Please pray for us....

Life as we know it is really about to change forever!
       
            We are so excited...and right now I don't think any of us are nervous or having 2nd thoughts. We are pretty well ready to take flight and embrace what God has for our family. We are in awe when we see where we are today, because we have covered a lot of ground in the last 17 months and we have seen God move some pretty impossible mountains. I hope and pray that for the rest of our lives not one of us will ever doubt that God is the God of the impossible and there is nothing that is to hard for Him!

This is the Lord's doing, it is marvelous in our eyes.

Psalm 118:23

              We are so thankful for all of you that have so prayed for us, encouraged us, and given so generously to help us in our endeavor to bring this little girl into our home. This is not finished yet, we are just stepping into the next stage of the journey, but it is a very critical one...and it brings us to the final stage of bringing her officially home. We have heard some exciting news from Ecuador and it makes us that much more exciting to meet our new "baby" sister.

              However as you can well imagine meeting your new family at the age of nine cannot be the easiest things, so please pray for and continue in prayer for our beautiful Miss A! She is an inspiration to us all and has already become such a part of our family. We are trusting God that she will come to know that. Please pray that she will bond with us, and us with her.

                We know what we have entrusted to God and we have seen how He has provided greatly! Please pray for a quick and speedy legal process in Ecuador, safety traveling and wisdom and understanding through the whole process.

              Also pray that God would use this experience greatly in each of our lives, that it would used for the glory of Christ in our individual lives and as a family. Pray that the relationships that we establish there, though they may be fleeting, pray that they would have an eternal impact.

             And in all these things pray that God will be glorified, pray that the Gospel will be lifted up, and Jesus Christ will be praised.

WAITING.........

We have sent all our paper work in since last fall sometime and we have been waiting 

ever since... oh we here things... but not what we were hoping to hear.  But the Lord is

always there reminding me.. In My time.  And that helps to carry me through till the next 

week, and then we start all over.  I am a slow learner.  During this time of waiting we have

been busy with various other things and blessings.

 Hailey Joy Brainard was born in Oct.  Grandma was a little late, but oh so blessed.

We were blessed with the gift of some tickets for the Show Hope Concert in Nov.

Blessing come in all different shapes and sizes (a brand new fridge was a gift of love from some very 

dear friends)

Christmas... we thought we might be gone this year, but the lord had other plans and we had a very blessed time.

Waiting comes in different forms... waiting for birth.

Waiting for the Adoption.

The end result for the birth was a beautiful baby girl.

Naomi Lynn Velie (a very proud grandma)

And we are still waiting at this current time.  We are waiting to get assigned.

Merry Christmas!!

We have seen God perform many miracles over the past year in our lives...  But the wonder of all miracle is still that Christ would come to earth and be born in a lowly manger for us!  We know that He came to earth for us, so that we may have life and have life more abundant... We know that He is the Savior of the World, and we are so thankful for the special time of year to remember the events that happened over 2,000 years ago but are still changing history every day. He has given to us salvation full and free, He has given us hope and forgiveness, each and everyday is filled with His goodness and blessings 

So from our family to yours, we pray that you have a wonderful and blessed Christmas Day!

Me

We are waiting.....

Waiting.....

That is what we have been doing for a few weeks now, or should I say since January.  

It has been rather interesting, things will go really fast that we can hardly keep up and then slow down to the point that we are not sure anything is ever going to happen. You feel so helpless.  The Lord has surely taught me much about patience and waiting on him.  We have seen the Lord do so many amazing things this past year.  We have seen our adoption account go from $500.00 to $26,000 in 9 short months and the Lord did it all he has blessed us over and over again.  So continue to hold us in your prayers, And keep our sweet girl in your prayers as she continues to wait, hope, and pray for a forever family to come and get her and bring her home. Pray for the people in charge (in Ecuador) as they do not even understand what these children and families are going through, and that they will soon assign this little girl to come home.

