Sunday, October 25, 2009

Help us Fund our Adoption by Joining Blastoff!

The blastoff network has officially launched! Here is the link to my homepage: my.blastoffnetwork.com/devontarr! The first day the invitation service was activated, so many people were trying to log on that their load balancer for their services exploded and everything was down for the better part of a day. I'm sorry if you were trying to join at this time and it wasn't working! Things seem to be up and running great now and we hope that people will be excited about joining even though it's brand new and people haven't heard of it. Pizza Hut is going to start marketing it soon on all their pizza boxes, so the word should begin spreading fast. For those of you who are reading my blog for the first time, the Blastoff Network is a new internet company offering a customizable homepage where you can do lots of fun things and save significant money when you shop online from over 400 major retailers. Also, when you share the network with your friends, you get a small percentage of anything they purchase through the site and of anything their friends purchase up to the 10th degree of separation. This means if people begin to understand how significant this could be and join through you or someone that can be traced to you, a large network can be built that might yield some significant extra income.

We are going to use anything we make from this to complete our adoption! It has been over a month since we sent in our dossier to Ethiopia, and we are 9th in line in our agency (that we know of) for a baby girl and 20th for a referral in general. We are still expecting to receive our referral sometime next summer. Our desire is that we would have everything taken care of before the courts close next year, but we trust the Lord's perfect timing to bring Brielle (the name we have chosen for her) into our family!

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Blastoff is Launching Oct. 22nd!

We just got word that Blastoff is launching in two days Oct. 22nd at 12 noon central time! This is exciting because it means that you will now be able to go to my blastoff homepage at my.blastoffnetwork.com/devontarr any time after 12 noon Oct. 22nd and sign up to get your own homepage so that you can start sending it to all your friends. If you are interested in knowing more information, please send me an email at devon720@yahoo.com Pizza hut has a contract with Blastoff to start marketing it on Oct. 27th, so there will 5 days before any one else is able to start marketing it to get the word out first.

As far as our adoption goes, we are now one month into the wait since our dossier made it to Ethiopia and are excited at how fast it seems to have gone. We have been brought much to do and accomplish during this wait which we trust will help the time seem faster than it really is. We are having fun being part of our adoption agency's yahoo group for families in process of adoption from Ethiopia. We are seeing what the needs are to pray over and rejoice in everyday. There is a real community fostered in this way that we are excited to be a part of!

Sunday, October 11, 2009

Another Blastoff Update! (and the FCF camping trip)

We just got back from the first annual Forerunner Christian Fellowship campout. We had a great time at the Castle Ministries lodge and grounds about 45 min. outside Knoxville. The kids had such a fun time, they cried when we left. Thankfully the rain cleared up before we got there yesterday and we had a sweet time of fellowship, worship, talent shows, grilled burgers and hotdogs and smores around the fire. I'm so thankful my Mom who was in town from Reno, NV for Kendra's birthday got to come as well!

As far as Blastoff is concerned, they are needing to delay the launch date, hopefully for the last time. They are needing a few more days in working with all the major email companies to prepare them for the volume of invitations coming and are making sure Blastoff invitations are fully SPAM compliant. As soon as I hear an exact date, I will post it here. For now, keep telling your friends and family it is coming and feel free to email if you have any questions at
devon720@yahoo.com

Saturday, October 3, 2009

Blastoff Date Changes!

The date that you can sign up for Blastoff is now Oct. 12th. You will still have two weeks to tell all your friends before it goes public on Oct. 26th. We're sorry if you tried to join and it didn't work earlier. We had our first conference call with the other families who are adopting from Ethiopia from America World and are "waiting." It made everything even more "real" and we are so thankful for the Wonderful experience we have had with our agency and everyone we've been working with. We could not be more thankful for the way we are being cared for during this process. We are still expecting a 9-11 month wait for a referral, which would put us in June-August of 2010. It will be fun to see what the Lord has, and in the mean while He is bringing us plenty to keep us busy during the wait. Our daughter Kendra is turning six this week and we are so thankful for her life. She prays every day for her "sissy" to have enough food and be protected in Africa. She is so excited that each "step" of this process brings us one step closer to her.