Gearing Up for Both Hands!

We have been SO busy these past several weeks--between preparing our home for Zack's homecoming, the final bits of paperwork, and getting ready for our FINAL fundraiser--life has been CRAZY! We are so grateful for all of our friends and family who are working with us on this project. Let me tell you about Both Hands. A group of friends and Todd and I will be completing a service project THIS SATURDAY working on a widow's home. We are raising sponsorship for our day of service. (Just like a 5K or golf tournament) Our goal is to raise the last bit of money for our adoption, which is estimated to be about $10,000. Now this is the "high" end of the estimates, so if we don't raise that much, we know, we don't NEED that much! We are trusting God to provide every penny we will need. And he knows what that is!

Click this link to learn more about our project and to "meet" our widow. http://www.bothhands.org/project/roof-212

We'd appreciate any support you'd be willing to give to help us reach our goal! Please feel free to share, as well!

Also, we received some cute pics of our little guy last week. We also learned that he likes to sing, dance, and play ball. And his favorite color is yellow! In the midst of all of this stress, these little updates help us to stop and refocus on WHY were doing all of this! "Let us run with endurance this race that is set before us. Fixing our eyes on Jesus." (Hebrews 12:1b-2a)

Learning through Trials

“Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18)

“And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.” (Romans 8:28)

When “bad things” happen, God will use those things for good. While this most recent trial was hard (one of the hardest things we’ve ever experienced), we knew there would be lessons learned through it all. We know that God uses every circumstance to draw us closer to him. To shape us to be more like him. 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 crossed my path several times during the weeks following Todd’s accident. I believe these are the lessons we were being taught.

Rejoice always. I tried, although it was hard, to rejoice in this situation. From the first moment I found out. I rejoiced that Todd was alive. That he was conscious. I tried to count every blessing I could find in the whole situation-during the 2 hour car ride to the hospital, through the sleepless nights with Todd and all the pain he was in. I reminded myself and him to rejoice in the little blessings—that he didn’t bleed out as he laid there for 4 hours. That he came to and managed to pull himself up the stairs. That his friend got up early to get some water because he had a migraine and found him when he did. That he wasn’t paralyzed. That he wasn’t a vegetable. That the parts of the brain damaged weren’t “significant” areas. That he could walk and talk and remember. That they expected a full recovery. That he didn’t die! And if we can rejoice about these things in the middle of all of this, we can rejoice always! Everyday. For every second of precious life we have. Even when we are tired. Stressed. And just plain don’t feel like it.

Pray continually. We believe in the power of prayer! That Friday before the accident, I was having a blue day, just emotional and feeling discouraged about the fundraising project we were working on. I just had an uneasy feeling about the weekend--with Natalie and I being in Birmingham and Todd being in Florence. I sent a text to my girls and asked them to pray for me. I’ve never done that before, but felt compelled to do it that day. Looking back, I believe the Holy Spirit prompted me to do that. We were covered in prayer before Todd fell down those stairs. I believe that prayer is what helped me keep it together when I got that phone call. That helped me make it through that 2 hour drive to the hospital, not knowing what to expect. I immediately sent a message to my same girls and told them what had happened and that we needed more prayer. Friends, family, and people we don’t even know, have been praying continually-- from before the accident and even still now. That prayer is the reason Todd healed so quickly. The reason we were showered with support and meals from friends and family. That prayer is what kept us going and got us through this tough time! We are so grateful for our prayer warriors! And we are so grateful for God! Who is so AWESOME!

Give thanks in all circumstances. I’m not gonna lie. I struggled with this part. This has been, I think, the biggest lesson I have learned. That and humility. At first, I was grateful, counting every small blessing I could find. But after we came home and Todd started healing. I was exhausted. I became angry. I was angry with God. I was angry about having ONE more thing on my plate. Well, this experience threw me into a servant’s role, of being the sole caregiver for our daughter and additionally for my husband while he recovered. I was forced to put both of them and their needs before my own. Well, of course, I found myself grumbling and doing it with a not-so-happy heart. Poor me. I don’t have any time for myself, etc. During that time, I read a devotional about doing things with a servant’s heart. “Whatever you do, do it enthusiastically, as something done for the Lord not for men.” (Colossians 3:23) Instead of saying “I have to…”, say “I get to…” And count your blessings. My thoughts have changed from, “I have to give Todd a bath! At 6:30 in the morning (sometimes 5:30)! Before I have my coffee! Ugh!” to “I GET to give Todd a bath. Thank you, Lord that he is here. That I have a husband to bathe. And if I have to give him a bath every day for the rest of my life. I will. And I will do it enthusiastically (well, maybe once my coffee has kicked in!). Because I am so grateful to have him in my life.” It’s been a great lesson in humility and gratitude. One that has been carried over to my parenting. Two very important qualities that will be greatly needed when we bring Zack home.

