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!