Fund raiser results

We had a great night last night with about 100 people or so that came to the dinner. Everyone seemed to have fun and enjoy the dinner and the auction. We had 149 of the 151 items bought. We raised $5,300 net from the dinner and auction. One of the really neat things that happened last night was some friends of ours who have been dating for a while, the man won the nicest auction item we had, a diamond / tanzanite ring during the live part of our auction. He then came to the middle of the crowd and asked for the microphone and proposed to her right in the middle of the auction. It was just one more example of how God is doing some special things through all of his work on our journey. We pray that he will continue to get the glory and to touch lives all around us. We thank everyone who came and who was involved. It was like getting married times 2 as I told some of our friends there last night. Wow was that a lot of work and so many people did so many things, we are truly grateful for all of you. Our prayer is that God will richly reward you for your acts of selfless love and sacrifice.

The day has arrived!

Well everyone its Friday September 12th, the day of the dinner / auction. We have so much work in front of us today, looking forward to it all coming together. We hope you all can make it out tonight and that you will be blessed with a great evening. We are SO thankful to all of you who helped make today possible. Tonight's program has a list of all the donors, I can't believe how long it is. It has been amazing how God has orchestrated all of this. Whenever we had a need, there someone was to help us along the way. People secured donations on their own, places that we had not already been to, then some of you made phone calls to places we had been to as follow up, and then all the creative people who helped make our signs, put together our baskets etc etc etc. We have 150 items to auction off tonight. Something for everyone. Pray for everything to go well tonight. God Bless you all. We will update within the next few days or so how everything turned out. Here we go......

Basket Mania

I have never seen so many baskets in my life! We are in the midst of craziness at our house. We are working like crazy trying to put together as many cool baskets of items for the auction. We have stuff everywhere. Many people have helped us. One of our friends friend put together about 19 baskets for us from our items and even some of her things. She was very creative and they look great. We now have more baskets and some other folks coming over Saturday to finalize everything hopefully. We have to have all of our items ready by Monday so we can get all the info over to our good friend who is publishing our program for the night. Somewhat stressful these days as the clock is ticking. Lisa and I have been on one another's nerves lately it seems as we have had a few arguments lately. We are just tired and stressed just a bit, but its all going to work out great. Once again we are overwhelmed by all of the people helping us. We are SO thankful for everything everyone is doing. Only 6 days left!

Teamwork

My wife Lisa and I have been amazed lately at how many people are involved in helping us bring our child home. We currently have about 70 places of business that have donated for the auction and we know of about 20 more that will be in the next few days. We have too many friends to count that are helping us. Its just been really inspiring to see everyone's hearts getting touched and getting involved. My wife has an idea and we are working on it now to make a blanket, the colors will be of the Ethiopian flag. She will be making it and we plan to have it at the dinner/auction. We have special markers made to write on cloth and we will be asking everyone who came to the dinner to eat, to participate in the auction, to help with the cooking, the tickets, the auction, the clean up etc etc to sign it. We want to give the blanket to our child so he or she will know how much they were loved, how many people sacrificed their time, their talent and their treasure to help rescue them from a life without a family. I think this idea is really a cool one. I hope to see you all there and watch you sign your names to the blanket. A legacy of love to share with one of God's children. Only 12 days left. Are you planning on being there??

Red letter day

Today was a great day. We had lots of positive things happen today for the dinner / auction. We were given a $30 gift card to a restaurant, a $25 gift card to a grocery store, 2 golf lessons from a pro valued at $30 each, about $45 in value of books from a book store, enough food to feed about 180 people for our rigatoni dinner and most likely will get the balance of the food donated from a friend of ours as well. All of this happened about a few hours apart. As I was driving home from collecting most of these items, I was thinking of how God is providing each day something positive. He keeps us encouraged with something new every day. I am reminded that his mercies are new every day and so is his generosity. He continues to grow all of our faith as we see him providing for our adoption. This was TOO big for us on our own, God had to be in it for it to work out and he is at work. When God shows up, he shows off.

Why

We have been asked why are we adopting so many times lately. I thought I would share this verse. It has become very special to me.

James 1:27

Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world.

Did you notice that it says before God. It does not say before men.

Godcidence

Hello all,
Always in the midst of chaos, God is right here beside us: Planning for the fundraiser, running around to different businesses getting donations, trying to secure food donations, living life with two teenage boys and two younger girls, working a job, keeping the house presentable(most of the time) :)
Today I (Lisa) went to the park with the girls I babysit and my girls. I was pushing the twins on the swings and I recognized the lady right next to me. I had met her one time on a field trip for homeschooling families two or three years ago. I said to her "Isn't your husband in some kind of Christian ministry?" She said, "Yes, we were missionaries to Ethiopia". I was so excited to hear that. Isn't God amazing!! He meets us right where we are, and responds to us in the tiniest details. This lady said that she would be willing to teach us some words of the language of Ethiopia before we go over there. What an awesome God we serve and love.

