I started this blog to write about our Ind*a adoption, but the reality of it is that we are also foster parents. I haven't written much about baby bug and his time here because I wanted this blog to be about our adoption, but I want to adovocate and share our experience with foster care. I want people to see the good, the bad and the ugly!Therefore I decided to create a new blog where our entire journey the Lord has us on can be written about!
Before I give you the new link. It is a wordpress blog. I know nothing about wordpress so when I have spare time I will work on fixing it up and making it more welcoming!
You can now find us here at Many Hearts, One Family.
Come see the latest happenings!!!
25 October 2011
18 October 2011
The Lord Hears!
But from there you will seek the lord your God, and you will find Him if you seek Him with all your heart and with all your soul. When you are in distress, and all these things come upon you in the latter days, when you turn to the Lord your God and obey His voice, He will not forsake you nor destroy you, nor forget the covenant of your fathers which He swore to them.
-Deuteronomy 4:29-31
I am not going to lie, these last few weeks have been tumultuous on our emotions! Turns out dossiers for special needs children may not have to wait until January 1. Confused? So are we! God bless our poor agency and their grateful attitudes thru all of this! They are fielding tons of questions from families and trying to sort out all of the information they have obtained from across the sea.
There are two families who are ahead of us, dependant on what happens with their file will determine our families time line. No pressure right?
Clear as mud? GREAT!
These last few weeks we hav watched several friends sit at embassy in Africa waiting for clearance (one family has been back and forth from Africa since JULY), other families have had roadblocks and obstacles put in their path while trying to bring their children home from a variety of countries. It seems the enemy is hard at work my friends, which means we need to be on our knees and praying more.
Even in our own home, we allowed the enemy a few victorious moments, but praise God for my husband and his wisdom and not allowing those victorious moments to be anything more than few and brief!
We press on trusting in the Lord for His will for we know that our family and precious darling "S" will not be forsaken!.
God is moving in Ind*a, it just may not be at a pace we want, but there are 35 million reasons to keep moving and to keep praying and trusting!
-Deuteronomy 4:29-31
I am not going to lie, these last few weeks have been tumultuous on our emotions! Turns out dossiers for special needs children may not have to wait until January 1. Confused? So are we! God bless our poor agency and their grateful attitudes thru all of this! They are fielding tons of questions from families and trying to sort out all of the information they have obtained from across the sea.
There are two families who are ahead of us, dependant on what happens with their file will determine our families time line. No pressure right?
Clear as mud? GREAT!
These last few weeks we hav watched several friends sit at embassy in Africa waiting for clearance (one family has been back and forth from Africa since JULY), other families have had roadblocks and obstacles put in their path while trying to bring their children home from a variety of countries. It seems the enemy is hard at work my friends, which means we need to be on our knees and praying more.
Even in our own home, we allowed the enemy a few victorious moments, but praise God for my husband and his wisdom and not allowing those victorious moments to be anything more than few and brief!
We press on trusting in the Lord for His will for we know that our family and precious darling "S" will not be forsaken!.
God is moving in Ind*a, it just may not be at a pace we want, but there are 35 million reasons to keep moving and to keep praying and trusting!
12 October 2011
Change the World thru 1 child
Did you know that Steve Jobs was adopted? Yep! Shortly after his death, several friends on facebook were posting a link to an article that told our family he was adopted (it was news to us)!
Steve Jobs parents chose life, and their decision literally changed the world. Chances are many are reading this post from a MAC, iPhone, iTouch or an iPad.
What if they had not chosen life?
Adoption can literally change the world. :)
Steve Jobs parents chose life, and their decision literally changed the world. Chances are many are reading this post from a MAC, iPhone, iTouch or an iPad.
What if they had not chosen life?
Adoption can literally change the world. :)
11 October 2011
Crocs for Coffee Campaign
About six years ago we met a precious family who was in the beginning stages of bringing their daughter home from China, it was such a joy to follow their journey and to see her come home!
Now they are in the process of bringing home an amazingly adorable son "Z" from Ethiopia! His face is captivating and I can NOT wait to lay eyes on him in the flesh!
The America World Transitional Home as well as the other orphanage the Martine family will be visiting when they go for their first visit constantly are in need of shoes. Therefore they started the "Crocs for Coffee Campaign!"
