Last-minute ways to impact a child's life this year!

As we wrap up 2012, I wanted to give you some tangible ways you can make a difference for four children waiting to be adopted by families in our local church congregation (Brookhaven Wesleyan). Obviously, once January 1 comes, you are still very much able to donate to any of these children's adoption expenses, but I thought I'd share one last chance for those of you who may yet be looking for that year-end giving opportunity. Here is a glimpse at each child/family and how you can make a tax-deductible contribution to each child:

Dale and Carrie Bradford: Planning to adopt Megan from Russia
Visit Dale and Carrie's blog here to read the Bradfords' story and to make a tax-deductible donation on the right-hand side to Megan's adoption through Reece's Rainbow, a down syndrome adoption ministry. Please pray, pray, PRAY for sweet Megan and for all children waiting for adoption in Russia as adoptions from the U.S. have just been put on hold by the government. So many children in need of families--please take a moment to pray specifically for Satan's power to be overthrown.

Trey and Bridgette Boswell: Planning to adopt Edna from Eastern Europe
Visit Bridgette's blog here to read the Boswells' story and to make a tax-deductible donation on the right-hand side to Edna's adoption, also through Reece's Rainbow. The Boswells are following the Lord's leading into adoption for a second time, as little Edna will join big brothers Trenner and Solomon. Please pray for the Boswells as they renew their home study, gather funding, and prepare for travel. Please pray for Edna's health needs as well as she awaits her family to care for her needs.

Ben and Melissa Cook: Planning to adopt from U.S.
We do not have a giving link for the Cooks, but wanted to remind you to continue praying for them and consider donating to their adoption as well. They are answering God's call to care for a little one in the United States in need of a family!

Daniel and Mae: Planning to adopt minority infant from U.S.
Remember to pray for us as well :-). 2012 has brought plenty of "setbacks" in our timeline, but we know God's timing is perfect! If you wish to make a tax-deductible gift to our adoption, please visit our AdoptTogether fund page here.

Please remember to pray for each family, and as the Lord leads, consider giving financially to help bring these children into safe, loving families. Thank you for your involvement in the lives of children in 2012! We pray 2013 will bring great things for these little ones.

Christmas Catch-up

Well, we haven't blogged since November 11, mainly because that was about the time morning sickness kicked in at full-gear. So here are a few quick updates and prayer needs as we move toward a new year:

Updates:
1. Our home study should be finished NEXT WEEK!!! We have had our final home visit, so all that's left is the writing part (our home study agency takes all the info they collected and writes up the study of our home). That will be such a relief to have that finally wrapped up!

2. We have been travelling...everywhere...and never want to get in the car again. Well, not really true, but our son is NOT a good traveler, so road trips are not on his list of fun things. He at least does not get car sick, and we survived a few hours of screaming from boredom in order to meet our new nephew Elijah. We leave again Monday to visit Daniel's parents in Louisiana for Christmas and should be home late December. We at least were able to borrow a DVD player this time, so perhaps that will make a difference.

3. Pregnancy...oh, that lovely word...morning sickness, exhaustion, and random cravings have been leaving their mark. On the positive side, we got to hear our baby's heartbeat this week--a sound that makes it all worth it :-). We are due in June so have about 7 months left.

Prayer needs:
1. For physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual stamina in the coming months. This pregnancy has taken a toll on our ability to focus on much more than daily activities for awhile, so we are burdened with the need to raise funds for our adoption without the energy to do so. Pray that the second trimester will bring increased energy so we can hit the fundraising trail.

2. For patience to trust the Lord's timing. In our minds we were going to crank out our home study by this past October and jump head first into fundraising. Obviously the Lord had other plans on timing with the added blessing of pregnancy, so we have to trust that His plans are perfect and our temporal of energy will not throw off His perfect timing for the adoption.

3. For continued financial provision moving forward with adoption and pregnancy. We have been blessed to be part of a Christian healthcare sharing ministry called Samaritan Ministries that will provide for nearly 100% of our maternity needs through other believers sharing in our medical costs (as we share in theirs monthly). We also learned that Samaritan will help members with adoption medical costs as well. Praise God with us for believers working together to meet financial needs, and continue to pray with us for the Lord's provision for our adoption fees. We have a long way to go to fully fund our adoption, but we know the Lord will provide for the call He's placed on our family.

4. For a healthy pregnancy for us AND the expectant mother of our adopted child. We recently realized it's quite possible our adopted child has recently or will soon be conceived! Please pray with us for the mother who chooses to give her child life through adoption, that the Lord will speak love and peace into her soul and allow her to find rest in Him as she carries her little one.

May the Lord bless each of you as you continue in His ways! Praise God for sending His only Son, Jesus, as a baby so long ago, so each of us could experience redemption and eternal life! What an incredible gift He's given us.

Merry Christmas to all!

Expecting Times Two!

So, for those of you who haven't read on Facebook or who we haven't had the pleasure of telling this news to personally, our lives have been consumed by a new life event over the past few weeks: pregnancy!! We are no longer expecting to increase our family size by just one in the near future through adoption but now two through pregnancy as well. (BabyCenter.com says our “due date” should be June 23 :-).)