Pride

I thought I would share some of my feelings as I have been running all over town asking for donations. Sometimes when I first get started its difficult. You get funny looks from people, you get some quick rejections and you feel like you should just give up. But we cant! We have to keep on asking and keep on working. I spent 2.5 hours tonight and I went to 20 different places asking for donations. Tonight we had 4 places graciously give. I guess when you do the math thats a pretty good %, but sometimes that old stubborn pride gets in the way and you dont want to deal with the rejection any more. I start thinking about what people are thinking of me as they hear me asking for the manager and then tell our story briefly. Sometimes, I wonder if they believe me. I am sure there are many con artists out there and I surely understand that. I just wish I could show them what I have seen and try to convince them of the great need for orphans all over the world. So we trudge on forgetting our silly pride and keep on asking without apology.

Iron Will

The other day we watched a movie that was from 1994 called Iron Will. Its one of those inspirational stories about a 17 year old boy who wins a dog sled race to save his families farm. Its really a good movie. As the story unfolds, the country unknown to Will learns of him through a newspaper reporter. The country begins to look to the young boy as a hero. One scene really impressed me. He is coming close to the end of the race that no one expected him to survive the first day of. He comes through a small town in Minnesota and the townspeople are lined up on the small main street of town and are cheering him with all sorts of fanfare. American flags are everywhere, bands are playing and people are everywhere cheering him. He is told of all that the nation has know of him for weeks and he is amazed. He is encouraged and he goes on. That reminded me of how God has encourages us during this giant project of adoption we have going. It seems like whenever the obstacles become too large, whenever our courage waivers, whenever we cant see our way through, whenever we think there are too many tickets to sell, too many forms to copy and mail in, too many people to ask for donations for the auction, something small hits and we go on. Like yesterday. I emailed a sports talk show I have listened to for years, and within a few hours the host graciously emailed back telling us how he would be helping, or like today when some friends went door to door selling tickets and one lady bought 2 tickets but then donated an extra $10 just to help our cause. Its all of these little things that really helps us to keep on working. To not give up.

God is an ontime God isnt he! He knows when his kids need some encouragement.

Olympic Teams

Last night my wife and some friends of ours watched the opening ceremony for the Olympics. Before it started we walked around in my neighborhood and sold tickets for the adoption. We only had about 30 minutes to do this as we wanted to get back and watch the event. We went to maybe 10 homes in the time we had. Not one home said no to buying a ticket. A few said come back today or next weekend but no one said no thanks. One house purchased 4, another 3. In the short time we had we sold 14 tickets. As I have thought about that, I have been amazed at folks generosity, their willingness to help. We have several friends selling tickets for us, donating themselves, volunteering their time for the night of the fund raiser etc etc. This is really a team effort and I am proud to know their is so much love and desire to help out there.

As I watched the ceremony the time came to see all of the worlds athletes nation by nation walk out into the stadium. As I waited to see the U.S. team, I found myself anxiously waiting to see the Ethiopian team as well. My vision for others I have found has grown during this adoption process. I think God is pleased when we begin to realize that our little circle in the world, is not the only place where God is working and where his love is. Isnt it comforting to know that God loves all the little children of the world, red and yellow black and white, they are precious in his sight!

Steven Curtis Chapman Family

Tonight my wife and I watched Larry King Live which had the Chapman family on. They told the story of the tragic loss of one of the 3 daughters they adopted from China. It was very moving. What an incredible family they are. I was struck by one particular thing. The son who accidentally ran over his sister, was asked by Larry had the family helped him make it through. He said very much so, but he specifically spoke of his brother Caleb who was right there right after the accident. He said all he wanted to do was run away, get away from the scene of the accident but Caleb ran him down tackling him. He held him down and hugged on him telling him everything was going to be ok. I thought of how much that is like God. When we think we have hit rock bottom, he will run after us and hold onto us telling us everything will be ok. The only question is will we let him. Will we listen to his loving plea or will we continue to run away in our shame. Wow, what a testimony this family has. If you have the chance, watch this program.

