Show Hope

Just a quick "fund" raising update...we are so thankful to announce that Show Hope has graciously given us a $5,000 grant for our adoption!!! This is not a matching grant, this is just straight up $5,000!! We are planning to use this for part of our referral fee as soon as we are matched. Praise the Lord!!!! And thank you, Show Hope!!

Just a few things...

So, I'm terrible with updating our blog!! Sorry to all our "followers!" I will try to do better! So, the latest news is that we are #8 on the list. However, I'm not getting as excited because our director said that the list is simply for her info to keep things straight and even if we are number 1, there could be 20 people in front of us...kinda confusing but okay...So, she said to expect it to be about 6 months before referral :( I guess it's all in the Lord's timing anyway so I'm learning to be patient and trust in Him. After all, He loves these orphans more than we do!!

We are still praying that all of our matching grant will be met..as of Tuesday, we have only received $1, 370 dollars so please pray with us that the rest of the $4,000 will come in by the 20th...We are grateful for all that is given and are hopeful that the entire amount will be met.

Also, we are selling cookbooks, blankets, bows, and headbands so if you need Christmas presents (as most people do), please check out our fundraiser tab. I'm going to add some bow pictures today and try to get the rest up in a couple of days...The cookbooks will especially make GREAT gifts and are only $10.

We are rejoicing with some friends who were able to adopt a son this week after waiting YEARS to bring him home! We are also praying for some other friends who are adopting from Ethiopia. She is planning to travel next week to plead with the government to let them bring their children home before Christmas. Please join us in praying that Asher and Hosanna will be home in the next couple of weeks!! Also, we have some other friends (yes, MANY of our friends are adopting) who have had a referral for a baby boy for several months and cannot travel to bring him home until they receive a referral for their little girl. Please pray that their referral will come SOON so they can bring their children home too.

I have more to share but will save it for another post (it deserves it's own post) :)

Top 10

We are already in the

As of yesterday, we'd only been on the list for 8 days and had moved 4 spaces!!! Wow! Praise Jesus!

Also, the Lord has been at work in some dear friends' adoption from Ethiopia! I have been overwhelmed this week by the trials that so many dear brothers' and sisters' have gone through as they wait and wait and wait to bring their children home. I KNOW that the Lord loves these orphans even more than we do and that He desires them to be placed in loving, Christian homes. This morning he moved mighty mountains and answered the prayers that we have been praying for months for our friends!!! I am overjoyed at this news but am hesitant to share more details because of the sensitivity of adoptions in Ethiopia right now. Just know that we are PRAISING Him today!!! Now we are praying that these precious children will be home by Christmas :)

On another note:

Tis the season to begin buying Christmas gifts for friends, family, acquaintances, teachers, coworkers, and everyone else. Please check out my fundraising tab to see NEW gift ideas including cookbooks and fleece blankets. What better way to spend money that you are already planning to spend than to help bring an orphan home at the same time?? Also, check out our friends' adoption fundraiser at leachfamilytree.blogspot.com. They are selling handmade Christmas wreaths and such. They are beautiful!!

We Have a Number!

It's official!! We are on the waiting list at #

Our agency only has one list for 0-18 mo (we had originally requested 0-2 but this is okay with us). Here are some pictures of the girls mailing our dossier...man, it was tough to get both of them to look and smile (?) at the camera...

Dossier Complete!!

We are thrilled to announce that thanks to some donations that have already been submitted for our Lifesong Grant (see "Letter" post for more info), we have more than enough to submit our dossier!! It is FINALLY going in the mail tomorrow and we will actually be on the waiting list for a child!!!! I have been dancing around the house all afternoon in excitement :) Thank you Jesus for providing the funds for us to be on the waiting list!!

Letter

October 25, 2011

Dear Family and Friends,

“I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.” John 14:18

Some of you know that we are in the process of adopting an orphan from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) in Africa. We believe that we have been called by God to care for an orphan as our adopted child just as He has adopted us into His family. We are planning to adopt a child of either gender between the ages of 0-2. We will be matched with our child, Lord-willing, in the next 6 months and then travel about 4 months later to bring him/her home. We are very excited and cannot wait to bring our precious child home! Hopefully, he/she will be home by next summer.

Did you know that there are between 143 and 210 million orphans worldwide? Every single day, 5,760 MORE children become orphans! How sad would that be to grow up without the love and support of a family?! Here is a little bit of our story about why we are adopting.

We first began seriously considering adoption about 2 ½ years ago when our church, Immanuel Baptist Church, had an adoption emphasis month. We began to talk about adopting “someday” but we didn’t know what this would look like for us. Over the course of the past two years, we prayed about when and where we should adopt. We also read Russell Moore’s book, Adopted for Life, and it really helped us understand the doctrine of adoption. It also affirmed for us that God had indeed called us to adopt. You can read more of our story on our blog at www.koenigsjourneytoadopt.blogspot.com.

