New News!!!!!

We have great news!!!The Knights of Columbus, Augusta are going to host a huge fund raising event for our adoption, we are just so excited and thrilled!!!Thank you God!!! Also, we received new pics of Gabby today-she is so beautiful!!! We can't wait to hold her, kiss her, and tell her how much we love her!!!God, please bring her home soon. Our arms ache to hold her.

HELP!!! The Adoption is Ready Early!!!

We have a beautiful 8 month old daughter waiting for us in Democratic Republic of Congo. She was abandoned in a church when she was about 6 weeks old. We named her Gabriella. We saw her picture at three months old, when she became available for adoption, and knew right away she was the child God meant for us to bring home.

We thought that we would have about 10-12 months to fundraise before the adoption was completed and before it would be time to go pick her up. However, now the paperwork is ready, but we don't have all the money yet. Would you please donate $10.00 to help? And can you please pass the word through Facebook, Twitter, and blogs? With your help one more orphan can come home. Baby Gabby has a wish. And that wish is to come home.

Another blessing

Well today, another co-worker gave me a van full of items for the yard sale! That is so wonderful, I know God will bless this fundraising event. He already has.

Another blessing

A friend gave me some baby clothes today which is great, because we dont have any! We are concentrating most of our efforts into raising money now for the adoption. We are having another yard sale in one or two weeks. Alot of my coworkers have stated that they have large and small items to donate. So thank you God. I know God will bless and multiply our fundraising efforts just like He did the "fish and bread" so many years ago.

"He will provide for our every need."

We would like to ask you to help by donating $10.00

God said, "I will provide for your needs..."

Today we found out from our adoption agency that we may be receiving a grant! Yea! We know the earth is Gods and everything in it.

We also found out that several of our friends donations had been returned to them due to an incorrect address that was previously on the Fatherless Foundation website. That has since been changed, so I hope that anyone else who had their donation returned will kindly resend it. (We desparately need it-Baby Gabby wants to come home!)

We are still praying every day that God will provide the money for us to bring Baby Gabby home soon. I went last week and got most of my vaccinations. I am getting ready for whatever God has planned. "Dont be afraid, I am with you. I will bring your children from the East."

"With God for us, who can stand against us?"

God said, "Take care of the orphans..."

In another country, four years ago on Valentines Day a woman I didn't know, who I couldn't talk to because I didnt speak her language, who I hadn't seen before, and I most likely will never see again handed me a baby. The woman had tears in her eyes. She gave me a crumpled brown bag with something in it, that for the moment seemed small and insignificant. She hugged me and whispered something in my ear. Then the attorney held her arm and escorted her out of the motel room. I looked down at the baby in my arms and I cried too. The woman who had been taking care of the baby for the last year that I now would call my own walked quietly down the hotel hall. She glanced once over her shoulder to get one last glance at the baby she had loved for a year. I had so many questions, but how. She was gone before I could think.

The next morning, we waited outside the Embassy Gates in 52 degree weather with our appointment card in our hand for two hours. In one line were foreigners, holding babys, waiting to get visas. Two feet away were Guatemalans in another line, waiting to get visas. The foreigners went in first. We waited, holding our babies, in a crowded room, with four little rows of folding church chairs and about 7 chairs on each row. As the room continued to fill, people sat on the floor, and spilled out into the hall. Our name was called. We walked to the "window". A tired gentleman peered over the counter.
"Is this the baby you're taking back to the US?"
"Yes."
"You'll get the visa tomorrow. Sign here."

As we boarded the plane to go home, with our baby in our arms, we cried again. We prayed and thanked God for giving us this precious gift and entrusting her into our care, our family, and our home.

Elissa is 5 now, and we cant imagine life without her. Whether we're searching for starfish on the beach, finding the right carrot nose for our snowman, baking chocolate chip cookies, or finding the right slippers for her Cinderella dress, we thought life couldnt be better. Children are a gift from God.

Then...God stirred our heart to bring home another child. Only God knew when the time would be right.

We filed our I600A. The Atlanta USCIS office moved and lost our application and fee for a year. Then we heard of a child about to be born in Mexico that needed a forever home. We sent the money. Atlanta USCIS found our application and fee. We received our 171H. YEA!

The woman in Mexico decided to parent the child herself. We were sad. What now? We dont have much money.

God kept stirring our hearts. "I have given you the spirit of adoption..."

I cried. How will we do this God? How will we get this money together? It seemed like a mountain of money.

God said "Take care of the orphans." I knew what God wanted us to do, but didnt know how we could do this. We had the promise from God. He had the plan.

The next morning, I went to work and opened my email. There was a picture of a three month old baby girl, available for adoption. I knew as soon as I saw her face, this was the child God wanted us to bring home. But for some reason, I was still questioning God. How...

We prayed and asked God to move the mountains, open the doors, and make the way for our baby, Gabriella to come home.

We started some fundraising events to raise money to bring Baby Gabby home. We distributed phone books, door to door. Very challenging, but very educational (dogs and people are moody). We did this as a family, for safety sake and also, the work went faster. We are praying as a family for God to make the way for Baby Gabby to come home and give us the money we need to make it happen. We know if Baby Gabby has one wish, its to come home to her forever family.

We held neighborhood yard sales, with donated items from family, friends, coworkers, and neighbors. I tutored students and worked in the afterschool program in my school district. I made and sold "chair pockets" in the school system and on Ebay and Craiglist. I made and sold childrens summer clothes. We put out flyers asking for donations. We had a raffle sale at our school system. We worked in a gift wrapping booth at the local mall.

Then in February 2010, our agency emailed to say that our adoption was complete, and we need to pick up the baby. We didnt have the rest of the money, and we thought we would get a loan to finish paying for the adoption. The loan was not approved.

We started the adoption at the end of October 2009. We thought we had 10-12 months to fundraise. It took us 14 months to bring Elissa home from Guatemala. Who would have ever thought that an international adoption could be completed in 4 months? We didnt.

We prayed again. "God, what do you want us to do? It's in your hands God. "

I cried some more. Unsure of how God wanted us to proceed...How can we bring this precious baby home. Is she being loved? Taken care of?

"God, we stepped out in faith, show us the way."

We paid $12,400 already on this adoption. We still need $6500. plus airfare.

God said, "Trust your plans to me, and your plans will come true."