Remaining West

We have a REFERRAL! That long awaited moment has arrived!!!!! We are no longer waiting!!!! For those of you who are not privy to adoption lingo, this means we have been matched with a child! We have a sweet face to look at and to think about while we gather documents for yet another "paperchase". If we have learned anything, it is the lesson that God moves when we are least expecting it. Things began to pick up speed in February. We knew that our home study update was due. Because we had added another member to our family (Jude), along with the fact that we had moved, we had to update. As we began to prepare for this to take place, we also began discussing the Ethiopian wait times extending. Things have been a serious roller coaster in Ethiopia in recent years and we have felt the stresses.  We affirmed our call from God to pursue adoption because of all of the many children in need of homes. Ethiopian wait times continue to increase, even for special needs children, sibling groups and older children. One day, as we looked at the waiting child list with our agency, I saw a beautiful little face that made my heart skip a beat. For a moment the world stood still. I cannot describe the feeling, I just knew.  Her file name (which is not her real name, for confidentiality purposes) was "Jamie". I sent her photo to my husband. Later that night we discussed her information (the little bit that could be disclosed openly). We agreed to request her file, which we did. She was under review. I have to admit, I was crushed a little bit, but I was thankful that a family wanted her. From that moment, I could not get her out of my mind. A week later we received an email asking if we were still interested in "Jamie's" file. WE WERE!!!! We are given her file to review and we could not say no! Marcus and I talked about why we wanted to adopt and how this looks totally different than what we imagined. This is totally from God and we have learned to not anticipate. The only thing is....she is not in Ethiopia. And, our dossier IS in Ethiopia! Unfortunately they just do not send those things back! This means transferring programs and compiling a whole new dossier. It took us 8 months to complete our first home study and dossier. We knew all to well the road that awaits. SHE IS WORTH IT!!!

Here is what we can disclose. Obviously, she is a she! And, I mentioned that we would be transferring programs. This means sh is in a different country. She is from Chine. This means new standards, new qualifications. Originally, we did not meet the requirements for the China program. God opened that door just before He ever presented this sweet baby girl to us. We have been given official pre-approval from the Chinese government to pursue an adoption for this specific child. Anything could go wrong. They still have the ability to deny us at any moment. She is in an orphanage in China as we speak. She is considered special needs. She is almost 2! SHE IS PRECIOUS!!!!! SHE IS SO DEARLY LOVED!!!! So, we are ferociously collecting paperwork. We ask for prayer. We ask to be covered in it. All the more, we ask that you cover her in prayer!!! That her heart will be prepared for her coming family. That she feels a peace from God where she is right now. That she is protected from Satan who knows she is to be ours and will stop at nothing to foil this plan. We have experienced it in full force this year. Pray that she remains healthy. Pray that we do not experience hassles with paperwork or hold-ups that happen all of the time. Pray that when the documents are ready that the funds are there too. Pray like mad that we can bring her home this year!! Pray that we find favor with the Chinese government and we get final approval once they receive our dossier! Pray until you cannot think of anything else to pray.

From our previous post, we have introduced our children to her picture and videos. They are head over heels for her too. They ask about her all the time! She is going to fit in so perfectly with our family. We do not expect anything to be smooth sailing, but we do know that this is meant to be and it will be amazing! We cannot wait to bring our little Chinese butterfly home!!

For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. ~ Jeremiah 29:11

We have a slew of large and x-large sizes. We have a couple of smalls and Mediums left. I mean that literally. There are only two or three of each of those left. And, we have two 12 month sizes left. So even your little squish could have one! If you are interested in buying one, you can email Marcus or myself, or you can simply click the Paypal button on our blog's home page. You can pay through that method easily and instantly. Be sure to include a note that the payment is for a t-shirt, the size desired and your shipping address! If you are local, we will hand deliver.