We estimate our total expenses for adoption fees, document preparation, home study, airfare, travel, attorney fees, etc. to be $23,000. We know that God is faithful and wants us to trust Him to provide these funds. By His grace, we have been able to pay about $5,400 so far.

LifeSong for Orphans (www.lifesongfororphans.org) partnered with our church Immanuel Baptist (www.ibclouisville.org), has graciously given us a $4,000 matching grant!! This means that everything that is donated to our adoption up to $4,000 will be doubled!! That is a total of $8,000, which is almost our entire referral fee! That is the fee we will pay when we are matched with our child. This money must be received at Lifesong by December 20, 2011.

We are making our needs known to you, our family and friends, because it is Biblical to do so. We appreciate your friendship and would like you to pray and consider helping us in our adoption. There are two ways you can help:

1. Prayer – Please pray that God would take care of our precious child until we can bring him/her home. Please pray that God would prepare his/her heart, as well as ours, to become a part of our family. Please pray that God would give us wisdom, discernment, and insight as we raise this child, along with Abigail, and Hannah, to know Jesus Christ.
2. Financial Support – Will you please consider making a tax-deductible donation to help us pay the remaining $17,600 to bring this child home?

If you would like to be a part of God bringing our child to Himself through our family, you can send your tax-deductible gift between now and December 20, 2011 to the address below. Lifesong is a trusted organization administering the funds on our behalf, and will pay adoption expenses out of funds received. 100% of all funds received by Lifesong for Orphans goes directly to cover adoption costs. Nothing is taken out for administrative costs.

• Please make checks payable to Lifesong. In the memo section of the check, please write “Preference Koenig/#2257 adoption” so the money will be designated to our account. *Note: 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.
• Mail checks to Lifesong for Orphans

                              Attn: Koenig/#2257 adoption

                             

P.O. Box 40

                              Gridley, IL 61744

Thank you for investing in the Kingdom through prayer and finances! We will give you an update with a picture and details as soon as we receive them. Please pray that this entire process will glorify God and fulfill His purposes!

In Christ,

                                                                

Joshua, Kristen, Abigail, and Hannah           

"One Less"

All I can say is Wow! This is pretty powerful...

Lifesong

"Praise God from whom all blessings flow! Praise Him all creature here below! Praise Him above Ye Heavenly Host! Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost! A-men!!"

We just got some news we had been praying to hear!! We've been approved for a $4,000 matching grant through Immanuel Baptist Church and Lifesong for Orphans!!! If this grant is funded in its entirety ($8,000), it will cover the complete referral cost for our child!!!!

We KNOW the Lord wants us to bring this precious child home and we KNOW that He will provide the funds needed but sometimes it's discouraging when it takes soooo very long to raise a little bit....We are soooo encouraged by this great news! Thanks so much to Immanuel and Lifesong!!!! Thanks does not even begin to put into words, the gratitude that we are feeling right now...We will post more info on this as soon as we hear exactly how the funds can be donated and we get our support letter written. *Editing this to share how you can donate if you feel led to do so...You write your check to Lifesong for Orphans and in the memo line, write "preference Koenig/#2257 adoption." Then, mail your check to Lifesong for Orphans, PO Box 40/202 N. Ford St., Gridley, IL 61744. This donation is completely tax deductible!

Please join with us in prayer that all of this support will be raised and that none of this gift will be wasted. Thanks be to God!

On another note, we are working on another fundraiser - a cookbook!! We are currently collecting any and all recipes to go into a cookbook that will be back in time for Christmas delivery. It would make a wonderful gift for ANYONE you know! If you have any yummy recipes, please pass them on by this Saturday, the 22nd...Thanks in advance!!

Fingerprints Done!

Sometimes I find it hard to come up with new titles for my blog entries so this one pretty much says it all :) We went today and had our fingerprinting appointment for USCIS. If you know me, you know that the fact that it was completed without incident was a minor miracle :) For as long as I can remember, I have picked the skin on my fingers (too much info?) and therefore, every time I've had my fingerprints taken, I've had to go back 3 and 4 times because they have been rejected. Well, I've tried really hard to not do that in preparation for today and I prayed that God would just cover the blemishes on the screen so that they would be accepted and Voila! It worked :) We are one step closer to submitting our dossier!! Praise God!! I think when we actually get it submitted, I will post the entire Doxology...Well, actually, why not now? God has been so good throughout this process even if it doesn't happen as quickly as I would like it to...

Praise God from whom all blessings flow! Praise Him all creatures here below!
Praise Him above, ye Heavenly Host! Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost! Amen!

