Fundraising Fun!!

Hello again!!

This will be a short and "sweet" post about fundraising! 

I kind of hate the entire concept of asking for help of any sort so this is very difficult for me.....that being said I am going to be very conscientious of how we go about all of our fundraising to make sure it is family and community interactive because the truth of this is, we need to raise some extra funds, I know God will provide, but this is us meeting him halfway so we will be crafty in doing so!!  

Firstly I am going to have a long running fundraiser through etsy where I will be selling these knit bracelets/cuffs:

As you can see they will all be red to represent the Chinese proverb that has become so dear to families waiting to adopt their special heart connections in China; the Red Thread of Fate.  If I haven't taken the time to explain this beautiful sentiment yet it is simply that according to this proverb we are all connected to whom we have met and who we will meet in our lives by an invisible red thread of fate that may twist, knot and tighten but never break. I love this sentiment as it beautifully portrays the truth of how we can love little Ru with all our hearts so hard already! It has been designed that way from the start!!! How cool! 

So there will be many variations are offered, thin bracelets, or thick cuffs, children and adult sizing as well!! I will be adding another Item that Evee and I are very excited about and more info will be given when we are sure we can make them! 

We will be having some fun activities planned to raise awareness in the community about the need to adopt or foster children here and all over the world. This overwhelming heart calling can not be stalled right now and  I am super excited to post more of those events information as the details are finalized!! Also, I am very open to suggestions so feel free to share your thoughts!!!

Thank you all again for your overwhelming love and support!! 

p.s. As soon as i figure out technology i will have a link to my Etsy blog sites wall but for now here is the link on this post!

https://www.etsy.com/shop/RedThreadLove?ref=hdr_shop_menu

Questions, Answers and Blessings!!!

Ok......

So let me first take a second to say THANK YOU all so much for the incredible outpouring of love and support, we are truly overwhelmed at the amazing comments and prayers that are now coming our way on this amazing journey to bring our Ru home!!! You are all so special to us and we thank God for all of you in our lives!!

Next.......

Let me take the time to answer some very valid questions that have come our way,

1. "Why adopt from another country when there are so many in need right here in our own country?"

      To this is answer that is completely true and overwhelmingly so.  To be honest that is where we started this journey, with local foster care and possible adoption that way.  I agree whole-heartily that there are just as many orphans and children with horrible circumstances right here even in our own county.  The same can be said for any county, or any state or any country in the world.  So why then are we going to travel across the world to expand our family? Because for whatever reason, and certainly a reason that I cannot even fathom yet, God has called us to this particular little girl.  I believe in my heart that she has been there from her very birth but I wasn't ready yet.  When the time came for us to be ready, God let us know, and we listened!  We will continue to be involved in local outreaches for foster care and adoption in our own communities, but God lead us to Ru, and that is all I can really explain it as.  Kind of like Jonah, I could tell the Lord "This is too difficult and too far away, surely I can be just as much help here in my own state??" but I have a feeling that a hypothetical "fish" will consume me until I pray for Gods forgiveness and continue on the path of his original will in our lives:-) I don't know about you, but like the path of least resistance sometimes.

2.  "Isn't adoption too expensive??" "Do you have that kind of money??"

     I answer this one carefully as well.  Adoption is completely super expensive.  When God calls you to do something you may look at the big picture and say "NO WAY" cause who has that kind of money laying around?  But I have to believe that if He calls us then He will also provide a way for it to happen.  So no, we don't currently have that kind of money set aside, however, we are going to be so amazed at how God is allowed to move in this situation of provisions being met! At the end of this process, money aside, we will have our daughter home where she needs to be, given the medical care that she needs to function and God will provide.  We will be fundraising and I am picking up a job, and we will be creative with our finances, but all and all we have faith that if God lead us too it, he will lead us through it.......I am so excited to see how!!!
     And just for a taste of how God is already showing us that this is in his hands here is an example; So back in the beginning of me pleading and praying for my husband to see what God has in store for us he made the declaration that "If I am even to consider adopting a child you are going to need a job."  He stated this before our lovely trip to Mississippi......so while we were in Mississippi, while God was softening his heart with little Ellie, I get a phone call.......randomly.....from our local winery gift shop......"I was wondering if you were interested in working for us, can you give us a call when you get home from your trip?" It should be noted that I did not put in for a job at the winery, I just enjoy going there! haha! I should also mention that I had not committed to a job yet thus far because I didn't want it to take away from my children's time with me at home.......so when I got home from vacation and met with her and she said she would need me from 9:00am - 2:30pm.........you know, when my kids are in school......I almost laughed out loud!! some things are coincidence.....this is decidedly not......one of Matt's first "tugs" if you will:-) 

3.  "Are your children OK with this?"