Adoption Journey

We would like to thank everyone who has prayed and supported us along the way...this has been an incredible and like changing journey for our family and its far from over yet! This is our way of saying Thank you and Please continue to pray and support us as God continues to make the impossible, Possible!

Please feel free to share and pass this one...

Miss "A's Craft Show

Finally all the planning and all the phone and all the work setting up... and the list goes on.  A big thank you to all those that donated time, money, items, food, and buildings.  It is amazing how much it takes to plan these events, the Lord has given me much strength and knowledge this summer.  Skills I am sure will come in handy for future use.

 The sign was given to us and my lovely daughter in-in-law did the writing and my boys hung it up.

 Many donations were given for the silent auction from area businesses, family, and friends.

 Helping hands come from all over, youth group helped serve food and make some of the signs.

Here is the craft show all set up.  There was not alot of activity that day, but the Lord never ceases to amaze me.  When we got home and did all our figuring, we were blown away we added and re added and there was no mistakes.... the Lord once again blessed us with over 1,000.00.  That far exceeded our expectations.  We have to give credit were credit is due.  Thank you Lord!

He continue to make the impossible possible. 

Unanswered Prayer.........

Delays are not denials.....

How do we face unanswered prayer?
We deal with it daily...we struggle with it hourly....no matter the cause, no matter where we are, if we pray, we will have unanswered prayer.

In the adoption game its no different in fact maybe more obvious! for days....for weeks.....for months we pray for things with seemingly no end in sight. We are discouraged, we are tired, we just don't even feel like fighting anymore.....but the battle rages on!

There is no time to give up! We are fighting against time! We can't give up! We are fighting for a life....what limits can you put on that?

Time after time we have seen God answer prayers.....

God worked miracles to bring us through our home study approval....

God granted my dad a passport after months of phone calls, tracking down papers and brick walls....

We have seen paperwork go through faster then it is suppose too....

Time after time God has sent us people to encourage us when we need it most!

Time after time God has supplied and given us far more than we could have come up with on our own.

Time after time God has brought sunshine to our tears...

Time after time God has given us for more strength than lies within us...

He has grown a group of supporters who love and pray for my family and our hearts desire...


But we still have spent sleepless nights....hours in prayer....tears...frustrations.... and many times we walk on with unanswered prayers....


How does one go on when all you have is a question mark?

Its called trust, its called faith, its called GOD.
Casting all your cares on Him for He care for you. 1 Peter 5:7 (If I quoted that wrong please don't tell my sunday school class!) Its crying out at His feet....God I can't do this! But honestly I know you can! I know I can trust you! Just last week I was up late praying for an impossible request and the next morning the answer came....but it was an answer that took months to come. Most of the time God doesn't answer our requests how we think He will, but in ways that are far better! That grow our faith and trust. I'm telling you right now With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible! Matthew 19:26.

How do I know? Because I have experienced it! Just as I know there is a God, because I know Him. I know He saves, because I have been redeemed! I know He is faithful because I have felt His faithfulness. I know He does miracles because I have seen them! I know He does all things well because I have seen it come to pass....in His time.

He hath made all things beautiful in His time, also He hath set the world in their heart so that no man can find out the work that God maketh from the beginning to the end. Ecclesiastes 3:11

Right now all I can do it praise God and thank Him for what He has brought us through....but our hearts are still heavy with unanswered prayer.

We need over $30,000 to complete this adoption process....since March we have raised over $15,000.
Its amazing and we are totally humbled and grateful, but it leaves us lacking. We have worked hard and God has blessed us far more than we ever could have imagined a long the way! We have reached the point of placement. So when the Ecuadorian committee places us, we will have about two weeks before we need to be over there. It could be as soon as next month but we cannot be sure when it will be. We have paid all of the adoption expenses on this side of the ocean but that leaves our funds pretty well spent with a huge gap.....I'm beginning to think....God my faith is not that reckless....but when I look behind me I know it is! We are standing here thinking whats next? But God, Hes got this whole thing....so tonight we carry on with unanswered prayer but rejoice in what we have seen God do!

Fundraising.....