Throughout this all we have been so grateful for our faith. I honestly don’t know how people get through tough times like this without God. And while we’ve learned a lot, I still have much to learn and I fail daily! But at least now, I’m able to recognize when I am being selfish and remind myself that I am so blessed to have the little messes and the minor inconveniences because I have a beautiful daughter and husband to share my life with that cause those messes and inconveniences! And I shift my attitude to a more Christ-like one.

All this to say, when you find yourself in difficult situations, you are likely under attack from the enemy. Pour yourself into the word of God. Know that he’s upholding you in his hand. Take the negative thoughts captive. Think on the true, noble, praiseworthy things. And press on! God has a plan for you. It will be worth it in the end and you will be a stronger (AKA more Christ-like) person.

“Blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in him. They will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit.” (Jeremiah 17:5-8)

Do You Believe In Spiritual Warfare?

“Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith…” (1 Peter 5:8-9a).

“Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms." (Ephesians 6:10-12)

Spiritual warfare. I’d heard of it. I’d read about it in the Bible. But I had never really experienced it before (well, if I have, I didn’t realize that’s what it was!). Well now, I get it. A spill down some stairs. A broken wrist. A severe brain injury. Two days in the CCU. Three weeks and counting of recovery. Our family was under attack, still is! There have been several “attacks” over the past several months since we started this journey. Mostly small ones. But this! This was the real deal! This had the potential to destroy us. Our family. God’s plans for this adoption. For a little boy’s future. This was HARD!

Shortly after arriving at the hospital, just before they took Todd back for surgery on his hand, I read this verse, “And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm, and steadfast. To him be the power forever and ever. Amen!” (1 Peter 5:10) I held on to this truth through this whole ordeal. The armor of God! And when my faith started slipping, when I started doubting, God reminded me of this verse. I knew that the Holy Spirit was talking to me by showing me this verse. Reassuring me that everything was going to turn out okay. Later, I felt compelled to look that verse up and read the entire passage. So, I read, just two verses prior, “Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith…” (1 Peter 5:8-9a). Spiritual! Warfare! This is what this is. I recognized it. So I was able to arm myself!

Many have asked, “Will this affect your adoption? Will it delay things?” How tempted one could be to throw in the towel and quit. God must not want us to do this. Otherwise, wouldn’t it be easier? Wouldn’t he protect us from all of this? These are all thoughts that we could be tempted to think. There are so many reasons not to follow through with this adoption at this point. Forget the “what-ifs” that are swirling through my head (what if something else were to happen to Todd after we bring Zack home and I have to raise a child with special needs on my own, etc, etc.), but also the “This is too hard. This following God thing.” and the “How in the world are we going to afford this now?” when the reality of the added financial burden sinks in, as medical bills will soon be pouring in, income will be less with Todd not working for a few weeks, while we are still about $10,000 short of what we need to complete the adoption. So many reasons to quit. To stop following God on THIS journey. But because we are armed with the armor of God, we know. We know these thoughts come from the enemy. Trying to destroy a beautiful plan. This is spiritual warfare! And so we WILL! NOT! STOP! We’ve got our eye on the goal, where God is beckoning us onward—to Jesus. We’re off and running and we are not turning back! (Philippians 3: 13b-14, The Message). We have God on our side and this is HIS thing. He wants us to bring Zack home. He wants to show the world his awesome power through this story. “Sing to the Lord for he has done glorious things; let this be known to the world.” (Isaiah 12:5). God has carried us this far and he will carry us through this. To. The. End. HE WILL PROVIDE every penny we need! No doubt!

So, no. This will not affect our adoption. We will keep on moving forward! We hope to have our RA any day now. And we still hope to travel in November. And when this is all said and done we will say, “I have fought the good fight. I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.” (2 Timothy 4:7)

Thanks to all of our friends and family for your support and prayers through all of this. Please continue to pray us through this and all the way to the end of this journey?

We are DTC!

Our dossier was sent to China a little over a week ago (DTC= Dossier to China) and according to Fed Ex it was delivered last Monday (June 29th). Now we wait! Next steps:

1. Receive LID (log-in-date), which is the date the that our paperwork is logged in in China, sort of like our place in line.

