Follow Us On Our Journey Of Showing The Love Of Our Savior To Orphaned Children Of Eastern Europe Through Mission Work, Advocating And Adoption And Serving The Least Of These, People In Need Along With The Military. God Leads We Follow.......
A message from a friend in country adopting at Taylor's boarding school: Saw your precious girl again today- jean capris and a bucket hat she was hanging it on her own today. Sometimes I think she is sad that there aren't any girls to play with.
This was a message I woke up to today but it brought a smile to our families face. Although Taylor does not know we are adopting her she has a BIG brother here awaiting to play with her. Kolya will be rocking playing barbies with her, teaching her to ride a bike like we taught him, playing outside and getting dirty catching lizards and frogs. Helping mom and dad garden and plant. If she could only know the hope that awaits her of a family that is already praying, loves and is coming for her. She will soon. We are trusting the Lord and chugging forward!
We are collecting lightly used or new baby clothes up to age 5 years old for a boy or girl. We are taking a suitcase back of clothes for her boarding school. So if you have any clothes to donate please let me know and we would be happy to take them back to the school for the little ones.
After writing my last blog post yesterday our family went into prayer seeking the Lord and asking him to show us his will for Taylor and our family. Again there is no question in our minds whatsoever we are to adopt her but our prayer yesterday was different. Not one of questioning if we are to adopt her but is this the right time. Grantide the timing all lines up with our dossier in country, nothing expired everything ready to go. TODAY our USCIS just arrived in the mail with all the right updates reflecting us adopting a special needs child to cover her HIV. Homestudy should be here Monday or Tuesday then it all ships off to Eastern Europe to get a date to travel. It is becoming surreal in how fast this is moving and we are mentally and paper wise ready to go but financially not. So we prayed that if the Lords will is for us to go get her in 6 months or even a year so we have time to save then we will. We want God to be in control of this and orchestrating it and not of our own will. We are not ABLE to do this alone. We can be muscle strong all we want but we are incapable of this adoption or raising Taylor without the grace of God. Our hearts desire is to run for her now. God has made the doors available and opened them so wide the hinges are busting off to make it clear for us to go but this is the one division between us and her....sadly money. If someone where to slap 25K on the table in front of us we would be out the door before you could even blink. So this is the struggle we are trying to be logical in that we cannot do a magic trick and pop these funds out of a hat but again God cannot be put in a box and he does not need magic nor a hat to make funds appear. Where am I going with all this....after our prayer I melted myself into the bath tub in just quiet time and surrendering to the pain I endured riding my road bike for Taylor wearing my awesome Eastern Europe get up and realizing the butt padding was not that good. But I was also in a just quiet space in my mind and feeling God telling us to push on even though we don't see what we need to get there and I just remember being so humbled by it all and not having a clue on how to process what I was feeling. So God your telling me we don't have the money to go get her and we are willing wait to go get her in the course of the year if need be but praying she is not moved to an institution and your telling me to push on like it is all taken care of?
So last night I wrote a letter to my sister, Denise and my dear friend DeAnna explaining where we were at and not knowing but just surrendering it all to God because this is all so much bigger then us. OK folks I am a Christian but also a jokester if you know me. I emailed my dad asked him if he had any ideas how to raise 26K in a month without selling a kidney or drugs. He was all out of answers on how to and he apologized. LOL! Love having a humorous father too. I blame him for my wrong behaviors. Anyhow I get an email this morning from my sister saying funds just deposit through Reece's Rainbow and you didn't have to sell drugs. Sorry the humor runs throughout the family. At this moment we do not know who has made donations towards Taylor's adoption but I will tell you this WE CANNOT THANK YOU ENOUGH.......with our prayer yesterday and just being lost and surrendering it all to God knowing we only had a $350.00 dent towards a 26K adoption for Taylor it may be seem small but it is large to us! SO PLEASE TAKE OUR SINCERE THANK YOU WHOEVER YOU ARE who has made any donations towards her adoption. We have a long ways to go in a short month but as long as God swings those doors on open we will keep moving forward to Taylor in hopes that we do not have to wait a year to go get her.