     My children, especially my oldest and youngest (we have 4) are some of the biggest advocates for this adventure and we are so very blessed to have been able to have 4 amazing beautiful talented healthy biological babes and now God is now granting us a brand new adventure, not just Matthew and I, but our whole family......this journey will move us all and I am excited to see how!

Now I should take the time to mention that these questions are not the only concerns we have come across, and they certainly do not offend me, so please ask whatever you want, we are an open book. We would love to show you what we know, and maybe even how you can help too!!! We do not know everything and we do not have all the answers but we are willing to share with anyone interested what we do know!!  I do not offend easily so please don't assume, just ask away!!!

First HE will Tug, then HE will Slap!

Hello All!!

Ok, so I do not blog, this is more for documenting our family's journey to bring home our little girl from China.  That being said, WE ARE BRINGING HOME OUR LITTLE GIRL FROM CHINA!!!!!!

Bare with me, this may be gratuitously long!

My husband and I have always known that God wasn't done with our family yet, even though biologically he was, we knew we wanted to offer our home to children without hope, or children in tricky life situations so we considered foster care. We knew that God wanted us to wait for the right time and when our children were at an age that they understood what was happening and could actually be involved as well.  Then my Dear amazing grandmother recommended a book for me to read a few months ago (we share books) and it was Jodi Picoults Handle With Care. I read it quickly and was sucked in at the first page, if you want to feel emotions.....read this book....so well written!!  The long and short of the plot, without this becoming a book review, is that it is written in many perspectives of the people that surround this little girl willow who was born with Osteogenesis Imperfecta (brittle bone disease).  There are many moral battles in this book about quality of life and it is beautifully written to capture all of these complex thoughts and internal battles we have as humans.  I was so moved by this book I just had to go to my grandmas house and discuss it with her, my heart ached for this fictional family and this fictional little girl. Crazy, I know! So I had an amazing coffee chat with my grandma about children in the world who don't have the same loving family to surround them and I spoke to her about my heart to help but feeling like I had no idea where to begin so I end up doing nothing instead which is not where God wants me, he had something else in mind!

I went home feeling blessed to have such an amazing grandma with such a like heart and sat down to check my emails, start some homework and of course peruse facebook! ha! When I clicked on my facebook notifications my amazing friend Stacey had tagged me in a beautiful video about a couple who were about to meet their new born adoptive son, right at the hospital! It was so moving and I was already ripe with emotions at this point.  After watching that video I felt my first tug, the kind of tug that you have to listen to every so carefully, that may point to a major life decision guided by God, but by the end of the series of "light tugs" there are actual slaps in the face if your not quite getting the message! haha! We will  get to those, on with tugs..........I go back to my home page and see another notification which happened to be a post by my sweet sweet friend Amiee who was publicly announcing their second adoption was approved!!!! It was a beautiful post about their amazing faithfulness, you know, listening to the tugs all along, and God blessing them with yet another opportunity to adopt another child from China!  They had adopted a little girl a few years ago from China, both of these amazing kiddos have spina bifida which makes Steve and Amiee the most obeidient and inspirational children of God that I have yet to meet!   So I am reading her blog, a hot mess of tears streaming down my face as I watch their story continue and feel a more substantial tug, the kind of tug that makes me open google and begin searching for waiting children in China websites.  As I looked over all the pictures and read about each of their needs ranging from birthmarks, to blood disorders, to downs syndrom, cerebral palsy, spina bifida, blindness, deafness, albinism, and just was heartbroken, all of these sweet babies were discarded, left on the sides of roads, under trees, on doorsteps.  As I was praying a silent prayer in my head, questioning why God would want me to even look when he knows how overwhelmed I would get, how can you choose just one? And if you do, how do you pick ONLY one!?  After a few more tears, prayers and looking for guidance I came across a little girl, Ruyika (Ru), and i was immediately drawn into her little sweet eyes, she had me.  I then read her special need........she has OI!!!!! she has brittle bone disease, a disease that up until finishing that book that morning I was not aware of......a special need that I had not yet come across in the hundreds of pics that I had seen up until that moment....that is when I felt something slightly more powerful than a tug but not yet a full slap....that is next.  later that evening  I was picking up my daughter from her friends church event and was talking to her in the car hypothetically;

me: So how would you feel if did adoption instead of foster care?
lou: Really??
me: yes, I know we talked about foster care but how about adoption, from another country even?
lou: You mean like the book I brought home from school TODAY called When Will We Be Sisters?

