I'm not joking.

Wow.

Do you guys know what you've done??

When we launched our t-shirt fundraiser in July, I secretly hoped we could sell about 100 shirts and make about $1500. Maybe $2000 if we were really lucky.

Needless to say...God had much bigger plans for this fundraiser. MUCH BIGGER. Like completely overwhelming, make me cry, where in the world did that come from plans!

Are y'all ready for this...........??

To date, we have sold 704 tshirts. And made $11,220.12!!!

I'm not joking. Dead serious. And every single cent is getting us that much closer to baby sister!

I could tell you a million stories from all the people that bought shirts! All the ties to us or to our family. Ties to friends. Ties to adoption, ties to hearing loss, ties to kids with all kinds of special needs. People that were absolute strangers. People that bought 34 shirts with plans to gift them to their whole family for Christmas. People that gave WAY over and above what their shirts cost just because they love our family. Teachers from all 3 of the kids schools that supported our endeavors. A church family that once again showed up big time! Posts that were shared hundreds of times just to get the word out. I shipped shirts all over the United States. As well as to Canada, France and Australia. And one will be making its way to Zimbabwe in just a few weeks as well.

Unreal.

I LOVE seeing random Facebook posts and people have on OUR shirt. Or folks will tell me..."I saw someone with your shirt on so I introduced myself!" I mean...all corners of our worlds are colliding and I couldn't be more thankful!

So are you ready for what's next??

I'm being bombarded with requests for a long sleeve version of our tee....

Friends, ask and you shall receive. Here it is, altered slightly so when your husband asks you why you bought another t-shirt from that crazy lady in Kentucky, you can tell him it's NOT the same shirt!

They are Comfort Color (LOVE!) long sleeve tees that fit true to size. And yes, available in brick, seafoam, charcoal or navy! Shirts are $30 each ($34 shipped).

ORDER HERE!!

I'm not expecting to sell another 700 shirts, but every shirt sold, 100% of the profit goes to bring home baby sis. So, it's fall. Buy another t-shirt. Or buy a Christmas present! Or buy a happy October gift for yourself! Whatever you have to tell yourself to justify....

Again, can't say thank you enough to everyone who has supported us thus far! Could not have done it without you guys! Our village is the best village EVER!

And PS...in case you actually wanted an adoption update...we had to put everything on hold at the end of the summer while we moved. Something about they want to see the house you are actually bringing home said child to......... So, moving happened. Social worker came and saw new house. (I'm gonna assume it's because I've done this so many times, but this house was straight up chaos when she came! And I didn't even care. Because I don't have time to!! She said she needed to see beds, fire extinguisher and smoke alarms. I'm just going to hope she ignored the mass quantities of boxes and furniture out of place and bags of trash and piles of laundry.....) Our homestudy is being finished up now. We are waiting on some clearances from the state of Alabama (c'mon Bama, step it up!) and then we can move this train along and get that dossier ready to head to China!

(order a shirt.)

Present and accounted for.

Ok.

I'm doing it.

I'm making no promises on how often it will be updated, but the 'ol blog is being resurrected.

Let's just take a moment and let that soak in..... This. Is. A. Big. Deal.

I know, I know.... I let the world know over a month ago that the Cook 5 was growing again and then just left you hanging........

So here's the quick and dirty on the details. Hopefully, in the next year, we will welcome a new baby sister from China!

We are in the process of getting our home study updated (again.) and could be matched at any point. Since we are practically experts (right....) in our tiny world of hearing loss and we have the best support system in the WORLD in our doctors and teachers and therapists and schools...we have requested a child that is hard of hearing or deaf. I know that sounds like craziness to some people, but knowing that God has called us to adoption, specifically special needs adoption, and that we have all these amazing people around us...I can't imagine why we wouldn't take off down this path again. I've always said that having a child who is deaf is the easiest hard thing I've ever done.........so let's do it again!!

Which leads me to my next point....

We will be doing several fundraisers for this adoption, with the first being a t-shirt. This is our first run at a t-shirt fundraiser, but I have high expectations from you guys!! Read as: buy a shirt. Now.

Because of our sweet Ellie Kate and our new little one waiting for us, this shirt has a special inspiration tied to hearing loss that is also just universal. Even though EK didn't hear sound until she was 27 months old, she knew the "I love you" sign very early on....we also taught our boys this sign when they first came home and we were dealing with major language barriers. It was around the clock charades up in here, no lie! I digress.... Kenny and I also used this sign when were just dating. But I'll spare you the sappy details. Needless to say, it's kinda just become something our family does.

Love. No translation needed.
$20 each -- sizes 2T through Adult 3XL available!

I love this shirt.

Not only does the design point to something close to our hearts, but it's one of those super soft t-shirts you want to wear everyday.

So no judgement if you order one to wear everyday...

Our goal for this shirt is to raise enough money to help us cover our next agency fee, which is about $3,500. I'm just being transparent with you guys. Adoption ain't cheap. And that's a bunch of t-shirts!

This t-shirt will be a pre-order. Orders will be taken through July and hopefully delivered/shipped out mid-August at the latest.

To help us maintain some sort of sanity with this, please use the link below to place your order and then you can use Paypal, Venmo, check, cash, whatever to pay for your shirts. I will be more than willing to hand deliver, meet, or ship shirts to anyone who wants one, so don't let location be a deterrent!

COOK FAMILY ADOPTION T-SHIRT FUNDRAISER

Thank you from the bottom of our hearts from walking on this journey once again with us!! We are very excited and couldn't imagine adopting again without the overwhelming support from our family and friends that always floods our way! We covet your prayers as we prepare for big changes for our family.

And don't forget to order your shirt!!

P.S. I'll update the pics on the blog soon. I promise!