My sweet friend Lisa from Little Painted Polka Dots has been so generous in helping us bring home a little girl from Uganda.

She’s offered up this piece from her shop as fundraiser items for our adoption.

Whether you are adopting or are buying a necklace because you have a special place in your heart for a certain country, this necklace is for you.

This necklace is hand-cut by an amazing artist from a Sterling Silver disc and hand-stamped by me with the quote or words of your choice, up to 30 characters including spaces. Choose from any country!

{you only have 4 weeks to use THIS LINK to purchase the necklace. After May 20th, you must use the code “TUCKERADOPTION” for us to get a portion of the sale}

Lisa has also offered this amazing piece as well. “Hope” and “Love” are simple yet super stylish. A 3/4″ aluminum disc has been stamped with the word HOPE or LOVE with Africa in place of the O.  These discs are 1100 Pure Aluminum – safe for your skin, no tarnishing or adverse reactions!  At 18g, they are much thicker than our regular pieces, yet lightweight and perfect for a necklace.  They have been polished for a great brushed finished.  Hangs from an 18″ stainless steel ball chain.

{you only have 4 weeks to use THIS LINK to purchase the necklace. After May 20th, you must use the code “TUCKERADOPTION” for us to get a portion of the sale}

We are so grateful for each of you and really do appreciate your purchase & help in bringing home our daughter from Uganda. But most importantly, we ask for prayers as we make this addition to our family.

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Many of you know that we have been down the adoption road before. It was with great sadness we had to cancel our adoption from Taiwan. We were heartbroken and still think about sweet Campbell who we grew to love, yet we never met him.

But we are really excited that the adoption journey is what we are seeking again and are really excited to be adopting a little girl from Uganda. You all know the love we have for the country and it’s people.

We haven’t met this sweet girl yet. But we already love her. We love her so much that we want her to come live with us forever and be a part of our family.

My friend “E” went to Uganda a few months ago and I was looking through her pictures she posted after a few days of her being there.  I came across this picture and gasped. She took my breath away and reminded me so much of our youngest son, Emerson. I called my husband over to look at the picture and asked him who she reminded him of. Of course, he saw the resemblance too.

That night, everyone was in bed, it was 3:30am and I was wide awake. I began praying for her, that she was having a good, healthy meal in the orphanage {because it was around lunch time then in Uganda}, praying for her “Momma’s” {caretakers}, and praying at the possibility of her coming to live with us someday. I stayed up majority of that night thinking about her.

I asked “E” if she would become adoptable in the near future. She said there is a good possibility and since then I’ve been imagining her with us here in Tennessee. I’ve been dreaming of the day we’ll bring her home.

And that’s where we’re at. It’s not a for sure thing yet. But we’re praying hard and holding tight to our faith.

“If faith can move the mountains, Let the mountains move.” -Christy Nockels

So, can we ask you to join us in prayer for this sweet girl and the possibility she will be a part of our family? We would greatly appreciate it. We are so blessed by each of you and love you all.

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Here we are again. It’s been a while since we’ve updated this blog, but we have news!

We are adopting from Uganda. As many of you know, that place is near and dear to our heart. I just cannot get over the excitement that this ride is going to bring us. Yes, it will be an up and down hill ride, but we’re excited for this next chapter. Our boys are so excited as well. They have two cousins from Uganda and think it’s so great that they’ll have a sister from there.

Yes, we’re headed down that road again and we’re beginning the fundraising. We know lots of expenses come up quickly as soon as the process begins and we’re trying to start our “adoption stash.”

These handmade stained glass crosses are for sale for $8 each. Shipping is $2 for the first cross, then $1 for each additional cross after that. Joe’s grandfather made them and gave them to us as a fundraiser option. He’s precious.

You can purchase these crosses here. This particular fundraiser will also help with our trip to Uganda later this year. We’re thinking we’ll probably head that way early fall to spend 10 days in Uganda.

We really appreciate your prayers through this new and exciting time. Love all of you!

-MT-

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Below are some helpful resources that we’ve come across so far in adopting:

LifeLine Adoption & Children Services

Show Hope

Just Love

147 Million Orphans

Abba Fund

Lifesong for Orphans

Below are our favorite sites – we think you’ll like them too!

