When our best just isn't good enough....

In a past few weeks I have seen orphans pass away. 

I have watched with disbelief as their soon to be adoptive parents pursued them until the very end...unable to get there in time.

I have shook with anger at the injustice these little ones suffer.

I have cried over the fact that if these little angles were in the U.S., they would live.  A short plane ride away from the proper medical treatment....yet they die.

They die without a family.

They die without comfort.

They die without hope.

It rocks me to my core every time.

It frustrates me to no end that I can not do enough.  I can hardly do anything to make a different to the million of orphans. 

Have you heard the star fish story?

"It made a difference for that one."

What if thats not enough?

The good that I can do is NOT enough.

Thats why I share.

Its why I flood your facebook with non-stop adoption posts and fundraising events.

Its why I tell anyone and everyone who asks me about adoption that they should adopt no matter how rude or annoying they may think I am.

If only...

If only the church would stand up, climb out of their comfort zones, and be the hands and feet of Jesus.

I have accepted that the world is the way it is because of sin...it won't be right until Jesus comes back.

But can't a girl just be incredibly, irrationally, and consistently unsettled that she can't do more?

Yard Sale Complete!

Thank you all so much for making our Yard sale successful!

It turned out AMAZING.

Every one who donated played a huge role in making this thing successful.

Thank you to Elaine and all her family and friends who put in a lot of hard work for us.

It so humbling to watch people work so hard for a little girl they don't even know that they aren't even adopting.  Its truly a picture of Jesus in this world.

Without further delay....

We raised 2,000 towards our sweet girlies adoption fees.

Thats leaves just $19,000 to raise to by fully funded!

Wow!  

We have been blessed.

We are planning on doing another yard sale in the fall right before we leave to Europe.  

We had a lot of great stuff left over but will be collecting donations through the summer into fall so if you didn't get in on this last yard sale, let me know and we can make sure we pick up your stuff for the next one.

We will also being doing an online auction in a month or two.  If you make anything awesome or just have something that you think would do well at an auction that you would like to donate let me know. We are looking forward to collecting lots of unique items to make a really successful auction.

I will also be making necklaces!

Getting a little artsy with it to try and raise money for our girl.

I had an adoption friend give me a bunch of supplies so I am trying my hand at it.

Keep your eyes peeled for some original Rachel creations!

Prayer Requests

We have several grant applications out right now so be praying praying praying we get one or two of those.  The applications are a lot of work and I put a lot of time into them.  We are so hoping we might get at least one grant.

One or Two

So people keep asking me if we are adopting one or two.

I thought I would clear up any confusion with a big fat I don't know!

Haha!

We are committed to our one little cutie.

But....we are open to a second.

 Her country works a bit differently than others we have worked with.

We don't officially accept her referral until we are in Europe meeting her.

This means that we can wait until we are there, ask to meet a second child, and begin adopting that child when we are there.

We are not feeling that we should adopt two but not feeling that we shouldn't either.

We are really just trying to wait and see what God has for us.

There was a certain little boy who we thought about committing to but hours later found that his availability was uncertain.

We will wait until we get to Europe and then see who else is available all while praying for what God has for us.  My heart is always for two.  I mean we are going over there anyways and there are so many that need families.  I also know how difficult adoption is and have to be sensitive to what is best for the entire family.  IF we were to pursue two...that kid would have to be pretty darn perfect for our family and God would have to make it very obvious that he/she was ours.

In other news, the fundraising yard sale for our girl is the second weekend in June!

If you have anything to donate we are still accepting donations. 

If you don't you should come by and shop!

As always, if you want to give a tax deductible donation towards getting our girl home we would be blessed!

http://reecesrainbow.org/117817/sponsorpehl

one...two...three..GO!!!

Things have been a little slow around here.

We got our final drafts of our home study but are waiting for our facilitator to approve it.

Once it gets approved, we will be sending it to USCIS to begin the wait for their approval.