2. Receive RA (referral acceptance, aka, LOA, letter of acceptance). Current wait time from LID is about 2 months.

3. Receive our TA (travel acceptance). Current wait time from RA is about 2 months.

4. Travel! Usually 2-4 weeks after receiving your TA.

So...We're thinking it will be sometime in November when we travel. Trying not to focus too much on the time lines though and remembering that it doesn't really matter what the averages are because God is ultimately in control and we are on HIS timeline!

In the meantime, we prepare a few more pieces of paperwork to be submitted once we have our RA, complete a couple more hours of training, and continue to raise funds for the remainder of expenses. A blog post is coming soon on our upcoming Both Hands project...our final fundraising effort!! Please continue to pray for our family and for Zack as we get closer to bringing him home!

A Few Updates

So it’s been a while since I’ve blogged...life has been…well, CRAZY! We are still waiting for our USCIS approval. They received our application on April 20th and they tell you it takes 1 ½ to 2 ½ months to get. We went for our fingerprints last Monday, which they schedule for you (which was only 3 weeks after the receipt date, which is pretty fast, I think) Recently, I’ve seen people reporting getting approval within about 6 weeks. We are hopeful this will be the case for us, which would mean we would receive it sometime the 1st week in June. Fingers crossed. This would be helpful in getting our notarization, certification, and authentication done earlier and allowing us to hopefully be able to send in our dossier early. My goal is to turn in our dossier the first part of July. However, we KNOW that this is all in God’s hands and that everything will be done in His perfect timing! But patience is not my best trait! "It is not for you to know the times and dates the Father has set by hi own authority." (Acts 1:7)


So fundraising…WOW! Can I just say that we’ve been doing this crazy fundraising thing for four months? Four months. That’s all!?! It is unbelievable to me that we have raised $21,000 already! I’m serious. How can this be? It is nothing short of a miracle. Again, I CAN NOT express how incredible grateful we are to God, first and foremost, but also to the people who have helped us out by spearheading fundraisers and for those who have so generously donated to our cause! Thank you! From the bottom of our hearts! Thank you! Speaking of “thank yous”, I so apologize that I haven’t properly and/or formally thanked all of you who have helped with these fundraisers and by donating. We HAVE received your money. We DO appreciate your efforts! Thank you! I am WAY BEHIND on writing thank you notes. I have the best of intentions. I really do. In the beginning, I sat down every Sunday and wrote notes for the donations that came in that week. I thought I had a good handle on it. But now I’m SO behind…like weeks. Months. BEHIND. So if you have contributed, please know that we are so grateful and that you WILL get a thank you note. Eventually! "With man it is impossible, but with God, all things are possible!" (Matthew 19:26)


We have just finished up a MAJOR fundraising event…the oh-so-dreaded GARAGE SALE!! For Natalie’s adoption, we held three, yes three, garage sales-one at home, one in Birmingham, and one in Tupelo (where Todd’s parents lived at the time). We raised a lot of money, but oh. My. Goodness. It was A LOT of work. We swore we would NEVER have another garage sale, as long as we both shall live. Well…I’m here to tell you, we did it again. Just one this time, but it was BIG! It was two weekends ago. And if it weren’t’ for a free massage the next day and a free vacation the week after, I might still be recovering! Talk about God’s perfect timing! (Long story on the free massage—it was a real one and by a professional! And the free vacation was a work trip for Todd—5 days at THE BEACH—no kids. Thank you very much!) So we did this Garage sale thing once again and we had SO. MUCH. STUFF donated to us from friends and neighbors. Stuff just kept pouring in! We held the sale for two days and the people just kept coming. We hardly had a break. We made over $3300 just selling mostly “small stuff”. And we still have several “big” items that we now have listed on Craigslist that we hope to sell to add to this total. I have to say, I AM ready to have my garage back…stuff, be gone!

The Noonday Jewelry party was also a success. We had a great turnout of ladies and sold lots of jewelry. Ten percent of sales went to our adoption fund, which turned out to be a little over $200. I am so grateful for Heather Loden for opening up her home and hosting this event! We are also so grateful for Belle Cromwell, who was the Noonday Ambassador for this party! She so generously and unexpectedly matched what was raised (plus some) from her own pocket--$300! Thank you so much, Belle!! So this party raised a little over $500 to help us bring Zack home! If you want to learn more about Noonday, order jewelry, or host a party, click here to visit Belle's website.

