Update: waiting

I realize my posts have been few and far between these days, mostly due to the fact that there is not much to report. Our adoption process has slowed down considerably, and there is nothing we can do but wait. And wait. Many days I have considered hopping on an immediate flight straight to Ethiopia to get my girl home NOW (not that that would actually work, but I can dream). God has placed this daughter in our hearts in such a way that it feels wrong and painful to be so far from her. Worries and fears about her well-being like to cloud my thoughts too, making this wait just plain tough. Through it all though, I must say that God has been so good at responding to my outbursts with grace and reassurance that He IS in control.

We have no control over how long we will be waiting to adopt our daughter and how long she will be waiting for us, but what we can do is use the time we have now WELL. How can we do this? Glad you asked. First of all, by fervent prayer. This long process has intensified our prayers and caused us to lean on Jesus even more. We would love for you to join us covering our daughter in prayers. Among many other things, we pray for her protection and healing in mind, body and soul and that God would bring her home according to His good timing and plan. We ask Him to use everything in her life for her good and His glory.

 This extra time of waiting has also been a time for us to invest in strengthening our family bonds in preparation for a big shock wave when a new sister arrives. I want to be present and enjoy these moments as the family we are right now. I've also been able to take time to start working through issues in my own heart that prevent me from being the parent I want to be. And the stockpile of our little lady's dolls and belongings are growing of course as garage sale season is in full swing. (-:

God is using this time of waiting to grow our roots down deep into Him; I believe in preparation for whatever lies ahead for our family. We are so thankful for your continued support and prayers! xoxo

"But blessed are those who trust in the Lord

and have made the Lord their hope and confidence.

They are like trees planted along a riverbank,

with roots that reach deep into the water.

Such trees are not bothered by the heat

or worried by long months of drought.

Their leaves stay green,

and they never stop producing fruit."

-Jeremiah 17:7-8

the journey

Trust God in every part of your story - He is not done yet.

As I look back over our adoption journey, I can see how God was preparing us throughout our lives with different experiences and passions, for this part of our lives. Like how I always wanted to work in a third world orphanage...but God brought the orphanage to my house instead. But it wasn't until the summer of 2012 that our journey actively began. I remember praying that prayer, "God, break my heart for what breaks Yours." He started to reveal so clearly to me His heart for the fatherless, and continued leading us every step of the way to adopt our 10 year old daughter from Ethiopia in 2014. We're now waiting to bring home our 7 year old Ethiopian daughter as well, God willing.


Every stage of this journey has involved taking steps of faith and trusting God to be faithful. And of course, He has been!

There have been great highs. Oh, the excitement and joy of welcoming a new child to our family! We've been learning how to hear God's voice, above all of the other voices. We've felt the peace that comes from following that voice. We've seen His generosity through the giving of so many people. We've seen Him provide all the finances we've needed, even when it looked impossible in my budget plans.

There have also been deep lows. There's the helplessness of waiting, knowing our children are growing up without us. There's the heartbreak of hearing our daughters' stories. And these broken stories invaded our hearts and our home, breaking us as well. There's been plenty of tears and hopeless moments and repentance of my own pride, selfishness, and lack of love. To be honest, the valleys seem much more prevalent than the mountaintops. While I am often tempted to wallow in the pits of self-pity, I can truly say that I am thankful for the gift of the challenges we face in our family. I am utterly dependent on Jesus to grow me in loving like He does, unconditionally and sacrificially.

There are also those rare, peaceful moments in between where we are walking on level ground. Because we trust our good and loving God, we have hope and persevere, knowing that He is writing our family's story and He is not done yet! Though we experience the ups and downs that this journey has taken us on, our Rock that we cling to is never shaken.

"Even though the fig trees have no blossoms,

and there are no grapes on the vines;

even though the olive crop fails,

and the fields lie empty and barren;

even though the flocks die in the fields,

and the cattle barns are empty,

yet I will rejoice in the Lord!

I will be joyful in the God of my salvation!

The Sovereign Lord is my strength!

He makes me as surefooted as a deer,

able to tread upon the heights."

Habakkuk 3:17-19

Goal EXCEEDED!

We are so grateful to say that our $2500 matching grant goal has been met! And not just met, but exceeded! With the grant and the generosity of so many of you, we raised a total of $6681.70 so far! Amazing! THANK YOU! We are just humbled and amazed at the kindness and generosity we've seen poured out.

Our faith and trust in the Lord has grown so much as a result of being dependent on Him. I must say I went through a few days of freaking out about the finances after we accepted our daughter's referral. We had wanted to save up and be able to completely finance our next adoption ourselves, but God had different plans. The referral didn't really fall into our little timeline, so we were left being obedient and dependent on Him to provide. After a few days of pointless worrying, I decided just to trust God with all of it. And look what He has done! He has provided $28,000 over the last 4 months for our adoption (through our savings, fundraisers, generous donations, matching grant, Dean's overtime, etc.)! Why did I ever doubt Him? While we aren't big fans of fundraising or asking for money, it has been an encouragement and blessing to see God at work, and to see the beauty of His kindness through His people.

We look forward to seeing what He will continue to do in our story, and thank YOU for being a part of it!

They were so excited about meeting our goal! (or the snow was really cold)

Matching opportunity!

Greetings! We are so amazed at the generosity that has been shown us so far as we have been trying to fund our adoption. God has been providing through His people, and we have only $10,000 left to raise to complete our adoption. This is still a big number, but a matching grant we have a chance to receive could cut that big old number in half!

We are so thankful to have been given an adoption matching grant for $2500 from Legacy 685 (a ministry of Houston First Baptist Church), who partners with Lifesong for Orphans. The goal is to raise the entire amount by December 31st, 2015. However, funds will be accepted until the adoption is complete. Legacy 685/Lifesong will match every donation, dollar for dollar, up to $2500, meaning we have the possibility of raising $5000!

