Mission Colombia 2011

I am not sure if I've mentioned on the blog that Ben will be traveling to Colombia this coming week. He leaves with First Baptist Church of Pascagoula leading a group of men and women to minister to La Pampa and Palmira area! He will be traveling June 25th thru July 2nd. Please pray for he and the team as they adventure to Colombia sharing the Good News and ministering to the hurt and hungry people. Pictures to come in the following weeks! Stay tuned!

Thanks for Provision!

Looking forward to payday! Was on call this past two weeks and very busy. Expecting to be able to put aside $600 toward airfare! Waahoo! God provides when we take advantage of the opportunities He lays before us! I am so thankful, even though, I am worn out and tired, that He has provided us a means to save up. We are hoping to have all the airfare saved before we travel. It is encouraging to see it accumulate. It is especially fun to watch the ladies at the bank. There is a woman from Venezuela who is married to a Colombian that has helped me numerous times, and they are all very interested in adoption. For them to see our story unfold and be excited about it is probably, just as exciting to me!

So, $900 + $600 = $1500, that will pay for right over one ticket! Now about $3900 to go! I am offering to do mini sessions for people, as well. I have done a few shoots of friends on FB, and am loving the pics. Hopefully, others will LOVE as much and call me up to take some pics of them. I have one family interested, but need about 10 more! Please pray for success for this fundraiser, because I really can't think of any other fundraising ideas! =/

Not EVEN a MONTH!!!!

Geeze-louise! It hasn't even been a month since we've sent our updated home study & USCIS approval with a letter requesting a change in age, BUT it sure does seem longer than that! Recently, I've talked with more people interested in adoption, and Ben has even been approached by a professor at his University about more info! All this is super fantabulous, but it does make the wait time harder, it seems... When I see pics of families being united, I sometimes get jealous. Is that bad? Ok, I'm just being real... When will it be our turn? I ask that and then I feel like shame on me. How could I ask when there are those families who have waited many more years than I... Or it didn't work out like I thought it should have...

I wonder...Is that my problem? It didn't happen or hasn't happened the way I thought it would be or think it should be. In "my world" things would be different... so different. In my world, I may would have had a baby... Actually, I know I would have! I would have never chosen to experience the heartache of infertility... I would have NEVER chosen to walk through the trials in the Church... My sister would have lived a LONG life, a happy life... Yes, IN MY WORLD, we would all be happy. I would have a stress free work environment. Everyone would have enough to eat... and shelter from the elements. I would still adopt; I'd have enough room for even more children... I could work part time... and be the ideal class parent and soccer mom... yeah, I guess there are reasons things don't work out exactly the way we think they should... but do you stop wishing?

Does God have better plans? He can see the bigger picture... I know this... trust is just so hard. The risk of pain again... There's purpose in the wait; I know that! Something is being worked out for my good, for my daughter's best interest, for the body of God... there's something greater, I know it. Will that make the wait easier....? For now, it does... but I have those moments when it just seems so heavy... Anyone out there understand?

Fingers crossed, hoping for some sort of news in July! Approval or even a referral would be nice!

LIBERIA 2012

Oh my!!! God is so good! I have been praying for this sweet little girl for the past 2-3 years from Liberia. She was set to be adopted, but Liberia shut down their adoptions. Liberia has agreed to let some of the adoptions in process, continue, but Janet was never adopted. At this point, she is too old to be adopted. She will have to move from the foster home she was living at and return to the orphanage.

I am so excited, though... we are going to be able to hopefully sponsor her to remain in the orphanage where she will get to continue schooling, be fed and sheltered. I am inquiring for more information and to see if it is possible if I joined with another family to help sponsor her, would we be able to keep her in the foster family.

The foster home costs approximately $150 per month, while the orphanage is about $40/month. More details and picture to come soon. I've posted about her on this blog before, and I have asked you to pray. I would please ask you to continue to pray for Janet, and if you are interested in joining me in sponsoring her, please comment and leave an email. Or, if you would like more information about a possible mission trip to Liberia in 2012 with an adoption agency that helps the orphanage in Monrovia, please leave that information as well.

Oh, wow! It's a feeling like I would imagine finding a lost relative would be like... Praise God!!!

+$800!!! Toward Airfare

Uncle Sam took more out of my check than I wished...BUT we are $800 closer to our goal!

Yay! $4500 needed for estimated airfare for the family... so close! Hopefully, I will have a few more months of good on call time to help save money for the adoption...

I have procrastinated in sending the taxes, but will fax tomorrow. Not all the receipts are readable, but will send it anyways...hoping for the best. Not sure what all the receipts are for, but I had made a general list previously for our tax guy...will use it for the IRS as well. Fingers crossed, because that could be another $1,000+ we could use toward this adoption!

Praying for favor!

Airfare!!!

I forgot to mention in the previous post the H family blessed us with a donation toward our adoption. We are also now saving money for the projected costs of airfare and accommodations! I'm so very happy that everything is paid for!!!! This is totally doable... even though, it may cost nearly $11k! But that's chump change to God!

So, the H's put $100 toward our first airline ticket! That is 10% or thereabouts of the cost of a ticket from here to Cali or Bogota (a little cheaper, but it fluctuates it seems, b/c of oil prices & economy). So, my personal goal is to save at least the estimated $5400 for airfare and if needed we could charge the hotel costs in Colombia. Anyways... I'm super excited that I had a large number of consults last week and will get to hopefully add $900 to that $100!!! It all depends on how much Uncle Sam or Pres. Barack wanna take.

Anyways, that's pretty exciting to me! What about you? I also have one person who has asked me to take pics for her and agreed to donate toward the adoption! So yay! I have another friend who agreed to help take pics for mini sessions, also. We will see how that works out...if not a successful fundraiser, at least I'll get practice shooting!

So send me your thoughts, and if you have creative ways in saving money, share them with us! We'd love to hear what you're doing... and really, I just love comments anyways...