My 2 sons

I am very proud of my 2 boys. They are both on a missions trip in the Bahamas this week. They are both working at the Y as swim instructors and life guards and they both chose to use their own money to pay for the trip. We gave them both some money and there was some donations that helped but they both used somewhere in the area of $700-800 of their own hard earned money to pay for the trip. I hope that they come away from this trip understanding how much God has blessed them and begin to develop a heart for those less fortunate throughout the world. As I have shared before here on the blog a missions trip I took to the Dominican Republic back in 2005 planted a seed that in part brought about the fruit of the adoption we are pursuing now. Here is a picture of a drama my youngest son Christian is a part of. He is the one with the Love banner hanging on him. The youth group at our church has a website where you can read about what the group is doing on the trip and see other photos. The site is, http://www.connect316.com/ .

Am I a good enough Daddy

Sometimes I wonder if I will be a good enough Daddy to our new son or daughter. Yes I already have 4 kids, my oldest is 17, my youngest is almost 10. When I watch some of the videos from other families adoptions, I see and wonder, am I good enough to do this? Do I have the fatherly skills I should have? Do I love enough? I am just being honest with the thoughts I sometimes have. I know that God will provide all that is needed, and he will provide just when it is needed, he is an on time God. But just occasionally I begin to doubt. Isn't that human nature. I hate that part of my personality. One thing I know for sure though. I aint turnin back! God has called us to share his love, and thats what we are going to do. I also believe that our new child is only going to make us better parents. He or she will teach us so much more about ourselves, our world and God himself. I chose the name adoption journey as part of our blogs title purposely. It has already been and continues to be just that. A wonderful journey.

Anticipation is making me wait

Now that we have so much activity going on with the home study, the fund raiser etc., I am finding that I am losing patience. I want to get everything done yesterday. I have a new found sense of respect for those families who have already lived the process of adoption knowing now what I do of all that is involved. I remember that old ketchup commercial where the thickness of the ketchup would make the one wanting it on their sandwich go nuts waiting for it to drop onto the bun below. I used to always laugh at that commercial. Isn't it funny how things like this come back to our minds when we encounter these types of situations. Can you hear the song in your mind, " Anticipation is making me wait". We have a friend who has said many times over the past months it's gonna be great when we get our new son or daughter home. I for one, just cant wait to look on him or her for the first time and tell them about God who planted the seed of love for them in our families heart. I look forward to the day when you all get to meet him or her as well.

Save the date

We now have our official date for our fundraiser dinner / auction. It will be Friday night @ 6pm on September 12. It will be held at The Akron Baptist Temple, we will be using fellowship hall. We will be offering a pasta type dinner and plan to have a fun night of activities including a silent auction as well as a verbal offering for those real competive souls-haha. If anyone would like to participate let us know. We are looking for any and all types of donations that can be auctioned for that night. We plan to visit many local business in hopes of securing some neat items for everyone to try and win at the auction. Please tell everyone you can about this and if anyone has any donations let us know. We want this to be a great night for everyone involved. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts in advance for everyones participation.

The latest

We have had internet connectivity problems for the past several days, it was fixed today. In between the last post and now we received our packet of information on the process from Holt. Wow that book is thick. Much to learn Yoda says we have. Our home study orientation is also now set for July 31. Things are starting to get exciting. Just cant wait to meet our new son or daughter. I cant wait to introduce him/her to all of you. Can you imagine the moment?

The process

We received a packet of information from Holt yesterday. I thought I would share the specifics of the process with everyone. The main steps are-

- Family applies to program ( we have done this)
- Home study is reviewed by Holt and approved for country ( we have chosen the agency for our home study but thats it so far)
- Family files I600A immigration form
- Dossier is prepared by family and sent to Holt (family can compile dossier while simultaneously waiting for I171H approval)
- Program staff review dossier and obtain state certifications
Holt forwards Dossier to the U.S. Sate Dept & the Ethiopian Embassy for authentication
- Dossier is forwarded to Ethiopia representative in Addis Ababa who has a dossier translated and prepared for court
- Child is referred to family
- Paperwork is submitted to Ethiopian court
- Court order is issued, subsequently the birht certificate is issued
- Child is issued visa and ready to travel
- You receive information on post placement requirements and schedules
- Once we return home to the U.S. we will finalize the adoption here in the U.S.
- The last step is to naturalize our child as a U.S. citizen

These are the main steps of the process according to Holt. Obviously all of this takes time. Please pray for us as we begin all of the work involved in this that it would go smoothly.

Quails, Gas Prices & Faith

As I have watched the news for the past several months about the economy here in the U.S. and all over the world for that matter, I have thought about all of the costs involved with adopting. Of course our biggest obstacle right now is the up front funds, but then it will be years of caring for our new son/s or daughter/s. Just driving my girls now to softball every night of the week is quite the expense with the gas prices what they are. I have pondered the wisdom in all that we are pursuing, should we really be doing this. We have 4 children already, etc etc, you fill in the rest, you get the picture.