Would you consider helping us bring our daughter home by donating? We know that so many of you have already contributed (and we are so thankful for you by the way!), so there is no need to feel like you need to give again. No guilt trips here, folks! Although we would still appreciate your prayers...(-: If you would like to help us be able to claim the matching grant here's how:

    •    Checks should be payable to “Lifesong for Orphans". In the memo, note “family name” and “family account number” (Freerks / #5659) to assure it goes to the correct account. Please mail to Lifesong for Orphans, PO Box 40, Gridley, IL 61744. Lifesong has been blessed with a partner that underwrites all U.S. administrative and fund-raising costs (TMG Foundation and other partners). That means 100% of your donation will go directly to the adoption.
    •    To pay online go to www.lifesongfororphans.org/give/donate. Select “Give to an Adoptive Family.” Complete the online form and fill in “Family Account Number” and “Family Name” fields. Note PayPal charges an administrative fee (2.9% + $.30 USD per transaction). Your donation will be decreased by the amount of this fee.
    •    In following IRS guidelines, your donation is to the named non-profit organization. This organization retains full discretion over its use, but intends to honor the donor’s suggested use. Individual donations of $50 or more and yearly donations totaling $250 or more will receive a tax-deductible receipt. Receipts for donations under $50 will gladly be sent upon request. Lifesong is a 501(c)3 tax exempt organization.

Thank you for considering investing in God's Kingdom in this way. We desire above all to honor and glorify God through this wild journey and would love for you to join us!

“Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us,  to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.”
Ephesians 3:20-21

Crazy generous people

It is just the best to see God at work. We've been so blessed by the extreme generosity of some special folks and wanted to share what He has done!

As we wait on our paperwork process, we are trying to raise the funds we need to complete this adoption. You lovely people contributed $340 through our t-shirt sale! Thank you! And we've received some really generous checks and encouraging notes in the mail that always fill my heart with joy. Thank you too! We were also blown away by an amazing family who a)we've never even met in person, b) are in the midst of their own adoption process and c) have a busy family of 4 young kids themselves. They felt led to do a fundraiser selling their beautiful handmade furniture on our behalf. In their selfless generosity they raised $4000 for our adoption! Seriously?!? In the words of the mother of this sweet family: "Behold the Lord's heart for the fatherless!" Amen!

We are so humbled and encouraged by the kindness of these dear people. It is always a confirmation for us that we are walking in the Lord's plan and that He has big plans for our little girl.

Happy birthday to our daughter, from afar.

T-Shirt Fun!

First of all, thank you all for your kind words and encouragement in our next adoption journey! We are still deep in the paperwork phase right now, and hoping all goes quickly and smoothly (ha! not sure that is possible.)

With our referral coming as somewhat of a surprise, we have some big fees due sooner than expected. We've been saving our pennies, and raised almost $300 at our thrift sale last weekend. (Big thanks to our wonderful helpers!) But we've still got quite a ways to go financially. We emptied our savings account to pay $17,600 in fees so far (thank you Lord!), and will need another $14,000 to complete the process. Yikes. We have seen God provide for us before, and trust that He will do it again. We cannot do this alone!

That's where these t-shirts come in...we are partnering again with the lovely company Chrome Buffalo to raise money for adoption fees by selling t-shirts! We loved working with this company last time around and we're excited to do it again with a new t-shirt design.

Here is how it works. Chrome Buffalo designs and makes stylin' t-shirts that they sell for $22. For every t-shirt sold, we get $11 towards our adoption fund! They come in mens, womens and youth sizes. The shirts are printed on Next Level Apparel products, which is an awesome company that doesn't use sweatshops or child labor, is WRAP certified (Worldwide Responsible Accredited Production), and is committed to ethical practice in their work.  The t-shirts are so soft and comfortable, I wear mine all the time! If you don't like the design we've chosen, you can choose from any of their other designs and the proceeds will still go to our fund. I personally love all of them. (-:

We have 10 days to sell as many shirts as possible. So check out our page HERE and consider buying a shirt to help us get one step closer to bringing our daughter into our family! Thanks guys!

News!

I didn't expect to be writing a post like this right now, but it turns out that God had other plans. Good, good plans! To sum up an amazing story He is writing in our lives, we are adopting again! Our 3rd daughter (who will be our middle child) is waiting for us in Ethiopia and we cannot wait to bring her home!

We fell in love with this little lady when we met her last year, and in God's perfect plan and timing, He has allowed us the chance to add her to our family. Our girls are so excited, they can't stop talking about what life will be like with another sister. (I try to add in some reality here and there (-:) Big Sister has already told me not to let her new sister have markers in bed because she might write on the walls. Good thinking. Little Sister has been praying for her by name on a daily basis for about a year now: "Dear Geesus, Gank you for ******, and our food. Amen." God was listening.

 We are excited, humbled and scared, knowing to an extent what is ahead, but yet being faced with so many unknowns. There will be storms ahead, we have no doubt. I can truly say that our trust in our great God allows us to step forward where He leads with confidence, knowing that He is with us every step. We pray that His greatness would be on display through weak, ordinary people such as us.

Sending our papers to make it official!

We would love your prayers as we face the hurdles of the adoption process and the financial barriers involved. We are planning a thrift sale fundraiser this week and t-shirt sale in the near future to help out with the costs. If you would like to support us in bringing our daughter home, you can also use the "Donate" button on the side of the blog to donate via Paypal. We would be so grateful! And most of all, please pray for our precious girl halfway across the world!

Our sweet family gave us an awesome "Congratulations" celebration