Count it all joy!

“So do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded. You need
to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive
what he has promised.”
- Hebrews 10:35-36

I really felt encouraged by this verse the other day. We’ve had 3 minor “paperwork” snafus this week. My first set of fingerprints got rejected and when I went to have them retaken they said it looked like the 2nd set would be rejected as well. (apparently I have grainy fingers or something!). If they are rejected again I will have to take a trip to meet with the Immigrations Officer in person with certified letters from the localities where I have lived stating that I have no criminal record! Dana needs to get a bunch more paperwork certified. We need all this stuff so we can get our I171-H, which allows us to adopt an orphan from another country. And to top it off our agency changed their mailing address and some different letters etc. may not have gotten to them! Oh well, Annie and I thought the initial paperwork was a little too easy!!

Now if we get a referral, there will be all kinds of paperwork to do. But of course I’d love to get a referral anyway!

We keep praying and each day I am encouraged by the Lord that everything is in His plan and I just need to wait on Him.

. . . as the eyes of a maiden unto the hand of her mistress. . .psalm 123:2

Sandwich Artists

Last Saturday was our subsale. We had fun creating a "100 foot sub"


Daniel did a great job.


Mom and Daniel together


Hard at work


Jonathan putting on tomatos (which he hates)


Say Cheese!


Annie, Daniel, Jonathan and Tim


Dad and Tim working together


The "official" Sandwich Artist (as a former Subway "sandwich artist", I was the "resident expert")


Jonathan was our master sales man. He wasn't afraid to approach anyone.

Praise God from whom all blessings flow!

Daniel with our celebratory "$4,000 cake"

We were notified by mail today that we have recieved a $4000 grant from Shaohannah's Hope! I was so happy and overwhelmed with thankfulness that I cried! I think Jonathan and Daniel thought I was crazy. We immediately filled in another 40 circles on our Adoption Fund Chart! 140 down, only 65 more to go!

Sometimes this adoption road seems dark and the end is nowhere in sight. At times like these the road lights up and the way is clear and we know there ARE children waiting at the other end peering up the road with the same mixture of awe and excitement we have.

God only knows when our paths will meet and for today that is OK. :-)

Red Thread Day!

Yesterday was our Red Thread Walk-a-Thon, and it was a success! We had a lot of fun. A family from our church came, out-of-state friends who were visiting for the weekend walked with us and some of my friends and Rebecca's friends were able to walk as well. Here we all are before setting out on the walk





We had a beautiful day for a walk- sunny and breezy and not too hot.



Our littlest walker with her Mommy :)


Friends of ours live at about the halfway point and we left a cooler of water and some snacks in their yard. It was nice to take a break. I was surprised because the big kids had nearly finished the fruit snacks before the little kids caught up to us.




Here we all are (minus Tim who went to find water for the dog).



While we waited for the men to cook the hamburgers when we got back, we counted the money everyone had gotten from sponsors. All together we raised $2,114! I was so excited- I'd been nervous about the whole thing since I was "planning" it while I was on a different continent, but God is faithful, and abundantly blessed us. I was very happy with the whole day. Not only was it exciting to raise so much money, it was also fun to walk with our friends and picnic afterwards.

Red Thread Walk

As I figure out last minute details for my trip to Europe, I am also in the midst of planning our next fundraiser. On Saturday August 12, four days after Rebecca and I get back from Europe, we will be having a Red Thread Walk. The walk is basically a walk-a-thon with a fancy name. :) We are calling it a "Red Thread Walk" after the Chinese Proverb that says, "An invisible red thread connects those destined to meet, regardless of time, place, or circumstance. The thread may stretch or tangle, but never break."

My Mom, sister, and I all have the goal of getting at least 5 people to walk with us. We'll make t-shirts (like we made for our extended family, but with the character for friend, Peng You, on the front) for all of our walkers who have at least 5 sponsors. I'm still deciding what to put on the back, I think the Chinese Proverb, and maybe Psalm 68:6. . .any other suggestions?

We will have friends join us at our house to walk the 3 miles around our lake. We are going to mark the path with red ribbons tied around trees to keep with the red thread theme. Afterwards we'll have a picnic. It should be a fun time! Hopefuly this time I remember to take photos and I can post some afterwards and tell how it went.

If you are interested in sponsoring one of us, let us know!

FUNdraising

Well, it actually was fun! We had our yard sale in June. We received enough donations to fill our yard and then some! My parents and sister came down from Connecticut to help and we met some nice people too. All and all it was a lot of work and a lot of fun. We made enough money to feel it had been worth while, but we still have a long way to go. Much of our leftover stuff went to a Russian orphanage (clothing), a crisis pregnancy center(stroller, diaper bags, baby clothes)a homeless shelter(personal care items) and the Salvation Army (all the rest of the stuff that they were willing to take). So it was fun to feel we were helping others while others helped us!

Next month Annie and Rebecca are planning a "Red Thread Walk" and in September we are having a sub sale at a grocery store. We've also registered with Current Fundraising to raise money by selling current products online to our friends and family. You may be getting an email soon! ;-)

But the bottom line is, God will have to provide. We look forward to see how He will do this.

THE WHOLE CLAN!

OUR EXTENDED FAMILY AT OUR FAMILY CAMPING TRIP
(click on the picture to enlarge it)

We made up T-shirts for our extended family with Chinese characters denoting everyone's relationship to our new children. Annie had lots of fun finding the correct Chinese terms and typing in the characters. All our family were great sports to wear the shirts and pose for countless pictures!


HERE IS ANOTHER PICTURE OF JUST OUR IMMEDIATE FAMILY


The characters are a little easier to see here. You can probably make it bigger by clicking on it. Mine says, "Ma Ma" or Mom, Dana's says "Ba Ba or Dad" Annie and Rebbecca are Jie Jie, big sister, Tim and Jonathan are Ge Ge, big brother and Daniel is Di Di, little brother.

It is fun to wonder just where in the family the new children will go and if Daniel will indeed continue to be the Di Di, because there is a small possiblity that he will be a Ge Ge :-)