Catalog for On-Line Bidding

Here are the items that will be available for on-line bidding in our silent auction next week. These items are available for mailing. Sadly, there are a few items that cannot be delivered through the mail, so they well be reserved for bidders who can pick them up in Mulberry Grove.

Item 001: "Purple Wind" by Hannah Potter

Pictured here with the artist. Oil

(Frame included)

Estimated value $35

Opening bid: $10

 Item 002: Scripture plaques (pair)

Plaster Scripture Wall art

Estimated value: $10 for pair

Opening bid: $2

Item 003: "Eiffel Tower"

Original art on canvas

Estimated value: $25

Opening bid: $5

 Item 004: "Lighthouse" by Liz Hicks

Unframed art by Hannah's sister

Estimated value: $25

Opening bid: $5

 Item 005: "Seascape" by Liz Hicks

Unframed art by Hannah's sister

Estimated value: $25

Opening bid: $5

 Item 006: Russian Teapot

Special Item.

We purchased this hand painted porcelain teapot at our annual meeting while serving as missionaries.

It was part of a fundraiser auction for Lottie Moon Christmas Offering. Our winning bid was $320 donation to the IMB annual Christmas offering.

Opening bid: $20

Item 007: "Foundations" CD by the Lesters

New still in shrink wrap.

CD album contains 14 old favorite hymns and patriotic songs

Estimated value: $10

Starting bid: $2

Item 008: "Toy Story Cookie Jar"

Donated from our cookie jar collection, this ceramic creation features Sheriff Woody and his horse Bullseye on a nostalgic tv screen. Complete with cover.

Estimated value: $25

Starting bid: $3

Item 009: "Comfort Mug"

Mug with goodies inside.

Suggested Retail: $21.96

Starting bid: $2

Item 010: "Butterfly Set" handmade by Hannah

Handmade jewelry. This set includes a silver butterfly shaped necklace and earrings

Crafted by Hannah

Estimated value: $35

Starting bid: $3

Item 011: "Yankee Candle"

Fragrant candle

Estimated value: $15

Starting bid: $2

Item 012: "Cross Hand Towels"

Set of two. Hand embroidered with Cross.

Estimated value: $20

Starting bid: $2

Item 013: "Breast Cancer Awareness Bracelet" by Hannah

Hand-crafted Bracelet designed and made by Hannah.

This bracelet has the Breast Cancer Awareness ribbon (on the reverse of the ribbon charm is the word "hope"). Perfect item for cancer survivors or family members.

Estimated value: $35

Starting bid: $3

Item 014: "Daily Tea Towels"

Antique tea towels - set of 5

Embroidered with days of the week (Tuesday through Saturday)

Estimated value: $50

Starting bid: $5

Item 015: "Faith" Bracelet by Hannah

Charm bracelet designed and made by Hannah.

Bears the word "Faith" in silver

Estimated value: $25

Starting bid: $2

**Item 016:  "Kitchen Basket"

Beautiful Basket filled with helpful kitchen items.

Starting bid: $2

** no shipping, must be picked up in person

 **Item 017: Antique Chifforobe

Wardrobe from early in the last century.

Starting bid: $10

**no shipping, must be picked up in person

**Item 018: Skil table saw (brand new in box)

Nice portable table saw by Skil

Starting bid: $10

**no shipping, item must be picked up in person

Item 019: Crimean Amber art

This framed artwork is a relief done in amber stones.

Created and bought in Crimea where we served as missionaries.

Estimated value: $80

Starting bid: $5

** Item 020: Bathroom Basket

This basket is filled with items for a relaxing bath

Starting bid: $2

** no shipping available, must be picked up in person

** Item 021: Hand engraved stone

Stone to be engraved.

Winner will choose engraving.

This decorative stone will be engraved with your name or message by artist Allen Smith

Sample of the stone Smitty engraved for us.

**Not available for shipping, must be picked up in person.

Please allow time for engraving.

Item 022: Christmas Tea Candles (set of 2)

Silver Christmas candles with tea candles inside.

Starting bid: $2

Item 023: Express Wheels toy cars.

Multi-pak of 20 pocket-sized cars. Includes play mat.

