I am proud. My husband is proud. We are proud and we do not like to ask for money. I was fine asking for money when I was going on a missions trip, that was to further the Kingdom. But to ask for money just so I can have a daughter? That seems selfish, financially irresponsible on my part and just weird. I don't mind giving you something in exchange for your donation, a t-shirt, baked goods, a crocheted item (the "t" is silent, I know it looks like crotchety :P). But to just ask for money outright?
I know some of you are reading this and might be offended and think that I am judgmental of your adoption fundraisers. Please don't think that. This is a personal problem. A pride problem. As I said earlier, God guided us to adopt our daughter, we responded in obedience. Only God can persuade you to donate money to us without expecting anything in return. Sure we will be grateful and send you a photo for your fridge but it's so hard for me to understand that you would be so willing to give.
Don't get me wrong, I am a giving person. One of my top love languages is gifts, I love giving gifts with thought and meaning. But receiving gifts makes me feel...uncomfortable...like I don't deserve it. Most of the time I do not. I do not deserve good friends and family who love me. I do not deserve a God who showers me with grace.
But our daughter, Esther, deserves the best chance that she can get and that is why we are asking. Asking you for prayer, asking you for emotional support and for financial support.
While we were in Ethiopia we witnessed people with disabilities, minor and major that were forced to beg for a living. People with deformed legs were crossing a dirty street by basically walking with their hands and dragging their body. Others with minor deformities were standing outside of our van knocking on the windows asking for food or money. Those that were able, sold things like gum and tissues. People such as those in America would be working at special farms or even at Walmart as a cashier. They would have happy, successful, thriving lives. While Esther's special need is not physical per se, she still has a label. Because of that label, she is not given the chance to develop and learn like an average Ethiopian 2 year old. Please understand that I am not criticizing Ethiopia, but merely explaining to you what I have witnessed. I love Ethiopia, it gave me my children.
So, my reason for this blog post, the 2nd one on the same day, fundraising. We are doing what is called an Envelope fundraiser. We have a virtual 200 envelopes, numbered 1-200, that's $1-$200. You choose the amount and donate it. If we get all of the 200 envelopes filled, it will raise $20,000. That's not all that we need, but it's a start. That will cover our Country fees and our Dossier fees. We need this money soon. Refer to my post earlier today about God making the impossible happen!
I will open up a Facebook event and you can keep track of our progress on there. I'm attempting to get an actual visual that I can put an X on an envelope that has been taken already. For now we will just keep open communication.
SO, where do you donate? Well, I have a paypal donate button over there to the right but I found a new place that you can keep track of our total progress https://fundly.com/bring-esther-home#_ and donate all in one! I had a bit of trouble figuring out what I was doing so I have our "campaign" page with a total of $37,000 and an end date of August 31, 2014 at this link and a "fundraiser" page (little link on the side of the campaign one) with our envelope total of $20,000 and an end date of December 31, 2013. It doesn't matter which one you donate to, they both go to the same pot.
--OR--
You can go to our Facebook event page here
1. Join the event
2. Choose which envelope you want, 1-200 and
comment below which you are choosing. (I'm still working on a visual to
cross off the amounts)
3. Go to https://fundly.com/bring-esther-home#_ and donate the dollar amount that is on your envelope
4. Send me your address so that I can send you a photo of Esther.
(Ethiopia prohibits us from displaying her photo publicly until we have
custody)
If you do not have Facebook, I will update which envelope you chose on there for you.
We love y'all and we are very excited to share our journey with you...again!
Ok so I know I'm terrible at updating my blog. Hopefully most of you are on Facebook and can see how well Ephraim is doing. In case you are not, he is doing fantastic! He started Kindergarten in August and is one determined little boy.
About mid-October, he was placed in the Power Reading group, so now he has a whole hour with the reading specialist and a half an hour with the ESL instructor. We work on letter and number recognition at home and while driving around. Yesterday we had a lazy Saturday. I told him on Friday that we were going to stay home and I listed the things that we could do together, among those were working on his letters and watching Papa play his video game, Disney Infinity, which Ephraim loves to do. Well he said that he will just work on his letters with me and not watch the video game because he needs to learn how to read!
Why does he want to learn how to read so badly? He wants to read to his sister.
Yup, you read that right, his sister.
Earlier this summer, our agency Holt, opened up their Ethiopia program to 50 previous Holt Ethiopia adoptive parents living in a branch state. Very specific, I know. There are new steps in the process and an open communication with them and previous experience are needed. They did this in hopes of "working out the kinks" so that they can completely open their program back up. For now, if you do not meet those guide lines, then they only accept you if you are adopting an older child (over 5) or a Waiting Child.
So, we decided to start the process again, thinking it would take a few years....
Then I started looking at the Waiting Child photolisting (duh duh duuuuuuhhhh). These are the children that don't quite fit into what those prospective parents have checked off on their "open to" list. Typically older children, siblings and special needs.
I saw the face of a sweet little girl with special needs. Chris and I requested her information and took a couple of weeks to pray about it. One Sunday morning during worship I began crying as I heard God say that He wants us to pursue the adoption. So, we let Holt know. About a month later (waiting on a new progress report to arrive via snail mail from Ethiopia), we were interviewed over the phone by on of Holt's social workers. It was less than encouraging. She made us feel as though we are horrible candidates for any adoption.
BUT two days later, we got the phone call. I couldn't speak, couldn't think, couldn't do anything but cry. You see, we never heard God proclaim (think deep ominous voice here) "You will adopt this child". We simply heard "take the next step". I knew that we were acting in obedience and that God would reward that some day, this side of heaven or the other.
I know that you are shaking your head. I know that you are thinking that this is crazy, we just brought Ephraim home 8 months ago, we can't possibly afford to adopt, yet alone fly to Ethiopia again so soon. I know that you are thinking that because we are too.
None of this makes sense without God.
Right in the middle of our "but God!" is a "but, God".
I went to the Women of Faith conference here in Kansas City and one of the speakers said something that will always stick with me. "God will not move unless it is impossible. If we are able to do it ourselves, then we don't need Him."
Well, it's impossible.
God must move.
I'll tell you how you can help very soon. Today is Orphan Sunday and we are launching a fundraiser tonight. But first, REgroup with families from church. Ta ta for now!
