The last few weeks have been EXTREMELY busy as we've been preparing for our fundraising event. We're so excited to report that it went SO well! It was a fun evening full of great music, great silent auction prizes, lots of food and drinks, and great company. We loved getting to see and chat with (almost) everyone who came and we were once again amazed by the community around us - we have such supportive family members and friends, and a supportive church community.
We want to say thank you so much to every person who came and supported us - in one evening we were able to raise enough money to cover the costs of our flights, the cost of shipping some boxes to Romania ahead of us, and even some extra that we can put toward purchasing some basic household items when we arrive in Romania. We also received several new monthly donors which means that if everyone who pledged monthly support also gives, this puts us over halfway to our monthly support goal!
If you weren't able to come to the fundraiser but you'd like to donate, feel free to do so online. Clicking the link below will take you to our TGCF page where you can make a one-time donation or sign up for regular monthly donations via your credit card.
Click here to make a donation online!
If you are one of the people who pledged monthly support to us over the last few months, we are completely set up with The Great Commission Foundation to begin registering monthly donors and taking donations. You can CLICK HERE to head over to our donation page for more information about how to become a monthly supporter or to make a one-time donation.The only regret we have about our fundraiser evening was that neither of us took one single picture the whole night!! We had planned on taking some photos and video, but the night got so busy for us that it just slipped our minds. So if you happened to take a photo or two, please pass them along to us if you can!
We've been watching flight prices closely since flying a family of four halfway across the world is not cheap (as I'm sure you can imagine!), and a few weeks ago we discovered some lower-than-normal fares to Europe right around the time we were planning to fly. We decided to trust God with these prices and wait until after the fundraiser to book our tickets. We contacted the airline first thing on Saturday morning and we're thrilled to report that not only did we get a steal of a deal on our flights (seriously...like over $2000 less than we had expected!), we also were able to choose flights at absolutely ideal times of day which, if you've ever travelled overseas with young kids you will appreciate!
Typically overseas flights to Europe have you arriving first thing in the morning, forcing you to make it through an entire day not having slept for over 24 hours. We've done these kinds of flights many times just the two of us and once when Miriam was about 1 year old, so we know how torturous that first day of jet lag can feel, especially with an over-tired child whose internal clock is messed up. The flights we booked have us arriving in Bucharest at about 5pm, just in time for a good meal and an early bedtime at a hotel near the airport. We're hopeful that this will ease the kids into a different timezone although as any clever parent would, we're also preparing ourselves for having 2 tired, fussy kids for a few days!
Aside from the fundraiser we've had lots of other things going on around here lately. We celebrated Eden's 2nd birthday at the end of April. We had a super fun animal-themed family birthday party for her and we had such a great day celebrating our not-so-little-anymore baby girl!
(excuse the grainy iPhone photos...)
I (Chrissie) made Eden some animal cupcakes which she LOVED! And I put together a little video tutorial for my food blog showing how to make them, which you can watch HERE if you wish.
We've also been hard at work selling our furniture and other things, and we'll be having our first garage sale this weekend (May 14). Please feel free to stop by and say hi or look through our things for sale, and please spread the word to all your bargain-hunter friends! We're hopeful that we'll be able to get rid of a lot of our stuff this weekend!!
Prayer requests:
- Thank God for His provision through our fundraiser, and for such a supportive community around us
- Please pray for us as we make some big decisions regarding whether or not to keep our house
- Please pray that we'd be wise with our time in the coming weeks - we have so much preparation work to do!
- Please pray that we would be able to maintain a sense of self-discipline in our life while things are busy and life feels out of control; that we'd be purposeful about spending quality time with each other, as a family and with God.
- Please pray that God would provide more monthly supporters for us over the next few months so our financial needs will be met while we're in Romania, and for us to trust Him through our preparations.
Practical Needs:
- We're still in need of used suitcases or large duffel bags (old, not-too-smelly hockey bags would be perfect!) for travelling and shipping things ahead of us.
- We're getting serious about selling our furniture and other belongings, so if you could help us spread the word about our things for sale it would be so helpful!
Thanks so much for reading this update!
Love,
The Bakers
