Hi Friends!

For those of you that know us, or have been following the blog, you know we have been on a long journey to start a family. Years of infertility treatments and procedures, and now for the last 6 months or so we have focused solely on adoption as the way we are going to grow our family.

The last two months have been full of home study visits, video production on our little family profile which will be online soon, and writing stories of our lives, family, values, etc that will be combined with 100 or so photos to create a written family profile that will be shown to birth mothers as they set out to choose the family that will adopt their child.

The written profile should be completed in the next week or so, our agency is reviewing the home study we had done locally, and then we will be ready and just waiting for our baby! After we are active it could be a day, or a year + before we are matched!!   Of course we are hoping on the sooner end of things 🙂

In the meantime our good friend Jennifer Allred (our teacher for the Spring Semester of Handmade U) has generously donated her time and fundraising talents (she does great things for JDRF!) to host an incredible adoption auction on Instagram this week!!  Please head over there and follow @handmadeubaby_auction to see all the amazing items that this amazing maker and IG community has offered to our fund!

The world of makers, artists, family, and friends that I am honored to be a part of is incredible.  Jen sent out a request to see if anyone wanted to participate and the outpouring of help and excitement has been crazy good.  This baby of ours is going to have so many people rooting for him/her, what a lucky little one.

There is still time if you’d like to offer something for the auction, otherwise just get ready to do a little shopping for yourself or for gifts, seriously if this was for someone else’s adoption I would be so ready to shop, the items are amazing.

Handmade U will also be offering some fun items for auction, and a special Handmade U/ Handmade Q Collab will be available – get your spouse ready to enjoy this one with you!!!

***One couple with the highest bid will be join us for :
The 1st Handmade U/ Handmade Q Collaboration Weekend Couple Retreat!

On a mutually agreed upon weekend this summer or fall, one couple will arrive at the McGough Homestead on a Friday evening in time for dinner.  Saturday will allow the gals to work on crafts and possibly antiquing, customized for her interests, and the guys will work on smoking Ribs and Pulled Pork for our meals to share.  Jim will share his BBQ techniques he’s acquired and perfected after 2 years of hands-on experience and a handful of BBQ retreats/classes he’s taken from top BBQ National Champions.

Sunday morning will continue the art/crafts-making while waiting to enjoy the BBQ chicken for lunch the guys make before saying goodbye from a fun-filled weekend.

You’ll stay on site in our Summer Kitchen Guest House with all meals Friday evening through Sunday at Lunch included.

Goodies will include Handmade Q and U official t-shirts and aprons and lots of fun crafting supplies.

Value is $1500

Can’t wait to share this fun weekend with a great couple!

xoxo  Thanks to all those participating in making this a fun and exciting event!!

Rachel & Jim

More info coming soon!!