God's grace and favor are AMAZING

OUR HOME STUDY IS ALMOST COMPLETE!

God's grace and favor are AMAZING!

We have encountered so much favor during our home study process.  The paper work is moving along at an amazing pace, and we are so thankful! 

Now begins the process of creating our dossier and raising the funds to complete this. 

I think I have finally allowed myself to breath and accept that this is really, finally, happening again. 



The Least of These

In my last post, I introduced you to three precious children being cared for at Mama Mayila's Cradle in Sierra Leone.  Since then, I am tickled to say, we have had several inquiries about them. Liam now has a family doing their best to get him the medical help he so desperately needs! And Noah has a family pursing his adoption!  That's a BIG Praise the Lord! 

Today I would like to introduce you to two more Littles who also need help.  They are August and Sid.  

 

"August" is approximately 6 years old.  As you can see in his picture, August has a tendency to fall and when he does, he hits his head.  He desperately needs a helmet to protect him from further head injury.  He is also thought to have epilepsy and "diminished capacity." August was abandoned, and is in need of a loving forever family who can provide him the medical and emotional support he will need to meet his full potential. He really is a sweet boy.  Are you willing to take the leap to pursue him as your son?

This little pumpkin is "SID".  He's about 4 years old, a quiet little thing, but very attentive to that which goes on around him. He has two living parents, but they are unable to provide his much needed medical intervention.  Sid fell in a fire, and because he did not receive good medical care, he has much scaring from his burns. One of his hands healed so that it pulled backward in a flexed position and his fingers webbed together. He still has movement in it so there is hope. He is going to need reconstructive surgery.  We are hoping to find someone to sponsor him for a medical visa where he can receive much needed medical care and then return to his family with increased quality of life.  Are you the person to offer that help? If you are interested in finding out more, please let me know and I will point you in the right direction.

Both of these boys are in need of Sponsors.  For as little as $125 a month per child, you can provide for their housing, food, clothing and specialized care. You can partially sponsor one of them for $75 per month, per child.  Here's a link to their page. Just click on the child's picture.

http://maisonducoeurfruit.wixsite.com/mamamayilascradle/littles

To the world you may be just one person, but to one person - child - you can mean the world.  

Thank you for your help! 

Helping the Most Vulnerable

“We learned that orphans are easier to ignore before you know their names. 

They are easier to ignore before you see their faces. 

It is easier to pretend they’re not real before you hold them in your arms. 

But once you do, everything changes.”

~ David Platt

I've seen them.

I've held them in my arms. 

I've kissed their faces, and I will never forget.

The little bug on the left, the one in his handsome red shirt, spent most of a week wrapped around me.  I wore him in a sling made from a length of cloth.  And I love him with all that's in me.

These children are real, flesh and blood, not just stock pictures, and they need us - you and me.  In the midst of what you and I would deem a nightmare and abject poverty, they still deserve joy, peace, love and protection.  They deserve to giggle and play.  They deserve an education which in their country must be paid for.  They need food - that which you and I would deem meager fare, but is their sustenance. WE need to help them, love them and show them the love of God. 

We need to be Jesus with skin on.

What's that you say?  You can't go to Africa?  No, problem.  There are those who are willing to go and take that which you provide.  But I can do you one better, you can sponsor one of these children. For the cost of less than a Happy Meal a day, you can provide food, housing, clothing and round the clock care for a very vulnerable child.  

Let me introduce you to some of the most vulnerable which I had the honor of meeting.

Meet Noah. 

 Isn't he just beautiful? He's about 4 years old; we're not sure because we have no birth date for him.  That's not uncommon for orphans.  He's a quiet little man.  His whole world is quiet because he is deaf.  He was so lost and frightened when he first came into the center.  I'm sure he was quite confused.  However, he's been there for a few months now, and when I took this picture he was attending a school for the deaf.  Without sponsorship he is not able to attend.  Sponsorship of him, which would provide for his every need including school is only $125 a month.  You can find a link for him and other littles who need sponsorship here.

Then There's Baby Liam.  

