The Widow's Mite

This week when this cute little friend came over to play....

 she handed me this to contribute to getting our boys home...her life savings.



And He looked up and saw the rich putting their gifts into the treasury, and He saw also a certain poor widow putting in two mites.  So He said, “Truly I say to you that this poor widow has put in more than all;  for all these out of their abundance have put in offerings for God, but she out of her poverty put in all the livelihood that she had.”  Luke 21:1-4

Matching Grant

I think the main reason that prevents families from adopting, especially internationally, is the cost.  It's not cheap to pay for an adoption and many families can't fathom how they could pay for the adoption process.  I know of several families now who are in waiting to bring a child home because of lack of funding.  It's sad, really, to think of waiting children in desperate need of families with families with desperate desires to adopt and money is the gap between them, especially when our country is the wealthiest country in the world by a long haul.

During our adoption process, I wanted to give fund raising my best shot.  At times it seemed overwhelming and honestly sometimes it felt like a waste of my time.  My efforts included:

*  selling farm eggs, produce and raw honey
*  participating in 2 children's consignment sales
*  hosting 2 garage sales
*  opening an etsy shop to make t-shirts, handbags and head bands
*  selling clothing on ebay
*  selling furniture & household items on Craigslist
*  selling our Lionel train set on ebay
*  Swap & Shop to Adopt
*  On line auction

Up until this time, we have not asked people for donations, but generous friends and family members have surprised us with donations that have blessed us immensely.  All of these things combined have totaled close to $10,000.  We are so blessed by that!

As I've mentioned before, I have applied for 10 grants from various agencies who have funds to help adoptive families.  We have heard back from over half of those and each one we were denied funding.  We were so grateful when we got home from Turkey to hear from Lifesong.  Lifesong is a non-profit Christian ministry dedicated to help meet the needs of orphan children around the world, and obey God's call to "visit the fatherless....in their affliction." (James 1:27).  They have approved us for a $3,000 matching grant.  That means that for every dollar we raise, they will match that dollar up to $3,000.  YIPPEE!  We have until March 6 to raise this money.  Below is the letter that we have sent out to friends, by request of Lifesong.  If the Lord is nudging you to donate to our adoption, you can follow the directions below and mail a check to Lifesong on our behalf or make a donation through Paypal or credit card by clicking here. 

Dear Friends & Church Family,                                                                                                                                  

“A father to the fatherless…God sets the lonely in families…”  Psalm 68:5,6

Many of you already know that we are in the process of adopting twin boys from central Africa.  The Lord gave us a heart for adoption early on in our marriage.  The Lord’s timing is perfect, and He put the strong desire in us last year to actively pursue adding children to our family through adoption.  Through circumstances orchestrated by the Lord, we were led to a wonderful agency in Indianapolis to adopt from (country undisclosed).  (Country undisclosed) is a country of great need.  The infant mortality rate is 50%, most of who die of treatable sicknesses such as malaria or hepatitis.

There are an estimated 147 million orphans in the world, but the cost of international adoption oftentimes hinders people from considering adoption.  The average cost of an international adoption for one child is $30,000.  These numbers can be overwhelming.  We know that God loves these children dearly and calls Christians to care for them, training them to know and serve Him.  Not everyone is called to give orphans a forever family, but James 1:27 says “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and fautless is this:  to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.”  It is God’s heart for us, as believers, to look after the orphans.  One very important way that believers can do this is to financially give to the adoption of other Christian families.  

Our adoption costs so far have been over $41,000.  We are in the final stages of bringing our boys home and will have an estimated  $15,000 due to complete the process.  Making our financial needs known to others has been a difficult part of this process for us, but we know that it is Biblical to do so.  We appreciate your friendship and support and would like to ask you to prayerfully consider helping our adoption.  

Pray:  Please pray for our boys as they wait to come home.  Pray that their little bodies will remain healthy and that God would prepare them and us as we become their forever family. 

Give:  Would you please consider making a tax-deductible donation to help us pay for the remaining costs of our adoption expenses?  

Lifesong (www.lifesongfororphans.org) has graciously given us a Matching Grant of $3,000 to help pay for the balance of our adoption expenses.  If you would like to be a part of helping our little fellas coming home to our family, you can send your tax-deductible gift between now and March 6, 2013 to the address below.  Lifesong is a trusted organization administering the funds on the behalf of our twins, and will pay adoption expenses out of funds received.

**  Please make checks payable to:  Lifesong.   Please preference FISH FAMILY # 3227 in the memo section of your check.  (Note:  In following IRS guidelines, your donation is to Lifesong which retains full discretion and control over its use, but intends to honor the donor’s suggested use.)

