TONIGHT!! SWEET TOMATOES FUNDRAISER - Feb 7

Hi Tucson friends!

We have missionary friends who just found out the parents and possibly their two little children, have severe lead poisoning. Since the treatment costs thousands of dollars (for just one person), they are holding a fundraiser tonight at Sweet Tomatoes. You can have a healthy meal and another church is matching all funds raised!

PLEASE PRINT THE FLYER BELOW AND PRESENT IT AT SWEET TOMATOES. Pass this on to your other Tucson friends and family!! Let's help this young couple get the treatment they need. You can also check out their blog at: http://kellersc23.com/blog/

TUCSON FRIENDS...GOT A FAVOR, ASAP!!

Hey Tucsonans... If any of you have baby and/or kids items that you would be willing to donate for an adoption fundraiser for us, PLEASE EMAIL ME ASAP! (ddsullivan2@msn.com) I just discovered an easy fundraiser in Tucson, but I have to collect everything by Tues, Jan. 18...TOMORROW! Ack!

Basically, it's a massive consignment fundraiser and we would receive 65% of the sales to put toward our adoption. If you have anything you're willing to donate, I will be happy to swing by and pick it up tomorrow. Items must be in good condition (no stains, nothing broken, no missing parts, no rips/tears, etc). Below is a list of items:

Clothing (preemie to junior sizes)

Toys

Infant/kids furniture

Blankets/bedding

Games/Books

Shoes (must be in really good condition)

Dvds/video games

Sorry for the short notice, but as I said, I just found out about it myself!! Thanks everyone,

****ALSO, if you choose to do the fundraiser for yourself, please write my name as a referral on the website registration and we'll receive $5 for everyone who participates! www.jbfsale.com****

-Denise

Email: ddsullivan2@msn.com

FACELIFT

A cream area rug screams "Blank canvas! Do something to me!" So...I did. Our 11ft x 12ft area rug came with our house. For a year, I looked around at other rugs, eyeing bold colors and patterns but never justifying the hundreds of dollars I would have to spend. Then, a few days ago, I stumbled across some internet articles about dyeing a rug. I thought, hey..I can do that!

So for the last 2 days, I have worn out two spray bottles covering our rug in RIT dye. I found an interesting rug pattern on the internet and used it as a guide while adding my own twist. The result was better than I expected (plus I got an amazing workout on my legs and gluttious maximus. ha!) Below are the photos.

Spraying on the RIT

Adding shapes

Looks like a mess but that's how I roll.

Base colors down....taping the template for the half circles.

Almost finished!

Border painted...Done in a weekend!

In the Blink of an Eye

I am still numb from the tragic events in Tucson last Saturday. I have shopped at that Safeway store many times. I know several church members and friends who would've been there that morning, but for various reasons....running late, change of plans...they, thankfully, were somewhere else. Tucson is a city with a small town feel. People live here to get away from big city crime and problems. No one expected to ever deal with anything like this.

It is hard to know how to help. It's not like a natural disaster....rather an emotional disaster. My heart aches for that young girl's parents. Several of our church members and friends know someone who was killed or injured in the massacre. It is a reminder that life is fragile and it doesn't have to be a car accident or plane crash....it can be taken away unexpectedly. And that poses another question in mind...

Did the 6 murdered victims know about Jesus? And if not, why not?

One church member posted a thought provoking facebook status, "One thing is clear...one person was not transformed by the gospel". Every opportunity is an important one for Christ. Not to try to change a person ourselves...but to plant a seed and give them the chance to make that choice for themselves. But a seed can't plant itself.

We have prayed for opportunities for us, our church to minister, serve and witness to our community during this time. We've prayed for those affected by the tragedy. We've prayed that hate not be given priority but for God's intervention.

And one thing is clear through all this:

For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, ³⁹ neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Romans 8:38

PRAYER VIGIL TONIGHT (Sat)

PRCC is shocked and saddened by the senseless tragedy in our community Saturday morning.
Our hearts go out to those whose families were affected and those who losttheir lives. We want to encourage our community in this time by offering a

Prayer Vigil tonight at PRCC
7pm

We invite the community to join us for a special service tomorrow,
Sunday, Jan. 9 at 10am

Happy 21st!

Newlyweds 1990

Yesterday, hubby and I celebrated our 21st anniversary! 21 years ago and I was 21...getting hitched. Hard to believe time has gone by so fast. It's been awesome to be married to my best friend all these year. Happy Anniversary babe!

Happy 2011!

Happy New Year! Hope you all had a great time during the holidays. We've wrapped up 2010 with amazing travels, visits with family and good friends, our first mission trip, new friends, and progress with our adoption.

In December we completed our CIS/I-600a fingerprints (federal fingerprinting). That was a whopping $830 expense and almost missed Don's appointment, but thanks to an early flight home, he made it! Many have been asking where we are in the adoption process. We are still getting our dossier paperwork together. There is one adoption class to finish, several AZ docs that need notarization, all AZ docs also need authentication by the Secretary of State, Visa photos to be taken, and awaiting the 171H form from our fingerprinting. Once we have all that done, we can send our $4100 and dossier off to the agency for double-checking, translation to Ethiopian and then it can be sent to Ethiopia for processing! The dossier is much more than paperwork and very time consuming. We call it our "paper pregnancy". haha.

So, we look forward to 2011 with hopes of a referral later this year! We have raised over $7,000 to date (both our funds and donations from others). Thank you EVERYONE who have made this possible...both for our family and for an orphan.

We are still fundraising through our Just Love Coffee fundraiser, our Adoption Bug T-Shirt fundraiser, and if you don't need coffee or t-shirts, but want to help, you may donate using the DONATE button to the right of our blog or on our Adoption Website: Three and Counting-Sullivans Ethiopian Adoption.

Thank you everyone and here's to the possibilities in 2011!!!

-The Sullivans

Almost halfway to our goal!!!