Overwhelmed

Overwhelmed is the only word that I can think of right now. That is how I am feeling. So much paperwork, so much to do, so much money still to be raised, so much hurting, so many children needing homes, so many people in this world who have no idea what it's like to REALLY and TRULY feel loved for no reason at all. Just so much, so yes I am feeling a little overwhelmed.

It's so hard to sit here and think about all those precious children in this world that need homes and the only thing that stands in their way is money. I really hate money. I hate talking about it, I hate asking for it, I hate seeing it wasted. How often we take just buying a 69cent cheeseburger for granted. The fact that  we spend $4 on coffee just blows my mind ( I am just as guilty) I want the Lord's money to help further His kingdom, I want to help as many families as I can bring home their forever children, I want my children to grow up knowing that this life is not about them. I want to serve Jesus in any way that He sees fit. I want to give it ALL to Him! That is the cry of my heart. I fall short and I always will, but that doesn't mean that I don't keep trying. I have to keep asking myself  "Am I really giving up everything for Jesus or just some comforts that I can do without?"........ I know that no matter what, Jesus can do far more then I could ever imagine. I know that ALL those children in this world have a  Heavenly Father who loves them more then I ever could. I also know that His timing is far better then mine and I am trying really hard to be patient. I am ready to just go get our son ( I have been ready) but this is going to be a long process, it could be short if that is the Lord's will, but it most likely won't be. I still have a lot to go through and a lot to experience. I am looking forward to it. The good and the bad.

In my quiet time today I was reflecting on all the little blessings the Lord keeps giving us within just this week alone. What love He has for us. What love He has for me! Sometimes that can be overwhelming too. (in a good way) I am so undeserving. This journey so far has been exciting. I have met a lot of people going through adoption  from all over. I have a new found addiction to the computer (blogs) and I have new brother's and sister's in Christ. So fun!
Thank you for putting up with my rambling. Like I said I am overwhelmed  so my thoughts are all over the place, but I am resting in my Saviors arms. <3

Just a quick update. We have enough to pay our I-600A (which was $830) Between the yard sale and what we were able to do without we had enough. Praise God!! We still need to get $4100 for our Dossier. Remember no amount of money is to small.

For all you local peeps out there!
There is going to be a fund raiser spaghetti dinner/raffle . There is going to be tons of amazing things you can win. (4 Park hopper tickets to Disney, $250 to brighthouse, free gym memberships, free haircuts and so much more) It will be May22 at  LifeBridge Church
12350 S. Belcher Road, Unit #1A (next to Cutting Edge Granite) Largo. At 6:00pm.
Everything will benefit the Walser's adoption.You do not have to present to win. They are getting so close. Please help them bring their child home.

Also another family that I have told you about, The Shubin's are very close to reaching their first goal. Consider buying a T-shirt! Honestly it is my favorite shirt, I wear it more then I probably should :)  You can go here to purchase one.

There is also still a T shirt giveaway here that ends soon. Love these shirts and will need to get some.


Together for Christ!

Fun give aways and ideas!!

There are some fun giveaways right now on other blogs. All of them benefit adoption. Come check out my friends give away here. Also there is another cool give away here. How fun is that?? Please go to these websites and try to win!!

We are also going to be starting some give aways soon. We are working on hotel stays and fishing trips. Anyone else have an idea or are willing to donate something we can raffle off? Please contact us!

If you haven't yet, please see our last post and read my hubby's thoughts!!

300=$24,000

This is a post from my amazing hubby. He really wanted to add his thoughts so here they are.




A single man can do a lot by himself, but when a task is completed, or a goal reached, it is only him who can celebrate.  When a single man does something for the Lord, we know (from the Bible), that nothing is impossible.  Now imagine a group of people, trusting in the Lord, setting out to do something.  That is just what my family and I are doing.

  My wife and I are very family oriented, and believe the Lord has called us to have a large family.  He has blessed us with four beautiful children, but we believe He wants us to have more.  My wife and I have always talked about adoption, but never took the conversation much further.  That was until now.  Through much prayer, we believe the Lord is calling us to adopt, and to adopt from Ethiopia.

  We are not in a position to finance this mission on our own, and for too long this is what has stopped our conversation from turning into action, until now.  Looking at the 14^th Chapter of Matthew, just after the great miracle as Jesus feeding five thousand men, another incredible miracle took place.  Jesus walked on water.  Not only did he, God, walk on water, but He allowed Peter to do the same, as long as Peter trusted in Him.  And from reading verse 30, the winds picked up, and Peter began to fear, so he started to sink.  But, the Lord reached out his hand and picked Peter up.