AGAIN THANK YOU SO MUCH TO ALL THE FOLKS THAT ARE HELPING US MAKE THIS HAPPEN AND FOR YOUR SINCERE PRAYERS FOR US NOW AND IN ADVANCE WHEN WE BRING HER HOME!
Why should I help you grow your family? Isn't this an awesome question? This is a very logical one for those of you looking on the outside in of anyone adopting. This question was brought up in an adoption meeting at our church as we strive to grow the ministry. Why should our family help you grow yours...what in it for us and why should we? You got to agree whether you are adopting or not this is a very good question.
My answer is this....as a body of Christ God has verse after verse in the Bible stating to help ones in need specifically orphans and widows. Non-negotiable, non optional it is a commandment. Does it say you have to empty your checkbook....NO not at all. James 1:27 states Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world. It even says widows not just orphans. I am telling ya first hand I need prayer more then money taking on the mission of being an adoptive parent. Parenting goes beyond needing the money to bring them home. Once the child's adoption has been paid for your life becomes a full time mission. Not a 6 month, 1 or 2 year or even 5 year term commission but a lifetime. I say this because after adopting my own son and being a foster parent and working with at-risk you for over 15 years it takes everything you got. When you raise your children in your home, with your rules and boundaries with your love and teach them to become and adult it starts from the time they take their first breath and you boot them or they leave openly at 18 years old. The love they feel starts before they take their first breath, in their mothers belly. They fell that love and desire to be wanted. When you adopt just imagine VOIDING all of that. When you adopt you go backwards before you can go forward to teach them what they should have known and had from the get go. You cannot erase the bad in their life but help them heal EVERY DAY from the hurts and rejection. After being dog trainer for over 12 years I see this even in rescued dogs. You can adopt an incredible dog but you have to learn to teach them each day to heal from the neglect and abuse they may have experienced. They are scared and they may heal but the memory never leaves. They may never trust but they will have to try to learn how to learn to but the idea may never stick. They may never let you all the way into their life in fear of being loved then rejected. It is pieces of a puzzle that takes time...a lifetime to commit to.
Why do I say all this.....why should you help others grow their family? When you look at this verse it does not mean to go out and save the world but I do believe God is calling us to help change one orphan or widows life...one at a time. How can you? By prayer for the families that are adopting, prayer for the foster families, prayer for the widows in distress. Drop off food to a widows house, help her babysit her child(ren). Stop by and bring her a coffee and just show her you care about her and talk or just listen. Host a child that has never experienced love from New Horizons For Children. Help by supporting financially a family that is adopting should you be called to donate towards their adoption. Remember you are not donating to buy someone a new car you are donating to bring a child that has no family and is not wanted, needed, denied or lost their own family from causes out of their control into a family to love them. Offer support to just be there for your friend who is adopting. Go out and adopt yourself or become a foster parent. God does not call us to go save the world by ourself but again but he does call us to not just sit and pretend we do not see the faces of the children in need. When you reject those children in need of love and the love of a family YOU reject God. Your creator, the one that gave YOU life. You deny him. So next time you see a face of a child in need which is all over the internet...don't just sit there, pray...do something!
Joe and I are one of those families that we know are called to specifically called to adopt so we are adopting Taylor. Our prayer is that she is cured of HIV, call it nuts if you want but God created it and he sure can take it away too. We are in prayer that God gives us the wisdom & skill to be the parents she needs to grow and blossom into the young lady he has set aside for her future. Then we pray God will provide the finances we need to adopt her. I will admit...my nerves are rattled by the idea of how we can raise $25,700.00 in about a month to go get her. And when I think do we just bail and walk away God reminds me one at a time and of everything he has put before us to lead us to her and all the amazing doors he has opened to show us we are called to go get her. So I have nothing but to trust in him to meet our EVERY need. So again most of all we ask for your prayer for the first and foremost obstacles...her healing and our commitment to being her parents and doing it the best to our knowledge lead under what God is calling us to be for her. Secondly that he will provide the finances to bring her home.