Starting bid: $3

 Item 024: Snowman Craft Kit

This snowman is ready to be painted and can also lights up.

Made out of plaster.

Starting bid: $3

Item 025: Creative ornaments kit

Paint your own Christmas ornaments with this crafty kit

Starting bid: $2

Item 26: Brain Teasers

Metal brain teaser puzzles

Starting bid: $2

Item 027: Can Crusher

Crushes multiple aluminum cans.

Starting bid: $3

Item 028: Angelfish craft

Great craft for little girls.

Starting bid: $2

Item 29: Handmade earrings (3 pair)

These were made by Amy File (pastor's wife from Woburn, IL)

Starting bid: $3

Bidding now open. On-line bidding can be done by commenting here between 4 and 8 p.m. on Friday June 29, 2016, or by joining us on the Facebook Event page, and leaving a bid.
To bid state: your name, the item # you're bidding on, and your bid--check back frequently during the auction time to see if you have been outbid.

** items marked with a double asterisk (**) cannot be practically shipped. Anyone is welcome to bid, but if you desire one of these items you must make arrangements to have the item picked up in person, other items may be picked up in person or we can ship them to you if you cannot get to the Mulberry Grove, IL area easily)

Adoption Fundraiser Update!!!

If you've been reading our progress you remember that we were planning a two-day fundraising event for our Vietnam Adoption funding. You will also remember that we put that event on hold because of other local fundraising events that would affect both our success and the success of the other worthy causes. The dates have been set! So mark your calendars!

Pancake Breakfast!

First of all, June 25, 2016 from 8:00 a.m. to Noon we will be serving a pancake breakfast for anyone who can come by our First Baptist Church of Mulberry Grove fellowship hall. Eat in and carry out available.

Spaghetti Supper & Silent Auction!

We have also scheduled a spaghetti supper combined with a silent auction for July 29, 2016. (You might notice that we have turned the one-time, two-day event into two separate times.)

Supper will be served from 4:30 to 8:00 p.m. on July 29.

The silent auction will begin on Tuesday, July 26 and run until 8:00 p.m. on the 29th. We would gratefully accept any donations of items for the auction. If you have anything that is auction worthy (this is not a garage-sale type event), that you would be willing to donate, just contact me and we can work out the details. Items we are interested in for the auction would include:

• Artwork (framed or unframed)
• Hand-crafted items
• Gift baskets (new items only)
• Gift cards for restaurants and the like.
• Quilts.

(When donating think about what things might be of interest to a large audience--the more value something has, the more likely people will bid on it.)

Thanks for your prayer support, and thanks for your participation in fundraising events for this cause. (We estimate the overall cost of this adoption process at around $30,000 total.)

Special Event

UPDATE!!!

We are postponing the fundraiser (new date to be determined--we'll let you know) because we're finding conflict with several other important fundraisers in our community. We are still looking for donations to the silent auction, and this gives you a little more time to find just the right item.

It's time for us to get serious about raising the nearly $25,000 that we will need to complete our new adoption process. In light of this, we will be having "Adoption Extravaganza 2" (some of you helped by participating a couple of years ago when we did one for Ryan).

Therefore: SAVE THE DATE!
On April 8 - 9 we will have an event which combines silent/online auction with a dinner/breakfast fundraiser.

On Friday April 8, 2016, we will have a benefit dinner starting at 5:30 p.m. at FBC, Mulberry Grove, Illinois. Then on Saturday April 9, we will offer breakfast from 8:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. All donations will be welcomed (I'll have more details on the menu in an upcoming post).

Running simultaneously with the meal benefits will be our sale/auction. Again, I will be notifying you periodically about what will be up for sale and when bidding will begin and end. This portion of the event does not require your presence -- just your access to a computer to bid (bid early and often).

Finally, what is an auction without items to offer? So, if you would like to be of assistance to us while we prepare for just one more little Potter, and you have some item of art, craft, or value in an auction, AND you would like to offer said item as a donation for us to offer in the auction, please contact me via email, telephone, or comment on this post so that we can make arrangements for your item to be included in the auction.

Join us . . . in person or in the virtual world. We'd love to see you there!

