Fundraising to the finish line!

It's really happening.  This whole long process of adoption is finally starting to wind down to the end.  Or I guess I should say all the prepping and preparing is coming to an end and Joseph's new life is getting ready to begin!  Any day now we should hear about our court date.  Four weeks after passing court, Dan will be taking our son out of his orphanage forever.  To say it seems surreal right now would be a gross understatement!  We are thrilled beyond words that soon he will be home and we get to start the hard work of teaching him about the love of family.  Wow, I get excited just writing that!  This boy needs to be home!  The adoption process has been long and hard, but we also know that it is just the beginning.  We have a long road ahead of us with Joseph and we are eager to bring him home and start that life with him. 

You know we are going crazy waiting to hear about our court date....Soooo....it's a great time for some home stretch fundraisers, right?

If you are local, please come out and support Joseph!

Brixx Pizza.  501 Cox Rd. Gastonia, NC. This Saturday April 20th


For those that are local (North Carolina and South Carolina) we've got a Brixx Pizza fundraiser happening at 501 Cox Rd. in Gastonia, NC. this Saturday April 20th.  All day long you can come out and eat some pizza. Brixx will donate $3 for every 10 inch pizza purchased and $1 for every kid pizza purchased when you bring our flyer with you. 

 Just click on this image and a pdf will pop up for you to print the flyer and take with you:

Please come out and enjoy some pizza and help raise the funds to bring Joseph home while you do it!
Don't forget to bring a flyer!

If you're not local or you can't make it, don't you worry!  I've got another post in the works where you can help both Joseph AND the most needy of families in Haiti by purchasing some amazing bracelets.  I have them all ready to sell and mail out to anyone who would like to order them from me.  More on that later!

Many blessings to you!
Pray. Support. Donate. Advocate For Orphans

Guess what we got...

You know all that waiting we've been doing during this stretch of our adoption?  

That pesky little signature from "the officials" in Joseph's country that has kept us waiting for over six weeks? 

 That one little signature that stood between us and a court date? 

Well, guess what we finally got!!!!

Our official signature on our dossier!  Our dossier is now officially moving to court.

We should be notified soon of a court date! 

Yet another thing to be thankful for during this glorious Easter Season!

Baby #5 is growing...

Our little Emmeline is two months old now...

It's all going so fast....and she's looking so much older these days

4 weeks

5 weeks
This picture just cracks us up...
she definitely looked like she was thinking of something very clever... ;)

6 weeks

7 weeks

The other day....at 8 weeks old

The kids just can't seem to get enough of her!

I'm not sure what they ever did before they had her ;)

Thank you and an update...

Thank you to those that have been donating to our RR donation account!  I haven't had a chance to come here and say an official "Thank you!" but we HAVE been noticing our donations increasing....little by little and we are so appreciative of any support we are given!  Thank you! 

It looks like there will be two different, local fundraising opportunities for us coming up in April that we are so thankful for...one will be a jewelry party with most of the proceeds benefiting the most needy in Haiti (with a small bit going to our adoption as well) and we are also doing a fundraiser with Brixx Pizza.  Some very wonderful people have been putting a lot of thoughtfulness into these things and we are so thankful!  We are looking forward to being able to do both of these fundraisers....more on those two fundraisers as the dates get closer!

Adoption update:  Well...we're still waiting.  I wish I had more to report but I honestly don't.  We are still waiting for the "officials" to sign off on our paperwork and assign us a court date.  Once we get a court date and we pass court, we've been told that we will be going to pick Joseph up a month after we pass our court hearing.  So...all we know is that we are at least a month off from bringing him home...most likely longer than that.  I guess if we got signed off on this week, and a court date very shortly after that, maybe we could be looking at as early as 6 weeks or so?

 I'll keep you all posted when I hear about a court date and/or when we pass court!

Thanks again for following this journey with our family!

World Down Syndrome Day

Today is World Down Syndrome Day...

