Bezi's Grand Opening

Bezi's Creations is ready for its Grand Opening on Etsy!  Please take a minute to stop by, check things out and pass the word along.  For this weekend only I'm offering free domestic shipping in celebration of our big kickoff.  Simply enter the code "grandopen" during checkout. 

Make sure to check back often as I have tons of new ideas and great new products coming down the pipeline.  I just wanted to get Etsy up and running with what I already have available.  Remember that all proceeds go toward our adoption expenses.  Thanks again for your support! 

If you're on FaceBook, make sure to like our page, www.facebook.com/beziscreations.  Also in celebration of Bezi's Grand Opening weekend we will be giving away a $20 gift card (either to Bezi's or Amazon, winner's choice).  The winner will be chosen by random.org once the FaceBook page reaches 100 likes.  So help spread the word!

Thanks again for all of your prayers, encouragement and support in bringing our baby boy home!!  

We're over the first hump

We have had so many people ask about how the adoption process is coming, so I wanted to drop a quick note to keep everyone in the loop.  A few weeks ago we turned in our mountain of paperwork.  All of it was reasonable, it was just a lot of stuff to collect...certified copies of our birth certificates, marriage certificates and deed on our house, reference letters from friends and family, proof of employment and insurance, letters from our bank confirming our financial assertions, financial records, autobiographies, medical exams, etc etc etc.  So anyway, we finally got through all of that and are on to the next phase.

We met with our social worker last night and were so encouraged by everything she had to share.  We had some concerns regarding the financial "risks" we are undertaking as spelled out in the contract we have to sign with the agency, but she was a great comfort.  She assured us that they do a lot of screening with the birthmothers on the front end, and statistically, once we are matched with a birthmother the chances of everything working out are really good...at least that is this agency's experience.  She also walked us through the next few steps in more detail.  We will begin the home study process this Sunday and will conclude it after the July 4th holiday.  The home study consists of two visits from our social worker to our home.  She will evaluate how we relate to and "manage" our children, the safety and cleanliness of our home, and we will discuss in more detail our parenting styles, childhoods, and motivations and expectations regarding the adoption.  The home study process is a standard event that is required by the state to be considered a suitable adoptive parent, regardless of where the adopted child comes from. 


The home study should be complete around the middle of July at which point we will begin the education phase.  We will have several conferences with a member of our agency who will provide us with information regarding the specific circumstances and needs of adopted children.  This is one of the reasons that we are so happy to be working with this agency, Children of the World.  This is not just business to them.  They are dealing with people's lives and they take very seriously the opportunity they have to minister to us, the birthmother, and the adopted child. 

At this point, we will be ready to receive our son and will begin the waiting process.  There are several ways to "find" our son, many of which we will investigate further when that time comes.  Once we are matched with a birthmother through a mutual selection process, the majority of our expenses will come due.  The birthmother's individual situation will determine how much financial help she needs from us regarding her basic needs as well as assistance from the agency.  The more help she needs, the more it will cost us.  The agency estimates a maximum expense of around $18,000.  To be honest, we do not have $18,000 sitting in our bank accounts today.  All we know is that God told us to start this process several months ago.  He told me specifically then that He will provide what we need, when we need it, to trust Him and begin the process...even before the money is sitting in the bank.  So here we are.  We have a saved a good bit that will get us started and I have started Bezi's Creations in an effort to raise some of the funds, but we are taking one step at a time...confident that He will make good on His promise, just like He always does! 

On the Bezi's front, I am getting ready to open a shop on Etsy in the next week or so.  I am so excited about all that God has shown me through this business and I hope you will take a minute to check it out.  The FaceBook page will stay up to keep you posted on our adoption progress, to display new products, and to offer promotions. 

Thank you so much to all of you that have been so encouraging.  Please continue to pray for us, our son, and his birthmother.  Please pray for God's guidance as we all make decisions and for all things to play out in His perfect timing.  As always, we are humbled and honored to be used in expanding His Kingdom and spreading His love.

A start up business...doing it right

So I told you a few weeks ago that I felt God leading me to start a business, Bezi's Creations.  Crazy, right?  The goal is to raise money for our adoption and things are coming together. I can see the ball start to move.  Word is getting out and I've landed several encouraging orders.  Now, I'm a CPA by trade and I love the accounting of small businesses (weird, I know) so I was determined to do the business side right.  At least until I started investigating...sales tax at 9%, business licenses, fees for a business checking account, and on and on.  I'm just a little guy and these start up expenses were really discouraging.  Then I started making excuses..."If I'm discreet, I'm not likely to get a sales tax audit.  My proceeds are going toward a great cause.  Surely I can get away without having a business license."  I mean, the City of Mobile business license is $130 alone.  That's a huge investment at this level.  Ok, so as I'm writing this out it's becoming obvious how embarrassing this is to admit.  Just know that I'm being transparent here.