Many of you have asked where this leaves our adoption journey. Well, we're glad you asked—it doesn't “leave” our journey, as we are going to continue as planned with our adoption. Yes, we know, there is a strong possibility we could have two newborns in the house within just months of each other. We also know traveling could pose some additional fun challenges. But we know the Lord called us into this, and we're not stopping due to the extra blessing of pregnancy :-).

We would love you to continue praying with us through this adoption. As we mentioned previously, our last month has been anything but uneventful, so adding morning sickness into the mix has been a bit discouraging as we finally thought we'd get moving quickly on our remaining home study and family profile needs. Unfortunately we've instead had to slow down at everything in life to keep up with the basics like eating, meaning our home study is yet again being drawn out. Please pray that we can push through the final few hoops to get this portion wrapped up soon.

Also, please begin praying with us as we start applying for grants and coming up with creative fundraising ideas. Both of us had originally planned to take on as much freelance work as possible to help with funds, but Mae is now not going to have as much expendable energy as originally planned. We aren't worried about funds as we know the Lord will take care of the thing He has called us to pursue, but we want to use our time and energy in the ways that will best fulfill His plans for the financial aspect of this adoption.

Thanks so much again to all of you for your continued prayers and support! We are so SO blessed by each of you as we continue in this exciting adventure the Lord is taking us on!

Quick update on "life"

Since we've been fairly inactive in our blog, I thought I'd just post an update of all the crazy events that have happened this past month:

1. Our rental house ceiling collapsed, resulting in many nights of work for Daniel. Nasty insulation everywhere, our friend living there trying to finish up last-minute details to fly to Poland for two years as a missionary...it wasn't an "ideal" scenario. The devil tried pretty hard to discourage her in her call to missions and us in our pursuit of adoption...sorry, didn't work this time!

2. Our close friends Tim and Melody welcomed their second child, Laina Christine, into the world on October 16! She is gorgeous like her big sister Hannah (and her mommy, of course!). We were blessed to spend a couple days caring for Hannah while Tim and Melody enjoyed the first moments with Laina.

3. Other close friends had to fight a huge spiritual battle in the lives of their foster children as the kids were placed back with a family member this past Friday. We are all claiming the Lord's protection over these little ones as they have trusted Him as their Savior. We know He goes before them and knows them inside and out! They are never outside of His hands.

4. Our friend Becky (who's ceiling collapsed) hopped a plane TONIGHT for a two-year term in Poland, working in youth ministry. Becky has been such an encouragement to us in our adoption journey, as we watched her pursue God's call on her life whole-heartedly and found herself completely funded in less than a year. God enables those He calls!

5. We are still plugging away at the adoption! We are oh so very close to completing our home study!! Daniel just needs to finish reading the "required reading" book (in his free time, after this ceiling project is done!), and we should be on our way to FINISHED after our last visit. We can't wait to move into the next phase!

6. We will be an aunt/uncle by this time next month...just had to stick that in there! Yahoo for Nathan's first cousin!

So, you can see that a few things have been happening in our circles. We have been blessed to see how the Lord has been working in the lives of our friends and greatly encouraged and comforted knowing that He holds us up in the moments of despair and suffering as well.

Tax-deductible, anyone?

Today we received great news that we've been approved for an AdoptTogether adoption fund! What this means for you is that now you have a secure, TAX-DEDUCTIBLE way to donate to our adoption! All you have to do is visit https://adopttogether.org/danielandmae/ in order to make an online donation. Or, if you wish to contribute via check through the mail, you may make checks payable to AdoptTogether and include our names (Daniel and Mae Verheyden) in the memo line. Checks may be mailed to:

AdoptTogether251 W. Central Ave #278
Springboro, OH 45066 

AdoptTogether works by applying your donation amount to our adoption financial goal, and when we are at the point of needing funds to send to an adoption agency after being matched with a child, we will fill out a grant application for AdoptTogether. They will reward us a grant (every grant applicant to date has receive 100% of the funds requested) that will be applied directly to our adoption expenses. Pretty great, I think!!!

Thank you all for your continued partnership in this journey! I know we have not blogged in awhile as we have been dealing with some very exciting and very heart-wrenching life events in our friend group over the past few weeks, but we wanted to make sure to share this opportunity with you. We hope to post very soon a "real" update on our lives and how God is continuing to work! He is SOOO good!!!!

God WILL make this happen!!! (A fundraising update!)

So it's been forever since we've updated you, since we've faced a lot of "bad circumstances" (spiritual warfare) in the past few weeks including our rental house kitchen ceiling collapsing, illness, and discouragement, but we want to take a second to remind you of this verse and it's TRUTH:

God will make this happen, for He who calls you is faithful. 1 Thessalonians 5:24

This past week, beginning with Pastor Bob's sermon on Sunday morning on swimming upstream in a downstream world (found here if you missed it), followed by a week filled with blessed conversations and spiritual renewal through God's Word, the Lord reminded us yet again that the things He calls us to are not promised to be easy, popular, or even "fun" by the world's standards. But yet we must obey, we must stand strong, and we must swim upstream in pursuit of His call!