So my plea to you is it does not matter how you help an adoptive or foster family or widow...just do something and do not pretend you do not notice the need and the commandment in scripture to do something to help a child and/or family. Adoptive, foster families, widows and children in need that have no voices need someone to step to the plate to do the Biblical commandment God has called upon US ALL. Someone SHOULD be there to cheer them on, on the sides lines in whatever position God calls you to help.
Check Out The Adoption Shirts We Have Designed To Help Fund Taylor's Adoption! Any Shirt You Purchase Will Help Us Get One Step Closer To Adopting Her!
DOES YOUR CHILD, BOY OR GIRL LOVE TO SKATEBOARD?? THEN WE HAVE A DEAL FOR YOU!!!!! KEEP READING!
Folks
were are coming down the wire here to head to Eastern Europe for Taylor! Found
out today our USCIS update is in the mail and on it's way to us NOW.
Our homestudy update is complete and in the mail to us NOW. All will be
submitted with our dossier next week! So this means we can
be flying ANYTIME because our dossier is already submitted, we are just
updating it!
So
what does our family know how to do besides have fun and goof off with
kids.....WE KNOW HOW TO SKATEBOARD AND BUILD BOARDS.....
Sample Board We've Made
SO
WE HAVE A DEAL FOR YOU TO SAVE ON BUYING YOUR KIDDO A SKATEBOARD!
Don't spend over a $100.00 bucks at a store, come to us!!! For a $5.00 TAX- DEDUCTIBLE
donation it will get you one entry giveaway chance to win one of our custom/personalized designed skateboards we make as a family. CHECK OUT OUR MINISTRY AND BOARDS AT: www.fallenbutsaved.com.
Another Sample Board We've Made
YOU CAN BUY AS MANY ENTRY GIVEAWAY CHANCES AS YOU WOULD LIKE FOR A $5.00 DONATION EACH!!!!!!
Joe and I have been skateboarding for
13 years and the graphics on boards these days seem to be getting more
inappropriate by the day....this is your chance to get your kiddo a one
of a kind personalized boards with a design or graphic they would like
(we will not design anything that is deemed inappropriate, sex, drugs,
alcohol, etc. This is a family ministry and my son designs them.)
Another Sample Board We've Made
The
mission it is to raise funds as fast as possible to bring our girl
Taylor home! We need to sell a minimum of 20 entry giveaway chances to break even on
our costs to make a board. SO PLEASE HELP US TUMBLE OVER THE 20 ENTRY GIVEAWAY CHANCES so we can raise extra funds towards Taylors adoption!
REMEMBER YOUR DONATION IS TAX-DEDUCTLE WHEN YOU DONATE FOR AN ENTRY GIVEAWAY CHANCE!YOU CANNOT BEAT THAT!
Another Sample Board We've Made
Please donate to Project Hopeful (see
below) on the "Donate" button and the funds will go right into Taylors account. Please contact us letting us know you made a donation for the
skateboard and the amount you donated and we will enter you into the
drawling for each entry giveaway chance you donate to! Just email us a copy of your donation receipt! Contact us on the tab above that says just that "Contact Us".
We are very grateful to know a gal in country right now adopting from Taylor's orphanage. She is so wonderful in sending us updates when she see's her. I asked Janice a couple days ago if she can see if Taylor seems to like a specific color. Although most of the time clothes are chosen or just assigned and given to them sometimes they are able to wear a specific color they like. Today I got this news:
Got to see your sweet little one again today. Pink shirt, light pink pants.
And hair in a double ponytail-- you know where they pull the top back
and ponytail it then do the bottom and put them together with a
scrunchie? She was spinning, backwards, on the merry go round. Seeming
to be having a blast.
So it appears we passed the official "PINK" test! She likes PINK by golly! Take a look at her bedroom Joe and Kolya designed before we even found her! I think we may have done OK!
A
wonderful gift from a dear friend from my sister I believe I was
separated from at birth. I want to thank you Deanna for taking the time
and energy to do this selfless act to help us bring home our girl!
LOVE YOU GIRL!
Please
visit this link to visit her blog and ministry.....incredible ministry I
pray the Lord expands for her. Mother The World.
she was hanging it on her own today. Sometimes I think she is sad that there aren't any girls to play with.