Available Bows

I had an email suggesting that I post pics of all my current available bows on our blog, so here goes :)

These are all the colors of headbands I have but I have several of each color. Also, my inventory is always changing and I can do special orders so let me know if you need something that you don't see. Thanks!

Fundraising Spotlight

Amy at "Filled with Praise" has graciously placed our family in her fundraising spotlight today. Every Monday, she chooses a family and shares part of their adoption story on her blog to help them fundraise. Check out her blog here


Thanks Amy for sharing our story and helping us bring our child home!!!

Fundraiser Update and a Few Other Things

Well, we had our cookout this past weekend and it was great!!! The Lord provided $700 for our adoption plus I have sold about $50 in bows in the past week! We had some wonderful helpers on Saturday - my dad and stepmom drove down and Jane watched the girls while my dad grilled all day in the heat. Also, our good friend and pastor at our church, J.C., was able to come help us grill as well for a few hours (despite the fact that his wife is 9 months pregnant and they have 3 other children). Also, a couple other families from the church dropped by for lunch and made deliveries for us while they were there :) Thanks to all these precious people for their help!! Thanks also to all the Dillard's & Mall employees and our church family who stopped by and bought a meal from us to help us get closer to bringing our child home! Thanks to Dillard's management for letting us use their dock to set up our fundraiser!! The Lord is so good to continue to provide ways for us to raise money for our adoption! I have been so encouraged to see how the adoption community as well as our church community and several family and friends have been so willing and eager to help us out!

Another fundraising opportunity literally dropped in my lap this weekend! I found out about an event called "Shepherd's Fest" in Shepherdsville this next Saturday (27th). This event is put on by a church and has several arts/crafts booths as well as live music and lots of other fun things. Last year there were roughly 4500 people there. I called just to see if they had any booths left and they were so excited that we are selling bows and other items for our adoption that they said we could have a FREE booth!! Praise the Lord!! How could we pass that up?? Please pray that I can get enough inventory made and that I will be able to find childcare for our children that day. Hopefully this event will help us raise the rest of the money we need for our home study...then we can start saving for our dossier :)

On a couple of other notes, we will be mailing our application to Show Hope tomorrow and to Katelyn's Fund on Wednesday for more grant opportunities. We also have our fingerprinting appointment with USCIS on Sept. 13.

We were able to get together with some sweet friends this past week who are also adopting from the Congo. She was so kind to take pictures of my bows and post them on her blog to help us out. Her pictures are so much better than any I ever take :) Thank you, thank you Ruth!! Check out her blog at www.whatsmixing.com

Thank you for your continued prayers and support!!!

Next Fundraising Event

Well, we are pretty much settled in Louisville (still a few things left to put away...) and it is time for our next fundraiser! Woohoo!! Since our home study is now complete, that means we have a home study bill to pay and we only have part of the funds :) Therefore, this Saturday (20th) from about 11-6, we will be grilling out and selling hot dogs/hamburgers, chips and drinks at the Dillard's at St. Matthews Mall. We will be set up around the back on the dock (where the trucks unload) of the Men's store. This will be right next to El Nopal (the old Panera in the mall). If you are out and about and are planning to eat out for lunch, please stop in and see us. We'd greatly appreciate it!! If you aren't in Louisville or planning to eat out Saturday, please pray that God will use this time for us to share His word with the people who stop in to see us. Please pray that these people will be able to see God's love for them and all the millions of orphans worldwide. Finally, please pray that we will trust that He will provide all that we need for this next step :)

Also, we sent off our first grant application this past week to Lifesong and got an email notification today that it had been received. We are waiting on a letter from our agency and then we are going to apply for a few more grants as well.

I've also started making bows again and have quite a few ready to sell to bring this child home :) Let me know if you're interested! Thanks for all your prayers and support! This is a long process and it is easy to get discouraged but we are trusting in the Lord that this will all be completed in His timing and we will be able to bring our precious child home exactly when He wants us to.

Finally An Update...

Finally, finally, finally our home study is complete!!! Praise the Lord! Now we can move forward in the process to bring our child home! I felt like we were stuck at a standstill for a little while...however, now hopefully things will move a little quicker :) We are quickly finishing up several grant applications and planning many fundraising events as we need to come up with about $3500 ASAP to pay for our home study and send in with our dossier (which is a collection of documents that we send to our agency and they send to the Congo). As soon as we have this money collected and our fingerprints done (which will hopefully be soon), we can send in our dossier. Then, the wait begins - we will officially be on a waiting list for a child!!! We can't wait! Here are ways that you can help - PRAY (I will list specific things shortly), buy or sell bows for us :), host a Pampered Chef show or place an order, donate anything for our yard sale, donate old cell phones, inkjet, and laser printer cartridges. Thanks in advance for all your help and support!!