This week we have watched several friends experience God "making this happen" in their unique calls to serve God, and we are praising Him with them in these days! We also wanted to highlight a few big things happening in the fundraising area of our adoption journey:

1) Two friends of ours, Priscilla Wondercheck and Becky Locke, are teaming up to host a "virtual" Pampered Chef Party for anyone to "attend." The party is already open, and you can shop online here. This is how you shop: 

1. Click on the top LEFT button that says "Shows you're invited to or hosting." If you haven't registered on Pampered Chef online yet, you'll have to register first. Priscilla Wondercheck is the consultant if you are asked for that information.
2.  After you have registered, go back to that button on the main page again, and click Find Your Show Now, entering Becky Locke (in Indiana) as the Host.
3. Once you've selected her name, it's time to shop! 25 percent of the sales will be donated to our adoption once product sales hit $600.

2) Also (drum roll please...) in the past three weeks, we have reached a total of $7101!!! This brings us to 23.7 percent of our total goal, up $874 from September 19. We are so excited to see how the Lord is providing! 

God WILL make this happen. He IS faithful!!! 
 

 

The Spirit of Adoption

In July when we were 99.9 % sure the Lord had called us to pursue adopting a minority infant from the U.S., we were encouraged to read a book called The Spirit of Adoption by Randy and Kelsey Bohlender. If you've never read it, I HIGHLY recommend it. If you have any doubts whether adoption is in God's plans or what value God places on children, this book will give you fresh insight into the immeasurable value of children and the spiritual battle going on for their little hearts.

The book also highlights the great outpouring of the Holy Spirit in the church today in the area of adoption. Personally, until several years ago we'd only known one family who had been involved in foster care. Today we are connected with more adoptive and foster families than I can count, and this morning in our MOMS group, I was blown away by how God is drawing so many families' hearts toward lonely and hurting children. Through foster care and adoption, so many little ones are being shown the love of Christ and being embraced as part of a family. God is truly orchestrating a "Spirit of Adoption" in the hearts of His people.

You may never be asked to pursue adoption, but I pray you will listen closely to the Lord and what He wants you to do about the great orphan crisis in the world. He longs for His people to be His hands and feet and reach out to a hurting world full of little ones in need of mommies and daddies, brothers and sisters, grandmas and grandpas. Maybe there is a teen in your church who lacks emotional support at home. Perhaps you are a teacher, a bus driver, or a medical provider who could make a difference to one lonely child today by showing you care. You may be called to lay your heart on the line through foster care, loving a child as your very own yet knowing he or she may very well be relocated, humbly submitting yourself to the emotional pain to touch one child with Christ's love. Maybe God has a lonely child (or even a set of siblings) in need of your family forever.

However He asks you to participate, may we rejoice as He sets the lonely in families and continue to be His hands and feet to the world around us.

The Search for "Normal"

Over the last few weeks months  years we have often commented to each other, "Maybe life will return to 'normal' when _______ " To this day, life has never reached that searched-for normal. As I sat at the computer tonight, feeling exhausted from balancing parenting and home life with ministry involvement and fundraising for our adoption, I found this blog post from Sally Clarkson, the author of several parenting books including Mission of Motherhood which we studied last year in MOMS group. She writes:

“Jesus’ work in a person’s life has always begun with a call to leave behind the goals, purposes, and distractions of this world and to say yes to a whole new life, a new way of thinking. “Follow me” is what He told the disciples as He recruited them. And they did, abandoning their fishing nets, their tax-collector’s moneybags, their permanent homes, their everyday duties and pleasures. And they never went back. Sure, they still did a little fishing from time to time! But once they made the choice to follow Jesus, their lives were forever changed. They never returned to ‘normal.’

I think this is vital for us to keep in mind as Christians and as parents. We know we are called to follow Christ, to take His message to the world, to raise our children to heed Jesus’ call. But sometimes I think we fail to consider that following the Lord might mean leaving behind the ordinary and the familiar. It means exchanging a temporal view of life for an eternal goal. And this may mean leaving behind things we really care about–involvements and pursuits that seem important and worthwhile but may not be God’s best for us.

Part of giving the gift of inspiration is helping our children understand this–and perhaps reminding ourselves. To fulfill God’s design for their lives, our precious children must at some point determine to give Jesus allegiance in every aspect of their lives. There is a cost to discipleship, and that cost is everything!” ~ The Ministry of Motherhood

As we follow God's call on our family to adopt, our days and nights have been filled with completing paperwork, reading book requirements, and sending emails--all in between cleaning up the day's third spilled cup of milk, fundraising, and ministry involvement. We have started to search desperately for "normal" again. We long for those elusive quiet evenings at home filled with popcorn and movie nights, football games, and homemade milk shakes. We long for an entire day to get some projects completed in our home. 

How often we forget that following the Lord means "leaving behind the goals, purposes, and distractions of this world and to say yes to a whole new life, a new way of thinking." When we said "Yes!" to the Lord, we essentially said "No!" to the ordinary, familiar, temporal, and even enjoyable things of life that were not God's best for us. 

If you've already answered the Lord's call to "Follow Me," are you, like us, finding yourself distracted searching for the normal in life? Instead, may we count the cost of discipleship, say "Yes!" to Christ, and embrace the "whole new life" we find in Him!