We will also be able to apply for grants!  

So please be praying that we might get one or two...it would certainly bless us.

As of right now we are on track to not have to re-due any of our dossier.  Yay!

For our next fundraiser, friends of ours are doing a yard sale to raise money to bring our little angel home.

Amazing I know!  Its the first weekend in June so if you did an spring cleaning and have things lying around let me know!

We would be blessed by that stuff you were planning on taking to Goodwill. 

Thank you all for your love and support and as always we will keep you all updated as things progress.

Progress Update

Our home study draft is ALMOST ready for review by our facilitators.

It should be ready to send over the end of this week.

Once it is finalized, it will head over to the court house for approval.

Getting this home study done will be a HUGE step in the right direction.

As soon as its done, we can move forward with immigration which is the last step before we submit our dossier.

Our dossier documents are currently in the mail awaiting approval by the secretary of state.  We have most of them done, we are waiting on a couple of things from our social worker, our home study, immigration approval, and an employer letter.  

Something you can always be praying for is the safety of these documents in the mail. 

We send them UPS and get tracking numbers but we have still had things lot before.  It would be a tragedy to lose the dossier...it would basically mean starting all over again.

I am usually a very impatient person but I must say this process is going to fast I can hardly keep up!

I can't believe that we will be going to get our sweet baby girl in the fall...thats like six months away!

We are doing several fundraising including a garden basket giveaway and a yard sale.  For information on any of our fundraisers, just check out any of my facebook pages.

As always your prayers are appreciated and we love you for your support of us during this process!

Its More Than We Can Handle

When we decided to adopt for the fifth time, the biggest doubt people had was if we could "handle" more kids.  Could we HANDLE another adoption?  Could we HANDLE a child with special needs?

I have to admit, sometimes when people voice their concerns it peeves me.  

They say it as if I don't have my own fears about this expedition.

Fears about getting in too deep.

Fears about getting in over my head.

These are real FEAR that can plague and torture an adoptive parent.

I know that people usually mean well and for the most part their "opinions" come out of a place of concern.

When we first adopted internationally, we had one child, less work, and little responsibility.

I spent countless hours researching adoption, applying for grants, and carrying out elaborate fundraisers.

We didn't get far into this new adoption before I realized that adopting with six kids, a very busy husband, and loads of responsibly this was going to be more than I could handle.

I found myself staying up until 1am most nights trying apply for grants and make things for fundraising.  

I also found myself exhausted the next day and seriously lacking in my ability to get home school done.

I found that this adoption was already becoming more than we could handle!

Whats funny is people think this makes me a failure. 

They think it makes me weak or incapable.

Anyone out there do beachbody workouts?  Chalene Extreme to be exact?

She has a workout where she explains muscles failure.

"In this case failure actually means success."

This is because as the muscle breaks down and FAILS, it builds itself up stronger.  So the next time you work out, you will be stronger than you were before.

Well in the body of Christ, when we fail it gives the Lord the opportunity to send someone to hold us up.  When we can't, HE can.  Sometimes the way He can is through others...His hands and feet.

So here we are struggling to put together fundraising ideas that will work with our busy schedules. 

We are in a season where we just moved into a house with a giant time consuming yard to needs lots of repairs and maintaining, we moved into a house that needs remodeling and fixing up, we have six kids under 7...half of who are homeschooling. Regular life is intense let alone adding an adoption.

Now I know what your thinking....

"This is what you signed up for."

"What did you expect?"

"If its too much maybe you should have waited"

"The Pehl's are soooo irresponsible."

I have heard it before.

So has every other adoptive mom.

I would have to disagree, do you know why?

Because just as we started realizing we were in over our heads, God sent us an angel.

He didn't tell us we made a bad decision and leave us to struggle on our own.

He sent someone to lead the fight, to carry the burden, to give her time selflessly.

He is not doing this just for us...its not to make our lives easier.