  What the Lord has shown Melissa and I is we need to trust in Him, and get out of the boat.  The boat represents our lives, and how comfortable it is.  Going to Ethiopia to adopt a child is scary, and the financial burden is heavy.  Just imagine Peter looking out of the boat.  Scripture tells us the wind was strong, and the reason Jesus had to walk on the water is because the waves pushed the boat out away from land.  Peter trusted in the Lord enough to get out of the boat and walk.  Melissa and I believe Jesus is calling us to get out of the boat.

  Jesus will provide for us, beyond what we can imagine.  I do not know who said this, but it is something that has had a great impact on my life; “The will of God will never take you where the grace of God will not protect you.”  I do not know how we are going to get to Ethiopia to pick up our son, but I know God does.

  If you are reading this, and think we are crazy, I am sorry.  Not sorry because we are going outside of our means, but sorry because you do not trust in Jesus.  I trust that if this adoption works, it is because Jesus made it.  I trust that if this adoption does not work, that Jesus did not want it to.

  James, the half-brother to Jesus, wrote this (James 1:27): “Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this:  to visit the orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.”  Melissa and I, along with many others, do not just want to visit the orphans; we want to bring them into our lives.  Treat them as one of our own children.

  By writing this, I am not trying to talk anyone into adopting, or justify my actions.  The judgment that I seek is from the Father, not from man.  The main reason I am writing this, is because I am asking for you to accompany us in this journey.  I am asking that you pray daily for us.  Open yourselves up to receive the Lord, and he will use you.  Just as Peter began to fear, Christ reached out his hand and stopped Peter from sinking.  Through this journey, fear might strike us.  Jesus can use you to pick us up.

  Secondly, I ask that you pray about helping us financially.  This is the hardest thing for me to do, to ask for money.  I would do anything possible to earn it on my own, but that would not glorify Him who sent me on this journey.  If Melissa and I did this on our own, with Jesus of course, we would gain a son.  If we did this with you, we would gain a family.  You might feel that adoption is not for you, and you might be right.  But I hope you feel that adoption is necessary, for there are too many orphans out there, needing a parents love, and more importantly, to teach them about Jesus.

  We are at the beginning stages of this adoption process, and we now only need to raise approximately $24,000.  I am not asking for a single person to stand up and write me a check.  I am not even going to ask for a couple of people to take this step.  I would love to see a large number of people come together in this journey.  To make the numbers easy, if 300 people answered this calling, they would just have to give a onetime donation of  $80.  To make it even easier, that would be just $20 a month, for four months, or, $10 a month for eight months.  That could be $5 or $10 a paycheck (if you get paid biweekly).

  I ask that you pray about helping us, and any contribution is helpful.  Even just passing this message around can help.  If anyone has questions about this process, or just about adoption, I would love to talk about it.

In HIM,

Jonathan

Why?

     I don't have to explain why we are doing what we are doing, but with some of the negative(not to much) feed back I have received, maybe I should. Jon and I can have more kids. We can try and get pregnant again right now, but before any of those miscarriages happened I was feeling led to adopt. I knew that it wasn't time, but God really laid it on my heart that this was going to be the direction He was taking our family. So yes, I can still get pregnant, but that's not God's will for our life right now. I truly appreciate the wonderful feed back that we have received and I also appreciate the negative, but for those of you out there who are trying to bring me down it's not going to happen. This adoption is not about you, it's not about me, and it's not even about this child. It's about Jesus. He has held out His hand,and has asked us to leave our comfort zone and He is taking us down this narrow road. I have had some questions as to why international. To be honest, that is just where God laid our hearts. Besides what better opportunity for us to model God, who adopts from every language, tribe, and nation and puts all the children together at the SAME table with the SAME inheritance and SAME love. ALL children belong to Jesus. What better way is there then to bring the gospel to unwanted children and place them in homes where they will be raised in the nurture and love of the Lord? Not all of us are called to adopt, but all of us have a stake in the adoption issue, because Jesus does! He is the one who tells us that He is "Father of the fatherless" (Psalm68:5) He is the one who insists on calling the "least of these" His brothers. (Matthew25:40) and who also tells us that the first time we hear His voice, He will be asking us what we did.  I love what Francis Chan has said "God doesn't call us to be comfortable. He calls us to trust Him so completely that we are unafraid to put ourselves in situations where we will be in trouble if He doesn't come through." Hebrews tells us that without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to Him must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who earnestly seek Him.  from adopted for life, but also my heart.