What God is doing

I know most of you come to our blog to see what's happening in our lives in regard to adoption, but I'd like to share something different, yet related, with you today.

Our friend Becky Locke is a recent IWU graduate who served on staff at Brookhaven Wesleyan for awhile before being called by God to go to Poland to work with the youth there. Becky originally had a goal to make it to Poland by July of this past summer but is now aiming for October, after some unplanned delays in August (isn't the Lord's timing awesome though how He knows our futures even when we have our own thoughts of the "whens" and "wheres"?). Anyway, I wanted to share Becky's Facebook post with you today, as her journey has impacted us as we trust God to provide financially and in His timing for our adoption. Becky was appointed as a missionary with Global Partners earlier in 2012 and now, less than ONE YEAR later, she is so very close to leaving all she knows to love the youth of Poland. Here's what Becky shared today:

I want to celebrate and give all glory to God for His mighty power! I give Him praise for raising up a team of His people who believe in His faithfulness and anticipate the mighty work He is going to do through all of us in Poland!! Yes, I mean ALL of us! Even YOU! 

PARTNERS: God has laid it on my heart to share this with you today! Your partnership is an incredible value to me and the Polish people, I pray it will be an incredible blessing to you as well. I am praying and believing that I will be at 100% [funded] by the end of next week and will be heading out by October 26th! Please pray and believe with me! Thank you for being a vital part of our ministry. Please, let me know how I can be praying for you during this journey. These next two years are going to be amazing!

Philippians 1:3-6 "Every time I think of you, I give thanks to my God. Whenever I pray, I make my requests for all of you with joy, for you have been my partners in spreading the Good News about Christ from the time you first heard it until now. And I am certain that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns."

I want to rejoice with you!


-Becky

How awesome our God is to provide so incredibly for Becky and show her that He has INDEED called her! If you want to learn more about Becky's journey and how God has worked in her life or would like to partner with her through prayer or financially, you can find her on Facebook on Becky Locke in Poland or by visiting her missionary page by clicking here.

Praise God for His amazing, perfect, and complete provision!

James 1:27: The Second Half

This past Sunday, Pastor Tony preached a message that was one of the most compelling I've ever heard, challenging us to live beyond ourselves and to reach out to the lost and hurting people all around us with the love of Christ. While the entire message was an excellent call to action, the Lord used one verse yet again to drive me to keep pursuing His Truth:

James 1:27 "Pure and genuine religion in the sight of God the Father means caring for orphans and widows in their distress and refusing to let the world corrupt you."

As we've mentioned on our blog and in talking with many of you, James 1:27 was the verse of Scripture that first compelled us to action in the area of adoption. While I've had this verse sealed in my heart for several years now as my call to act, I've always been just a little puzzled by the second half of the verse--often just stopping at the word "distress" and leaving off the end. How does caring for orphans and widows have anything to do with refusing to let the world corrupt you? Surely these are two separate thoughts that just happen to be together.

Or are they separate? God is teaching me that they're not. Here is what He's shown me this week:

Our culture's view of children: Without getting too deep into political and cultural battles, I will simply say that our culture often views children as a nuisance, a hindrance to getting ahead in life, and a "nice thing to do" if you are a happy couple looking for completion. But don't dare have more than two of them or you're really pushing what's acceptable, especially since the earth is so rapidly becoming "overpopulated." And, of course, if the timing is inconvenient and an "accidental" pregnancy occurs, just take care of the problem. No harm done (a tragic lie from Satan!).

God's view of children: "So God created human beings in his own image...then God blessed them and said, 'Be fruitful and multiply. Fill the earth and govern it'" (Gen. 1:27-28). "Children are a gift from the LORD; they are a reward from him. Children born to a young man are like arrows in a warrior’s hands" (Psalm 127:3-4). Clearly there is a stark contrast between what our culture says about children and what God says about children. Culturally, they are often an inconvenience. To God, they are a significant blessing!

Our culture's view of widows: Let's assume this refers to elderly widows. Unfortunately, our culture is  leaning toward viewing the lives of the elderly as holding less value than the lives of those in their twenties and thirties in the "prime" of life. Certainly many still "respect their elders," but there is a disturbing trend in society that points to those in retirement years as having less value than those further behind in life experience. Let's use our time, effort, and money to better the lives of those in their "peak" stages of life.

God's view of widows: "Gray hair is a crown of glory; it is gained by living a godly life." (Proverbs 16:31) "The glory of the young is their strength; the gray hair of experience is the splendor of the old." (Proverbs 20:29) "Father to the fatherless, defender of widows— this is God, whose dwelling is holy." (Psalm 68:5) Again, we see a strong contrast between the way our culture is heading versus how God sees those who have served Him for many years. Culture sees a weak person lacking strength (and therefore value); God sees splendor and a crown of glory.

Now back to James 1:27 "...refusing to let the world corrupt you." Do you see the connection in the verse now? James calls us to take care of orphans and widows in their distress while refusing to let the world corrupt us. "The world" (our culture) tries to tell us that both orphans (children in general) and widows (elderly in general) are insignificant. From a naturalistic worldview, orphans and widows are weak, useless, and therefore lacking in value to society. As we pursue "pure and genuine religion" in caring for orphans and widows in their distress, may we never allow the world to corrupt our minds from seeing God's beautiful creation of humans--ALL humans--young, old, fatherless, and widowed, and from doing everything we can to care for each of them as God's treasured children.