Anyway, I was taking Haley to gymnastics a few weeks ago and noticed a sign on a local bank advertising "Free Business Checking."  Ok, that sounds promising, I thought.  Considering every other bank I looked at had some kind of monthly fee tied to it, just for the privilege of having a business account open.  I opted to pursue this one.  Besides I couldn't justify using a "personal" checking account for my business...felt deceitful.  (Funny to be worried about that after my previous confessions.)  So I went to open my free account the next week while Haley was in gymnastics, only to have the process halted with the question, "Do you have a business license?"  Ugh.  They wouldn't open the account without a business license, so I started stewing over it.  As I drove back home I was truly on the fence.  I called my mom and Toby desperate for one of them to push me one way or the other.  On the one hand, I really felt like I should do this right, but on my frugal hand $130 just seemed like a huge investment.  Of course, neither my mom nor Toby answered their phones.  I was left to take my question to Jesus.  Funny, that's what I should have done in the first place, but I had already decided that I didn't like the answer I knew He'd give me.  All afternoon I'd been hearing "do it right, do it right" in my spirit.  It was like a broken record and I was running from it.  When faced with nobody else to talk to about it, and started whining, "But God, after the business stuff and the start up product it will be like $500 to even get it off the ground!!!  That's $500 we could put straight toward the adoption!"  Immediately, as clear as if Jesus were sitting in my passenger seat I heard, "Do you trust me to multiply that?"  Long sigh....Ok, I guess I will.  I steered my car toward City Hall.

About this time, my mom called me back.  She's also a CPA and has a niche in helping small businesses.  Her words were further confirmation, "Yeah, you probably should do it right.  It's hard, but this is why so many small businesses don't make it.  There's just so much investment on the front end."  I made it to downtown and made about two or three laps around before finding a parking spot.  I had made up my mind, I was going to do this RIGHT all the way around.  As I was circling downtown a church tour bus pulled out in front of me.  On it's rear in huge writing was further confirmation, "'But all things must be done properly and in an orderly manner.' 1 Corinthians 14:40"  Ha!  I couldn't help but laugh.  Ok, God.  I get it.  I'm going to do it right.  I later looked up that verse in another translation where "properly" was translated as "honestly"...figures. 

So I load up Jake in the stroller and arm myself with snacks, the iPod, and entertainment for Haley and head into the government building.  As we walked inside Toby returned my call.  He had run an errand during his lunch break and had a few minutes to spare in the car on the way back to work.  Having not been privy to my previous hour's thoughts, he launched into a list of pros and cons and questions regarding the business checking account and the business license.  I couldn't get a word in, so I listened as the kids and I circled the giant lobby.  Suddenly, Toby stopped mid-sentence.  "Carey, this bus just pulled out in front of me!  You're not going to believe what it says on the back!  'But all things must be done properly and in an orderly manner.' 1 Corinthians 14:40".  I was floored!!!  "Oh, my Jesus!  Toby, I just saw that same bus, not 15 minutes ago!!"  I don't know how much more BILLBOARD you can get in instructions from God.

The scripture I've been soaking in lately is, "Your ears will hear a word behind you, 'This is the way, walk in it.' whenever you turn to the right or to the left."  Isaiah 30:21.  I don't think I can deny that in this case, I've been given my marching orders.  So, I paid my $130 for my city business license, finished opening my checking account, obtained my county license and paid my first round of sales tax.  All that's left is state sales tax and I'm working on that.  I WILL do this right and will trust His leading.  How can I dare ask Him to bless my time and my efforts if I'm going to cheat on step 1 of starting a business?  Ridiculous!

Wouldn't you know that a week to the day when this snowball started I got a big order.  An order for triplets!  An order to more than recoup my business license expense.  Ha!  I will trust, I will walk and I will tell of His faithfulness!  

I would love for you to stop by my FaceBook page and see what I have available.  Also, if you'd be so kind as to pass the word along and share this page with your friends, that'd be great, too.  Thanks for your help!
www.facebook.com/beziscreations

A far away dream comes near

As long as Toby and I have been together...all the way back to high school, we've dreamed about one day adopting a baby.  For me, that's just what it's been...a dream.  I've always thought that someday it would be nice to entertain that idea, but for now it still seemed pretty far off.   Toby, however, was on another page.  A few weeks after Jake was born in July, Toby said, "I think we should adopt our next one."  Hmm.  We both want to have a big family, but I was fresh off of new baby hormones and not so interested in the idea.  I gave him a half-hearted response, "Huh.  Sure.  Let's talk about it later."  And with that the idea of adoption stayed a far away dream.