3. We are also involved in, what began as a fundraising effort for our adoption, but has become so much more. Last year I bcame a local Noonday Collection Ambassador. Noonday is a company that seeks to lift the vulnerable out of poverty by creating economic opportunity for them...better put, a job! We buy hand-made accessories (jewelry, scarves, handbags etc) and sell them in the United States, questionably the world's biggest and best marketplace for goods. Our massive wealth here in the states generates billions, maybe even trillions of dollars per year. If we decided to be more conscious with our purchases, or even decided to use our purchasing power for good, poverty in our world would cease to exist. Men, women and babies would not starve to death, die from easily treatable diseases and families would not become broken. We could change the world! Noonday has changed the lives of thousands in the short 3 years it has been doing this missionary work. Be a part of it! By becoming a voice for these artisans and sharing their story, their opportunities grow. Host a trunk show in your home, church or office. Spread the word and create economic opportunity for the needy. It only takes a little time and makes an enormous impact. Get your best girls, in fact ALL of your girls, together for a couple of hours to pour over beautiful pieces of jewelry made in places like Uganda, India, Guatamala, Peru, Eithiopia, Ecuador, Vietnam, Haiti and Chile. Make a purchase, Host a show, Be a voice, Create change! If you are interested in making a purchase, please click the blog button on the right side of our blog home page or go to my website www.aleciawest.noondaycollection.com. Browse the gorgeous accessories, make a purchase and choose my name as the ambassador of your choice during checkout. ALL of my commissions are being funneled into our adoption. Every little bit counts. If you are interested in hosting a show, please contact me through this blog, Facebook, or my email account! I would love to partner with you!

4. And finally, we still have some pieces of our puzzle remaining without names. If you would like to sponsor a puzzle piece for the children's room, when they finally come home, we would love for you to be a part of this journey in this special way. Again, you can pay through Paypal, or pay us personally. If you choose the Paypal option, leave a message letting us know that you have chosen the puzzle fundraiser!

Recent happenings throughout the Ethiopian government, concerning international adoption have our hearts breaking. We are requesting that you pray with us. Please pray for God to sway hearts of the Ethiopian government officials. Pray that positive adoption PR will flood Ethiopia. Pray God's will be done for these children without families and consequently, without hope.

We were informed through EthioStork, an agency founded by Duni Zenaye, a native Ethiopian, that walks families through the adoption process and beyond, providing information about the Ethiopian culture, the adoption process as a whole, and assist families through the many challenges of trans-racial adoptions, of some follow-up information concerning a meeting held with parliament. 

We currently wait ten of the longest days since starting our adoption journey. We hope to hear positive news soon. Positive news would consist of adoption reform, new standards, new laws that do not include the shut off of international adoption. Protection of these precious children from child trafficking, abuse cases such as those like Hana Williams and more and financial corruption on the part of orphanages and even government, is so vitally important to the future of all orphans. Adoption can become a very politically and even culturally charged subject. The first priority that we share with many adoptive families INTACT. The primary family unit is of the highest importance. When that is no longer an option, children being kept in their own culture, raised by members of their native land would be preferred. In many cases this is not a viable option either. Many areas with concentrated numbers of orphans are many times areas that are extremely poverty stricken. Here is where opinions begin to differ. These children can be kept in their cultural land and be raised by various members of local villages or be raised in orphanages. We feel this is not ideal. The children never form attachments to parents that are their OWN. They do not develop trust and intimate relationships with adult figures. And so, we find ourselves at the mercy of the government, parliament, adoption advocates, local orphanage personnel, and the Prime Minister to make the right decision.

We have faith in the fact that our great God, Creator of all, knew this was coming. He knows the outcome as well. Please pray that He will intervene on behalf of the children of Ethiopia and those waiting to provide families to these little ones.

So much is happening, I cannot even keep up! It MUST be time for an adoption update to keep everyone posted on our progress! Leaps and bounds people!! WE ARE ALMOST DONE!!! For those of you who are just now tuning in...we have been compiling our dossier (huge, ginormous pile of paperwork to send to the Ethiopian government to prove our pure intentions to adopt children from their country) and working with a licensed social worker through a home study process. It is such a LONG process and grueling at that, especially for a family of seven who has questionably TOO much going on already!

UPDATE #1: We PASSED our home study!!!!!!!!!!! Hallelujah!! We have been interviewed, several, several times...even the kids were interviewed, and yes, we still passed. Kids will certainly say the darndest things! And while during our family visit, I was certain we had morphed into a cross between a KISS concert and the Beverly Hillbillies right before my eyes, our social worker laughed and still gave us rave reviews. We have been approved for TWO! Siblings, older children and special needs children are harder to place. Although, none of this guarantees us anything! We are so anxious (in a very good way) to see what, or more specifically WHO, God has in store for us! 

 

 APPROVED!!!!

 Pretty lengthy, huh?