Here are some specific prayer requests:
* That we will be diligent in completing our grant applications quickly
* That we will be awarded some grant money :)
* That the Lord will provide all the finances we need for our adoption & that we will trust in Him to do so
* That some other fundraising activities that we are working on will work out
* That our fingerprinting appt will be scheduled very soon so we can finish our dossier and be on the Wait List!!
* That our child we be fed and well taken care of until we can bring him/her home
* That the Lord will use this journey as a way for us to be a witness to others

Thank you! Thank you! Josh & Kristen

He's Continually Providing!!

Well, it's been awhile since our last update but there isn't much new to post except to tell you about the Flea Market booth I set up this weekend. Apparently it was a pretty slow weekend for a flea market but the Lord provided us with approximately $575!! Wait till you hear how...We met another family who was also selling bows who was also adopting from Africa - coincidence? Nope, God doesn't deal in coincidences :) They are actually adopting from Uganda and are hoping for a sibling set. Anyway, we talked to them a few times yesterday and today she came to talk to me and give me a beautiful card and $300 for our adoption!! She said that she had been praying that God would show them how to use some of their money that they raised - to whom and how much - and then she met us. Another coincidence? Nope! As one of my good friends put it, "A complete stranger gave you $300?!?!" Yep, they did but they are stranger no more. They are our fellow brother and sister in Christ and are answering his call to bring home orphans and helping others too. They actually make flowers out of recycled clothing and sell them to raise money for their program "Flowers for Orphans." The main thing that stands out for me about this program is that they state that they make flowers out of used, discarded, unwanted clothing just like there are so many children like this. How horrible is that?? But so very true and we as believers are called to care for these children! Anyway, their generous gift totally made the weekend worth it and was obviously the reason the Lord had us there. After this weekend, we realized that we are 1/4 of the way to our goal and haven't even gotten any grants yet!! Praise the Lord!!!

On another note, we have postponed our home study to next Thursday instead of this week. The rest of our furniture will be delivered tomorrow so I would not be able to get the house in order that quickly.

Thank you for your continued prayers! Please also pray for some friends of ours who are adopting as well but may lose their referral. Please pray that the Lord will give them peace and that He will protect this child and allow this child to have a family and not remain an orphan forever. Please pray that they will completely trust in the Lord and not be discouraged by the words and actions of man but that they will remember that the Lord cares for this child even more than they do.

Thanks for reading :)

First Home Study Meeting & a couple other things...

Well, yesterday we had our first home study meeting and it went pretty well. I was quite anxious about it but it was just a "get-to-know-you" type meeting. She wanted to know about our childhoods and things like that. We also turned in some of the paperwork that we've gathered. Of course, we still have ALOT left to get together before our next meeting (our first visit in our new home) which will be on Thursday, July 7.

Another thing I am hoping for (I don't know that it will happen but with God all things are possible) is that we will be able to travel in November to bring home our child. Our director said it is doable that we can bring our precious child home before the end of the year. It just depends on how quickly we get a referral. Since Josh works in retail, he can't travel in December so we are hoping/praying for November...Our director said once you get a referral it generally takes about 4 months before you travel. Therefore, we would need our referral by July :) Which also means we will need to raise the rest of our money quickly too. Please pray that we will get a referral soon and that God will continue to provide the funds we need to bring this child home. We do have another fundraising event the first weekend in July. I am going to be selling bows all weekend at the flea market. Please pray that I will be diligent in making my bows so that I will have enough to sell for the four days I will be at the flea market.

Anyway, that is all the new news with us :) Thanks for your prayers and encouragement!

Louisville and Adoption Update

Well, we are FINALLY back in Louisville! We are beyond thrilled to be back home and back at Immanuel. We went to church there this morning for the first time in almost 2 years and thoroughly enjoyed it! We are looking forward to getting plugged back in as quickly as possible! I am so excited to be living in a neighborhood where so many of our neighbors go to IBC! It almost seems like anytime we go outside we run into someone from the church. LOVE IT!

Now time for adoption update....we mailed off our first BIG check for $3200 to OWAS this week so we are officially contracted with them and now we are beginning to gather all our paperwork for our dossier. Exciting times!! We also have our first meeting with our home study coordinator on Thursday. I'm not nervous yet because we actually aren't in our house yet so it will just be a meet and greet and fill out paperwork kinda session. We have another fundraiser planned for the first weekend of July. I've rented a booth at the Louisville flea market and am hoping to sell LOTS of bows that weekend. If anyone else is interested in buying or selling some bows for us, let me know :) I'm still shipping them out!! I think that's all the news for now. Thanks for your prayers!