1/5 of the way!

Just wanted to post a quick update that we've crossed the line of 1/5 of our financial need being met for our little one's adoption! We are praising God as He is continually blessing us with extra financial opportunities to provide for this adoption. God is strengthening our faith as we have experienced a steady stream of freelance requests, mainly from people calling us "out of the blue" who didn't even know we were raising funds for adoption! We have also had several unique opportunities presented to raise some extra funds as well.

As you can see from our adoption goal meter on the right, God has already incredibly provided the first $6,227! We are thrilled and want you to know we appreciate the way each of you are helping us achieve this financial goal. We can't wait to introduce the next little V to the awesome followers of Christ around us.

The words from 2 Corinthians 9:13-15 best reflect our hearts tonight:
As a result of your ministry, [we] will give glory to God. For your generosity to [us] and to all believers will prove that you are obedient to the Good News of Christ. And [we] will pray for you with deep affection because of the overflowing grace God has given to you. Thank God for this gift too wonderful for words!

Rivers of difficulty

Wow, what a week! Last week was full of (very) late nights, cranky toddlers, and babysitting all weekend long. We had between two and four kids in our care from Friday to Sunday morning, and we were E-X-H-A-U-S-T-E-D by Sunday afternoon. And, of course, Nathan did not take a nap at home Sunday, so Mom and Dad didn't get a nap either. Needless to say after experiencing some of the less glamorous parts of parenting, we were I especially was quite grouchy by Sunday night, and we all went to bed early (only after I panicked looking at undone to-do list for the week).

Today didn't start much better. We all woke up still tired, and Nathan didn't sleep enough so was extra cranky. Then, to top off the morning, I tried to make coffee and instead spilled grounds everywhere and shattered the coffee pot. By the time Daniel got home for lunch I was about to have a Mommy meltdown. I even let Nathan watch four episodes of The Wiggles...yeah, I was THAT mom today. By noon I was completely despairing, looking at my sink filled with dishes and floor covered in spilled milk and Cheerio crumbs, thinking what in the world am I doing pursuing adoption when I can't even handle the daily needs of my son and a few of his friends for a couple days?

After collapsing on the couch with my Bible the second Nathan went down for his nap, the Lord allowed me to work through my little personal issue with self control in tiredness and entertained my prayers through the despairing Psalms like "Come quickly, Lord, and answer me, for my depression deepens. Don’t turn away from me, or I will die." (Psalm 143:7 for other about-to-die moms). God is so loving like that--even when we are in our worst moments, if we recognize our need for Him, He is right there extending His arms of love and care to lift our burdens. 

The Lord brought peace to my soul as I admitted my deep need for Him and my inability to manage things in my own strength. Then He reminded me of something in His word (Isaiah 43:1b-5a) that He spoke into my heart several years ago when I struggled with fear on a daily basis:

“Do not be afraid, for I have ransomed you.
    I have called you by name; you are mine.
 When you go through deep waters,
    I will be with you.
When you go through rivers of difficulty,
    you will not drown.
When you walk through the fire of oppression,
    you will not be burned up;
    the flames will not consume you.
 For I am the Lord, your God,
    the Holy One of Israel, your Savior.
I gave Egypt as a ransom for your freedom;
    I gave Ethiopia and Seba in your place.
 Others were given in exchange for you.
    I traded their lives for yours
because you are precious to me.
    You are honored, and I love you.

“Do not be afraid, for I am with you.

I will gather you and your children from east and west.

"When you go through rivers of difficulty, you will not drown...I am with you. I will gather you and your children from east and west." What beautiful words the Lord spoke to me in my lowest moment today, one of utter despair in the midst of the "river of difficulty" of daily life with small children, reminding me that HE has called me, HE is with me, and HE loves me! In my own strength, I may not be able to handle the repeatedly spilled milk, lack-of-sleep meltdowns, and other small frustrations of mothering small children, but in HIS strength, I will not drown, I will not be burned up, I will not be consumed. Through HIS love I can deeply love my children and show them how precious they are to Him.

May we trust Him today as He lovingly leads us all through the waters, rivers, fire, and flames.

A bazillion blessings

I just have to share the bazillion blessings we've experienced this week from family and friends:

1) This group of friends. What we'd do without them, I have no idea. They are a constant source of spiritual encouragement and "iron sharpening iron." They are also tons of fun and FULL OF LOVE for God and others.

2) Encouragement from sisters in Christ. Yesterday I received two different blessings of encouragement: one in the form of TONS of promises from Scripture, helping us remember the truth and awesomeness of our God as we follow His leading into adoption, and the other from a dear lady who expressed the desire of the older generation to financially support us and other young couples in pursuit of adoption. Each was uniquely uplifting and used by God to encourage our hearts.