As the months wore on, Toby was relentless.  Every few weeks he would bring up the idea, and when it came up again at the first of the year we were in the throws of selling, buying and moving.  Again I brushed him off, "Let's get moved and settled before we launch into another life altering process."  So, here we are.  We've moved.  We're settled.  I'm out of excuses...and it came up again.  Finally, I agreed to start praying about it.  I asked Abba that if adopting a child was really in His plan for our near future then to change my heart and confirm this path.  Wouldn't you know, He did just that.  As I prayed over this for a few weeks I became more and more certain that this was something we should investigate.  Adoption was suddenly in my face everywhere I turned.  I got a call out of the blue from a Tennessee friend.  They were in the middle of the adoption process and wanted some advice and prayer.  On a rare date night out, Toby and I ended up at the movie theater watching October Baby.  (Shameless plug - If you haven't seen October Baby, you need, need to see it.  It has such great perspective and healing from so many angles.  End shameless plug.)  Toby and I had endless conversations about the idea and within a matter of weeks adoption went from a "nice idea for later" to me identifying a hole in my heart.  Through these weeks of prayer I have become convinced that my baby is out there and I am not whole because he is not home with me.  The best way to describe it is that I miss him.  One of my babies is missing.  Abba has His protective hand on my baby boy until we are able to meet him and bring him home.  You see, this isn't about doing some good charity deed.  In my heart I know that we are searching for this one child that has been earmarked for our family.  I'm already attached to this baby I've never even met. 

I suppose Toby's passion for our adoption started years ago.  God gave him a vision and in it he saw he and I walking away.  I was holding his hand and in his other hand was a two year old little boy.  We know that Jake is not the boy he saw.  During my weeks of prayer and searching I had a similar vision during worship at church one weekend.  I saw my Jesus holding the sweet hand of my little boy.  He was about two years old at the time and had the most adorable little face.  His eyes were bursting with joy and the sight of him was so real that I felt like I could reach out and touch him.  That was my baby.  I just know it.   Also during this time I was reading through my Bible and a name jumped off the page at me.  It stayed in my head for days and I couldn't get away from it.  It was my little boy's name.  The name Abba gave him means "chance" and "fortunate."  Rather fitting, I thought.   

Now it's just a matter of following God's leading to the path that will take us to our son.  We have contacted several different adoption avenues in Mobile and decided on Children of the World out of Fairhope, Alabama.   We had our first lengthy visit with our social worker this past week and are so thrilled to be working with them.  The people of this agency truly love the Lord and they love their jobs.  They are deeply compassionate and caring people.  We have received glowing references and love that they take their birthmothers under their wing and minister to them before and after the adoption.  We are now working on our final application for the State of Alabama and are gathering lots of paperwork in preparation for our home study.

A few months back, before I began entertaining the idea of adoption, Jesus gave me specific instructions one Sunday morning.  Our pastor was preaching a series on miracles and as he got started that morning, I found myself thinking, "We've seen so many miracles.  I wonder where we're going next."  Immediately Jesus responded to my spirit, "Adoption.  I want you to start the process even before you have the funds sitting in the bank."  Hmm...seemed random at the time.  So we recognize that adoption is not only a great emotional investment, but it will require a great financial investment as well.  In light of this, my Jesus graciously showed me where some of these funds will come from during a 4am feeding with Jake a few weeks ago.  It was like a light had gone off in my head and everything clicked perfectly in place.  I had been complaining to Toby just days earlier that I felt like I needed somewhere to focus my energy...outside of running our home.  I mean, let's face it...you can only get so much satisfaction and sense of accomplishment out of 14 loads of laundry.  I also have been dabbling in some new creative outlets and had wondered if maybe I could sell some of my creations.  When the goal was extra spending cash it just didn't seem to make sense and the pieces just didn't seem to line up, but now there was a specific goal to strive for.  I would use the skills I've been working on and the creativity He's been working to reveal to bring in the funds we would need to support the adoption.  And just like that Bezi's Creations was born!  Bezi comes from Bezalel in the Bible.  God gave Bezalel the supernatural ability to envision and build all of the items for the tabernacle when the Isrealites were wandering the wilderness.  This guy has just stuck out to me ever since I studied this with my Boothmakers a few years back.  Mind you, I'm a CPA and have never thought myself to be crafty, so any time I come up with anything even remotely unique or cute I claim a "Bezalel moment."  So anyway, Bezi's Creations will offer handpainted furniture (a new, super fun hobby) as well as styles and accessories for little ones including bibs and onesies with neck ties or pearls, month by month onesies to capture your baby's first year, and hooded towels great for snuggling up a freshly cleaned baby or wrapping up a toddler after a fun day at the beach or in the pool.

I am so excited for this new season, even though it will be chalked full of stuff to accomplish.  My prayer over the last few days has been for God to show me how to manage my time, how to structure my day so that I can spend quality time with Him and my family and still take care of our home, gather the needed adoption papers, and get a business up and running.  I tell you, my days of vegging out in front of the TV are long gone.  But it's all good.  I wouldn't change a thing.  He has answered my prayers and so far all systems are running smoothly. 

So, will you help us in this?  Will you join with Toby and me in prayer that God will guide our steps and give us wisdom and discernment as we walk the road that will take us to our son?  Will you pray for protection over our baby and his birthmother?  And will you help me get the word out about Bezi's Creations?  I have started a FaceBook page and would love for you to "like" it and spread the word by sharing it with your friends.  My products will be available for sale on the FaceBook page and also I will have my first sale this coming Saturday.  I'm so excited to get things going!  Thank you in advance for all of your support in this season.  I know my Jesus has some amazing blessings lined up for so many in the coming months.  It's going to be an awesome adventure!