   We have the means to be able to take care of another child, but we don't have the money to bring him home. We have cut back on everything that we can and we are trying our hardest to raise what we need when we need it. As of right now we need $830 to pay our I-600A fee AND we also need $4100 for our dossier. I know it seems so overwhelming, at least to us it does, but God will provide. He has all ready for our first set of fees. I would like to point out that we had a lot of people give $5. We would not have reached our $900 goal of it wasn't for all of those five dollars adding up. Nothing is to small. Everything helps us get to where we need to be. I honestly can not thank everyone enough.
 We are having a yard sale this Saturday. We will have info about our adoption there and the kids will be selling lemonade, would you please pray for it? Maybe come help. Would you please pray that we can reach people through our yard sale and our adoption who maybe don't know the Lord? Will you please pray that through out all that we are going through and will go through that Jesus will be glorified? Will you please ask the Lord to show you how you can help? He will answer you.

"From the fullness of His grace, we have all received one blessing after another" John1:16  

Grateful yet undeserving

    There is so much that I have been wanting to write, but have not had the time to actually sit down and put it into words. We have only been on this journey for a week and all ready God has blown me away. I have no idea why I am surprised. He can do far more then we can ever imagine and He has!! He worked through all of you to get our first fee in!! It's actually kind of crazy how it happened. I was at a meeting talking to my friend about our adoption and I was telling her how we needed exactly $500 more to get our fee in. Just as I was telling her goodbye I got a message on my phone with a donation. Can you guess how much it was? Exactly $500. Isn't that amazing!?! I actually screamed with excitement.
 When I was helping some other friends with their adoption and/or mission trips I got to see the amazing ways that God would provide. I feel so blessed that He would allow us to be able to praise Him in the same way. When I was talking to one of our friends  that donated, they said "He is the GREAT provider! I'm glad He wanted some of HIS money to come to you guys." So very true. It's God's money, not ours. All of this adoption craziness is about Him not us. I can't say it enough. We feel so honored that He would call us to do this.

My heart is all ready aching for our little boy. Is he born yet? Does his mother know she is going to give him up? Is she even eating? When he is born, is he going to be held? Loved on? comforted? Will anybody care if he cries? Will he be starving? Writing all these just makes me cry. This is our son. I don't have to see him, I don't have to hold him to first fall in love. I all ready am in love! No bonding required. He is my son, this is who Jesus wants us to love on and raise and to share God's love with for the rest of our lives.I know it's not going to be easy, but I can't wait! We have so much more money we need to raise and tons more paperwork to do, but one day soon he will be in my arms.

Thank you all so much who are donating. We are just so humbled by your generosity. Please keep it up. Our next fee is $4100. It's our dossier fee. Once we get that turned in we will be waiting on our referral. Our referral is when we find out who our son will be. Will you please help us? Will you please pray for us and our son?

We are going to be having a garage sale probably April 24th. If we can get everything organized. I will let everyone know for sure. We are also in the process of making jewlery to sell (our friend is, we are not creative) So please keep checking our blog for updates!
Thank you all again for serving Jesus in this way. We are so thankful for all your donations and encouraging words. May God send many blessings your way!

"For you make me glad by your deeds, O Lord;
I sing for joy at the works of your hands.
How great are your works, O Lord, How profound your thoughts!"
Psalm 92:4-5

In awe...

                 "I will praise you, O Lord, with all my heart;
                            I will tell of all your wonders.
                             I will be glad and rejoice in you;
                             I will sing praise to your name,
                                          O Most High."


       God literally rained down money from heaven. We needed in a very short time $1500.00 for our home study and $900.00 for fees. God worked through the hearts of some people and we got the money for our home study!! Can we all say a big PRAISE THE LORD!! How exciting. I really just don't even have the words to express how thankful and blessed we feel. I can not thank you all enough for your support and encouraging words. We now need to get the $900.00 so that we can even do our home study. That paper work will take a little while to complete, and then there is more after that, but right now we need to get that $900 to pay our fees. Could you please help??? If everyone just even gave $5 that would make a difference. Please pray about whether or not the Lord would have you to help financially. He calls ALL of us to give.