**  Mail checks to:           Lifesong for Orphans    

                                        Attn:  Fish Family #3227

                                        P.O. Box 40 / 202 N. Ford St.

                                        Gridley, IL  61744

Thank you in advance for investing in the Kingdom through your prayers and finances – it will be an investment with eternal returns!  (Matt.6:20).  You may follow our adoption blog at www.findingallourfishsticks.blogspot.com to receive updates on our adoption.  May God be glorified in and through us!

In Christ,

The Fish Family

Hands & Feet

 Last night our school hosted a concert by Audio Adrenaline.  The bass player (Will McGinniss) sends his kids to our school and they played a free concert asking for a love offering for their orphan care ministry, Hands & Feet.  I have been listening to Audio Adrenaline since my college years and loved hearing so many songs from long ago.  The band dissolved a few years ago when Mark Stuart, the lead singer, permanently lost his voice.  They have recently reunited with Kevin Max (formally of DC talk - another one of my college favorites) with a new album release in March of 2013.

This band was amazing.  Their heart for orphan care was predominant as they shared about their ministry in Haiti and the practical ways that they personally have committed to being the "hands of feet" of Jesus through caring for the fatherless.  They shared several stories with us of children that were rescued, cared for and given love and families through their orphanage.  Real tangible ways!  Russ Taff made a surprise appearance and joined the band on stage to lead us in a song of Amazing Grace.  Wow!!!  It was such a privilege to be there and  be encouraged in our own process of adoption.  A pure time of praise and worship to the King!

Watch the music video that the band made while serving in Haiti.  It's beautiful...have your tissues handy.  Their new song, which is already been released, is called Kings & Queens.  A ministry worth supporting!

A Family Who Needs Our Prayers

What I am about to post really has nothing to do with our adoption, but I am assuming that if you read this blog it is because you care about my family and our boys in Africa and/or you have a heart for orphans yourself.

I wanted to send you to a link today to lift up a family who needs our prayers.  My parents are friends with a sweet family who has 3 biological kids and 3 children adopted from Ethiopia.  The mom was diagnosed with cancer a few years ago and went to be with the Lord last night.  When my mom told me about it this morning and I searched to find their blog, I realized that I had gone to her fundraising sight many times over the past 5 years because I love the dresses that she sells.  I even modeled my girls' Easter dresses one year from her pattern on her site.

Would you please take a moment to view this family's blog and pray for these precious children and husband who now has a large job of raising them alone?

http://itspoppydipblog.blogspot.com/

http://www.itspoppydip.blogspot.com/

Moving Forward to the End

Two posts ago, I mentioned that we had received our USCIS (Homeland Security from US) approval after just 10 days.  Well, I seemed to have jumped the gun a bit.  The phone call from country was just a confirmation of information received.  The I600 paper was sent to USCIS on Dec. 1 with a 4-6 weeks processing time, adding 1 extra week for the holidays.  That put our wait from this past week to the 3rd week in January.

Upon returning home from our holiday trip, we found out that there might be a hold up with USCIS due to our income amounts as seen on the last 2 years income tax returns.  With My Man being self-employed as a builder, these last 5 years have been rough on us.  Thankfully he's a man committed to living debt-free and not living above our means.  During all the good, booming years of the building economy, he saved up.  When the economy plummeted, we had savings to live off of.  This has become tricky with our adoption process and grant applications because they always ask for the last 2 years income tax returns.  The last 2 years were our worst and one even shows below the poverty level.

The Lord has blessed us financially this year but without pay stubs (being self-employed) it's hard for us to show that to others.  We mentioned this to our agency, who in turn contacted the USCIS to see if we might run into problems.  They said yes we probably would.  The last week has been spent collecting additional financial documents to send to them so that we won't experience hold ups and to prove to them that we can afford a household of 10 people.

I was shocked to find in the mail the I600 approval from the USCIS yesterday, since the additional documentation was going to be mailed out in the next day or so.  YIPPEE!!!  We are so thankful for that fast processing with no hold ups and so grateful that our agency has been on top of this issue.  We will continue to send the USCIS our additional documentation to prevent any further delay when other papers are processed through them.

Today we received more adorable photos of the boys.  They look so happy and healthy.  I have concluded that the care package we sent them had clothes too small for them because they have not worn them in any of the photos.  That means they are growing and thriving in foster care and that makes this Mama really happy.  They were posing with muscles showing and big grins on their faces.  Adorable.