  Fundraising... I have many thoughts on this.

I remember when the children used to go to a christian school and when the girls were in Girl Scouts and we had to do fundraising for these things.  It was a lot of work, but fun at the same time trying to raise money to help support the things that were important to us.

I was actually glad about not having to do that anymore when we decided to home school, I have not missed it one bit.

 Now, many years later and still home schooling I am back at fundraising.  As I talk with other families that have already adopted and some have done fundraising.  They say how hard it is and humbling to ask people for money to help support you in this journey you have decided to take.  

Oh how true that is!  So many times I don't want to ask, and worry what they might think or say.  Or, just quit altogether and just wait for God to give us all the money without us working or trying to do our part.  I feel the Lord leading each and every step of the way as people contact us with ideas or fundraisers they are doing for us.  How can I just sit?  After we seen this families efforts to help.  http://ecuadoradoption.blogspot.com/2013/03/have-2-lets-get-miss-home.html

(We have never met, or talked)

Our family pulled together for the long road that lay ahead and started planning our fundraising plan.  You should of heard some of the ideas that started coming out.  It was getting late and a little silly.  So two fundraisers behind us and one currently running all summer we are ready for the long haul, so please bear with us.  Since I started this post we have had a few more fundraisers and have a few currently running.  We are approximately 1/3 of the way to meet our needs.  This is totally a family affair, we all our joining in as well as our church family. 

The on going home made candy bar sales

There are new flavors added, so check it out!

Brianna squeezes in a new batch before or after work.

 She has lots of helpers

 and volunteers.

Thrift sale bake sale at the Quinells

Thank you Pat for the syrup.

 Thrift sale bake sale at our house

Getting ready for a sale at Jeremy's

Even Caleb is trying to help bring home his new Auntie.

Coming up this summer are still a few more bake sales, thrift sales( as we continue to get in donations for items to sell), recycling cans, Taste of Louisiana Dinner along with raffle, craft show along with raffle, bake sale, thrift sale, and food.  Along with some on-line sales that people continue to offer to do for us.  Any ideas are welcome as we continue on this journey.

Please continue to pray and share our story to help make the impossible possible!

Choice or Calling??

I use to think that Adoption was a choice that a family made....

But I have learned that Adoption is a calling....

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Adopting in God's mind was not Plan B. He predestined us for adoption before the creation of the world. Plan A was not lots of children who never sin and never need to be redeemed. Plan A was creation, fall, redemption, adoption so that the full range of God's glory and mercy and grace could be known by His adopted children. Adoption was not second best. Its was planned from the beginning." John Piper

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Defend the poor and fatherless: do justice to the afflicted and needy. Psalm 82:3

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. James 1:27

There are an estimated 143 million orphans in the developing world.

It's a gross understatement to say there are more children than adoptive families. Statistics from the US State Department show that in 2009 there were a total of less than 13,000 international adoptions completed in the US.

The numbers are crushing:

*15 million children have lost both mother and father.

*Tens of millions more are fatherless.

In the US alone 514,000 children live in our foster care system, and approximately 115,000 of them are waiting to be adopted right now.

*There are 18 million street children in India alone.

But a single statistics matters more than any other:

--It only takes one caring individual to make a lifelong difference for an orphan

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

What can I say? What can you do? I can't rescue all the children in the world! I can't fix all the social and legal problems. I can't get all the children adopted into loving and caring family's, I can't even get them all into loving and caring orphanages! I use to think of adopting as a choice, a family might chose to do this. if they can't have children, if they have the money and want to help an orphan, or if they simply want to help a help out an orphan. But when I stood in a room full of orphans, when I heard a girl with autism ask, where is my mom? When I seen children ask for a family, when I was surrounded by children that were full of behavioural issues and trapped with no way out....adoption and orphans took on a whole new meaning.....

Does it make sense to adopt a 9th child? Does it make sense to adopt a child that is blind or deaf? Does it make sense to adopt a child that has severe special needs? Does it make sense to spend countless hours, waiting, praying, and fundraising? Does it make sense to bring a foreign child across language, cultural and physical differences? Does it make sense to go through the pain, the adjustments, and the heartaches that adoption costs?

