,

it would make a wonderful gift for anyone!

Use it as...

A Baby Quilt

Wall Hanging

Table Topper

Decorative Throw

Get your Raffle Tickets...

1 ticket - $5

5 tickets - $10

The WINNING ticket will be drawn on

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 23rd at 7:00 pm!

To purchase a ticket, email helpmattandmolly@gmail.com

Please pass this information on to your fellow "crafty" friends and family!

Spring Cleaning? How about a FREE Carpet Cleaning?

It's that time of year...

SPRING CLEANING!

Could your carpets use a good spring cleaning?

If so, here is your chance to have get up to $125 worth of carpet cleaning from the cleaning experts at Cottage Care!

And here's the BEST part...

100% of the proceeds from this Fundraiser will benefit the

"Help Matt & Molly" Fund!

Want a chance to win?

Here's how it works...

• 1 Raffle Ticket - $5
• 5 Raffle Tickets - $15
• 10 Raffle Tickets - $25
• To purchase a ticket, email helpmattandmolly@gmail.com
• You may use the PayPal button on this blog to make your payment; however DO NOT include any reference to purchasing a raffle ticket!
• The WINNING ticket will be drawn on Tuesday, February 23rd at 7:00 pm CST
• The winner will be directly notified of their win and given instructions on how to "claim" the cleaning prize!

Other Useful Information:

• The cleaning service must be used in the greater Kansas City area
• The cleaning service will include up to $125 worth of cleaning.  The amount of carpet this will cover is dependent on the size of the house/rooms being cleaned.
• If you choose to have your entire house cleaned, you will receive a $125 credit towards your cleaning.

Remember, purchase your tickets by

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 23rd

Spread the word to friends and family too!

THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU, thank you.

This is a thank you post.  I wanted to express how full of thanks we are for you that follow our story. Your prayers, generousness, and goodwill for us bring such comfort.  I get so irritated with myself when I try to thank people because everything I say is so inadequate.  This too is an old sentiment from me.  For what it's worth though, I would like to lay it out there again. We are filled with such an overwhelming gratitude for the readers that we can barely get our heads around it.  Lately I was looking at the rapidly increasing number of hits this blog has gotten. I think there is a fairly good chance that it is the same seven or so of us just on here regularly! But truly, it really is staggering to be so hugely supported.

When I am having a down day one of my very least favorite things to do (well, fine, it is never something I want to do) is make dinner.  Someone who doesn't even know us but is a friend of a friend of MY MOM'S (what?!) gave us some really nice gift cards for thai food.  Which just happens to be our favorite.  Can you even imagine how it feels to be having a miserable day and have a stranger basically deliver your favorite meal to you and tell you they are praying for you?  We get emails from Danielle all of the time with news about money people have given us for our legal fees. Sometimes we rejoice over the generosity of our family and friends.  A lot of the time we are rejoicing over a gift from someone we can't even place the connection to.  An old friend from college recently knocked on my door TO HUG ME.  I had not talked to her for probably ten years.  People that I will never have the pleasure of meeting have made things to raffle for us that took them hours and hours and they have jobs and families of their own and kids' sporting events to go to.  The parents of some of our close friends keep sending checks to our house.  A few days ago we got an unassuming note on yellow construction paper that contained a really meaningful gift in the name of some friends that have suffered a huge tragedy in their lives.  We can't figure out why anyone would want to do these things for us.  But we are immensely glad that they are.  You just can't wrap your mind around a love like this.  Thank you. Thank you.

I am reading a book right now by a guy I love. His name is Shane Claiborne and he is writing with his friend Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove. They are talking about the importance of community and at one point say "...so much in the world tries to rob us of this divine gift, seducing us to settle for independence over interdependence -- security over sacrifice -- to the point that community looks idealistic and spectacular.  We express our deep hunger for belonging through such forms as nationalism, biological family, marriage or small group Bible study.  And there is some good in all of these.  Like appetizers, they give us little glimpses of community. But we often don't make it to the feast.  We stop short of the great community that God has invited us into."  We are forever changed by the experience of being on the receiving end of this kind of love.  And while we are offering nothing back to this community of supporters please know that there is something transforming about not being able to reciprocate. We are so humbled by you and hopefully are in a much better place to take care of the people around us that are hurting because of your great care for us.  We shudder at the thought of what this experience would be like without you in our camp. Thank you.

Thank you.

Love,

Molly

The Icing on the Cake (or Valentine House!)

Friends,

This is Danielle posting again...

I hope you have had an opportunity to read the post that Molly posted this morning... it not only contains pictures of a too-cute-for-words Wavybel, but also gives some details regarding their most recent "miraculous" win and what lies ahead in terms of making Wavy's adoption FINAL!

There are 20 days left before the time period in which the birthfather can make a final appeal expires.

20 days...

I have received so many emails from Wavybel supporters over the past few weeks sharing their excitement over this most recent WIN, but also asking how they can continue to help.

I have to say, I am amazed...

Amazed by how many people, many (if not most) of them strangers to M&M, have come together to pray for this little girl and her family...

Amazed by the enormity of the generosity that exists among those supporters...

Amazed by the continued offers to help...

Amazed by the emotional and financial relief that we, working as the Body of Christ, have been able to give to M&M and their family!

Quite simply... just amazed!

In a world where it seems like all you hear and see is "bad news" and negativity, being a witness to this little bit of "amazing-ness" has inspired me and given me a renewed faith in people!

So...

As you might imagine, long after Wavy's court case is finalized (and I do believe it WILL be finalized!), the true finanical cost of this battle will linger on.  The legal work continues and the bills continue to come in.  We have been able to help tremendously in eliminating a portion of those bills, but sadly, justice does come at quite a steep price!

