Fund Raising Spotlight

Our good friends Derek and Leslie are adopting from Ethiopia, and today their fund raising efforts were featured on Filled With Praise!  We just LOVE these sweet friends, so I had to share the featured blog post.  If you've been looking for ways to help orphans in their distress, donating to Derek and Leslie as they bring home a baby or two would be a great way to start!

I get so excited to share these families with you each week.  I love reading their stories and I always feel so encouraged and inspired by their walk of faith.  This week I have the privilege of introducing you to Leslie and Derek.  They are adopting from Ethiopia.  Here is what Leslie shared about their journey:

We are a young couple from Louisville, Kentucky. I am an elementary teacher and my husband works as a business developer for a company here in Louisville.  We have decided to "adopt first". So our baby will be our very first child. God planted a seed in our hearts over a year ago and we knew this was how we were supposed to start our family. We have been so encouraged by friends who have adopted and are so thrilled to  live out this journey. I have always loved children and knew that God was going to use my life in some way for that. I thought it was just through teaching and I never thought it would be for adoption too! Yet, I am so happy that it is. We feel so blessed to be on this journey!

Leslie shared their favorite Bible verse during this journey and their thoughts about the verse.    

John 14: 18 

I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.  

I love being reminded of God's provision and perfect plan. Not only does this apply to the many children who are orphans, but to us as well who would be orphans without Him.

Leslie is making wreaths and flower clips to help raise funds for their adoption.  She has an Etsy shop to purchase pre-made wreaths, but she also gladly accepts custom orders.  The wreaths are available to order in two sizes and they can be made in almost any color.  Leslie shared that they are great for indoor or outdoor decor.    

Please stop by Leslie and Derek's blog to encourage them on their journey.  Also, take a moment to check out some of Leslie's beautiful wreaths, by visiting her Etsy shop.  

Blog:  The Jones Family

Etsy Shop:  Leslie Allison Designs

Growing a Family

An excerpt from a friend's blog.  I love hearing from people who have kids by birth and by adoption!

Everyone has a different reaction to our decision to grow our family through adoption. Some people are excited and supportive. Some think we are doing a “kind deed” by helping the poor child. Others are skeptical and wonder if we will love the child the same as our birthed children. Some people feel the need to share some examples of other adopted children who rebelled when they grew up and treated their adoptive parents poorly. Others are in dismay as to why we would adopt a child when I can physically birth children, and they are perplexed as to why we would want a child of another race. Others are against adoption, especially international adoption. Our reason for adoption is simple: love. We wholeheartedly believe that every child is uniquely created and is deserving of love. We believe that every child, regardless of skin color and special needs, was created to grow up in the context of a loving family. All children were wonderfully and lovingly made.

Our daughter is no different. She was lovingly and wonderfully made. She was created to grow and flourish in a family, but sometimes life is not how it should be. While in a perfect world, every child could grow up with their birth parents, often times that is not possible for many reasons. People might reason then that we are adopting because we pity her situation and feel compelled to save her. This couldn’t be farther from the truth. We aren’t trying to be a savior. We by no means are perfect parents, but we do love her, and we believe love is deeper than blood lines or skin color. We love her like we love the children we birthed. In our eyes, she is no different than our two older sons. We believe that she is a perfect fit for our family. She, like our other children, is a special gift.

Pregnancy and adoption have many similarities. Both families must endure a time of waiting. Both families eagerly anticipate the day they first meet their child. Both families look into the eyes of their child and know that this child is a special gift and is a perfect part of their family. Why? Because of love: a parent’s love endures, eagerly hopes, and relishes in the beauty and wonder of their child. Regardless of how a family is formed, through adoption or through physical birth, love is what defines a family.

Warmer Days!

Now that we've got little ones, I'm looking forward to spring like never before!  We've had some warmer days lately, and we wasted no time getting to the nearest park.

 

We're looking forward to many more days like these ahead!!

I Saw What I Saw

Sara Groves sings a moving song inspired by a trip she recently took to Rwanda... I've heard it before, but it's well worth watching the video while you listen to it.

Your pain has changed me... your courage asks me what I'm afraid of, your courage asks me what I'm made of...and what I know of love.

Though it's been almost a year since we were in Ethiopia, help us, Lord, not to forget.

Welcome Home, Isaiah and Hannah Van Neste!

It was our joy to see our good friends Scott and Angela off at the airport a week ago as they traveled to Ethiopia to pick up their son and daughter and bring them home.

Today we had the even greater joy of welcoming them back home with Isaiah and Hannah Van Neste!  It was so reminiscent of our trip, which I can hardly believe was almost a year ago now.  The exhaustion, the excitement, the baby carriers, and the beautiful brown, curly haired, confused, sleepy boy and girl that had just traveled from the other side of the world.

I'm sure they'd appreciate your prayers as they go from 6 to 8 children.  If anyone is up to it, by God's grace, it's Scott and Angela!

So welcome home, Isaiah and Hannah.  Welcome to the Van Neste family.  We're so thankful for God's intervention in your life to rescue you out of desperate circumstances and place you in a loving, Christian home.  Sweet babies, you are a beautiful picture of the gospel, and we pray that as you get older you'll come to embrace that same gospel!