A Road Home

Crazy Love Campaign

Kisses From Katie

Long Hollow Baptist Church

Love A lot Blog

Morgan Finn

Our Story For His Glory

Peachy Peachy

Pitter Patter Art

The Tuckers Take Tennessee

The Underhills

Totally Crazy For Him

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This weekend we made the decision to not continue with the adoption for Campbell. It’s been one of the most difficult things we’ve ever experienced and it breaks our heart that we won’t be bringing Campbell home in a few months.

Without going into tons of details, this decision was not an easy one and has been prayed about in our family and by our close friends for the past month.

Our hearts are heavy…

Our eyes are filled with tears…

We are grieving the loss of who we considered to be our child…

But after gathering information, lots of praying, and seeking Christian counsel, this is the road we have to take…and it’s not an easy one.

This isn’t the end of our adoption journey, though. We are prayerfully considering one of several options with which to move forward.

We are praying for sweet Campbell, and for his future family {whoever they are and wherever they are right now}. He is a precious boy and he always will hold a special place in our hearts.

*On a different note, if you have donated money to us for the adoption specifically for Campbell, and would like a refund, please shoot us an email and we will be happy to send it back. All of the financial support we’ve received so far from all of you will still be used to fund our adoption.

Thank you for your continued prayers and support. We love each of you!

The post A Tough Weekend appeared first on Subtracting By Adding.

Check out the video to see us announce the winner of the iPad 2!

The post And The Winner Is…. appeared first on Subtracting By Adding.

As much as we hate to do this, we are going to delay the drawing for the iPad while we sort out some very challenging issues. We’re going to be removing the donate button from the blog temporarily while we get everything sorted out and will be back with news as soon as possible.

If you have made a donation, and don’t feel comfortable waiting for us to resolve this, shoot us an email and we’ll promptly refund your money.

We don’t expect this to take too long – we will post an update soon. Thank you so much for your understanding and continued prayers.

The post iPad Giveaway Update appeared first on Subtracting By Adding.

So, Laura from Pitter Patter Art did such an amazing job on my Taiwan t-shirt and keyfob. I just had to share how stinkin’ cute it is with you all.

She has millions of fabrics to choose from and can do just about any country, state, letter, or image you’d like. She’s fabulous! There were so many choices to choose from her fabric selection, I just picked the first one that I liked. And she chose the color of the shirt…the next thing I knew, I had an adorable shirt!

Check out this cuteness….

The keyfob she made matches the fabric I chose and I love the wording she put on it “Love For Taiwan”.

Best part? She is adopting too! All her proceeds from her cute work go towards their adoption. Head over to her blog now or to Facebook because she has a giveaway going on. Love!

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We’re beginning to accept orders for our adoption t-shirts. I’m LOVING how they turned out. Thanks to Lauren (a friend from church) for the amazing design! We love your work!

We’re going to be using high quality Gildan shirts that are true to size.

The shirts are $20 for Small, Medium, Large, and Extra Large. For XX-Large, they’re $23.
*If you need a larger or smaller size, shoot us an email and we’ll get it worked out.*

If you need your shirt shipped, it is an additional $3 for shipping.

If you purchase multiple shirts and need them shipped, we’ll work out a deal on shipping.

Thank you guys so much – we appreciate your continued support and prayers!

**Click here to proceed with your checkout**

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So you’ve got a dilemma. You’d like to help support our adoption efforts but you also would really like an iPad 2. We’ve got you covered.

Anyone who makes a donation of at least $15 to our adoption efforts between now and August 31st will be entered into a drawing for a brand spankin’ new iPad 2 (16 GB/Wifi/Black).

Here’s how this thing will work. We’re going to draw for it old school. We’ll put each entry on a slip of paper and our older son will draw a name. We’ll post a YouTube video of the drawing the afternoon of September 1st.

The breakdown will look like this:

Donation Amount                     # of Entries
$15                                                        1
$25                                                       2
$50                                                       5
Over $50                                   1 entry per $10

All you have to do to be entered into the drawing is click the donate button and we’ll do the rest. When you make a donation just put the email address you’d like us to contact you at and we’ll make a not of it.

Oh – to prevent the thought of any potential funny business – any donation made by our family members will not qualify for the drawing. Also, any pre-orders or purchases of our soon to be released t-shirts will not be considered for the purposes of the drawing.

Thanks to each of you for your support and your prayers.

Joe

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