A Family For Makayla

The book will be more like a scrapbook used for people to browse through after or during the presentation.

Someone told me I should publish it at Amazon and sell it for .99 on Kindle. I don't know. We'll see. Right now I want to write it and design it for the glory of God. 

It's important that people see and understand three things:

1. Special needs children aren't scary.

2. Adoption is possible no matter what your situation is in life so long as you meet government requirements.

3. God will be gloried.

That was a quick list subject to modification. If anyone can think of other reasons please leave a comment and I will add them to my list if appropriate. 

Janna at Reece's Rainbow

These are the lyrics from a favorite song of mine by Kutless. This song, besides the Bible, helped me through times of weakness in our adoption.

What Faith Can Do

Everybody falls sometimes
Gotta find the strength to rise
From the ashes
And make a new beginning

Anyone can feel the ache
You think it's more than you can take
But you're stronger
Stronger than you know

Don't you give up now
The sun will soon be shining
You gotta face the clouds
To find the silver lining

I've seen dreams that move the mountains
Hope that doesn't ever end
Even when the sky is falling
I've seen miracles just happen
Silent prayers get answered
Broken hearts become brand new
That's what faith can do

It doesn't matter what you've heard
Impossible is not a word
It's just a reason
For someone not to try

Everybody's scared to death
When they decide to take that step
Out on the water
It'll be alright

Life is so much more
Than what your eyes are seeing
You will find your way
If you keep believing

I've seen dreams that move the mountains
Hope that doesn't ever end
Even when the sky is falling
I've seen miracles just happen
Silent prayers get answered
Broken hearts become brand new
That's what faith can do

Overcome the odds
You don't have a chance
(That's what faith can do)
When the world says you can't
It'll tell you that you can

I've seen dreams that move the mountains
Hope that doesn't ever end
Even when the sky is falling
And I've seen miracles just happen
Silent prayers get answered
Broken hearts become brand new
That's what faith can do
That's what faith can do

Even if you fall sometimes
You will have the strength to rise

_____________________________________________________________________

A new family has taken a leap of faith. God bless them on their journey.

Penny has a family!

You can follow here on their blog http://www.zingermama.blogspot.com/

What is the worth of an orphan, a fatherless child? While I'm at it, what is the worth of a widow?

We need churches to support adoptions. There are children SUFFERING in orphanages.

New pews or one saved orphan? Two saved orphans, three, four, five...

Check out REECE'S RAINBOW.com

Anyhow, to give encouragement and ideas, I want to share with you how God blessed an act of faith.

It wasn't all sunshine and lollipops. I'm glad it wasn't. If it was, I wouldn't have what I hope is an inspiring story to share with all of you.

For starters, let me share that we had NO, NONE, ZIP, ZILCH support from our either of our families. Not one word of encouragement nor one dollar came from either of our families. Sure they thought we were doing a "noble" thing but they still didn't agree. We heard it all from how the child would ruin our family to how we shouldn't change her life because "it's what she knows". Gee, there's a lot I could say about all that but that's a post for another day.

We had Christian friends who told us adoption was a bad idea. In fact, only three Christian friends of ours stepped up and stood beside us. Not that they were all against it but they were just kind of "whatever".

So what did we do? We depended on God.

First things first. We had to come up with $3500 for our commitment fee. 

We had no idea how we were going to do this. We asked to borrow money from both of our families but neither wanted any part of it. 

I emailed a dear Christian friend of mine and told her what we were doing. She asked if she could help.
She mailed us a check. 

We praised God!!! The woman who sent us the money is truly a special person and we are very thankful to her.

Now we were running out of time to get the rest of the commitment money. We ended up taking $500 out of our bank account and putting the rest on a credit card. 

So commitment fees were paid...now to figure out how to get the rest...

I have been a stay-at-home mom for the past 16-17 years. I would do anything for one of my children. And sweet Makayla, now Annabelle, was one of my children. So what was I prepared to do to get my child home? 

I got a job. 

Not just any job. A grueling job. It was available and the company was willing to take me so I took it. 

I lifted heavy things. I pulled and pushed very heavy things. I got dirty. I froze. I sweat. I went crossed eyed looking at shiny chrome plated metal all day.

I smashed and broke my pinky finger.

I had to live off of the painkiller Aleve the whole time because I have a very bad back (upper and lower) due to two accidents.

I made $8.00 an hour. I worked overtime when I could.

When I came home I had to homeschool. Needless to say it wasn't our best homeschool year but I only had two in Kindergarten. Not a big deal. They are doing great!

Did I feel sorry for myself? No. I was extremely happy for every dollar I made because we desperately needed it to bring our little girl home.

I view the job as one of God's provisions. I am thankful.

Then out of nowhere came Julia from CovenantBuilders. She held a Mulligan Stew in which so many adopting families and orphans benefited. 

We thanked God. We prayed for blessings to be poured out on everyone for their generosity, prayers and love.

We are so grateful to her and everyone who donated.

I continued to work and work hard.

Then I was contacted by Amy from Hidden Treasures. She wanted to have an auction for us. I declined at first because we didn't have any support. No one we knew was going to donate to the auction or buy anything. And guess what...no one we knew donated or bought. But amazingly people we didn't know donated and bought! We were speechless.

We again thanked God. We prayed for more blessings to be poured out on everyone for their generosity, prayers and love.

Then we decided to try and have our own fundraiser. We had no idea how it would turn out. Prizes totaling $600 + tax and shipping came out of our pocket. We were hoping to raise $4500 and we amused ourselves by saying that we would give any funds over $4500 to the orphanage where our daughter is currently trapped.

We started the the fundraiser and after days we reached $90. At that point we were really hoping to at least make our money back on the prizes. 

          Side note: When I went to Bu*g*r*a on my first trip I spent it with Adeye from NoGreaterJoyMom. Wow, is she an amazing woman! It was such a blessing to spend time with her. I miss her sooo much! We shared pain in our hearts for the children and had many laughs as well.

After a few days of our attempt to raise the money, Adeye helped promote our fundraiser by posting the most beautiful blog post about us on her blog and people suddenly were donating so fast I was having a hard time keeping up with assigning numbers for the prizes. 

We raised the $4500 in 17 hours after Adeye's post and had $1715 extra to send to the orphanage! WOW!

To say we were floored would be an understatement. Another group of people helped us. More people who don't know us, who have never met us...helped us. 

We have prayed and prayed for everyone.

There was also a couple who sent us checks in the mail about every two weeks or so. What a blessing they are to us. Our prayers pour out for them.

We also had donations here and there sent to our Reece's Rainbow account. Truly a blessing.

And from the very beginning of my blog. I had one special girl who said little things that made a big difference. I thank her so much for being here. Thank you Katie.

We also gained many others who said encouraging things and we thank all of you. Your kind words helped us through hard times.

All in all, our adoption cost us about $24,000.
We received about $10,300 in donations. Thank you everyone!
And we also incurred about $4000 in debt.
Oh well, it will get paid off. That debt is no worse than if she was delivered in an American hospital.