"World Down Syndrome Day is on 3/21 to symbolize a third copy of the 21st chromosome in people with Down syndrome. Celebrate the value, acceptance and inclusion of people with Down syndrome on March 21!"
                       - from the National Down Syndrome Society

Down Syndrome is something that is new to our family.  We are going to have a lot to learn in order to be the best we can be for Joseph when he comes home, but we feel incredibly honored that God has called us to this adoption and is blessing us with such a beautiful soul to add to our family. 

Here are a few videos to watch in honor of World Down Syndrome Day today.  This first one is beautiful...I love how she comments about how "she'd rather be slow to learn than to be slow to love..."  Shouldn't we all think that way?

This second video was made by the sister of two adopted children with Down Syndrome.

 

Children with Down Syndrome are a blessing.

Please visit www.reecesrainbow.com and look at all the children listed with Down Syndrome who are available for adoption and waiting for their families to say "Yes!" and come and get them.  It is doable.  You CAN tackle all of the obstacles involved with international adoption...we have!  We are not wealthy, we are not particularly equipped to handle Down Syndrome...we just said "Yes, Lord!" and took the first step.  A step that we have never once regretted. It has been a long year working towards bringing Joseph home and it has been worth it.  We've never been more thankful for a decision we've made than this one.  

"I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me"

Please pray, advocate, donate to the adoption of children with Down Syndrome and also pray for our Joseph until we can bring him home!

Happy World Down Syndrome Day!

Joseph's Birthday and a video

Its been a hard couple of weeks.  We've been busy adjusting to life with our new little one but I've also been watching the calendar.  You see, each day kept getting closer and closer to an important yet heartbreaking day for us.  Joseph's birthday was coming up.  He would be turning 3 years old.  Birthdays are supposed to be special days spent with your family who loves you and who are oh so thankful that you were born.

 But our little birthday boy would be sitting in his orphanage and we would be here.  As each day got closer to his birthday, I got more upset.  I just couldn't stand the idea of him sitting in his crib all day long and no one acknowledging the blessing of his birth and how much he is loved.  I just felt so helpless.  I needed to DO SOMETHING.  Acknowledging here at home that WE loved him and that WE were thinking about him on his birthday and counting down the days till he would finally be home with us.

We had a little cake with the kids in celebration of Joseph's birthday.  As a family, we always go around and say what we like most about the birthday girl/boy.  It gives us a chance to say out loud what we love about them.  It gives us the chance to stop and make sure that that family member knows how important they are to all of us.  So I asked the kids what they think they'll like most about Joseph.  They each had something to say about their brother, Joseph.  I can't wait for next year.  Having met our little man, I know that we are all going to have lots of things to share that we love about him next year around the table on his birthday...

For now, we pray and we wait for the day we can bring him home.  His birthday gave us the incentive to finally get a video put together of our pictures from our first trip.  We spent time on his birthday putting it together as a way to spend time focusing on him on that day.

We are so incredibly thankful for our future son and for the opportunity to serve our Lord in this way.

And we are gratefull for all those that have prayed and donated to help get us to this point.  We are so blessed and thankful!

Make sure you put the video up on full screen...otherwise you won't be able to see the captions/words in the video at the bottom of the slides.

He is someone to US...

"I have come to realize more and more that the greatest disease and the greatest suffering is to be unwanted, unloved, uncared for, to be shunned by everybody, to be just nobody (to no one)."
                                                          - Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta (1910-1997)


It breaks my heart to think that before we committed to adopting Joseph, he was "nobody to no one."  He sat alone in his crib in his orphanage and no one was thinking of him.  No one prayed for him or kept a picture of him in their home.  No one was counting down the days till he would join their family and leave the orphanage behind.  No one knew him.  Mother Teresa referred to this as the greatest suffering.

 Yes, Joseph was unwanted and unloved by those in this world...but not by God.  Our Good Lord has always loved him...

 and now we are blessed to love him, too. 

Our sweet little Emmeline Clare has been keeping us pretty busy here at home adjusting our family to this new infant stage and becoming a family of 7...but Joseph is never far from our thoughts and we are looking forward to when we will be a family of 8 and Joseph will know for the rest of his days that he is wanted and loved.