No, no, no, I think it sounds absurd, I think it sounds like a lot of work, I think it sounds like we should all just forget about it....

But wait...does it make sense that countless children are waiting for families? Does it make sense that just because they have a physical or mental handicap they shouldn't enjoy a family life? Does it make sense that we shouldn't because we have a large family....when they have no one? Does it make sense that we should give up because we can't afford it, when God has promised to provide, watch over, care for and protect these children that are so precious to Him?

Can not God provide a way?

For my family we never would have embarked on this journey if it hadn't come as a calling....if it hadn't required faith....if we hadn't stopped to say, "Your will be done, dear Lord". So God is moving mountains and we have the privilege of watching, participating and seeing what God will do.

Weekend get away!

Things are getting a little crazy around here.  There is paperwork, home study, fundraising and to top it all off we have been going through a lot of remodeling of are 1920's farmhouse.  And to say the least it has been very busy and also very dusty around here. Two weeks ago there were new windows going in around the house and when it came to the kitchen..... Well, Kevin said I think it would be best if you and the girls left for a few days, because things are about to get worse... I left when things were beginning to look like this...
Well I could not think of a better reason to leave and where to go was not a hard decision either.  I headed to Rhinelander to visit Mary, Noah and Austin. So I went from this ...

to this....

Try painting finger nails with this little guy running around, I'd say it was a perfect choice!

He is getting to be quite talented, he is almost walking.

He loves eating frozen blueberries, not fresh, but frozen!

Some knitting lessons with Grandma Brainard.

Grandma and Austin, wearing one of his sweaters hand made by her.

Mom and Austin, wearing another sweater from grandma.

Hanging out with his Aunties.

It was a very enjoyable weekend, Noah took us all out to eat the first night. It was so good! and very relaxing to not have to anything but enjoy the food and the company.  The next day we did a little shopping and made homemade subs and spent the afternoon visiting with grandma Brainard, what a blessing.  That evening we had pizza and then after supper Mary says to Noah can you watch the kids while my mom and I go out?  I started laughing, she said so I can do my weekly grocery shopping, ok. I forget when you have little ones how nice it is to have dad take over at home so you can enjoy some time alone, even if it is getting groceries.  The last day we just hung out and visited. As we headed home that afternoon it was snowing pretty hard, but we just took our time. And when we got home this is what we found....

Well not quite ,but I can dream a little.

It is coming along little by little.  The Lord is so good and continues to bless us in our home.

As for me and my house we will serve the Lord. Joshua 24:15

Slow & Steady

This week was a test of my patience, not much was going on and every time I  turned around I was more discouraged. I found myself frustrated, wondering, and doubting.  But daily the Lord would give me one little reminder that would assure me this is what he wants us to do.  About the middle of the week, I think some of the kids realized that mom was really stressed out and I was given this note.....

    Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. Romans 12:22

Friday brought on a whole new outlook, Kevin and I  are ready to keep stepping out in faith as the Lord leads us.  We also found our home study agency and we are looking forward to see what the next week has in store.

Prayer

Brethren, pray for us. 1 Thessalonians 5:25

Adoption is a long, slow process......

Please pray for us as we start this journey, we are so excited!! But we know the road will be hard and test our faith.

Finally, Brethren, pray for us that the Word of the Lord, may have free course, and be glorified, even as it is with you. 1 Thessalonians 3:1

~We have started to share our news with family and friends.....

~The more we share, the more people are responding with prayer and sharing our story and our plea for help.

~We have started raising the funds that we need....

~We are getting ready for our first fundraiser.... we will keep you posted! (Brianna is really excited!! :)

~We have found an agency to do the home study through, a process that will take approximately 3 months. We are waiting for Gods time to begin!


Wait for the Lord; be strong, and let your heart take courage; wait for the Lord!  Psalm 27:14.