September 2008

today was the henrypalooza family fun day.
our friends and community bought food and raffle tickets, and made donations which by the end of the day totalled just over….

….$5,000!!!!

we are blown away by everyone’s generosity. this gets us much closer to the $25K+ needed to bring henry home!

a special thanks to the army of volunteers that put on the event today. it couldn’t have been done without you. and to the team that has been working their tails off for months to plan these events - david, brenda, heather, steve, kris, becca, don, candy: THANK YOU seems so inadequate.

for anyone local, there’s one more event coming up that you don’t want to miss. next saturday oct 4, nashville recording artist, mindy smith, will be in concert with special guest, chris rosser. they’ve both graciously decided to donate 100% of ticket sales to henrypalooza to help us bring henry home! you can buy your tickets in advance at www.henrypalooza.com. or you can pay at the door.

we look forward to sharing the stories, pictures and video from today with henry. what a cool part of his story! an entire community coming together to love a kid they’ve never met. and sacrificing to help see him come home to be with his family.

it’s truly beautiful….

now…..on the not so beautiful front….i’ve missed a couple, but here’s the latest “let’s hair it for henry!” picture. this is day 71 of the beard….i gotta say, i’m really looking forward to shaving this mess off now…

blog, sweet blog
how i have neglected you so
but, allow me to assuage your fears
for straightway shall i return
with musings, with ponderings
with pictures of beards

let me explain.

they brought us this today:

so that we could sign this:

thus officially accepting the referral of this guy and indicating our desire to make him our son:

as i type, FedEx is taking this important document back to China.
FedEx is the most important company in the world right now.

the website is done! (or at least down to tweaking phase)

www.henrypalooza.com

check it out for all the information concerning how you can help us bring henry home.

1. donate
2. come to henrypalooza family fun day on sept 27th
3. buy lots of food, raffle tickets, etc.
4. donate
5. buy tickets for mindy smith/chris rosser concert on oct 4
3. volunteer for the events (see how to help page)
4. SPREAD this website to everyone you know!
5. donate (sorry)

we have three weeks to get the word out to as many people as possible.
this is going to be a grassroots kind of a thing.
your help is greatly appreciated!
you are helping us bring our SON home!!

hard to adequately convey how excited we are about going to china to meet our son!

yep, growth has slowed. i had such hopes at the start.

i did have someone say yesterday how much of a shock it’s going to be the day that i return to my cue ball headstyle.

today’s LHIFH tidbit….

when i decided to do the beard vigil thing i knew i needed a catchy title for the blog series.
so i went to the punniest person i know, chris mills.
he never disappoints!

i give you the titles we passed over.
the honorable mentions…

“Beard Today, Gone Tomorrow”
“Shave the date!”
“Shaving grace”
“Mighty To Shave”
“Grow, grow, grow your goat”
“Eww, that’th growth!” (lisp-filled bonus entry)

sonseed, “jesus is my friend”

complete with their inimitable staccato vocal stylings.

you’re welcome.

(ht: dale)

may i present the second known participant in the “let’s hair it for henry” vigil…

my little brother, ben.

this picture will also answer the question, “where did stephen’s portion of the family’s good looks go?”

answer: “obviously, not to ben either.” (love you, buddy.)

that’s supposed to be a 6.

yep, day 46.

we’re going crazy at home. we’re now statistically in the higher-than-average wait time between PA and RA. i know that means not much to many of you, but it just means we’re going crazy.

LET US GET TO CHINA AND BRING BACK OUR SON ALREADY!!

(woah, mel gibson flashback…)

i found out last week that my little brother, ben, has taken up the “let’s hair it for henry” challenge. i’m trying to get a picture of his beard to post.