WELCOME!

We are so excited to share our Ethiopian adoption adventure, and our CRAZY lives with all of you! Our hope is that it will encourage you to step out in faith to do what God has called you to do! There are FIELDS of fatherless children waiting for someone to care for them, to love them, to tell them of JESUS' love for them...will YOU be the one??







Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Answers

Today I'm linking you to a post from another bloggy friend...we are seriously leading parallel lives folks!

In this post she writes about all the stuff I really can't get out of my head and onto the "paper", about the lies we are constantly being told by the enemy about adopting(AGAIN!)...Sooooo thankful for this post today, because we TOTALLY agree on these points and she says what I can't seem to articulate at the moment!:)

So, here you go...the answers to WHY we are adopting again and MUCH more!!!!!!! Thanks Kat!!!!

http://everlastingmomentum.blogspot.com/2010/12/lies-satan-tells-about-adoption.html

Saturday, January 22, 2011

LIFESONG FOR ORPHANS

Every so often, I'll be sharing what's going on with Lifesong For Orphans on my blog, in an effort to raise awareness, and advocate for orphan care projects around the world!:) Enjoy!









William from Lifesong for Orphans on Vimeo.

Six year-old William once asked his mother, “Why do other children walk on the bottoms of their feet? Why am I like this? What did you do to me?” When she told him that it was God who did it, not her, William said, “Then please tell God to fix me.”
William was born with clubfoot, affecting both of his feet.  If William had been born in America this common deformity would have been easily fixed when he was still a baby.  But in Zambia it’s a different story.  In Zambia, where the resources are few and the funds are even fewer, healing is only a distant dream.





Last February Lifesong Zambia coordinator, Dru Smith wrote about William in her newsletter.  When Wendy in Illinois heard his story she was prompted to act.  After a thorough investigation she discovered CURE Clubfoot International, which had a clinic in Lusaka, the capital of Zambia!  In April William was fitted for casts (first in a series of 3) and then had corrective surgery on his right foot in June and his left foot in September (the video was taken in September just before his second surgery).
God used His people to “fix” William.  Today William can walk!  Soon he will be strong enough to return to school, play with the other children, and be able to do many of the simple tasks we take for granted!





Through this journey the Lifesong staff has been able to help not only William, but his family as well.  William’s brother, Bright, and cousin, Gift, have both been enrolled at Lifesong school.  In addition his father, Victor, who was unemployeed now works in the Lifesong gardens!  We’re so thankful our God is the master at doing “abundantly and immeasurably more” than we even think to ask!

*Find out more about Blogging for Orphans here.

Friday, January 21, 2011

Today

Today has been full of doubt, anger, fear...and a whole bunch of other yucky emotions...AND I've felt physically "ill"...

What's going to happen? Will God come through? Will we look like idiots?(no pride issue there!)

I hate the unknown, and well, NOT being in at least SOME control of the situation! It would help if I had some skill or talent that I could "sell", and work at home...but I don't...AT ALL!

I'm NOT crafty, creative, and I don't bake or cook(at least nothing that I could actually in good conscious sell someone)...so me bringing in extra income to help out is unlikely.

So...I feel guilt too now....this sucks!

PLUS, I have to go to the Dr. on Monday for a "mystery" pain that needs to be checked out....great!

It's just one of those days.....

Thursday, January 20, 2011

UPDATE

So, here's the deal, my hubby "misinformed" me this morning...we actually have until the end of March, before this income goes "bye-bye"...the GOOD news is, it looks like we will still be able to get our homestudy update completed with the income "as is", then when it is no longer there, our social worker will work with the numbers and see what we need to do to remain eligible(if we're not)...that is IF we don't have something lined up by then. I have the BEST HS agency in the WORLD...and the best social worker!:)(Ahem...Cherub International for all you in Ohio)

So, in one way I'm breathing a sigh of relief...for now...we have two months to come up with some "extra", AND we can still proceed with the HS we have almost finished.

On the other hand, I'm doubting EVERYTHING....was this God's idea to go to Ethiopia or mine??????

It just seems really strange to me that this happened RIGHT AFTER we made our adoption plans public! Too "coincidental", if you ask me...and seems to REEK of satan himself!

You know I'm not gonna go down without a fight, RIGHT???!!!:)

Thanks for praying...please keep it up...we need you as always!

URGENT PRAYER REQUEST

What would an adoption be without "Urgent Prayer Requests"!

We found out today that one of our sources of income is now gone....that's a little over $4000 per year....this puts us at or a little below what we would need to qualify for international adoption by USCIS guidelines. I'll know more later today.... Our homestudy update won't be finished until we get our child abuse clearances back, which should be anytime now, so we have time....it just has to be completed by Feb. 12th, or it "expires"...

We're not happy folks, this is a great test of our faith....

We desperately need your prayers that this would be "made up" somehow in other ways/areas or this adoption will not happen.

At this point, we really feel like this is an attack rather than a closed door, so we are fasting and praying for the Lord to intervene and display his might and power!!!!

I know that the enemy of our souls DOES NOT want this to happen....BUT GOD!!!!

Please pray that the enemy would be bound, that his mouth would be shut(as he is filling my mind with doubts and lies!!), and that the LORD would show himself Mighty To Save as only HE can!!!

Thanks to you all!

Sunday, January 16, 2011

A New Journey

Okay, it's been a few weeks since we asked for prayer about what our next step would be in the adoption process. Shortly after asking for prayer, the LORD hammered us with videos and devotions and other "things" that made our decision "easy"....Ethiopia it is!!!!!:)

The need is great and we just can't turn our backs on them. Their are 4 million orphans in Ethiopia alone! So, we can stick our head in the sand, be our own "boss" and say, "Nope, we're done", OR we can GO and let God use us in the lives of another child....Ummmm, no-brainer there folks!!!

So we are about finished updating our homestudy and hope to sign on with WACAP in the spring. We are requesting(at this point) a little girl, 0-12mos, "healthy"(although we all know these kiddos are rarely healthy). Our homestudy will state "boy or girl"..just in case:). We believe keeping birth order is important for our family, so that's one reason we requested the youngest possible age.

And it's funny because we have already had attacks from the enemy! He doesn't waste time does he;)? We had our car break down, and our well pump went out...I was donating plasma and got deferred for a lab mix-up, etc.....BUT GOD!

We really could care less what people "think" of us adopting again...but more on that in another post..:)

We just keep smiling, knowing that HE is our provider and we can't wait to begin this journey! We hope you will continue to pray and support us on this new journey to our child, and may HE be glorified through it all!

These are the videos that the Lord used to really show us that Ethiopia is where we need to be...one came to us FIVE times in one day through blogs and emails...!!!! Please watch and maybe you too will be moved to bring one of these forgotten ones home!





Thursday, January 13, 2011

Hey check out Chunky Bling! On the left side of our page...see it???:) They have really cute stuff at very reasonable prices, plus we get a commission for our next..ahem..."endeavor";)! If you want to add it to your site, you can go to chunkybling.com and join their affiliate program. You can make a pretty good commission and when you refer people, you'll get a little kick back from that as well..:) Way COOL!

More on our endeavor later...trying to tell family first...:) SOOOOO excited!!!!