This sending of an angel is so much bigger than us.

Its about the orphan.

God goes to GREAT LENGTHS to save these children.

I have seen it over and over again.

When parents say "YES", God sends an army.

To our warrior angel, you restore my faith in humanity.

You constantly remind me of God's love and faithfulness.

There are not words to explain how much your service to our king means to our family.

To her family who is coming alongside and supporting her in all of her efforts.

We are humbled by every single one of you.

Its not easy to ask for help...but we didn't have to when it came to you.

some of you barely know us...

Your all amazing.

To God's army of servants fighting for our girl.

You people are brave, you are strong, and we are thankful for you!

With this all being said, our Angel is holding a yard sale to raise money for our adoption.

If you have anything you are getting rid of and willing to donate for the yard sale, please get a hold of me and I will point you in the right direction.

You can also go straight to our Warrior Angel's orphan care facebook page.

https://www.facebook.com/betweentheflowersandtheorphans/

Baking Basket Winner!!!!

Congratulations to Holly for winning this wonderful baking basket!  

I hope you have all sorts of fun with all these treasures!

Thank you ALL so much for you love and support. 

This first fundraiser was completely AMAZING.

You guys raised $1500 towards getting our daughter home!

Thank you!

With this fundraiser, the bench giveaway, selling several items, and Cayenne's grant, we are on a serious roll to raising the money for her adoption.

We have set a fundraising goal of 25K.

We have $3030 so far.

That leaves us with $21,970 still to raise!

That may seem like a lot but look at what God accomplished in our first month of fundraising!

We are believing in His promises and trusting in His provision.

Goals

As it comes time to draw the name of the winner of the amazing baking basket, I thought I would share with you all some of our fundraising goals.

I will be sharing how much you guys raised for us in each fundraiser and I thought you all would like to know where we are at.

I share detailed numbers because...

1. I want you guys to know how to pray specifically...seriously prayer works!

2. I want to educate people on adoption, what the fees look like, and why they exist.

3. I want to encourage people!  These numbers are BIG but God is BIGGER.  I want you all to see on paper how your donation or your share on facebook is physically bringing an orphan closer to a family.  I want you to see how God will provide every single penny by the time our little girl comes home.

I do want you all to know that we do not fundraise all of the money.  A lot of it comes out of our own pocket.  So far this adoption has cost about $5000.  This has all come out of our savings.  We continue to save and continue to work hard.  If we could, we would be happy to pay for the entire process ourselves.  Asking for help is never fun.  But we can't and we have come to learn that our lack of funds gives others the opportunity to be involved in this amazing journey.

Okay so the drawing for the basket is tomorrow and you guys are AMAZING!  I am blown away by the money raised on this first fundraiser.  So many people have been so supportive and a friend of ours has completely spear headed this whole thing.  Its just been awesome. 

Between facilitation fees, country fees, and travel fees, we have come up with the magic number of $25,000.

This is our goal to raise in the next 6 months or so.  Seems pretty insane, pretty impossible.

Not for God.

Cayenne already had a grant to her name raised by a family that met her a while back.  The grant is for $1200.  So the good news is we are already on a roll!  

Keep following our journey.  You are not going to want to miss how God pulls this one off!

P.S. I read all of your comments when you donate on paypal and they all warm my heart and make me smile!

There is ALWAYS enough to share.

Not much is happening on the adoption front.  We are filling out papers and grant application at this point, fundraising our butts off, and doing a lot of praying.

First I want to say that we don't expect help financially...from anyone. 

Its sooooo appreciated and so encouraging and helpful for adopting families to get financial support but we never expect it.

We are just as thankful for kind words, real heartfelt prayers, and encouragement as we are for financial help.  We just have a the peace of knowing that God will take care of it.  He doesn't NEED people to help him bring an orphan into a family.

God does not need us...he can do anything!

He owns the cattle on a thousands hills and trust me, he can get our daughter home.