For every croc or croc-like pair you donate, your name will be entered into a drawing for the yummiest coffee brought to you by Ground to Cup! All shoes must be to them by November 3 since they are leaving the 15th to go spend THANKSGIVING with their son!
Payless had an awesome BOGO sale that ended last night, where the first pair was $5.00 and the second was $2.50 and there was a 20% off coupon floating around. Don't despair though I am sure there are still great deals out there to be had!
Email Cristie at cmartine(at sign)satx.rr.com for her address if you do not live in the immediate region!
Make a difference for these precious children's feet!
Now they are in the process of bringing home an amazingly adorable son "Z" from Ethiopia! His face is captivating and I can NOT wait to lay eyes on him in the flesh!
The America World Transitional Home as well as the other orphanage the Martine family will be visiting when they go for their first visit constantly are in need of shoes. Therefore they started the "Crocs for Coffee Campaign!"
For every croc or croc-like pair you donate, your name will be entered into a drawing for the yummiest coffee brought to you by Ground to Cup! All shoes must be to them by November 3 since they are leaving the 15th to go spend THANKSGIVING with their son!
Payless had an awesome BOGO sale that ended last night, where the first pair was $5.00 and the second was $2.50 and there was a 20% off coupon floating around. Don't despair though I am sure there are still great deals out there to be had!
Email Cristie at cmartine(at sign)satx.rr.com for her address if you do not live in the immediate region!
Make a difference for these precious children's feet!
10 October 2011
Update
“But as for you, be strong and do not give up, for your work will be rewarded.” 2 Chronicles 15:7
“Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.” Hebrews 12:1
Both of these verses have been our prayers this last week as we waited for news from across the sea.
As everyone knows we were waiting for October 1 for the new laws to go into effect to continue on, but we were warned that it could be up to a few weeks after that before they actually make the changes, so we sat and waited.
GREAT News: Last year 236 children were adopted from Ind@a, well guess what?! Right now, there are 550 dossiers in their office waiting to be processed! PRAISE the Lord that close to double the amount of children will have a forever home!!!
Ehh News: Because of this, they are not accepting anymore dossiers until January 1st. What does this mean? Well, since we were on track to have our dossier and homestudy finished by no later than the first or second week of November, this means once it is finished we can triple check for accuracy and thank God for his timing.
God News: We have heard from several families who have adopted from this particular state as well as several agencies, who all say hands down this state is the hardest and most difficult to process adoptions out of. Encouraging right?! Luckily, we know our God is sovereign and has a plan! We keep hearing from these same sources that we are traveling a road less traveled and helping plan the path for other families. So we lean and trust on that.
Adoptions from Chi^a and Ethiopia, while the wait for babies may be long the path has been well traveled and it is predictible therefore smooth for those who are traveling down it now. Others have gone on before and helped make the way smooth and we would LOVE and rejoice to see the Ind&a program be the same for others in the future!
We have other news, but I am not going to share it quite yet, but if you think of it we would greatly covet your prayers thruout the week. The Lord knows the need and we are praying for His will to be done no matter what.
“Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.” Hebrews 12:1
Both of these verses have been our prayers this last week as we waited for news from across the sea.
As everyone knows we were waiting for October 1 for the new laws to go into effect to continue on, but we were warned that it could be up to a few weeks after that before they actually make the changes, so we sat and waited.
GREAT News: Last year 236 children were adopted from Ind@a, well guess what?! Right now, there are 550 dossiers in their office waiting to be processed! PRAISE the Lord that close to double the amount of children will have a forever home!!!
Ehh News: Because of this, they are not accepting anymore dossiers until January 1st. What does this mean? Well, since we were on track to have our dossier and homestudy finished by no later than the first or second week of November, this means once it is finished we can triple check for accuracy and thank God for his timing.
God News: We have heard from several families who have adopted from this particular state as well as several agencies, who all say hands down this state is the hardest and most difficult to process adoptions out of. Encouraging right?! Luckily, we know our God is sovereign and has a plan! We keep hearing from these same sources that we are traveling a road less traveled and helping plan the path for other families. So we lean and trust on that.
Adoptions from Chi^a and Ethiopia, while the wait for babies may be long the path has been well traveled and it is predictible therefore smooth for those who are traveling down it now. Others have gone on before and helped make the way smooth and we would LOVE and rejoice to see the Ind&a program be the same for others in the future!