Lifesong, Orphan Care Alliance and the Philpots

Lifesong for Orphans has long been a familiar name to us.  They have a strong reputation in the adoption world for being a Christian organization firmly committed to orphans and adoptive families.  Little did we know when we mailed off a grant application to them many months ago what great personal friends they would also become.  We honestly can't say enough good things about the people there and the work they're doing.  It's a privilege and a blessing to be connected to them.

Many of you might remember that Lifesong had us speak at a conference in Chicago this past fall on behalf of adoptive families that have received grants from them.  It was such a wonderful event, and we were really encouraged to hear about all the ways that Lifesong is involved in helping orphans around the world.  While we were there, they had us do a video interview... and today they featured our family and Orphan Care Alliance on their blog.  Orphan Care Alliance is a fantastic local organization, and they're the ones that funded our matching grant through Lifesong.  The more we get to know about them, the more we want to get involved with what they're doing.

So check out the Lifesong blog for the interview... I'll give you a preview of the video here.  Our family interview starts at about the 50 second mark.

Special Delivery from Ethiopia

Our kids have grown into the t-shirts that our adoption agency sent us while we were still waiting to bring them home. They say "Special Delivery from Ethiopia."  We're so thankful the Lord delivered them straight to us!!

Adopted for Life

I've had several people let me know that you can get a FREE download of the excellent audiobook Adopted for Life: The Priority of Adoption for Christian Families and Churches by Dr. Russell Moore all month long at christianaudio.com.  I just grabbed it off the shelf today to send a quick quote to a friend, and I'm reminded again what a great great book it is.  I highly recommend it whether you're thinking about adopting or not!

The Van Nestes

Our great friends Scott and Angela Van Neste are headed to Ethiopia to bring home their son and daughter!  Please pray with us that they'll be safe and have no problems.

We love and respect Scott and Angela so much. They have four biological children, two foster children, and have adopted these precious twin babies from Ethiopia into their family, Hannah and Isaiah. Their sweet girl Hannah may have downs syndrome, but there's no testing in Ethiopia to know for sure whether she does or not. Regardless, the Van Nestes are ready to love and cherish both babies and we're so excited to help welcome the two newest Van Nestes!!

My New Favorite Shirts

My hubby's cousin Michelle has an etsy shop, and my thoughtful mother-in-law got me this fantastic shirt for Christmas from her.  I love it!  If you'd like one too, you can order it from little.blue.feather.

I also won a giveaway for a free Lifesong t-shirt!

You can find it and other t-shirts they have for men and women here.  I love promoting adoption!!

What a Difference a Year Makes

Here's a picture of our kids from last week, sporting adorable shirts that a friend made for them.  (She's super creative and has a fun etsy shop)

And here's a picture of them one year ago.  Wow, they're getting so big!  It's really amazing how much they change in the first year of life! 

Don't they look so much healthier and happier now too?  I remember looking at photos like this older one before we went to get them, and my mommy instinct would really kick in.  I couldn't wait to bring them home and take care of them! 

Four People Twelve Times

I've got a new goal.  I'd love to take at least one picture of all four of us every month in 2011.  Otherwise we just don't end up with too many pictures that have all of us in them, and I know how much we'll treasure them over the years!  I didn't come across this idea until January 30 after the kids went to bed.  So we took a very impromptu picture on January 31 for the few minutes after daddy came home from work and before mommy left for Bible study.  Here's to January!

Court Date Anniversary!

On February 1, 2010, the Ethiopian courts declared that two newborn babies that had been orphaned into desperate circumstances were our children.  We'd hardly slept the night before with anticipation, and woke up very early that morning for an update on the court decision.  We found the email in my inbox only minutes after it arrived, at 5:12 in the morning!  God was true to His word in Psalm 9:12 - "He does not forget the cry of the afflicted."  He heard the cries of our little ones and came to their rescue.

God, the creator and upholder of all things, is mindful of each one of us, including a little boy and girl from the small village in Ethiopia.

These sweet babies had been in fairly good care up to that point, but care that is intermediate by its very nature.  There is no substitute for a mother and a father.  Had their court cases not passed, we’re not sure what would have happened to them.  They may have remained orphans for the rest of their lives.  No mother.  No father.  And terrible prospects for life after they aged out of the orphanage.  Deuteronomy 10:18 tells us that God “executes justice for the fatherless.”  What a joy to be God’s provision for these two!

Our son and daughter have had 365 days of being Philpots, and we've had that long of calling them ours.  It's a beautiful thing, and we can't thank the Lord enough for entrusting them to us.

Over the past year we've often reflected on the sacrificial love of our daughter's birth mother and the situation of her unknown birth father and our son's unknown birth parents.  There are only sad reasons why children are made orphans.  My heart has been full of love for these precious babies and sometimes full of grief reflecting on the fact that their birth parents will never have the joy of knowing them like we do.  We are simply not worthy of this gift.

So on this day we give thanks to our Heavenly Father, who created these two children and formed them in their birth mothers' wombs, then lovingly placed them in our arms.  He has given them new names, new identities in our family, and a new hope for a future...much like He has done in our lives through Christ.  What a joy that our family is a picture of that most glorious adoption.  Praise be to God alone!

Psalm 68:6  God sets the lonely in families.

 Just off the plane from Ethiopia with our new son and daughter