Round 2

 

Here's the announcement:

 

 

That's right! Our Little Emperor is pleased to announce that he's planning on having . . . A Little Sister!

 

We are working again with Dillon International, and are just beginning the process. We've identified a little girl in Vietnam, and are praying for a quick turn-around.

 

Here are some ways you can show your support -

1. Follow and share this blog. (We hope to post up-to-the-minute--or at least the-week--information on the process, and we'll do that here.)
2. Pray for our family as we undergo the scrutiny of another Home Study--this time conducted by our friends at Baptist Children's Home and Family Services' adoption section, then the finalization and home-bringing.
3. If you so desire, you can help by giving. We'll be having another silent auction that will be available to friends on-line as well as those who get to attend the event we're planning for April. (Here's another way to help out with the finances: Click through to buy my books!)
4. And especially: send us encouraging notes along the way because there are times through the process when the weight of the whole process gets overwhelming.

 

Thanks for reading; Thanks for listening; Thanks for praying.

Finally Final

We've been waiting for so long, sometimes impatiently. But on Monday, December 29, 2014, Wai Hin Huang finally, and officially, became Ryan Samuel Potter. Here are some pictures everybody's been dying to see.

With Mom & Dad

Merry Christmas from the Family

The Line-Up

The Kids!

The Girls & The Boys

 

The Family!

Some Final Funding Needs (an Auction Opportunity)

We now have our son home with us. And we are still raising funds. Ahead are post-placement visits from our home study agency as well as the cost of adoption finalization. While we are not familiar or sure about the total cost, we know that we need nearly $1000 more rather quickly for the post-placement visits.

So, here is a proposal: I have listed two items on eBay to help raise some of the needed funds, and if you are interested you can view and bid on these items. Both of the items have a special significance which I will describe here with a link to each auction.

A couple of years ago, I gave my dear friend, Dave, a copy of What Is the Gospel? by Greg Gilbert. I was able to get the author to sign the book (the inscription reads: 

“To Dave—

May God make His Gospel precious to you!

Blessings,

Greg”

Since then, my friend passed away, and the book found its way back into my hands. Knowing how supportive of our adoption efforts Dave had been, his wife has graciously given her permission for us to use this item as part of our fund-raising efforts. In this way we can make Dave a bigger part of our process. (Read my thoughts on the book here.) The book lists with a 99 cent starting bid, and we would love to see the bidding go through the roof, so bid early, bid high, and bid often.

Also from Dave’s collection is a set of “Operation Desert Shield” trading cards (vintage 1991 from Pacific Trading Cards). While these are not boxed, the set includes all the cards numbered 1-110, and are in excellent condition. Again the starting bid is 99 cents, but we would love to honor our dear friend’s memory by saying that his items helped finalize our adoption process.

Thanks for reading; thanks for clicking the links; and thanks for bidding.

Looking Forward To . . .

Gotcha!

Today we help our Little Man say, "Good-bye" to the only home he has known. His bags are packed; he has already had a celebration on a big scale with his friends and caregivers at the Childcare Center; and today in a simple ceremony he will shake hands with his friends one last time and say a final good-bye to his caregivers, and then he will be with his forever family . . . forever!

We had about 3 hours alone with him yesterday in which he was fine until the last 30 minutes when he started crying. He did not push away, but sat in Daddy's lap to cry. We understand that he is trying to process all that is happening to him, and so we ask for prayers that our simple presence with him will begin to be the comfort that he needs. Pray for our ability to find the right distractions to keep him his playful, happy self.

*Update* The Good-bye ceremony went well. When Mommy and Daddy arrived, Little Man came to give hugs, then began to show off because he had company to show off for. One last meeting with the speech therapist, then the "blessing" of the other children (who had already blessed our Little Man earlier this week) and "good-bye" to  . . . the kitchen, the shower, the bed, the OT, PT room, the playground, and a taxi ride to the hotel to deposit the one large suitcase that held all his belongings before a dim sum lunch and outing to the Hong Kong History Museum (which is free on Wednesdays, btw).

There was a long set of crying when he realized that he was to stay at the hotel with us, but that finally subsided and he's tucked in for the night.

Coming soon - the long flight to a new home!