one less

Some things I want to clear up.....

Why didn't you choose domestic adoption or foster care?.....plain and simply? Because that is not what God called us to. We are simply being obedient to what God specifically spoke to our hearts. We fully understand there are children here in America who need homes. And I can't explain to you why God didn't speak to our hearts about that. I think He burdened our hearts many months ago with a world vision and reminded us that if we limit ourselves to only having a heart for America (which we totally do have a heart for the hurting and lost here, by the way) that that we would be limiting God's heart to only 5 % of the world's population. We realized that God's heart is limitless and ours should be as well. We also recognize that a child in Ethiopia does not deserve a family more than a child here in the US does. But for whatever reason, God did not call us to that. And that's as best I can explain it. 

A sweet girl that I don't really even know, just someone I have been "introduced" to (over email) who has adopted two girls from Uganda, made an excellent point to me that reminded me of the bigger long term picture of these children from International adoption (wow...that was a really looonnngg sentence).

She said " I like to think of all the people the Lord calls to adoption and how His intricate plan works together toward His ultimate plan for all of us. Imagine a family in Texas adopts from Haiti, one in New York from Uganda, and one in Canada adopts from Ethiopia....and those kids become adults who can affect peoples lives with their adoption stories....and even more, because their parents followed their hearts, their kids are where God wants them in order to fullfill His ultimate plan. It's incredible to think what God has in store for our kids!" 

We want to be obedient to what God called us to. For whatever His reasons, this is His plan for our life.

Do you have a child already "picked" out?.....No. But I fully believe God does. In this application process you specify what you would be open to....girl, boy...0-12 mos, 1-3, etc. We would like a girl under 12 mos, but we are pretty open to a girl from 1-3 as well. We are currently praying through being "open to siblings". Please don't hold us to that. God hasn't spoken directly about that, but we are both fairly open to it.  Once we get through all the paperwork with the agency here and the government in Ethiopia (probably another 6 months or so) we are put on a waiting list. Then as we move down the waiting list, they notify us of our status. Then we will get a call one day that we have a child (or two...yikes!). They send pictures and we start planning our trip. 

So, no. We don't get to "choose" the child. But, I feel very confident that that child (or children) is already "chosen". I can't wait for that call :)

Is Mitch on board with this whole thing? Like completely sold out like you are?.......Yes. But, I am not going to speak for him. As much as he hates to write, we have been encouraged by others that it is important for him to share his heart as well. So, look for a post from him soon!! 

We have raised over $5,000 y'all. That's so exciting and so affirming that we are doing the right thing. My evenings (and late into the night) have been full of sewing and sorting and writing thank you notes. And it is such an honor to do it all. Thank you so much for your support. Even if it is simply prayer that He has called you to, we need it and appreciate it.

I wanted to share this video with you (and I am so frustrated with blogger lately, it won't let me enbed any videos! Ugh, so you have to go old school and click on the link). Many of you may have already heard this song by Matthew West about adoption. This is his explanation of how the song came about (along with the song). It reminds me that even though this process is long and difficult and sometime wrought with opposition, in the end, there will be one less (maybe two less) child (children) alone in the world.

                                                         http://vimeo.com/15064039

one of my favorite days ever

Today was amazing. 

The weather was uncharacteristically autumn-like here in central Texas. 

I got to spend the morning shopping for shirts with my favorite little 2 yr old. 

Had lunch with an amazing friend and her 3 cutie pie boys. 

And then sewed 25 Africa shirts for 7 hours with my front AND back door open, breeze blowing and music playing.

One of my favorite days ever.

Here is a sampling of the shirts I made today. (They will be on their way to you shortly!!) 

If you haven't ordered one, please consider it! 

(it's what all the cool kids are doing this season... ;)  )

Loved every second of sewing those shirts.

 I had grown to kind of despise sewing things for money over the last year. 

But this..... this feels totally different. Those 7 hours hunched over that machine were 7 hours spent in prayer over that little girl. And I loved every second of it.

Thank you for allowing me to do it for you. :)

Small request (as if you haven't already done enough)

Hello friends!

I just wanted all of you that have ordered shirts to know that I did get your orders, I am working on them, and I will get them to you as soon as possible. We opened a bank account specifically for our adoption fund, so trying to set paypal up with that bank account has proved to be more trouble than I thought. So, if you are wondering why that transaction is still pending, it's because Paypal likes to make everything difficult and we are waiting on our bank to be "verified". :)

BUT more importantly, I want to thank you from the bottom of our hearts for supporting us. I want to hug each one of your necks every time I see a new order! Makes me so excited!!

I also kind of have a thought, and want to see if you would indulge me......