Quick Yard Sale Update

This will be a short post as we still have to load the U-Haul and take down our yard sale stuff today but I wanted to give an update to all who prayed for today before our internet is disconnected this afternoon. God provided us with another $471 to bring our precious child home!! We now have enough for our first $3200 bill which we will put in the mail on Tuesday and we are on our way to saving for the next one :) Praise the Lord for providing this money so quickly!!!! Thanks for all your prayers - our next blog post will be from a public library until Internet is set up at our new home. More soon!! -Kristen

Wal Mart Didn't Happen...But God Did!!

Well, today was NOTHING like I expected!! I woke up this morning thinking we were going to Wal-Mart for our fundraiser. We had bought over $250 worth of hot dogs, hamburgers, chips, and drinks to barbecue and sell. I had also made about 80 bows and 2 bow holders to sell as well. We had signed up for this fundraiser over a month ago and I made sure that it was okay for us to grill and sell food. Leading up to this morning, I had been very very anxious. I know the Lord says,

"Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication
with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God,
which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in
Christ Jesus." Phil. 4:6-7

However, those of you who know me, know that I am a worrier. I was trying very hard last night and today to give this day to God but I was struggling. When I got to WM this morning, I checked in and then we began to unload. Almost as soon as we unloaded, someone came out and told us that we couldn't sell food there. To make a long story short, apparently whoever told me I could was wrong and you have to have insurance to sell food there. I was very very upset!! Reflecting back on that moment, I realize that Satan was trying to get us to give up on today. He knew that I would be devastated and not sure what to do next. However, God had a bigger and better plan for us today. Josh's cousin Jimbo was with me and Grandaddy at WM (Josh was at work). He immediately thought that we could sell plate lunches to local businesses and people that we know in town. So we went back to the house, got on the phone, and Grandaddy began walking up and down the street knocking on doors. Once again, this story is getting long...Jimbo, Josh, and Grandaddy grilled while Ashley (Jimbo's sweet wife) and I put together orders and took care of the kids. Through 2 $300 donations, several smaller donations, and many orders from people who didn't want change, God provided a total of $1185.00 towards bringing our precious child home. Satan may not want us to adopt an orphan but God does and He will ALWAYS win!! Thank you to those of you who helped, donated, and prayed for us today.

Here are a few pictures from our day. This is my wonderful husband. This is Jimbo sampling the food. We could not have gotten through today without him and his sweet wife! They were an incredible blessing to us today!! This is our baby, Hannah. She was trying out the styrofoam cooler that we used to keep the food warm.

I wish I had a picture of Ashley and Grandaddy but I don't...

Piggly Wiggly Take 2

Well, today was our second fundraising event and it was once again at the Piggly Wiggly. We were very encouraged by the support we received today! I sold 47 bows and a few other items plus we got some donations. Our total profit from today was $193.00!! We are slowly but surely making our way towards our goal of bringing our child home :) This is our sweet Abbey Grace helping us bring her brother or sister home from "Afeeca."

Next Saturday we are having a fundraiser at Wal-Mart. Then the following Saturday is our fundraising yard sale in LA and then Sunday we load the moving truck and Monday we head to Louisville!!! We have a lot going on and a short amount of time to do it in. We appreciate your prayers, encouragement, and support!

Louisville

Well, we are super excited to announce that we will be moving back to Louisville!! This July we will have been married 7 years and this will be our 7th move. We have decided that we are tired of moving and are ready to settle and that we want to settle in Louisville. One of the main reasons we chose Louisville is because of our church there. Since leaving Immanuel 2 years ago, we have had a difficult time finding a church that helps us grow spiritually like Immanuel. God has blessed us by giving us church homes in the two places we've lived since then but we have always missed Immanuel. Therefore, we decided that we wanted to settle in Louisville. Of course, we are also closer to our friends and most of our family there too.
God has worked this out for us so that Josh will have a job in Louisville with the same company so we know this is what He wants for us too. However, things are moving along much quicker than we thought they would. It looks like we will be moving the first of June. This is exciting but a little stressful as well. We are buying a house in Louisville but are not closing until July. Therefore, we don't know what our living situation will look like for that month's time nor do we know what we will do with all of our belongings during that transition. It also causes a little stress on us financially to be moving that early. We are excited because this could speed things up for the adoption because we can go ahead with the first meeting for the home study but we also don't want to have to slow things down with the adoption because of finances. I hope that makes sense. Of course, we are keeping our adoption fund separate from everything else; it just means we are unable to contribute as much to it right now. In the meantime, we have two fundraising opportunities down here in Louisiana that we are preparing for so I will be busy making crafty items plus packing. If you are praying for us, please pray that I (Kristen) will not worry about all of these things because I am very much a worrier! Please pray that we will trust in the peace of the Lord and that we will trust that He knows what is best for us and will provide ALL that we need. Please pray that we will be able to SAVE SAVE SAVE as much as possible over the next few weeks and that God will work out the living situation. Finally, please pray that I will be able to devote as much time to my family as they need/deserve over the next two weeks even while I am trying to prepare for the fundraisers and the move. Oh, and one more thing. Please pray for Grandaddy as he prepares to live by himself for the first time in over 60 years. His wife passed away shortly after we moved in so this will be the first time that he will live alone. His faith is strong and he knows that the Lord will take care of him but it will still be hard. Whew!