We have other news, but I am not going to share it quite yet, but if you think of it we would greatly covet your prayers thruout the week. The Lord knows the need and we are praying for His will to be done no matter what.
06 October 2011
Wear to Share
There are so many darling adoption shirts out there for Africa, China, Russia and even domestic and we only found ONE for Ind+a, I am sure there are more but after searching and searching we just decided to create our own!
We have been working on finding a shirt company to order custom made shirts to sell to promote Ind*a adoptions. We have created several different ones and hope to get them ordered in the next few weeks as we have foundto one that did not require you to order a ton at onc. Once that gets done we plan to sell them at our online store called "Wear to Share". I have also been working on creating hand stamped custom shirts that have been up-cycled (gently or new used shirts and onesies that I have found at thrift stores some with tags some show no sign of wear).
Last fall when I traveled to Indi*a I made the children some shirts as gifts while I was gone, so I decided to duplicate those shirts in short sleeve form for them to wear at the bakesale.
Here is my shirt for the bake sale.
I think I may try to remove the "1" and make it a lot bigger.
Stay tuned for when we get the shirts ordered and ready!
We have been working on finding a shirt company to order custom made shirts to sell to promote Ind*a adoptions. We have created several different ones and hope to get them ordered in the next few weeks as we have foundto one that did not require you to order a ton at onc. Once that gets done we plan to sell them at our online store called "Wear to Share". I have also been working on creating hand stamped custom shirts that have been up-cycled (gently or new used shirts and onesies that I have found at thrift stores some with tags some show no sign of wear).
Last fall when I traveled to Indi*a I made the children some shirts as gifts while I was gone, so I decided to duplicate those shirts in short sleeve form for them to wear at the bakesale.
Here is my shirt for the bake sale.
I think I may try to remove the "1" and make it a lot bigger.
Stay tuned for when we get the shirts ordered and ready!
03 October 2011
Post-Adoptive Conference
Our bake sale was slated to end at 2:00 but since we still had customers we stayed until 3:00, then we boogied home, changed clothes and headed to a post-adoptive conference.
When we arrived we went to drop our children off in the childcare area and I stopped at the door to see the most AMAZING and beautiful picture! If I had had my camera I would have taken a picture. There in the room were children from all around the world, Korea, China, Urkraine, Russia, the U.S., Africa, and more! It was truly breathtaking! I loved seeing so many nations represented in one room! Beautiful!
Praise and worship was provided by the amazing and talented Billy and Cindy Foote...go get her No Double Yellow Line cd we have loved listening to it and it warms my heart to hear my four year old sing "Bring Our Children Home"! For the conference they had an amazing panel of adoptive families, all adopted older children (a few had adopted younger ones as well)including All Are Precious In His Sight (who bring wisdom on three bio children and seven almost nine adoptive children). On the panel was also a child psycologist and a family therapist who offered not only their own personal adoption experiences but also their professional experiences on issues families face after "the honeymoon" is over. You know, the ugly stuff no one tells you about and you think your prepared for things like attachment or lack there of, manipulation, grief, bonding, issues with your children already in home and their new sibling, discipline in a way that makes the adopted child still feel loved and so much more. Everyone highly recommended The Connected Child in case you were wondering for your own journey. They offered guidence, wisdom and hope that on the other side the difficult journey is SO worth it and the blessings far outweigh the tough times.
Each of these families fall within a 60 mile radius of our community and each want to be there to support those families who have just recently came home and are in the midst of the settling in phase and the one family who was there who is yet to come home with their older child (us)!
It was such an honor to be able to be a part of such a God blessed evening.
My husband and I drove home that evening feeling encouraged and blessed to have more insight on how to pray for this journey!
When we arrived we went to drop our children off in the childcare area and I stopped at the door to see the most AMAZING and beautiful picture! If I had had my camera I would have taken a picture. There in the room were children from all around the world, Korea, China, Urkraine, Russia, the U.S., Africa, and more! It was truly breathtaking! I loved seeing so many nations represented in one room! Beautiful!