I was thinking how sweet it is that this little girl has this huge family that loves her already. And that they are buying homemade shirts to support us in bringing her home. Will she ever know this? (this is where my idea comes in.....bear with me...).

Would those of you that have bought shirts, or are buying them, consider taking a picture of yourself or your child in the shirt and emailing it to me? I would love to be able to show her someday all the people that helped us bring her home. What a precious thing you all are doing, and I don't want it to ever be forgotten. I know those shirts won't last forever, but we will never forget your generosity and I want it to be part of this little girl's legacy. What a blessed one she is already!

So, if you get the time....email me a picture! It doesn't have to be fancy, just a regular ol' snapshot will do! My email is oureyesareopened@yahoo.com

Thank you all! Love you!!

Now, off to work. Got lots to sew........

overwhelmed

And no, not in the "what have I gotten myself into?? this is crazy and these fundraisers will soon completely take over my life and my life was already pretty darn close to crazy as it was".

Nope. Not at all like that.

Overwhelmed like "Wow. We have some unbelievably incredible people in our lives who love and support us and who love the Lord and are willing to sacrifice some things in their life to help us follow God's will for us. This little girl is already blessed beyond measure".

Being overwhelmed with love and being humbled by other's generosity is WAY better than being overwhelmed with life and the exhaustion of it all.

Mitch and I are truly blessed to have all of you in our lives. Truly.

Soooo..........you are NOT going to believe this. We are now already more than halfway to our goal of $7,000. Yep, you read that right. Crazy awesome.

Now, do you see why we are overwhelmed?!

first steps

We sent the first step of the application off on Sunday night. Within two days I have gotten two emails and a packet in the mail! Looks like I picked the right agency, eh?

While the application is going to take us a while, we have learned that once we turn it in we only have 90 days to sign the official contract and send in a check for over $7,000. Yikes. That means we have a little over 3 months to raise $7,000. That's a little scary. But, God can handle it.

So, to kick off our 90 days of fundraising (one of my friends coined it "90 days to 7K"...cute!) we are selling shirts! Super cute (inspired from another adopting family trying to raise money) handmade shirts for women, boys, girls, and babies. (I would totally make them for men too, but somehow, I don't think they would ever get worn.....). I somehow figured out how to sell them from the blog, but this is all new to me. So, if you buy one in the next few days, would you mind emailing me also to let me know your exact order so I can double check these paypal people?? I'm not sure what to expect and I just want to make sure I'm getting the right stuff to the right people!!

I made a few today for a friend (who has already helped me market some!! Thanks Meegs!) and her little girl. I also made one for Sam just to see if I could make one "manly" enough so boys wouldn't mind sporting them either.

They all will have a button over the place where Ethiopia is because that is where our hearts are right now.


----sidenote.....I just can't seem to stop thinking about our someday soon daughter. I am constantly scheming ways to raise money or cut our spending. Every purchase now seems so frivolous and silly. I shared this with a friend recently and asked if she thought I would be consumed with this forever or if it would somehow balance out. She assured me that it couldn't possibly balance out. My heart is longing for this child and I feel like I am already her mother...wherever she is. I'm just so eager to bring her home.

So, anyway, please consider buying a shirt! I promise they are super cute and I am going to experiment with lots of different fabrics but will probably stick to gray and white shirts to keep it pretty neutral. Email me if you have any questions about them or special requests. I will try my best to accommodate them!

Oh.....and I totally have my next fundraiser already planned in my head. And it's gonna be a blast. Stay tuned........

net worth

So, first of all....I added a "donate button" over there on the right side of the screen. Ugh. That was difficult. Yes, I totally know that this will only happen with the help of others, and several people have already asked if I was going to do that, but it just makes me feel a tad uncomfortable. We have never been in a situation where we really needed to ask for help. It is truly humbling.

Second. We worked on our application some last night. Everything was going great until....we got to the financial part of it that asked us our "net worth" (assets-liabilities). I had still been on this excited-can't-wait-to-get-going high the last week and all of a sudden I came crashing down. Let me tell you, as blessed as we are compared to the other 98% of the world's population, our net worth?? Not so impressive. Who knew?

So, then I couldn't sleep last night. All the fear that had been held off by my excitement and emotion surfaced. Never in my life have I laid in bed at night and thought about my "net  worth". Who does that?


 I worried that our "net worth" wouldn't be enough for the agency and they would deny us.
 And then, because I totally let the devil in with that one little doubt, a gajillion other came flooding in.......
what if it takes us 5 years to raise enough money?
 I can't wait that long!
What if I'm choosing the wrong agency and we get swindled or enter into some crazy world of corruption in Ethiopia? (it happens, people..)
What if they refuse to even begin the home study with us until our house addition is completely finished?
I have NO idea when that will be!


