Stuck

If you have been following along on our journey, then you know that referrals have been slow in Ethiopia for a while. Not just slow... real slow, sometimes no movement at all. I told you all that our agency was taking a trip in September to meet with the Ethiopian government to find out what was causing this "slow down" and when things would pick back up. We were so anxious for this video, so that we could get some news. Whether encouraging or not, we just wanted to know the reality of the situation.

In October we received a video update from our agency that explained many things, including the fact that Ethiopia made it very clear that this should not be referred to as a "slow down" but a "new normal." There was a lot more to the video, but for blogging purposes, this is what it boils down to. Children are not being matched with families as quickly and smoothly as they were when we entered the Ethiopia program.

As Evan and I watched that video, we cried. We knew that this being a new normal meant a CRAZY, SUPER LONG time frame that we did not expect when we started this process. Many families have been hit hard by this news and after prayer and exploring other options, have decided to pursue adoptions domestically or from other countries. Some families have also stayed in the program, especially those that were close to the top of the wait list and expecting a referral of a child sooner rather than later. We are so far away from being matched, due to the lack of movement, so with a heavy heart, we are exploring our options.

Right now, we are in a stage of prayer and research. We are looking at our options and trying to be wise and follow God's lead on what he wants us to do. We do not want to react strictly on emotion, but with the guidance of the Holy Spirit and using discernment. I am saddened, frustrated, overwhelmed and feeling stuck to be honest. I do not have answers right now, but I ask you to pray for us please. Pray for direction, pray for peace, pray for finances, pray for all of those kids in Ethiopia stuck in orphanages. Our heart is still so FOR adoption and we still long to bring a child into our family. We feel like we have given our "yes" to God and he has been faithful in this walk, this is just a big speed bump in the process. The good news, there are other options, we just have to figure out how to get to them and which one we should pursue, if we should pursue any.

I have been dragging my feet on this update or lack of an update I guess, because sometimes I don't even want to think about it. Sometimes I pretend that everything is fine and we are moving along. Sometimes, I just don't know what to say or how to say it. Sometimes, I fear everyone giving me their opinion about what they think we should do. Sometimes, I am so emotional and stressed and I just cry and shut down. And sometimes, I thank God for this waiting period we had in Ethiopia, because our hearts are at a point where they were not when we started this adoption journey. God has stretched us and opened our hearts so much more than where they were when we got on the wait list a year ago. He's drawn us closer to him, and has still been refining a lot of the ugly in me. Good gracious y'all, I am a MESS! Thank God for his grace!

While this is not an update that I am happy to report, I feel like I need to let you guys know where we stand because you, covering us in prayer, would be so appreciated. When we come to a decision, I will be sure to update again. I don't know when that will be, but until then, thank you for lifting us up to the one who has this all in HIS hands. Love you guys!

Apparent Project Bracelet Fundraiser

I am so excited! I got the best package on my doorstep over the weekend. I opened it up and squealed with glee as beautiful colored beads poured out  onto my counter top. We will be selling beautiful paper bead bracelets from The Apparent Project. These bracelets come from a place near and dear to my heart, Haiti.

The Apparent Project works with local artisans teaching them how to make paper bead jewelry in order to provide them with jobs, so that they may provide for their family. They help keep families together by providing income, so that these mothers and fathers don't have to resort to giving their children up due to poverty. Many orphans in this world are "poverty orphans" simply because their families cannot afford to provide for them. That just saddens my heart.

We are thrilled to partner with them and sell these beauties for only $8 a piece ($10 with shipping). These bracelets are handmade from discarded cereal boxes, cracker boxes, oil drums and trash paper. How cool is that? A beautiful reminder of how God makes beauty from ashes.

When you purchase a bracelet, $4 dollars will go towards the Apparent Project and $4 will go towards our adoption. So, for a mere $8, you are really making your money stretch and making a difference for us and for families in Haiti.

Every bracelet is unique and full of color. Each bracelet also comes with a picture and short description of one of the artisans who makes them. It gives a great opportunity to pray over that person.

Now, I know it is only September, but I have already seen the Christmas decor in stores. These bracelets make great gifts and are super meaningful. Stock up for your family, friends, co workers, gift closet, etc.

May I also add that while these bracelets are beautiful on their own, they really make a statement when paired together with 2 or 3. I know you are getting that fall wardrobe ready, add that pop of color on your wrist. Check out how great they look together.

You can order by clicking on the Pay Pal "donate" button on the top left side of our blog. (If you are on a mobile device, you will need to click "view full web version" at the bottom of your screen.) If you need your bracelet shipped please pay $10 to cover the cost of shipping. Include how many bracelets you want and your shipping address.

Check out this video to see how the bracelets are made in Haiti and learn more about Apparent project. Thanks for your support!



Apparent Project- Beauty Changes Things from Corrigan Clay on Vimeo.

Abounding in love

For several months now I have been toiling over the idea of discerning God's will. I have wracked my brain trying to figure out the balance between discernment and lack of faith. Like how do you make a right choice sometimes when there doesn't seem to be a bad choice, but you need to make a choice?
How do you know when to just sit and wait and trust or when God is calling you to step up and step out, to be bold and make a move? How do you know if you are where He wants you? Am I lacking faith? Am I not stepping out enough? Am I not being patient enough or trusting enough? So many questions can drive a mama cray cray!