UPDATE #2: Now with our Home study behind us, new doors of opportunity open! We are now eligible to apply for most grants available for adoptive families! So with our fundraising efforts on hold (and totally exhausted at the moment), we will focus our energies there. We have our eyes on matching grants. These grants are large sum grants from foundations/organizations that are matched dollar for dollar with donations, fundraising efforts etc on our part up to a certain amount! Please be in prayer that God would allow us what He sees fit for our needs! He has most certainly provided above and beyond so far!

We are at the tail end of our dossier compilation as well. I can see the proverbial light at the end of the tunnel, if you will. Background checks are complete. Certain major documents, like a thousand of them, have been requested, received, notarized (everything has to be notarized, and I mean EVERYTHING!!!) county certified and even state certified. Not without a fiasco here and there, mind you! We had to very politely jump through hoops for employers, insurance agents, the police station, various physicians for all seven of us, and vital records offices in three different states to get it all done! And we are not quite done yet!

Our local Buffalo Wild Wings location partnered with our efforts to raise money for our adoption! They allowed us to choose either a Monday night or a Wednesday night to hold an event at the restaurant. Since most of our posse attend Wednesday night church, we elected a Monday evening, August 26th, straight off the heels of our church fundraising yard sale/bake sale. We had to give out a "golden ticket" to everyone we could. To obtain the 10% proceed from an order, a ticket had to be turned in with the order. We placed a golden ticket with most of our purchases from our yard sales. We used facebook, the workplace and all of our friends! We had many friends and friends of friends, show up to support us! We are humbled by your support!!! 

 

We received a check for $93.05!!! 

THANK YOU, Buffalo Wild Wings!!

We God placed the mission of international adoption in our hearts, and WE AGREED TO BE OBEDIENT, we felt sure about one thing. God did not plan for our family to accrue the enormous debt of $40,000+. We bought the book Adopt Without Debt by Julie Gumm. She has compiled in her book, various ways to raise funds to offset costs associated with adoptions. She was called to the same beautiful mission as we were. And, through God's provision, she was able to accrue NO DEBT. We bought and read her book. We gained a lot of valuable information and are utilizing many of her tactics. We have just concluded our third yard sale fundraiser for our Ethiopian adoption. We started publicizing our plans and asking for donations; just anything people planned to rid themselves of, give to Goodwill, or even leftovers from previous yard sale. The outpouring was tremendous and greatly humbling. Our first sale was held at our house, Friday and Saturday, August 2nd and 3rd. The night before our first sale, our garage was filled from floor to ceiling and wall to wall. We even had a large pile of merchandise under tarps in the drive way that just would not fit.

Here is a photo (the only one of the day) of our garage at 6:00 am Friday morning as early birds waited eagerly. The pace of the day never let up, with record-breaking sales (at least for me). The miracle of it was, we had not priced a single item. Not because of sheer laziness, our schedules just did not allow it. It did not matter, God was in control. Saturday we were rained out by 10:30 am, but was still amazingly productive. Our first sale raised $1,365.50! Have you ever? I have never made anywhere close to that kind of cash through any yard sale I have ever had...IN MY LIFE!

Our second sale was held in Ripley, my old stomping grounds! My grandmother lent us her farm, so we loaded up our garage contents and headed to Ripley. Does it seem possible that we sold over $1,000 worth of items and still have this much stuff left? We also had our preacher's truck (our loaner, while Marcus's car is being fixed!) loaded down as well. And, we still had a pile in the center of our garage that we just could not seem to fit.

 Loaded up! Ripley or bust!

 Seeking shelter from the rain!

Although we were forced to reschedule this sale due to unforeseen car turmoil, and being a rain out before noon, our total profits for our Saturday-only sale in Ripley was $410, but that included selling 3 of our new fundraising shirts (totally different BLOG POST**). Technically, $350 in sales from the yard sale itself. Then, we sorted everything, organized it, and once again loaded everything left over and hauled it back to Jackson. Next stop Hillcrest Baptist Church!! Our bodies were tired from all of the loading, unloading, loading and unloading again, all in one Saturday.