Praise and worship was provided by the amazing and talented Billy and Cindy Foote...go get her No Double Yellow Line cd we have loved listening to it and it warms my heart to hear my four year old sing "Bring Our Children Home"! For the conference they had an amazing panel of adoptive families, all adopted older children (a few had adopted younger ones as well)including All Are Precious In His Sight (who bring wisdom on three bio children and seven almost nine adoptive children). On the panel was also a child psycologist and a family therapist who offered not only their own personal adoption experiences but also their professional experiences on issues families face after "the honeymoon" is over. You know, the ugly stuff no one tells you about and you think your prepared for things like attachment or lack there of, manipulation, grief, bonding, issues with your children already in home and their new sibling, discipline in a way that makes the adopted child still feel loved and so much more. Everyone highly recommended The Connected Child in case you were wondering for your own journey. They offered guidence, wisdom and hope that on the other side the difficult journey is SO worth it and the blessings far outweigh the tough times.
Each of these families fall within a 60 mile radius of our community and each want to be there to support those families who have just recently came home and are in the midst of the settling in phase and the one family who was there who is yet to come home with their older child (us)!
It was such an honor to be able to be a part of such a God blessed evening.
My husband and I drove home that evening feeling encouraged and blessed to have more insight on how to pray for this journey!
02 October 2011
Sugar and Spice
Psalm 119:171 "May my lips overflow with praise"
WHEW! What an amazing day yesterday was! It was two fold so expect two posts!
We want to give a shoutout to everyone who made this bakesale happen!
Our bake sale could not have happened first and foremost without the Lord! We are grateful we stepped out in obedience and did something we would not have done! We are grateful for all of our sweet friends who took their own time to make goodies for the sale! For our sweet friend who came and helped run the sale, her help was priceless! A sweet family friend of ours came to shop and then made the sweet offer of taking our children to the playground to play for a bit so they could have a break. Close to lunch time a family near and dear to our hearts whisked the girls away with their daughter to go have a burger and fries. The children were having a blast helping with the bakesale and "recruiting" drive by customers but they were grateful for the break!
It is amazing to see how our friends love our son already and how they support him. We are blessed beyond measure with friends who are our family!
Early Saturday morning a friend arrived to help us load up and set up and before we had even finished people started coming.
Aside from the occasional person who thought we were raising funds to a family pet, peoples encouragment was amazing. We met countless people who had been adopted from all around the world, people who had adopted both domestically and internationally and even another foster mom! Their stories were encouraging and amazing to hear and it was such a blessing to hear other strangers tell us to keep on and that they would be praying for our family.
To see strangers who did not even know our family stop to buy buttermilk pies, cheesecake, cupcakes, cookies, rice krispie treats, etc just to help S come home is humbling. My husband and I both said that all day long.
A few weeks earlier we printed a family photo of us with our website and information on it to mail to family and friends and to pass out at the bake sale, it is awesome to know that our journey went home with others and they will pray for us or share our story with another family.
All together $579.46 was donated at the bake sale!!! All the glory goes to God!
WHEW! What an amazing day yesterday was! It was two fold so expect two posts!
We want to give a shoutout to everyone who made this bakesale happen!
Our bake sale could not have happened first and foremost without the Lord! We are grateful we stepped out in obedience and did something we would not have done! We are grateful for all of our sweet friends who took their own time to make goodies for the sale! For our sweet friend who came and helped run the sale, her help was priceless! A sweet family friend of ours came to shop and then made the sweet offer of taking our children to the playground to play for a bit so they could have a break. Close to lunch time a family near and dear to our hearts whisked the girls away with their daughter to go have a burger and fries. The children were having a blast helping with the bakesale and "recruiting" drive by customers but they were grateful for the break!
It is amazing to see how our friends love our son already and how they support him. We are blessed beyond measure with friends who are our family!
Early Saturday morning a friend arrived to help us load up and set up and before we had even finished people started coming.
Aside from the occasional person who thought we were raising funds to a family pet, peoples encouragment was amazing. We met countless people who had been adopted from all around the world, people who had adopted both domestically and internationally and even another foster mom! Their stories were encouraging and amazing to hear and it was such a blessing to hear other strangers tell us to keep on and that they would be praying for our family.
To see strangers who did not even know our family stop to buy buttermilk pies, cheesecake, cupcakes, cookies, rice krispie treats, etc just to help S come home is humbling. My husband and I both said that all day long.
A few weeks earlier we printed a family photo of us with our website and information on it to mail to family and friends and to pass out at the bake sale, it is awesome to know that our journey went home with others and they will pray for us or share our story with another family.
All together $579.46 was donated at the bake sale!!! All the glory goes to God!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