What's Going on With Us...

Well, as of right now, we are still working on getting all of our paperwork together for our Home Study. I took the girls for their physicals yesterday and found out from our home study contact that they will have to have ALL their vaccines. We had not vaccinated them against HEP B b/c we did not feel that their chances of contracting that were very high at their age. We thought maybe someday we would go back and do that. Well, I guess we have to do that now so I've scheduled that appt as well as appointments for Josh & I to get our physicals. We are also completing forms for background checks for all the states we've lived in for the past 10 years (5 for me, 4 for Josh).

And, we are fundraising like crazy!! We have $3200 that is due to our agency ASAP so we are trying to do whatever we can to raise this money. God is continually blowing me away by His provision!!! We have two additional fundraising events scheduled this month (more to come) and a yard sale scheduled for the first weekend in June.

Anyway, that's where we are right now. If you are praying for us, please pray that God will protect our child until we can bring him/her home, that He will provide the finances that are needed when they are needed, and that we will continue to trust in Him and not get discouraged. We are VERY excited and not at all discouraged right now but this is a long process and I know it will have its ups and downs.

First Fundraising Event

Well, we had our first fundraising event today and God worked everything out so well!! The local Piggly Wiggly let us set up a table and sell crafty items and I sold some Pampered Chef stock (mainly $1 cookbooks) that I had also. I sold a total of 47 bows, 4 wipes cases, 6 headbands, 16 Pampered Chef things and we received $40.10 in donations. All together we made $211.00 profit!!!!! WOW!!! I am so amazed by the ways God keeps showing us that this is His will for us! Another prayer that was answered for today was that a friend from church was able to watch the girls today so I didn't have to worry about them all day (Josh had to work). Here is a picture of our table (Grandaddy is in the background).

Oh, and I was so overwhelmed by God's blessings when I got in the car after sitting out at our table all day and the song on the radio right at that minute was "Children of God!" Coincidence? I think not...

Wow!!!

So, yesterday I was feeling a little unsure of where the $3200 for our first agency fee was going to come from. Yes, I've been selling a TON of bows and we have a chance to set up a table at Piggly Wiggly this Saturday to sell some crafts but that would be A LOT of crafts. Thankfully I had a friend from church who was willing to come over and help me make bows. Anyway, back to the beginning of my story...I opened my email to find an invoice for OWAS and realized, "Okay, this money is DUE! Where is it going to come from??" So, I was praying for God to give me peace and to show me where this money would come from because we KNOW this is what he wants us to do. I tend to worry about things anyway and so the thought of this first lump sum was starting to get to me...Well, God is AWESOME!!! You'll never guess what happened - I was opening the mail yesterday afternoon and I opened a letter from a sweet friend and her husband and there was a $1,000 check! Along with this check came some Bible verses that really spoke to my heart. Psalm 10:17-18 - "O Lord, You hear the desire of the afflicted; you will strengthen their heart; You will incline Your ear to do justice to the fatherless and the oppressed..." WOW!! He answered my prayers in a way that I couldn't even imagine!! Thank you to these sweet, selfless friends for being a part of our journey to bring our precious child home!!

Accepted

Well, we received an email today saying that our application for adoption has been accepted from OWAS!! Woohoo!! In that email, it said, "Please fill out the attached paperwork and return with $3200." I guess now we get to start passing out the big bucks! Woohoo!! :) Therefore, we are hitting the fundraisers even more earnestly.

I mailed out two boxes of bows to two other family members/friends today. I am working on a box for my sister-in-law. So, we will have bows for sale in Kentucky, Indiana, and Missouri. Not to mention that I am setting up a table at the local Piggly Wiggly (in Louisiana) on Saturday, April 30 and hoping to sell several different crafty items (bows, flannel wipes, fleece blankets, maybe some cards if I can get them made). I'm not sure that we will raise $3200 but it's a start! :) If anyone else would like me to mail them a box of bows to sell, please let me know. We'd greatly appreciate it!! We are also still collecting cell phones, inkjet, and laser cartridges as well.