Our third sale was in collaboration with our church, specifically the Women's Ministry (LIGHT) and the Activities Committee. It was a Yard Sale/Bake Sale combo. The sale was publicized in our church bulletin and even in the pulpit. Our gym began to fill with more needed donations. We began organizing merchandise on the Wednesday before the Saturday sale, and continued through Friday evening. After set up was complete, or as complete as could be (we actually did not have room for every single piece of clothing we were donated!), we loaded up and went home to bake cookies. We baked 48 iced, sugar cookies in the shape of Africa with a tiny heart over Ethiopia. We retired at 2:00 am just to rise again at 5:30 am in prepare myself and Shy, feed her and set off for the sale that began at 7:00 am. As I drove, praying God's presence and provision over our efforts, God gave me peace. We had certainly put forth our hard work and now it was in His hands. As I turned into the church drive to the view of a packed parking lot, I knew He was in control and would be showing out yet again. I had no idea just how much!!

 Setting up! And, sampling merchandise??

 

 Not for sale!!!

 Bake Sale

 Check out

 Hard Workers!!

We were consumed with busy customers every hour until our sale ended at noon. It was amazing to look around the gymnasium after all customers had left and wonder, did we sell anything. The place was still full of merchandise! The committees and we worked hard and got everything packed up by 1:30 pm. We raised an amazing $2,239.45 from the yard sale and bake sale combination! What an awesome testament to God's faithfulness to those that love Him. How do we feel? Amazingly blessed, awesomely loved by our church family, friends and our Father, who receives ALL of the glory for this!!  

Feeling very uneasy about releasing all of these generous donations by people who believe in our mission, we packed most everything BACK up and hauled it BACK TO OUR GARAGE for another attempt!Our final attempt (and I do mean FINAL!!!!) came September 13-14. We hit it hard with low, low prices to move all of the excess merchandise and the kids insisted on having a lemonade stand to raise money themselves to bring their siblings home! Starting again, early, this was our easiest sale by far. All of the items were already prices and organized, thanks to the efficiency of the Women's Ministry at our church. The dates were still hectic, with a trip to Nashville for an eye appointment for Eli and a soccer game mixed in with the sale. We did manage to pull in $443.26, which was worth the time and effort by far!! 

 Last attempt and still SO much left to sell!

 Who wouldn't buy a cup of lemonade from these two cutie pies?

 Yes, for the skeptics, there was actual blood...and maybe even a few tears along this extensive journey!

We have found that we have been given NUMEROUS opportunities to raise awareness of the orphan crisis in our world. And in return our heavenly Father has given us story after story of renewal through the ministry of adoption. People are sharing their stories with us, they are sharing intimate moments of their lives with us. I had this sweet, little lady come by our first yard sale. We told her our reason behind our sale and she prayed the sweetest prayer over me at that very moment. I could not contain my tears. "The joy of the Lord is my strength." Nehemiah 8:10. Many of these people are unknown brothers and sisters in Christ that we would have never had the opportunity to meet. I am continually humbled and blessed through this. God is showing Himself faithful. Our grand total of combined yard sale totals is $4365.01! How amazing!

They are finally in!!!! We just received our shipment of our adoption t-shirts. We designed them ourselves and had Mike Hopper Promotions print them! I have to give props to Mike for his patience and diligence with us (me) to perfect our shirts. We love them! Our design is uniquely ours and has meaning behind many of the features on the shirts. We, of course, chose the continent of Africa as a symbol of the birthplace of our children, the culture in which they are a part of and where they currently reside. The heart placed in the specific region of Ethiopia, because a piece of our heart is there, and will forever remain even after our children are home with us. The puzzle feature is unique to this specific adoption. God is really placing the pieces together for us, step by step. He has not sent us a lump sum that would provide for the total need of the adoption. Instead He has stayed true to His character, walking with us through each step, hurdle, celebration and praise. He is keeping us dependent on Him daily. With each step we take toward reaching our financial goal, He has placed beautiful stories, encouragement and the opportunity to share our faith with others. The puzzle is also unique in that each and everyone of YOU can be a piece of the puzzle of deliverance for these children. It will all fit together into one fantastic story that brings glory to God. The distressing effect on the continent symbolizes the plight of orphans everywhere. Distress can come from lack of love and nurturing, lack of adequate food, water and sanitation, lack of medical needs being met, lack of support and encouragement, lack of family and any combination of these. There are too many needs that go unmet to be named. This is felt here, there and everywhere the orphan can be found. It is the distress of the orphan crisis in our world. We have added one of our favorite scripture verses found in the chapter of John to the front of our shirt, that sums up exactly why we are in the midst of such a seemingly crazy venture. "I will not leave you as orphans, I will come to you." Jesus said that. The same Jesus that whispered to us...."Go."