Many times lately I have verbalized that I wish God would just write the answer to my questions in the clouds. I have even been so silly as to look for hidden messages in things thinking maybe they hold the key to what God is trying to tell me (You know you have done that too at some point. I have been desperate y'all!) As if God has to be sneaky about His will. I am sure he is cracking up laughing as he hides secret messages to me all around and sees if I can figure them out like Nancy Drew. Yea, I doubt it! The truth is though, I have been searching for answers anywhere I think I can find them. God is not some mystical fortune teller, he is not playing scavenger hunt with me. He is a pretty forward God.

The truth is, I have all that I need to discern what his will is for me. I have his word (the Bible) and I have the Holy Spirit (God within me) to guide me. I also have amazing family and friends who encourage and challenge me to seek Him more. Because the reality is, the more I seek Him, the more I will know Him. The more I know Him, the more I will want to look like him and act like him. The more I look like him and act like him, the more that I won't be waiting around for a sign. I am not saying we shouldn't be patient and careful and wise and pray about decisions we make, but if we are lining things up with God's word and really being led by the Spirit, it isn't so tough.

I have been reading in Philippians lately and this verse popped out to me and was kind of like my writing in the clouds, except it was in the Bible. Gee, who would have thunk it?

Philippians 1:9

"And this is my prayer, that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, SO THAT YOU MAY BE ABLE TO DISCERN WHAT IS BEST and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ---to the glory and praise of God."

The knowledge and depth of insight all stem from LOVE. Love helps us to discern what is best. Now I am not talking about love like we throw love around these days, "I love pumpkin scented candles," "I love pumpkin cheesecake," "I love pumpkin spice tea." (I may have a slight pumpkin obsession right now). We are talking LOVE like Jesus demonstrated. If I look at the gospel, Jesus' idea of love was a lot different than our typical idea of love. He was out there, loving on people, really seeing them and relating to them, responding to their needs, healing them, hanging out with those that people despised or didn't want to be around, serving, teaching, pointing those around him to his Heavenly Father, laying down his life. The more I love, the more insight I have to what God wants for me. Love God, Love People...simple as that!

So for me, it comes down to this: Am I loving like Jesus? Am I being bold and brave and really LOVING the way he loved, the way he loves? Am I risking it all for the sake of Christ? See when we start to love like the Father, the answers to our questions of God's will become more obvious, I just think sometimes we don't really want to know the answer because that makes us uncomfortable and sometimes that just totally jacks up OUR PLANS! I think if we were really filtering our questions/decisions through God's word, our lives would look MUCH different, don't you?

 I am no longer waiting for some answer in the clouds or trying to close my eyes and open my Bible right smack to the passage God wants me to read so I can have a definitive answer on the direction he has for us. My challenge to myself is to seek Him more, look more like Him, act more like Him, LOVE more like Him and I am confident that I will be right where He wants me...in His good and perfect will.

Waiting for some clarity

 I thought I would update everyone since it has been a while. The truth is, there is not much to update. Like every first of the month, we got a new wait list number and a monthly update from our agency on August 1st. We BARELY inched at all up the wait list for a referral. We are so far away guys, like so far away that I really wonder if this will ever happen. Things have just slowed so incredibly much in Ethiopia. When we started this process we were told 18-24 months wait for a referral. While we have only (it seems like forever) been on the wait list for 9 months, that timeline has changed. In fact, wait list times have increased a good bit since then. If I do the math based on the average amount of referrals given out each month, we could potentially be waiting 7 years. I just don't think I have that in me guys! Of course it could always move faster than that, but based on what we have seen so far, I am  trying to prepare myself.

While, yes, we desire to have another child, and if we did not feel led to adopt, we would have been pregnant by now, we also want to meet a need. There are so many children out there who need good homes, good families, who are ready to love them, give them care, stability and teach them the gospel. We are ready for that. It is hard to sit back and WAIT knowing we could be that for a child right now.

We were told in our monthly update, that in September, the director of our agency will be traveling to Ethiopia to meet with government officials who handle adoptions, in order to see what the future of the Ethiopia program looks like. Honestly, I am a little nervous to see what they find out. Until then, we are sitting still, trying to be patient, not making any moves. We are hoping that after we receive word about their trip, God will give us clarity about how to move forward with this process. If he wants us to stay put and wait it out in Ethiopia, or if he wants to move us in a different direction. I have no idea what that could even potentially look like, but we want to be open and willing to go where God wants us. We are simply HIS instruments and He is writing this story, not us. We do not want to make decisions based on emotion only, but filter everything we do through His word, prayer and encouragement from those we love and trust.

We are confident that we are in his will and we still have such a strong desire to adopt and love a child. Things are quiet, but our hearts are still aching and our son is somewhere out there. We continue to pray for our little (or big) guy every day. We know God will continue to direct our steps and we wait with anticipation to bring Brother home when God matches us with him and says it is time. Prayers for clarity, direction and peace are always greatly appreciated!