He's about a year now.  When I was there in Oct, and took this picture, he was about 10 months old.  His head was at least twice the size it should be for one so young.  He did not wake while I was there, but moaned and tossed in his sleep. I touched him and prayed for him. He is in desperate need of a shunt to relieve the pressure on his brain.  This could be a life or death situation.  His country is not able to give him the medical care that he needs, but they are willing to allow him to come to the US on a medical visa to receive care.  If you are the one whom God is calling to help baby Liam, please email Hope 4 Ebola Orphans Charity.  You can also Sponsor him and other babies who need sponsorship by going here.

 This is Mercy

Like so many others, we are not quite sure of her age.  She's listed at about 12 but could be older.  At first she seemed like such a tough cookie, but when I made sure she knew that I saw her, asked her name and then taught her to sign "I Love You", she began to soften.  I even let her take a stab at braiding my hair!  For one who's had such a tough life, she still loves all things girly and pink is her favorite color.  Mercy is going to school, but without a sponsor that could come to an abrupt ending soon.  In her country, without an education, she has little hope.  She has no special needs, other than she's a teen girl who desperately needs to know she is loved.  Sponsoring her would be only $120 a month and if you are so inclined, or perhaps interested in sponsoring another girl, you can do so by going here.

There are also a few handsome boys who need sponsorship. I met many of them.  Every one had a beautiful smile and sweet heart.  You can find their sponsorship page here. 

Part of my heart walks around in Africa.  Trust me, getting involved with these children is one adventure you'll never regret. 

Over a year

It's been too long since I've blogged.  Goes to show you how busy we've been and, if you know me, I'm not much to talk especially when it's not "pure, lovely and of a good report."  I won't lie to you, or sugar coat it, this past year has been a tough one, but most of the kids are doing amazing! 

Leza and Nico are growing and learning by leaps and bounds.  Nico is signing up a storm and doing his best to verbalize.  He does say "Momma" quite often which just blesses my heart! Leza can eat and walk, even up stairs, like a pro!  Emily knocks the socks of anyone who encounters here with her gifted intelligence and super strength.  Misha is an amazing little trooper having just gone through major surgery on his feet, six weeks of casting and now two more (yes, the doc said two instead of four!), and he's done it (mostly) with a smile and his usual animated self!  Flora has become a precious little lady who is loving and kind and gentle and ever willing to be the big sister helping Mommy and Daddy with "the babies".  Gavin has grown to the size of a 7/8 year old.  Sometimes I have to remind myself he's just five!  Ian, what can I say, he's precious and loving and just warms my heart every time he says "Mommy, I love you."  <sigh> And then there's Lyra . . .

Lyra came home with some behaviors that broke our hearts.  When one lives in an orphanage for fifteen years, one learns things that are not appropriate amongst civilized folks.  We've had to regroup on many of the things we initially thought would be good for her and go in the complete opposite direction.  Like putting her in the room with her sisters and putting her in public school.  Both were a disaster.  She now has a room completely away from the kids, closest to our room so we can be more aware of her whereabouts.  She is also being homeschooled because her extreme attention getting behaviors and being easily distracted kept her from learning.  Since being homeschooled, which stated about two weeks ago, she is beginning to read! Something the school did not think she was ready to do. She is isolated from the triplets (Ian, Misha and Emily) during the day, left alone with her lessons which are mostly online or videoed, but monitored to keep her on task, and she's doing well.  She has learned many new, more appropriate behaviors, like how to hold an eating utensil, how to use proper table manners, how to be completely independent with her personal hygiene, how to pick out clothing that matches, and how to appropriately interact with an acquaintance or stranger.  That last one was HUGE especially since she is a pretty, friendly smiley girl.  She's in counseling to help heal her traumatic past so that it will not continue to try to repeat itself.  It's gonna take awhile, but it took awhile for all this to come about too.  She's learning what unconditional love is and how to really love in return.  She's learning that next to God, family is MOST important and one should be loyal to their family.  Keeping her home is emphasizing where that love, direction, and training should come from first.  Like I said, it's not been easy, but we are seeing progress. 