So to those of you who have emailed asking "How can I continue to help?" (and to everyone else!), here's how...

First and foremost, continue to PRAY! 

Pray that the birthfather will be completely selfless and acknowledge that it is in the best interest of Wavy to stay in her home... that he would relinquish his parental rights by choosing NOT to pursue an appeal to the Kansas Supreme Court.

Pray that M&M would be able to be at peace for the next 20 days... not allowing fear and uncertainty to taint their time of celebration.

Pray that Wavy's adoption would be FINALIZED as soon as possible so that her name will be officially and forever changed to reflect the family that has claimed her, loved her, raised her, and prayed for her since the day she was born!

Secondly, please continue to donate to the "Help Matt & Molly Fund" in whatever capacity you are able to give.  The PayPal donation button remains available for donations on this blog.  There will also be several new fundraisers being posted on this blog in the coming days and months.  Please check back often to see if there is something that you might be of interest to you!

Wouldn't it just be the ICING ON THE CAKE if we were able to put a BIG dent in those legal bills over the next 20 days?!?!

Let's pull together and give it a go! 

It is when many people come together, giving just a little, that BIG things are accomplished!

So, without further ado, let's kick off "20 days of giving" with a sweet, new fundraiser...

The Icing on the Cake (or Valentine House)!

How precious is this Valentine Candy House?

This work of tasty art was donated by a WavyBel supporter and is completly HAND-MADE!

Looking for something extra sweet and special to give to your Valentine this year? 

THIS IS IT!

WANT IT?

Buy a raffle ticket!

Single Tickets - $1 each

5 Tickets - $4

12 Tickets - $10

100% of the proceeds will go directly to the

"Help Matt & Molly Fund"

Wavybel will draw the winning ticket on FRIDAY!

If you are interested in purchasing a raffle ticket, please email Vicki at bvnagel@gmail.com by Friday!

For delivery purposes,

this fundraiser is limited to the K.C. area.

**********

Thank you again for your continued support!  And please check back daily to check for new fundraisers, pictures, and updates!

Let's make the next 20 days 20 Days of Giving to the "Help Matt & Molly Fund"!

Danielle for M&M

Some of the Details and Thirty Days

Man. Matt and I are having the hardest time wrapping our minds around this latest win. It is so amazing to be able to finally celebrate this victory that we have been anticipating for so long. 

It is more challenging than we thought it would be to let the reality really sink in.  For the last 18 months we have been in the process of trying to finalize Wave's adoption. Well and really, we have been "winning" since this past spring when we won our first round of court. I think that until we walk out of that courtroom with our adoption finalized and the whole thing officially wrapped up we will not achieve complete peace of mind.  I have felt a huge sense of guilt for not being able to revel in this more fully. I just have a sense of unease as we have been in this place before and weren't as close to being finished as we thought we were...

After the court of appeals upheld the original verdict yesterday, the birthfather now has thirty days to appeal to the Kansas Supreme Court.  All this really means is he has to have a lawyer declare his intention to appeal. He could do it tomorrow or on day 30. If he decides to appeal that will start a new process that for sure I will not even worry about in detail -- I prefer to stick to the bigger picture when I worry! If the timeframe lapses and the birthfather does not appeal then we will be able to proceed with the the finalization of Wavy's adoption. That thought is putting a huge smile on my face right now!  So if you would please continue to pray for our family until this is totally over we will be forever grateful to you. As we have any new information we will most certainly post it.  

We received the copy of the ruling last week. One lovely moment we experienced was realizing that the judge that argued the hardest with our attorney in court is the one who wrote the actual ruling.  The thing that saddened Matt and I was that the ruling was written in a way that said to uphold the law the judges ruled in our favor, but it seemed to us that they would have rather ruled on behalf of the birthfather if they would have been able to.  They seemed quite concerned about the birthfather's rights.  That is all fine and good. I am concerned about justice too.  However, how heartbreaking that the justice system is far more concerned with the rights of this man regardless of who he is than the rights of an innocent, precious, and vulnerable baby girl.  Since we had been praying all along that the judges would be unable to put Wavybel into a dangerous or unstable home, this feels to me like a closer call than I would care for.  I would have loved for the judges to focus more on the best interest of the child (which we thought might happen but we're not so sure that it did) and for them to have felt burdened for our daughter.  My heart beats faster thinking that the last ten weeks could have possibly been spent trying to reverse the original ruling.  We will surely never know what was said between those three judges in private chambers but we will daily thank God that he has provided for our daughter and our family in this most amazing way.

Over the past nine days I have cried over huge waves of relief that catch up to me at strange times.  When we bought a mirror today at Target I put it in the cart and Wave looked at herself and smiled and said, "Hi Wavybel." She hadn't called herself that yet and it just got me. Thinking of all of the people that have prayed for her and how amazing she is and how much we love her.  Last night she was going to bed and said to her sister, "I love you Harper" and Harper said, "I love you Wavy" and it filled me with gladness.  Today she was watching Sesame Street and trying to move her head and neck like the puppets were and I just cracked up and cried and whispered thank you thank you thank you.  These are just small examples, but you get what I'm saying.

People keep congratulating us and saying how it is all behind us now. I am so grateful for their words, but I can't keep wariness and fear from creeping up on me. 20 more days.  Please pray that it really is all behind us in twenty more days.  For now we are celebrating this enormous victory and trying to keep any lingering fear at bay.  Thank you so so so much for celebrating with us! We are one (enormous!) step closer to finalizing what we already know is true. This girl belongs with us.