       Think about how hard it is to ask for money. This is truly a humbling experience and it is just the beginning. Like I said before,I know with all my heart that God will provide at His timing. We take this amazing gift as our confirmation that we are doing God's will.

      There are a couple of other families that are raising money to adopt from Ethiopia. They just happened to be from our church family. All of us are elders/elder wives in our little church and at different times God has called us all to adopt. It's truly incredible. You can read about the Walser's at their blog here . You can read about the Shubin's here. and you can read about the Waulk's journey here We are all at different points in our adoption, but we are  all following Jesus and we  need  your support. Would you please commit to praying for all of our families and all of our children??

I pray that all who read this will see Jesus. I give Him all the glory. He is to be praised!!!!!!!!

"For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, so that you through His poverty might become rich. Now finish the work, so that your eager willingness to do so maybe matched by your completion of it, according to your means. For if the willingness is there, the gift is acceptable according to what one has, not according to what he does not have." 2Corinthians8:9-12

APPROVED!!!!!!!!

 "A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows, is God in His Holy dwelling." Psalm68:5



APPROVED, APPROVED, I just want to say it again, WE ARE APPROVED!!!! And on our son's 7th Birthday! How cool is that!?!So many emotions are running through me right now. I feel so honored that God would call us on this journey to be able to experience Him in this way. We need to raise $27,000.00 Yes, that is 27 THOUSAND dollars. Could you write me a check please, anyone?.....anyone?.... In all seriousness, God WILL provide. He will! I have no doubt that He will give us the money exactly when we need it. His timing is always perfect. I also know with all my heart that He does not want us to do this alone.

       We need to get over our first hurdle, we need to raise $2,500.00 by the end of May. It's for our first round of fees and home study. Will you please help? He is calling ALL of us to help in anyway we can. Here are just a few ways you can help.
                          - Pray, pray and pray some more. Will you please commit to praying for our family and our son who is not even be born yet?
                         -We will be raising money starting now! Will you please spread the word? You never know who can step up to help. Also if you have any ideas or might know someone that has ideas, could you please let us know?
                         -Donate. We have a donate button to the right. Would you pray about giving financially? Just so you know. Every single bit of money will go to our adoption and nothing else.

We are going to have a yard sale very soon. If you have anything that we could sell let us know! We are also hoping to be selling jewelry and T-shirts. I will let you know as soon as I have dates!

After all that, I would love to share with you a piece of our story. We are broke (aren't we all) When I felt the Lord calling me to adopt I saved up $100.00.  I have had it put away, so when the Lord told my husband and I that it was time, we would be able to send in our paper work right away ( it cost a hundred to apply). The day that we went to our friends house to get the paper work was the day that our little Jacob fell at their house and had to be rushed to the emergency room. We truly felt like it was Satan trying to scare us away from applying. Why you ask? Well, we all ready have tons of medical bills. Because of that day we will now have a lot more. When it was all over and we were back at home, Jon and I prayed and we both said at the same time that we have allowed money to stop us from doing things for the Lord and we were not going to allow that to happen ever again. The very next morning we sent in our paper work. We knew with all our hearts that this is what God is calling us to do. We are happily obeying.

I want to say it again how blessed I feel for God calling us to experience Him in this way. We want to share our struggles and God's triumph with all of you. I know this journey will not be easy, I know at times it will be stressful, I know Satan will be attacking us even more, but I also know that my God is more powerful then any of that.

Here is where our son is, please pray for him and help us bring him home to his forever family.

We are stepping out of the boat.

  Let me first explain what "stepping out of the boat means". In our family when we are not doing something that we feel like the Lord wants us to do, maybe because of fear or whatever the reason. We say to each other that we need to just trust and get out of the boat.( Referring to Matthew 14:27-31.)

 Jon and I have always talked about adoption. Not really much else, but just talking. The past six months or so we have been doing more then just talking, we have been praying about whether or not this is something that God wants from our family. On Sunday night (March 28th) we knew it was time. We could not deny the call anymore.So on Wednesday (March 31st) We sent in our paper work to see if we would get approved to adopt a sweet baby boy from Ethiopia. We should know within the week. :D

Once we get approved, we will begin this incredible journey with our family and amazing friends that God has put in our lives. We are stepping out of the boat and even though the storms will come and the waves will get bigger, we will try our best to stay focused on Jesus.

I know this is short and to the point. I will write  a lot more when we find out if we are approved or not. Patiently waiting.