3) God's CONTINUED provision for our family as we seek His will. This week I was contacted (again) out of the blue by a missionary who I'd worked with while employed at WGM, asking if there was any chance I'd be interested in helping with a newsletter design. She didn't know if I still did that kind of thing. I smiled as God, for the third time in a few weeks, provided another "coincidental" opportunity to help fund our adoption while supporting another brother or sister in Christ. I am amazed at how He is so lovingly showing me His desire to provide for us in His own time and in His own way.

May you pause to count YOUR blessings today and reflect on the deep love of the Father that He so richly lavishes on us!

Thirty-One Fundraiser!

We are launching our first fundraiser thanks to the generous offer of Thirty-One consultant Lani Stearns who will donate 25 percent of ALL SALES raised through our party and website to our adoption! If you are in the Marion, IN, area and would like to come to the in-home sale, I will be hosting on Thursday September 27 at 7 p.m. If you are out of town but would like to participate in the fundraiser (and can't help but buying more of those awesome Thirty-One organizers), you can just visit my party site online here and order online.

This month's guest special is 31 percent off any catalog item (a few exclusions apply) if you spend $31 or more. You can't beat that option!

I hope you can take advantage of this unique opportunity to both enjoy some Thirty-One products for your home while also helping us bring our little one home. We are so grateful to Lani for this opportunity!

The Greatest Cost

Daniel and I are currently in the middle of The Truth Project, a small group Bible study from Focus on the Family focused on, well, truth! We have been learning so much about subtle lies Satan is using in our culture, and tonight's study was on history and the true overarching theme of history--"His story." This Scripture passage really struck me tonight:

But when the right time came, God sent his Son, born of a woman, subject to the law. God sent him to buy freedom for us who were slaves to the law, so that he could adopt us as his very own children. (Galatians 4:4-5)

In just the right moment of history, God sent His son to buy our freedom, freeing us from the bondage of sin and making us His adopted children!

As we're plugging away through our home study, we have been faced each day with the large cost of adoption. The Lord gently reminded us through these words tonight that He knows exactly what it's like to pay a great cost to adopt a child; He loved us so much He paid the greatest cost of all by allowing Jesus, His only Son, to bear the weight of all our sins so He could adopt us as His sons and daughters!

What a beautiful picture of why He in turn calls some of us to pursue adoption. Adoption is not just about rescuing a child in physical or environmental crisis but is rather following God's example of lovingly paying the price to adopt one of His little ones in order to point them toward their ultimate adoption as a child of the Almighty Father.

May we all reflect on the amazing gift we've been given to be adopted as His children!

God's callings are His enablings

We have heard this phrase so many times in the past few years that sometimes we forget to soak in it's meaning, but we are learning through this adoption journey that when God calls, He really DOES enable! We are just in the middle of our home study, and God has already shown up in ways we didn't expect:

1) The week the Lord confirmed that we should pursue domestic minority infant adoption, we prayed, prayed, prayed, and decided for sure that we needed to follow this call. Our first step was to find a home study agency, and one agency was recommended by several friends. We contacted them right away, but  they informed us it would be weeks before they could even start our process, and it would be a slower-than-normal one after that due to a heavy load of clients (I guess that's great though, right?). A little disappointed in having to wait right at the beginning (even though we know adoption is full of "hurry up and wait"), we prepared to wait until they could work with us. However, we received a Facebook message from our IWU saxophone professor Chris Lessly mentioning a different agency she highly recommended, The Miriam Project out of Anderson, IN, whom she had completed two home studies through. We just had to smile at how God perfectly weaves believers' paths together often with His own agenda in mind. We had no idea that our time spent in wind ensemble and private lessons would some day impact our road to adoption, but God was working perfectly in those details. The Miriam Project replied quickly, saying they could begin our home study on Monday and have it completed in 7-8 weeks. While we aren't in a huge hurry, we also didn't want to drag our feet any more than needed. Working with The Miriam Project has been a joy, and we are blessed to be working with them.

2) We have been following the Dave Ramsey Baby Steps for several years now and are debt free other than our mortgage, have our emergency fund in place, and have started saving for retirement. With the call to adopt, however, suddenly we are faced with a financial burden WAY larger than we can find in our budget. This adoption will cost us somewhere in the neighborhood of $25,000-30,000, an amount unfathomable to us as we have been enjoying the blessing of living on one income so I can stay home with Nathan. From the time we knew the Lord was calling us to adopt, we also knew He would have to meet our financial need out of His resources, as our resources were simply not going to make up difference. While we have yet to launch any fundraisers or seek any gifts from family or friends, God has provided ALL OF THIS in the past month: three out-of-the blue freelance jobs, a computer building order, a $20 home study physical, unexpected donations from friends, and a car repair that cost half of what we expected. Oh yes, and the most mysterious one--somehow I have $100 left in my grocery budget for the month. While we have a long way to go before we reach the large goal in front of us, God is already showing us His great faithfulness when we simply say "YES!" to His call.  

We thank each of you who are praying with us in this journey! If you would like to participate financially in bringing our next little guy/girl home, there is a donation link on the right of our blog, and we'd be thrilled if the Lord chooses to use you in this manner. We will also be posting other ways you can be involved soon, so stay tuned to see how you can make a difference in the life of a child!

Speak up!

