I LOVE Surprises!!!

Well, today was Colten's first day of school which brought a whole lot of excitement. He had a GREAT first day of school and really loved it! We got a surprising message today from a friend who went to Liberia with us back in Feb. of 2009, he went back with a few men from his church in Chicago IL this past week. He sent us a message informing us that he made a surprise visit to Onah and Marie on his way to the airport! He took some pics for us and a short video. He won't be able to send us the video until he's back in the states, but we got some wonderful pictures of our little sweeties last night! What a great ending to a great day!!!


Marie will turn two August 19th!!! Can't believe how big she got so fast!!


Love the look on his face! ha! Onah turned 2 in April. He looks like a little man!


Brother and sister :) They look like the took the guests much better than last time...no tears! (I really think it had to do with the large crowd last time. Only 3 visitors this time instead of 20 some, that would be pretty tramatic!)

Ok, so many times now there have been meetings scheduled for adoptions and the government in Liberia and every time they have been canceled due to someone being out of the country! So, I believe this is the 5th try or something...LET'S ALL PRAY THE MEETING HAPPENS!!!! Tues., August 17th the meeting has been scheduled yet again in Liberia. Please pray for all parties to be available for the meeting and for God to move a mountain in the government and the moratorium be lifted for our children! We see many children coming home from other countries in Africa and while we are excited for those families we wish it was our family being brought together. I will keep you posted on the meeting when I hear more.
Praying and Trusting in God, our life planner.

Please Pray with Me Today!

Today there will be a meeting in Liberia for agency representatives and governmental officials. Please pray that there will be some hopefull and good news on lifting the moratorium in Liberia. There was rumor that the government was thinking of 'shelfing' the new adoption bill until next year. We have petitioned and pleaded against that. Please petition to our Mighty Lord on our families behalf, as well as the waiting children and other families. In the past 3 months 11 families have had to drop out of the program leaving over 1/2 of the children in our orphanage orphaned yet again. These children could really use your prayers for encouragement and uplifting. Once the moratorium is lifted our agency will be able to again find parents for these children, but they have been advised not to until then, by the government.
We truly appreciate your prayers in this difficult time.

Waiting and praying unceasingly!!

Happy Birthday!!!

Onah turns 2 today!!!! Happy Birthday Onah!

If you could join me today in saying a prayer for our little 2 year old. Hopefully we won't have to miss another one.

Over Half Way!

God continues to bless us in the most unexpected ways! We are just over half way to meeting the needs of Onah and Marie's foster care support for the entire year! God is awesome! We have 15 supporters right now that have teamed with us to help us bring home our babies!! As you know Matt and I have been paying $400 a month in foster care fees for Onah and Marie for 2 years. Instead of doing a fundraiser this spring we decided to send out support letters for the foster care we normally pay ourselves. God has blessed us with friends/family who have stepped up and helped us out with (currently) $230 of that a month!
Our goal is to find enough supporters to be able to meet the total $400 a month needed to cover their costs in foster care fees. I said earlier it is amazing how God has blessed us in the most unexpected ways...Matt and I were driving home the other night and many of you know we have been recycling metal to help pay for expenses. As we pulled in the drive Matt tells me he's going back down the road to see if he can pick up some metal he saw sitting by the road. He left and was gone for quite some time. I got worried so I called him and he proceeded to tell me the story of a man he just met. He talked to this man about taking the metal for him and the man said, "if it's metal you want to recycle then follow me" So of course Matt and Colten follwed him out back of his house and found what would be later over 1200 pounds of metal! Matt told the man what he was recycling it for and the man was excited to help. Just one load of the metal became a $10 supporter for the year!
It always amazes me throughout this long and drawn out journey how God supplies in the most unusual ways, yet shows He is faithful and where He leads He WILL provide! God, You amaze me!

News That Brings Hope

One of the families who had completed adoptions traveled 3 weeks or so ago to bring home their son. We had great news that despite a delay in their original leaving time, they have finally arrived back in the US and have been celebrating Matthew finally being home with them!
When we visited we grew such close bonds to all these children, they are all like our family and it warms my heart to know that Matthew's dream of coming home to the US with his family has finally come true! What happiness he must be feeling right now to know he finally has a mom and dad and sisters and a home that loves him and cares for him! No more waiting, no more wanting, I'm sure he's on cloud nine right now!
Brings me hope to think about our reunion God has planned for us! There is another family there now that will be bringing home their little miracle. Their son has severe CP and has needed to come home for quite some time now for medical purposes. Soon they will be on their way, hopefully be home sometime beginnning of next week. And the 3 siblings have been cleared to go home. They attempted to have them escorted home with Matthew's family but the government is not allowing escorting anymore, they would like families to come themselves (which I agree with). So much going on...just wish they'd lift that moratorium.