And Much To Do While We Wait

On May 9th Meagan and I announced that we were beginning the adoption process. Since that time we have attended a workshop to learn more about the process, I have recorded a CD to sell and raise money, we completed our home study, we assembled our profile book, we raised enough for our first payment,  and now, over 8 months later everything is submitted and hopefully soon we will be on the waiting list.

We just wanted to say thanks to all who have helped us get this far in the journey. We are no where near the end, but it is a relief to basically get step 1 behind us.

So what's next?

Next we pray and wait. We wait for whoever God has chosen to come into our lives, choose our book and give us a phone call letting us know it's time for step 2.

Until then though there is still much to do. We are still selling CDs. Hopefully there are still some people out there who would like one or more. If that's you go to forkintheroadmusic.com/purchase.

Some friends are putting together a children's clothing, furniture and toys resale fundraiser for us. So we will be busy collecting, sorting, and pricing for that.

We want to go ahead and get the nursery ready, since we do not know when we will need it. We will be moving some things around, re-arranging, painting, cleaning and working on that project too.

That's about all of an update that we have right now. Again, thanks for your prayers and support.

Russell and Meagan

Special Thanks to Indie Heaven

When I created the Lullaby CD, I had hoped to sell a few copies to help with our adoption process. So far this is going pretty much according to that plan. I recorded the CD and put it up on Indie Heaven.

Indie Heaven is a site dedicated to helping independent Christian artists. Since I had been on there for some of my other music I thought that would be a great place to put this CD.

What I did not expect though, was to receive a donation of $1000 towards our adoption process from its members. 

Here is a bit of the blog post shared by Keith Mohr, Indie Heaven President:

"After I learned more about the reason for Russell’s new CD, I prayed how Indieheaven could be of help to them, and I sensed God leading me to donate a portion of the income received from our wonderful Indieheaven members support in December. I notified Russell about the donation, and they were very grateful for the donation."

This donation has helped us to get a good start on our second payment, along with continued CD sales, a few concerts, and setting money aside.
I encourage you to go check out Indie Heaven and its various artists. There are many Christian artists, with many different styles.
Check out the top 20, listen to Indie Heaven Radio, or go vote on the Fan Faves.
Again, thank you.

The Book Has Arrived

Today we received our profile book in the mail. The book contains photos of our lives, friends, families, town and more. This will give potential birth mom's an bit of an idea if who we are. This is one of the final pieces we needed to complete stage one. Soon we will mail this off to the agency, along with the first check and some more paperwork so we can be listed as potential adoptive parents.

In other good news we did a little bit of calculating and figured out that we are half way to our second payment. This will be what we will pay when we get matched with a birth mom. The third payment is due when the process is over. Right now though we are glad to almost have the first payment and step complete.

We want to thank you all for your continued prayers. Also want to remind you that the Lullaby CD is still for sale. It makes a great gift for new or expecting mothers. www.indieheaven.com/artists/russellmartin

Thanks again!

Russell and Meagan

Dear Baby- #5 Meet Your Future Family

Dear Baby,
This past Christmas we got everyone together for a family photo.
They are all praying for you and can't wait to meet you!


- Love,
Russell and Meagan

The Next Step

I shared in an earlier post about the cost of adoption. I mentioned that our first goal was to raise the money required to list our profile with the adoption agency. This way our book and profile can be shown to prospective birth mothers. I told you about the Hopes Prayers and Lullabies cd that I wrote to help raise money for this process. I wanted to raise the first payment, $1750, by selling this CD. In the middle of December I wrote to you saying that we had 50 more CDs or about $500 more to go, and that I wanted to raise that by the end of 2010.

I am glad to report that today we reached that goal. We have a few finishing touches for our book and then we will mail it, along with the first check off so we can be listed. It is a great feeling and an awesome time, yet I know there is much more work to do.

Someone asked me what happens now. Well, once we are chosen by a birth mom, and agree to be the adoptive parents then we will have our next payment of $5000 due. This could be at any time from a month, to a year or more. This means we will need to continue saving, and raising money for when this happens. I am glad to say that we have received some donations to apply to that payment, so we are on our way.

How can you help?

1. Keep Praying
2. If you have bought a CD tell your friends about how they can get one and how you like it.
3. If you have not bought a CD, buy one.

Thank you all for your support as we travel down this journey.
We'll keep you posted!

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Russell and Meagan Martin

Cds Update Now 23 Left To Go!

Almost one week ago I wrote about needing to sell 50 more CDs, to raise enough money to post our adoption profile. I am glad to report that many of you purchased CDs and now we are only 23 Cds away from our goal.

Our hope is to have this all ready to go by the first of the year. That means we have 9 days to sell 23 Cds. If you break that down it's a few more than 2 Cds per day.

When I wrote the songs for the CD I had in mind a lullaby CD for infants. Many people though have written me back since purchasing it saying that their kids, and teenagers have "stolen" their CDs to listen to. One church uses some of the instrumentals for altar times. Teachers are playing it in their classrooms.

Since my last update I have been contacted by two churches who want me to share my music and our adoption story with them. From the beginning Meagan and I said that one of our goals, one of the reasons we have started this blog is so that through sharing our adoption journey, we can be an advocate and encourager for other couples wanting to adopt. I am so thankful for these upcoming opportunities.

So I hope that you will do three things. 1. If you have not yet, buy the CD. 2. Consider having me come to your church, class, group or meeting to share my music, lead worship, and talk about our adoption journey. 3. Pray for us, couples considering adoption, birth moms making the choice to put their child up for adoption, and all those friends and family members supporting those on all sides of this process.

50 CDs Away

I sat down and did a little math to figure out that we are closer than we thought. When I originally came up with the idea for the Hopes Prayers and Lullabies CD I wanted to sell enough to pay for our first payment of $1700. Thanks to your generosity we only have $500 to go, that's about 50 CDs.

There are several ways we can get to 50 CDs by the end of the year.

1. Someone could buy 50 Cds to give to all their friends.
2. 10 of you follow this blog. If you got 5 friends each to buy a CD then that would be 50
3. 314 of you follow Hopes Prayers and Lullabies on Facebook. If 1/6 of you bought a CD that would be 50. If you each bought one that would be half way to the second payment.

So if you know of someone who would like a CD tell them to go to http://www.indieheaven.com/artists/russellmartin and buy one. If you have a website or store for children's clothes, toys, games etc..., and would put up a link or put some CDs in your store, let me know. If you could send out a tweet, email or facebook message to your friends, letting them know about our story and this CD, please do. As always continue to pray.


P.S.
Some one asked me what would happen if all the sudden the Lullaby CD went viral, and we sold enough copies to cover all our expenses. What would we do? First I'd faint. But after that, we plan to put the extra money from the CD into an adoption fund for the next couple who wants to adopt.