We announced this at church yesterday but a lot of you were out so I thought I'd email the announcement as well.
Over the past couple of months we have learned a great deal about life in the orphanage in Liberia. As you would expect most of it is very sad. One of the things we found out is that when the children who are being adopted receive letters, pictures, gifts, etc. from their adoptive families most of it is given away to the children who are not being adopted yet. These children have such giving and sharing hearts they give and share everything!
I was talking to Chelsea Zackey of Children Concerned last week about this and found out that her mother, a brother, and sister are going to Liberia after the first of the year. They have room to take one 81/2" X 11" envelope with them. What we would love for all the children of Grace (adults, too if you want) to do is to draw pictures and/or write short simple letters to the children living in the orphanage. This way every single child whether they are being adopted now or not will receive a little something of their very own. The pictures and letters can have your favorite scriptures and just a note saying you are praying for God to bring them a family.
It would also be great if we could send some chewing gum (flat and thin kind only) along with small sheets of stickers. The children love them and they would fit in the envelope with the pictures and letters. Stacy Audirsch had a great idea about sending cute band-aids, too! If your children love to draw like Aubrey does have them draw more than one picture! I do not currently have a list of the children's names so if you want to write a letter just leave it blank after the "Dear" and we will put names on everything as soon as we get a list of names. Please do not fold pictures or letters!
We need your drawings, letters, stickers, gum, and bandaids by this Sunday, Christmas Eve. If you cannot be there on Sunday and would still like to send a letter just email us with your letters and we will print them and send them.
Thank you so much for doing this for these precious children. I know without a doubt they will be so blessed and each of you will too! We love you all!
Monday, December 18, 2006
Friday, September 29, 2006
Adoption Update
We just wanted to share our latest news and pictures with you as we prepare to leave in the morning (4:00 a.m.) to go west to visit family. God enabled us to meet our goal of getting our dossier to Africa and our immigration paperwork out this week!!! Everything should arrive at their appropriate destinations by Monday of next week.
Rachel Zackey of Children Concerned emailed us last week to say that we could consider the girls 98% adoptable because we are dealing with Africa and we should leave 2% chance for something to go wrong. We believe God only does things at 10
0% so we are not going to worry. We also know that should one or both of the girls not be adoptable it is because of His perfect and sovereign will and that He will take care of us. (Remind us of this if something goes wrong!)
Hannah Zackey was in Liberia a couple of weeks ago and emailed us that Maria and Suzanna do know each other and are good friends and will make great sisters! She sent us new pictures which we have attached. The girls are so beautiful!!!
We have chosen both girls' middle names: Maria Faith and Suzanna Grace. Thank you to everyone who sent in their suggestions. Both girls are special gifts from God and so are His faith and grace that He gives us, so we thought these names were just perfect!
Please keep Maria and Suzanna in your prayers. Please pray that God will prepare their hearts to receive Him and to become part of our family, and for their protection--physically, spiritually, and emotionally. Please pray for our family to be patient in God's perfect timing. Thank you dear family for your prayers and support. We love you all so very much!!!
Rachel Zackey of Children Concerned emailed us last week to say that we could consider the girls 98% adoptable because we are dealing with Africa and we should leave 2% chance for something to go wrong. We believe God only does things at 10
0% so we are not going to worry. We also know that should one or both of the girls not be adoptable it is because of His perfect and sovereign will and that He will take care of us. (Remind us of this if something goes wrong!)Hannah Zackey was in Liberia a couple of weeks ago and emailed us that Maria and Suzanna do know each other and are good friends and will make great sisters! She sent us new pictures which we have attached. The girls are so beautiful!!!
We have chosen both girls' middle names: Maria Faith and Suzanna Grace. Thank you to everyone who sent in their suggestions. Both girls are special gifts from God and so are His faith and grace that He gives us, so we thought these names were just perfect!
Please keep Maria and Suzanna in your prayers. Please pray that God will prepare their hearts to receive Him and to become part of our family, and for their protection--physically, spiritually, and emotionally. Please pray for our family to be patient in God's perfect timing. Thank you dear family for your prayers and support. We love you all so very much!!!
Monday, August 21, 2006
The Young GIrls
God answered our prayers this morning about which girls from Liberia were going to join our family. I called Rachel Zackey from Children Concerned this morning to tell her about our difficulty in choosing two of the girls and worrying about the third. She immediately told me that she received a call last night from a family in Tennessee that wants to adopt Hannah. She was the oldest of the three and the one described as happy and loves to sing and dance. Our God is a great God! I then began to explain how difficult it was to choose between Maria and Hannah, but that my heart had immediately gone to Maria. I explained that the thing that concerned me and made the decision so hard was that I was afraid she would be waiting for her parents to come back to the orphanage and take her home. (Maria is the one that has only been in the orphanage since last summer.) Rachel told me that Maria has told her how much she wants a new mom. Our God is a great God! He is so faithful to answer our prayers!
God has chosen two beautiful little girls to join our family, Suzanna, who will be 7 on September 5Th, and Maria, who will be 8 on October 16. We now need your prayers for the next step. The orphanage will now find both girls' parents to have them sign over their parental rights and to go to court to sever those rights. Rachel explained that sometimes the parents do change their minds. Please pray that God will give these parents the courage and comfort to make this most difficult and final decision. Also, please pray that this process will be a quick one. As soon as this is done and our dossier is in Liberia we can tell the girls we are adopting them and begin to establish a relationship with them.
We need your help with one more thing. We want to give the girls middle names that are really special. We want to do this with our dossier so that the names will be on their birth certificates, court and adoption decrees, as well as their passports. We have already decided on Grace, probably for Suzanna. Grace is special for so many reasons, including that it was my grandma's name. We'd like your suggestions for another middle name probably for Maria, unless it goes better with Suzanna and vice versa. Please email us with your names along with what they mean if needed.
Thank you, precious family, for all your prayers, wise counsel, support, and love. We know without a doubt that God put us here with you at Grace to go through this journey together. We love you!
God has chosen two beautiful little girls to join our family, Suzanna, who will be 7 on September 5Th, and Maria, who will be 8 on October 16. We now need your prayers for the next step. The orphanage will now find both girls' parents to have them sign over their parental rights and to go to court to sever those rights. Rachel explained that sometimes the parents do change their minds. Please pray that God will give these parents the courage and comfort to make this most difficult and final decision. Also, please pray that this process will be a quick one. As soon as this is done and our dossier is in Liberia we can tell the girls we are adopting them and begin to establish a relationship with them.
We need your help with one more thing. We want to give the girls middle names that are really special. We want to do this with our dossier so that the names will be on their birth certificates, court and adoption decrees, as well as their passports. We have already decided on Grace, probably for Suzanna. Grace is special for so many reasons, including that it was my grandma's name. We'd like your suggestions for another middle name probably for Maria, unless it goes better with Suzanna and vice versa. Please email us with your names along with what they mean if needed.
Thank you, precious family, for all your prayers, wise counsel, support, and love. We know without a doubt that God put us here with you at Grace to go through this journey together. We love you!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