I have found over the years that although God doesn't need us to give to others, he does ASK us to give to others.

He regularly asks us to give of our time, talents, and finances for our good and His glory.

I used to worry about money.  I used to hold tight to what I had and I'm ashamed to say I was not a generous person.  I didn't realize what generosity meant until 50k was standing between me and my sick children that were stuck in a war torn country with seemingly no way out.

In those moments of agony I realized just what generosity can do for a person....for a family.

I saw people give what they felt led to give and you know what happened?!?!

Our children came home.

Those people made an impact that moves me to tears every single time I think about it.

God did that...but so did all of those GENEROUS people that said yes when they could have said no.

I often tell my children that there is ALWAYS ENOUGH TO SHARE.  This is something I feel a responsibility to engrain in them and something I feel passionately about.

Are we having friends over?  There is always enough food to share.

Did your friend break your toy?  There is more than enough toys in this house and sharing is more important than your toys.

Does someone needs some clothes?  You are wearing a perfectly good outfit right now, that all you you need for the moment, your other clothes can be shared.

Don't we need to save money for Cayenne's adoption?  There is always enough to share.  Yes we are saving and yes we are working hard to raise the money for her adoption.  We are also still listening to God's voice.  If he says give, well we do just that.

So many of you have said YES to giving, YES to praying, and YES to encouraging us.

THANK YOU!

It encourages us so much and it reminds my children over and over again that there is always enough to share.

Tonight I am dedicating my blog to a sweet family who has been through a lot in their adoption process. They stepped out in faith and are now fighting for their boys. Lets show them some love and support!

You can check out their page by clicking the link below.

http://reecesrainbow.org/104372/sponsorklopp

Making Progress

I will have to admit.  This adoption process has been easier than others in the past(so far).

I feel so much more peace and calm through this process than with the others.  I don't know if its the amount of crazy we have running around this house that keeps my mind off of all that has to be done and all that could do wrong or what....but I like it!

I feel secure in my God who has shown me over and over again that His will will prevail and He WILL provide a way for this child to come home.

With that being said, we are moving forward and I am excited!

We had a bit of a hang up with our home study that those of you who are on my private page probably read about.  It looks like the time line is going to get shifted a bit and we will be able to make our deadline.  Its a good things because I really like our social worker this time around!  She is so easy going and easy to work with.  

So  we had our home visit yesterday and it went great!  Thanks to a weekend of hard work we had everything in order.  The kids were hilarious!  When asked what they like to do, here are their replies...

Boaz:  I like to hug mommy.

I like to help mommy fold clothes.

I like to ask mommy if she needs help with anything.

haha I had to assure he I did not tell her to say these things!

Isryelle:  I like to sew things (she has never sewn anything in her life.)

I like to rollar skate(she has never done that either.)

Irelyn:  This girl could not keep her mouth shut while others were being asked questions and was constantly interrupting...as soon as it was her turn...nothing.

So our first visit is over. Our second is on Saturday...then we just wait for paperwork to be finished.

We sent our first set of documents to the Ukraine today.  

Our FBI fingerprints are being processed.

Immigration application is being processed.

I have started filling out grant applications.

Things are moving right along!

As things move along we are reminded that we are far from fully funded.

We have several FUNdraisers going on right now.

Our Best of Baking Basket giveaway is in full swing.  It an amazing assortment of baking stuff along with your color choice of Kitchen-aid!  Free shipping!  Every $5 gets you one entry.  

We are also doing an old reclaimed church pew giveaway.  This is only for locals and has the same $5 per entry donation fee.

Last but not least, we are selling several beautiful children's dresses!  Just in time for Easter!

You can visit my facebook page for more details on all of these items. If you are not yet on our private Facebook page.  You are going to want to be! Just comment on this post and ask:)

paypal.me/rachelpehl

Our Girl

I feel like I should tell all you wonderful blog readers a little more about our little Cayenne.

