I am sorry, we are having trouble with this post.  For some reason it will not put the whole thing up here.  I am going to try it again….

I got an email a week or so ago from Andrea, she explained that her family is in the process of adopting a sibling set of three from this country and that they will be coming to pick them up sometime before the end of the year.  We were inspired to hear their story, not only are they adopting three children at once but they already have 6!  How crazy is that?  If their devotion to the orphans of the world does not inspire you I don’t know what will.

I am clipping a portion of their newsletter here so we can take a peek into their world.

Beauty from Ashes

Sometimes things happen in life that leaves us wondering why. God’s word says that He works all things for good, but when bad things happen in this life, sometimes we can’t see the good.
My mom suffering for so long with ALS & dying was a, “Why Lord?  What purpose does this serve? Where is the good in this?” moment for me. Don’t get me wrong, her going to be with the Lord was really good for her, but for me & for our children? Then one day the Lord showed me something stunning.
Cailee (our Russian daughter) and I were driving to my dad’s house. Every once in awhile when I round that corner, raw emotions flood me, & this time I began to cry. I was trying to stifle my tears when Cailee noticed & asked why I was crying. I told her that I missed my mom. She looked at me & said, “I know how you feel, sometimes I miss my mom too.” At that very moment Jesus spoke to my heart. “Andrea you know how she feels.”
We watched disease overtake a loved one. We looked starvation in the face & watched Mom fade away from not being able to eat & swallow. We held the hand of a best friend, grand-ma, wife & mom as she passed from this life to an eternal one with Jesus.
We have a ministry to orphans! God showed me that our children will have a mom, who knows the sorrow of losing a mom. Our adopted children have seen starvation, death and disease first hand. The Lord has equipped us to not only minister to their needs, but to have compassion and true understanding for their losses. This is a perfect example of God working good out of bad. This is “Beauty out of Ashes”!

Hurry up and wait

The process of adoption is a lot of things. It is a lot of work, a lot of money, a lot of praying, and the hardest part, a lot of waiting!
The good news is our dossier is complete!! It has been sent to the Consulate in D.C. and is now on its way to the country to be translated. Translation takes about two weeks, give or take. While we wait for translation we wait for the medical reports to be done on all three children. This has to be done in order to get our referral. Rumor has it the medicals are complete and getting ready to be sent to the US. Once we sign the referral, officials set a court date. A liaison attends court in our place & sees that all the paperwork is done. Once that is finalized we travel a month later to meet our forever children!
This could potentially take only a couple of months. Only God knows and we trust Him for His perfect timing.

With this Ring

Several months ago I received an email from a friend. The opening paragraph read “Would you sell your wedding ring to save a life?” The first thing I did was shut down the email. I didn’t want to read the rest, I was not interested.
The Lord had been convicting Bryan and I of so much, I didn’t want to be pushed anymore, so the simple solution, was to turn it off. That only lasted the night. Come morning I was so convicted, from turning it off, I knew I had to read it.
The purpose of this ministry is to sacrifice and sell our earthly possessions and give to the poor. In the USA, we come by diamonds easily. While in Africa, true slaves are made to work with little to no pay mining diamonds. These men are not free, they are slaves to their owners most are starving to death & have been forced to leave their families. They then sell the diamonds to the USA where we spend millions on them per year.
With much prayer and tears we said “Yes” to God, and sold all of our valuable jewelry to our local jeweler & put that money toward our adoption. Following our sacrifice, God moved and many of you sacrificed & donated jewelry to us.