I felt very adamant that we tie everything together for anyone who made a purchase on the back of the t-shirt. It reads "I am one piece of the puzzle that is solving the orphan crisis!" Anyone who takes a part in bringing relief to the orphan is a piece of this grand puzzle. This does not merely represent our adoption. There is a much bigger puzzle to figure out, but if we all do our part it can be solved. Do I think that means we are all supposed to run out there and adopt? No, not necessarily. There are so many ways to be involved. We can sponsor children through various programs to help assure that these children do not become victims of the orphan crisis. Support your local families with fundraising. Go on a mission trip to help serve in an orphanage. Send supplies! There are so many other ways. And we ended the shirt with another verse "Seek justice, love mercy, walk humbly with your God." Micah 6:8; words to live by daily!

Our shirts are for sale for $20 each. We have sizes ranging from 12 months all the way to 3XL. We would love to see nothing more than familiar faces amidst a sea of blue! Not only because it means money for our adoption, but because it means we are maybe bringing some awareness to the orphan crisis. If you are local, you can pay directly to us and we can hand deliver your shirt, or they can be purchased through paypal on our blog site and mailed out. Just click the DONATE button on the left column of our main page and it will take you directly to paypal. Consider supporting our adoption! YOU GET A REALLY COOL SHIRT!! If you do, send us photos of you in your shirt! We could use the encouragement!

Our church's youth group has thrown our first fundraiser! We are humbled by their generosity, time sacrifice and servant's hearts! Our young people, youth minister and his wife, along with other friends and church members met early Sunday morning, no doubt when our family was still in the assembly-line-hustle-and-bustle morning ritual of preparing for church, and prepared a pancake breakfast for our church family. They prepared eggs, bacon, and chocolate chip pancakes for the congregation. There was an outpouring of love shown, raising $926 in donations for our adoption fund. We are getting closer to our $8500 goal needed for our dossier submission! 

Thank you Hillcrest Baptist Youth!

At the end of our home study and when our dossier is complete and ready to submit, we must also submit another payment for a group of fees. This one will be our most substantial so far. Therefore, in addition to being in the midst of our home study, compiling our dossier, we are also heavily in fundraising mode. We are confident that God is going to fully provide the funds. We have a lot of money to raise in a little time, mere months. No, we do not have any deadline to meet per se, but if we tarry, it means more hours in the orphanage, more hours without adequate food and healthcare; we waste precious moments of their lives. We have a number of ideas swirling to generate funds, so stay tuned! There may be an opportunity for YOU to be involved! And, please keep praying! Our specific needs right now are patience, encouragement, fundraising involvement, but most importantly God's guidance and provision. A part of our hearts are still in Africa!

We have officially kicked off our first fundraiser to help offset the costs of our adoption! If you have not already received a letter, prepare yourself. It is probably already in the mail! We are hoping that our family, friends and loved ones will want to be a part of this unique "puzzle" God is piecing together ever so precisely. We have sent out letters containing a representative puzzle piece and a current photo of our family with special significance to our waiting children. The puzzle pieces being sent are symbolic of pieces to two puzzles that will stay at home. Each piece is up for sponsorship by anyone who would like to express their generosity financially. The pieces being sent out are not the true pieces, but a tangible representation for each family to keep if they choose. We chose to keep the actual puzzle pieces with us so that we could keep in contact with the whole. As each person or family sponsors a piece we will add their name to the back of the piece. Eventually we hope to complete both puzzles to be placed in our home for our children. Once completed they will be placed in a double glass frame, showing the names of those who lovingly helped bring them home on one side and an African themed picture on the other side. We feel this will be one of hopefully many special gifts for our children to look upon and feel the love surrounding them. 

We debated back and forth if we indeed wanted to place a price on each piece or if we merely wanted the hearts of all of you to be the deciding factor of what to sponsor. Your hearts won! In keeping our humility at the forefront of our hearts and our minds set on Christ, placing a price did not seem in accordance. We pray that you will prayerfully seek God's guidance in whether or not you choose to sponsor a puzzle piece and in determining how generous God would lead you to be. Then it is up to you to comply in obedience. Could you sacrifice for our children? Sacrifice is a tough pill to swallow for a lot of us. The thought of it makes us uncomfortable because sacrifice is associated with pain. It could be as simple as sacrificing a weeks worth of Starbucks. It could mean going as far as sacrificing an entire month of dinners out! Is the equivalence of a month's worth of cable television or a month's worth of smart phone usage too painful to relinquish in order to help change the lives of orphans in need? We certainly are not asking you to cut off your services! We are simply asking that you share our perspective for a moment if nothing else. 

