Sunday Morning Donation + Thoughts

This morning, while sitting in church, I got a little surprise. A friend of ours (and her hubby) slipped a sweet note and a $20 donation in my purse. Every little bit helps lift the financial burden and the encouragement from others is priceless. Thank you Houy family.

 I hope that as most of you read these blog posts that you feel a renewed sense of conviction and passion for where God has called you to "move" and act... don't wait. Don't put it off. This journey of jumping through hoops and acquiring funds is a sweet one because its where we're supposed to be.  I'd rather struggle for what's right than to comfortably live in apathy and I hope you all agree. There's a real sense of deep peace and joy when we go outside our comfort zones for something greater than ourselves. We ask that you continue to pray that we are receptive to God's leading and consistently willing to obey.

Donation and Encouragement

This evening I had the pleasure of visiting with a dear friend while doing my cosmetology thing. This friend, and her husband, also adopted from S Korea with Holt International 2 separate times. Their boys , received at 5 and 6 months old, are now a great couple of young men that my husband really enjoys having in the youth group at church. It's great to hear about their adoption experiences and it's also fun to be reminded that our family will likely look quite similar 12-13 years from now. It's fun to dream about the future... And yet I'm thankful to be right here, right now. "Our willingness to wait reveals the value we place on the object we're waiting for" (Charles Stanley).

They also blessed us with a $100 donation. I don't want to sound like a broken record but we greatly appreciate people's willingness to give financially to our family/future child.  Thank you Johnson family!

$200 Donation

Just found out from my hubby that we received a $200 donation today! Can't express how grateful we are when people do this for us. Not only is it actually helping us pay for our adoption expenses but it encourages us as well. We're now that much closer and we appreciate it so much. Thank you Dotson Family!

Make That $400!

I already posted today but I just received an online donation of $100 (added to our previously mentioned $300). We so appreciate people's willingness to give for the sake of our child in S Korea. We have tried to make it clear that we don't want our pursuit of adoption to become anyone else's burden. We chose this. But we are so thankful when people give because they believe in what's happening here. It's such a blessing to see God move through others and the generosity is not forgotten. We hope you celebrate with us when we bring our baby home to his/her forever family. Thank you Peter & Gina <3

A Repeat Snail-Mail Donation + Update

So my awesome little sister, Anya, (who happened to turn 20 yesterday) sent me a second $100 check in the mail today ($200 total)! I know I've mentioned before, in earlier posts, about how special it is that not only a younger sibling would help financially to bring their nephew/niece home but also the fact that she is adopted as well.  It's a great testimony to the fact that adoption changes lives and is such a good thing. Love you Anya!

Also, Jeremy and I will be finishing our parenting classes tonight so everything in our immediate inbox will be cleared out (for now) and we will wait for our next step... Our home study!

We have also been able to make a $200 adoption fund deposit of our own. We don't share every time we set money aside for our adoption for fear that we may bore you all to death but we also want you to know we're trying. And its so exciting to see that little thermometer (in the right hand column - "web version" of our blog) rise with each drop in the bucket! And today it's a $300 jump :D

What we paid and where it went

Just wanted to share, with those interested, what exactly we've paid so far and what it paid for:

$300 - Application Fee
$40 - Fingerprints Taken
$80 - Processing Background Checks
$120 - "Parents In Process" Parenting Classes
$2,500 - Adoption Study
_____________________________
$3,040 - Grand Total Paid Out So Far

...and to be completely honest, it actually feels good. There's so much junk that people (including us) spend money on to either impress people or make comfy lives even more comfy. And it's so stupid when other people (including innocent children) go without such basic needs met. Don't get me wrong, there's nothing inherently evil with a fun purchase and those purchases are more than ok to enjoy. I quite enjoy clothes shopping myself :). It's just that in our culture, so many of us do it soooooooo much of the time! You can only "treat yourself" because "you deserve it" so much before it becomes a sickening over indulgence. Learning not to love money is almost always a struggle. After all, with money comes security, power, and proof of our success... Or does it? How many people have we seen crumble to ruin when they "had it all"? I offer up the notion that nothing of this world can truly promise us those things.

"Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, "Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you." (Hebrews 13:5)

Some Orphan Stats

Just some stats found on Skyward Journey to make the orphan crisis a little more "real" to us:

• It is estimated there are between 143 million and 210 million orphans worldwide (recent UNICEF report.)

• The current population of the United States is just a little over 300 million… to give you an idea of the enormity of the numbers… (The current population of Russia is 141 million)

• Every day 5,760 more children become orphans

• 2,102,400 more children become orphans every year in Africa alone 

• Every 15 seconds, another child in Africa becomes an AIDS orphan

• Approximately 250,000 children are adopted annually, but… 

• Each year 14, 505, 000 children grow up as orphans and age out of the system by age sixteen

• Each day 38,493 orphans age out

• Every 2.2 seconds another orphan ages out with no family to belong to and no place to call home

• In Russia and the Ukraine, studies have shown that 10% – 15% of these children commit sucide before they reach age eighteen

• These studies also show that 60% of the girls become prostitutes and 70% of the boys become hardened criminals 

• Another Russian study reported that of the 15,000 orphans aging out of state-run institutions every year, 10% committed suicide, 5,000 were unemployed,6,000 were homeless and 3,000 were in prison within three years…

(Russia has recently banned U.S. adoptions with no indication of reopening)

My sisters, Anya and Tatyana, were about to age out...

...my sisters were picked up by my parents before that could happen but EVERY DAY 38,493 fifteen year old girls and boys have no one coming for them and are told to leave

Starting our classes

Last night we paid our $120 and completed the first 2 hours (out of 10) of our required, online adoptive-parenting classes. There was some good advice we took away; like tips on cultivating an emotional bond and setting up a support network to handle unique international-adoption issues. We plan on assembling a "life book" for our child that holds all the pre-adoption facts, stories, and pictures that we can get our hands on and how the adoption process went. We want him/her to  feel clear about who they are, where they came from, and that we were/are committed to them. We're likely to get a child around the age of 18 months to 2 years, which allows for us to likely be all the child ever remembers as they grow into adulthood. But there are still unique issues for a child that may have been shuffled around, neglected, and/or abused in the begining. Even if the child doesn't have specific memories of their first year or two they can still have increased insecurity, fear, anger, and sadness stemming from their earliest interactions. I look at my 15 month old daughter and see how she has already bonded and grown so much due to her upbringing ...she could be much different than the girl we know now had she not been given stability and consistent love/care from us. So, we're trying our best to prepare for those potential issues and keeping in mind that God is able to fix the hurts that we cannot reach or even see. The same is true for our biological children.

Something that I wanted to make clear is this:
We do not look to this child (or our biological children) to fulfill us. We believe it is not a child's job to give his/her parents purpose, significance, or even unconditional love. We are pursuing adoption because it's right. Because we feel "called". And because every child deserves love, commitment, and stability, whether they have anything to give in return or not. We will love this child because we choose to. Because God chose and "adopted" us. We don't need another reason because that's more than enough.

Please keep us and our future child in your prayers. There's still a long road ahead and undoubtedly many obstacles. I find myself getting increasingly more emotional at the thought of waiting and neglected children and can easily fall into frustration at the general lack of urgency the world seems to have about the topic. BUT I don't ever want to become embittered or angry. The truth is that we're blessed that God is allowing us to "tag along" on what He's doing here and I want to remember that truth through every twist and turn. Being able to share our love because God first loved us (even when we didnt love Him back) is priceless and amazing (1 John 4:19).