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.

<form action="https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr" method="post" target="_top">

<input type="hidden" name="cmd" value="_s-xclick">

<input type="hidden" name="hosted_button_id" value="4J5FDLKN7GMR8">

<input type="image" src="https://www.paypalobjects.com/en_US/i/btn/btn_donateCC_LG.gif" border="0" name="submit" alt="PayPal - The safer, easier way to pay online!">

<img alt="" border="0" src="https://www.paypalobjects.com/en_US/i/scr/pixel.gif" width="1" height="1">

</form>