This morning, the worry continued as soon as I stepped outside and saw our mess of a property. I just kept thinking "our addition is our biggest hindrance right now. It's costly and will more than likely make us fail a home study which means the process for adoption will be that much longer"
Where was the steady faith and trust I had not even 24 hours ago? Lost with one question...."what is your net worth?". So stupid.

Then this afternoon, I had this small moment of clarity and revelation. (wow..typing all this out makes me realize how manic I really am. Poor Mitch.) Anyway....back to my itty bitty moment of clairty....we started this addition 18 months ago. We had to stop a few days into it when we learned that our foundation had to be leveled. We then learned that the money to fix our foundation was going to be a ridiculously huge amount. We stopped mid construction. We waited and saved and finally 6 months later fixed the foundation. We had to move out of our house for a month. When we moved back in we had now exhausted all the money we were planning on spending for the addition. So we waited again.....and waited.....until finally about 5 months ago, we got to start it again. It is slow going. Like sssslllloooowwww going. Anyone that lives in our neighborhood knows (and probably hates) how long it has taken us to just get this far.

So, why? Why has this (what we thought was going to be easy and quick) addition taken so long and been so ridiculously difficult?

(enter my revelation)
Maybe, because we were trying to expand our kingdom. We needed a bigger house to make our lives more comfortable. With all honest and good intentions, (I mean we do have 3 kids and a 1500 sf house and all..) while we were doing well with Mitch's business, we felt like we deserved to have a bigger/nicer home.  But, did we? Maybe those "good intentions" were not God's intentions? Maybe,  God was waiting for us to finally align with His will and plan for us and open our eyes to the world and say yes to adoption. Maybe He was waiting for us to try and expand His kingdom and not our own. Hmmm...

Well, now our eyes are opened. We have said yes to adoption, what we believe is His plan for us. A part of our family's story. But, what does that mean now?

Could it be that maybe the addition will be finished now? Easily and without crazy cost and time issues? I don't know. Maybe. Maybe not. But, I have to believe that if God funds things that are in His plans, and that it is His plan for us to adopt, and if our addition is going to hinder our adoption, that He will figure out a way to solve that problem for us. Somehow.

Please pray for that. Pray that we can finish in a crazy fast way. That there will be a corner of a bedroom finished and waiting for a sweet little girl around the world to come and live there. My heart aches for that and I want it to happen with as little hindrances as possible.

Thank you friends for traveling this road with us. Makes it seem a little less bumpy. :)

amazing

Not even an hour after posting our announcement yesterday, a precious friend from high school wrote me and told me her and her husband want to pay the application fee for us.
Shut. up.
Incredible.
It totally reminded me that God has got this covered. And what generous friends I have. So very grateful.

Here is the link to the cost breakdown of the adoption if any of you are interested. It's crazy and scary and is kind of burned into my brain. BUT.....I am not fearful, it will happen.

I also wanted to share something with you that was maybe the "get off your butt and get going" moment for me. Please take a few minutes to watch it....it might be that moment for you too?? :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=duyL9UjLrdM

(for some reason I can't embed it in blogger right now...but click on the link and watch it!!

our adventure has begun...

Warning......VERY long post. Very. But, stick it out. It is worth it :) 

I can vividly remember sitting in our college minister's office in May of 2000 next to Mitch. He was going to be marrying us in a few months and wanted to make sure that Mitch and I were on the same page before he did. We filled out questionnaires and personality tests, we discussed our answers and expectations of our marriage. What we wanted and didn't want. How long we wanted to wait to have kids, and how many kids we wanted to have. And, surprisingly, we were on the same page for most things. We wanted to wait at least 2 years (preferably 3) before we even started trying (I was only 21 at the time...) and then we would have 2 perfect kids nicely spread apart....and then be done.

Well, not many of those things that were discussed in "pre-marital counseling" happened quite the way we envisioned. Cause, well.....they were our plans.

We got pregnant with Brody only a little over a year after getting married. Then when he was 9 months old (and I was on birth control.....warning! warning! it is possible!!) we got pregnant with Addie. Then, we thought we were done (Brody was 5 and Addie was 4) we were surprised with a pregnancy....then a miscarriage....then another pregnancy.....then another miscarriage (all unplanned).

We had given up. No more we thought. Brody and Addie are perfect and enough! Then shortly after we made that decision (hahaha), Sam came into our lives and rocked our world. I always thought two kids couldn't possibly be that different than three.....I was wrong. It got super crazy around here. And super perfect. My three kids are unbelievable. And I love that they are mine. But, I really was done this time. I got so sick with Sam and didn't have easy pregnancies the other times around either. So, no more pregnancies. No more babies.

Then..............

