Wednesday, November 25, 2009

Adoption Fundraiser

*Update: We will be fingerprinted on December 1st at the USCIS building in Tampa. This is the last step for us before our paperwork is finalized and on it's way to Ethiopia!! Happy Thanksgiving!!!!

Our adoption t-shirts are here! We are so excited to share them with friends and family. A huge "thanks" to our buddy Andy for making our one-of-a-kind design and Say What Screen Printing for processing our order. When we first started the adoption process Isaiah 43:5-6 was shared with us from our adoption agency. It says, "Do not be afraid, for I am with you." This verse has brought us peace through the most difficult times of our adoption journey. Another part of the scripture that we love is, "I will bring your children from the East..." When we travel to Ethiopia we will be traveling to the East. We are excited to share that we will name our baby Easton!
We are asking for a $20.00 donation for the t-shirt. You can use the secure Paypal link on the right of our blog. Please make sure you send us an email (Ryanashlie@aol.com) with your t-shirt size and address. You can also mail us a check at: 3433 70th Glen E Palmetto, FL 34221.
Thank you from the bottom of our hearts for your love and support, Ashlie and Ryan


Teachers at Wakeland:

Thursday, November 12, 2009

3 Years!!!!

To celebrate our 3rd Anniversary we went to "Queen of Sheba" an Ethiopian restaurant in Tampa. Ryan's sister, Rachel, gave us a gift certificate and we were excited to sample the cuisine. We were happily surprised at how much we enjoyed our dinner. We had a beef and vegetarian sambussa for appetizer, which is a thin flat bread hand-wrapped and stuffed with a combination of lentils, garlic, onions and peppers. For dinner we ordered a meal platter, which was four meat and vegetarian entrees. Ethiopians traditionally eat from one platter, only using their right hand. No utensils are used, you pick up with entrees by using ingera, which is a large sourdough "pancake" made out of fermented teff flour. For dessert the owner of the restaurant brought out fried ingera drizzled with honey and coffee (Ryan's favorite part). We had a wonderful experience and feel prepared to eat in Ethiopia!!!








Sunday, November 1, 2009

like coffee??


We are excited to start our first fundraising campaign! Just Love Coffee is a Fair Trade Certified company, that was highly recommended to us by our adoption agency. $5.00 for each pound of coffee will be donated to our adoption expenses. In addition to donating to our cause, a portion of the proceeds go to building schools for children in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The owner of the company has two beautiful adopted daughters from Ethiopia.

Here is a blurb from the companies website:
Love kids? Love coffee? We do too. There are an estimated 143,000,000 orphans in the world and this number is expected to grow. Rob Webb, founder of Just Love Coffee Roasters, knows personally how expensive the adoption process is. The thought of having to raise tens of thousands of dollars to adopt a child is staggering to many. It can be the obstacle that stands in the way of a family’s commitment to adopt, and many times slows down the process of bringing an adoptive family’s child(ren) home. Many people don’t know where to start. Just Love Coffee Roasters wants to be that starting point for raising money to help unite families with their children.

Please use this link, to ensure your purchase credits our account:
http://www.justlovecoffee.com/fulmerstory

Our goal is to raise $2,000, one flight to Ethiopia. Which means we need to sell 400 lbs of coffee!!! We would love for you to share our link with your friends, family, and co-workers.
Thanks for your love and support,
Ryan and Ashlie