A Beloved's Journey

As many of you know I need to raise $20,000 before I can move on to the next step of the adoption process. So what is the next step and why $20,000? Currently I am raising money in order for my Home Study Report to be approved. This report talks about my job, personality, house, beliefs family etc etc. Basically it sets out to show whether or not I am a good candidate for adoption. Part of this report needs to prove that I am financially able to afford to adopt and stay at home with Bunny for at least a year to form strong attachments. Being a single person with a mortgage the financial situation has been seen as a bit of a squeeze. My social worker has said that I will need evidence of $20,000 in my account before she will put my Home Study through for approval. So will the adoption cost $20,000? No. It will cost more than that. Once my report is close to being accepted I need to register with ICANZ (InterCountry Adoption New Zealand). This is almost $2,900 and covers the ...

On Tuesday approximately 97 people attended the fundraiser quiz night at The SugarHorse in Christchurch. We packed the bar and the outside court area. There were laughs, groans, plenty of food and incredible raffles. And I was humbled (and a bit overwhelmed) at the generosity and support of everyone who attended or supported in other ways towards the evening. Everyone wanted to know the story, to know what was happening next and were so excited for the journey. This community continues to grow. I didn't know at least a quarter of the guests that night. In fact one whole team I had never met and two others I only knew one person! There were friends from church, from work, from high school, from kids camps years ago, my cousins, Mum's workmates, my cousin's workmates, my friend's friends and parents and sisters... the list goes on! The quiz was extremely difficult. I had planned to slot into a team but instead I enjoyed talking to everyone and soaking up the atmosph...

A month from today I will be holding a quiz night at Sugarhorse to raise funds towards my $20,000 target (we have just over $3000 currently). I also have 3 raffles that will be drawn on the night but tickets can be brought from me beforehand. Each raffle has one main prize pack with lots of goodies. Tickets are $2 each and you can choose your number. The raffles are detailed below with the amazing organisations that have gifted items. If you are interested in buying some raffle tickets email me at amy.millar85@gmail.com. Thanks! Raffle #1: The Beauty Raffle This raffle is for the women... Hair by Sonya voucher - My incredible hairdresser who manages to turn my wild array of curls, twirls and straight into gorgeous flowing curls every time. Sonya is an incredible woman who also has a heart to make a difference in the world (ask her about how she is supporting girls rescued out of slavery in Cambodia). Sonya is incredibly skilled at her profession, not many people c...

Today on my walk through Hagley Park I stumbled upon this sign written on a bridge. It wasn't just aimed at pigs, there was one for fish too. To start with I was frustrated. If I had chalk with me I probably would have drawn a picture of a women or child and written, "Is your lifestyle (or wardrobe) worth more than her life?" I was fuming that someone could consider that this cause was worthy to 'brandish around' the community. It's an animal for goodness sake... people are dying! As I walked on I reconsidered. This person is obviously passionate about something (not eating animals) and had the courage to put their message out there, to stand up for their cause. My anger and frustration turned to a sort of admiration (sort of). What are you passionate about? What are you willing to stand up for? In order to really live we must be truly passionate about something. I work with people who are truly passionate about the environment, or truly passionate a...

'More often than not, the journey to where God wants to take us requires that we travel further than we ever expected... if you simply give up because the journey was longer and harder than you expected, then you have become a settler when you should be a pioneer. The unfortunate reality is that many of us would... rather settle for less than sacrifice more.' The Last Arrow by Erwin Raphael McManus Pioneering is never easy and settling for the comfortable can seem the best option. But pioneer we must. The past few weeks have been filled with difficult challenges. One of the most recent (and most costly) being waking up to a water cylinder that had been leaking throughout the night. You don't want to discover a leaking water cylinder even at the best of times but when you know the only way to pay for it is to use money you have personally saved for your dream (adoption) it can be dream shattering. So $2,500 and a new water cylinder (and lino) later I'm back to savin...

Several months ago I read a blog about minimisation. I don't know about you, but it is something that I am interested in and would like to be good at... but I'm not. Reading the blog was a great start though and I would like to share with you the ideas behind it. It was written by a parent of three children. And as a family they had decided to get rid of things from their home. On day one they all got rid of one thing. Day two, two things. Day three, three things and so on. Now I don't know about you but I am terrible at keeping up with what day it is and how many things I am supposed to be getting rid of! So instead I counted the items of things I would need to get rid of in a 31 day month, 550. That had a nice ring to it. So in May this year I started throwing things out, selling them or giving them away... ...and I'm still going. Not because I'm amazing at minimising but because I haven't achieved 550 things yet!! I started on a roll. Eager to clear my h...

I've been having a 'dilemma of faith' over the past few weeks and God reminded me of a story found in Matthew 14:25.  The story goes like this: Jesus has just performed a great miracle of feeding thousands of people. He sends his disciples across the lake without him while he spends some time praying. As the disciples are crossing the lake the wind comes up and batters the boat. Many of the disciples are experienced fishermen so a little bit of wind won't cause too much trouble. What they didn't expect was the figure they now saw moving across the water. They were 'scared out of their wits' (The Message) and thought it was a ghost. Jesus was quick to comfort his disciples and tell them it was him. "Courage, it's me. Don't be afraid."(NIV) Peter took this courage and said, "Master, if it is really you, call me to come to you on the water (The Message). Jesus calls Peter out. Peter gets out of the boat (often the biggest step) and b...