Please pray for us that I (especially) will not get discouraged/overwhelmed by the amount of money needed for this adoption. That we will trust that the Lord will provide everything we need in His timing. Thanks for praying with us!

Bows, Bows, and More Bows

Well, our most lucrative fundraiser so far is the selling of these hairbows that I have been making. My mother-in-law took several to her school and has sold about $40 worth in 4 days time. That's a $25 profit!! So, I made a box of 24 more and just mailed them to her yesterday.

I am selling them anywhere from $2-$5 apiece. This is a picture of the ones I mailed to Jan. Now, my stepmom told me if I mailed her a box, she would sell them at her school too :) So, I'm getting ready to start on some more for her. If anyone else would like to sell some bows for us, I'd greatly appreciate it :) Also, if you might like to buy a bow for someone, let me know that too (shipping is really inexpensive). Praise the Lord that this is going so well!!

And We're Off...

Well, we are SUPER excited!! We mailed our applications today to One World Adoption Services and to Adoption Assistance for our home study! The process has officially begun!!

Abbey was excited to help! She helped pick out the family picture that we included. And for the record, she told us she wants a girl (but I think she'd be happy with a brother too :) )

There they are, waiting in the mailbox!! Yippee!!!

Oh, and my mother-in-law called today and said she sold 3 of my bows and has 2 more on hold for tomorrow! Guess I need to make some more to send as today was only her first day trying to sell them! Thank you Jesus!!

Details

Ok, I felt like this should be a separate post than the other that I just published. Many people have asked for more details about the child we will be bringing home so I thought I should address those questions on here. First of all, we are only adopting one child at this time. Although sometimes I think about adopting 2, we have decided that one is all that the Lord is calling us to adopt at this time. We are specifying that the age of the child be between 0-2 as we feel that birth order is important and we don't want the child to be older than the two we already have. Of course, he/she may be very close in age to Hannah (who just turned 1 on Apr. 3) and we feel that that is okay. Also, we are not specifying a gender. There is a longer wait for girls so we feel very strongly that we will probably be given a boy but we would be happy with either one! This final question that I can think of to answer right now is the color of our child's skin. Yes, he/she will be black. We believe that the Lord calls us to care for ALL orphans regardless of skin color and at this time, He is calling us to adopt from Africa. Therefore, our child's skin will be a different color than ours. However, he/she will be no less precious in our eyes nor in the eyes of our Savior. We know that there will be some people who have a problem with this and we know that at times, we will face struggles but we already love this child whom God has called us to raise even though we know nothing about him/her. We know that by leaning on God we can face anything that comes our way. We know that He will never give us more than we can bear. We are EXCITED about this incredible journey to bring our precious, precious child home!

Ups & Downs

So, I've come to the realization today that this journey will have many ups and downs. For example, I found out this morning that our initial $1000 donation will not be coming until after we bring our child home. Of course I am still thankful for the money that this person intends to be used for our child's schooling but was a little disappointed not to have it to help us through the process. There were a couple of other small things that contributed to my discouragement this morning; however, I was walking down the hallway and I just asked God to help me to trust in Him and not to get discouraged. I told him that I wanted this to happen in His time and not mine. Then, I also told Him that we KNOW this is what He wants us to do and that He WILL provide. Not 10 minutes later, my mother-in-law offered to take my bows (that I've made and you can see the link to my Etsy page to the left) to try to sell them at her school in Kentucky! I am very encouraged by that!! As I was getting excited about that prospect and thinking about making more to send with her, I realized that God answered my prayers immediately! Now, I know that this will probably not happen every time I ask but it did this time! He knew what I needed and has provided it!! Thank you for your continuing prayers!!

Update

Well, we just got back into town after spending a week with my family and friends. We celebrated our daughter's first birthday as well. While we were there, we received many cell phones and ink cartridges and were so encouraged by the support and offer to help with this fundraiser! We even collected $10!! $5 was from someone we didn't even know but who worked with my stepmom! God is so good! We are looking for new ways to fundraise as well and have contacted the local WalMart to possibly sell hot dogs/hamburgers out front of the store. It seems like there was much more I wanted to share but my oldest child is calling for me so I will have to add more later! Thanks for your prayers!