Their birthday will be in about a month and my prayer is that the Lord will bring them home to us so we can all celebrate together.  It may be far fetched, but just the prayer of a mother in waiting.  I bought this Christmas ornament to support an adoption fundraiser.  It kind of describes where we are now.  It's so exciting to think that next Christmas we will look at this ornament and remember the waiting that has long since been over and get to hold the 2 precious brown faces of our boys....Fish Sticks forever!

Surprise Blessing!

 It's past 11 p.m. on the night before 10 Fishes take a humungous flight half way around the globe.  I have been packing, washing, & cleaning like a mad woman and need to crash in bed.  But I can't leave without telling you this.

Tonight AB had a home basketball game.  As we were heading in, Caleb asked me to keep the door of the van unlocked so he could get his Ripstick out.  I always lock my van but didn't this time.  When the game was over and we were loading up, there was a huge bag filled with little boy matching clothes:  footed pajamas, character underwear, socks, jeans, t-shirt and bubbles.

 

We also found 2 quart size Mason jars filled to the rim with money.  Bills and coins.  Hundreds of dollars. 

We all dug through the bag to find a card to see who could have done this and found none.

It was anonymous.  Someone blessed us in an amazing way and didn't even let us know to thank them.

It was just overwhelming.  I started sobbing.  The Fish Sticks have a hard time understanding those kind of tears and were puzzled why this would make me cry.

"Kids," I said, "Do you understand that someone cared enough about us and our boys in Africa that they not only spent a lot of money to buy them things that they will need when they get home, but collected these 2 jars of money and wanted to do it as a surprise for us without even getting a thank you?"  That's huge!

 

We don't know if it was an individual, a family, a group of adults or a class of kids at school who adopted us as their community service project for Christmas, but whoever it was, we are so thankful.

We are overwhelmed with gratitude for this amazing surprise.

Josiah and Ruth ran upstairs and got their only money...a 1 dollar bill and a little change each....and wanted to donate it also.  I asked them to bless another family who is in the process of adopting just like us.

 

 I hope that my Fish Sticks will never forget this unselfish act of love that blessed us beyond measure, and that they will be quick to do it for someone else one day.

Moving Fast and Making Connections

 Our Adoption Auction raised over $1,000 because of 2nd chance offers and generous donations.  We are so excited and grateful.  Thanks from the bottom of our hearts for all those people who posted on Facebook, put it on their blog and spread the word around.  Thank you especially for those who bid and donated.  We are so grateful and surprised at what a success it was.

The last paperwork that we sent to the USCIS had a 4-6 week processing time.  That put us to hear from them around New Year's and mid January.  Ten days after processing, we got a phone message from the Consular office in Africa.  What a surprise!  Now we are waiting to get assigned our last court date.  Things are moving quickly and smoothly and we are so excited.

Around Thanksgiving some rebel activity was stirred up in the country of the twins.  Although they are 1,000 miles away, they are making some threats that would affect our travel plans to pick the boys up.  After prayer and listening to the advice of our agency and others, we have sadly decided that it is NOT in our best interest to travel to pick the boys up.  We will have an escort bring them home to a US city and meet them there when the time comes.  Although My Man and I were very excited about traveling to Africa and experiencing the culture and learning a little about who our boys are from their home land, we are confident that the timing of it is guidance from the Lord.  It just means that one day we will need to head that way to show the boys their birthplace and experience Africa then.

This past weekend we hosted 3 families over and had a wonderful time.  One couple are 2nd generation missionaries in the country where our boys are.  I know the Lord placed them in our paths to help us learn and be a part of their work in Africa.  They are a wonderful couple and we are so grateful to know them.  The other family is their daughter and her husband and 2 children.  She is a fellow mom at school (thus the connection) and not only has become a precious friend but answers all my many questions about the culture and land of our boys.  The third family just adopted a son through our agency and only lives 20 minutes away.  We realized that their son was in the same foster home as our boys and they are about the same age.  He's been home for 2 months and it was so wonderful to hear from them about the adjustments of post placement adoption.  Their little guy, Moses, is doing so well and every time I watched him, I got a knot in my throat, thinking of our little guys that will be home soon.

Moses loved Lydia and kept loving on her and hugging her.  As they were leaving, Moses passed some framed photos of our boys on the table.  He grabbed it and started pointing and squealing at it and repeating their names over and over.  It just amazes us how God put our families together.  Our boys' foster brother lives so close and will be friends on this side of the ocean!!  Just another sweet "happy" from Jesus.