I felt like I needed to updated my kids' fans, you know who you are, and let you know how they are doing.  We really are doing fine, and with much prayer for wisdom we are making steps to do what's best for all of the kids.  We love our life and as we go through everything we have to, we grow together and become a much tighter knit family. 

Thank you all for your continued prayers!  We really appreciate them. 

Jode, Kelley and kids

Janelle

Hi all, let me tell you about a precious one known as "Janelle". 

She was born in 2007 with CP and struggles some with epilepsy. She is not able to walk on her own, but would be such a blessing to any family.  She will remain bed/chair-ridden for life if she is not adopted.

Her medical records says she has microcephaly, Spastic tetraparesis (CP), steady movement violation, Episyndrome and Strabismus. She is a tiny, frail little thing and her caregivers are very concerned about her lack of growth.

She has reddish brown hair and eyes to match with pale skin. Although weak, she is alert and watches what goes on around her.

She is in desperate need of a Mommy and Daddy who can give her love and get her the medical care she so desperately needs. 

In her country parents must be married to adopt.  She is available to older couples and those with large families. 

Janelle has a grant of over $9000 through Reece's Rainbow to help with her adoption.  If interested in finding out more about her, please contact me or Reece's Rainbow through the link above. 

If you are not contemplating adoption at this time, please share her, pray for her and donate to her grant.  We may not be able to change the world, but as advocates for God's most precious ones, we can change the world for that one!

Submitted

We are happy to say that after three months of paper chasing, our dossier was submitted this past week to the adoption authorities in our children's country.  I was in shock for a couple days. It had finally happened.  I told our coordinator, Nancy, that as soon as it hit me I would send her a video of me freaking out!  However, when it did hit me, my reaction was an even greater surprise.

Instead of doing a happy dance, I found myself sitting among piles of clothes, overwhelmed by the Grace of God and in tears.  I am going through the out-grown clothes we have from Flora, Gavin and Ian to see what can be worn by our new little ones and what we can sell to help raise money to bring them home.  I guess the realization that  1. we have only a few weeks to raise the rest of the funds, 2. we are actually at this stage and 3. our precious new babies will be wearing the clothes I was holding in my hands, made it all a bit more real.  And so I sat there, in tears, humbled by it all and thinking about that word "submitted".

"Submitted" is a word that holds such depth of meaning.  Have you ever thought about it?  Dictionary.com has no less that seven meanings three of which are:

1. to yield oneself to the power or authority of another
2. to allow oneself to be subjected to some kind of treatment 
3. to defer to another's judgment, opinion, decision, etc.

When we begin an adoption journey we work toward the goal of getting our dossier, (months and months of tears, many many hours and  mounds of paperwork) submitted to the governing authorities, but in doing so we also submit ourselves to a higher calling, one which cannot be understood unless you've been through it or been very close to someone who has.  We submit ourselves to a process, or goal to persevere until all is completed which enables us to bring the child/ren home.  We submit ourselves to someone else's opinion because we have to have a home study created by someone else which judges our motives, our character and our means.  We submit ourselves to God's will for our lives even when others would deem us irrational.  Yet we submit.

God does not call us to become part of the crowd.  He does not ask us to go with the flow.  He asks us to submit to His calling on our lives whether it makes sense or not.  Noah building an ark on dry land made no sense yet he submitted.  Abraham sacrificing his precious, long awaited for, only son made no sense, yet he submitted.  Mary, as an unwed teen, was chosen to be the mother of Christ which she must have known would submit her to others ridicule, yet she submitted when she said "be it unto me according to Your will."  She submitted.  And so do we.

I see the faces of people like Rene, who in the midst of great pain continues to submit to God's calling upon her life to adopt a teen girl who desperately wanted a family.  I see Katie who could have easily given up by now, but she perseveres to fight to adopt her precious Rose.  I see Andrea and Kathy who started ministries to rescue special needs orphans who would be considered the "least of these" because of their needs.  So many families, so many children and just like the saints of old, God gives us strength to continue to submit to His will even when it's not easy. 