God started moving in my heart. He led us to sponsor a child through Compassion International. He showed me how tender my own children's hearts were to the suffering of other children around the world. He led me to this blog and these posts where I followed a woman's journey into the depths of poverty and despair to show me a world beyond my own. He led me to this book through this sweet friend and showed me that the life I had convinced myself I needed and deserved, was not the life God intended for me. For any believer. Our small attempt of living the American Dream was not our desire anymore. While reading that book this last spring/early summer, the thought that had briefly danced through our heads earlier in our marriage reappeared.......adoption.  I thought about it all the time. God had stirred in my heart and that was it. I was ready. God had spoken to me and said that adoption was in our future. I didn't know how. I didn't know if that meant helping someone else adopt or us adopt ourselves, but I knew that I could never look back.
Now.....Mitch on the other hand. He wasn't quite as convinced. He's always the logical one. The one that speaks reality to me. The one that remembers that we have this half-done house right now and three kids and a limited budget. But, he is also the one that never says no to a calling. And not that long after God gave me a peace about it, He gave Mitch one as well.

So.........

This brings us to today. After much prayer and lots of talking, we are beginning the long process of international adoption. We are applying to adopt a little girl from Ethiopia!!

Questions????....

Why a girl? I can't explain that one so much, except that that is our desire. And I just think Addie would be the most incredible big sister to a sweet little girl ever!

Why Ethiopia? I have done lots of research on needy countries and their stand on adoption and their relationship with American adoption agencies. I have read lots of blogs and articles about international adoption. And God kept bringing me back to Ethiopian statistics (there are over 5 MILLION orphans in Ethiopia, 10% of children die before their 1st birthday, only 28% of children have access to drinking water, and it goes on and on). And more specifically God brought me back again and again to pictures and videos of a specific orphanage with just the most beautiful children you have ever seen. So, our hearts said "Ethiopia". And that was it.

How much will it cost?
It will probably cost us somewhere between $28,000- $35,000. Yep, that's not a typo. And if you know us, you know that's cRaZy money. Insane. BUT......I know that God will fund something that is in His plan. And that's what adoption is. HIS plan. One of the biggest moments I had while reading "Radical" was this......we as believers are meant to do more than live out the Christian's version of the American dream. We are God's plan for spreading the gospel to the nations. We are God's plan for taking care of the widows. The homeless. And the orphans. And there is no Plan B.
So, I know that God will provide this. I don't know how. Looking at the cost layout of everything (which I will try and post another day) is scary. It's intimidating. BUT, we don't have to pay it all at once. There are a million different steps and each step requires a different amount.

What's your plan for the cost?
Prayer. Hardy, life-changing prayer. And as hard as it is for us to say this, donations. Lots of them. We have some ideas for some different fundraisers that we still need to work through. But, right now, we are just praying. I want God to show us what to do. I know that He wants to be praised in all of this, so it will not be any of our doing.....cause that's the way He works, to keep us humble. I can only imagine how evident it will be that we had nothing to do with the $30,000 it will take to bring our daughter home, and I am excited. Acutally giddy might be a better word. And I don't ever use that word. Ever. I can't wait to see it all unfold.

What can you do to help us bring our daughter home?
Pray. Please pray. Pray for wisdom. Pray for Mitch to have the time and finances to finish our addition. (We have to have it done for our home study that has to take place later on in the process). Pray for faith and patience. If I could, I would fly to Addis Ababa right now and bring a child home. But, I know that that is not God's timing. This could be a long road, or could be a surprisingly short one. But, I want to remain faithful and patient throughout the process.
Suggestions. Do you have any? Can you help us think of ways to raise money? Do you know of foundations that support or give scholarships to adopting families?
Donations. Yes, friends. We need your help. It is so hard to ask for this. Seriously. We don't do this. Like ever. But, if you can, in any way, help us bring our daughter home, please do. Even if it's $10. That is $10 closer to saving our child from an overflowing orphanage in an impoverished area and bringing her to our arms.
Spread the word.  We are going to need as many people as we can get to back us in prayer and financially.


We are so crazy excited about this. ALL of us (well, maybe not Sam, cause....well, you know. He's 2).
We are eager to get started. First step is to finish the application for the Ethiopian program. We have started it, and will need $250 to send in with it. We are not even close to having that yet. But, we will. God willing.

I will be posting on this blog frequently. Please become a "follower" (it's not always a bad thing ) and check back for updates on our progress and for specific needs you can be praying about.

I am so stinkin excited to start this journey. And I'm most excited about the fact that we are not doing it alone.  I think when she (whoever she is, wherever she is) finally comes to her forever home.....she will have a huge family. :)

Thank you for bearing with me and reading this novel of a post. There was just so much to say. I love you all.