So after the garage sale we decided that we would take a break from fundraising for a little while. We now have enough money raised and saved to get us through everything up to the travel costs (we think/hope!) Well…seems God is ready for us to keep on truckin! We applied to do a Both Hands project a few weeks ago. I didn’t really know if we would be chosen to do it. For some reason, I expected we wouldn’t. Well, we got a call two days ago…WE'VE BEEN APPROVED! So, onward! Both Hands is a very cool thing! In a nutshell, Both Hands help families fund raise for their adoptions. A family gathers a team of volunteers and Both Hands coaches them to coordinate a service project fixing up a widow's home. The family and their team raise sponsorship for their day of service and the funds raised help an orphan be adopted into a forever family! More details about this project to come! We are very excited about this opportunity--not only about the chance to raise the remainder of the money we need to bring Zack home, but also for the chance to serve a widow while doing it! "Forget yourselves long enough to lend a helping hand." (Philippians 2:4)

More to come with details about this project. Stay tuned…

Guess Who's "Paper Ready"?!?!

So, remember the little guy I talked about in my blog while I was in China? The two-year-old who has Down syndrome and a cleft lip/palate? Click here and here to read those posts.

Well...he's "paper ready"!! And he has had his lip repaired (which I already knew because I asked about him back in December, but I haven't seen pictures of him with his repaired lip until now)! His file is coming soon to America World Adoption Association. And He needs a family!

So, I was asked to write up a post for AW's blog about him to tell his story and to help find him a family. They posted it today...with recent pictures of him! I'm so happy to see him so happy!! Now, I want to find him a family! Will you help me? Maybe you've been considering adoption? Maybe you know someone who has. Please share this little boy's story with everyone you know. I just know his family will find him!

Here we are together!

Muffalettas, bread, and jewlery...oh my!

Wow! We have had so many wonderful people working so hard to help us raise funds for this adoption. We are so incredibly blessed! Just a little update on a couple of fundraisers that family and friends have been doing to help us bring home our son!

First, the muffaletta and hummus sale my family did at Prince of Peace Catholic Church in Hoover turned out to be a HUGE success! I posted after the first weekend that we were so incredibly overwhelmed just by the generosity we received that weekend. My family took pre-orders again after every mass the next weekend and then took a break for Easter weekend. Then, the week after Easter they were busy, busy making hummus and muffalettas to be delivered after the masses that following weekend. They ended up making more than 250 containers of hummus and about 225 muffalettas. So many people were so kind to volunteer their time to help my dad assemble the sandwiches and package everything. Thank you so much to: Joe and Pam Sinopoli, Brenda Boyd, Stacy Rohn, Marie Bateh, Cindy Crook, Heidi Monte, and of course my parents! Thanks also to my sister-in-law, Heidi Monte, whose idea this was and who helped organize the fundraiser and to my brother, sister, and brother-in-law for all of the time they spend after mass taking and delivering orders. A special thanks also goes out to Najis Pita Gourmet in Birmingham, who so generously sold my dad the hummus ingredients at a significantly discounted price and donated several packages of pita bread! We ended up raising $8673 after all expenses. This fundraiser far surpassed our expectations and we feel so incredibly blessed and grateful!

Second, Todd's mom decided to do a fundraiser making her delicious homemade honey wheat bread several weeks ago. She sold the bread mainly to her neighborhood via the neighborhood Facebook page and raised $466! Another amazing blessing!

Finally, a friend of mine, Heather Loden, hosted a Noonday jewelry party at her home yesterday, where 10% of the sales will go toward our adoption. The party will be "open" for another week and a half, so if you want to order any beautiful jewelry (mother's day is just around the corner!), you can order by visiting www.bit.ly/heatherloden. The really cool think about this jewelry is that it is all handmade by women from impoverished areas around the world and the profits go to these women to empower them and help them provide for their families. Really cool stories you can read about on the website! I don't know the total we have raised from this fundraiser, yet, since it is still open. But I will update soon!

I read a passage in the Bible when we had just begun this journey. Two of the verses stuck out to me: Deuteronomy 1:9, 13 "You are too heavy a burden for me to carry alone...choose some wise, understanding, and respected men from each of your tribes and I will set them over you." When I read these verses, I related this to our fundraising...the enormous amount we had to raise is "too heavy a burden" for us to carry alone. I knew that we would need "wise, understanding, and respected men" to help us raise these funds. This truth is unfolding so amazingly, as so many people have stepped up to help us. We thank you all from the bottom of our hearts! And most of all, we thank God for working his miracles in our lives!