Many see the little bundle once we get them home and think "aww, how adorable" but have no clue what we have submitted to in order to get to this place.  Nor do they have any idea what we will submit to once they are home in order to help them begin to heal emotionally and/or physically.  These are all things we've taken into account, rest assured, and part of our choice to submit to this calling upon our lives. 

 Proverbs 3:5-6 says:

⁵ Trust in the Lord with all your heart
    and lean not on your own understanding;
⁶ in all your ways submit to him,
    and he will make your paths straight

So we were submitted this week.  We will continue to be submitted because in that submission He will make our paths straight. 

Thank you Father, for Your perfect will in all of our lives which we submit to You.  IJN, Amen

Donate here to help bring our children home.

Dossier Complete - Now we wait!

Hurry Up and Wait - That's a term we used a lot in the military.   It seemed while in boot camp that we were always rushing somewhere only to stand in a long line.  The adoption process is much the same.

 

We as adoptive parents do our best to get all of our dossier documents in country in order to be submitted for approval just as quickly as we can.  Once those documents are complete, our dossier is submitted to the governing officials who then determine whether they too will approve us to adopt from their country.  Once approved, we are then given a date to travel to come meet our long awaited little ones.  And that's where we are now.

 

Our final dossier documents arrived in country this morning (yea!) via another family who left yesterday on the way to meet their soon to be daughter.  It's an odd feeling having our dossier complete.  We hit a couple snags along the way, but we are finally at the point where we can do very little except wait. 

 

Of course, during that wait time I'm trying to figure out how to pack for three little ones, who will need very warm winter clothing AND "pack light."  Snowsuits are not small no matter how small the child.  Thankfully, from all guestimations, our little ones will most likely wear size 24mo or smaller.  Still, three snowsuits, three changes of clothing per child, and all the appropriate kiddie paraphernalia will leave little room for much else if we are merely going to take carry on luggage.  Somehow I just don't think that's going to happen.  Mom and Dad will need cold (very cold) weather clothes too!  I did buy some space bags, thanks to the recommendation of a veteran adoptive parent.  I'll let you know how it turns out.

 

I inserted a picture of our precious Caius below.  He's in the midst of getting dressed, but this shows, once again, just how absolutely adorable he is.  Those eyes are going to have many young girls' hearts all atwitter. 

 

 

Money update - we've had a couple of precious people donate to our Family Sponsorship Page.  (You can access that here or via our side bar donation button.)  Thank you very much!  Our fund raising efforts continue as well. We are getting closer to our must-have goal of $32,000 every day.  Please remember that your donations are tax deductible, and if you live in a country other than the US, you can pay through paypal and they will do the rate conversion for you.  Your help is most appreciated.

 

Many Blessings,

Jode and Kelley

International v. Domestic

Some of you have asked several questions about us adopting internationally. I wanted to put it all down in writing, so you can see it and share with others who may ask.

1.  Why are we pursuing International rather than Domestic adoption?

•  There are over 5000 SC families waiting for children under the age of 5.  We have been blessed to have three under five which I have been told "just never happens".  There is supposedly a 3-5 year waiting period.  Asking for another one would be selfish. 

• Those in foster care that need adopted right now are usually over the age of 7 and most over age 10.  After experiencing several foster placements of children older than Flora, we discovered something we thought was unique to us, but upon further investigation, found that it was usual. 

• Flora is our oldest child, and experience has shown us, as well as what we have recently read which substantiates it, that adopting a child older than the current oldest child, who is used to being the oldest, usually causes problems.  We thought it was just Flora, but it’s actually quite documented.  It’s called “disrupting the birth order” and as odd as it sounds, it happens whether the child is adopted or not.  It usually affects the oldest child, but not so much the younger or middle children. 

 
2.  Why choose Eastern Europe for International adoption?

• We only qualify to adopt from a hand full of countries because of our age and divorce history.  Every country has different parental parameters which they will or will not accept.

• Of the countries for which we do qualify, Reeces Rainbow had several adorable children in Eastern Europe which won our hearts. We are thrilled to be pursuing Caius and Hattie.  We very  much look forward to bringing them home!!

3.  Why special needs?

• Why not?  Like Jode says, they are all children in need of parents.