Although we did not choose to place a price on any one's giving, we did think it would be helpful to express the goal in which we must meet to bring our children home. We have listed various steps in the adoption process and costs associated with each.

$6000 - America World Adoption Agency Program Fee (paid in 3 installments): 

$1800 - Home Study

$500-$1000 - Background Checks

$240 - Adoptive Parent Training

$890 - USCIS Application Fee & Fingerprinting

$1350 - Dossier Notarization, Certification, Authentication, Courier, Translation

$4500 - Ethiopian International Program Fee 1st Installmen                                       
$9000 - Ethiopian International Program Fee 2nd Installment ($4500 per child at time of referral)

$2400-$4000 - Trip #1 Airfare (2 adults)

$40 - Trip #1 Visas

$1400-$2500 - Trip #1 In Country Travel/Lodging Package

$2400-$4000 - Trip #2 Airfare (2 adults)

$40 - Trip #2 Visas
$500-$2000 - Trip #2 Airfare (one-way 2 children)

$1400-$2500 - Trip #2 In Country Travel/Lodging Package

$460 - Embassy Fees (2 children)

$3350 - Post Adoption Fees

$36270-$43670 - TOTAL

We will put our goal at $40,000 (give or take a few thousand dollars) on our fundraising thermometer! Did I just mention something about a pill being hard to swallow? It is daunting to say the least, but we are not backing down. We would like to lean on you. If you choose to give, and we certainly hope you will, you can give in one of three ways. You can give cash, check or pay by Paypal through this blog. Please keep in mind that Paypal will retain their own convenience fee, which is approximately $.52 per $10 transaction. We will periodically update our blog with those who have graciously given and the progress being made towards completing our puzzle. Stay tuned!

Here it is! This is the post I have been most anticipating; the one I have poured over most to assure I do the gravity of its contents the justice it deserves, the one I have stressed over in the late hours of night and early hours of morn, the one in which the weight of I fear will not be felt. The truth is, for many it will not be felt. My hope is that for many it will. It is heavy in its fullness, but even in the little piece being offer to us; it is heavy. My heart can finally purge what it has kept secret. Jesus is Calling. If you have tuned in to hear about a daily devotional by Sarah Young, you are in the wrong place (although I recommend it and the children's version). Instead you are privy to an intimate portion of our lives, just beginning, one that may even cause you to probe your own heart in response. The Father has placed a precious calling on our family. It can be argued that He places it on every family in different facets if you read the words written in scripture, but for certain we know He calls ours. And, after a bit of hesitation, momentarily losing our focus, and getting a grip on ourselves, because its huge...for us and any other family facing the same call, we have boldly accepted. We are expanding our family again. This time in a more unconventional way. WE ARE ADOPTING! More over we are adopting internationally from Ethiopia. I cannot pinpoint the exact moment we knew God was calling us to adopt from another country. God was gradual with His approach. He started to dissolve the hardness that had permeated my heart by this world and this culture in which we live. Third World poverty has never really been a second thought for me. I could watch a Feed the Children commercial, momentarily feel pity and by the next commercial, I had forgotten. Until God began this good work. God began placing us in circles with adoptive families and former orphans. We began to love these families and love these children. Little did we know, He was preparing us. My heartstrings were being pulled every time I turned around. Before I knew it, adoption was everywhere I turned. Many that we look up to spiritually we found, had adopted. David Platt: Secret Church pastor, author of Radical, adoptive parent. Toby Mac: christian recording artist (that we rock out to with reckless abandon on a daily basis), Grammy winner, adoptive parent. Jen Hatmaker: women's bible study author, church mobilizer, (kindred spirit), adoptive parent. Was God holding these fellow Christians to a higher standard simply because of their celebrity? The God I serve does not. We found adoption was in the midst of our scout troop, our soccer teams, our t-ball team. God definitely had our attention. Even before all of this, He had made it more intimate. My husband's sisters, my sisters-in-law were both adopted. One was an international adoption and the other was a domestic. It was already a part of our lives. Sometimes things just get lost in translation. We get too busy to even notice the little details. Does anyone feel that too? God even took me back to my childhood best friend. And I am not talking about an acquaintance that I am conveniently referring to as my best friend for blogging purposes. She was the real deal. I have some of the sweetest memories with her, and some of the most ridiculous. She was one of those that you could do some crazy things with and live to tell about them. God was showing me adoption had always been a part of my life and I had just never really taken notice. God was revealing all of these things but I dared not confess what seemed like madness to my husband. I just knew he would call me insane-in-the-membrane, crazy! When one day, we were driving home from church and he turns to me and says "Do you think we'd ever adopt?" DID HE REALLY JUST SAY THAT?! What was going on?