She is from a country in Eastern Europe that does not share a lot of details and does not allow a lot of details to be shared.

We ourselves are going into this thing a bit blind with almost no information about her at all!

It makes it not only exciting but also a little scary.

A family who traveled to pick up their son several months ago actually met Cayenne.

I was able to track them down and get a little more information about her personality and a couple ADORABLE videos.

Besides being from Europe, I can tell you that she is a Roma Gypsy.

If you know me, you know that I just absolutely LOVE the diversity of my family and am very proud of all the cultures my family represents.

When we started this adoption process, I saw a girl with dark curly hair in my mind.

Its just the vision that God gave me, I can't explain it!

We passed over several children just not feeling they they were the child God called us to.

When we saw Cayenne, our hearts melted, my mama bear instincts came out, and I knew she was mine.

This little girl made special needs not seem so scary.

She made medical bill for the rest of our lives feel worth it.

She made the idea of adopting again feel possible.

When we were told that she was discriminated against for her heritage in her own home(orphanage) that was it for us.  Gavin said he couldn't stand that injustice and had to go get her.

Not only does this sweet thing not have a mommy or daddy, but she is disliked by the nannies charged with her care.  She has no one to love her, no one to defend her, and she lives a very cold and loveless existence.

This family that met her several months ago had several stories about how their son and her were best friends. They said she gave him lots of hugs and kisses.  They said she was just dying for a family of her own and they could see it in her eyes.  At outside playtime they would go off to get some alone time with their son and she would sit around and just watch them....probably dreaming...maybe feeling sad.

Our sweet girl has no idea that she has parents coming for her and wont know until we travel for our first trip.  We are hoping our first trip will be in about 9 months.  We really just can't wait to claim her as our own and to see the look on her face when they tell her she has a family!

Whats in a name

Names get harder and harder for us the more kids we add to the family.

We named this little girl about 5 times!  We kept calling her one name...then changing our minds because it didn't sound just right.

We have finally decided on a name that we both love!

Cayenne Rosaleen

We wanted a name that sounded somewhat wild and "nature like" to compliment her gypsy heritage and her wild curls. We also wanted something simple, gentle, and beautiful.

Cayenne is a hot spice for any of you that don't know.  Rosaleen mean beautiful little rose.

I don't know her yet but i think both names compliment her beautifully!

She is such a LOVE!!! We can't wait to bring home our little Cayenne.

For those of you who haven't seen on facebook already...a sweet friend in auctioning off some beautiful hair combs to support our adoption.

Follow the link below to the auction page!

https://www.facebook.com/betweentheflowersandtheorphans/?hc_ref=PAGES_TIMELINE

Paper Pregnancy

My organization is on point this time around!

We have now entered the part of an adoption that has been affectionately named the "paper pregnancy".  We have entered a world of signatures, prying questions about our family, copies of official documents, notaries, and certifications.  

This paperchase is different for me than in the past.  I have 6 kids this time around who's lives dont stop because we are adopting. I still have to do school, change diapers, and calm attitudes.  This time around I find myself regularly praying for peace and patience.  I also find myself staying up until 2am becuase soemthing HAS to get done....they are all so very worth it!

Today we got to send off our first packet to our dossier(profile we sent to Europe) off the the Secretary of State to be certified. When that comes back it will be the first pieces of documentation that gets sent off to another country.  By the way we are allowed to share pictures but can not share the country that our little one is coming from. We also sent our I-600A application to immigration requesting permission to bring another little one into this wonderful country and make her an American citizen.

At the same time we are working hard to get all of our home study documents together so we can quickly finish our home study.  We are planning on applying for several grants and praying we get some.  We cant apply for grants until our home study is finished so we are really working hard to get it done as quickly as possible.

This adoption should move fairly quickly and we will likely be traveling for our first trip to Europe in 6 months!  Most of the fees of this adoption are due at that time so the pressure is one to get things done!  Stay tuned for some fun fundraisers we will be doing in the near future.  We are planning on selling those wonderful sheets again and a sweet sweet friend is also brainstorming some wonderful fundraisers she is going to help us with.