I hope this helps some of you who question our sanity! ;-)
 
Love you,
Kel

Domestic and International concurrently

Eighteen months ago we were blessed with this precious boy.  Being Flora's bio brother, their extended family asked if we would adopt him as well.  This time it was to be a private adoption. We are blessed to have an open adoption with their extended family and in turn they adopted us. 

 

Today we had the termination of parental rights (TPR) hearing.  Both bio parents were notified some weeks ago  of the hearing but unfortunately their lifestyles being as they are, the bio father did not get an attorney appointed until last week.  You guessed it.  He asked for a continuance so that he could actually talk to his client at some point. 

 

Here in the great county of Edgefield we have circuit judges who are only here every few months.  Because of that, it may be the new year before we go back to court to finally have this hearing.  Frustrating for sure, but we know in this adoption, as in all of our adoptions, God is still in control and He will make it all work out in His time. 

 

We love this boy.  He's an amazing sweetie and definitely has our hearts. 

 

Our international adoption is in a waiting stage.  Our next step is an appointment to have our finger prints done and approval from immigrations.  We do expect to hear from them this week mostly because I plan to call and bug them until I find out when our finger print appointment happens! =)  Once we have immigration approval, that approval will go to Eastern Europe and then our entire dossier will be submitted to the governing authorities for review and approval.  Not too much longer and we'll be there.  Which leads me to financing.

 

We still need about $12,000 to be fully funded for our international adoptions and this new turn of events with our domestic adoption will take additional funds.  We're doing all we can and ask that you prayerfully consider helping us financially.  Of course your prayers are always welcome too!  Our donation button can be found on the side of this blog.  And here's a direct link to it as well: http://reecesrainbow.org/60090/sponsorrobinson-4  All donations are appreciated and of course are tax deductible.  Thank you in advance for your help.

 

Blessing to you!

Jode and Kelley

Paper Chase Almost Complete . . . for now

Thank you all for your prayers and for continuing to pray.  We are almost through with the paperwork required for this side of the world.  There will be more once we get to Eastern Europe. 

 

It looks like we may be traveling in December, which will fit well into Jode's school schedule.  It's going to be very cold there, and  I'm not a cold weather kinda gal.  This will be interesting.  It also means more luggage for more clothing.  Living here in South Carolina, it never gets very cold.  Sure we get snow occasionally but rarely.  I don't know that we really have the proper attire for this trip but we can layer . . . lots of layers.  I want to be warm enough to at least enjoy the snow a little. 

 

We've been chatting with some families who have been to the regions from which we are adopting and getting some good ideas of what to anticipate.  As we get closer, I'm sure we'll take notes on where to go and where not to go, where to eat and where not to eat.  There's so much to think about, which is why I'm so glad I've gotten involved with so many wonderful people who have already been there and done that. 

 

In the meantime, I've been grant writing.  I've never tried this before, but after the first couple, they get easier.  For those of you who don't know, there are agencies and ministries which feel it's important to help those of us who are doing our best to rescue those who could easily be referred to as "the least of these".  Least as in the smallest and most helpless, but certainly not least as in unimportance. 

 

These babies need families and God lays on each parent's heart the desire to adopt certain ones.  It's amazing to watch.  I will see a child and think "Oh, my goodness.  How sad."  knowing that I am not called to be that child's mother, and then someone else will choose that child to be their very own!  Then I can see another child and know in my heart of hearts that child was created, even on the other side of the world, to be ours.  Such miracles God can do in our hearts if only we let him.  The amazing thing is, we are all called to pray for them and do according to James 1:27 and in doing so, we will fulfill Matthew 25:40.

 

Our next steps will be biometrics which is a fancy word for fingerprinting, and then we wait for USCIS (immigrations) approval for us to adopt.  That approval form will be apostilled and sent to Eastern Europe to join up with the rest of our paper work.  It will be the last piece we need to send.  Then we wait for approval from the country, and wait for a date to travel.  This kinda reminds me of the military - I did a lot of hurry up and wait then too.  I think both experiences have/had their merits, but somehow I just know I'm going to enjoy the outcome of this experience so much more!