Homestudy!

After much annoying pestering (by me), our homestudy is done! I am sure our social worker is glad to be done with us for now.  I had to read 19 pages of how a complete stanger viewed our family. I was really nervous to read what she thought of our house and family.  I must admit she described my house way better than it actually is.  I was thinking "No way, that's not my place!" 

So it is onward and forward for us. 

Next up is a USCIS "aka Immigration" application.

Wooohooo! 

Why?

I can't begin to count the times I have been asked "why". 

"Why are you adopting?"

"Why are you adopting a girl with Down Syndrome?"

"Why do you want more kids when you already have 5." 

 

Sadly most of these questions come from fellow Christians.  And I just want to say, "Because Christ told all of us to take care of orphans. Because there are childen who may never know what love is this side of Heaven." But that is a little too blunt and so I generally tell a round about story.  Tonight I was on Reece's Rainbow and I just  was blown away by the new arrivals on the sight.  If not for this organization so many people would have no idea what was happening to these rejected children.  Orphans who are not "true" orphans....they have parents out there, who for some reason or another decided they were not worth keeping and gave them away.  How can we not have compassion on the least of these?

 

This is Zoey

She is six years old!  Yes, you read that right!  And she weighs 10lbs.  Her file is only available through Reece's Rainbow for around 2 months.  My six year old weighs over 40lbs. In fact, I think my daughter weigh over 10 lbs by the time she was 2 wks old. Zoey needs a family. 

 

This is Bowen

This little fellow needs a Mom to hug.  Isn't he just so adorable.  But he is still sitting in an orphanage somewhere because his parents didn't want a child who had missing limbs.

 

So I dare you...ask me "why?"!

 

 

 

Passports!!!

    Ok, they are not here, but we have FINALLY applied for our passports.   I know this isn't a huge step, but I take what I get these days.  Lately, all I here is "you have to wait", "no, you can't do that yet", "it's not ready yet", and my favorite "this is a long process".  (As if I haven't already figured out that it's a LONG process.)  I get so frustrated.  I am one of those people that likes to do everything I can; I like to feel the progress. But progress is a bit invisible these days.
    Maybe it is time for me to dig deep and figure out what lesson I am supposed to be learning now.  Or maybe this is just Patience 102.  And I was just silly enough to think that Patience 101 was enough.

    Apparently I am supposed to be satisfied with posting yet again about our fundraisers.  So here is our list:

1.  Use Amazon to Christmas shop!!! Just make sure to use our link box at the right!

2. Livi's Gift Shoppe on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/#!/LivisGiftShoppe
Check it out....I am continually adding new things!

3. Blocks....yes, I will still make blocks.  I may never want to see a block again as long as I live, but for Olivia I will persevere. The info about blocks can be found here: BLOCKS

Orphan Sunday

A year ago I couldn't have told you that the first sunday in November was called Orphan Sunday -- a Sunday dedicated to sharing the needs of orphans with the church body.  A year ago I couldn't have told you even in a ballpark figure just how many orphans there are in this world.  I had no idea.  How sad is that? 

  James 1:27
Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.

I am amazed at how many times I read that verse and didn't realize that it meant ME.  I was to visit the fatherless....I was to help orphans...ME!  The word "fatherless" appears 43 times in the KJV.  43 times!!! These lost children are important to God and they should be to us. 

 

 

And since I learned about the needs of Orphans from Reece's Rainbow (a sight dedicated to raising awareness and funds for special needs orphans), I thought I would share just a few of the children waiting for someone to read James 1:27 or Matthew 25 and say "Hey, that's ME....God wants ME to do this...He really does care about the "least of these". 

Dawn

 

Angelina

Kolya

Boden

Veronica

 

I just wonder how many Christians celebrated Halloween.....do you think the same number of Christians are celebrating Orphan Sunday? Think about it!  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



Christmas shopping?

Who knew you could help us out just by Christmas shopping?!?  You can!  All you have to do is:  every time you use our Amazon link on the right side of the page ( you can use the Amazon 4 Adoption at the top right or the Amazon search box at the bottom right) to do your Amazon shopping, we earn a percentage toward Olivia's adoption.  Easy, right? So easy you should try it today!

Anyone Interrested?

So right now we are in the midst of way more adoption paperwork than I want to think about. ( I really should have become a notary--or at least befriended one.)  And instead of dwelling on how long all of this is taking and getting frustrated, I decided I would ask y'all if you could help me out with something.

  I am going to be setting up a craft sale sight on Facebook here in the next few days.  All the proceeds will go towards our adoption and it will contain various craft items that I have made and some of my Wildwood items.  What I would really love though is variety. So is there something that you make (crafts, foods, anything really) that you would like to donate to my sale?  Anything handmade would be great, but even something that isn't a craft (books, dvds, cds, etc.) that would just make a great Christmas gift for someone else to buy (so preferrably an unused item).  I will photo list(so you would have to send me a picture) each item and then the buyer of that item will contact me and we can arrange either Paypal payment or check or whatever.  If you donated an item I would just need you to ship the item to the person who buys it (you would have to be willing to pay for the shipping--so I suggest light items).  Anyone interrested????  This would really help us out! 

Here is the link to our craft fundraiser page:  Livi's Gift Shoppe

my new motto :)

Blocks for Livi

So I know it is early (seeing as how I just introduced our blog a few days ago); but you can never have enough time to fund raise.  Josh and I realized going into this how much it would cost our family to bring Olivia home, and we are fully prepared to work our hineys off to do it.  BUT just in case you want to help.... ;)

This will be our first fundraiser, and I am fully prepared to make these for as long as this adoption takes, so all you have to do is come find this post if you would like to donate for them.

  These are Olliblocks (No, I did not create them; the printouts are from Ollibird [which I found on Pinterest]. You can go there and print them yourself if you would like.) But if you are like me and you have other things to do besides take on a new craft where you spend hours gluing, cutting, spraying...etc, then you can just get mine! :)

(The Chevrons are not from Ollibird; I added them--just love that pattern with these cute faces.)

 

So here's the deal:  for a $10 "chip-in" (found up in the upper right-hand corner)  you will receive a gift of one set of 3 blocks (you can get just boys, just girls, or a mix of both...also there is a funny animal set but I don't have a pic yet.)  Now if you would like more than one set the you can donate...

$18 for 2 sets

$24 for 3 sets

$32 for 4 sets 

$40 for 5 sets

These would make great gifts for all the little ones in your family for Christmas, birthdays, baby showers or just because! 

(But please remember these are for personal use and should not be resold --thanks!)

 

If you do not have a Paypal account and can not use the "chip- in", please contact me at: waysthatyouchangeme@gmail.com for a alternate form of donating to Olivia's adoption.