These words of Scripture have been on my heart for several years now in relation to children. As I look at the stack of unfinished paperwork and the list of to-do items a mile long related to adoption, I pray the Lord will remind me continually of these words found in Proverbs 31:8-9:

Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves,
    for the rights of all who are destitute.
Speak up and judge fairly;
    defend the rights of the poor and needy.


Today may we all consider how Christ would have us defend those who can't speak for themselves, especially the children in crisis around the world.

The "process"

So we're going to adopt. If you're like us, the adoption process was is somewhat of a mystery, so we thought we'd share an overview of what we plan to be involved with in the coming months.

Domestic adoption--meaning adopting from the U.S.--usually involves working through either a private adoption agency or the foster care system to bring children into your home. We will be deviating from the path of picking one adoption agency to work through, since with our desire to provide a loving family for a young child of any ethnicity from anywhere in the U.S., we have also chosen to work through the minority program of Christian Adoption Consultants (www.christianadoptionconsultants.com) that helps place African American children in adoptive families. Our consultant Tracie Loux will advise us throughout our journey.

The first step of adopting is completing a home study. We'd heard in the past that during a home study you get asked tons of personal questions, get to fill out tons of paperwork, and have to have tons of smoke detectors in your home. The first two are true, but we really only needed two smoke detectors :-). We have met twice with the social worker from our home study agency, The Miriam Project out of Anderson, IN, and have completed approximately 2/3 of the required paperwork, so we're in the "plugging along" stage.

While we work on our home study, we are also preparing a family profile. This will be used to present to birth mothers who may be interested in selecting our family for their child. We have opted to save money on this part by creating our profile ourselves since I can design it, so this has added an additional load on top of "normal" life (whatever that looks like anyway).

Once our home study is complete, instead of working through only one agency to wait on a match with a birth mother, we will work with Tracie and apply with multiple agencies throughout the country who are in need of adoptive families. This way our family's profile will be available to many more situations that are in need of a placement instead of just waiting in line at one agency.

This will likely mean travelling cross-country to meet our new son/daughter(s?) and could mean doing so on short notice, but one big advantage with working through CAC is that they work only with agencies in "safe" or "adoption-friendly" states in which the adopting family are given parental rights very soon after birth. Once we are matched with a child, we will simply wait until the baby is born or rush to the state of his/her birth if it is a last-minute placement. There are many unknowns ahead, and for us "planners," we will just have to trust God in each step!

What happens at the end of the placement is still kind of blurry to us, so we'll just share those details after the fact. (Did we mention we will be working with a consultant? Yes, this ignorance is part of why we're doing so :-).) But the end result should be welcoming a new little family member (or members?) into our home within an unknown amount of time.

So there you have it. It's perfectly clear, right? Stay tuned to read how God has already been moving in the first six weeks of our journey and for how you can partner with us along the way!

The weaving of our story: Part 2

And now for part 2 of our story (if you missed part 1, scroll down):

From February on, we worked on plans for Embrace with the founders Mike and Lori, who also happened to be one of the families whose foster children had made an early impact on my heart. As Lori and I met to brainstorm, she would ask me to share about our vision for our family, which was something like "we plan to adopt, someday down the road." But one afternoon, she challenged me not to listen to "everyone else" who had opinions of when the right time, place, and age was to adopt but to listen to the Lord and what He is calling our family to do at this time in life. Our story doesn't need to fit someone else's idea of what is "right"; we are only called to listen to the Lord and follow His call.

That conversation completely changed our prayer times. From that spring day until July 14, the date we planned for the first Embrace event, Daniel and I prayed together and separately every day and sought the Lord's will for our family in the area of adoption. We wanted to make sure we didn't ignore a call from the Lord based on the opinions of those around us. We wanted to be ready to get "out of the boat" if He was calling! 

The first Embrace event was a picnic on July 14, during which families interested in adoption or foster care could come meet with families who have already adopted or fostered. When we started with Embrace in February, we thought we would just be helping other families in their adoption and foster care journeys for awhile, but we suddenly found the Lord moving us into the category of (very) interested families. July 14 came and we were anxious, knowing how much prayer had gone into this event and wondering if the Lord would give us any clear direction. We had heard so much about international adoption as we had followed Nathan and Jade's adoption so closely (by the way, you can follow Jade's blog at inaweofyourgrace.tumblr.com). The Lord also had crossed our paths again with our IWU saxophone professor, Chris Lessly, who adopted her daughter Caroline from China and is now very close to bringing her second daughter, Claudia, home from the Congo (you can follow her story at adoptingclaudia.blogspot.com). Two more families from Brookhaven had also just brought children home from Uganda, but despite all we had learned about international adoption, we didn't feel the Lord moving in this direction. Though we were drawn to adopting from foster care, we felt that a younger child would be better for our home and had been told you usually couldn't adopt young children from foster care.

So we went to the picnic, allowing our hearts and minds to be open and ready to hear what God might have for us. With limited seating thanks to the incredible turnout (the picnic was a huge success!), we waited to find seats until others had found tables and "just happened" to squeeze in at Nathan and Jade's table. Before I forget, just weeks before the picnic Nathan and Jade had just completed a second adoption, this time adopting a precious little newborn African American girl named Ruby. We knew very little about this adoption other than it seemed to have happened quickly.