The other night my wife and I were at calling hours for one of our dear friends who's mother just passed away. We sat in the back of the room just wanting to be there for support for the family. I think just being there is a comfort, we dont always have to have something to say to share our love and care. Well while there, a few ladies from the church were sitting with us. They were asking questions about the adoption etc. One of the ladies spoke up and said something like, " I just dont know where all that money is going to come from". I was struck by those words, how little our God is to us all at times. How we lack faith that he will provide for what he has called us to do. Of course, we need to make sure its him that is doing the calling. I for one sometimes think he is calling me to buy a new motorcycle, after all I could minister to the biker crowd right? Haha.

This all leads me to what I read today. I decided some months back I wanted to read through the Bible and simply treat it like a novel. I typically stop and do all sorts of cross reference checks etc and it becomes more of a deep study. While that is good, I really wanted to read it all through without that sort of study. I finished the New Testament first and now I am in the Old Testament. I was reading today in Numbers. I believe I read chapters 9-11 today. I love how the Bible is filled with stories that can teach us so much today. In chapter 11 the Israelites have begun to complain. They are in the wilderness after being set free from slavery in Egypt. God is providing them with a bread like food called manna every day but they want more. They were used to meat and other things that they ate in Egypt. Isnt it funny how we are just like them. We get enslaved in some struggle/sin in our lives and we think its satisfying us. Anyway, God decides he is going to provide them with some meat. Lets pick up the story in Numbers chapter 11 verse 21, God has just told Moses the peoples leader he will provide meat for all of the people. Listen in-

21 And Moses said, “The people whom I am among are six hundred thousand men on foot; yet You have said, ‘I will give them meat, that they may eat for a whole month.’ 22 Shall flocks and herds be slaughtered for them, to provide enough for them? Or shall all the fish of the sea be gathered together for them, to provide enough for them?” 23 And the LORD said to Moses, “Has the LORD’s arm been shortened? Now you shall see whether what I say will happen to you or not.”

Lets skip down to verse 31-

31 Now a wind went out from the LORD, and it brought quail from the sea and left them fluttering near the camp, about a day’s journey on this side and about a day’s journey on the other side, all around the camp, and about two cubits above the surface of the ground. 32 And the people stayed up all that day, all night, and all the next day, and gathered the quail (he who gathered least gathered ten homers); and they spread them out for themselves all around the camp.

Isnt this amazing. Picture this scene in your minds eye. God uses a great wind and brings quail from the sea and drops them all over the camp of the Israelites. Could you imaging what that was like? Do you see how God provides for his people? Do you realize we are just like those Israelites? God loves us and cares for us just as much as he did them. We are just as special to God as they were! So just remember the next time you begin to doubt God, that he will take care of his own.

One last question- Is Gods arm to short to reach your need?

Here we go!

Well I wanted to update everyone on where we stand. We received a prelimnary approval from a home study agency here in Ohio that works with Holt International. We believe we will be approved to adopt. We have mailed in our application to Holt. We are off and running once again. Please keep us in your prayers, we will have much to do in the coming months. Lots of paperwork, fund raising etc etc. I cant wait! God bless you all and please please keep us in your prayers.

The innocence of childhood

As I mentioned a few posts ago, my daughter recently gave me an ipod shuffle that I have fallen in love with. I download for free podcasts and have it loaded with all sorts of music. Many of the songs I added are songs from when I was but a wee lad. Its funny how just hearing certain songs can take me right back in my mind to my childhood. The absence of so many worries and resposibilities we all have as adults. The freedom to pursue every day only fun. Make new friends, experience new things. There is just something about the innocence we feel as children.

I recently added a photo of the exterior of my home to my desktop pc at work. I noticed the first few times when I went to my desktop to open a program or find a file, how that picture made me feel secure, safe, a place to go and leave all of the world behind. It made me want to leave work and go home to see my lovely wife and the great kids I love so much. I have so many blessings.

As I have been thinking about these 2 thoughts the past few days I have wondered what it is like to be an orphan. Your parents dead, or having been given away to be cared for by strangers by your parents. What it must be like for them to make it through each day. When they grow to be adults, assuming they even live that long, I wonder what memories they will have of their childhood. Will songs or certain smells or holidays bring back a rush of beautiful memories. Will they have this deposit of love imparted to their souls to help them get by the tough times. Will they have memories of loving parents sharing with them how much they love them but even more important how much God loves them. Its thoughts like these that continue to motivate me to adopt. I want to be able to give the types of memories that I have to my new son/s or daughter/s. I want them to know they were loved by our family, but as I said even more so, that a loving God cares for them.

If you get the chance today, spend some time remembering all the blessings in your life and pray for an orphan somewhere in the world. We are so blessed arent we?