The Lord will provide

Ya'll, I just have to chuckle this morning! Just last night I was sitting across the table from my mom, telling her how well we did at the lemonade stand and how we had gotten a generous donation from some friends. I was saying that God is so good, but that it was baffling to me the amount of money and recent encouragement of people who have been telling us to let them know if we have any financial needs for the adoption, because we are in the process of waiting right now. We have decided to do some fundraising as we wait so that when money is due, we will be prepared. I literally said, "I don't get it. I wonder what he is preparing us for."

After all, I thought we would break even on the lemonade stand, maybe even lose money. Our main goal was to instill the love and desire to serve and put faith in action in our children through that lemonade stand. I was not worried about making a profit towards our adoption for that particular fundraiser. I know that God always provides what we need, when we need it.

Well, that is apparently what he did. I woke up to am e-mail reminding me of $1050 in post placement fees that are needed. These fees are used for our social worker to conduct 3 post placement visits once our son is home. They are required by Ethiopia and should be collected before the home study is complete. We got so wrapped up in the home study, that this slipped our minds as a fee that was due.

BUT, what do you know, just this past week, God provided that money. When I had no clue what he was preparing us for, HE KNEW. He is so good y'all! He always has our back in this adoption, despite the ups and downs that we have faced already in this process. I love the name for God in the book of Genesis, Jehova-Jireh, which means, "The Lord will provide." And oh, how he does!

Do you remember that BBQ fundraiser we had last year, where he provided the money we needed at the time to the EXACT dollar? Why do I ever doubt my God?

I just had to share that. To remind you, to remind myself, that he cares. If he has called us to something in faith, HE WILL PROVIDE!

Philippians 4:19
And my God will meet all your needs according to the riches of his glory in Christ Jesus.

Lemonade Stand Fundraiser Recap

What a great day we had at our lemonade stand & bake sale fundraiser.  It was HOT but we are so glad we did it! It was so wonderful to see our family & friends come together to bake, host, set up, sell, buy, donate, encourage and support us. All of the kids had a great time serving. They worked hard and really felt like they accomplished something awesome, which they did.

We are so excited to announce that our little stand made a whopping......

(Not pictured are Tyler and Katy Mullins and Landry, Eli & Cooper Veuleman, 

who all helped but left before we took the picture. Also, our sweet neighbor Sage who made the cake pops.)

And actually a $20 donation came in after we took this picture, so we really raised $836!

Wow, who would have thought that we would make that much money from a lemonade stand! Between lemonade and sweet sales, t-shirt sales and donations, God blew this lemonade stand out of the water. I wish you could have seen the kids faces when we announced how much money we made. They all erupted in clapping and cheering. It was a great moment and we made sure to stop and praise God afterwards for his faithfulness. Praying this will be a great family memory and one that encourages them to continue to give and serve others.

THANK YOU so much to everyone who came out today and showed your support. We hope you loved your goodies and we want you to know that we love each and every one of you! You guys are so generous and supportive and we would not be where we are without your kindness. We are so thankful for our support system that God has blessed us with.

Here are a few pictures from the day. I wish I could have gotten one of everyone! But seriously, I am thankful for each person who showed up today. It meant the world to see you guys go out of your way to stop by.

The Butler crew were our first customers of the day!

Even the firemen made a stop!

SO MUCH FUN! I will never look at lemonade the same again:) 

Ice Cold Lemonade

It's summer time and it is hot outside here in Louisiana! When I think of summer, I think of lots of wonderful things, but something that I have always thought of is lemonade stands. I always love driving by cute kiddos selling cups of delicious sweetness in their driveway. The excitement on their faces when you actually buy some from them, or better yet, tell them to keep the change, is PRICELESS!

As I was talking with my kids about Brother recently, I started to think about how they could be more involved in this adoption process. Brother is a part of our everyday conversations. We read books about Ethiopia, listen to African music, pray for Brother, and talk about orphans on a regular basis. But I wanted them to have the chance to make a difference for Brother themselves. That is when a lemonade stand popped in my head.

With that said, the McGinty kids and their cousins are so excited about hosting their very 1st Lemonade Stand and Bake Sale on Saturday, June 28th from 8 a.m. -12 p.m. to raise money towards Brother's Adoption. We will be serving delicious ice cold lemonade, cookies, brownies, Rice Krispie treats, muffins and cake pops! We will even have our movie theatre popcorn machine popping out fresh delicious popcorn. To make it even more fun, we will have a bounce house set up for your kiddos (and you if you are brave) to enjoy.

Local peeps, would you consider driving by and supporting our little crew? I know with each new customer, they will be so excited and proud. It has been so much fun discussing why we are doing this with them and seeing them understand that even though they are little, they can make a difference in the world and for Brother. That God calls us all to care for others and their little hands and hearts are just as important as a grown ups in the Kingdom.

1 Timothy 4:12 says:

"Don't let anyone think less of you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, and in purity."

We hope to see you Saturday! Our littles will save a cup of lemonade just for you. The address is posted on the invite below.