Do you know a sure fire way to know if God is calling? The mission will take you straight out of your comfort zone. Like when we hear that still, small voice whisper "Tell them about me! Testify to My goodness!" That is hard and we often cannot muster the words to tell a stranger or even a friend about our Savior, Jesus. No matter the direction He moves us or the task; if God desires it, it is always for His glory. If my beliefs are what I say they are, how can I say no when He brings a meaningful blessing before me? How do I just sweep it under the rug and pretend He did not just say what I know He said. He said "Go." It was not forceful. So simplistic. He just said "Go." Trust me when I say we went through every single reason why this did not make sense. And sometimes if I think to hard, it still does not make sense! Have you counted my children lately? I have. I know each and every little face by heart. The Spirit assures me that God knows each and every face as well. He knows my children's faces and yours. He knows every face of each little orphan, many of which do not have sufficient nutrition, clean water, or access to adequate sanitation. These precious ones do not have the loving arms of family. They do not have a voice. Many do not have hope. What if this was MY child? What if this was YOUR child? We prayed fervently over this and heard Him say to seek the least of these. We discovered there is a Waiting Child List, compiled of children who are not first choice on most parents' lists whether it be because of age, an impairment, or simply being part of a sibling group. We felt led to pursue a sibling group, possibly with an older child, which currently means merely above the age of five. These are God's children and He is asking us to go and take care of them. Could we make room for more than just the five we have? Excuses came. Well God, we would need a bigger home. Further observation revealed not one, but two empty beds in our home. We already have too much going on. "Be still and know that I am God." This will be crazy hard to bring children from another culture, of another race, who do not speak our language from all they know. "My grace is sufficient." God shot down every excuse we had. So, we abandoned the life we were planning for a much better one, His perfect plan. Do you know what happened next? The peace that passes all understand poured over us. And, believe me, Satan has been working overtime to try and change our minds. The evil one is good at what he does. If we take our eyes off of Jesus, we begin to sink just like Peter. We know, that we know, that we know, that we know God called us to save these children.

James 1:27 Pure and undefiled religion before our God and Father is this: to look after widows and orphans in their distress and to keep oneself unstained by this world.

We had to figure out from where in this entire world we would seek to adopt. Did you know that there are approximately 147 MILLION orphans in this world? We asked ourselves "Who needs us?" They all need someone. We felt drawn to Africa. Researching, we found that there are currently an estimated 53.1 million orphans in Sub-Saharan Africa, which is greater than the total number of children in Denmark, Ireland, Norway, Canada and Sweden. We began looking to the horn of Africa, comprised of Eritrea, Somalia, Djibouti, and Ethiopia. There are approximately just over 100 million people in the horn. More than 86 million of those people reside in Ethiopia. That is more people than California, Texas, and New York combined, our three most populated states. Almost 6 million of those people are orphaned children which hunger and thirst for food, water, and love. One out of every ten children in Ethiopia will die before their first birthday, and one in six before their 5th birthday. Malnutrition contributes to half of those deaths. Ethiopia is one of the most impoverished countries in the world, per capita receiving the least amount of aid among the countries of Africa. In 2009 there were fewer than 2500 Ethiopian adoptions in the US. They are suffering. We will be their voice.

We took a leap (a monumental one) and applied with America World Adoption Agency! We were told to expect to hear back between 8-11 business days. We were apprehensive because we have an infant in the house, we are already considered a large family, and we are a one-income family. We were officially accepted into the Ethiopian program the NEXT BUSINESS DAY!!! And thus our journey begins! We will continue to chronicle this adventure amongst our typical happenings and shenanigans! We hope you will tune in and follow along with us. Most of all we hope you will pray for this adoption. Our hearts are invested greatly already, but the needs of these children, whom we do not know yet, are much more critical. Please pray for their provision, their safety, their physical and emotional strength. Please pray He will rain down His provision, paving the way to our children. Please pray God moves swiftly to bring them home.