We are blessed to have found a child in a country that has very reasonable fees compared to our other adoptions so we are really hoping and praying that we do not have to go into any more debt for this adoption...so far God has been providing like a BOSS!!!

The kids doing their part.  They have to draw pictures of them, their house, and their family.  For some reason all my kids drew pictures of us in a tent???

http://www.handofhelpinadoption.org/2017/02/pehl.html

Why Four Isn't Enough

Surprised to see us at it again after just completing Simeon's adoption?  We are too!

After going through the journey of adopting Isryelle and Boaz, Gavin and I both felt that we were done with that season in our lives.  We both felt like we had been obedient, done what the Lord called us to do, and now we could just relax a little bit and recover from the last five years of this insane adoption roller coaster.  We were content, happy, relaxed.  We bought a new house, work was going well, adoption debt was starting to get paid off, we have six beautiful kids, life was good.

BUT GOD

About two months ago God starting stirring my heart towards the cause of the orphan yet again.  I found myself sitting in church one Sunday morning requesting prayer that we could pay off adoption debt so we might be able to say "yes" to more children.  As soon as the words came out of my mouth I was taken back!  We didn't want to adopt again I told myself...we are comfortable.  But God kept nudging me towards Him, towards His heart.  I began to feel that God was asking me to do it again and I really wrestled with that.  I spent weeks in prayer by myself just making sure that it was really God speaking and I wasn't just going insane!  Every time I would doubt God would send me a message through scripture, a sermon, or a fellow adoptive mama's blog that would confirm again in my heart that God had another child out there for us somewhere.  

So I decided to talk to Gavin who was completely uninterested...thought I was crazy.  Cant say I blame him!  I continued to pray for the Lords perfect timing.  Eventually God started working on Gavin heart again and suddenly he started wanting to adopt again as well.  So we agreed that we would wait until Simeon was 1 and then start an adoption process for a baby.  We decided we needed something simple this time around and babies are simple compared to a traumatized older child trying to get a hold on their lives.   But God had other plans.

It wasn't long before we saw our girl.  Wild curls, gentle eyes, and a sweetness that we couldn't get past. She was older than we thought we would want to adopt, only about 4 months younger than Irelyn.  She is in a country that has travel requirements that are much more intense than we were planning.  She also has a special need that will require life long medication, frequent doctor visits, and a whole lot of love and support.  But we were in love, no denying the Lord called us to this little one.  So we did something really very simple, we said "Yes".

Now I have dreaded having to announce this adoption.  You see people aren't always so supportive or kind about adoption...especially when you have done it several time. I hate the negative comments, I hate the judgement, I hate the rude accusations as to why we are "getting another one".  Something I was asked a while back really stuck with me....

"Isn't four enough?  What are you trying to prove?"

This question felt like a punch to the gut and nearly knocked the wind out of me.  You know what?  Four is not enough.  

How many is enough when there are kids suffering without families?

How many is enough when a child goes without necessary medical care?

How many is enough when a child is left in a crib day and night? No love, no stimulation, no touch.

How many is enough when a child is treated like an animal because they were born different or special?

How many is enough when a child is committed to a mental institution at the age of six for having down syndrome, HIV, Cerebral Palsy, or Hydrocephalous?

How many is enough when a child leaves food in their mouth for hours after a meal because they are always hungry?

How many should we turn our backs on and leave in these conditions?

So no, four is not enough.  Ten is not enough. Twenty is not enough.

We can never do enough because we can never rescue them all.

But we will sure as heck say YES every single time God asks us to.

For those of you that are excited for us, for her, and for this journey, we really appreciate your support and prayer!  We are very excited, a bit nervous, but mostly just thankful that God has chosen us yet again to walk a hard path that is full of blessing.

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