Did you feel it?? I did, that was the slap......the gentle yet forceful slap that said "This is what I want you to do, be faithful, follow me, I will provide a way, TRUST ME."  She brought a book home, that day!!!!

Oh Lord in heaven, did I ever have such an obvious day with the Lord.....calling me to do something, and asking me to be brave enough to call my husband to agree to the same.......Oh boy this had to be a God thing cause my dear hubby does not like financial compilations......this would be a spiritual journey for our whole family.  God wanted us to stop talking about the life we wanted, how we wanted to help but just didn't see how, he was calling us audibly to this particular little girl but my husband wouldn't be where  I was in that moment for quite a few weeks........

Ok Lord, help me prepare my husbands heart for this calling........so that night he got home super late from work, like 10:00 and I was riding a spiritual high.........I was wanting to lock her documents immediately so I was little more than bummed but totally understood why my husband said "no way, I don't even know how to process this."  Little did he know that the Lord was working on him now.....he even tried to fight it a few times haha!  God in his infinite wisdom knew back in January what would open Matt's heart and mostly his faith in Gods ability to provide financially during this process. It was a trip to the Gautreaux's for spring break.  It must be noted that this trip to Mississippi where they are stationed was planned about 3 months before this day I had with the Lord.....coincidence? I know it isn't!   As I had mentioned before, Amiee and Steve had adopted before, a sweet little girl to add to their already full of love house, four children, all the same ages as ours and lifelong buddies!  But it was apparent to Amiee and I from the first day that God was going to use Ellie to speak to Mr. Matt!  From that day till the day we left she was Matt's shadow, "hold me please" with a huge smile that Matt couldn't say no to! "Shoulder ride please" again with the smile, "color with me Mr. Matt"!

Sweet Ellie and Mr. Matt crafting

Wrapped around his finger!!!

All with a melt-able smile and giggles to match and a heart that started the tug at Matt, he could now see and have no doubts that he could indeed love another child as he was pretty sure he wanted to take Miss Ellie home with us!

In our time down in Mississippi I began to learn alot about the international adoption community and the sites you can go to to view waiting children, agency info and much much more all because of my Adoption Fairy Godmother (AFG) Mrs. Amiee!!  I learned so much about patience as well since my little Ru's file was taken down and no agency knew where she was......I was heartbroken but Amiee kept me grounded and focused.....maybe Ru was just the little girl God was going to use to get us to be open to adoption to begin with?   I just couldn't shake the feeling that she was to be so much more but by the end of our trip she was still no where to be found by any agency, I dreaded the thought that she was being adopted by someone else but at the same time knew that if she was, it was Gods plan and she was with who he designed from the beginning.  On the long drive home Matt and  I discussed many things, moving, adoptions and life.  I finally told him I will let Ru go for a few months and if she pops back up after her file has been re-released to a shared list then that is Gods timing. God clearly wanted me to verbally speak that I "let her go and put her in Gods hands" because no sooner did we pull into our driveway after a long 20 hours straight on the road did my AFG tell me that they had her back on the thread, some agency had her file after all!!


So with lots of prayer we and coming off of a refreshing amazing vacation we took a leap of faith, together, and sent our Letter of Intent (LOI) to China to adopt this sweet girl!! Now we begin a year long journey to get her home!!  We found out Today that we have Pre-Approval from China! She is ours to adopt! This journey, i know in my heart is going to test and strengthen my spiritual issues, mainly patience and my husbands spiritual weakness, faith that God will provide the finances and everything else that a strong man of God knows he needs to keep his family afloat! My children will be tested in their
spiritual walks as well, they are excited, but not sure how it will effect them yet please keep them and us in your prayers as we begin something amazing and epic in God! I am so thankful that we felt his tugging and even more thankful for his "slap"!

This is on our fridge, we call it our prayer picture, the words to the right are the lyrics to "Oceans" by Hillsong