Emotions

Wow - I must say that the past 48 hours have been a whirlwind of emotion! Not only did we decide to begin the adoption process but also, my grandmother has been in the hospital and things looked pretty grim yesterday. I have always been close to my grandparents and currently live 15 hours away so this news was quite devastating. Thankfully, she is doing much better today! I'm mentioning this on my adoption blog simply to say that I have been completely overwhelmed by emotion the past couple of days! However, after finding out late last night, that her condition was not as serious as we initially thought, my emotions have mainly been excitement over our pending adoption...As the day went on today, I got more and more excited - you see, God has been showing me how much He wants us to begin this process. I shared a little bit about this in my post "He's Already Providing" but let me tell you what he has done today. I mentioned previously that we started our first fundraiser today collecting old printer cartridges and cell phones (see previous post). Well, the first 3 people I called to tell them about this were so eager to help!! I heard, "I'm going to send a mass email to everyone I work with and ask them" from 2 of them. I also heard, "I'm going to sit down tonight and make a list of everyone who might have an old cell phone or who works in a business that might have lots of cartridges and give them a call." Then I heard, "I'm going to call my boss, who works in another building and see what she can do." WOW!!! Then, I saw that another old friend had shared our blog on her homepage with her friends. Finally, I got permission from the owner of the pictures of the orphanage to share them with you. So, here they are. But, be forewarned, they are disturbing. They are unbelievable. They are devastating! Well, I will leave you with those tonight. Thank you for your prayers and support!!

First Fundraising Activity

Well, I've been busy searching for fundraising ideas during naptime today and have just signed up for our first one. The GREAT news is that it won't cost anyone, anything! It will actually help you get rid of your trash :) We are collecting old inkjet and laser printer cartridges as well as old cell phones. There is a company that recycles them and will pay us for all the ones we collect. Please, please, please don't throw these items away. If you can save them for us, we would really appreciate it! You would be helping us bring our child home quicker :) Thanks for all your help!! Please continue to pray for us as we start this process!! Oh, and if you are looking to raise money for your own adoption, school, or organization and you sign up at http://www.rrewards.com/ to collect cartridges and phones and you click on "Referred by Participant" and then enter our User ID # 267586, we will automatically get an extra $50! You just have to send in one box of these items (within 6 months) for us to get the credit. Oh, and you don't have to pay for shipping - the company pays for it! Thanks again!

He's Already Providing!

Just had to share this news - it has been only a few hours since we started telling people our news about adopting and we already have a large donation!! We weren't asking for money - simply telling this person so he/she would pray for us and immediately were informed that they would gladly donate! He/she even said if we raise enough money fundraising and have extra, we can take this money and put it in our child's college fund :) Wow, it's been less than 24 hours since we made this decision and the Lord is already showing us how He will provide!! And we had another friend post our blog on their page to share with their friends and she has promised to pray for us through this journey!! Thank you for all your prayers as we begin this exciting process!!

The Journey Begins

Well, we have known for a while now, approximately a year and a half, that "someday" we will adopt. We just weren't sure when that "someday" would be. However, last night, after looking at some very real pictures of some very real children in a very real orphanage in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and after watching the You Tube video by Third Day called Children of God, we realized that "someday" is NOW! If you haven't seen that video, I encourage you to watch it (see below) but be forewarned, it is powerful and will probably change your life! In that video we are once again reminded that we are adopted in the Lord! Therefore, we believe that God is calling us to adopt one of His precious children and to raise him/her to love and serve Him. I was struck by how "good" I have it...so often I complain about trivial things. For example, when first getting out summer clothes, I remarked that Abbey needed some more short-sleeve shirts because I thought she only had 5, turned out that she had 11...Really??!! I thought that it was important that she needed more clothes?? These orphans are lucky to have one outfit and that outfit is probably full of holes and not the right size...I also often think that our child needs several different pair of shoes to go with different outfits...what these orphans wouldn't do for ONE pair of shoes...Also, it is RIDICULOUS that our children have so many toys that we have a fairly large box in storage, yes, in storage! These orphans don't have a single toy to play with...Finally, and the most troubling for me, I complain if I burnt the peas or overcooked the noodles and often, I throw it out because I can just go get more...in the DRC the children in orphanages are the "lucky" ones because they get to eat ONE meal a day while the other orphans in this country are "lucky" to eat three times a WEEK and this meal is not a balanced meal with meat, fruit, veggies, and so on, it is most often a bowl of what I would consider to be "mush"... So, where am I going with this? I believe that the Lord finally brought Josh and I to a realization that the "things" we have are not important (yes, we have known that and said that for years now but do we really act on it?). Rather it is important to seek after Him and follow Him. He will provide everything that we could ever need and he has shown us this continually over the years. Therefore, although we do not have the money to adopt a child from the DRC as it costs approximately $20,000 for one child, we are trusting that the Lord will provide this for us. We know that He wants us to call one of these children son or daughter as He has called us His sons and daugthers. Therefore, He will make that possible. So, our journey begins...I spent some time this morning talking to an agency to see where we should begin so we are starting the application process and praying that God will provide the means to continue this process however He sees fit. We simply know that He is telling us to start the process NOW and to bring home a precious child from the DRC.