After eating and talking about random things, Jade asked us about our story. Instead of answering her question, we ended up pouring out all our questions regarding adoption--international? domestic? foster care? As the Lord had perfectly arranged, we were also sitting with another friend, Joy, who has experience in foster care and confirmed for us that most of the emails she receives from the county regarding foster care adoption needs are for older children, an age we would love to embrace in the future but not one we felt ready for yet. Jade, however, spoke words we'd never heard before: in the U.S., there is currently a huge need for families willing to adopt minority children. Like us, Nathan and Jade also had been informed several years prior that adopting a newborn in the U.S. is very difficult as there are long waiting lists. Being a couple able to bear children, we had no desire to jump on a waiting list that would prevent another couple longing for a baby to experience parenting. But these words from Jade cut straight to our souls--there were actually babies in the U.S. being born right now who would be placed directly into foster care simply because they didn't match someone's list of desired qualities! And as the positive message of adoption over abortion continues to spread, there will likely be an increase in the need for adoptive families for these precious little ones. I don't even think Daniel and I needed to discuss this, but when we did later, we both agreed that the Lord was definitely calling us to meet this need.


So, here we are, starting a blog on our first adoption journey, in pursuit of domestic minority infant adoption. The Lord is moving mightily as we jump into this process, but I will save those awesome things for another post on another day.

The weaving of our story: Part 1

Welcome to our blog! This is where we'll keep you updated on what God has been weaving into our lives these days regarding adoption and orphan care. Our story is not a beginning or an end of God's call to orphan care, but rather one thread in His beautiful masterpiece, so we hope you'll follow our story with hearts ready to embrace how God wants to weave your thread into His grand plan to set the lonely in families!

We would love to tell you our whole story up to now, so we'll break it into two sections so you just might read the whole thing. Grab a quick cup of coffee and read how our story has unfolded, as told by Mae:

From the day we were married, though children were not in "our" immediate plans, God wasted no time in weaving others' stories into our own to bring about His plans for our family. While I was teaching the 3-4 year Sunday School class at Brookhaven in the early days of our marriage, a couple families from our church followed the Lord's leading into foster care. Week after week, I would stare into the eyes of these beautiful children thinking, "Wow, I'm so glad the [insert family names] are being the hands and feet of Christ and loving these kids!"

During the few years I taught, I had about six different foster children come through my class. I absolutely LOVED each one of these kids, and through one little blonde-haired boy who gripped my heart from his first week with his foster family, God began not-so-gently tugging on my heart to do "something" for the fatherless "someday." At this same time, He began burdening Daniel's heart as well. After a stirring sermon on caring for orphans, we came home and sat in our bedroom for hours, talking about how the Lord had stirred our hearts for children that morning. We even tossed around the idea of becoming foster parents ourselves right away but just didn't think the timing was right. For over a year though, the burden just simply laid on a shelf in the closet in our hearts as we went on with life as usual.

The following year, a couple in our church, Nathan and Jade, whom we barely knew at the time, were called to adopt a boy from Uganda. This was the first international adoption we'd ever known of personally, so we were intrigued by this endeavor. The Lord, however, was more than "intrigued" with their obedience to His call and had amazing plans in store for them. Their journey was marked with difficulty yet amazing, powerful displays of God's faithfulness, even including the salvation of Jade's dad while in Uganda! Through each step of faith they took, the Lord kept tugging on my heart especially to get involved with their efforts. Financial support seemed obvious to us, so we began with responding in that way. But God had so much more for me to learn.

Prayer was no new thing to me growing up in a Christian home. But this time God taught me to pray in a way I'd never known before. Each time there was a court date for their adoption, God woke me at just the right time (usually around 2 or 3 a.m.) to pray for their need. For the first time in my life, I even fasted several times for this family. The Lord taught me so much about Himself during their days in Uganda and so much about staying alert in prayer for our brothers and sisters in Christ and how He answers those prayers! To that point, I had never connected so deeply with the Lord in prayer or with the need of other believers. The shelved burden for orphans was quickly placed at the forefront of my heart, mind, and soul as Samuel (now Ezra) was welcomed home months after the first court date.

During Ezra's adoption process, Daniel and I started feeling nearly certain that orphan care (likely adoption) would be in our future. The question became not "if" but rather "when" and "how." We made this a matter of prayer but soon found out we were expecting and welcomed our son Nathan in March 2011. I made the transition from working at World Gospel Mission to staying at home to care for Nathan, and in doing so, felt completely lost in what I should be "doing with my life" outside of being a mom. Thanks to an amazing MOMS group at Brookhaven, I was encouraged that being a mom is a mission of its own, and a very important one at that! But the Lord did indeed have extra plans for me as He kept tugging at my heart to seek Him!

For several months I pulled back from some volunteer responsibilities I'd held at Brookhaven so I could more diligently seek the Lord's desire for my family. After months of seeking the Lord, God burned in my heart yet again a deep passion for children needing families, this time resonating so strongly I knew I had to do something NOW. Just a week after being sure He was leading me to pursue orphan care, Brookhaven announced a brand-new ministry called Embrace: Arms Wide Open to Receive a Child. We jumped on-board right away.

To be continued...